INTERFACE LAYER FOR DIAGNOSTIC SUPPORT OF NETWORK-ACCESSIBLE DEVICES

• US 20180212852A1
• Filed: 01/24/2017
• Published: 07/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Kumar, Amit, Jadhav, Tushar G., Rengan, Suchindra
• Granted Patent: US 10,693,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed relating to diagnosing a network-accessible device. A first computer may store authorization information associated with a plurality of network-accessible computing devices associated with a user. The first computer system may receive, from a second computer system, a request from the user to perform a diagnostic operation that involves communication between a third computer system and a particular one of the plurality of network-accessible computing devices. The first computer system may request, based on a permission indicated by the stored authorization information, that the third computer system retrieve diagnostic information from the particular network-accessible computing device and perform the diagnostic operation. The first computer system may receive, from the third computer system, result information relating to the diagnostic operation.

Claims

1. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having program instructions stored thereon that are capable of causing a first computer system to implement an interface layer, including by performing operations comprising:

storing authorization information associated with a plurality of network-accessible computing devices associated with a user;

receiving, from a second computer system, a first request to perform a diagnostic operation that involves communication between a third computer system and a particular one of the plurality of network-accessible computing devices, wherein the third computer system is configured to provide diagnostic support for the particular network-accessible computing device;

requesting, based on a permission indicated by the authorization information, that the third computer system retrieve diagnostic information from the particular network-accessible computing device and perform the diagnostic operation; and

receiving, from the third computer system, result information relating to the diagnostic operation.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the result information includes a solution to a problem associated with the particular network-accessible computing device;

and wherein the operations further comprise;

determining a user device that the first computer system may send the result information for presenting to the user; and

sending, to the user device of the user, a notification that includes steps for achieving the solution.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the result information includes a solution to a problem associated with the particular network-accessible computing device;

and wherein the operations further comprise;

performing an analysis on the result information to determine elements for identifying the problem and the solution;

storing information associated with the analysis; and

using the stored information associated with the analysis to resolve a subsequent diagnostic request associated with a different network-accessible computing device.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the third computer system, authorization to request that the third computer system retrieve diagnostic information from an additional network-accessible computing device; and

updating the authorization information to include the authorization for the additional network-accessible computing device.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending, to the third computer system, an authentication request to establish a communication link between the first computer system and the third computer system; and

in response to approval of the authentication request by third computer system, establishing the communication link to permit subsequent diagnostic reporting between the first and third computer systems.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

retrieving, from a third-party system, environmental information pertaining to the particular network-accessible computing device; and

providing the environmental information to the third computer system.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

Prior to receiving the result information, the first computer system polling the third computer system to determine a state of the diagnostic operation.

8. A method, comprising:

a computer system storing authorization information associated with a plurality of network-accessible computing devices associated with a user;

the computer system receiving, from the user via a requesting computing device, a request for diagnostic assistance with a particular one of the plurality of network-accessible computing devices;

based on the particular network-accessible device specified in the request, the computer system selecting a tenant from a plurality of tenants hosted by a multi-tenant database system;

based on a permission indicated by the authorization information, the computer system retrieving system information relating to the particular network-accessible computing device;

the computer system sending a diagnostic request that includes the system information to the tenant; and

the computer system receiving, from the tenant, result information responsive to the diagnostic request.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the computer system sending, to the multi-tenant database system, a communication request to permit the computer system to establish a communication channel to exchange data with the tenant hosted on the multi-tenant database system;

receiving a response from the multi-tenant database system that includes an authentication token; and

using the authentication token to establish the communication channel.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the computer system establishing a communication channel between the user computing device and the tenant in order to attempt to remedy a problem with the particular network-accessible computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

the tenant sending, via the established communication channel, the result information to the user to assist in remedying the problem.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the computer system storing the system information and the result information in a particular record, wherein the particular record is usable to resolve subsequent requests associated with a different network-accessible device.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the system information defines a current state of operation of the particular network-accessible computing device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the computer system retrieving, from a third-party system, additional information relating to the particular network-accessible computing device; and

the computer system providing the additional information to the tenant hosted by the multi-tenant database system.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon that are executable by a cloud-based computer support system to cause the cloud-based computer system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from interface layer computer system, a request to diagnose a network-accessible computing device, wherein the request includes authorization information indicating that the interface layer computer system is authorized to provide the request;

retrieving, from the network-accessible computing device, system information that indicates an operational state of the network-accessible computing device;

using the system information to perform a diagnostic operation on the network-accessible computing device; and

sending, to the interface layer computer system, result information indicating a result of the diagnostic operation.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a user device of a user associated with the network-accessible computing device, an authorization request to authorize the interface layer computer system to request that the computer support system perform diagnostics on behalf of the user; and

in response to receiving the authorization request, sending authorization information to interface layer computer system indicating an authorization to request that the computer support system perform diagnostics for the network-accessible computing device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the interface layer computer system, a request to establish a communication channel between the interface layer computer system and the computer support system; and

in response to receiving the request, sending an authentication token to the interface layer computer system.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

establishing a communication channel with a user device of a user associated with the network-accessible computing device; and

sending, to the user via the established communication channel, result information based on the diagnostic operation.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to performing the diagnostic operation, sending, to the network-accessible computing device, a request to update system configurations of the network-accessible computing device in order to resolve a problem.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

hosting a plurality of tenants, each of which provides diagnostic support for a particular type of network-accessible device.