JP2002169906A - Support method and system for failure-recovery of software - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To present a reasonable charge and the necessary time appropriate to failure recovery by gathering information on a software suffered from failures in a short time even if it is the case of a software which has not been introduced many times yet or the case of failure-contents which have not occurred yet. SOLUTION: In the support method of failure-recovery for software, a setting information gathering program to automatically gather setting information on a software suffered from a failure is delivered to user computers, the setting information is returned to a support computer for failure-recovery, over or under number of setting information items, deference amount of contents and the number of the software suffered from failure are calculated by comparing the setting information on the software suffered from the failures gathered from the user computers with setting information in normal operations and either or both of the time and the charge necessary for failure recovery of the software are estimated based on those information to notice the origin demanding a solution of it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and a system for supporting the resolution of a software fault occurring on a user computer via a network such as the Internet. The present invention relates to a software trouble-solving support method and system for calculating an estimate of time and fee until the trouble is solved and presenting the estimate to a requester.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a system called a help desk system as a system for solving a software failure via a network. Conventionally, there are the following types of help desk systems of this kind. That is,
When a software failure occurs on the requesting computer, the requesting user sends an e-mail to the help desk with a description of the problem and a request for resolution, and the help desk returns the faulted software and related information to the help desk. A software setting information file group is designated, the user is allowed to collect the designated file group and transmitted to the help desk, and the help desk solves the problem based on the information.

There are the following fee systems in such a help desk. 1) Pay a fixed amount per case. 2) A fixed amount is paid up to a certain number within a certain period, and a fixed amount is paid per case when the number exceeds a certain number. In either case, the fee structure is independent of the nature of the failure. In general, the more the number of items in the software setting information and the more changes in the setting items, the more complicated the cause when a failure occurs. Conversely, the fewer the number of items and the fewer changes in the setting items. The cause is easier.

[0004]

By the way, in this kind of help desk system, the shorter the period from the occurrence of a problem to the solution, the better. However, in the conventional system described above, after a failure occurs, the help desk operator contacts the help desk operator, sends an email specifying the necessary setting information, and sends the setting information specified by the email to the user. The problem is that it takes a long time to solve the problem because it uses the method of collecting and sending it to the help desk. Also, in the fee structure,
Because the fee structure is not related to the nature of the obstacle,
If it is difficult to solve the problem, the help desk may take time that is not worth the fee, and if the problem is easy, the time that is not worth the fee paid by the user. Could be solved. On the other hand, the estimation of the time until the problem is solved largely depends on the empirical part of the person engaged in the help desk business and the accumulation of cases that occurred in the past. For this reason, it is difficult to estimate the time until the problem is solved, particularly in the case of software with a low introduction record or a new case that has never occurred in the past.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to collect information on software in which a failure (or problem) has occurred in a short time. To provide a help desk system that can provide a requester with an appropriate fee and required time appropriate for solving a problem, even for software with a low track record of introduction or failures that have never occurred in the past. is there.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a support method according to the present invention automatically collects setting information of faulty software upon receiving a request from a user of a faulty user computer. Distributing the setting information collecting program to the user computer; and transmitting the setting information of the faulty software collected by executing the setting information collecting program on the user computer to the fault solving support computer managed by the fault solving operator. And comparing the setting information of the faulty software collected from the user computer with the pre-registered setting information at the time of normal operation in the trouble solving support computer,
Calculating the content difference amount and calculating the number of the faulty software, and solving the faulty software fault based on the calculated number of the faulty software, the number of excess / deficiency of the setting information items, and the content difference amount. Estimating one or both of the required time and fee and notifying the user of the solution request source.

