JP2000194627A - Operating method and operating state monitoring device for network system and information communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operating method of a network system with which a client can grasp the service providing state of a server in real time and without applying any load to the server. SOLUTION: The information representing the relationship between servers 21 and 22 for every service is acquired from these servers which provide each prescribed service and then held by an operating monitoring manager 10. The held information is updated in response to the change of the service providing state set at every server terminal. The manager 10 notifies simultaneously and periodically the clients 32-34 and 42-44 of the service providing states which are set based on the latest held information and makes every client decide the providing possibility of the relevant service before the client is connected to its server.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plurality of server terminals (hereinafter, "servers") for providing predetermined services related to information processing, such as settlement processing services, contract services, various office services, search services, and the like. In a network system including a plurality of client terminals (hereinafter, referred to as “clients”) receiving a service from each server, the present invention relates to a technique for enabling each client to determine in advance the current service provision status of the server. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a network system for providing a service relating to information processing from a server to a client via the Internet or an intranet. Conventionally, when performing fault management in such a network system, which server or client has a fault when viewed from an operation status monitoring device (hereinafter, referred to as “operation manager”) that comprehensively manages the network. In general, a form for checking whether or not the information is present.
The specifications of existing network management products are also focused on failure detection led by the operation management manager. When a failure occurs, the client can autonomously grasp the failure, or the server It is not designed to notify the side of the failure contents. This is because there has been no idea of notifying the client of the content when a failure occurs.

In providing a service, a plurality of application programs (hereinafter, “AP”) are usually started and executed in a server and each client. However, conventionally, when a failure occurs in any part of the network system, it has not been possible to specify how the failure is related to each AP.

Further, conventionally, the server allows access from a client based on a statically set access right (use right, the same applies hereinafter), and a dynamic service for each service. There was no notification of the change of authority or the change to the client.

[0005]

As described above, conventionally, when a failure occurs, the client is not notified of the content of the failure. For example, when a failure occurs in a certain server and all the clients are notified. When the provision of the service is stopped, each user cannot determine whether the connection cannot be made due to the failure of the server or the connection cannot be made due to the bad setting of the own machine (client). For this reason, retry is repeatedly performed from a plurality of clients to the server, which may increase the load on the network.

There is a possibility that such a situation can be avoided by sending a service stop notice to the accessing client in advance, or by posting an announcement message for each client on a bulletin board or the like at the time of maintenance so as to make it known. However, in the former case, the service stop notification is sent by SNMP (Simple Network Management protocol).
l) It will be done based on the trap, but the SNM
Since P can send a notification only to a specific client, there is a trouble that all the clients must be managed in advance. Further, when a service stop notification is sent to all of these clients when a failure occurs, the load on the network becomes excessively large, and even when the entire server is shut down, it is impossible to send the notification. In the latter case, there is a possibility that a user who has not seen it, even if he / she is notified by a pre-mail or bulletin board, will be able to access it. In this case, the above problem is not solved.

Conventionally, since the relationship between a failure in a specific machine and service information cannot be grasped on the client side, it is necessary to know which service is currently available or the user is authorized to use the service. I didn't know unless I actually asked for the service. Even on the server side, it was not possible to specify the range of influence when the service was stopped when access from an unspecified number of clients was expected.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a network operation method that allows a client to grasp the service provision status of a server in real time without imposing a load on the server. Another object of the present invention is to provide various devices suitable for implementing the above operation method.

[0009]

An operation method according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems includes a method of providing information indicating a relation between servers for each service from a plurality of servers which provide predetermined services related to information processing through a network. Acquired and retained, while updating the retained information according to a change in the service provision status of each server, and updating the service provision state based on the latest retained information from at least one of the plurality of servers. It is characterized in that all the clients receiving the service are notified all at once, and each client is made to determine the possibility of providing the service before connecting to the server. According to this operation method, the network management side does not need to manage all the clients in advance, and the client does not need to access the server when grasping the possibility of providing the service desired by the client.

