JPH08161200A - Remote maintenance system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a remote maintenance system capable of preventing maintenance information transferring processing with high priority from being delayed by maintenance information transferring processing with low priority. CONSTITUTION: In the remote maintenance system for transferring maintenance information from plural information processors 1-1, 12 at least to one maintenance center 2 through a communication line, the processors 1-1, 1-2 are respectively provided with maintenance information storing means 3-1, 3-2 for collecting and storing maintenance information, transfer factor sorting means 5-1, 5-2 for sorting necessary maintenance information to be transferred to the center 2 out of the stored maintenance information based upon a fixed reference, maintenance information transferred destination selecting means for selecting maintenance information transferred destination based upon the sorted results of the means 5-1, 5-2, and maintenance information transmitting means 7-1, 7-2 for transmitting the maintenance information transferred destination indicated from the selecting means and the maintenance center 2 is provided with maintenance information receiving means 8-1, 8-2 for receiving the maintenance information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system for transferring maintenance information from a plurality of information processing devices to at least one maintenance center via a communication line, and particularly to maintenance information of high priority. The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system that transfers to a maintenance center without delay.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a maintenance method for an information processing system, maintenance information such as fault information is transferred from an information processing device to a maintenance center and maintenance work is performed based on this maintenance information. It is conventionally known as described in JP-A-334128.

In the maintenance information transfer method in the maintenance method of the conventional information processing system, when the maintenance information is transferred, the transfer destination is fixed regardless of the maintenance information.

[0004]

However, in the maintenance information transfer method in the maintenance method of the conventional information processing system, when the maintenance information is transferred, the transfer destination is fixed regardless of the maintenance information. In the conventional maintenance information transfer method, when maintenance information is transferred from multiple information processing devices to one maintenance center at the same time, the communication line is occupied by the maintenance information transfer processing of the maintenance information with low priority, There is a problem that the maintenance information transfer process of the high maintenance information is delayed and the maintenance information transfer process of the high priority maintenance information is delayed.

Further, when a plurality of receiving processes can be executed simultaneously on the side of the maintenance center, even if a large number of maintenance information transfers of low-priority maintenance information occur, the receiving process of high-priority maintenance information can be performed simultaneously. Because I have to run
The maintenance center side needs to be able to execute a large number of reception processes at the same time, which causes a problem that the receiving equipment becomes expensive.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to maintain at least one maintenance center from a plurality of information processing devices via a communication line. In a remote maintenance system for transferring information, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique capable of preventing a maintenance information transfer process having a high priority from being delayed by a maintenance information transfer process having a low priority.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[0008]

Of the inventions disclosed in the present application, a representative one will be briefly described below.
It is as follows.

(1) A plurality of information processing devices and at least one
In a remote maintenance system, which is connected to one maintenance center via a communication line and transfers maintenance information from the plurality of information processing devices to at least one maintenance center, the maintenance center receives at least the maintenance information. 1
Maintenance information receiving means for collecting and storing / maintaining maintenance information, and maintenance information required to be transferred to the maintenance center in the maintenance information. Transfer factor classifying means for classifying according to a certain standard, maintenance information transfer destination selecting means for selecting maintenance information receiving means as maintenance information transfer destination based on the classification result of the transfer factor classifying means, and the maintenance information transfer destination selecting means. Maintenance information transmitting means for transmitting the maintenance information to the maintenance information receiving means instructed by.

[0010]

According to the above means, in a remote maintenance system for transferring maintenance information from a plurality of information processing devices to at least one maintenance center via a communication line, the maintenance information is classified according to priority and prioritized. The maintenance information transfer destination for maintenance information with high priority and the maintenance information transfer destination for maintenance information with low priority are distributed so that the maintenance information transfer process for maintenance information with high priority is It is possible to prevent delay due to maintenance information transfer processing of low maintenance information.

Further, even in the maintenance center which receives the maintenance information, it is not necessary to be able to execute a plurality of reception processes at the same time, and the receiving equipment of the maintenance center can be made inexpensive.

[0012]

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

In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having the same function are designated by the same reference numerals, and the repeated description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a remote maintenance system which is an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1-1 and 1-2 are information processing devices, 2 is a maintenance center, 3-1 and 3-2 are maintenance information holding means, 4-1 and 4-2 are transfer factor detecting means, 5-1 and 5
-2 is transfer factor classification means, 6-1 and 6-2 are telephone number selection means, 7-1 and 7-2 are maintenance information transfer means, 8-1,
Reference numeral 8-2 is maintenance information receiving means, 9-1 and 9-2 are failure information files provided in the external storage means, 10-1 and 10-.
2 is a transfer factor table, and 11-1 and 11-2 are priority transfer factor tables.

In the information processing devices 1-1 and 1-2 of this embodiment, when a failure occurs, maintenance information holding means 3-1 and
3-2 collects the content of the failure as a failure record, and stores and holds it in the failure information files 9-1 and 9-2 provided in the external storage means.

FIG. 2 shows fault information files 9-1 and 9-1.
It is a figure which shows the format of the failure record memorize | stored in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the fault information file 9-
The failure records stored in Nos. 1 and 9-2 are composed of a failure occurrence date, a failure occurrence site, and a failure code, and the failure code is composed of a failure content and failure detail information.

