JP2000285066A - Management system for peripheral device management information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To properly operate a printer and at the same time to change the information on a device by referring to a management object table storing the peripheral device management object information when every job is operated. SOLUTION: In the management object acquisition processing (S107), a management object table storing the peripheral management object information is retrieved when every job is operated (S108). If the management object table contains an entry (S109) and also an acquisition function pointer of the entry does not show a NULL (defining no function entry) (S110), the acquisition function that is shown by the acquisition function pointer is called out (S111) and the value of a management object is acquired. As a result, the device information can be changed while a printer is properly operated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a peripheral device management information management system on a network used for a network printer, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art MIB (Management Information)
When setting the information of Base, add the offline / online private MIB and go offline before making various settings.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-74132 discloses a device related to a peripheral device on which the e-Network Management Protocol is mounted. With the spread of network technology, there has been an increasing demand for managing peripheral devices on a network, for example, a printer device equipped with a network interface on the network. Therefore, printers and the like that implement a network device management protocol (here, simply referred to as SNMP) are installed. Is increasing. In particular, printer MIBs that define management objects that can be accessed by SNMP for printers
(RFC 1759), and it has become possible to generally manage printers on a network by using a printer MIB and a private MIB that can be independently defined by each company.

[0003]

The most problematic problem in implementing SNMP on peripheral devices is that SNMP handles static management information of the device. There is no problem because information such as the configuration of the apparatus does not change over a long period of time, but setting information that affects the operation of the apparatus causes problems when changed during the operation of the apparatus. For example, if a write request to a management object such as emulation (printer language) and output tray is made during printer operation,
In the past, processing was performed by returning a response indicating that the change was impossible or not changed.

In order to solve such a problem, the conventional system (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-74132) has been described in detail.
An off-line control system is used to solve various problems during operation or the problem of exclusive control of settings from a plurality of users by using a system that performs various settings at the time of off-line. However, this is a method that relies on the generality of using a private MIB, which requires special processing from the host-side management program, and furthermore, until the offline request is satisfied, the management program sets the operation-related settings for the printer. Can not be done. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to change the management information of a peripheral device regardless of the operation state of the peripheral device, and not to cause unnecessary influence on the operation.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a plurality of managed object tables are prepared and used to achieve the above object. Here, the managed object table is a set of managed objects (managed object means individual information managed by SNMP. It has an entry name and a value of a predetermined type corresponding to the entry name, and is defined by MIB). Is an internal representation inside the peripheral device for managing

In the management items of the management object table,
There are two types of management items that affect the operation. One is related to the operation itself. In the case of a printer, the default tray etc. (prt InputDefaultIndex, prtOutputDef
aultIndex, prtMarkerDefaultIndex, prtMediaPathDe
faultIndex), default interpreter (printer language) (PrtChannelDefaultPageDescLangIndex, PrtChannelD
efaultJobCntLangIndex). The other is an operation for the entire printer apparatus, such as reset (prtGneralReset). The latter certainly affects the operation of the printer, but in this case there is no problem since the operation itself has to be stopped. In the former case, it is desirable that the print operation once started is not affected. Therefore, a management object table referred to by the printing operation itself and a temporary management object table for receiving the setting operation are provided, and the printing operation is performed by referring to the table before the change, and the change process is performed after the operation is completed. ing. The above operation is performed when a plurality of print jobs (jo) have no document spooling mechanism in the printer.
It is assumed that b) is not queued inside the printer. If the printer has a spool and has a plurality of print jobs internally, the user who has submitted each job must have created a job based on the setting information at the time the job was submitted. That is, the job operation is expected to operate with the contents of the management object table at the time of setting.

