JP2011175494A - Maintenance work support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a maintenance work support system capable of reducing error and omission in maintenance work. <P>SOLUTION: In the maintenance work support system 10 that is connected to a maintenance object apparatus 20 in a communicatable manner, a maintenance work support implementation part 11 acquires a model name of the apparatus, components used, a name of a program installed, and version information from the maintenance object apparatus 20 through an apparatus interface part 15, collates them with apparatus condition determination information 12, and, as a result of the collation, acquires information on components used in the maintenance object apparatus 20, combination of installed programs, and compatibility information from component determination information 13. Maintenance work procedures are acquired from work procedure information 14 based on the information acquired from the apparatus condition determination information 12 and the component determination information 13, and maintenance work is implemented automatically according to the maintenance work procedures. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention absorbs the difference in the procedure of maintenance work due to fine differences among a plurality of customers in the maintenance work of hardware installed in advance in the customer or software operating on the hardware. The present invention relates to a maintenance work support system that enables significant automation of maintenance work.

  After introducing hardware such as server machines, disk units, mainframes, and software such as WEB servers and database servers that operate on the hardware to customers, maintenance work including malfunctions, malfunctions, software updates, etc. Need to do. Conventionally, this maintenance work is delivered in advance with replacement parts of the faulty part, the maintenance work person goes to the customer, or the maintenance staff arranges it after analysis at the customer's site and is attached to the hardware and software. A maintenance manual and a checklist as shown in FIG. 3 (a) are created in advance, and as shown in FIG. 8 (a), the maintenance person in charge operates the hardware by himself according to the procedure described therein. It was normal to do and work. In recent years, however, hardware configurations and software specifications have become increasingly complex, and the contents described in the maintenance manuals are complicated and diverse. This requires a certain amount of time, and the maintenance man-hours required for maintenance work are very large, and it also causes work mistakes and work leaks.

  In order to realize the reduction of man-hours and to perform maintenance work at low cost, Patent Document 1 discloses a maintenance terminal that can access an information server having a technical information database and a maintenance history database via a wireless data communication network. A maintenance terminal is connected to a maintenance target computer (hereinafter referred to as a target computer) via a USB interface, information collecting software is installed in the target computer, and hardware and software configuration information of the target computer is acquired. A maintenance work support system is disclosed in which maintenance work instruction menus corresponding to configuration information are acquired from an information server, and maintenance work can be performed without mistakes according to maintenance work instruction menus that match the detailed configuration of the target computer. .

JP 2004-341707 A

  However, according to the configuration of Patent Document 1, when the target computer is installed in a place where radio waves do not reach such as underground, it is difficult to establish communication between the maintenance terminal and the information server. There is a possibility that the menu cannot be obtained and the maintenance work cannot proceed. In addition, because the USB interface is used, the target computer and the maintenance terminal must be connected one-to-one, and in an environment where multiple target computers such as a large-scale server system are installed, work is parallelized. However, it was necessary to carry out maintenance work for each individual.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and can perform maintenance work reliably without grasping the details of the configuration of the maintenance target device, and can prevent mistakes and leakage of work by maintenance personnel. It is another object of the present invention to provide a maintenance work support system capable of performing maintenance work by parallel processing.

A maintenance work support system according to claim 1 is a maintenance work support system for performing maintenance management work of a maintenance target device and software (hereinafter referred to as an installation program) operating on the maintenance target device,
A device interface unit for connecting to a maintenance target device in a communicable manner;
A device condition determination information storage unit for storing conditions for determining the configuration of the maintenance target device and the installation program;
A component determination information storage unit that stores components used in the maintenance target device and compatibility information indicating other components compatible with the component, and update program update file information;
A work procedure information storage unit for storing a maintenance work procedure of the maintenance target device;
A maintenance work support execution unit for updating maintenance target devices and checking operations;
The maintenance work support execution unit includes a display / input / output unit for displaying and inputting / outputting images. The maintenance work support execution unit obtains configuration information of the maintenance target device and the installation program from the maintenance target device connected to the device interface unit. Obtain and collate with the information stored in the device condition determination information storage unit, acquire the component information by collating with the component determination information storage unit from the determined maintenance target device and configuration information of the installation program, and maintain The maintenance procedure of the target device and the installation program is acquired from the work procedure information storage unit, and the guidance of the maintenance work procedure is displayed on the display / input / output unit.

  A maintenance work support system according to a second aspect of the present invention is the maintenance work support system according to the first aspect, wherein the maintenance work support system according to the first aspect automatically executes the maintenance work on the connected maintenance target device in accordance with the guidance created by the maintenance work support execution unit. It is characterized by that.

