System for determining errors associated with devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10552249-B1
Application number	US-201615157036-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 17, 2016
Priority date	May 17, 2016
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

Described are techniques for determining occurrence of an error within a system of related devices. If the device affected by the error is not known, other devices within the system may be used to determine whether a device is unresponsive, non-functional, or limited in functionality. The other devices may also be used to determine data indicative of characteristics of the error, such as statuses and activities of devices at or near the time of the error, which may be used to generate a query. The query may be used to determine possible control actions that may address the error or prevent subsequent errors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of computing devices including at least a first computing device and a second computing device, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are in communication via a network;
one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions; and
one or more hardware processors of the first computing device, to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
provide a request, from the first computing device to the second computing device, wherein the request causes the second computing device to perform a function;
determine, by the first computing device, a failure of the second computing device to perform the function;
determine, by the first computing device, based at least in part on the failure, an indication of an error associated with the second computing device;
responsive to the indication of the error, determine, by the first computing device, error data indicative of one or more characteristics of the error;
determine, by the first computing device, user data associated with the second computing device based on a correspondence between the error data and one or more control actions performed based on the error data;
determine, based on one or more of the user data or the error data, a metric indicative of a quantity of prior requests for technical support;
generate a query, by the first computing device, the query including at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error based on the metric;
provide the query to a third computing device that interrogates a database to determine correction data that corresponds to the at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error;
in response to the query, receive, at the first computing device from the third computing device, the correction data that corresponds to the at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error, the correction data indicating a control action to address the error; and
automatically perform the control action to address the error associated with the second computing device.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more sensors to determine one or more of a visible characteristic or an audible characteristic of the second computing device; and
the computer-executable instructions to determine the error based at least in part on the one or more of the visible characteristic or the audible characteristic associated with the second computing device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the correction data includes an indication of one or more configurations associated with one or more functions of the second computing device, the system further comprising computer-executable instructions to:
determine correspondence between configuration data associated with the second computing device and the correction data; and
wherein the control action includes one or more of: modifying at least one configuration of the second computing device, generating a notification indicative of the at least one configuration, or generating an indication of at least one maintenance action to be performed at a future time.

4. A method comprising:
providing a request from a first device to a second device, wherein the request causes the second device to perform a function;
determining, by the first device, a failure of the second device to perform the function;
determining, by the first device, one or more of a visible attribute or an audible attribute of the second device using at least one sensor associated with the first device;
based at least in part on the failure and the one or more of the visible attribute or the audible attribute, determining, by the first device, an error associated with the second device;
responsive to the determining of the error, determining error data, by the first device, indicative of one or more characteristics of the error, based at least in part on one or more interactions between the first device and the second device;
determining a metric indicative of a quantity of prior requests for technical support;
generating a query based on the metric using the first device, the query including at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error;
providing the query to one or more data sources to determine correction data that corresponds to the at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error;
receiving, from the one or more data sources, the correction data that corresponds to the at least a subset of the one or more characteristics of the error, the correction data indicating a control action to address the error; and
performing the control action associated with the correction data to address the error associated with the failure of the second device to perform the function.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining second error data based on the performing the control action;
determining a second control action based at least in part on the second error data; and
performing the second control action.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining user input provided to one or more of the first device, the second device, or a third device, the user input indicating occurrence of an unknown error;
attempting to provide a signal to at least the second device; and
determining occurrence of the error associated with the second device based on one or more of a response to the signal, a failure to provide the signal, or a lapse of a threshold length of time without receiving a communication from the second device.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining one or more of an electromagnetic characteristic, a thermal characteristic, or movement of the second device using the at least one sensor associated with one or more of the first device or a third device in communication with the first device; and
wherein occurrence of the error associated with the second device is determined based at least in part on the one or more of the electromagnetic characteristic, the thermal characteristic, or the movement.

8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
providing a request for the error data to the second device; and
receiving the error data from the second device, at least a portion of the error data including an error log generated by the second device.

9. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining configuration data associated with the second device; and
determining correspondence between the configuration data and the error data, the correspondence indicating an association between the error and one or more configurations of one or more of at least one part or at least one function of the second device;
wherein the control action includes one or more of: modifying at least a subset of the one or more configurations or generating output indicating the at least a subset of the one or more configurations.

10. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining configuration data associated with the second device;
determining, based on the configuration data and the error data, a length of time associated with functionality of the second device; and
wherein the control action includes generation of a maintenance action to be performed at a future time based on the length of time.

11. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining actuation of a control associated with at least one of the first device, the second device, or a third device;
providing a signal to at least one of the first device, the second device, or the third device; and
wherein at least a portion of the error data is determined to be based at least in part on one or

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Johansson Jesper Mikael
• Canavor Darren Ernest
• Gopalakrishnan Varadarajan
• Small Kevin Michael

Classifications

• G06F11/0793 Primary

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• G06F11/079

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

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

• G06F11/0709

  in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0778

  Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis · CPC title