JP2002055891A - Computer managing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conveniently realize a failure management function of a computer. SOLUTION: An operating state is managed without changing structure of a target computer 10 itself by monitoring the contents of an IO port address 80 space to be universally used for the recording of the operating state in the computer 10 with AT compatible structure by an operating state managing device 110 mounted as an extension board corresponding to PCI buses and managing a processing to be automatically performed according to the operating state by a processing registering part 113 in the extension board. Batch management of the plural computers 10 is facilitated by notifying the operating state and corresponding processing result to the management computer 20 via a communication control part 114, automatic processings by every operating state of individual computers 10 are easily changed by changing the processing registering part 113 from the management computer 20 and sure implementation of a keyboard operation from a remote place before the start of the operating system is enabled by registering a keyboard input processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer management technique, and more particularly to a state management including a failure at the time of startup of an unattended computer, a process for a specific state, and an operation state collectively by a management computer at a remote place. It relates to technologies that are effective when applied to management and operation technologies.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a failure detecting means for restarting a computer without intervention of an operator, for example, a service processor is provided to a power control device of a data processing device itself as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-12013. A mechanism for automatically executing a power-on again based on the presence / absence of a failure detection report of JP-A-11-25916.
No. 0, the system BIOS (Basic Inpu
A technique for providing a failure detection mechanism to the t Output System is known. Further, computer failures and failure recovery processing are recorded in computer logs, and need to be regularly referred to by a computer administrator. Regarding keyboard operations required before the operating system is started, such as system BIOS settings, the operator can directly operate the computer or display the computer screen on the display of a remote management computer, and input a keyboard from the management computer. There is a method of inputting a key to a keyboard controller on the computer side.

[0003]

In the prior art for restarting a computer without the intervention of an operator as described above, processing is performed by the computer itself or the system BIOS, so that the processing can be realized only on a dedicated computer. Not only is it impossible, but it is difficult to change the processing that is automatically performed for a failure depending on the user environment.

[0004] Further, in the prior art, a failure and a process performed for the failure are recorded as a log in the own computer. However, it is enormous that an administrator managing a plurality of computers periodically collects the log. Work man-hours were required, and there was a possibility that a serious obstacle was overlooked.

Conventionally, keyboard processing required before operating system operation such as system BIOS setting is performed by an operator at a computer installation location, or a computer screen is output to a display of a remote management computer, and a keyboard of the management computer is output. Input from the computer to the computer and key input to the keyboard controller.However, this method delays the transfer time between the computer and the management computer, and is suitable for keyboard operations that require immediacy. Did not.

An object of the present invention is to enable a computer having a general configuration to easily use a fault management function.

Another object of the present invention is to enable a computer having a general configuration to easily use a failure management function of various processing contents unique to each computer.

It is another object of the present invention to easily realize the collective management of a plurality of computers having a general configuration by a remote management computer or the like.

Another object of the present invention is to reliably perform an intervention operation involving keyboard input before starting an operating system in a computer having a general configuration from a remote management computer or the like.

[0010]

A computer management apparatus according to the present invention is mounted on an expansion bus slot provided in a computer to be managed, and controls at least one of monitoring and controlling the operation state of the computer. It is provided with.

More specifically, as an example, for example,
It is installed in an expansion bus slot of a computer device having an industry-standard architecture to be managed (hereinafter, referred to as an AT compatible computer), and a PCI (Peripheral Compo
nent Interconnect) builds a fault management function on an expansion board that can be connected to the bus.

By simply mounting an expansion board having a fault management function in an expansion bus slot of a computer having a general configuration without a management function, an AT compatible computer can be easily connected by, for example, PCI bus access. It becomes possible to access the IO port address 80 space to monitor the operation status, and to access the keyboard controller to execute intervention involving keyboard input as necessary.

In addition, a communication control unit for communicating with an external management computer is mounted on an expansion board on which a fault management function is built, and an operation state read from the IO port address space 80 and an operation state corresponding to the operation state are determined. By providing a processing table in which the contents of processing to be automatically executed are stored in association with each other, the management computer arbitrarily registers / updates the processing to be automatically executed with respect to the operation state of the computer for each computer. Then, it can be executed. By registering the keyboard intervention process in the processing table, it is possible to reliably perform a keyboard operation from a remote management computer, for example, before starting the operating system.

In addition to the above-described registration processing of the processing table, a processing instruction from the management computer to the expansion board, and a processing instruction from the expansion board to the management computer are provided by the communication control unit with the management computer provided in the expansion board. Notification of the operation state and the automatic processing result.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a configuration of a computer management system including a computer management device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a part of the computer management device according to the embodiment. Explanatory drawing to show and show
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the computer management device according to the present embodiment.

The computer management system according to the present embodiment is as follows. Computer 10 to be managed, management computer 2
0, a computer administrator 30 who operates the management computer 20 to manage and operate the computer 10 to be managed.

