JPH02166533A - Memory dump processing system and its processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a period of time when a part or the whole of a computer system is kept at rest due to a memory dump process by omitting the necessity to output a virtual memory area stored in an auxiliary memory to an external medium during the memory dump process. CONSTITUTION:When a memory dump request is received, a page freezing part 107 freezes the virtual memory area of an auxiliary memory 102. Thus only the process of a memory dump process part 103 is unable to output the frozen memory area to an external medium 104. Then the viartual memory area of the memory 102 frozen by the part 107 is read out by a page reading part 108 and outputted to the medium 104 for the first time via a page output part 111. Then the frozen virtual memory area is unfrozen by a page release part 109. At the same time, a state holding part 110 controls the frozen state of the virtual memory area of the memory 102. Thus the rest time of a computer is shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a memory dump processing system and a processing method thereof in a computer system that employs virtual memory.
In particular, it relates to a memory dump processing system and its processing method that can shorten the processing time required for memory dumps compared to conventional methods by asynchronously collecting the contents of virtual memory on an auxiliary storage device separately from dump processing. .

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in online systems and the like, when the system goes down, data on the main storage device is dumped and collected in order to investigate the cause of the failure.

By the way, as the capacity of main storage devices has increased in recent years, virtual storage areas have also increased, so the amount of time required for SVC dumps and self-loading storage dumps that output the contents of main storage and virtual storage areas to magnetic tape devices and magnetic disk devices is increasing. Time is getting longer. Since this SVC dump and self-loading storage dump operate with the system stopped, it is necessary to shorten the dump time as much as possible.

Regarding these SVC dumps and self-dumps, for example, "Functions and Structure of Large Operating System MVS" by Masahiko Senda, Kindai Kagakusha (1986, June,
5, Issue) pp, 208-213, or "Program Product VO33/5P21. Center Management (J
S S 3 Jl) pp, 247-275. and System Operation (JSS 3 edition) pp, 158~
159, respectively.

As described above, conventional memory dump processing methods for computer systems include SVC dump and self-loading storage dump (or stand-alone dump).
A known method is to do this using a dump.

Here, a memory dump is generally used to dump the contents of the real storage device and virtual storage device to an external device such as a magnetic tape device or magnetic disk device in order to investigate the cause of the abnormality when an abnormality occurs in a computer system. This is a function to output to a storage medium.

Furthermore, SVC dump is a function that performs memory dump without stopping the functions of the computer system.

Note that the job that requested the SVC dump is forced to wait until the SVC dump process is finished, but becomes operational again after the SVC dump process is finished. Further, jobs other than the job that requested the SVC dump may also be temporarily kept on hold during the SVC dump processing.

Next, self-loading storage dump is a function that performs a memory dump while all functions of the computer system are stopped.

All jobs that were running up to that point will be forcibly terminated.

After these memory dump processes are completed, it is necessary to restart the computer system (re-IPL).

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

As mentioned above, with conventional memory dump methods, it is necessary to stop some or all of the functions of the computer system in order to accurately output the contents of the main storage device and virtual storage device at the time a memory dump is requested. there were. In other words, (a) In the case of an SVC dump, while the job that requested the memory dump is stopped, part or all of the contents of the virtual storage device related to that job are output to an external storage medium, so The job function is made to wait until the memory dump output processing is completed.

(b) In the case of a self-loading storage dump, part or all of the contents of the main storage device and virtual storage device are output to an external storage medium while all functions of the computer system are stopped, so the computer system functions In order to restart the computer system, it is necessary to restart the computer system (initial program loading IPL).

There is a desire to reduce the time required to stop the system for dump processing as much as possible, but as the capacity of main storage devices increases, the stop time is increasing.

An object of the present invention is to solve such conventional problems, to shorten the time required for memory dump processing, and to shorten the time when part or all of the computer system stops functioning during the memory dump processing time. An object of the present invention is to provide a possible memory dump processing system and its processing method.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a memory dump processing system that outputs the contents of a main storage device and an auxiliary storage device of a computer using a virtual storage method to an external medium. means for freezing the contents of a specific area in the frozen auxiliary storage, means for reading the contents of the frozen virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage, means for outputting the read contents to the external medium, and the frozen auxiliary storage. The apparatus includes means for releasing contents on the device and making the auxiliary storage device reusable, and means for managing the frozen storage area of the auxiliary storage device.