In an apparatus having such a job queue, a management object table is copied and held for each job, and the management object table is referred to at the time of job operation. Changes to management items are made for the original management object table. By preparing a plurality of management object tables in this way, it is possible to change device information while appropriately performing the operation of the printer. Next, means for solving the problems of the present invention will be described below for each claim.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a peripheral device management object is provided, and a plurality of management object tables for storing the peripheral device management object information are provided.
A peripheral device management information processing system characterized by referring to the management object table when operating each job.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the peripheral device management information management system according to the first aspect, further comprising a main management object table and a temporary management object table in which the main management object table is copied. At the time of the write request process, the temporary management object table and the copied temporary management object table are written, and when the operation state of the peripheral device becomes the standby state, the contents of the temporary management object table are copied to the main management object table. A peripheral device management information processing system characterized in that:

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the peripheral device management information management system according to the second aspect, further comprising a management object access processing unit for processing the inquiry and write request for the management object, and the management object access processing unit. Wherein the peripheral device management information processing system refers to the contents of the temporary management object table during operation of the peripheral device and refers to the main management object table during the standby state.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information management system according to the third aspect, an inquiry and a write request for the contents of the management object from a network using an SNMP protocol are sent to the access processing unit. This is a peripheral device management information processing system characterized in that the information processing is performed by a computer.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information management system according to the first aspect, the operation of the peripheral device is managed on a job basis, and the main management object table is copied at the start of each job. The peripheral device management information processing system is characterized in that a job is performed using information of a management object table for each job copied in the operation of the job.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information management system according to the fifth aspect, the management object access processing unit for processing the inquiry and the write request for the management object stores the main management object table in the management object access processing unit. This is a peripheral device management information processing system characterized by referring to FIG.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information management system according to the sixth aspect, the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management objects using SNMP. And a peripheral device management information processing system.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the first aspect, a management object table for storing information of the management object includes history information. It is a management information processing system.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the eighth aspect, at the time of a write request process for a management object, writing to the management object table with history information is performed, and A peripheral device management information processing system characterized in that a history entry of a main management object table is validated when a device enters a standby state.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the ninth aspect, the management object access processing section for processing a management object inquiry and a write request includes: A peripheral device management information processing system characterized by referring to valid contents.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the tenth aspect, the access processing unit sends an inquiry and a write request from the network to the contents of the management object with history using SNMP. This is a peripheral device registration management information processing system characterized in that the information processing is performed by a computer.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the eighth aspect, the operation of the peripheral device is managed on a job basis, and the history with the history effective at the start of each job is provided. A peripheral device management information processing system for executing a job using information in a management object table.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the twelfth aspect, a management object table with a history is effective in a management object access processing unit for processing a query and a write request for the management object. Is a peripheral device management information processing system characterized by referring to FIG.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the peripheral device management information processing system according to the thirteenth aspect, the access processing unit records a query and a write request for the contents of the managed object from the network using SNMP. Is a peripheral device management information processing system characterized by processing based on

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a description will be given of a network printer system as an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 shows a printer control unit 10 for controlling a printer.
1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of FIG. In the figure, a printer control unit 101 is set to be able to communicate with a host computer on a network 118 via a network IF control unit 114 that controls a network interface unit 115. A CPU 102 controls each device connected to the bus 103 based on a control program recorded in a ROM 104. 105 is a RAM and a CPU
This is for temporarily storing data, print data, and the like used by 102. An engine control unit 110 controls the printer engine 112 via the engine interface unit 111 to perform printing. A memory control unit 106 controls the memory 107. 109 is a line control unit,
It controls the parallel line I / F unit 108A and the serial line I / F control unit 108B. A panel control unit 113 controls the panel 117. A network 118 connects the printer system and a host computer.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a control system operating on the control unit 101 of FIG. The control program has a control OS 210 that manages computer resources, and a process uses a device driver that manages each device to execute each resource on the control unit 101, for example, a network I / F.
Access the control unit 114. A hostd process that processes input from the parallel / serial line I / F as each process on the control OS, an lpd daemon process that performs print processing on a network, and pri that performs print control itself
For example, the ntmgr process. Also SNMP on the network
There is an SNMP daemon process that handles queries, which answers queries / write requests for managed objects.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the management object table used by the SNMP daemon. The management object table includes an entry section for managing information of the management object and a data section. As shown in FIG. 3, the entry section stores an entry having entry information of the management object, a value of the type, an acquisition function pointer which is a pointer to a function for processing an entry value acquisition request from outside, and a value setting request from outside. It consists of a setting function pointer which is a pointer to the function to be processed. The data section is an area on the memory in which data used by the acquisition function pointer and the setting function pointer is stored. Specifically, a direct value for the entry or indirect data necessary for obtaining the value is stored.

