Controlling software failure data reporting and responses

• US 7,770,069 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2008
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Prescott, Allen K., Dinklocker, Ted E., Kashiramka, Komal, Punukollu, Shanti P., Chang, Su Chin
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson; Yolanda L
• Application Number:
  US12/127,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20080229160A1
• Time in Patent Office: 798 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 714/38.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• 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

User input defines transmission filter rules to be met when sending an error report to a support provider. User input also defines collection filter rules to be met when including failure data within an error report. Error reports corresponding to crash failures at clients are filtered with the transmission filter rules to determine which of the error reports to send to the support provider, and each error report to be sent to the support provider is further filtered to remove any failure data that fails to satisfy the collection filter rules. Each error report that satisfies the transmission filter rules, along with the failure data satisfying the collection filter rules, is sent to the support provider for analysis. Standard and or custom failure responses corresponding to the failures at the clients may be retrieved and sent to the clients in accordance with the collection filter rules.

Claims

1. A computer storage media comprising stored failure responses, the stored failure responses being utilized by a failure management server which receives one or more error reports corresponding to one or more errors detected at one or more clients and which sends one or more failure responses to the one or more clients in response to the one or more errors, wherein the stored failure responses include:

at least one solution response; and

at least one request response;

wherein a failure management server receives one or more error reports corresponding to one or more errors detected at one or more clients and sends one or more failure responses to one or more clients in response to the one or more errors, the one or more failure responses being selected from stored failure responses that include the at least one solution response and the at least one request response;

wherein the at least one solution response comprises a plurality of data fields, including at least;

a response data field that stores a URL which, when received by a client, is used by the client to access a support provider URL that points to a response page that addresses a problem that corresponds to an error report having failure data generated by a client machine and is analyzed prior to sending the solution response to the client; and

a UrlLaunch data field containing a URL which is provided in a custom response to be sent to the client, and which is used by the client to access a solution to the problem; and

wherein the at least one request response comprises a plurality of data fields, including at least;

an fDoc data field which contains information that queries for a current document that was being worked on during a time in which the problem occurred and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the current document to an agent that includes the current document in a cabinet file, which is used for further analyzing the problem;

a GetFile data field that includes file names of one or more files to be gathered from the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the one or more files to be included in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a GetFileVersion data field that includes file names of all file version information to be gathered from the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the file version information for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a WQL-WMI queries data field that identifies queries to be run by the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to perform the queries and to provide results of the queries for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a MemoryDump data field which, when received by the client, causes the client to determinatively provide a heap for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem, based on a setting in the MemoryDump data field;

a RegKey data field that identifies registry keys which, when received by the client, cause the client to gather the registry keys for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem; and

a RegTree data field that identifies one or more registry trees which, when received by the client, cause the client to gather the entire one or more registry trees for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem.

2. A computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one solution response and the at least one request response are incorporated within a single status.txt file.

3. A computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the stored failure responses are used by a support provider, in response to receiving a particular error report and in response to analyzing the particular error report, to generate and send a particular response to a particular client having experienced a failure corresponding to the particular error report.

4. A computer storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the computer storage media includes the particular response and wherein the particular response includes only one of said at least one solution response or said at least one request response.

5. A computer storage media as recited in claim 4, wherein the particular response is incorporated within a single status.txt file.

6. A computer storage media as recited in claim 4, wherein the particular response includes only one or more request responses and such that the particular response excludes all solution responses.

7. A computer storage media as recited in claim 4, wherein the particular response includes only one or more solution responses and such that the particular response excludes all request responses.

8. A computer storage media as recited in claim 5, wherein the failure data management server maintains state information for each data field included within the particular response and such that the computer storage media further includes state information defining, for each data field in the particular response, whether data in each data field is unprocessed, associated, connected or published.

9. A computer storage media as recited in claim 4, wherein the computer storage media is stored by the failure data management server.

10. A computer storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the computer storage media is stored by the support provider.

11. A computer storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the URL which is provided in the custom response to be sent to the client is presented to the client as a link to content that is hosted and maintained by an administrator that is distinguished from the support provider.

12. A computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the response page contains additional information or procedures that can be used to fix the problem.

13. A computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the URL points to a downloadable update.

15. A computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the stored failure responses are used by a support provider, in response to receiving a particular error report and in response to analyzing the particular error report, to generate and send a particular response to a particular client having experienced a failure corresponding to the particular error report.

18. A computer storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the single status.txt file is stored at a failure data management server which sends the error report to a support provider and which responsively obtains the single status.txt file from the support provider.

19. A computer storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the computer storage media is stored at a support provider which sends the single status.txt file to the failure data management server in response to receiving the error report.

14. A computer storage media comprising a single statustxt file that includes at least one of a plurality of stored failure responses, the plurality of stored failure responses being utilized by a failure management server which receives one or more error reports corresponding to one or more errors detected at one or more clients and which sends one or more failure responses to the one or more clients in response to the one or more errors, wherein the stored failure responses include:

at least one solution response; and

at least one request response;

wherein a failure management server receives one or more error reports corresponding to one or more errors detected at one or more clients and sends one or more failure responses to one or more clients in response to the one or more errors, the one or more failure responses being selected from stored failure responses that include the at least one solution response and the at least one request response;

wherein the at least one solution response comprises a plurality of data fields, including at least;

a response data field that stores a URL which, when received by a client, is used by the client to access a support provider URL that points to a response page that addresses a problem that corresponds to an error report having failure data generated by a client machine and is analyzed prior to sending the solution response to the client;

a UrlLaunch data field containing a URL which is provided in a custom response to be sent to the client, and which is used by the client to access a solution to the problem; and

wherein the at least one request response comprises a plurality of data fields, including at least;

an fDoc data field which contains information that queries for a current document that was being worked on during a time in which the problem occurred and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the current document to an agent that includes the current document in a cabinet file which is used for further analyzing the problem;

a GetFile data field that includes file names of one or more files to be gathered from the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the one or more files to be included in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a GetFileVersion data field that includes file names of all file version information to be gathered from the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to provide the file version information for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a WQL-WMI queries data field that identifies queries to be run by the client machine and which, when received by the client, causes the client to perform the queries and to provide results of the queries for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem;

a MemoryDump data field which, when received by the client, causes the client to determinatively provide a heap for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem, based on a setting in the MemoryDump data field;

a RegKey data field that identifies registry keys which, when received by the client, cause the client to gather the registry keys for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem; and

a RegTree data field that identifies one or more registry trees which, when received by the client, cause the client to gather the entire one or more registry trees for inclusion in the cabinet file for further analyzing the problem.

16. A computer storage media as recited in claim 14, wherein the single status.txt file includes only one or more request responses and such that the particular response excludes all solution responses.

17. A computer storage media as recited in claim 14, wherein the single status.txt file includes only one or more solution responses and such that the particular response excludes all request responses.

20. A computer storage media as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer storage media comprises system memory of a computing system.