Device driver telemetry

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10452459-B2
Application number	US-201615374780-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2016
Priority date	Dec 9, 2016
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for verifying functionality of a computing device. Rules are received that are usable to configure a driver verifier function to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the rules. The configured driver verifier function is run on a computing device. The information is captured in response to driver conditions identified by the rules. The computing device is allowed to continue operation when the driver condition includes an error condition of the identified device driver. A communication is initiated to transmit the captured information to a driver verification analysis service.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for verifying functionality of a computing device during production use of the computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, by the computing device from a driver verification analysis service, one or more rules usable to configure a driver verifier function executing on the computing device, the driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the one or more rules during the production use of the computing device;
configuring, on the computing device, the driver verifier function to capture the information associated with the identified device driver in accordance with the one or more rules;
executing, on the computing device, the configured driver verifier function;
capturing, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;
allowing the computing device and the driver verifier function to continue operation if the one or more driver conditions include an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;
initiating a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and
disabling the driver verifier function on the computing device when instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules are received from a driver verification telemetry manager.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a data capture mode or a logging mode.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the specified classes of drivers comprise one or more of audio, NDIS, and camera drivers.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the capturing comprises detecting a violation of one of the rules and, in response, logging an event and storing associated driver data.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules implement general driver checks and rule-based checks.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the general checks include one or more of I/O verification and memory management.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein only one of the rules are enabled at one time.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a learning mode where driver issues are collected and a baseline profile is created rather than generating a system error.

12. A system comprising:
at least one memory having stored therein computer instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of the system, at least cause the system to:
execute a driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver executing on the system and identified by one or more rules remotely received from a driver verification analysis service;
capture, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;
continue operation without allowing a bug check if the one or more driver conditions includes an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;
initiate a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and
disable the driver verifier function when remotely instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more rules implement general driver checks and rule-based checks.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a driver verification analysis service, one or more rules usable to configure a driver verifier function executing on the computing device, the driver verifier function configured to capture information associated with a device driver identified by the one or more rules during production use of the computing device;
configuring the driver verifier function to capture the information associated with the identified device driver in accordance with the one or more rules;
executing the configured driver verifier function;
capturing, using the configured driver verifier function, the information in response to one or more driver conditions identified by the one or more rules;
allowing the computing device and the driver verifier function to continue operation if the one or more driver conditions include an error condition of the identified device driver as defined by the one or more rules, and otherwise performing an error recovery response for the identified device driver;
initiating a communication to transmit the captured information to the driver verification analysis service; and
disabling the driver verifier function on the computing device when instructed by the driver verification analysis service.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a data capture mode or a logging mode.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the driver verifier function is automatically disabled after a predetermined time.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the one or more rules configure the driver verifier function to target specified classes of drivers and implement general driver checks and rule-based checks, wherein the specified classes of drivers comprise one or more of audio, NDIS, and camera drivers.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 16 , wherein the driver verifier function is operable to run in a learning mode where driver issues are collected and a baseline profile is created rather than generating a system error.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Mielke Markus W
• Lichtenberg Jakob F
• Levin Vladimir A
• De Weduwe Remy L
• Kwon Hyuk Joon
• Deisinger Nathan L
• Pabreja Vikas
• Li Juncao

Classifications

• G06F11/3041

  where the computing system component is an input/output interface (interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title

• G06F11/3668

  Testing of software · CPC title

• G06F11/0745 Primary

  in an input/output transactions management context (input/output processing in general G06F13/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/3485 Primary

  for I/O devices · CPC title