Method and system for troubleshooting a misconfiguration of a computer system based on product support services information

• US 7,389,444 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2004
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ma, Wei-Ying, Wang, Yi-Min, Wen, Ji-Rong
• Primary Examiner(s): Bonzo; Bryce P
• Application Number:
  US10/899,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20060025962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,421 Days
• Field of Search: 714/26
• US Class Current: 714/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method and system for ranking possible causes of a component exhibiting a certain behavior is provided. In one embodiment, a troubleshooting system ranks candidate configuration parameters that may be causing a software application to exhibit an undesired behavior using support information relating to problems resulting from the settings of configuration parameters. The support information may be collected from problem reports generated by product support services personnel when troubleshooting problems that users encounter with the application. The troubleshooting system ranks the candidate configuration parameters as likely causing the application to exhibit the undesired behavior based on analysis of the support information.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for identifying a state information that may be causing a component to exhibit a certain behavior, the method comprising:

identifying difference configuration parameters based on differences between configuration parameters before the certain behavior was and was not exhibited by the component;

collecting trace configuration parameters during execution of the component in which the certain behavior was exhibited;

providing candidate state information that may be causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior, wherein

the state information is a configuration parameter and

the candidate configuration parameters is identified based on an intersection of

difference configuration parameters identified based on differences between configuration parameters when the certain behavior was and was not exhibited and

trace configuration parameters identified during execution of the component in which the certain behavior was exhibited;

providing support information relating to problems resulting from problem state information, the support information being collected from problem reports generated by product support personnel when troubleshooting problems that users encounter with the component; and

ranking the candidate state information as likely causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior based on analysis of the support information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the state information is a configuration parameter and the support information includes, for an occurrence of a problem, a problem configuration parameter.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the ranking of a candidate configuration parameter is based on frequency with which problem configuration parameters relating to the candidate configuration parameter occur in the support information.

4. The method of claim 2 including providing a current symptom of the certain behavior and problem symptoms for the problems of the support information and wherein the ranking of a candidate configuration parameter is based on similarity between the current symptom and the problem symptoms of the problem configuration parameters.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the ranking is based on term frequency by inverted document frequency.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a symptom is a document.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the ranking is based on a cosine similarity.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when their paths and values are the same.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when their paths are the same.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when a portion of their paths is the same.

11. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter based on path matching and value matching.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the ranking is weighted based on extent of path matching and value matching.

13. The method of claim 2 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and including filtering the candidate configuration parameters to remove candidate configuration parameters that are parents of other candidate configuration parameters.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the support information includes state, symptom, software, and solution information.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the candidate state information is identified based on differences between state information when the certain behavior was and was not exhibited.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the candidate state information is identified during execution of the component in which the certain behavior was exhibited.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking is frequency ranking.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking is symptom ranking.

19. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to identify a configuration parameter that may be causing a component to exhibit a certain behavior, by a method comprising:

providing candidate configuration parameters that may be causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior;

providing occurrences of problem configuration parameters associated with problems at user computers, the occurrences being collected from users reporting problems resulting from configuration parameters of user computers; and

ranking a candidate configuration parameter as likely causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior based on number of occurrences of problem configuration parameters that are related to the candidate configuration parameter

wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter based on comparison of the paths and values.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when their paths and values are the same.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when their paths are the same.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter when a portion of their paths is the same.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter based on path matching and value matching.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein the ranking is weighted based on extent of path matching and value matching.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and including filtering configuration parameters to remove configuration parameters that are parents of other configuration parameters.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein each occurrence of a problem includes state, symptom, software, and solution information, wherein state is a problem configuration parameter and software is the component.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 including providing a current symptom of the certain behavior and problem symptoms for the occurrences of problem configuration parameters and wherein the ranking of a candidate configuration parameter is further based on similarity between the current symptom and a problem symptom of an occurrence.

28. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to identify a configuration parameter that may be causing a component to exhibit a certain behavior, by a method comprising:

providing a current symptom of the certain behavior and candidate configuration parameters that may be causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior;

providing occurrences of problem configuration parameters associated with problems at user computers, each occurrence having a problem symptom, the occurrences being collected from problem reports generated by product support personnel when troubleshooting problems that users encounter with the component; and

ranking a candidate configuration parameter as likely causing the component to exhibit the certain behavior based on similarity between the current symptom and a problem symptom of an occurrence

wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter based on comparison of the path and value.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the ranking is based on term frequency by inverted document frequency.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein a symptom is a document.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein the ranking is based on a cosine similarity.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and a problem configuration parameter is related to a candidate configuration parameter based on path matching and value matching.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the ranking is weighted based on extent of path matching and value matching.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the configuration parameters are hierarchically defined as paths and values and including filtering configuration parameters to remove configuration parameters that are parents of other configuration parameters.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein each occurrence of a problem includes state, symptom, software, and solution information, wherein state is a problem configuration parameter and software is the component.