Determining a stability index associated with a software update

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10732957-B2
Application number	US-201816048729-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 30, 2018
Priority date	Jul 30, 2018
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

In some examples, a server may receive telemetry data from a computing device. The server may determine based at least in part on the telemetry data, (1) a device (e.g., hardware and software) configuration associated with the computing device and (2) one or more events (e.g., an installation log, a memory dump, or the like) associated with installing a software package on the computing device. Based at least in part on the one or more events. the server may determine a stability index associated with the software package and associate the stability index with the device configuration. The stability index may indicate a probability of errors not occurring after the software package is installed. After determining that the stability index satisfies a predetermined threshold, the server may provide the software package and the associated stability index for download to one or more additional computing devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a server, telemetry data from a computing device;
determining, by the server and based at least in part on the telemetry data, a device configuration associated with the computing device;
determining, by the server and based at least in part on the telemetry data, one or more events associated with installing a software package on the computing device;
determining, by the server executing a machine learning module that is trained using training data that includes success rates of the software package determined during testing and verification of the software package, a stability index associated with the software package based at least in part on the one or more events, wherein the stability index indicates a probability that an error does not occur after the software package is installed on one or more additional computing devices having a similar device configuration to the device configuration associated with the computing device, the probability determined based at least in part on a risk score that is scaled from a low risk to a high risk that installation of the software package causes the error;
associating, by the server, the stability index with the device configuration;
determining, by the server, that the stability index satisfies a predetermined threshold; and
providing, by the server, the software package and the stability index for download to the one or more additional computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining, by the server and based at least in part on the telemetry data, the device configuration associated with the computing device comprises:
determining, based at least in part on the telemetry data, an identifier associated with the computing device, the identifier comprising one of a service tag or a serial number; and
determining, based at least in part on the identifier, a hardware configuration associated with the computing device, the hardware configuration comprising: a processor identifier, a processor speed, a graphics processor identifier, an amount of random access memory, a type of a hard drive, and a capacity of the hard drive.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stability index is determined based at least in part on: a type of each event of the one or more events, a weight assigned to each type of event, a number of events that have occurred, a number of times the software package was installed, and a scaling factor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more events associated with installing the software package on the computing device further comprise at least one of:
an installation log;
a memory dump;
a crash associated with the software package;
an involuntary restart of an operating system installed on the computing device;
a stop error; or
an indication that a user of the computing device initiated contact with a support staff member associated with a manufacturer of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the risk score is determined based on a plurality of predictor variables comprising at least two of: a size of the software package, an average time to install the software package, a reboot indicator indicating whether installation of the software package requires a reboot, and an upgrade indicator indicating whether the software package is a first install or an upgrade to a previous install.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving second telemetry data from a second computing device;
determining that the device configuration associated with the computing device is associated with the second computing device;
determining, from the second telemetry data, one or more additional events associated with installing the software package on the second computing device;
recalculating the stability index associated with the software package based at least in part on the one or more additional events to create an updated stability index;
associating the updated stability index with the device configuration;
determining that the updated stability index fails to satisfy the predetermined threshold; and
stopping providing the software package for download.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the software package comprises at least one of:
a driver associated with a hardware component of the computing device;
a firmware associated with a hardware component of the computing device;
an update to a software application that was previously installed on the computing device;
a new software application to be installed on the computing device; or
a basic input-output system (BIOS) associated with the computing device.

8. A server comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving telemetry data from a computing device;
determining, based at least in part on the telemetry data, a device configuration associated with the computing device;
determining, based at least in part on the telemetry data, one or more events associated with installing a software package on the computing device;
determining, using a machine learning module that is trained using training data that includes success rates of the software package determined during testing and verification of the software package, a stability index associated with the software package based at least in part on the one or more events, wherein the stability index indicates a probability that an error does not occur after the software package is installed on one or more additional computing devices having a similar device configuration to the device configuration associated with the computing device, the probability determined based at least in part on a risk score that is scaled from a low risk to a high risk that installation of the software package causes the error;
associating the stability index with the device configuration;
determining that the stability index satisfies a predetermined threshold; and
providing the software package and the stability index for download to the one or more additional computing devices.

9. The server of claim 8 , wherein determining, based at least in part on the telemetry data, the device configuration associated with the computing device comprises:
determining, based at least in part on the telemetry data, an identifier associated with the computing device, the identifier comprising one of a service tag or a serial number; and
determining, based at least in part on the identifier, a hardware configuration associated with the computing device, the hardware configuration comprising: a processor identifier, a processor speed, a graphics processor identifier, an amount of random access memory, a type of a hard drive, and a capacity of the hard drive.

10. The server of claim 8 , wherein the software package comprises at least one of:
a driver associated with a hardware component of the computing device;
a firmware associated with a hardware component of the computing device;
an update to a software application that was previously installed on the computing device;
a new software application to be installed on the computing device; or
a basic input-output system (BIOS) associated with the computing device.

11. The server of claim 8 , wherein the one or more events associated with installing the software package on the computing device further comprise at least one of:
an installation log;
a memory dump;
a crash associated with the software package;
an involuntary restart of an operating system installed on the computing device;
a stop error; or
an indication th

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Dattatri Maheshwar
• Vichare Nikhil M

Classifications

• H04L9/40

  Network security protocols · CPC title

• G06F9/4413

  Plug-and-play [PnP] · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H04L63/166

  at the transport layer · CPC title

• H04L41/0873

  Checking configuration conflicts between network elements · CPC title