JPH0744482A - Server state management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the user to grasp a state of a server and to utilize the server effectively by using a state management server to manage the state of the server and informing the state to a station. CONSTITUTION:A state management server 15 is a device managing a status of print servers 11, 12 to inform a status on request of a work station 13(14) and is made up of status processing sections 15a, 15b and a management table 15c. Then the status processing section 15a makes a status request to the print servers 11, 12 periodically and provides the output of the status reported from the print servers 11, 12 to the status management section 15b. When the status processing section 15a receives an inquiry of status to the print server 11(12) from the work station 13(14), the processing section 15a commands the confirmation of the status to the status management section 15b and informs the result of confirmation to the work station 13(14).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a server state management system in a network provided with a station connected to a network and a server for providing a service to the station, and more particularly to the effective use of the server. The present invention relates to a server status management system that manages statuses using a status management server and notifies each station of the status of the server from the status management server.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a local area network (L
When providing various services to a user in a network such as AN), it is general to use various servers that are function-allocated for each service function.

For example, when a user wants to print a document, a print server having a print function receives a print request from the user and executes a print function using a printer in the server in the order of reception.

That is, in a system including various servers, the various servers perform services such as print processing on behalf of the user, so that the user can easily enjoy various services. In other words, the user does not need to be aware of the state of the server, because the user only needs to perform a predetermined procedure on the server.

However, for example, when a user who wants to obtain a print result as soon as possible makes a print request to the print server A, if a large amount of data waiting to be printed remains in the print server A, the user may It takes time to obtain a print output.

Therefore, in such a case, if the user can be notified in advance of the information that "the print server A has a large number of print queues" in advance, the printer server A having a large number of print queues can be notified instead of the printer server A having a long print queue. The user makes a print request to the printer (for example, the print server B arranged at a remote place), and the print output can be obtained at an early stage.

As described above, in order for the user to receive a service according to the status of the server, it may be desired to notify the user of access information to the server.

The prior art for making this notification discloses, for example, "Unified management management of events in the entire system in order to enable statistical processing in system operation management etc. Centralized event management method "
There is a "centralized management control device for connecting to a remote monitoring control system to manage monitoring control information and display a screen" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-283996.

In the former technique, "event access information to the server" is added to the event handled by the event monitoring server, and the user is notified of the access information in response to an inquiry from the workstation.

In the latter technique, "access information to the server" is added to the supervisory control information handled by the remote supervisory control system, and each workstation receives a notification of the above information from the centralized control device. .

[0011]

However, according to the former technique, it takes time to retrieve desired information in order to centrally manage various events in the event management server.

That is, since the information managed by the event management server in the event log file includes a huge number of events occurring in the system, the access information of the server is extracted from the events and notified to the workstation. It takes time to search.

Further, since it is possible that the event management server is frequently inquired, the response of the event management server may be delayed.

Therefore, even if the user makes an inquiry to the event management server in order to receive the service promptly, the processing itself in the event management server may take time, so that the user's request is not always satisfied. There is a problem that is not done.

Further, according to the latter technique, since the existence of the remote monitoring control system is premised, it is necessary to construct a remote monitoring control system that handles "access information to the server" as the monitoring control information, which is efficient. is not.

Therefore, no matter which of the conventional techniques is used, it is difficult to construct a system so that each user can efficiently grasp the state of the server.

Therefore, in the present invention, a server which solves the above problem and enables the user handling the workstation to recognize the state of the server before requesting the server to perform the processing so that the server can be effectively used. The purpose is to provide a state management system.

[0018]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a server state management system in a network including a station connected to a network and a server that provides a service to the station, at a predetermined timing. A state management server that manages the state of the server by communicating with the server, and a notification unit that notifies the station of the server status from the state management server to the station. .

[0019]

According to the present invention, the status of the server is managed by the status management server, and the status of the server managed by the status management server is notified to each station.

Thus, the user handling the station can grasp the state of the server before requesting the service to the server.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a print server will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the system and the configuration of the state management server in this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the server state management system according to the present invention includes print servers 11 and 12, workstations 13 and 14, and a state management server 15.
And are connected to the network 16.

Here, the print server 11 includes workstations 13 and 14 connected to the network 16.
Is a server that provides a print service to the printer, and includes a print processing unit 11a, a status reporting unit 11b, and a printer 11c.

The print processing unit 11a receives print requests from the workstation 13 or 14 and sequentially performs print processing using the printer 11c in the order of request reception.

If the status reporting unit 11b requests the status of the server (hereinafter referred to as "status") from the status management server 15, the operating status of the print server 11,
The status of failure and the status of waiting for printing are checked, and the status is reported to the status management server 15.

The printer 11c includes a print processing unit 11a.
Is a printer that performs print processing under the control of.

The print server 12 is composed of a processing section, a status reporting section and a printer, like the print server 11, although the detailed construction is omitted for convenience of explanation.

Next, the workstation 13 is a network subscriber terminal handled by the user, and appropriately issues a print request to the print server 11 or 12 as necessary. The workstation 13 includes a user interface unit 13a and a status inquiry unit 13b.

