METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ASSOCIATING CRASH REPORTS WITH END USER ANALYTICS

• US 20160266953A1
• Filed: 03/12/2015
• Published: 09/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Spitzer, John, Salyakhov, Oleg
• Granted Patent: US 9,846,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36

Abstract

A method for linking information related to a computer crash. The method includes establishing a network of computing resources communicatively coupled to a network, wherein each computing resource is associated with a corresponding hardware configuration capable of executing and displaying at least one application, wherein each of the network of computing resources is associated with a globally unique identifier (GUID). The method includes receiving configuration information relating to the network of computing resources. The method includes receiving a crash report of a crash occurring on a crashed computing system within the network of computing resources. The method includes extracting a GUID from the crash report, wherein the GUID identifies said crashed computing resource. The method includes determining configuration information for the crashed computing resource, and correlating the configuration information with the crash information.

Claims

1. A method for linking information, comprising;

determining a crash on a crashed computing resource;

gathering crash information related to said crash;

accessing a globally unique identifier (GUID) identifying said crashed computing resource, wherein said GUID is associated with a corresponding user; and

appending said GUID to said crash information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting the crash information to a third party.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said crash information comprises a stack trace.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving said GUID from a third party provider.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing said GUID locally as a variable within said stack trace.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said accessing a GUID comprises:

accessing said GUID from at least one of a registry, file, an API call.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

appending a second identifier to said GUID identifying said GUID for purposes of crash linkage.

8. A method for linking information, comprising:

establishing a network of computing resources communicatively coupled to a network, wherein each computing resource is associated with a corresponding hardware configuration capable of executing and displaying at least one application, wherein each of said network of computing resources is associated with a globally unique identifier (GUID);

receiving configuration information relating to the network of computing resources;

receiving a crash report of a crash occurring on a crashed computing resource within said network of computing resources;

extracting a GUID from said crash report, wherein said GUID identifies said crashed computing resource;

determining configuration information for said crashed computing resource;

correlating said configuration information with said crash information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said configuration information comprises information associated with executing applications.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said configuration information comprises hardware and software configuration operational settings.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said correlating said configuration information with said crash information comprises:

linking said crash information within said configuration information.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said establishing a network further comprising:

assigning a corresponding GUID to each of said network of computing resources.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining a system crash on a first computing system;

gathering crash information related to said crash;

accessing a globally unique identifier (GUID) identifying said first computing resource, wherein said GUID is associated with a corresponding user; and

appending said GUID to said crash information.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of similar crash reports comprising a plurality of GUIDs;

determining a plurality of configuration information used with a plurality of computing resources associated with said plurality of GUIDs; and

correlating said plurality of configuration information with crash information in said plurality of similar crash reports.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

analyzing said plurality of configuration information and crash information of said plurality of crash reports to determine a root cause of a plurality of crashes associated with said plurality of similar crash reports.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for causing a computer system to perform a method for updating optimal settings, wherein said method comprises:

establishing a network of computing resources communicatively coupled to a network, wherein each computing resource is associated with a corresponding hardware configuration capable of executing and displaying at least one application, wherein each of said network of computing resources is associated with a globally unique identifier (GUID);

receiving configuration information relating to the network of computing resources;

receiving a crash report of a crash occurring on a crashed computing resource within said network of computing resources;

extracting a GUID from said crash report, wherein said GUID identifies said crashed computing resource;

determining configuration information for said crashed computing resource;

correlating said configuration information with said crash information.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein said correlating said configuration information with said crash information in said method further comprises:

linking said crash information within said configuration information.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein establishing a network in said method further comprises:

assigning a corresponding GUID to each of said network of computing resources.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein said method further comprises:

determining a system crash on a first computing system;

gathering crash information related to said crash;

accessing a globally unique identifier (GUID) identifying said first computing resource, wherein said GUID is associated with a corresponding user; and

appending said GUID to said crash information.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a plurality of similar crash reports comprising a plurality of GUIDs;

determining a plurality of configuration information used with a plurality of computing resources associated with said plurality of GUIDs;

correlating said plurality of configuration information with crash information in said plurality of similar crash reports; and

analyzing said plurality of configuration information and crash information of said plurality of crash reports to determine a root cause of a plurality of crashes associated with said plurality of similar crash reports.