JPH11175412A - System for sampling state information in disk controller and machine readable recording medium for recording program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a disk controller itself to autonomously sample state information regardless of the presence or absence of the generation of a failure when an input and output processing is not completed until a preliminarily set time elapses since the processing starting point of time of an input and output instruction. SOLUTION: A time setting part 15 holds a monitoring time through a monitoring time setting instruction issued from a host processor 3. At the time of starting the processing of an input and output instruction to a disk device 2 issued from the host processor 3, a microprocessor part 11 reports the monitoring time set in the time setting part 15 to a time monitoring part 16 to activate the monitoring of a time lapse, samples state information regardless of the presence or absence of the generation of a failure when the input and output processing is not completed with regard to the input and output instruction until the monitoring time elapses and stores it is a sampled information storing part 17. The state information stored in the sampled information storing part 17 is transferred to the host processor 3 at the time of issuing a sample information acquisition instruction from the host processor 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk controller, and more particularly, to a disk controller at the time when input / output processing is not completed within a set time even if a failure is not recognized. The present invention relates to a state information collecting method in a disk control device that collects information as failure information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a disk controller which is connected to one or more disk units and controls the input and output of data to and from the disk units in accordance with instructions from an upper unit, an input / output command issued from the upper unit for some reason. May not be completed within the time specified by the host device. Such a failure is called a time-out failure, and it is necessary to collect status information in the disk controller in order to determine the cause. Such information collection has conventionally been performed as follows.

First, the host device starts a timer when an input / output command is issued to the disk control device, and monitors a timeout. Then, when the completion of the input / output processing is not notified from the disk control device until the timeout is detected, that is, when a timeout failure occurs, the disk control device is requested to collect status information. Upon receiving this request, the disk control device collects predetermined state information and stores it in the collected information storage unit. The status information stored in the collection information storage unit can be retrieved later from the host device.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-53881 is a document which describes a technique substantially similar to the above-mentioned conventional technique.

[0005]

However, when the host device issues an I / O command to the disk control device and the disk control device that has received the I / O command starts the I / O process related to the I / O command, There is a certain period of time from when the timeout is detected in the higher-level device to when the disk controller is requested to collect status information and when the information is actually collected. Therefore, if a time-out factor occurs immediately after the start of the input / output processing in the disk control device, collecting the state information at the time of detecting the time-out may not be useful. This is because the time after the occurrence of the timeout factor has elapsed and the state of the disk control device is different from the state at the time of occurrence of the timeout factor.

Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an input / output instruction which is not completed by a predetermined time from the start of processing of an input / output instruction, regardless of whether a failure has occurred or not. An object of the present invention is to enable the disk control device itself to autonomously collect state information at the time.

[0007] A second object of the present invention is to allow the higher-level device to arbitrarily designate the set time.

[0008]

In order to achieve the first object, the status information collecting method in the disk control device of the present invention is connected to one or more disk devices, and the status information is collected in accordance with an instruction from a host device. In a disk control device for controlling the input / output of data to / from a disk device, a monitoring time set in advance from the start of processing of an input / output command for the disk device issued from the host device is monitored. When the input / output processing related to the input / output command is not completed before the execution, the status information at that time is collected. More specifically,
A time setting unit for holding a monitoring time, a time monitoring unit for monitoring the passage of time, and a lapse of the monitoring time held by the time setting unit from the start of processing of an input / output command for a disk device issued from a higher-level device. And an information collection unit for collecting state information at the time when the input / output processing according to the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses. ing.

In the state information collecting method in the disk control device of the present invention thus configured, the time setting unit holds the monitoring time, and when an input / output command to the disk device is issued from the host device, The information collection unit
The time monitoring unit monitors the elapse of the monitoring time held in the time setting unit from the start time of the input / output processing according to the input / output instruction. When the process is not completed, the status information at that time is collected.

In order to achieve the first and second objects, the status information collecting method in the disk control device of the present invention is connected to one or more disk devices, and the disk device is controlled in accordance with an instruction from a host device. A time setting unit that holds a monitoring time according to a monitoring time setting command issued from the higher-level device, a time monitoring unit that monitors the passage of time, When the processing of the issued input / output command to the disk device is started, only when the monitoring time is held in the time setting unit, the monitoring time held in the time setting unit elapses from that time. When a time monitoring unit monitors, and the input / output processing according to the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses,
An information collection unit that collects the state information at that time and stores it in the collection information storage unit and invalidates the monitoring time of the time setting unit, and responds to a collection information acquisition command issued from the higher-level device, An information transfer unit that transfers the status information stored in the collection information storage unit to the host device.

In the state information collecting method in the disk control device of the present invention thus configured, the time setting unit holds the monitoring time according to the monitoring time setting command issued from the higher-level device, and the higher-level device sends the monitoring time to the disk device. When an I / O command is issued, the information collection unit starts holding the monitoring time in the time setting unit at the start of the I / O processing related to the I / O command and holds it in the time setting unit from that point The time monitoring unit monitors the elapse of the monitored time, and when the input / output processing of the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses, the state information at that time is collected. It is stored in the collection information storage unit and the monitoring time of the time setting unit is invalidated. Further, the information transfer unit transfers the state information stored in the collection information storage unit to the higher-level device in response to the collection information acquisition command issued from the higher-level device.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a disk control apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The disk control device 1 of the present embodiment is connected between one or more disk devices 2, for example, a magnetic disk device, and a host processor 3, which is a higher-level device, and includes a microprocessor unit 11, a channel interface unit 12 And a data transfer unit 13;
Control interface unit 14 and time setting unit 15
, A time monitoring unit 16 and a collection information storage unit 17 as main parts.

The channel interface section 12 is a connection section with the host processor 3 and is connected to the input / output channel, and performs interrupt processing to the input / output channel, activation from the channel, and the like. The data transfer unit 13 controls and executes data transfer between the input / output channel and the disk device 2, and includes a buffer for adjusting a data transfer speed difference and a data format difference between the channel and the disk device 2. Have. The control interface unit 14 is a unit that controls storage and reading of data with respect to the disk device 2. The microprocessor unit 11 includes a time setting unit 15, a time monitoring unit 16, and a collection information storage unit 17 in addition to the conventional functions of managing and controlling the states of the channel interface unit 12, the data transfer unit 13, and the control interface unit 14. It has an information collection function based on the set time using.

A microprogram for the microprocessor unit 11 is a machine-readable recording medium ME such as a floppy disk medium or a CD-ROM as shown in FIG.
M is loaded into the microprocessor unit 11 when the power is turned on, and the microprocessor unit 11 realizes the original control function of the disk control device.
As shown in (1), a time registration unit 111, a monitoring start unit 112, an information collection unit 113, and an information transfer unit 114 are realized on the microprocessor unit 11.

Here, the time registering section 111 has a function section for setting a monitoring time according to a monitoring time setting command issued from the host processor 3 in the time setting section 15, and a monitoring starting section 11.
2 indicates that when the processing of an input / output command issued to the disk device 2 issued from the host processor 3 is started, only when the valid monitoring time is held in the time setting unit 15, the time corresponding to the monitoring time from that point on is maintained. When the input / output processing of the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses, the function of causing the time monitoring unit 16 to monitor the progress of the time, the information collecting unit 113 Is collected and stored in the collection information storage unit 17 and the time setting unit 1
The information transfer unit 114, which invalidates the monitoring time registered in the information processing unit 5, stores the status information stored in the collected information storage unit 17 in response to the collected information acquisition command issued from the host processor 3. Are configured respectively.

The time setting section 15 is a memory or the like for storing a monitoring time. The time setting unit 15 can be realized by a memory in the microprocessor unit 11.

The time monitoring unit 16 is a timer or the like that monitors the elapse of the time notified from the microprocessor unit 11, and when the monitoring time notified at the time of startup elapses, for example, sets the internal flag to “1”. set. The time monitoring unit 16 can also be realized by the timer function of the microprocessor unit 11.

The collection information storage unit 17 is a memory for storing state information collected by the microprocessor unit 11. If the memory in the microprocessor unit 11 has room, the collection information storage unit 17
It is also possible to use the memory inside.

An input device 4 connected to the host processor 3 is a keyboard or the like for a user to input a monitoring time setting command or the like, and a display device 5 is a CRT for displaying collected information or the like to the user. Display. The file 6 is a medium for storing the collected information.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described.

When the user wants to collect information by time setting for a certain input / output command, the user sets the monitoring time from the input device 4 before issuing the input / output command from the host processor 3 to the disk controller 1. Enter the specified monitoring time setting command. The monitoring time setting command input from the input device 4 is sent to the microprocessor unit 11 of the disk control device 1 through the host processor 3, and the processing is performed by the time registration unit 111 shown in FIG. The monitored time is registered in the time setting unit 15.

Subsequently, when an input / output command for the disk device 2 is issued from the host processor 3 to the disk control device 1, the microprocessor section 11 of the disk control device 1 starts the processing shown in FIG. First, the microprocessor unit 11 receives and analyzes the issued input / output command (S1), and immediately before starting the input / output processing related to the input / output command, the monitoring activation unit 112 makes the monitoring start unit 112 effective for the time setting unit 15. It is checked whether or not the monitoring time has been set (S2). If the monitoring time has been set, the set monitoring time is read out, notified to the time monitoring unit 16 and activated, and the time monitoring state as an internal state is set. Is turned on (S3). Then, control necessary for input / output processing according to the input / output command is started (S5). The activated time monitoring unit 16 starts monitoring whether or not the time corresponding to the monitoring time has elapsed from that time. On the other hand, when the valid monitoring time is not set in the time setting unit 15, the monitoring starting unit 1
12 turns off the time monitoring state as an internal state without activating the time monitoring unit 16 (S4), and the microprocessor unit 11 starts control necessary for input / output processing relating to the input / output command (S5). .

When the internal state is the time monitoring state ON (YES in S7), the microprocessor section 11 has elapsed a time corresponding to the monitoring time until the input / output processing relating to the input / output command is completed. Whether the time monitoring unit 16
This is checked by examining the flags in (8).
Before the input / output processing is completed (NO in S6), when the monitoring time has elapsed (YES in S9), the information collecting unit 113 collects the state information at that time and collects the collected information storage unit 17 (S10). At this time, the monitoring time of the time setting unit 15 is invalidated, and the time monitoring state as the internal state is turned off so that the state information is not collected again.

The state information to be collected includes information indicating what kind of control the microprocessor unit 11 was going to perform at that time, and control contents related to a number of past input / output commands for each disk device. Such information is specified in advance by a microprogram. In other words, various pieces of detailed information useful for determining the cause of the timeout.

When confirming the status information recorded in the collection information storage unit 17, the user inputs a status information collection command from the input device 4. The status information collection command input from the input device 4 is sent to the microprocessor unit 11 of the disk control device 1 through the host processor 3 and processed by the information transfer unit 114 shown in FIG.
7 is read out and sent to the host processor 3 to be displayed on the display device 5 and the file 6
Is stored in

In the above embodiment, the user inputs the monitoring time setting command and the status information collection command from the input device 4. However, the monitoring time setting command, the input / output command, and the status information collection command are arranged in this order. It is also possible for the host processor 3 to execute a program in which the instructions are arranged.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

When the input / output processing is not completed before a predetermined time elapses from the start of the processing of the input / output instruction, the state information at that time is stored in the disk controller regardless of the occurrence of a failure. The information can be collected autonomously, that is, without receiving an information collection request from a higher-level device.
This makes it possible to collect the status information at the initial stage of I / O processing if the setting time is very short, and to collect information useful for investigating the cause of the timeout that occurs immediately after the start of I / O processing Becomes

Since the monitoring time can be arbitrarily changed by a monitoring time setting command issued from the host device, the status information at each timing after the start of the input / output processing can be collected by changing the monitoring time and repeatedly trying, The cause of the timeout can be more accurately determined.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a disk control device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a characteristic function unit of the microprocessor unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example of a microprocessor unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Disk control device 11 ... Microprocessor part 111 ... Time registration part 112 ... Monitoring start part 113 ... Information collection part 114 ... Information transfer part 12 ... Channel interface part 13 ... Data transfer part 14 ... Control interface part 15 ... Time setting part 16 Time monitoring unit 17 Collection information storage unit 2 Disk device 3 Host processor 4 Input device 5 Display device 6 File MEM Recording medium

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A disk controller connected to one or more disk devices and controlling input / output of data to / from the disk device in accordance with an instruction from a higher-level device, wherein input / output to / from the disk device issued from the higher-level device is performed. It monitors the elapse of a preset monitoring time from the start of processing of the instruction, and collects status information at that time when the input / output processing of the input / output instruction is not completed before the monitoring time elapses. A status information collection method in a disk controller having a configuration. 2. A disk control device connected to one or more disk devices and controlling input / output of data to / from the disk devices according to an instruction from a host device, a time setting unit for holding a monitoring time, A time monitoring unit that monitors the elapse of the monitoring time held by the time setting unit from the start of processing of the input / output command for the disk device issued from the higher-level device, and causing the time monitoring unit to monitor An input / output unit that obtains status information at the time when the input / output processing according to the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses. Collection method. 3. A disk control device connected to one or more disk devices and controlling input / output of data to and from the disk device in accordance with a command from a higher-level device, wherein monitoring is performed by a monitoring time setting command issued from the higher-level device. A time setting unit for holding time, a time monitoring unit for monitoring the passage of time, and a monitoring time held by the time setting unit when processing of an input / output command for the disk device issued from the higher-level device is started. The time monitoring unit monitors that the monitoring time held by the time setting unit has elapsed from that point in time, and completes the input / output processing of the input / output command until the monitoring time elapses. When not, an information collection unit that collects the state information at that time and stores it in the collection information storage unit and invalidates the monitoring time of the time setting unit, An information transfer unit for transferring status information stored in the collection information storage unit to the host device in response to a collection information acquisition command issued from the host device. Collection method. 4. A computer which is connected to one or more disk devices and constitutes a disk control device which controls input and output of data to and from the disk devices in accordance with an instruction from a higher-level device, a monitoring time issued from the higher-level device. Setting a monitoring time according to a setting command in a time setting unit, and when processing of an input / output command to the disk device issued from the higher-level device is started, only when the monitoring time is held in the time setting unit, Causing the time monitoring unit to monitor the elapse of the monitoring time held by the time setting unit from that time; and when the input / output processing according to the input / output command is not completed before the monitoring time elapses. Collecting the state information at that time, storing the state information in the collected information storage unit, and invalidating the monitoring time of the time setting unit; Serial host device status information stored in the collected data storage unit in response to the issued collected information acquisition command from recording a program for executing a step of transferring to the host system machine-readable recording medium.