User support experience with automatically generated virtual environment

• US 9,405,645 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2013
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Thomas, Satish, Zhang, Yi, Chowdhury, Murtaza, Srinivasan, Sridhar, Howard, John Hal
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US14/080,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20150135013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 717/124
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance

Abstract

A virtual environment service obtains automatically collected diagnostic information from a deployed instance of a computer system and automatically generates a reproduction of an environment of the instance of the computer system, based upon the collected diagnostic data. User interactions with the virtual diagnostic environment can be recorded to identify a technical issue with the deployed instance of the computer system. A fix for the issue is applied in the virtual diagnostic environment so that it can be verified by the user prior to applying it to the deployed instance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

generating a representation of an issue description user interface display with an issue description user input mechanism configured to receive a user issue description input from a user of a deployed computer system;

receiving an indication of the user issue description input indicative of a technical issue in the deployed computer system;

receiving deployed environment data indicative of an environment of the deployed computer system;

generating a diagnostic environment based on the deployed environment data, the diagnostic environment corresponding to the environment of the deployed computer system;

after generating the diagnostic environment, generating a representation of a user reproduction display configured to receive a user reproduction input from the user of the deployed computer system;

receiving an indication of the user reproduction input;

based on the indication of the user reproduction input, reproducing the technical issue in the diagnostic environment; and

receiving a modification input indicative of a fix for the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving a modification input comprises receiving an indication of a developer input, from a developer, indicative of the fix.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, and further comprising:

recording the user reproduction input for review by the developer.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 and further comprising:

receiving an indication of a user input, from the user, confirming that the technical issue was reproduced in the diagnostic environment.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein generating a diagnostic environment comprises:

generating a computer system instance that is a reproduction of the environment of the deployed computer system.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 and further comprising:

generating a user application input mechanism that receives user inputs, from the user, to apply the fix to the diagnostic environment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 and further comprising:

generating a user verification input mechanism that receives a user verification input, from the user, verifying whether the fix addresses the technical issue in the diagnostic environment; and

storing the fix for application to the deployed computer system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein generating the user verification input mechanism comprises:

generating a representation of a screen that mimics screen in the deployed computer system; and

receiving an indication of a user input, from the user, performing a step in the diagnostic environment during which the technical issue is encountered in the deployed computer system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein generating a diagnostic environment comprises:

provisioning a virtual computer system instance based on the deployed environment data;

mapping the user to the virtual computer system instance so the user has access to the virtual computer system instance; and

mapping technical support personnel to the virtual computer system instance so the technical support personnel have access to the virtual computer system instance.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein receiving deployed environment data comprises:

receiving an operating system identification identifying an operating system in the deployed computer system;

receiving a deployed computer system version number;

receiving an indication of updates installed on the deployed computer system; and

receiving an indication of fixes installed on the deployed computer system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 and further comprising:

after receiving an indication of the user issue description input and the deployed environment data, querying a fix service to identify potentially relevant fixes that can be applied to the deployed computer system;

generating a representation of user interface elements for the potentially relevant fixes for application by the user to the deployed computer system; and

if the user applies one of the potentially relevant fixes to the deployed computer system, sending the user a link to return to a process flow for addressing the technical issue if the applied potentially relevant fix does not address the technical issue.

12. A computing system, comprising:

an issue reporting component configured to receive an indication of a user input, from a user of a deployed computing system instance, describing a technical issue encountered in the deployed computing system instance;

a virtual environment service configured to generate a virtual computing system instance, based on environment data collected from the deployed computing system instance, the virtual computing system instance corresponding to the deployed computing system instance;

a virtual machine control system configured to reproduce the technical issue on the virtual computing system instance, receive a modification input indicative of a fix for the technical issue on the virtual computing system instance, and apply the fix to the virtual computing system instance, using a computer processor of the computing system; and

a verification component configured to receive an indication of a user verification input, from the user, verifying that the fix addresses the technical issue on the virtual computing system instance.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the virtual machine control system is configured to receive a reproduction user input, from the user, reproducing the technical issue, and wherein the virtual machine control system is configured to apply the fix by generating a representation of a user application input mechanism that receives a user input, from the user, to apply the fix to the diagnostic environment.

14. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the virtual environment service comprises:

a virtual machine generator configured to generate the virtual computing system instance that mimics operation of the deployed computing system instance.

15. The computing system of claim 14 wherein the virtual environment service further comprises:

a mapping generator configured to generate a mapping between the user and the virtual computing system instance and between a developer and the virtual computing system instance so the user and the developer have access to the virtual computing system instance in the virtual machine control system.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating a representation of an issue description user interface display with an issue description user input mechanism configured to receive a user issue description input, from a user of a deployed computer system instance;

receiving an indication of the user issue description input indicative of a technical issue in the deployed computer system instance;

receiving deployed environment data indicative of an environment of the deployed computer system instance;

generating a diagnostic environment, based on the deployed environment data, corresponding to the environment of the deployed computer system instance, wherein the diagnostic environment comprises functionality that mimics functionality of the deployed computer system instance;

reproducing the technical issue in the diagnostic environment;

generating a representation of a user reproduction display configured to receive a user reproduction input, from the user of the deployed computer system instance;

receiving an indication of the user reproduction input verifying that the technical issue was reproduced in the diagnostic environment; and

receiving a modification input indicative of a fix for the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 and further comprising:

generating a representation of a user application input mechanism that receives a user input, from the user, to apply the fix to the diagnostic environment.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 and further comprising:

generating a representation of a user verification input mechanism that receives a user verification input, from the user, verifying whether the fix addresses the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 wherein generating a representation of the user verification input mechanism comprises:

generating a representation of a screen that mimics a screen in the deployed computer system instance; and

receiving an indication of a user input performing a step in the diagnostic environment corresponding to a step in the deployed computer system instance during which the technical issue is encountered in the deployed computer system instance.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 and further comprising;

after receiving the user description inputs and the deployed environment data, querying a fix service to identify potentially relevant fixes that can be applied to the deployed computer system instance to address the technical issue;

generating a representation of a user interface element for the potentially relevant fixes for application by the user to the deployed computer system instance; and

if the user applies one of the potentially relevant fixes to the deployed computer system instance, sending the user a link to return to a process flow for addressing the technical issue if the applied potentially relevant fix does not address the technical issue.