[0010] In the above operation method, some of the plurality of servers selectively provide a plurality of types of the services, and use rights which can be dynamically changed are set in some of the services. If there is, the presence or absence of the use right in each service is notified to the client together with the service providing state. Preferably, the simultaneous notification is performed periodically, and further, at least the provision state and the presence or absence of the use authority are displayed on the client in an identifiable form.

[0011] In order to solve the above-mentioned other problems, the present invention provides:
Provided is an operation status monitoring device suitable for implementation as an operation monitoring manager that manages the operation status of a network. The first operation status monitoring device is a network system including a plurality of servers that provide a predetermined service related to information processing through a network, and a plurality of clients that receive the service from at least one of the servers. A device to be deployed, a determining unit for determining a current provision state of the service by the plurality of servers, and periodically transmitting notification information of the same content based on the determination result to all the clients receiving the service. And a simultaneous transmission means for performing simultaneous transmission.

A second operation status monitoring device includes a plurality of servers for selectively providing a plurality of types of services related to information processing via a network, and a plurality of clients for receiving the services from at least one of these servers. And a device provided in a network system in which a use right that can be dynamically changed is set for some of the plurality of services, wherein the current provision state of the service by the plurality of servers and A determination unit configured to determine the presence or absence of the use authority in a service; and a broadcasting unit configured to periodically broadcast notification information of the same content based on the determination result to all the clients using the service. .

[0013] In the first and second operation status monitoring apparatuses, the judging means may record, for example, the content of a fault in each of the servers and the degree of influence of the content of the fault on the provision of the service in association with each other. When a failure occurs in a specific server, the type of service affected by the content of the failure is specified with reference to the record information of the determination table, and the provision state of the specified service is determined. Be composed. In addition, this determination table is configured so that the record information is updated at any time according to the operation status information obtained from each of the plurality of servers.

[0014] In order to solve the above-mentioned other problems, the present invention provides:
An information communication device functioning as the client is provided. The information communication device includes a plurality of servers that provide predetermined services related to information processing through a network,
An operation status monitoring device that broadcasts notification information including a current provision state of the service by these servers through the network, the device being deployed in a network system, wherein the device is provided from at least one of the plurality of servers. Means for receiving the provision of the service through a network, reception processing means for receiving the notification information and recording the received notification information in a monitoring table having predetermined items in an updatable manner, and based on the latest recorded contents of the monitoring table. Determining means for determining the current service providing status of the server, and visualizing means for visualizing the determination result by the determining means, so that the possibility of providing the service can be determined before connecting to the server. It is constituted in.

[0015] Some of the plurality of server terminals selectively provide a plurality of types of the services, and the operation status monitoring device has a usage right set for some of the plurality of types of services. Is included in the notification information and transmitted at the same time, the determination unit is configured to determine a service providing status including the presence or absence of the use authority for each service.

The visualizing means includes a display interface mechanism for displaying, for example, the availability of each service in different colors.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a network system according to the present invention will be described below. As shown in FIG. 1, the network system according to the present embodiment includes, on the center side, an operation monitoring manager 10 as an example of an operation status monitoring device, and one or more application servers (hereinafter, “AP servers”) that provide services. ) 21,22 ...
And a group of clients 3 receiving services provided from the AP servers 21 and 22 on the local side connected to the center and the network WN so as to enable two-way communication.
0, 40... Are arranged.

Here, it is assumed that the AP server 21 provides "service A" and the AP server 22 provides "service B" to each client. In addition, the AP servers 21 and 22 have a function of notifying the operation monitoring manager 11 at any time of the start and end of the service and the fact that a failure has occurred. The client groups 30 and 40 are information communication devices interconnected via a network LN such as a LAN, that is, clients 32 to 34 and 4.
2 to 44, and each client can perform bidirectional communication with the center through the multicast routers 31 and 41.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the operation monitoring manager 10. The operation monitoring manager 10 manages physical servers and logical service names, and monitors the overall operation status of the system including fault management. Further, it comprises at least a table storage unit 11 storing a service state determination table 111 and a multicast correspondence table 112, a service state determination unit 12, an access control list adding unit 13, and a multicast packet transmission unit 14.

