Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Anthony S Chavez

Dharshan Rangegowda

Anatoliy Panasyuk

Geoffrey Hugh Outhred

Hasan Alkhatib

Davide Massarenti

Morgan Asher Brown

Sridhar Chandrashekar

Pierre Jacomet

Jiazhen Chen

Ghim-Sim Chua

Deepak Bansal

Anil Francis Thomas

Avronil Bhattacharjee

Murali Krishna Sangubhatla

Ram Viswanathan

Majeed D Salman

Michael Meulemans

Nirmal Rajesh Soy

Barbara Harder

Kwanjalit S Marok

Daniel Li

Architecture that facilitates the virtual specification of a connection between physical endpoints. A network can be defined as an abstract connectivity model expressed in terms of the connectivity intent, rather than any specific technology. The connectivity model is translated into configuration settings, policies, firewall rules, etc., to implement the connectivity intent based on available physical networks and devices capabilities. The connectivity model defines the connectivity semantics of the network and controls the communication between the physical nodes in the physical network. The resultant virtual network may be a virtual overlay that is independent of the physical layer. Alternatively, the virtual overlay can also include elements and abstracts of the physical network(s). Moreover, automatic network security rules (e.g., Internet Protocol security-IPSec) can be derived from the connectivity model of the network.

Model-based virtual networking

In a multi-tenant environment, machines across the Internet, belonging to a particular subscription are securely enrolled with the tenant's subscription. Authentication of the machines is delegated to each of the tenant's own on-premise authentication mechanism The trust relationship with the tenant's authentication service is used to validate the security token presented by the machine being authenticated. Once authenticated, the machine has authorization (e.g. SSL machine cert for identity, security token, etc.,) to access the subscription. Each tenant within the multi-tenant environment can provide its own level of authentication. The machine presents the security token to the multi-tenant environment for requests for resources (e.g. services/content) from a user. When a request is received from a machine to access a resource, the multi-tenant environment determines from the issued token whether or not the machine is authorized to access the requested resources.

Secure machine enrollment in multi-tenant subscription environment

Computerized methods, systems, and computer-readable media for promoting cooperation between a first and second virtual network overlay ('overlay') are provided. The first overlay is governed by a first authority domain and includes members assigned virtual IP addresses from a first address range. The second overlay is governed by a second authority domain, which is associated with a second federation mechanism, for negotiating on behalf of the second overlay. The second federation mechanism is capable of negotiating with, or soliciting delegation of authority from, a first federation mechanism that is associated with the first authority domain. When negotiations are successful or authority is delegated, the second federation mechanism establishes a communication link between the second overlay and the first overlay or joins a member of the second overlay to the first overlay. Joining involves allocating a guest IP address from the first address range to the member.

Federation among services for supporting virtual-network overlays

A system and method for providing help contents uses a framework for unified help access that provides a single point of entry through which a user may access help contents relating to all system software and hardware components. The help contents from different sources are organized into a taxonomy structure that allows a user to navigate easily to locate relevant help topics. The contents of the help topics may reside locally or be accessible over the Internet, and may contain static as well as active components. The unified help framework is extensible, allowing the help topics and the taxonomy to be updated by means of update packages. The application for providing the unified presentation of help topics may be launched by a user as well as from programs.

System and method for providing help contents for components of a computer system

Methods and systems for backing up and restoring the state of a computer system are disclosed. Computer resource use is minimized by combining the backup methods of file copying and file logging. During backup, copies are stored of those files that are expected to change frequently. For other files, changes are noted in a change log and backup copies may be made if they would be useful when later restoring the files. Restoration proceeds by overwriting the frequently-changing files with stored copies and by undoing the changes to the logged files.

Restoration of a computer to a previous working state

The present invention manages information about support incidents on a computer. The invention gathers information about a support incident, associates the support incident with a support channel, and collects current and historical information from the computer. Implementations of the invention may also package and send the gathered and collected information to a support vendor. The invention comprises methods of performing these tasks, systems that perform them, computer-readable media that contain computer-executable instructions that when executed perform the methods or provide the systems, and data structures stored on computer-readable media having fields that represent software objects useful in performing the methods or providing the systems.

Methods and systems for reporting and resolving support incidents

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Kenmore, WA, United States of America

Anthony S Chavez