FIG. 4A shows the structure of a management object table with history used by the SNMP daemon. The management object table includes an entry section for managing information of the management object and a data section. As shown in FIG. 4A, the entry section stores an entry having entry information of the management object, a value of the type, an acquisition function pointer which is a pointer to a function for processing an entry value acquisition request from outside, and a value setting request from outside. It comprises a setting function pointer which is a pointer to a function to be processed and a history management function pointer for performing history management. The data section is an area on the memory in which data used by the acquisition function pointer and the setting function pointer is stored. Specifically, a direct value for the entry or indirect data necessary for obtaining the value is stored. The history management function is for performing internal history management, and operates the operations of the acquisition function and the setting function. The history function operates which of the entries in the internal data section is valid.

FIG. 4B shows a configuration example of the data section. In this configuration, the history is managed by time, and the value indicated by the effective index is the value returned by the acquisition function. The valid mode indicates a history entry that is valid when set by the setting function. That is, this embodiment shows how the effective index is set when the setting function is executed. The setting LAST indicates that the last setting is always valid, and CURRENT indicates that the valid index is not moved with the current setting. The history management function performs this operation setting. If there is no history function entry, it indicates that history management is not performed internally or cannot be performed (it does not make sense to do so).

FIG. 5 shows a part of the operation of the SNMP daemon which is an embodiment not using a job model. SNMP
The daemon performs an event-driven process of processing a printer status change notification event from printmgr and a management object acquisition / configuration event from the network, and the process is put into an event waiting sleep state until an event comes. When an event notification is received, it is checked whether the event is a printer status change notification from printmgr (S101). Status change changed during operation
If (available and busy) (S102, yes), the management object table is copied, and processing is performed on the copied table (S103). When the status change notification is the release of the operation status (other than available and busy) (S10
4, yes), a process of returning the contents of the copied table to the original table is performed (S105). In the case of the management object acquisition process (S107), the management object table is searched and there is an entry (S109), and the acquisition function pointer of the entry is not NULL (if the function entry is not defined, it is NULL) (S11).
0), the acquisition function indicated by the acquisition function pointer of the entry is called (S111), and the process of acquiring the value of the management object is performed. In the case of the management object setting process (S1
12, yes) also searches the managed object table (S113), and if there is an entry (S114).
When the setting function pointer of the entry is not NULL (it is NULL when the function entry is not defined) (S115), the setting function indicated by the setting function pointer of the entry is called (S116), and the value of the management object is set. Is set.

FIG. 6 shows a part of the operation of an SNMP daemon which is another embodiment not using a job model.
SNMP daemon, printer status change notification event from printmgr and management object acquisition from network
Handle / set events. Event-driven processing is performed, and the process is put into an event waiting sleep state until an event comes. When an event notification comes (S20
1) First, check whether the event is a printer status change notification from printmgr. If the status change has changed during operation (available and busy) (S202), the history management function is called and the effective mode is set to CURRENT for the entry having the history management function entry among the entries in the management object table (S203). If the status change notification indicates that the operation state is canceled (other than available and busy) (S204, yes), the history management function is called for the history management function entry having the history function entry, and the valid mode is changed to LAST ( S205). In the case of the management object acquisition process (S207), the management object table is searched (S208), and if there is an entry (S209), the acquisition function pointer of the entry is
If it is not NULL (it is NULL when the function entry is not defined) (S210), the acquisition function indicated by the acquisition function pointer of the entry is called (S21).
1) Perform a process of acquiring the value of the management object. In the case of the management object setting process (S214, yes), the management object table is similarly searched (S213), and if there is an entry, the setting function pointer of the entry is checked.
If it is not NULL (it is NULL if no function entry is defined) (S215), the setting function indicated by the setting function pointer of the entry is called (S216).
Performs the setting process of the value of the management object.

In the setting / acquisition operation for the management object by the above operation, when the printing operation is not performed, the information setting / acquisition of the management object is performed using the ordinary management object table, and the copy is performed during the operation. Since information setting / acquisition of the management object is performed using the management object table, information setting / acquisition of various management objects can be performed without affecting the operation and regardless of the operation state.