Further, the support system of the present invention receives a request from a user of a failed user computer,
Means for distributing a setting information collecting program for automatically collecting setting information of the faulty software to the user computer, and setting the faulty software setting information collected by executing the setting information collecting program on the user computer to the user. The means for receiving from the computer, the setting information of the faulty software collected from the user computer and the pre-registered setting information for normal operation are compared, and the number of setting information items is calculated, and the difference between the contents is calculated. Both, based on the means for calculating the number of faulty software, the calculated number of faulty software and the number of excess or deficiency of setting information items, the difference amount of the content,
Means for estimating one or both of a time and a fee required for solving the fault of the faulty software and notifying the user of the request for the solution.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an environment for implementing the present invention. In FIG.
100 transmits a setting information collection program file to the user computer 110 via the Internet 140, executes a cost estimation program in response to a request from the user computer 110, and transmits a result to the user computer 110. It is a help desk system that has 101 is a help desk system 1
This is a cost estimation program that is executed on 00. In the present embodiment, it is implemented by a JAVA (registered trademark) servlet (a JAVA application program on the server side), but other methods (such as CGI)
But no problem. Reference numeral 102 denotes a WWW server which distributes a setting information collection program requested from the user computer 110 via the Internet 140 and executes the cost estimation program 101 using the setting information transmitted from the user computer 110. 103
Is a normal operation setting information database for storing setting information of normally operating software.

Reference numeral 104 denotes a difference information database for storing difference information and estimation information between the setting information transmitted from the user and the setting information of normally operating software. Reference numeral 105 denotes an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) for displaying a setting information collection program file and a page for downloading the setting information collection program file on the WWW browser of the user computer 110 of the user.
WWW file and compressed setting information file
This is an auxiliary storage device that stores an HMTL file for displaying a page to be transmitted from the browser 130 to the WWW server 102 on the WWW browser of the user computer 110.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a user computer including an OS (Operating System) of a user who is executing the software in which the failure has occurred. Reference numeral 111 denotes application software A in which a failure may have occurred. Reference numeral 112 denotes a setting information file group A necessary for the operation of the software A, and is composed of one or a plurality of files. Reference numeral 113 denotes application software B in which a failure may have occurred. 114
Is a group of setting information files necessary for the operation of the software B, and is composed of one or a plurality of files.

Reference numeral 120 denotes a help desk worker who performs a help desk operation for solving a problem in accordance with a request of a user after calculating a time or a charge or an estimate of a time and a charge until the problem is solved. 121 is electronic mail transmission / reception software used by the help desk worker 120. 130 is a WWW browser of the user computer 110 from which the user requests the download of the setting information collection program file and the cost estimation, and 131 is the user who requests the help desk operator 120 for the estimation. 132 is electronic mail transmission / reception software used by the user 131. 140 is the WWW server 102
And browser 130, email sending and receiving software 12
1 and 132 are connected to each other. The communication protocol is TCP / IP (Transmission Control).
Protocol / Internet Protocol) is used for information exchange. The WWW server 102 and the browser 130 use TCP /
This is an application program that supports the implementation of IP, and the protocol is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
ocol) to exchange information. Similarly,
Email sending and receiving software 121 and 132 are also TCP
/ IP is an application program corresponding to the implementation of the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to a mail server (not shown) on the Internet.
Protocol) and POP3 (Post Office Protocol)
Version 3) Send and receive e-mails using the protocol.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the data structure of the compressed setting information file 200 generated when the setting information collection program is executed on the user computer 110 on which the software in which the failure has occurred is executed. FIG. 3 shows the setting information 3 included in the setting information file 200.
00 is a data structure of one item. FIG. 4 shows a cost estimation program 101 executed on the WWW server 102.
6 is a flowchart showing an outline of the processing of FIG.

Hereinafter, a detailed operation of this embodiment will be described. If a software failure occurs on the user computer 110, the user 130
0, the W managed by the help desk worker 120
A request for transmitting a page for downloading the setting information collection program from the WW server 102 is requested using the HTTP protocol. WWW server 102 receiving this request
Indicates software A (111) and B (11
3) and transmitting an HTML file for executing the setting information collection program of the related software to the WWW browser 130 of the user computer 110. User 13
1 obtains a setting information collection program of the corresponding software from the page displayed by the WWW browser 130. As a download method, a method of selecting with a button, setting a link with a hyperlink, or the like can be considered.
The user 131 copies the acquired setting information collection program of each software A, B to each home directory of the user computer 110 in which each software A, B is installed, and executes each.

A setting information file name to be collected is embedded in the setting information collection program, and a setting information file group A (11
2) Collect corresponding setting information files from B (114) and compress them to generate one file. The compression format may be any format.
Compress in jar format used in VA. As shown in FIG. 2, the compressed setting information file 200 includes a plurality of setting information files 1, 2,..., And each setting information file further includes a plurality of setting information 11, 12, 13,. The setting information (hereinafter, property) 300 in each setting information is a variable-length property name 3 as shown in FIG.
01, a 1-byte delimiter byte 302, and a variable-length property value 303. If a compressed file of the setting information of the failed software A and B has been created, the collection user 131 can use the user computer 11
0, the collected one or more compressed setting information files are collected by the WWW browser 130 of the help desk system 1.
00 to the user computer 11
Requesting the WWW server 102 to transmit an HMTL file to be displayed on the WWW browser 130 of No. 0.