When the user interface section 13a receives a print instruction from the user, the user interface section 13a causes the status inquiry section 13b to check the status of the print server 11 or 12, and if the print server is in a predetermined state, the print interface is sent to the print server. To make a print request.

The predetermined state is, for example, "when the printer is operating and the number of print waits is 3 or less".
It can be arbitrarily specified by the user. It is also possible to suspend the processing after the status display and make a print request to the print server re-input by the user.

The status inquiry unit 13b is instructed by the user interface 13a, and the status management server 1
5, the status of the print server 11 or 12 is inquired, and the inquiry result is displayed and output to the user interface unit 13a.

Although the detailed construction of the workstation 14 is omitted for convenience of explanation, it is composed of a user interface section and a status inquiry section similarly to the workstation 13.

Next, the status management server 15 is a device for managing the status of the print servers 11 and 12 and notifying the status to the workstation 13 or 14 at the request of the workstation 13 or 14, and the status processing unit 15a. And a status management unit 15b and a management table 15c.

The status processing unit 15a periodically makes a status request to the print servers 11 and 12, and outputs the status reported from the printer server to the status management unit 15b. If the status processing unit 15a receives a status inquiry from the workstation 13 or 14 for the print server 11 or 12, the status management unit 15b is instructed to check the status, and the confirmation result is sent to the workstation. To notify.

When the status management unit 15b receives a status confirmation instruction from the status processing unit 15a,
Management table 1 for the status of the corresponding print server
It is taken out from 5c and sent to the status processing unit 15a.

The management table 15c is the print server 1
This is a table for managing the statuses 1 and 12, and as described above, the operating status, failure status, print waiting status, etc. of each print server are stored in the table.

An example of the structure of the management table 15c will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the management table 15c, each print server has a status. Here, the operation status of the printer server is "whether busy or not" (2a), the failure status is "whether or not it is down" (2b), and the print waiting status is "number of print waits" (2c). ) Is to be treated as status.

Therefore, the illustrated state shows that the print server 11 is neither busy nor down, and the print waiting number is 3, and the print server 12 is down with the print waiting number being 1. ing.

In this example, only such a status is dealt with, but detailed handling of the fault situation such as specifying the type and site of the fault, and the number of printed sheets other than those shown in this example are carried out. It is also possible to handle etc.

Next, the operation procedure of the server status management system having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a procedure for registering the status of the print server 11 in the management table 15c (S301 to S3).
03) and the workstation 13 is the print server 1
3 is a conceptual diagram showing a procedure (S311 to S315) for issuing a print request to the first printer.

As shown in FIG. 3, when registering the status of each print server in the management table 15c, the status processing unit 15a of the status management server 15 first requests the status to the print server 11 (S301). . This status request is periodically made under the initiative of the status processing unit 15a.

Then, in the print server 11 for which the status has been requested, the print processing unit 11a confirms the status, and the status reporting unit 11b transmits the confirmation result to the state management server 15 (S302).

In the status management server 15 which has received the status from the print server 11, the status processing unit 15a
Registers the status in the management table 15c via the status management unit 15b (S303).

By the above processing, the status of the print server 11 is determined by the management table 15c of the status management server 15.
Will be registered in. Although the procedure for registering the status of the print server 11 is described here, the same procedure is performed for the print server 12.

Next, a case where the workstation 13 makes a print request to the print server 11 will be described.

In this case, first, the workstation 1
Before the user interface unit 13a of No. 3 makes a print request to the print server 11, the state management server 15
The status of the print server is confirmed.

Specifically, first, the workstation 13
The status inquiry unit 13b of the status management server 15
For the status of the print server (S
311), the status processing unit 15a that received the inquiry
Is a management table 15 via the status management unit 15b.
Retrieve the status of the print server from c (S
312), and notifies the workstation 13 of the status (S313).

As a result, the workstation 13 can confirm the state of the print server 11, and therefore determines whether to issue a print request according to the status of the print server. When performing printing using the print server, a print request is issued directly to the print server 11 (S314).

By performing printing using the print server according to the above procedure, it becomes possible to judge whether the print request is proper or not based on the status of the print server. In particular, in this embodiment, when each user issues a print request, the number of print waits of the printer can be taken into consideration. Therefore, when the number of print waits is large, it may be necessary to use another printer server. Processing can be performed.

Further, the status inquiries shown in S311 to S313 are automatically made at the time of the print request, so that the user only has to make the print request in the same manner as in the conventional case, and particularly the excessive load is imposed. I will not force you.

Here, the workstation 13 is used.
Although the case where the print request is issued from the print server 11 to the print server 11 has been illustrated, the same procedure can be applied to the case where the print request is issued to the print server 12 and the print request is issued from the workstation 14.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the status management server 15 notifies the user of the status, the user can judge the status based on the status of the server. Therefore, for example, it is possible to obtain a quick print result by selecting a printer server having a small number of print waits.

