Collecting and transmitting diagnostics information from problematic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9830213-B2
Application number	US-201514872525-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2015
Priority date	Oct 1, 2015
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

A system, method, and computer-readable medium are disclosed for collecting and transmitting diagnostics information via a diagnostic information operation. The diagnostic information operation begins with a system periodically writing diagnostic information such as diagnostic errors and warnings to non-volatile local storage contained within the system. Upon detection of a failure, the user activates an NFC-enabled device (such as a mobile device) and positions the NFC-enabled device within NFC range of the failed system. The failed system then communicates the diagnostic information stored within the non-volatile local storage to NFC-enabled device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implementable method for collecting and transmitting diagnostics information, comprising:
storing diagnostic information to a non-volatile local storage contained within a system being monitored;
determining if a system failure has occurred; and,
communicating the diagnostic information to a near field communication (NFC) enabled device upon detecting the system failure, the communicating the diagnostic information being via a NFC communication component within the system being monitored, the NFC communication component being configured to operate even when the system is not functioning; and wherein
the storing the diagnostic information is performed by a software service on the system executing in the background.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated when the NFC enabled device is positioned within range of the system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated immediately upon detection of the system failure.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the NFC enabled device comprises a diagnostic application executing on the NFC-enabled device, the diagnostic application allowing reading and summarization of the diagnostic information.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the diagnostic information comprises one or more of a system name, a time of failure, hard drive status information, random access memory status information, processor status information, network communication status information and wireless status information.

6. A system comprising:
a hardware processor;
a data bus coupled to the processor; and
a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code interacting with a plurality of computer operations and comprising instructions executable by the hardware processor and configured for:
storing diagnostic information to a non-volatile local storage contained within a system being monitored;
determining if a system failure has occurred; and,
communicating the diagnostic information to a near field communication (NFC) enabled device upon detecting the system failure, the communicating the diagnostic information being via a NFC communication component within the system being monitored, the NFC communication component being configured to operate even when the system is not functioning; and wherein
the storing the diagnostic information is performed by a software service on the system executing in the background.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated when the NFC enabled device is positioned within range of the system.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated immediately upon detection of the system failure.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the NFC enabled device comprises a diagnostic application executing on the NFC-enabled device, the diagnostic application allowing reading and summarization of the diagnostic information.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the diagnostic information comprises one or more of a system name, a time of failure, hard drive status information, random access memory status information, processor status information, network communication status information and wireless status information.

11. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:
storing diagnostic information to a non-volatile local storage contained within a system being monitored;
determining if a system failure has occurred; and,
communicating the diagnostic information to a near field communication (NFC) enabled device upon detecting the system failure, the communicating the diagnostic information being via a NFC communication component within the system being monitored, the NFC communication component being configured to operate even when the system is not functioning; and wherein
the storing the diagnostic information is performed by a software service on the system executing in the background.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated when the NFC enabled device is positioned within range of the system.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the communicating is initiated immediately upon detection of the system failure.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the NFC enabled device comprises a diagnostic application executing on the NFC-enabled device, the diagnostic application allowing reading and summarization of the diagnostic information.

15. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the diagnostic information comprises one or more of a system name, a time of failure, hard drive status information, random access memory status information, processor status information, network communication status information and wireless status information.

Assignees

• Quest Software Inc

Inventors

• Seigel Jake
• Ali Sohail
• Jury Derek

Classifications

• G06F11/0748

  in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault (remote testing G06F11/2294) · CPC title

• H04W4/008

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F11/0751

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

• G06F11/0787

  Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection · CPC title

• G06F11/0772 Primary

  Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers · CPC title