A feature is that each of the above means operates independently.

Further, in the memory dump processing method of the present invention, when an abnormality occurs in a computer system and the system stops operating,
First, the contents of the main storage device are output to an external medium using a self-loading storage dump program, the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device is recorded, the contents of the virtual storage area are frozen, and the computer system is restarted. , and at the same time starts auxiliary storage dump processing based on the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device whose records are held, and reads out the contents of the auxiliary storage device and outputs it to the external medium. be. Furthermore, if an error occurs in the computer system that does not stop the operation and an SVC dump is output, the SVC dump outputs the contents of the main storage device to an external medium while stopping the job where the error occurred. death,
After keeping a record of the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device and freezing the contents of the virtual storage area, restarting the stopped job and at the same time checking the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device for which the record was kept. Another feature is that the auxiliary storage dump process is started based on the auxiliary storage device, and the contents of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device are read out and output to the external medium.

[For production]

The memory dump method of the present invention is composed of five devices each operating as an independent function, and these devices can independently execute different tasks or jobs using different processors.

First, (a) the page freezing unit freezes the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device when a part or all of the requested area is a virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device at the time of a memory dump output request. , prevents its virtual storage area from being updated. Furthermore, (b) the page reading section has a function of reading out the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device frozen by the page freezing section. (c) The page output section is
It has a function of outputting the virtual storage area read by the page reading unit to an external medium. (d) The page release unit has a function of unfreezing the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device frozen by the page freezing unit and making the auxiliary storage device usable in the computer system. Furthermore, (e) the state holding unit has a function of storing the frozen state of the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device.

In the memory dump processing method of the present invention, when starting a self-loading storage dump program because the computer system has stopped operating due to a shutdown, or when an abnormality has occurred that does not cause the computer system to stop operating. , when starting the SVC dump program, in either case, after these programs output only the contents of the main storage device to external media, restart the system by re-IPL, or restart the stopped job. It is activated to resume operation, and then the auxiliary storage dump processing according to the present invention is activated to output the contents of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device to an external medium.

In the memory dump processing method of the present invention, when there is a memory dump output request, the page freezing unit freezes the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device. Unable to output storage area to external media.

After the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device frozen by the page freezing unit is read by the page reading unit.

It is first output to an external medium by the page output unit.

The virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device that has been frozen by the page freezing unit is unfrozen by the page release unit. Further, the state holding unit manages the frozen state of the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device.

These functions can shorten the time it takes to stop the computer system. Further, by simply dumping the contents of the auxiliary storage device separately from the contents of the main storage device, it is possible to output the contents of the main storage device and virtual storage device to an external medium at exactly the same level as in conventional memory dump processing.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of a memory dump processing system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the memory dump processing system of the present invention includes a main storage device 101 in which programs and various data are stored, an auxiliary storage device 102 in which various storage areas including virtual storage areas are provided, and an auxiliary storage device 102 in which various storage areas including virtual storage areas are provided. An auxiliary storage control unit 113 that controls writing and reading of the storage device 102, a magnetic tape or other external medium 104, a memory dump processing unit 103 that performs memory dump processing. A dump analysis unit 105 that analyzes dump contents, and an analysis result output device 106 that outputs analysis results. and a page processing device 112. This page processing device 112 includes a page freezing section 107, a page reading section 108, and a page release section 10.
9, a state holding section 110, and a page output section 111 are provided.

As described above, in the conventional method, when a memory dump request is made, all contents stored in the main storage device 101 and the auxiliary storage device 102 are outputted to the external medium 104 by the memory dump processing unit 103. In contrast, in the present invention, the memory dump processing 103 outputs only the contents of the main storage device 101 to the external medium 104, and the contents of the auxiliary storage device 102 are based on the information of the auxiliary storage control unit 113. After the page is placed in a frozen state by the page freezing unit 107, information indicating that the page has been frozen is recorded in the state holding unit 110.

The frozen contents in the auxiliary storage device 102 are read out by the page reading unit 108 based on information from the auxiliary storage control unit 113 and the state holding unit 110, and are further output to the external medium 104 by the page output unit 111. The external medium 104 may be the same medium as the medium output by the memory dump processing unit 103, or may be a different medium.

