Measuring catastrophic failure rates in updates

• US 7,886,200 B1
• Filed: 03/21/2008
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Sobel, William E., Hernacki, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US12/053,491
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48, 714 37- 39, 714/40, 714/47, 717/124, 717/126, 717/128
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis

Abstract

Preventing continued distribution of a software update that is causing problems in computers is a challenging problem, particularly where the update causes a catastrophic failure such that the problem cannot be reported by the computer since the computer has been completely disabled. To manage this problem, when an update is delivered for installation, it first installs a program and configures it to execute at a specified reporting time. When that time is reached, the program sends a positive operations notification to the update server indicating that the program is okay or sends a notification that the program is okay so far, but the user is now shutting down the computer. The number of notifications received is tracked by the system in comparison to the number of software updates sent. If the notifications received are smaller than expected, the update may be causing catastrophic failures in the computers, preventing the sending of the notification, and thus the system can take corrective action to manage this problem early on, before more problematic updates are sent out.

Claims

1. A computer program product for measuring a catastrophic failure rate in software updates, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing executable computer program code for performing a method comprising:

sending software updates to a plurality of computers, the software updates installing update check programs on the computers and configuring the update check programs to execute at a specified reporting time after the update check program installation;

receiving from a plurality of the update check programs a positive operations notification at the specified reporting time indicating that the update check programs are okay;

tracking the number of positive operations notifications received in comparison to the number of the software updates sent;

detecting a high catastrophic failure rate for the software updates responsive to the number of positive operations notifications received being below an expected threshold number of positive operations notifications that should be received by the specified reporting time; and

determining whether the software updates sent are causing catastrophic failures in the computers based on the detection of a high catastrophic failure rate.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the software update configures the update check program to send a plurality of positive operations notifications at a plurality of specified reporting times separated by time intervals, the notifications ending after a defined period of time.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein receiving a positive operations notification further comprises receiving from one or more of the update check programs a partial positive operations notification indicating that the update check programs are okay so far, the partial notification being sent in response to a user of the computer temporarily disabling the computer.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises:

taking corrective action to avoid causing more catastrophic failures in computers.

5. A computer-implemented method of measuring a catastrophic failure rate in software updates, the method comprising:

sending software updates to a plurality of computers, the software updates installing update check programs on each of the computers and configuring the update check programs to execute at a specified reporting time after the update check program installation;

receiving from a plurality of the update check programs a positive operations notification at the specified reporting time indicating that the update check programs are okay;

tracking the number of positive operations notifications received in comparison to the number of the software updates sent;

detecting a high catastrophic failure rate for the software updates responsive to the number of positive operations notifications received being below an expected threshold number of positive operations notifications that should be received by the specified reporting time; and

determining whether the software updates sent are causing catastrophic failures in the computers based on the detection of a high catastrophic failure rate.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the software update configures the update check program to send a plurality of positive operations notifications at a plurality of specified reporting times separated by time intervals, the notifications ending after a defined period of time.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein receiving a positive operations notification further comprises receiving from one or more of the update check programs a partial positive operations notification indicating that the update check programs are okay so far, the partial notification being sent in response to a user of the computer temporarily disabling the computer.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein a catastrophic failure is an error in the computer resulting in the computer crashing and being unable to reboot after crashing or resulting in disabling of network access by the software update.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining step further comprises:

preventing the software updates from being sent to additional computers.

10. A computer system measuring a catastrophic failure rate in software updates sent by an update server, the system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing software modules for execution by the processor, the modules comprising;

a sending module for sending software updates to a plurality of computers, the software updates installing update check programs on each of the computers and configuring the update check programs to execute at a specified reporting time after the update check program installation;

a receiving module for receiving from a plurality of the update check programs a positive operations notification at the specified reporting time indicating that the update check programs are okay;

a tracking module for tracking the number of positive operations notifications received in comparison to the number of the software updates sent; and

a failure determination module for;

detecting a high catastrophic failure rate for the software updates responsive to the number of positive operations notifications received being below an expected threshold number of positive operations notifications that should be received by the specified reporting time; and

determining whether the software updates sent are causing catastrophic failures in the computers based on the detection of a high catastrophic failure rate.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the positive operations notification sent by a given update check program includes an identifier for identifying the software update that installed the given update check program.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the update check program is configured to send a plurality of positive operations notifications at a plurality of specified reporting times separated by time intervals, the notifications ending after a defined period of time.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the positive operations notifications received is a partial positive operations notification indicating that the update check programs are okay so far, the partial notification being sent immediately before the computer is temporarily disabled.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein a catastrophic failure is an error in the computer that prevents the computer from being able to send any type of operations notifications to the update server.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the failure determination module is further configured for:

preventing the software updates from being sent to additional computers.

16. A computer system for measuring a catastrophic failure rate in software updates, the system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an update control module for execution by the processor, the update control module for;

sending software updates to a plurality of computers, the software updates installing update check programs on each of the computers and configuring the update check programs to execute at a specified reporting time after the update check program installation;

receiving from a plurality of the update check programs a positive operations notification at the specified reporting time indicating that the update check programs are okay;

tracking the number of positive operations notifications received in comparison to the number of the software updates sent;

detecting a high catastrophic failure rate for the software updates responsive to the number of positive operations notifications received being below an expected threshold number of positive operations notifications that should be received by the specified reporting time; and

determining whether the software updates sent are causing catastrophic failures in the computers based on the detection of a high catastrophic failure rate.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a catastrophic failure is an error in the computer that prevents the update check programs from being able to send any type of operations notifications.