[0015] In response, the WWW server 102 transmits the requested HTML file to the browser 130 of the user computer 110. The user 131 inputs one or more compressed setting information file names to the WWW server 102 by inputting one or more collected compressed setting information file names in the input form of the displayed page and pressing a send button. Send WWW server 10 that has received one or more compressed configuration information files
2 starts the cost estimation program 101. Then, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, first, one compressed setting information file is read in step 400, and in the next step 401, the number of systems to be investigated is “1”.
Is added. Further, the compressed setting information file read in the next step 402 is expanded. Until the number of unexamined setting information files among the setting information files developed in step 403 becomes “0”, step 405 is performed.
The subsequent processing is repeated. If the number of unexamined setting information files becomes "0", the process proceeds to step 404 until the number of unexamined compressed setting information files becomes "0" in step 404.
Returning to 0, the next compressed setting information file is read, and the same processing is repeated. If the unexamined compressed setting information file becomes “0”, step 414 is executed.
The following processing is performed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the compressed setting information file 200 includes one or a plurality of setting information files, and each setting information file includes a plurality of setting information 11,
., And each setting information is configured as shown in FIG. In step 405, FIG. 3 expanded from the compressed setting information file 200.
(1) is acquired, and "1" is added to the total number of property items. In a succeeding step 406, the one having the same property name is searched from the normal operation setting information database 103, and if there is no one having the same property name, "1" is added to the excess property number in a step 412, and the following step At 413, the excess property item is acquired. An excess property item refers to a property that is not included in the reference normal operation information. If there is one having the same property name, in step 407, the property value 303 of the property name is compared with the property value of the normal operation.

As a result of the comparison, if the property values are not equal, it can be considered that the property value 303 itself has been changed to one that is inconvenient for normal operation. In step 409, difference information from the normal operation property value is obtained, and in step 410, a value corresponding to the content that does not match (for example, the number of characters) is added to the difference amount. After examining all the properties in the expanded setting information file (step 411), the properties that were not compared in the normal operation setting information file in step 414 are regarded as insufficient properties, and the number of items and the properties are set to the normal operation setting. Obtained from the information database 103,
Return to step 403.

In step 403, all the setting information files in the compressed setting information file 200 are checked.
Further, when the examination of all the setting information files is completed (step 404), an estimate identification number is generated in step 415. In this embodiment, in order to generate an estimate identification number that can be uniquely identified on the help system,
A method of recording a numerical value in a text file, obtaining the numerical value, adding "1", and writing the result to a file is adopted. The structure of this text file is not specified. Then, in step 416, the identification number, the acquired total number of properties, the number of changed properties, the difference information, the difference, the number of excess properties, the number of excess properties, the number of missing properties, and the number of missing properties are stored in the difference information database 104. Store.

In the next step 417, specific rules determined by the help desk worker 120 are applied to the number of software to be investigated, the total number of properties, the number of excess properties, the number of missing properties, and the difference. Estimate the time to solve the problem and the fee. In this embodiment, the number of software to be investigated is increased by 1000 times, the total number of property items is increased by 10 times, and the number of excess property items is increased by 10 times.
0 times, 100 times the number of missing property items, 1 time the difference amount, and apply the rule of dividing the total value by 1000,
The obtained quotient was used as the estimated number of days until solution. In addition, the number of software to be investigated is 1000 times, the total number of property items is 10 times, the number of excess property items is 100 times, the number of missing property items is 100 times, the difference amount is 1 time, and the total value is multiplied by 10 times. We applied a rule that charges the value rounded up. The rules applied here may be freely determined by the help desk worker.