The memory contents in the frozen auxiliary storage device 102.

When the page is no longer needed because it has been output to the external medium 104, the page release unit 109 releases the page to the auxiliary storage control unit 113.
By referring to the information in the state holding unit 110,
Free the frozen memory area in the auxiliary storage device 102.

Next, when the dump analysis unit 105 analyzes the dump,
The necessary memory contents are read from the external medium 104. However, if the necessary memory contents are not in the external medium 104 and are still frozen in the auxiliary storage device 102, the page reading unit 108 reads out the necessary memory contents from the auxiliary storage bag [102]. Read the memory area within. After the memory contents output to the external medium 104 are analyzed by the dump analysis unit 105, the results are output to the analysis result output device 106.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the auxiliary storage device and the table that controls it in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 shows an auxiliary storage device 208, an auxiliary storage control section 201 for controlling the auxiliary storage device 208, and a table 211 of a state holding section within the page processing device 112.

The page data set 209 in the auxiliary storage device 208 stores data in units of each page of the virtual storage area.
One page of it is shown in FIG. This page is divided into a plurality of auxiliary storage areas (blocks), and each of these auxiliary storage areas is used. Here, the used auxiliary storage area 210A and the unused auxiliary storage area 210B coexist.

On the other hand, the auxiliary storage control unit 201 has an auxiliary storage management table 206 for managing the usage status of the page data set 209, which is used for each auxiliary storage area of the page data set 209 in the auxiliary storage device 208. The situation is under control. In other words, the auxiliary storage area 210A in use
The unused auxiliary storage area 210B is shown as an auxiliary storage usage indicator 207A, and the unused auxiliary storage area 210B is shown as an auxiliary storage unused indicator 207B.

Also, provided within the auxiliary storage control unit 201 is a page management table 202 that includes pointers and the like indicating the start addresses of each of the seven auxiliary storage areas of the page data set 209. This page management table 202 has space identifier 2
03, a virtual address 204 and an auxiliary storage management pointer 205. Memory data is stored in auxiliary storage device 2
08, a pointer indicating the start address of the auxiliary storage area 210A in use is stored in the auxiliary storage management pointer 205.

The space identifier 203 and the virtual address 204 always display an identifier indicating the space of each auxiliary storage area of the page data set 209 and its virtual address, regardless of whether it is in use or not.

On the other hand, when the memory contents in the auxiliary storage device 208 are frozen, the same contents as the page management table 202 of the auxiliary storage control section 201 are stored in the table 211 in the state holding section for managing the state. That is, the table 211 of the state holding unit also stores a space identifier 203, a virtual address 204, and an auxiliary storage management pointer 205, and a page data set 209 of the auxiliary storage device 208.
A pointer 205 is stored for each auxiliary storage area in use. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
When the auxiliary storage area 210A is frozen, the pointer 205 of both the page management table 201 and the state holding unit table 211 indicates the start address of the auxiliary storage area 210A in use. Note that the table 211 of the state holding unit may not be placed in the page processing device 112, but may be placed in a different format inside the page management table 202 or the auxiliary storage device 208.

The memory dump method of the present invention performs a conventional self-loading storage dump when all functions are stopped, such as when a computer system goes down, and the memory contents of both the main storage device and the auxiliary storage device are transferred to an external device. Output to media. Also, even while the computer system is operating,
When dumping the memory contents by making the program wait, the contents are frozen so that the contents of the auxiliary storage device are not updated, and then the contents of the auxiliary storage device are read out under the control of the page processing device 112 and transferred to the external storage device. Output to media.

In this way, the dumping method is selected depending on the state of the computer system. There are also cases where the two methods are combined (see Figure 6).

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of memory dump processing showing one embodiment of the present invention.

First, the memory contents on the main storage device are output to an external medium under the control of the memory dump processing unit 103 (step 302). Next, it is determined whether the administrator or operator of the computer system has instructed to output the memory contents on the auxiliary storage device to an external medium by extending the memory dump processing (step 303), and if the instruction is given, With the conventional method, all functions are stopped due to a computer system failure, etc., so there is no need to worry about the memory contents being updated, and the data currently in use on the auxiliary storage device is only controlled by the memory dump processing unit. The memory contents are output to an external medium (step 304).