The service state determination table 111 is a table in which the contents of a failure in each AP server and the degree of influence of the contents of the failure on service provision are recorded in association with each other. Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the failure status (fault type), the failure degree (degree of influence of the failure), and the relevance to other failures (“0”: no, “1”: present) , Related AP (affected service name), status (no change in operation mode, operation stop, checking, etc.), app-1 failure to app
-3 Information on failures (service types to be monitored for failures) can be managed for each AP server. The service state determination table 111 is mainly used to determine which service stop notification should be transmitted when a failure occurs in the AP servers 21 and 22.

For example, from the AP server 21 (server A), a failure notification a containing "failure type 3, failure degree A"
Is notified. The service name “app-1” is related to the failure notification “a”.
For "-1", failure notices b and c are also listed. Looking at the fault notification a, the fault is service 1
The status indicates that other status checks need to be performed. That is, in order to recognize that this is a failure and to transmit a service stop notification to the service name “app-1”, it is necessary to receive the failure notifications a, b, and c. With only the failure notification a, there is no status change, so no service stop notification is transmitted to the client, and the operation monitoring manager 10 performs the automatic recovery of the failure. This means that, for example, even if the AP server 21 goes down due to a failure, the other AP server 22 provides the same kind of service, and the service provision itself is continued. Note that other obstacle items are used in a similar manner.

As shown in FIG. 4, the multicast correspondence table 112 includes a multicast address (group address), status (normal / abnormal), last transmission time, transmission interval, access control corresponding to the client name and the service name. List (access authority)
Is a table for managing each provided service (app-1 to app-3). Multicast correspondence table 112
Is mainly used to manage the broadcast destinations and transmission intervals of multicast packets. The service status determination table 111 and the multicast correspondence table 112 are linked, for example, using the provided service as a key, so that the operation status can be monitored in a matrix.

The service state determination unit 12 is a server
This is to determine the service provision status (including the presence or absence of a failure) by the services 1 and 22 and notify the multicast packet transmitting unit 14 of the determination result. For example, when a failure notification is received from a certain AP server, it is determined which service is regarded as abnormal and a service stop notification is transmitted, and data corresponding to the content is multicast / multicasted.
The packet transmission unit 14 is notified. Conventionally, this type of operation monitoring manager manages only the state of a failure with respect to a physical server, so it has been difficult to realize a function of determining which AP server has failed and which failure has occurred. . The service state determination unit 12 refers to the service state determination table 111 to determine the relevance to another AP server, thereby facilitating the above function.

Access control list adding section 13
Indicates that the services currently offered to users are
It is determined whether or not the user is available, that is, whether or not the user has an access right, and the determination result is notified to the multicast / packet transmitting unit 14. Specifically, the data part of the “access control list” of the multicast correspondence table 112 is checked, and the access right is defined (in the example shown, app-
3) is notified to the multicast packet transmitting unit 14 of an access control list, that is, a user ID, a group ID, a segment address, and the like. If access rights are not specified, that is, if anyone can access, access control
Do not output the list.

The multicast packet transmitting unit 14
Service status determination unit 1 addressed to client groups 30 and 40
2 and a multicast packet having the same content based on the notification from the access control list adding unit 13 is periodically and simultaneously transmitted. Specifically, it operates according to the procedure shown in FIG.

That is, the multicast correspondence table 1
It is checked whether or not the current time has reached the sum of the last transmission time and the transmission interval by referring to the "final transmission time" and "transmission interval" of step 12 (steps S101 and S10).
2). If the current time has not reached the sum, time monitoring is continued until the current time is reached (step S102: No). When the current time has reached the sum, the “status” column of the multicast correspondence table 112 is checked, and a multicast packet according to the status is generated (step S103). After adding an access control list to the data portion of the packet as needed (step S104), the multicast packet is simultaneously transmitted to all clients for each service (step S104).
105).

