Systems and methods for providing service and support to computing devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016335151-A1
Application number	US-201514708417-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 11, 2015
Priority date	May 11, 2015
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing service and to computing devices. In some embodiments, an Information Handling System (IHS) includes a Basic I/O System (BIOS) and a memory coupled to the BIOS, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the IHS, cause the IHS to: determine that the IHS is operating in a degraded state; and initiate one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in response to the determination.

First claim

1 . An Information Handling System (IHS), comprising:
a Basic I/O System (BIOS); and a memory coupled to the BIOS, the memory including program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by the IHS, cause the IHS to:
determine that the IHS is operating in a degraded state; and
initiate one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in response to the determination.

2 . The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the degraded state includes a state where the IHS is not capable of booting a main Operating System (OS), either fully or partially.

3 . The IHS of claim 2 , wherein initiating one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations includes booting a service OS.

4 . The IHS of claim 3 , wherein booting the service OS includes executing at least one service and support application.

5 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to provide: (a) audio-only support; or (b) a mayday beacon through a secondary device.

6 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to provide a client manifest to a backend service and to receive, from the backend service, at least one of: an OS kernel, a driver(s), or a service application(s); wherein the at least one of the OS kernel, driver(s), or service application(s) corresponds to the client manifest and is received in an order configured to reduce a user's wait time.

7 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to provide, to a backend service: (a) one or more services token(s) to enable a single-sign-on procedure; or (b) IHS health data.

8 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) determine a subsequent module to be downloaded from a backend service based on IHS data or historic analysis of other IHSs; or (b) adaptively change a boot order of two or more IHS components.

9 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) export data to an external device; (b) create a separately encrypted services data partition in local storage; or (c) allow a technician to perform one-time execution with elevated privileges while protecting a service OS administrator's credential.

10 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to detect a suspicious activity and automatically boot to a service OS with forensics lockdown outside a main OS.

11 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) migrate a specified drive partition into Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), use external storage for data that exceeds the capacity of the DRAM, and copy contents of the specified drive partition from the DRAM and external storage to a replacement storage device; or (b) provide a hypervisor environment capable of executing a service OS with full access to resources of a main OS.

12 . The IHS of claim 4 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to perform: (a) preservation of a fault environment, adaptive and deterministic fault isolation and analysis, recognition of a fault, or real-time invocation of a local or remote command; or (b) predict a future failure based upon telemetry data.

13 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
initiating a booting process of an Information Handling System (IHS); determining, by a Basic I/O System (BIOS) of the IHS, whether the IHS has completed a Power-On-Self-Test (POST) and, in response to a determination that the POST has failed, performing a first set of one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in pre-boot mode; in response to a determination that the POST has succeeded, determining by the BIOS whether the IHS has booted a main Operating System (OS) and, if the main OS has not booted, determining whether a service OS has been booted, and:
(i) in response to a determination that the service OS has not booted, performing the first set of one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in pre-boot mode; and
(ii) in response to a determination that the service OS has booted, performing a second set of one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in pre-OS mode.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the first set of one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in pre-boot mode includes at least one service and support application configured to provide: (a) audio-only support; or (b) a mayday beacon through a secondary device.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the second set of one or more support, diagnostics, or remediation operations in pre-OS mode includes at least one service and support application is configured to provide, to a backend service: (a) a client manifest and to receive, from the backend service, at least one of: an OS kernel, a driver(s), or a service application(s) in an order configured to reduce a user's wait time; (b) one or more services token(s) to enable a single-sign-on procedure; or (c) IHS health data.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) determine a subsequent module to be downloaded from a backend service based on IHS data or historic analysis of other IHSs; or (b) adaptively change a boot order.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) export data to an external device; (b) create a separately encrypted services data partition in local storage; or (c) allow a technician to perform a one-time execution with elevated privileges while protecting a service OS administrator's credential.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the at least one service and support application is configured to: (a) migrate a specified drive partition into Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), use external storage for data that exceeds the capacity of the DRAM, and copy contents of the specified drive partition from the DRAM and external storage to a replacement storage device; (b) provide a hypervisor environment capable of executing the service OS with full access to resources of the main OS; or (b) predict a future failure based upon telemetry data.

19 . A memory device having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by an Information Handling System (IHS), cause the IHS to:
determine, by a Basic I/O System (BIOS), whether the IHS has network access and, in response to the network access being unavailable, performing one or more local support, diagnostics, or remediation operations; in response to the network access being available, connecting to a backend service configured to perform one or more warranty or service entitlement checks using IHS identifying information; and uploading telemetry or debug data to the backend service, wherein the backend service is configured to perform one or more remote support, diagnostics, or remediation operations upon the IHS.

20 . The memory device of claim 19 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution by the IHS, further cause the IHS to determine whether a main Operating System (OS) has booted and, if the main OS has not booted, determining whether a service OS has been booted, and:
(i) in response to a determination that the service OS has not booted, performing the one

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Swierk Todd Erick
• Andrews Carlton A
• Bell Bruce C
• Boyum Michael Todd
• Ganesan Subramanian
• Lo Yuan-Chang
• Seibert Phillip M

Classifications

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• 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

• G06F21/50

  Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

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

• G06F2221/034

  Test or assess a computer or a system · CPC title