On the other hand, when an instruction is given not to output the memory contents on the auxiliary storage device, that is, when the computer system is in operation and there is a risk that the contents may be updated, the contents are frozen by the operation of each part of the page processing device 112. (step 301). Namely.

Step 305) Read the usage status of the auxiliary storage device from the page management table 202 and auxiliary storage management table 206 in FIG. It is reflected in the state holding unit 211. That is, a copy is taken (step 306). Next, the memory contents in the auxiliary storage device are frozen (step 307), and the frozen state is displayed in the auxiliary storage management table 206 so that the frozen area on the auxiliary storage device is not updated.

Thereafter, in order to output the frozen memory contents on the auxiliary storage device to an external medium, a program for auxiliary storage dump processing (see FIG. 4) is activated (step 308).

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of auxiliary storage dump processing showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In the auxiliary storage dump processing, the state holding unit 110 of the page processing device 112 investigates the state (401) and the page reading unit 108 reads the contents (step 40).
1), then the page output unit 111 outputs the content to the external medium 1.
04 (step 402), and finally the page release unit 109 unfreezes the page (step 403).

That is, when the auxiliary storage dump processing program (subroutine that executes the flow shown in FIG. 4) is started in step 308 of FIG. 3, first, the auxiliary storage management table 20 is
6, it is determined whether or not there is a frozen indication of the memory contents on the auxiliary storage device (step 404). If there is a frozen indication, the contents of the state holding unit 211 are checked (step 404).
05), Read the frozen memory contents on the auxiliary storage device based on this contents (step 406), Next, output the read memory contents to an external medium (step 407)
Then, the frozen state display in the auxiliary storage management table 206 is reset to make the frozen virtual memory area on the auxiliary storage device usable (step 408), and the contents of the state holding unit 211 are reset to the usage state. (step 409).

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of dump analysis processing showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The dump analysis unit 105 in FIG. 1 reads the memory contents from the external medium 104 and analyzes the dump, that is,
A real memory dump collected from the real storage device is read (step 502), and at the same time, a virtual memory read process is performed using a virtual memory read process routine (steps 504, 505, and 501). In the virtual memory reading process, if the state holding unit 211 indicates that the virtual memory on the auxiliary storage device is frozen (step 504), the state holding unit 211
1, the location of the auxiliary storage device in which the requested virtual memory is stored is determined (step 506).

The virtual memory contents on the auxiliary storage device are read (step 507).

On the other hand, if the virtual memory on the auxiliary storage device is not frozen (step 504), step 303 in FIG.
Since the memory contents on the auxiliary storage device are dumped using the conventional method in step 505, the contents of the virtual memory are read from the external medium using the conventional method in the analysis process as well (step 505).
), and returns to step 503 and calls the virtual memory dump reading process again. After this, the dump is analyzed (step 508). The content of the analysis is as follows.
Since this is done using a conventional method, the explanation will be omitted here.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart when memory dump processing and auxiliary storage dump processing in the present invention are combined.

First, when an abnormality occurs in the computer system and the system is stopped, a memory dump process 601 is started by a self-loading storage dump program. In this case, since the computer system is stopped, there is no need to worry about the contents being updated. In the memory dump processing at this time, the contents of the main storage device 101 are output to the external medium 104 by the memory dump processing unit. Thereafter, the state of the auxiliary storage device 102 is reflected in the state holding unit 211.

This is a preparation for shortening the system stop time, quickly restarting the system, and then proceeding to the memory dump process of the auxiliary storage device according to the present invention. After the self-loading storage dump processing is completed, when performing a re-IPL or a no-IPL to restart the computer system, a display indicating that the contents of the auxiliary storage device are frozen is displayed in the state holding unit 211. When the auxiliary storage device dump processing program according to the present invention is activated, the auxiliary storage dump processing 602 is started. In the auxiliary storage device dump processing 602, the contents of the auxiliary storage device are read based on the contents of the state holding unit 211 and output to the external medium 104. As shown in FIG. 4, the auxiliary storage dump processing is performed by combining the processes 401, 402, and 403 of the page read unit, page output unit, and page release unit.
A function called auxiliary storage dump processing can be realized.

