JPS63173273A - Computer system provided with disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decide a remaining service life of a disk device by an operator, so that appropriate measures can be taken before a fault occurs, by calculating the cumulative operation time of the disk device and the number of times of ON and OFF of a power source, and bringing them to a display output. CONSTITUTION:When a disk device 1 has suspended a disk access exceeding a prescribed time, its power source is turned off by a power source control unit 5, and on the other hand, the cumulative operation time being the power source ON cumulative time of the disk device 1, and the number of times of ON and OFF of the power source are calculated, and they are displayed or recorded. By turning off the power source when the disk device is not used, a service life of the disk device can be extended, and also, an operator decides the remaining service life of the disk device by the cumulative operation time and the number of times of ON and OFF of the power source, and can take measures.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Title of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a computer system equipped with a disk device as a storage device.

(Prior Art) In recent years, computer systems have been widely used for monitoring and controlling industrial plants. In such computer systems, the status of each device that makes up the plant or the temperature within the system.

By constantly monitoring state variables such as pressure and flow rate, control is performed based on the monitoring results, and alarms are displayed. In plant monitoring, in order to immediately notify the occurrence of an abnormal situation and to investigate the cause of the abnormality, Plan 1 - Constant logging of data indicating the status, and logging before and after the abnormal situation occurs. I am trying to analyze the data.

As a medium for logging such data, a magnetic disk such as a Winchester disk, which has a relatively short access time and a large capacity despite its compact size, is often used.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Normally, in a computer system, when the power of the system is turned on, the power of the disk device is also turned on, and the motor of the disk device starts rotating. Thereafter, this state continues until the power is turned off. Therefore, the disk motor continues to rotate regardless of whether the disk is accessed or not.

By the way, for example, in the case of a Winchester disk, the guaranteed cumulative operating time of the disk is approximately 20,000 hours.
There are limitations in terms of time and life, such as an upper limit on the number of times the disk device can be switched on and off.

On the other hand, a plant monitoring system is normally expected to have a lifespan of 10 to 20 years, and if the above-mentioned warranty period is followed, the disk device will need to be replaced several times during that period.

Furthermore, if the disk device exceeds the guaranteed time and becomes a failure during operation of the system, there is a concern that the logging data will be destroyed and the reliability of the system will be impaired.

In view of the above points, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system that extends the life of a disk device and improves the reliability of the system.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving Problems) Therefore, the present invention provides a method for turning off the power when the disk device stops accessing the disk for a certain period of time or more.
The cumulative operating time, which is the cumulative power-on time of the disk device, and the number of times the power was turned on and off are calculated, and these are displayed or recorded.

(Function) By turning off the power to the disk device when it is not in use, the life of the disk device can be extended, and the operator can take countermeasures by determining the remaining life of the disk device based on the cumulative operating time and the number of times the power is turned on and off. can be taken.

(Example) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of a computer system used for plant monitoring according to an embodiment of the present invention. 11 is connected to a system bus 3 via a disk controller 2 that controls it.

System bus 3 has C which controls the entire system.
PU (central processing unit 4, power supply control device 5 that turns on and off the power to the disk unit M1, RAM that is a data storage unit)
(Random access memory) 6, a terminal controller 8 that controls a console 7 for operating this system, a printer interface 10 that controls a printer 9, and a plant interface unit 11 that controls collection of various plant data are connected to the ing.

FIG. 2 shows the software configuration of this system. In the figure, the software of this system is roughly divided into an application section 20 that performs various functions according to the requirements of a specific plant, and a basic software section 30 that does not depend on a specific plant.

The application unit 20 accommodates a plurality of application tasks 21 to 2N, such as a data logging function, a data analysis function, and an analysis result output function.

The basic software unit 30 is configured by providing a background system task 32 on top of the operating system 31 for calculating the cumulative operating time of the disk and counting the number of times the disk power is switched on and off.

The operating system 31 mainly controls various tasks of the application section 2o,
Nucleus unit 311, which has functions such as memory management and interrupt processing. An input/output system section 31 that controls input/output devices such as disks and consoles.
2. A device driver 313 that controls an interface for controlling input/output devices is housed. The disk device 1 is controlled by a device driver 313 via the disk controller 2. The power supply control device 5 operates under the control of the system task 32 and the device driver 313, and turns on and off the power to the disk device 1.

The computer system of this embodiment is configured in one or more ways, and an operator operates a console 7 to instruct a process to be executed. This operation input to the console 7 is sent to the CPU via the terminal controller 8.
Transferred to 4. The CPU 4 executes one of the application tasks 21 to 2N specified by the operation.

These application tasks 21 to 2N include processing for collecting plant data input from the plant interface 11 and storing it in the disk device 1, or processing for analyzing the stored data.