Further, the maintenance information holding means 3-1 and 3-
Reference numeral 2 denotes transfer factor detection means 4-1 and 4 for the failure record.
-2.

The transfer factor detecting means 4-1 and 4-2 refer to the transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2,
It is determined whether the failure record transferred from the maintenance information holding means 3-1 or 3-2 is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, the transfer factor table 10
Fault codes that need to be transferred to the maintenance center are registered in -1 and 10-2.

The transfer factor detecting means 4-1 and 4-
As a result of referring to the transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2, 2 is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2 as a failure record transferred from the maintenance information holding means 3-1 and 3-2. If it is, the fault record is transferred to the transfer factor classification means 5-1 and 5-2.
The transfer factor classifying means 5-1 and 5-2 refer to the priority transfer factor tables 11-1 and 11-2 to prioritize the failure records transferred from the transfer factor detecting means 4-1 and 4-2. Determine the degree.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of the priority transfer factor tables 11-1 and 11-2 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the priority transfer factor tables 11-1 and 11-2, failure codes of severe failures with high priority are registered.

In the present embodiment, a minor failure such as a failure rescued by a retry, for example, a failure record such as a failure activated by a retry after reset without starting the I / O device is stored in the maintenance center 2. Transfer to the maintenance information receiving means 8-1,
In addition, a serious failure such as a failure that is not relieved by retry,
For example, a failure record such as power failure or startup failure is
It is transferred to the maintenance information receiving means 8-2 of the maintenance center 2.

Further, the transfer factor classification means 5-1 and 5-
2 indicates the priority by the telephone number selection means 6-1 and 6
-2 is notified.

The telephone number selecting means 6-1 and 6-2 are
A general telephone number or an emergency telephone number is selected based on the priority, and the maintenance transfer means 7-1 and 7-2 are selected.
Give the phone number to.

The maintenance transfer means 7-1 and 7-2 perform dialing with the telephone number notified from the telephone number selection means 6-1 and 6-2, and the maintenance information reception means 8-at the maintenance center 2. Transfer maintenance information to 1, 8-2 (step 1
13).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transfer format of the maintenance information transferred to the maintenance center.

As shown in FIG. 5, the maintenance information transfer format includes an identification number of the information processing device, a type, a manufacturing number, and a failure record.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the information processing device 1-1, shown in FIG.
It is a flow chart which shows a processing procedure of maintenance information transfer processing in 1-2.

Next, the processing procedure of the maintenance information transfer processing in the information processing apparatuses 1-1 and 1-2 shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when a failure occurs in the information processing apparatus 1-1 (step 100), the maintenance information holding means 3-1 analyzes the content of the failure (step 101), collects it as a failure record, and stores it in the external storage means. It is stored / held in the obtained fault information file 9-1 (step 102).

Further, the maintenance information holding means 3-1 transfers the trouble record to the transfer cause detecting means 4-1.

Next, in the transfer factor detecting means 4-1,
Transfer factor table 10-1 using the failure code of the failure record transferred from the maintenance information holding means 3-1 as a key
(Step 103), and the maintenance information holding means 3 is searched.
It is determined whether the failure record transferred from -1 is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2 (step 104).

In this case, the maintenance information holding means 3-1
Since the failure record transferred from is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2, the failure record is transferred to the transfer factor classification means 5-1.

If the trouble record transferred from the maintenance information holding means 3-1 is the trouble record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2 in step 104, the process is terminated (step). 105).

Next, in the transfer factor classification means 5-1,
Priority transfer factor table 11 using the fault code of the fault record transferred from the transfer factor detection means 4-1 as a key
-1 is searched (step 106), and it is determined whether or not the same failure code as the failure code of the failure record transferred from the transfer cause detecting means 4-1 exists in the priority transfer cause table 11-1. (Step 107).

In this case, since the fault occurring in the information processing device 1-1 is a low-priority, low-grade fault, the priority transfer factor table 11-1 is transferred from the transfer factor detecting means 4-1. It is determined that the same failure code as the failure code of the received failure record does not exist, and the failure record transferred from the transfer factor detection means 4-1 has low priority (step 109).

Further, the transfer factor classification means 5-1 notifies the telephone number selection means 6-1 of the priority.

Next, the telephone number selection means 6-1 selects a general telephone number based on the priority (step 111) and notifies the maintenance transfer means 7-1 of the general telephone number.

Next, the maintenance transfer means 7-1 dials the general telephone number (step 11).
2) The maintenance information is transferred to the maintenance information receiving means 8-1 of the maintenance center 2 (step 113).

Next, in the maintenance center 2, the maintenance information receiving means 8-1 receives and stores the transferred maintenance information, and the maintenance information is used by the maintenance personnel of the information processing apparatus 1-1. Judge the location, failure site and failure details, and replace the failure site at an appropriate time before the failure will not be recovered even by retrying.

When a serious failure occurs in the information processing 1-2 (step 100) at the same time when the maintenance information transfer is being executed in the information processing apparatus 1-1, the maintenance information holding means 3-2. Analyzes the failure content (Step 10
1), it is collected as a fault record and stored / held in the fault information file 9-2 provided in the external storage means (step 102).

Further, the maintenance information holding means 3-2 transfers the failure record to the transfer cause detecting means 4-2.

Next, in the transfer factor detecting means 4-2,
The transfer factor table 10-2 is searched (step 10
3) It is determined whether or not the failure record transferred from the maintenance information holding means 3-2 is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2 (step 104).

Also in this case, the maintenance information holding means 3-
Since the failure record transferred from No. 2 is a failure record that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center 2, the failure record is transferred to the transfer factor classification means 5-2.

Next, in the transfer factor classification means 5-2,
The priority transfer factor table 11-2 is searched (step 10
6) It is determined whether the same fault code as the fault code of the fault record transferred from the transfer factor detecting means 4-2 exists in the priority transfer factor table 11-2 (step 107).

In this case, since the fault occurring in the information processing device 1-2 is a high-priority and severe fault, the transfer from the transfer factor detecting means 4-2 is transferred to the priority transfer factor table 11-2. The same fault code as the fault code of the stored fault record exists, and the transfer factor detecting means 4-
It is determined that the failure record transferred from No. 2 has a high priority (step 108).

Further, the transfer factor classification means 5-2 notifies the telephone number selection means 6-2 of the priority.

Next, the telephone number selection means 6-2 selects an emergency telephone number based on the priority (step 110) and notifies the maintenance transfer means 7-2 of the emergency telephone number.

Next, the maintenance transfer means 7-2 dials the emergency telephone number (step 11).
2) The maintenance information is transferred to the maintenance information receiving means 8-2 of the maintenance center 2 (step 113).

Next, at the maintenance center 2, the maintenance information receiving means 8-2 receives the transferred maintenance information,
Based on this maintenance information, maintenance personnel immediately replace the failed part.

In this embodiment, the transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2 and the priority transfer factor table 1 are set.
Although 1-1 and 11-2 are separately provided, instead of the transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2 and the priority transfer factor tables 11-1 and 11-2,
It is also possible to use a table as shown in FIG. 7 in which the failure information transfer requirement and the transfer destination are associated with each other for each failure code.

In this embodiment, the maintenance information with high priority and the maintenance information with low priority are transferred to the maintenance center 2. However, the maintenance information with high priority and the maintenance information with low priority are transferred. It goes without saying that the information and the information may be transferred to different maintenance centers.

Although the present invention has been specifically described based on the embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0058]

The effects obtained by the typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

(1) According to the present invention, in a remote maintenance system for transferring maintenance information from a plurality of information processing devices to at least one maintenance center via a communication line,
The maintenance information transfer process having a high priority is not delayed by the maintenance information transfer process having a low priority, and it is possible to immediately deal with a failure having a high priority.

Further, even in the maintenance center which receives the maintenance information, it is not necessary to be able to execute a plurality of reception processes at the same time, and the receiving facility of the maintenance center can be made inexpensive.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a remote maintenance system that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a format of a failure record stored in failure information files 9-1 and 9-1.

FIG. 3 is a transfer factor table 10-1, 10- shown in FIG.
It is a figure which shows the content of 2.

FIG. 4 is a priority transfer factor table 11-1, 1 shown in FIG.
It is a figure which shows the content of 1-2.

5 is a diagram showing a transfer format of maintenance information transferred to a maintenance center 2. FIG.

6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of maintenance information transfer processing in the information processing apparatuses 1-1 and 1-2 shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the contents of another example of transfer factor tables 10-1 and 10-2 and priority transfer factor tables 11-1 and 11-2.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-1, 1-2 ... Information processing device, 2 ... Maintenance center, 3-
1, 3-2 ... Maintenance information holding means, 4-1,4-2 ... Transfer factor detecting means, 5-1 and 5-2 ... Transfer factor classifying means, 6
-1, 6-2 ... Phone number selection means, 7-1, 7-2 ... Maintenance information transfer means, 8-1, 8-2 ... Maintenance information reception means,
9-1, 9-2 ... Fault information file provided in external storage means, 10-1, 10-2 ... Transfer factor table, 11
-1, 11-2 ... Priority transfer factor table.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A remote maintenance system in which a plurality of information processing apparatuses and at least one maintenance center are connected via a communication line, and the maintenance information is transferred from the plurality of information processing apparatuses to at least one maintenance center. , The maintenance center has at least one maintenance information receiving means for receiving the maintenance information, and the plurality of information processing devices,
Maintenance information holding means for collecting, storing and holding maintenance information,
Transfer factor classification means for classifying the maintenance information that needs to be transferred to the maintenance center in the maintenance information according to a certain standard, and maintenance information receiving means that is the maintenance information transfer destination based on the classification result of the transfer factor classification means. A remote maintenance system comprising: a maintenance information transfer destination selecting means for selecting the maintenance information and a maintenance information transmitting means for transmitting the maintenance information to the maintenance information receiving means instructed by the maintenance information transfer destination selecting means.