In addition, in Figure 6, we have explained an example in which the self-loading storage dump program is started when the computer system goes down, but even if the computer system has not yet gone down and an abnormality occurs, the exact same procedure will be executed. In this way, only the contents of the main storage device are memory dumped and output to external media, and the status of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device is recorded, and after freezing this, the stopped job is restarted. and outputs the contents of this virtual storage area to an external medium through auxiliary storage dump processing.

FIG. 7 is a time chart of memory dump processing according to the present invention and the conventional example.

In the conventional method, when a computer system goes down or an abnormality occurs, both the main storage device and virtual storage area are dumped using memory dump processing, and then the computer is re-IPLed or restarted to return to normal operation. System downtime or job downtime was significantly longer. On the other hand, in the present invention, when an abnormality occurs, only the main storage device is dumped by memory dump processing, the contents of the virtual storage area are frozen, and after re-IPL or reboot, only the virtual storage area is transferred to the auxiliary storage. Since the data is dumped using the dump process, the downtime of the computer system or the downtime of the job is shortened. Similarly, both the memory contents in the main storage device and the memory contents in the auxiliary storage device can be output to the external storage medium 104. In that case, the system is restarted immediately after outputting the memory contents in the main storage device to external media, and the auxiliary storage dump processing is performed asynchronously with the memory dump processing, reducing the time it takes to stop the system. can.

In this way, in this embodiment, the time required for memory dump processing is reduced by separating the processing of outputting the contents of virtual memory on the auxiliary storage device to external media from the conventional memory dump output processing. It is possible to shorten it.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, there is no need to output the virtual storage area stored on the auxiliary storage device to an external medium during memory dump processing, and the time required for memory dump processing is saved during that period. This has the advantage that the time during which part or all of the computer system is stopped for memory dump processing can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a memory dump processing system showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the auxiliary storage device in Fig. 1 and a table that controls it, and Fig. 3 is a conventional memory dump processing system. FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of the auxiliary storage dump processing in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a flowchart of dump analysis processing in the invention, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart combining memory dump processing and auxiliary storage dump processing, and is a time chart of the memory dump processing of the present invention and the conventional memory dump processing. 1o1: Main storage device, 102, 208: Auxiliary storage device,
1o3: Memory dump processing unit, 104: External medium, 10
5: Dump analysis section, 106: Analysis result output device, 107
:Page freezing part, 108:Page reading part, 109:
Page release unit, 110: State holding unit, 111: Page output unit, 112: Page processing device, 113, 201: Auxiliary storage control unit, 209: Page data set, 206: Auxiliary storage management table, 202: Page management table, 2
11: Table of state holding unit. Figure winter

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a memory dump processing system that outputs the contents of the main storage device and auxiliary storage device of a computer to an external medium using a virtual storage method, the contents of the virtual storage area on the auxiliary storage device are frozen. means for reading the frozen contents on the auxiliary storage device; means for outputting the read contents to the external medium; and means for releasing the frozen contents on the auxiliary storage device; 1. A memory dump processing system comprising: means for making a virtual memory area of the frozen auxiliary storage device reusable; and means for managing a virtual storage area of the frozen auxiliary storage device, each of the means operating independently. 2. If an abnormality occurs in the computer system and the system stops operating, the self-loading storage dump program first outputs the contents of the main storage device to an external medium and maintains a record of the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device. After freezing the contents of the virtual storage area, the computer system is restarted, and at the same time, auxiliary storage dump processing is started based on the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device whose record was maintained, and the contents of the auxiliary storage device are frozen. A memory dump processing method, characterized in that the contents of a virtual storage area of a storage device are read and output to the external medium. 3. If an error occurs in the computer system that does not stop the operation and an SVC dump is output, the SVC dump outputs the contents of the main storage device to an external medium while stopping the job where the error occurred. After recording and retaining the state of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device and freezing the contents of the virtual storage area, the stopped job is restarted, and at the same time, the status of the virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device whose record was maintained is A memory dump processing method, characterized in that auxiliary storage dump processing is started based on the state, and the contents of a virtual storage area of the auxiliary storage device are read and output to the external medium.