The multicast packet generated and broadcast at this time has a content as shown in FIG. 6, for example. That is, the service name is described as the provided service, and the current service provision status (normal (operating), abnormal (stopped)) is described as the status. When the transmission time and the transmission interval are described and the access authority is defined, a user ID and a person in charge ID are added to the access control list.

Next, the function of the client on the user side will be described. Each client, eg client 3
2 is at least multicast, as shown in FIG.
Table storage unit 5 storing packet reception unit 50, display counter 51, and service provision status monitoring table 521
2. It is provided with a service provision status determination unit 53, a display control unit 54, and a display mechanism 55. A display device (not shown) displays a list of services used by the user, and can receive a multicast packet corresponding to the service. All the other clients 33, 34, 42 to 44 have the same configuration.

The packet reception processing unit 50 records a multicast packet received from the operation monitoring manager 10 for each service through the networks WN and LN in the service provision status monitoring table 521, and updates the recorded content as needed. is there. That is, the contents of the service provision status monitoring table 521 are substantially the same as the contents of the multicast packet shown in FIG.
The display counter 51 monitors the time when receiving a packet. The service providing status determination unit 53 checks the recorded contents of the service providing status monitoring table 521 at regular intervals, and based on the check result, the AP server 21,
22 to determine the current service provision status.

The display control unit 54 determines the AP server 2
The control is performed so that the user can visually grasp the states 1 and 22. The display mechanism 55 is a display interface mechanism for presenting the determination result in a form that can be visually recognized by a user in accordance with the control contents of the display control unit 54. In the present embodiment, a display interface mechanism as shown in FIG. That is, the signal display area 552 corresponding to the service name area 551 is formed so that the service provision status can be displayed by the signal display color. For example,
"Blue" indicates that the service is being provided, "yellow" is waiting for data acquisition, "red" indicates that the service is stopped, "green" indicates that the service is being provided, but the user cannot access the service because he has no access authority. And Each signal display color may be logically formed on the screen of the display device, or may be physically configured using a lamp or the like.

Next, a procedure from when the client 34 receives the multicast packet to when the signal of the color corresponding to the display mechanism 55 is displayed will be described.
FIG. 9 is a processing procedure diagram in the packet reception processing unit 50. When the packet reception processing unit 50 is in the initial state,
The status of all services in the service provision status monitoring table 521, that is, the service provision status is set to "data acquisition wait", and an initial value is set to all data of the corresponding portion (steps S201 and S202). afterwards,
It waits for reception of a multicast packet transmitted from the operation monitoring manager 10 (step S203), and when it is received, resets the display counter 51 (step S203: Yes, S204). Then, the related data is read from the packet data part, and the corresponding data in the service provision status monitoring table 521 is updated based on the read data (step S205).

Based on the transmission interval defined for the multicast packet and the value of the display counter (transmission time), it is checked whether or not the next packet has arrived within the time (transmission interval + α).
And the same processing is repeated (step S206: Ye
s). On the other hand, if the next packet does not arrive in time, an error message is displayed to the user,
“Status” of the service provision status monitoring table 521
Is updated to "waiting for data acquisition", and step S20
3 (Step S206: No). The above process is periodically repeated.

The service providing status determination section 53 determines the service providing status according to the procedure shown in FIG. First, the service provision status monitoring table 521 updated as described above.
Is confirmed (step S301). If it is operating, the data part of the “access control list” is checked (step S301: operating, S3
02). If there is data in the data part, it means that the access authority is defined, so the data is compared with the user ID (step S302: data exists,
S303). If the data does not match the user ID, the "service provision status" of the service provision status monitoring table 521 is set to "no access authority" (step S304). If the service is not running in step S301 (step S301: stopped), the access right is not defined in the access control list in step S302 (step S30).
2: No data), if the user ID matches in step S303 (step S303: match),
If the process of step 304 has been executed, the process proceeds to a service provision status display process (step S305).