FIG. 7 shows prin when a job model is used.
Here is a part of the operation of tmgr. The processing of the SNMP daemon in this case is the same as that of FIG. pr
intmgr is an event-driven process that receives and processes request events from processes that process print input such as hostd and lpd, and device events (engine control device driver, panel I / O control device driver, and memory management device driver) from device drivers. I do. When an event is notified to printmgr (S3
01, yes), the process is performed for each event type.
For example, a job generation request from an input processing process such as 1pd is notified to printmgr as a job processing event and is processed as a job generation request process (S302, yes
s) A job is generated (S303), and the result is notified to the event issuer (S305). Printm like this
Events notified to gr include job operation events, engine control unit events, panel I / O control unit events, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 8A, the execution order of a job is managed by a queue inside printmgr. A job is a data structure having various types of information regarding print processing as shown in FIG. 8B. The job is created by the job creation request process of FIG. 7 (S302, yes),
(S303). At this time, the pointer of the common management object table is copied and set in the field of the job structure (S307). The requested content is written into each field of the job structure by the job information setting request in FIG. 7 (S305). The job execution start request (S306, yes) of FIG. 7 is registered in the execution queue (S207). If the first job in the registered execution queue is executable, the process is executed. At this time, the execution is started based on various information stored in the job including the management object table. When acquiring information from the object management table, acquisition is performed based on the job creation time (jobCreationTime in (FIG. 8B)).
That is, when referring to the entry of each object, FIG.
The operation is performed based on the contents set before the job generation based on the history of the job.

With the above operation, the job can be operated based on the contents of the management object table at the start of the processing of each job.
The setting can be set regardless of the operation of the printer, and the operation of the printer can operate faithfully to the setting at the time of generating the job.

Although the embodiments have been described with reference to printers, it is obvious that the present invention is applicable to peripheral devices such as network printers. In this embodiment, the management object table is copied. However, not all the contents are copied but only the necessary portions are copied. If the copied contents cannot be processed, the same processing is performed using the original table. Although an effect can be obtained, such a processing system can be easily derived from the present invention.

[0034]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a management object table for storing information of a management object is multiplexed in a write request process for a management object that affects the operation of a peripheral device. Does not unnecessarily affect the operation of the peripheral device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the temporary management object table copied at the time of processing a write request for a management object affecting the operation of the peripheral device is written, and the operation state of the peripheral device is changed. Since the contents of the temporary management object table are copied to the main management object table when the device enters the standby state, writing to the management object is unnecessary for the operation of the peripheral device in the case of a peripheral device of an operating system that does not use jobs Management object can be written without giving

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the management object access processing unit for processing a management object inquiry and a write request refers to the contents of the temporary management object table when the peripheral device is operating, and performs the main management in the standby state. Since the object table is referred to, writing to the management object does not unnecessarily affect the operation of the peripheral device in the case of the peripheral device of the operation system that does not use a job.

Advantageous Effect Corresponding to Claim 4: In Claim 3, since the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management object using SNMP, the above operation can be performed by SNMP.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the operation of the peripheral device is managed in units of a job, and the main management object table is copied at the start of each job, and for each job copied in the operation of the job. Since the job is performed using the information in the management object table, writing to the management object does not unnecessarily affect the operation of the peripheral device when the operation is managed by the job.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, the operation is managed by a job because the main management object table is referred to in the management object access processing unit for processing the inquiry and write request of the management object. In addition, the writing of the management object can be performed without unnecessarily affecting the operation of the peripheral device.

Advantageous Effect Corresponding to Claim 7: In claim 6, since the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management object using SNMP, the above operation can be performed by SNMP.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the process of writing a management object that affects the operation of a peripheral device, a history of a management object table for storing information of the management object is provided. Does not unnecessarily affect the operation of peripheral devices.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the eighth aspect, when a write request for a management object that affects the operation of a peripheral device is processed, writing is performed in the management object table with history, and the operation state of the peripheral device is changed to a standby state. At this point, the history entry in the main management object table is enabled, so in the case of a peripheral device of an operating system that does not use a job, writing to the management object does not unnecessarily affect the operation of the peripheral device. Can write.

According to the tenth aspect, in the ninth aspect, the management object access processing unit for processing the inquiry and the write request of the management object refers to the effective contents of the management object table when the peripheral device operates, so that the job is used. In the case of a peripheral device of a non-operational system, the operation of the peripheral device can be performed without writing to the management object unnecessarily affecting the operation of the peripheral device.