During the execution of these application tasks 21 to 2N,
When storing plant data in the disk device 1 or reading the stored data from the disk device 1, the input/output system section 312 of the operating system 31 operates and starts the device driver 313. □' FIG. 3 shows the control operation of this device driver 313. In the figure, when the device driver 313 starts up, it first sets an access flag in a predetermined area of the RAM 6 to indicate that the disk is being accessed ( Process 41) Next, it is determined whether the disk is in operation based on the signal output from the disk controller 2, that is, whether the disk device 1 is powered on or not. (
No in process 42), the power control device 5 is controlled to turn on the power to the disk device 1 (process 43). When the power of the disk device 1 is turned on, it is determined based on the signal output from the disk controller 2 whether the rotation of the disk is constant, that is, it is in the ready state. If it is in the ready state (Yes in process 44), it is actually disk controller 2
is controlled to execute access such as read/write to the disk device 1.

As a result, when reading data, the read data from the magnetic disk 1 is taken into the input/output system section 312 via the disk controller 2 and the device controller 313, and further transferred to the application task being executed. processing is executed. In addition, when storing data, the storage data is transferred from the application task to the input/output system section 312, and the stored data is further transferred to the disk device 1 via the device driver 313 and disk controller 2, and the stored data is transferred to the disk device 1 via the device driver 313 and disk controller 2. (processing 45). On the other hand, the disk device! ! 1 is on (Yes in process 42)
).

Immediately execute the disk access as described above.

The end of this disk access is usually notified by a completion interrupt from the disk controller, so after determining the access result and performing error handling as necessary (process 46), the access flag set at the beginning of i is (processing 47). This access flag is used for the disk device 1 in the system task explained below.
This is detected during the process of turning off the power.

While the above application tasks 21 to 2N are being executed, the system task 32 also operates in parallel at regular intervals.

FIG. 4 shows the control operation of this system task 32.

The system task 32 is created as a background task that starts at regular intervals. When this system task 32 starts, the first thing that happens is that the disk device 1 is operating (power on) based on the output signal from the disk controller 2. If it is not in operation, the process ends without doing anything (No in process 51).

By the way, the RAM 6 has a memory area that stores memory data indicating the cumulative operating time of the disk device 1, the non-access time which is the time during which disk access is continuously paused while the power is on, and the number of times the power is turned on and off. is provided. The memory data indicating the cumulative operating time is cleared to zero at the date and time when the disk device 1 was first started.

If the disk device 1 is in operation (Yes in process 51), the system task 32 adds the activation cycle time of this task to the memory data indicating the cumulative operation time.

As a result, the cumulative operating time is updated for each activation cycle (process 52).

Next, it is determined whether or not the disk is being accessed using the access flag explained in FIG. Clear processing 54
), the process ends.

'On the other hand, when access is not in progress (No in process 53), the activation cycle time is added to the memory data indicating the non-access time in the same manner as above. As a result, the non-access time is updated (process 55). Next, this non-access time is determined (process 56), and if it does not meet the preset limit value (No in process 56), the process ends. Also, if this non-access time exceeds the limit value (
(Yes in process 56), the power control bag @5 is controlled to turn off the power to the disk device 1 (process 57). After this, the memory data indicating the number of times the power is turned on and off is counted up, and the process ends. As a result, the number of times the disk device 1 is powered on and off is counted (processing 5).
8).

By starting the system task 32 at regular intervals in this way, it is determined whether the disk device 1 is in operation, and if it is in operation, the cumulative operating time is updated, while the non-access time is determined and the non-access time is determined. When the access time exceeds the limit value, the power to the disk device 1 is turned off, and the number of times the power is turned on and off is incremented by one. As a result, the cumulative operating time and the number of times the power is turned on and off are stored in the memory area of the RAM 6 while the system is in operation.

By the way, since the memory data in the RAM 6 is cleared when the power is turned off or the system is reset, the initial operation as shown in FIG. 5 is executed immediately after the system is powered on and immediately after the system is reset. In addition.

This operation is executed by a system task (not shown) in the basic software section 30.
It is determined whether the disk drive M1 is in operation (power is turned on) (process 62).

If it is not in operation (No in process 62), the power to the disk device @1 is turned on (process 63) and it waits until it becomes ready (process 64).

When the disk device 1 becomes ready (Yes in process 64), or if the disk is in operation in the above (Yes in process 62), the cumulative operating time of the memory area of RAM 6 and the number of times the power is turned on and off are shown. The memory data is stored in a predetermined data area set in advance in the disk device 1 (process 65), and then the hardware system is initialized (process 66).