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the service providing status display processing in the display control unit 54. Here, first,
The determination result by the service provision status determination unit 53 is checked (step S401). If the service is not running (step S301: stopped), the corresponding service item is "red" (step S402), and if the data in the access control list does not match the user ID (step S303: mismatch). Indicates that the corresponding service item is "green" (step S403),
If the data in the list matches the user ID (step S303: match) or if the access right is not specified (step S302: no data), the corresponding service item is set to "blue" (step S404), and the data is acquired. When waiting, the corresponding service item is displayed as "yellow" (step S405). Thereby, a display interface mechanism as shown in FIG. 8 is realized. Accordingly, the user can know in real time which service is currently stopped, and can understand which service is available before starting the service.

Next, the operation when a failure occurs in the AP server 21 that provides the service A in the network system configured as described above will be described. FIG. 12 is a processing procedure diagram of the operation monitoring manager 10 at this time. That is, the operation monitoring manager 10
When a failure notification is received from the server 21 (step S50)
1: Yes), the “status” and the “related AP” of the corresponding failure item in the AP server 21 are checked with reference to the service state determination table 111 (step S5).
02, S503). Also, it is checked in the “relevance” column whether or not there is a relationship with another failure, and if there is another relationship (“relevance” is “1”: step S504: Ye
s) checks whether the relevant fault has occurred (whether a fault notification has been issued) (step S).
505). If a related failure has occurred, it is checked which service the related failure corresponds to (step S506), the service name of the service is acquired (step S507), and the "status" Is changed to "stopping" (step S508). In this case, a multicast packet indicating the suspension of the service is transmitted to all the clients using the service A simultaneously. In FIG.
The symbol MPA is a multicast packet that includes the service providing status of the service A in its contents,
The clients 32, 34, and 42 indicated by "ET" are clients that can receive the multicast packet MPA.

If there is no relationship with other faults in step S504, but there is a status change, the process immediately proceeds to step S507 (step S504: N
o, S509: Yes), when there is no relationship with other faults or status change, or in step S505,
If no related failure has occurred, the process is terminated while keeping the status of the multicast correspondence table 112 as it is (step S509: No, S505: No).

As described above, in the network system of the present embodiment, the operation monitoring manager 10 detects what kind of fault notification has been issued from which AP server, and the contents of the fault notification and the service status determination table 111 From the recorded contents, it is possible to confirm the effect of the service related to the failure item. Therefore, for example, it is possible to easily specify the range of influence when the service is stopped when access from an unspecified number of clients is expected. it can.

In addition, the status such as "normally providing a service", "stopping a service", "waiting for data acquisition", "serving a service but not having access right to use a service" is actually determined on each client side. Can be easily grasped without receiving service provision, so, for example, in an environment such as an intranet, it is possible to monitor at the service level in addition to monitoring at the machine level, stabilizing the service provision state for the user To be able to communicate.

[0039]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the client can grasp the service provision status of the server in real time without imposing a load on the server. In addition, when a failure occurs, the contents of the failure can be comprehensively determined, and an optimal service providing mode at the time of the failure can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a main part configuration diagram of an operation monitoring manager according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of a service status determination table provided in the operation monitoring manager.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the contents of a multicast correspondence table provided in the operation monitoring manager.

FIG. 5 is a processing procedure diagram of a multicast packet transmitting unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a multicast packet.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a main part of each client according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display mechanism included in a client.

FIG. 9 is a processing procedure diagram of a packet reception processing unit.

FIG. 10 is a processing procedure diagram of a service provision status determination unit.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a service providing status display process in a display control unit.