The computer 10 to be managed has, for example, an AT-compatible architecture as an example, and has a CPU 11 including a microprocessor and main memory (not shown) and a C
PCI bus 13 and PCI bus 1 connected to PU unit 11
3 via the ISA bus controller 14
SA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus 15, I
A keyboard 17a connected to the IO port 16 on the SA bus 15, the ISA bus 15 via the keyboard controller 17, and a display memory 1 connected to the PCI bus 13.
8, a display 18a for visualizing and processing the contents of the display memory 18, an external storage device (not shown), and the like.

The PCI bus 13 is connected to an expansion bus slot 10a which is opened on an external side surface of a casing (not shown) of the computer 10.

The computer 10 to be managed includes:
A power control unit 19 that can turn on / off the power of the computer 10 is provided.

In the case of this embodiment, the operation state management device 110 is detachably mounted as an expansion board in the expansion bus slot 10a of the computer 10 to be managed.

Operation state management device 11 as expansion board
Reference numeral 0 denotes a local processor 115 which is constituted by a microprocessor or a memory (not shown) and controls the entire operation of the operation state management device 110; a PCI access unit 111 which controls transmission and reception of data to and from the PCI bus 13;
An IO port address holding unit 112 that stores state information 116 read from the IO port 16 at a specific address (for example, 80HEX) on the ISA via the bus 13;
A process registration unit 113 composed of a nonvolatile memory or the like, a power control unit access unit 117 for controlling the power control unit 19 in the computer 10, a communication control unit 114 for performing information communication with the management computer 20, and the like. Have.

The process registration unit 113 in the operation state management device 110 according to the present embodiment is read from, for example, the IO port address 80 as shown in FIG. 2 and indicates the operation state of the computer 10. The value of the 1-byte state information 116 (operation state 113a) and the control operation to be executed by the operation state management device 110 when the operation state indicated by the value is detected (for example, a timer value,
Registration processing contents 113b indicating keyboard input, etc.)
Are stored in association with each other.

Data such as the operation state 113a of the processing registration unit 113 and the registration processing contents 113b can be arbitrarily changed from the management computer 20 via the communication line 40. Before the operation state management device 110 is mounted on the computer 10, data and the like suitable for the computer 10 are stored in advance.

The management computer 20 is composed of a general personal computer or the like, operates with a computer management program 21 for managing the computer 10, and has a keyboard 23 and a display 2 as operation interfaces for a computer administrator 30.
4, etc. Computer 1 to be managed
Line control board 2 for performing information communication via the communication line 40 with the operation state management device 110 mounted on the
2 are provided.

Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the present embodiment will be described.

The local processor 115 of the operation state management device 110 mounted on the computer 10 to be managed as an expansion board detects the power ON of the computer 10 notified from the power control unit access unit 117 (step 2).
01) Then, the ISA bus 15 is sent to the PCI access unit 111.
Instruct the reading of the IO port address 80 space above.

The PCI access unit 111 is connected to the PCI bus 13
Above, it becomes a bus master, performs IO read access periodically, and writes the value to the IO port address holding unit 112. Each time the local processor 115 detects an update of the value of the IO port address holding unit 112 (Step 202), it instructs the communication control unit 114 to transmit the value to the management computer 20 (Step 203).

On the management computer 20 side, the computer management program 21 notifies the computer administrator 30 of the operation status via the display 24 or the like.

The local processor 115 waits for a processing instruction from the management computer 20 until the time registered in the processing registration unit 113 for the value times out (step 204). When the processing instruction from the management computer 20 is detected (step 205), the power supply control instruction is issued to the power supply control access unit 117 if there is a power supply instruction, and the PCI access unit 11 is received if there is a keyboard input instruction.
1 issues a key input instruction to the keyboard controller 17 (step 206).

When the timeout of the time registered in the process registration unit 113 is detected (step 207), the process registered in the process registration unit 113 is performed (step 2).
08).

The local processor 115, which has performed the power control and the keyboard input processing, also checks the execution status of the processing on the communication line 4.
0 to the management computer 20. The computer administrator 30 managing the plurality of computers 10 on the management computer 20 side,
By changing the contents of the process registration unit 113 of the operation state management device 110 mounted on each computer 10 before the start of the operation, the operation state management device 110 automatically performs the operation at the next startup of each computer 10. The setting process can be easily set / changed for each computer 10.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the expansion bus slot 1 of the computer 10 to be managed is
0a, for example, by mounting the operation state management device 110 as an expansion board, without making any changes to the hardware configuration, software, firmware, etc. of each computer 10 itself, and managing failure management and the like of the computer 10 Operation can be easily realized. Therefore, an effect is obtained that the fault management function can be easily used on a computer having a general configuration such as an AT compatible computer.

