Controlling software failure data reporting and responses

For a failure data management server connected to one or more clients and to one or more support providers, the one or more support providers receiving error reports containing failure data from the one or more clients and the one or more failure data management servers to use in determining one or more fixes for one or more failures occurring at the one or more clients, a computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having computer executable instructions that implement a method of controlling failure data reporting, the method comprising acts of:

• receiving user input that defines one or more transmission filter rules to be met when sending an error report to a support provider;
• receiving user input that defines one or more collection filter rules to be met when including failure data within an error report;
• receiving one or more error reports corresponding to one or more failures at one or more clients;
• filtering the one or more received error reports with the one or more transmission filter rules to determine which of the received error reports to send to the support provider;
• filtering each error report to be sent to the support provider to remove any failure data that fails to satisfy the one or more collection filter rules;
• and
• sending each error report that satisfies the one or more transmission filter rules, with failure data that satisfies the one or more collection filter rules, to the support provider for analysis.

For a failure data management server connected to one or more clients and to one or more support providers, the one or more support providers receiving error reports containing failure data from the one or more clients and the one or more failure data management servers to use in determining one or more fixes for one or more failures occurring at the one or more clients, a computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having computer executable instructions that implement a method of controlling failure data reporting, the method comprising steps for:

• storing one or more transmission filter rules containing one or more transmission criteria to be met when sending an error report to a support provider;
• storing one or more collection filter rules containing one or more collection criteria to be met when including failure data within an error report;
• collecting one or more error reports corresponding to one or more failures at one or more clients;
• determining which of the one or more error reports to send to the support provider based on the one or more transmission filter rules;
• for each error report to be sent to the support provider, applying the one or more collection filter rules so that only failure data satisfying the one or more collection filter rules remains within the error report;
• and
• submitting each error report that satisfies the one or more transmission filter rules, with failure data satisfying the one or more collection filter rules, to the support provider for analysis.

A failure data management server that controls failure data reporting from one or more clients to a support provider for use in determining one or more causes for one or more failures occurring at the one or more clients, the failure data management server comprising:

• an administrative console interface that receives user input to define:
• one or more transmission filter rules containing one or more transmission criteria to be met when sending an error report to a support provider;
• one or more collection filter rules containing one or more collection criteria to be met when including failure data within an error report;
• and
• one or more custom failure responses;
• a local data store that stores:
• the one or more transmission filter rules;
• the one or more collection filter rules;
• the one or more custom failure responses;
• one or more standard failure responses;
• and
• one or more error reports;
• an agent that:
• collects one or more error reports corresponding to one or more failures at one or more clients;
• and
• provides the one or more custom and the one or more standard failure responses to the one or more clients;
• an error report manager that:
• filters the one or more error reports with the one or more transmission filter rules to determine which of the one or more error reports to send to the support provider;
• filters each error report to be sent to the support provider to remove any failure data that fails to satisfy the one or more collection filter rules;
• and
• sends each error report that satisfies the one or more transmission filter rules, with failure data satisfying the one or more collection filter rules, to the support provider for analysis;
• and
• a response manager that:
• retrieves the one or more custom failure responses and the one or more standard failure responses corresponding to the one or more failures at the one or more clients for the agent.