FIG. 12 is a processing procedure diagram of the operation monitoring manager when a failure occurs in the AP server.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 10 operation monitoring manager 11 table storage unit 111 service state determination table 112 multicast correspondence table 12 service state determination unit 13 access control list adding unit 14 multicast packet transmission unit 21, 22 AP server (application server providing service) 32- 34, 42 to 44 Client 50 Packet reception processing unit 51 Display counter 52 Table storage unit 521 Service provision status monitoring table 53 Service provision status determination unit 54 Display control unit 55 Display mechanism 551 Service name area 552 Signal color area

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A server that obtains and retains information indicating a relationship between server terminals for each service from a plurality of server terminals that provide a predetermined service related to information processing through a network, and stores the retained information in each server. Along with updating in accordance with a change in the service provision status in the terminal, the service provision status based on the latest held information is simultaneously notified to all the client terminals receiving the service provision from at least one of the plurality of server terminals. And allowing each client terminal to determine the possibility of providing the service before connecting to the server terminal. 2. A case in which some of the plurality of server terminals selectively provide a plurality of types of the services, and use rights which can be dynamically changed are set in some of the services. 2. The operation method according to claim 1, wherein the presence or absence of the use authority in each service is notified to the client terminal together with the service providing state. 3. The operation method according to claim 1, wherein the simultaneous notification is periodically performed. 4. The operation method according to claim 2, wherein at least the provision state and the presence / absence of the use right are displayed on the client terminal in an identifiable form. 5. A network system comprising: a plurality of server terminals for providing a predetermined service related to information processing via a network; and a plurality of client terminals for receiving the service from at least one of the server terminals. Determining means for determining a current provision state of the service by the plurality of server terminals; and simultaneously transmitting notification information of the same content based on the determination result to all the client terminals receiving the service. An operation status monitoring device, comprising: a simultaneous transmission means for transmitting. 6. A plurality of server terminals for selectively providing a plurality of types of services related to information processing through a network, and a plurality of client terminals for receiving the service from at least one of the server terminals, An apparatus deployed in a network system in which a use right that can be dynamically changed is set for some of the plurality of services, wherein a current provision state of the service by the plurality of server terminals and the service in the service are provided. Operating status, comprising: judging means for judging the presence / absence of use authority; and simultaneous transmitting means for simultaneously transmitting notification information of the same content based on the judgment result to all the client terminals using the service. Monitoring device. 7. The operation status monitoring device according to claim 5, wherein the broadcast means periodically broadcasts the notification information for each service. 8. The determination means has a determination table in which the content of a failure in each of the servers and the degree of influence of the content of the failure on the provision of the service are recorded in association with each other, and a failure occurs in a specific server. 7. The operation according to claim 5, wherein when the determination is made, the type of service affected by the content of the failure is specified by referring to the record information of the determination table, and the provision state of the specified service is determined. Condition monitoring device. 9. The operation status according to claim 8, wherein the record information of the determination table is updated as needed according to the operation status information obtained from each of the plurality of servers. Monitoring device. 10. An operation status monitoring apparatus for simultaneously transmitting, via a network, a plurality of server terminals for providing predetermined services related to information processing through a network, and notification information including a current provision state of the service by the server terminals. A device that is provided in a network system having: a means for receiving provision of the service from at least one of the plurality of server terminals through the network; receiving the notification information and transmitting the received notification information to a predetermined item; Receiving processing means for renewably recording in a monitoring table having: a determining means for determining the current service provision status of the server based on the latest recorded contents of the monitoring table; and visualizing the determination result by the determining means And visualization means for providing the service. Serial, characterized in that it is configured to be able to determine before connection to the server terminal, the information communication device. 11. Some of the plurality of server terminals selectively provide a plurality of types of the services, and a usage right set by the operation status monitoring device for some of the plurality of types of services. 11. The notification information includes the presence / absence of the service information, and the broadcast is performed, and the determination unit determines a service providing status including the presence / absence of the use right for each service. Information communication device. 12. The information communication apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said visualization means includes a display interface mechanism for displaying the possibility of providing each service in different colors. apparatus.