  A maintenance work support system according to a third aspect is the maintenance work support system according to the second aspect, in which the parts constituting the maintenance target device are replaced while the maintenance work support execution unit automatically performs the maintenance work. When manual work is required, the automatic execution of the maintenance work is temporarily suspended, the user is prompted to replace the part, and the automatic maintenance work is resumed after the replacement work is completed. .

The maintenance work support system according to claim 4 is the maintenance work support system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising a work record storage unit and a work record information storage unit,
The maintenance work support execution unit notifies a log of the operation to the work record storage unit, and the work record storage unit stores the notified log in the work record information storage unit.

  According to the maintenance work support system of the present invention, in the maintenance of the maintenance target device in the maintenance service of the system provided to the customer, even if the maintenance staff does not know the configuration of the maintenance target device in advance, the parts and installation from the maintenance target device Since the program configuration and the fault location can be acquired and the maintenance procedure corresponding to the program can be selected, the maintenance procedure can be performed without any error or omission in the procedure.

  Further, according to the maintenance work support system of the present invention, maintenance work can be automatically executed according to the maintenance work procedure, so that mistakes and leakages of maintenance work by maintenance personnel as users can be remarkably reduced.

  Furthermore, according to the maintenance work support system of the present invention, when manual work such as replacement of hardware parts is necessary, the automatic execution is interrupted and the human work is promoted. Even when complicated maintenance work is required, mistakes and leakage of maintenance work can be reduced.

  Further, according to the maintenance work support system of the present invention, as a result of the maintenance work procedure and the automatic execution thereof, the work log of the maintenance staff who is the user can be accumulated in the work record accumulation unit, so that the work verification and reporting It is easy to create a certificate.

It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the maintenance work assistance system in the Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the outline | summary of operation | movement of a maintenance work assistance system same as the above. (A) It is an example of the maintenance work check list used before. (B) It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the maintenance work checklist screen output by the maintenance work assistance system in the Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a production | generation of the work record of a maintenance work in the Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the workflow of the support center using a maintenance work assistance system same as the above. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the operation | movement at the time of the software maintenance using a maintenance work assistance system same as the above. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the operation | movement in the case of the hardware maintenance using a maintenance work assistance system same as the above. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the connection aspect of the maintenance terminal at the time of performing maintenance work, (a) Conventional maintenance work, (b) Maintenance work by the maintenance work support system in the Example of this invention, (c) This invention Direct connection that is one of the maintenance work support system connection forms in the embodiment of the present invention, (d) Multi-device connection via HUB that is one of the maintenance work support system connection forms in the embodiment of the present invention, (e) The present invention. In this embodiment, a plurality of systems are connected via a monitoring device, which is one of the maintenance work support system connection forms.

  Embodiments as the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. Of course, it goes without saying that the present invention can be easily applied to other than those described in the embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention.

  The configuration of the maintenance work support system in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a maintenance work support system for supporting maintenance work of the maintenance target device 20. A maintenance work support execution unit 11 controls and executes the maintenance work support operation. Reference numeral 12 denotes a device condition determination information storage unit that accumulates various types of information for determining a maintenance target device 20 connected to a device interface unit described later. Reference numeral 13 denotes a component determination information storage unit that accumulates various pieces of information for determining components of the connected maintenance target device 20, the version of installed programs, patch information, and the like. Reference numeral 14 denotes a work procedure information storage unit that accumulates maintenance work procedures for the connected maintenance target devices. A device interface unit 15 is connected to the maintenance target device 20 so as to be communicable. Reference numeral 16 denotes a work recording / storage unit for recording and accumulating a log of maintenance work performed by the maintenance work support execution unit 11, which is recorded in the work record information 17 as electronic data, and is output as a check sheet evidence 18. Is to do. Reference numeral 19 denotes a display / input / output unit for displaying a work procedure screen described later and inputting various parameters.

  Based on FIG. 2, the operation of the maintenance work support system will be described with an example of data stored in the device condition determination information storage unit 12 and the part determination information storage unit 13 of the maintenance work support system. The device condition determination information storage unit 12 manages the model name of hardware to be maintained and the names of components used for the hardware.

  The component determination information storage unit 13 manages documents such as information on components and installation programs used in the hardware to be maintained managed by the device condition determination information storage unit 12 and maintenance instructions thereof. .

  Here, the maintenance target device 20 has a model name “H-1234-567”, seven units as parts, unit 1 has eight memory slots, and each memory slot has a capacity as shown in FIG. Assume that the memory you have is installed.

