REMOTELY COLLECTING AND MANAGING DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION

• US 20120078577A1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Nicholas A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,532,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/183
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for remote collection and management of diagnostic information. Embodiments of the invention facilitate remote configuration, management, and collection of diagnostic results. A remote diagnostic system connects to the local diagnostics of a service or computer system in a non-invasive way to collect diagnostic information. Filter and subscription requests are used to guide the collection and retention of diagnostic information. A diagnostic user connects to the remote diagnostic system to dynamically change the filter and subscription requests as part of a diagnostic process. The collected diagnostic information can then be transmitted to interested system operators using either syndication subscriptions or push subscriptions.

Claims

1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a diagnostic host and a diagnostic store, the diagnostic host connected to a service host via a computer network, the diagnostic store for storing diagnostic information for the diagnostic host, the service host having a service endpoint configurable to broadcast diagnostic information for the service host, the service host configured to interoperate with local diagnostic trace listeners that provide portions of the broadcast diagnostic information to other components for use in diagnosing conditions at the service host, a method for providing diagnostic information from the service host to the diagnostic host, the method comprising:

an act of configuring the diagnostic host to provide a portion of the broadcast diagnostic information that is of interest in diagnosing a condition at the service host, including;

an act of installing a remote diagnostic trace listener as a local diagnostic trace listener within the service host, the remote diagnostic trace listener describing a diagnostic control endpoint that can be used to access and configure the remote diagnostic trance listener, the remote trace listener including a stub component, the stub component configured to;

accept diagnostic information from the service endpoint; and

send the diagnostic information to the diagnostic host via the computer network;

an act of receiving a connection request at the diagnostic control endpoint, the connection request from an external component outside the service host and outside the diagnostic host;

an act of boot strapping a diagnostic control application to the external component in response to the request;

an act of receiving one or more diagnostic configuration commands through the diagnostic control application, the one or more diagnostic commands for configuring the diagnostic host to collect and provide the portion of the broadcast diagnostic information;

an act of creating a diagnostic subscription endpoint to provide the portion of the broadcast diagnostic information to any external components outside of the service host and outside of the diagnostic host; and

an act of returning an electronic address for the diagnostic subscription endpoint to the external component; and

an act of providing the portion of broadcast diagnostic information that is of interest in diagnosing a condition at the service host to the external component, including;

an act of the remote diagnostic trace listener recording the portion of broadcast diagnostic information to a diagnostic store in accordance with the one or more diagnostic configuration commands;

an act of receiving a request for diagnostic information at the electronic address for the diagnostic subscription endpoint, the request having a return electronic address for the external component; and

an act of sending the portion of broadcast diagnostic information from the diagnostic store to the return electronic address.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of an act of installing a remote diagnostic trace listener as a local diagnostic trace listener within the service host comprises an act of installing the remote diagnostic trace listener with a filter configured to select a portion of the broadcast diagnostic information from the broadcast diagnostic information.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein an act of installing the remote diagnostic trace listener with a filter comprises an act of installing a filter to filter specific categories of diagnostic traces from the broadcast diagnostic information.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein an act of installing the remote diagnostic trace listener with a filter comprises an act of installing a filter to filter specific severities of diagnostic traces from the broadcast diagnostic information.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein an act of installing the remote diagnostic trace listener with a filter comprises an act of installing a filter represented by an XPath expression.

6. The method as recite in claim 1, further comprising:

an act of configuring a diagnostic service to take an automated action when the portion of broadcast diagnostic information matches specified criteria;

an act of detecting that the portion of broadcast diagnostic information matches specified criteria; and

an act of automatically performing the action in response to detecting the match.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of boot strapping a diagnostic control application to the external component comprises an act of downloading an installable application to a computer system of the diagnostic user.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of boot strapping a diagnostic control application to the external component comprises an act of downloading a web application to be run in a web browser of the diagnostic user.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the service host communicates on a first communication medium and the diagnostic host communicates on a second different communication medium.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an act of a diagnostic security system authenticating and authorizing configuration of the diagnostic host and providing the portion of broadcast diagnostic information.

11. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a diagnostic host, the diagnostic host connected to a service host via a computer network, the diagnostic host further including a remote diagnostic trace listener, a diagnostic store, and a diagnostic control application, the service host having a service endpoint configured to broadcast diagnostic information for the service host, the service host configured to interoperate with local diagnostic trace listeners that provide portions of the broadcast diagnostic information to other components for use in diagnosing conditions at the service host, the remote diagnostic host installed as a local diagnostic host within the service host, the diagnostic host configured to provide specified diagnostic functionality for diagnosing conditions at the service host, the diagnostic control application interfacing with an external component to receive diagnostic configuration commands for changing provided diagnostic functionality, a method for reconfiguring the collection of broadcast diagnostic information during operation of the service host, the method comprising:

an act of the remote diagnostic trace listener collecting a specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information in accordance with a first diagnostic filter, the specified portion of broadcast information collected for storage in the diagnostic store while the service host is running;

while the service host continues to run and without restarting the service host, an act of reconfiguring the diagnostic trace listener and diagnostic store to collect a second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information that is to be collected for use in diagnosing a condition at the service host, including;

an act of receiving one or more diagnostic configuration commands through the diagnostic control application, the one or more diagnostic configuration commands defining the second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information that is to be collected;

an act of selecting a second diagnostic filter to collect the second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information in accordance with the one or more diagnostic configuration commands;

an act of reconfiguring of the remote diagnostic trace listener to include the second diagnostic filter; and

an act of the remote diagnostic trace listener collecting the second different specific portion of broadcast diagnostic information in accordance with the second diagnostic filter, the second different portion of broadcast information collected for storage in the diagnostic store.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of reconfiguring the diagnostic trace listener and diagnostic store to collect a second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information comprises an act of configuring the diagnostic trace listener to collect specific categories of diagnostic traces.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of reconfiguring the diagnostic trace listener and diagnostic store to collect a second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information comprises an act of configuring the diagnostic trace listener to collect specific severities of diagnostic traces.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of reconfiguring the diagnostic trace listener and diagnostic store to collect a second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information comprises an act of configuring the diagnostic trace listener to filter the broadcast diagnostic information in accordance with an XPatch expression.

15. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of reconfiguring the diagnostic trace listener and diagnostic store to collect a second different specified portion of broadcast diagnostic information comprises an act of setting a retention policy on the diagnostic store for the second different portion of diagnostic information.

16. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising an act of reconfiguring the remote diagnostic trace listener to remove the first diagnostic filter.

17. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

an act of the diagnostic trace listener receiving a request for the second different portion of diagnostic information at a specific base address; and

an act of creating a subscription for the diagnostic user in response to receiving the request at the specific base address.

18. A computer system, the computer system including:

one or more processors;

system memory; and

one or more computer storage devices having stored thereon computer executable instructions representing a remote diagnostic trace listener, a diagnostic store, a diagnostic security system, and a diagnostic service, wherein the remote diagnostic trace listener is configured to;

accept broadcast diagnostic information from a service end point in a service host;

filter specified diagnostic information from the broadcast diagnostic information in accordance with a filter;

send the specified diagnostic information to the diagnostic store for storage;

receive a connection request at a diagnostic control endpoint;

download a diagnostic control application in response to the connection request; and

initiate a diagnostic subscription endpoint for diagnostic users to access the specified diagnostic information;

wherein the diagnostic store is configured to;

store the specified diagnostic information in accordance with a retention policy;

wherein the diagnostic security system is configured to;

authentic and authorize diagnostic operations received from diagnostic users; and

wherein the diagnostic service is configured to;

perform automated actions on behalf of diagnostic users when specified criteria are matched.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the remote diagnostic trace listener is further configured to provide a Uniform Resource Locator (“

URL”

) encoded version of an XPath expression as the address for the diagnostic control endpoint.

20. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the remote diagnostic trace listener being configured to send the specified diagnostic information to the diagnostic store for storage comprises the remote diagnostic trace listener being configured to send the specified diagnostic information from a service host process to a separate diagnostic host process.