User support experience with automatically generated virtual environment

• US 9,886,675 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2016
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• 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:
  US15/190,995
• Publication Number:
  US 20160307129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 593 Days
• 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 computing system comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to;

receive an indication of a technical issue in a deployed system associated with a user;

generate a representation of a diagnostic environment user interface display that represents a diagnostic environment that is based on deployed environment data indicative of an environment of the deployed system, wherein the diagnostic environment includes computing functionality that corresponds to the environment of the deployed system and an issue reproduction user input mechanism; and

receive an indication of an issue reproduction user input from the user associated with the deployed system, the indication of the issue reproduction user input being received through the issue reproduction user input mechanism and indicative of a reproduction of the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

generate a representation of an issue description user interface display with an issue description user input mechanism;

receive, through the issue description user input mechanism, an indication of an issue description user input associated with the user of the deployed system; and

identify the technical issue in the deployed system based on the indication of the issue description user input.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the diagnostic environment is a reproduction of the environment of the deployed system.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

receive an indication of an issue confirmation user input; and

based on the indication of the confirmation user input, determine that the technical issue was reproduced in the diagnostic environment.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

generate a display element in the diagnostic environment user interface display that represents a fix for the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

generate a representation of a fix application user input mechanism;

receive an indication of a fix application user input through the fix application user input mechanism; and

based on the indication of the fix application user input, apply the fix to the diagnostic environment.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

generate a representation of a fix verification user input mechanism;

receive, through the fix verification user input mechanism, an indication of a fix verification user input; and

based on the indication of the fix verification user input, determine that the fix addresses the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

based on the indication of the fix verification user input, perform a step in the diagnostic environment during which the technical issue was encountered in the deployed system.

9. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the diagnostic environment comprises a virtual computer system instance that is provisioned based on the deployed environment data, and wherein the user is mapped to the virtual computer system instance so the user has access to the virtual computer system instance.

10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

based on a received operating system identification, identify an operating system in the deployed system;

receive a version number associated with the deployed system;

receive an indication of an update installed on the deployed system; and

receive an indication of a fix installed on the deployed system.

11. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

after receiving an indication of the user issue description input and the deployed environment data, query a fix service to identify a possible fix for the technical issue in the deployed system;

generate a representation of a user-actuatable element for the possible fix, the user-actuatable element being actuatable to apply the possible fix to the deployed system; and

if the possible fix does not address the technical issue, generate a user-actuatable link that is actuatable by the user to return to a process flow corresponding to the technical issue.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an indication of a technical issue in a deployed system associated with a user;

generating a representation of a diagnostic environment user interface display that represents a diagnostic environment corresponding to an environment of the deployed system, the diagnostic environment being based on deployed environment data indicative of the environment of the deployed system, wherein the diagnostic environment includes a diagnostic environment user input mechanism configured to provide access by the user to the diagnostic environment through the diagnostic environment user interface display and an issue confirmation user input mechanism; and

receiving an indication of an issue confirmation user input from the user associated with the deployed system, the indication of the issue confirmation user input being received through the issue confirmation user input mechanism and indicating that the technical issue was reproduced in the diagnostic environment.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the diagnostic environment comprises functionality that mimics functionality of the deployed system.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 and further comprising:

generating a representation of a fix application user input mechanism;

receiving, through the fix application user input mechanism, an indication of a fix application user input; and

based on the indication of the fix application user input, applying the fix to the diagnostic environment.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 and further comprising:

generating a representation of a fix verification user input mechanism;

receiving, through the fix verification user input mechanism, an indication of a fix verification user input; and

based on the indication of the fix verification user input, determining that the fix addresses the technical issue in the diagnostic environment.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein generating a representation of the fix verification user input mechanism comprises:

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

based on an indication of a user input, performing a step in the diagnostic environment corresponding to a step in the deployed system during which the technical issue was encountered in the deployed system.

17. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to;

based on an indication of a user input, identify a technical issue in a deployed computing system instance associated with a user;

generate a representation of a user interface display that represents a virtual computing system instance, wherein the virtual computing system instance corresponds to the deployed computing system instance and is based on deployed environment data indicative of the deployed computing system instance;

reproduce the technical issue on the virtual computing system instance;

apply a fix to the virtual computing system instance;

generate a representation of a fix verification user input mechanism in the virtual computing system instance;

receive, from the fix verification user input mechanism, an indication of a fix verification user input from the user associated with the deployed computing system instance; and

based on the indication of the fix verification user input, determine that the fix addresses the technical issue on the virtual computing system instance.

18. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

receive an indication of an issue reproduction user input indicative of a reproduction of the technical issue in the virtual computing system instance.

19. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the virtual computing system instance mimics functionality of the deployed computing system instance.

20. The computing system of claim 19, wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:

generate a mapping between the user and the virtual computing system instance; and

based on the generated mapping, provide the user with access to the virtual computing system instance.