  First, the maintenance target device 20 as a maintenance target is connected to a terminal in which the maintenance work support system is introduced so as to be communicable via a LAN cable or a network HUB (S201). The maintenance work support execution unit 11 acquires information on a maintenance target device such as a model name, a unit configuration, and a memory configuration from the maintenance target device 20 connected via the device interface unit 15, and the device condition determination information storage unit 12. It collates and transmits the said information to the components determination information storage part 13 with failure information (S202). The part determination information 13 acquires the part number of the part from the model name (S203), and stores the corresponding maintenance procedure based on the information acquired from the device condition determination information storage unit 12 and the part determination information storage unit 13 as work procedure information. Obtained from the unit 14 (S204).

  The maintenance procedure acquired from the work procedure information storage unit 14 is displayed on the display / input / output unit 19 as a maintenance work support screen as shown at 30 in FIG. The displayed maintenance work support screen 30 includes a check input unit 30a for each maintenance work phase, and the work expected to be performed automatically by the maintenance work support execution unit 11 cannot be obtained. When the automatic operation is normally executed, a message is displayed to instruct the maintenance worker to perform the corresponding operation so that the next phase cannot be entered. When the automatic operation is completed normally, the check input unit 30a Checks can be entered, maintenance work can be shifted to the next phase, and where human work occurs, the status of the equipment is automatically checked after the completion of human work to ensure correct work. Once it has been confirmed that it has been confirmed, it becomes possible to check the corresponding part, and by checking the corresponding part, it is maintained that the work of the corresponding part is completed. The maintenance work support execution unit 11 that has received the notification can shift the maintenance work to the next phase and automatically execute it, or when human work occurs, after the completion of the human work The state of the apparatus is automatically checked, and if it is confirmed that the human work has been normally performed, the check input unit 30a can be input to prompt the check after the work is completed. By repeating this, the maintenance work is performed according to the procedure, and it is possible to prevent the work from being lost.

  FIG. 4 shows an operation when the result of input / output of the maintenance work support screen 30 is accumulated as a work record. The work record is created based on the work procedure created by the maintenance work support execution unit 11. For example, the work content, the worker, the maintenance work start time, the maintenance work end time, and the start of each work shown on the maintenance work support screen 30 are performed. The time, end time, etc. are stored in the work record information 17 as a database. The accumulated work records can be output via a check sheet evidence output 18.

  The actual movement of the maintenance work using the maintenance work support system 10 as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. When a failure occurs in the hardware of a customer system that is subject to monitoring by the monitoring device in advance, the monitoring device acquires a log, an error code, etc. from the hardware, and automatically notifies the maintenance center as failure information ( S501). The maintenance center issues a dispatch instruction and parts arrangement for maintenance work to the maintenance base (S502). The maintenance staff goes to the site where the failure occurred with the maintenance terminal equipped with the maintenance work support system 10 (S503), and at the same time, the maintenance base instructs delivery of the maintenance parts to the parts center (S604). Deliver the parts to the location where the customer system is located.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the maintenance staff arriving at the site where the failure occurs connects the equipment interface unit 20 of the maintenance terminal equipped with the maintenance work support system 10 to the monitoring device, and connects to the customer system so as to be communicable. Based on the failure information notified in step S501, the maintenance work support execution unit 11 identifies hardware that has failed from a plurality of hardware provided in the customer system, and acquires hardware configuration information (S601). . The maintenance work support system 11 extracts data related to the hardware from the information stored in the device condition determination information storage unit 12 based on the acquired hardware configuration information, and information indicating a maintenance procedure managed by the extracted data (FIG. 6) (corresponding to the “maintenance manual” in FIG. 6), and the work procedure information related to the hardware in which the failure has occurred is obtained from the maintenance work procedure information storage unit 14 with this information (S603). (At this time, if the hardware replacement part indicated in the work procedure information is not at hand, the maintenance staff arranges the part and performs the subsequent processing as soon as the part arrives at the site.)

  The operation after acquiring the work procedure information will be described with reference to FIG. The maintenance work support execution unit 11 that has acquired the maintenance procedure information from the maintenance procedure information storage unit 14 generates the maintenance work support screen 30 based on the maintenance procedure information (S701). The maintenance work support execution unit 11 confirms that the automatic execution has been normally performed after performing the automatic execution phase in the automatic execution, and enables the check input unit 30a to check the next phase. The process is temporarily stopped in a phase where human work such as parts replacement work is necessary. The component determination information storage unit 13 stores each stored component and compatibility information of the component (that is, a backward compatible component, a later alternative component, etc.), and the display / input / output unit 19 Display compatibility information, notify maintenance personnel not to install incompatible parts, and check the version of the part and the version of the installation program that operates the part after the part replacement to verify the validity of the replacement part. A check is performed (S702). Also, as shown in FIG. 7, the version information of the installed program such as a firewall is checked, and the hardware information stored in the device condition determination information storage unit 12 is checked, so that the version is old or unexplained. If the presence of the patch file is determined, the program is updated (S703). When the maintenance staff finishes the replacement and inputs a check to the check input unit 30a, the maintenance work support execution unit 11 executes the process of the subsequent phase.