Next, a second embodiment will be described in which the print server administrator uses the present invention to maintain and manage the print server.

The administrator of the print server, when the printer of the print server runs out of paper or toner,
It plays a role of maintaining an operating state of the print server by promptly detecting an abnormal state of the printer server and restoring the abnormal state.

Therefore, a remote system control (Remote System Administra) is provided so that an administrator located at a place distant from the print server can grasp the state of the print server.
technology is often used.

However, this remote system control technique requires the administrator to actively access the printer server and obtain various information.

Therefore, by applying the present invention to the maintenance management of the print server, the status management server for managing the print server periodically notifies the print server manager of the status of the print server. You can

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration and processing procedure of the system according to the second embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the second embodiment, the print servers 11 and 12 and the workstation 13 are used.
And a state management server 15 having a management table are connected to the network 16 by adding an administrator workstation 40 of the print servers 11 and 12 and a mail server 41.

When the server administrator manages each print server using this system, the status management server 15 first requests the status of each print server in order to grasp the status of the server (4a). Each print server that has received the status request reports the status to the status management server 15 (4b).

Then, the status management server 15, which has registered the status of each print server in the management table, periodically notifies the workstation 40 of the contents of the management table (4c). The server administrator confirms the notification contents from the status management server, and when the printer is almost out of paper, for example, goes to the paper supply of the printer in advance, and performs the paper supply by using the interval between the processes (4d).

As a result, since the server administrator can periodically grasp the state of the server, it becomes possible to continuously maintain the server.

Since the status used in the second embodiment needs to include sufficient information necessary for the server administrator, unlike the previous example, detailed information such as the current status of toner and the current status of paper is included. There is a need. Also, for example,
It is possible to maintain the operating state of the print server by including not only the result "out of paper" and the like but also information "close to paper".

In the above embodiment, the contents of the management table are notified as they are. However, considering the characteristics of the management table used in this embodiment, which handles detailed information, all contents of the management table are notified. That is not efficient.

Therefore, it is possible to analyze the status received from each print server, extract only the items required by the server administrator, and notify the administrator by e-mail using the mail server 41.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a series of processes in the state management server 15 when the state management server 15 analyzes the status and notifies the server administrator of the state using electronic mail.

As shown in FIG. 5, first, the state management server 1
5 requests status from each print server (S
501), the status returned by each print server is received (S502).

First, the status received is analyzed (S503), and it is confirmed whether or not there is information to be notified to the server administrator (S504). If the information to be notified is included, The information is cut out to create an electronic mail addressed to the server administrator (S505), and the mail server 41 is requested to send the mail (S506). In addition, S
In 504, if there is no information to be notified, S5
Move to 07.

Then, it is confirmed whether or not there is a status received from another print server (S507), and if there is another status, the processing of S503 to S506 is performed in the same manner, and a predetermined value is set after the above processing is completed. Is waited for (S508), and the processes of S501 to S507 are periodically repeated.

By performing the above processing in the state management server 15, it is possible to construct an efficient system in which unnecessary information is eliminated. Further, by performing such analysis processing in the status management server 15, when the administrator of the print server and the administrator of the mail server are different, only the information related to each administrator can be cut out and notified.

As described above, in this embodiment, the status management server 15 receives statuses from the print servers 11 and 12 and registers the statuses in the management table 15, and the workstation 13 that handles the information in the management table 15 by the user. By notifying the users and 14, it is possible for the user to request the provision of the service according to the situation based on the state of the server.

Further, by notifying the workstation 40 handled by the server manager of the information in the management table 15, the server manager can print the printer servers 11 and 1.
It is also possible to accurately grasp the state of 2.

Furthermore, an efficient server status management system can be constructed by analyzing the status received by the status management server 15 and notifying the status to the user and the server administrator using electronic mail or the like.

In this embodiment, the status management server 15
The status request is periodically issued from each workstation and each workstation responds in response to the status request. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and each workstation reports regularly without any order. In addition to the above, it is also possible to make an emergency report when a failure occurs.

[0078]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the status of the server is managed by the status management server, and the status is notified to the station, so that the user who handles the station can check the status of the server. It is possible to effectively use the server by grasping.

As a result, the user can request the provision of services according to the server status, based on the status of the server.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a server status management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a management table shown in FIG.

3 is a conceptual diagram showing a procedure for registering the status of the print server shown in FIG. 1 in a management table and a procedure for a workstation to issue a print request to the print server.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration and processing flow of another embodiment of the server status management system according to the present invention.

5 is a flowchart showing an example of processing of the state management server shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 print server, 11a print processing unit, 1
1b Status Report Department, 11c Printer, 12
Print server, 13 workstations, 13
a user interface unit, 13b status inquiry unit, 14 workstation, 15 state management server, 15a status processing unit, 15b status management unit, 15c management table, 16 network

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A station connected to a network,
In a server status management system in a network including a server that provides a service to the station, a status management server that manages the status of the server by communicating with the server at a predetermined timing, and the status management server A server status management system comprising: a notification means for notifying the station of the status of the server.