In step 418, an HTML format file including the result obtained in the previous step 417 and the estimate identification number generated in step 415 is generated and output to the WWW server 102. The WWW server 102 transmits the input HTML format file to the WWW browser 130 of the user computer 110. The user 131 refers to the estimated time and the fee displayed by the browser 130, and determines whether or not to request the solution of the problem, in consideration of the ability to pay, the validity of the fee, the urgency of solving the problem, and the like. When it is determined that the request is made, the obtained estimate identification number and the trouble information are added to the mail by a communication means via a network such as the e-mail transmission / reception software 132, and the help desk worker 120 is requested to solve the problem of the software trouble. I do. Help desk worker 120
Obtains the estimated identification number from the email received by the email sending / receiving software 121, and uses the obtained information as a key to obtain difference information of the faulty software and related software;
The excess property item and the missing property item are acquired from the difference information database 104, and the problem is solved.

As described above, in the present embodiment, a setting information collection program for automatically collecting setting information of software in which a failure has occurred in response to a request from the user 131 of the user computer 110 in which a failure has occurred is provided to the user computer 110. The setting information of the faulty software collected by distributing and causing the user computer 110 to execute the setting information collection program is transmitted to the help desk system 100 managed by the help desk worker 120 via the Internet 140, and the help desk In the system 100, the setting information of the faulty software collected from the user computer 110 is compared with the pre-registered setting information of the normal operation, and the number of setting information items is calculated. The number of failed software Based on the calculated number of faulty software, the number of excess or deficiency of setting information items, and the difference between the contents, estimate one or both of the time and fee required for fault resolution of the faulty software, and Since the user 131 is notified, when the software running on the user computer 110 fails, the user 131 can automatically collect necessary setting information and transmit it to the help desk system 100. In addition, it is possible to reduce the time for collecting setting information required for troubleshooting.

On the help desk system 100 side, the help desk worker 12 based on the collected setting information.
0 quantitatively estimates the time required to complete the problem and the fee, and the user 1 through the Internet 1401.
31 can be presented. In particular, even in the case of software with a low track record of introduction or failures that have never occurred in the past, the required time is quantitatively determined by applying predetermined rules to the number of excess or deficiency of setting information items and differences in contents. And you can estimate the fee.

In the above description, a method of solving a problem with application software running on the user computer 110 has been described. However, the present invention similarly applies to software running in the background of an OS and application software. A solution can be achieved. In addition, the user computer 11
Although the setting information collected in step 0 is compressed and transmitted to the help desk system 100, the setting information need not be compressed.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, information on software in which a failure (or problem) has occurred can be collected in a short time, and software that has a small track record of introduction or that has occurred in the past can be obtained. Even in the case of a failure content without any problem, an appropriate fee and required time suitable for solving the problem can be presented to the requester.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an implementation environment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure diagram of a compressed setting information file.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of setting information.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing of an estimation program.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 100: Help desk system, 101: Cost estimation program, 102: WWW server, 103: Normal operation setting information database, 104: Difference information database, 110: User computer, 120: Help desk worker, 131: User, 140: Internet .

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for acquiring the content of a fault occurring on software running on a user computer through a network and supporting the solution of the fault, wherein a request from a user of the user computer on which the fault has occurred is provided. Receiving a setting information collection program for automatically collecting setting information of the faulty software to the user computer, and setting the faulty software setting information collected by causing the user computer to execute the setting information collecting program. And transmitting the setting information of the faulty software collected from the user computer and the pre-registered normal operation setting information to the trouble solving support computer managed by the trouble solving worker. Compare the settings Calculating the number of feet and the content difference, and calculating the number of faulty software; and calculating the number of faulty software based on the calculated number of faulty software, the number of excess / deficiency of setting information items, and the content difference. Estimating one or both of the time and fee required for troubleshooting and notifying the user of the solution requesting user of the problem. 2. A system for acquiring the content of a fault occurring on software running on a user computer through a network and supporting the solution of the fault, wherein a request from a user of the user computer on which the fault has occurred is provided. Means for distributing a setting information collection program for automatically collecting setting information of the faulty software to the user computer, and setting information of the faulty software collected by causing the user computer to execute the setting information collecting program And comparing the setting information of the faulty software collected from the user computer with the pre-registered setting information of the normal operation, the number of setting information items, the number of excess and deficiency, and the difference between the contents. As well as the number of faulty software Estimating one or both of the time and fee required to resolve the faulty software based on the calculated number of faulty software, the number of excess / deficiency of setting information items, and the amount of difference between the contents. And a means for notifying the user of the problem.