  In FIG. 6, the maintenance terminal including the maintenance work support system 10 is configured to be connected to the blade server that is the maintenance target device 20 via the monitoring device. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the maintenance work support system 10 is the maintenance target. What is necessary is just to select suitably the structure for connecting with the apparatus 20 according to the environment of the maintenance object apparatus 20. FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 8C, a maintenance terminal including the maintenance work support system 10 and the maintenance target device 20 may be directly connected to each other via a communication cable, or as shown in FIG. 8D. A maintenance terminal may be connected to the hub device to communicate with the maintenance target device 20 for a network constructed by a plurality of maintenance target devices 20 connected by the hub device.

  According to the maintenance support work system 10 as described above, as shown in FIG. 8B, the maintenance work support system 10 is connected to the network so as to be communicable with the maintenance target device 20 such as a server to be maintained. Thus, the failure location of the maintenance target device 20 can be automatically identified and the maintenance procedure can be displayed, so that the work efficiency of the maintenance staff is greatly improved. In addition, if maintenance work is automatically carried out according to the maintenance procedure and human work is necessary, the automatic processing is interrupted to encourage human work, and when the work is completed, the human work is justified. Since the automatic processing can be resumed after the inspection, maintenance work with high certainty can be realized by preventing the maintenance worker from leaking work.

  As mentioned above, although one Example of this invention was explained in full detail, this invention is not limited to the said Example, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible within the range of the summary of this invention. For example, although the maintenance target device 20 is a server in a system including a monitoring device that automatically reports error / failure information, the maintenance target device 20 is a single server as described above, without being limited thereto. It may be directly connected to the server, or may be connected to a network including the maintenance target device 20 without using the monitoring device to communicate with the maintenance target device 20. At that time, since automatic notification of error / failure information, etc. is not performed, a separate notification from the server administrator etc. to the maintenance staff or the maintenance terminal will determine the hardware that needs to be replaced in advance. Rapid maintenance work can be deployed. The maintenance target device 20 need not be limited to a server, and can be any type of electronic device that can be communicably connected to a maintenance terminal.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Maintenance work support system 11 Maintenance work support execution part 12 Equipment condition determination information storage part 13 Parts determination information storage part 14 Work procedure information storage part 15 Equipment interface part 16 Work record / accumulation part 17 Work record information 18 Check sheet evidence output 19 Display / input / output unit 20 Maintenance target equipment

Claims (4)

A maintenance work support system for performing maintenance management work of a maintenance target device and software (hereinafter referred to as an installation program) that operates on the maintenance target device,
A device interface unit for connecting to a maintenance target device in a communicable manner;
A device condition determination information storage unit for storing conditions for determining the configuration of the maintenance target device and the installation program;
A component determination information storage unit that stores components used in the maintenance target device and compatibility information indicating other components compatible with the component, and update program update file information;
A work procedure information storage unit for storing a maintenance work procedure of the maintenance target device;
A maintenance work support execution unit for updating maintenance target devices and checking operations;
The maintenance work support execution unit includes a display / input / output unit for displaying and inputting / outputting images. The maintenance work support execution unit obtains configuration information of the maintenance target device and the installation program from the maintenance target device connected to the device interface unit. Obtain and collate with the information stored in the device condition determination information storage unit, acquire the component information by collating with the component determination information storage unit from the determined maintenance target device and configuration information of the installation program, and maintain A maintenance work support system characterized in that a maintenance procedure for a target device and an installation program is acquired from the work procedure information storage unit, and guidance for a maintenance procedure is displayed on the display / input / output unit.   The maintenance work support system according to claim 1, wherein a maintenance work is automatically executed on a connected maintenance target device in accordance with the guidance created by the maintenance work support execution unit.   When manual work such as replacement of parts constituting the maintenance target device is necessary while the maintenance work support execution unit automatically performs maintenance work, the automatic execution of the maintenance work is temporarily suspended and the user The maintenance work support system according to claim 2, wherein a replacement work for the part is urged to be resumed, and the automatic execution of the maintenance work is resumed after the replacement work is completed. A work record storage unit and a work record information storage unit;
The maintenance work support execution unit notifies a log of the operation to the work record storage unit, and the work record storage unit stores the notified log in the work record information storage unit. 4. The maintenance work support system according to any one of items 1 to 3.

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