According to the eleventh aspect, in the tenth aspect, the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management object with history using SNMP, so that the above operation can be performed by SNMP. .

According to the twelfth aspect, in the eighth aspect, the operation of the peripheral device is managed in units of jobs, and the job is managed by utilizing the information of the management object table with history which was effective at the start of each job. To carry out,
When the operation is managed by the job, the operation of the peripheral device can be performed without the writing of the management object unnecessarily affecting the operation of the peripheral device.

According to the thirteenth aspect, in the twelfth aspect, the management object access processing unit for processing a management object inquiry and a write request refers to a management object table with a history which is effective. In this case, writing to the management object can be performed without unnecessarily affecting the operation of the peripheral device.

According to the fourteenth aspect, in the thirteenth aspect, the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management objects based on the history using the SNMP. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control unit that performs printer control.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a control system that operates on the control unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a management object table used in an SNMP daemon.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a management object table with a history used in an SNMP daemon.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an S in an embodiment that does not use a job model.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a part of the operation of the NMP daemon.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a part of the operation of an SNMP daemon in another embodiment that does not use a job model.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of S in an embodiment that does not use a job model.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a part of the operation of the NMP daemon.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining jobs and their execution order.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Printer control unit, 102: CPU, 10
4 ROM, 105 RAM, 106 memory control unit
107: memory, 108A: parallel circuit I / F, 10
8B: Serial circuit I / F, 109: Line controller, 11
0: engine control unit, 111: engine I / F unit, 11
3 Panel control unit 114 Network control unit 11
5 Network I / F unit 201 lpd 202
SNMP, 203 ... printmgr, 204 ... hos
td, 205: line control device driver, 206: engine control device driver, 207: panel I / O control device driver, 208: network device driver, 209: memory control device driver, 210
... Control OS

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A peripheral device management system comprising: a peripheral device management object; a multiplexed management object table for storing the peripheral device management object information; and reference to the management object table when operating each job. Information processing system. 2. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 1, further comprising a main management object table and a temporary management object table in which the main management object table is copied, wherein a write request processing for the management object is performed. A peripheral device for writing to the copied temporary management object table and copying the contents of the temporary management object table to the main management object table when the operation state of the peripheral device becomes a standby state; Management information processing system. 3. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 2, further comprising: a management object access processing unit that processes an inquiry and a write request for the management object, wherein the management object access processing unit operates as a peripheral device. A peripheral device management information processing system characterized by sometimes referring to the contents of the temporary management object table and referring to the main management object table in a standby state. 4. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 3, wherein the access processing unit processes an inquiry and a write request from a network for the contents of the management object using SNMP. Peripheral device management information processing system. 5. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 1, wherein the operation of the peripheral device is managed on a job-by-job basis, and the main management object table is copied at the start of each job. In operation, a peripheral device management information processing system that performs a job using information of a management object table for each copied job. 6. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 5, wherein a management object access processing unit that processes a query and a write request for the management object refers to the main management object table. Peripheral device management information processing system. 7. The peripheral device management information management system according to claim 6, wherein the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management objects using SNMP. Peripheral device management information processing system. 8. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 1, wherein a management object table for storing information of the management object includes history information. 9. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 8, wherein at the time of a write request process for a management object, writing is performed to a management object table with history information, and the operation state of the peripheral device is set to a standby state. A peripheral device management information processing system characterized in that a history entry of a main management object table is validated at a point in time. 10. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 9, wherein a management object access processing unit that processes a management object inquiry and a write request refers to the effective contents of the management object table when the peripheral device operates. A peripheral device management information processing system, characterized in that: 11. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 10, wherein the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management object with history using SNMP. Peripheral device management information processing system. 12. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 8, wherein the operation of the peripheral device is managed on a job basis, and information of the management object table with a history effective at the start of each job. A peripheral device management information processing system, wherein a job is performed by using a computer. 13. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 12, wherein in the managed object access processing unit that processes the inquiry and write request of the managed object, the valid managed object table with the history is referred to. And a peripheral device management information processing system. 14. The peripheral device management information processing system according to claim 13, wherein the access processing unit processes inquiries and write requests from the network for the contents of the management objects using SNMP based on the history. A peripheral device management information processing system, characterized in that: