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1.3 Overview

The Corporate Error Reporting Version 1.0 Protocol provides an organization with the ability to copy error reports from a set of client machines to a CER file share on a specified Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol file server [MS-SMB] with additional configuration options.

An error event, such as an application or kernel fault, causes the client system to collect information for an error report. The Corporate Error Reporting Version 1.0 Protocol does not create the original contents of the error report.

The CER client then performs a check to determine if a path to a CER file share has been specified for this client system. If the path has been specified, the Corporate Error Reporting Version 1.0 Protocol will be used.

If the Corporate Error Reporting Version 1.0 Protocol will be used, the CER client constructs several CER file share paths based on the specific error that has occurred, and it constructs one CER file share path that applies to all reports for that CER file share. The CER client then attempts to read configuration files at that location. These configuration files, if present, indicate CER client behavior settings, whether the error report information is to be copied to the CER file share, and additional data requests to be included in the error report.

If the report is to be copied, the CER client gathers the additional data requested, then compresses the report information into a single file. Then the CER client copies the error reporting file to the specified CER file share where it can be accessed by an administrator for tracking or analysis purposes.

Whether or not an error reporting file was copied, the CER client also updates the configuration file that indicates the number of reports for that particular error and, depending on configuration, can also update tracking files.

The server is simply an SMB Protocol file server with a specific set of files. All behavior specific to the Corporate Error Reporting Version 1.0 Protocol is in the CER client and helper processes which access the file server, but the CER client and these helper processes never interact directly.