Further, by changing the registration contents of the processing registration unit 113 of the operation state management device 110 from the side of the management computer 20 or the like, the computer 10 such as a general AT-compatible computer can easily execute the individual computers. 10
The fault management function of various processing contents unique to the system can be used.

Further, by registering the keyboard intervention process in the process registration unit 113, an intervention operation involving a keyboard input before the operating system is started in the computer 10, such as a general AT compatible computer, can be performed at a remote location without delay. From the management computer 20 or the like.

Further, a communication control unit 114 is provided in the operation state management device 110 and connected to the management computer 20 via the communication line 40, thereby enabling remote control of the computer 10 such as a plurality of general AT compatible computers. Batch management by the management computer 20 or the like can be easily realized.

The invention described in the claims of the present application is expressed in another way as follows.

<1> In an AT compatible computer,
The IO port address 80 space used by many system BIOS for recording the operation status is periodically read from the expansion board connectable to the PCI bus by PCI bus access, and the operation status of the computer is managed in the expansion board. A computer operating state management method characterized by the above-mentioned.

<2> The expansion board according to item <1> is
Based on the value read from the IO port address 80 space,
An automatic restart method for a computer, characterized in that power off-on and reset processing are automatically performed when the computer fails to start, and an attempt is made to recover from the failure by restarting the computer.

<3> The expansion board according to item <1> is
Based on the value read from the IO port address 80 space,
A keyboard input method for a computer, wherein keyboard input processing for entering a setting screen of a system BIOS is realized by inputting a key to a keyboard controller through PCI bus access.

<4> The value read from the IO port address 80 space described in item <1> and item <2>
>, The extension board notifies the management computer at a remote location of the processing result performed in item <3>, so that the operating state of at least one computer is managed collectively by one management computer. Remote management method of computer.

<5> The processing automatically performed by the expansion board for the value read from the IO port address 80 space described in item <1> is managed by a processing table in the expansion board, and is processed from a remote management computer. An automatic computer processing content management method characterized by registering and updating a table.

<6> The processing automatically performed by the expansion board described in item <2> and item <3> is performed by the IO port address 80.
A remote control method for a computer, characterized in that a management computer at a remote place notified of the value of the space decides at any time and instructs an expansion board.

<7> A PCI bus-compatible expansion board that performs computer internal processing of items <1> to <6>.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof. Needless to say, there is.

For example, the computer to be managed is not limited to an AT-compatible computer, but can be widely applied to a computer having a general configuration having an expansion bus slot.

[0047]

According to the computer management apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to easily use the fault management function with a computer having a general configuration.

According to the computer management device of the present invention,
With a computer having a general configuration, an effect is obtained that a failure management function of various processing contents unique to each computer can be easily used.

According to the computer management device of the present invention,
An advantage is obtained in that a plurality of computers having a general configuration can be easily managed collectively by a remote management computer or the like.

According to the computer management device of the present invention,
An advantage is obtained in that an intervention operation involving keyboard input before starting the operating system in a computer having a general configuration can be reliably performed from a remote management computer or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a configuration of a computer management system including a computer management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a part of a computer management device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the computer management device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Computer, 10a: Expansion bus slot, 11
... CPU unit, 12 PCI bus controller, 13 ... P
CI bus, 14: ISA bus controller, 15: IS
A bus, 16 IO port, 17 keyboard controller, 17a keyboard, 18 display memory, 18
a ... display, 19 ... power control unit, 20 ... management computer, 21 ... computer management program, 22 ...
Line control board, 23 keyboard, 24 display, 30 computer administrator, 40 communication line, 11
0 ... operation state management device (computer management device), 11
1 PCI access unit 112 IO port address holding unit 113 Process registration unit 113a Operating state 11
3b: registration processing content, 114: communication control unit (communication means), 115: local processor (control means), 11
6 state information 117 power supply control unit access unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A computer management apparatus, comprising: a control unit mounted on an expansion bus slot provided in a computer to be managed and performing at least one of monitoring and controlling an operation state of the computer. 2. The computer management device according to claim 1, further comprising: a process registration unit that stores an operation state of the computer and a process to be executed by the computer management device in association with the operation state. The control unit, by automatically executing the processing content stored in the process registration unit according to the operation state of the computer, at least one of monitoring and control of the operation state of the computer , A computer management device characterized by being executed autonomously. 3. The computer management device according to claim 1, further comprising a communication unit capable of transmitting and receiving information to and from an external management computer, wherein at least one of the computer management devices includes the computer management device.
The computer and the management computer are connected via the communication unit, and the content of the process registration unit in the computer management device of each of the computers is set and set from the management computer via the communication unit. An operation of updating; an operation in which the management computer monitors an operation state of each of the computers via the communication unit; and an operation of each of the computers notified from the computer management device to the management computer through the communication unit. An operation of controlling the operation state of each of the computers by the management computer in accordance with the operation state.