Next, the memory data indicating the cumulative operating time and power on/off times stored on the disk above is read, and the RA
It is stored in a predetermined area of M6 (process 67).

Next, the cumulative operating time and the number of times the power is turned on and off are displayed on the console 7 or output to the printer 98 (process 68).

Here, the operator looks at the output cumulative operating time and power on/off times of the disk device 1.

A comparison will be made with the above-mentioned warranty period or the upper limit of the number of on/off switching set for the disk device. If the cumulative operating time is close to the warranty period or the number of times the power is turned on and off is close to the upper limit, take measures as soon as possible, such as inspecting the disk device or replacing parts after the current operation. I will try to take lessons.

Thereafter, the process proceeds to a predetermined system startup routine by boot loading the system, and the system is started.

On the other hand, if the power has just been turned on (Ve+ in process 61), the hardware system is first initialized (process 69), and the power to the disk device 1 is turned on (process 70). and,
Wait until the disk rotation stabilizes and becomes ready (
Processing 71).

Here, when the disk device l becomes ready (processing 7
1), the above process 67 and subsequent steps are executed in the same manner.

Although not shown, immediately before powering off the system, a process similar to the process 65 described above is executed, and the cumulative operating time and the number of times the power is turned on and off are stored in the disk device.

In this way, when the system is stopped or reset, the calculated cumulative operating time and the number of times the power is turned on and off are stored in the disk device.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the disk is not accessed for a certain period of time or more, the power to the disk device 1 is turned off, and the cumulative operating time and power on/off frequency of the disk device 1 are calculated, and the values are used at the system initialization. It is displayed or printed out during operation. This results in
When the disk device 1 is not in use, the power is automatically turned off, thereby extending its overall lifespan. Also,
Disc packaging! By knowing the cumulative operating time of t1 and the number of times the power is turned on and off, the operator can judge that the guaranteed life of the disk unit @1 is approaching, and perform equipment inspection, parts replacement, etc. as soon as possible. Since failures can be prevented, the reliability of the system can be improved.

Note that in this embodiment, the cumulative operating time of the disk and f
Although the f1ilJX on/off frequency is automatically output when the system is started, it may be outputted arbitrarily by an operator's operation while the system is running.

In addition, as shown in processes 65 and 67 in FIG. 5, it is necessary to read/write the disk, which has not been done before, but the data to be transferred between the disk and the memory, i.e.
Information on cumulative operating time and power on/off times is at most 10
The amount is several bytes, and the transfer time is almost within the average disk access time, that is, about 100 m5ec. Moreover, this transfer is performed before the application system is started.

There does not appear to be any impact on system operation. Additionally, if the process of displaying and printing the cumulative operating time and power on/off times during system operation is performed by a task with a lower priority than the application task, the effect on system processing speed will be almost negligible. Conceivable.

Further, the control to turn off the power to the disk device 1 shown in process 57 in FIG. 4 is performed in order to extend the usable period of the disk device, that is, the life span, by reducing its operating time as much as possible. However, on the other hand, there is an upper limit to the lifespan of the power on and off, so
In the process 56 of the figure, the limit value of the non-access time must be set to an appropriate value so as not to be too short and unnecessarily increase the number of times the power is turned on and off.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the power to the disk device is turned off when it is not used, so the life of the disk device is extended, and the cumulative operating time and the number of times the disk device is turned on and off can be reduced. Since it is calculated and displayed, the operator can judge the remaining life of the disk device and take appropriate measures before it becomes a failure, improving the reliability of the system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a software configuration diagram of the system, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing device driver control operations, and FIG. 4 is a system task diagram. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the initial operation of the system. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Disk device, 2...Disk controller, 3...System path, 4...CPU (central processing unit), 5...Power control device, 6...RAM (random access memory) 7...console, 8...
- Terminal controller, 9... Printer, 10... Printer interface, 11... Plant interface. 20...Application section, 21-2N...Application task, 30...Basic software section,
31... Operating system, 32... System task, 311... Nucleus section, 312.
...I/O system, 313...Device driver. 7.'..., Agent Patent Attorney Crest 1) Makoto □ )ゝ-1' Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a computer system having a central processing unit that executes an application program using a real-time multitasking operating system as basic software, and a disk device that inputs and outputs data necessary for executing the application program, a disk access operation of the disk device is provided. A power-on means for turning on the power of the disk device before execution; a power-off means for turning off the power of the disk device upon detecting that the disk access operation has stopped for a certain period of time; and a cumulative total of the power-on time. a cumulative operating time calculation means for calculating the
A disk device characterized in that the basic software includes a power on/off frequency calculation means for calculating the number of times the power is turned on and off, and a display output means for displaying the calculated total on time and the number of on/off times. computer system.