JP2001282656A - Unit and method for network device control - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a client application from stopping its running, even if a server application as network management software fails to send data to the client application. SOLUTION: A client-server type network device controller, which communicates with a network device, is provided with a display means which displays device information, a communication means which communicates with the server application acquiring and setting information of the device, a data- converting means which converts data sent and received through the communication means, a timer-managing means which manages the communication means by a timer, and a time-out value managing means which manages information on a time-out value used by the timer-managing means. If an error occurs on the server application side, it is detected by the timer management by the client application, and operation for error processing, etc., is carried out in the inside of the client application.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer network, and more particularly, to a network device control apparatus including a network management software, a network device control method, and a computer readable program recorded with the network management software. It relates to a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for managing network devices, there is a method using SNMP / MIB. (S
For details of NMP / MIB, see "Introduction to TCP / IP Network Management Aiming at Practical Management" T.
Rose = work / Takeshi Nishida = translation Toppan Co., Ltd. 19
See the first edition on August 20, 1992).

[0003] SNMP (Simple Network)
According to the Management Protocol network management technology, the network management system includes at least one network management station (NMS), several managed nodes each including an agent, and the management stations and agents exchanging management information. Contains the network management protocol used for By communicating with the agent software on the managed node using the network management software on the NMS, the user can obtain data about the device on the network and change the data in the device.

[0004] When such network management software is used in a distributed environment, it is common to adopt a configuration including a server application having an SNMP network management function and a plurality of client applications which are GUI portions started on each terminal. It is.

[0005] RFC1057 RPC (Remot) is a standard for performing inter-process communication between client terminals and server applications between different terminals.
eProcedure Call) is defined.
RPC is a system in which a group of functions that provide network services are prepared on the server side, and the functions in them can be called from a client process of another terminal on the network, like the functions in the local machine. is there. The flow of the inter-process communication in the RPC is as follows. The client calls an RPC function prepared in the server as a service request to the server. At this point, a data packet containing the function call information is sent to the server and the client program is interrupted. When the server receives the packet, it dispatches the called function (dispatc
h; The server returns the calculation result to the client. Here, it indicates that the OS performs control such as operation assignment), extracts a function argument, executes a service based on the argument, and returns the result to the client. After receiving the result of the function, the client resumes execution of the program. There are two types of connection types between a client and a server in the RPC, a connection type and a connectionless type.

[0006]

However, in the above conventional example, when the server application of the network management software fails to transmit data to the client application, the client application knows the transmission failure of the server application. And the operation of the client application stops.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a network device control apparatus and method which solves the above problems in the network device control apparatus and method.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network device control apparatus for displaying a device information of a network device, acquiring the device information of the network device, and providing the information to the network device. Communication means for communicating with a server application for setting device information, data conversion means for converting data transmitted and received by the communication means, timer management means for managing the communication means by a timer,
By providing a timeout value management means for managing information of a timeout value used by the timer management means, when the server application fails to transmit data to the client application, the timer management by the client application Operations such as error processing can be performed inside the client application.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the network device control method, the timeout value management means of the network device control method stores a timeout value determined according to a characteristic of each synchronization function. Timer management is performed using an appropriate timeout value for each synchronization function, and operations such as error processing can be performed at appropriate timing inside the client application.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the network device control apparatus, the timeout value management means of the network device control method calculates a timeout value in accordance with a characteristic of each asynchronous function, so that each asynchronous function is calculated. It is possible to perform timer management using an appropriate time-out value for each callback and perform operations such as error processing at an appropriate timing inside the client application.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the network device control apparatus, the timer management means of the network device control method notifies error information internally at the time of time-out so that error processing can be performed inside the client application. And the like can be performed.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the network device control apparatus, the timer management means of the network device control method ignores data received from a server application after a time-out, thereby processing an error or the like after a time-out. It is possible to prevent a malfunction of the client application that performed the above.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network device control method, comprising: a display step of displaying device information of a network device; a server for acquiring device information of the network device and setting device information in the network device. A communication step of communicating with an application, a data conversion step of converting data transmitted and received by the communication step, a timer management step of managing the communication step by a timer, and information of a timeout value used by the timer management step. And a timeout value management step of managing the network device.

[0014] A network device control method according to a seventh aspect of the present invention includes the step of storing a timeout value determined according to the characteristics of each synchronization function in the timeout value management step of the network device control method. Network device control method.

The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the timeout value management step of the network device control method comprises:
A network device control method including a step of calculating a timeout value according to characteristics of each asynchronous function.

A ninth aspect of the present invention provides the network device control method, wherein in the timer management step of the network device control method, a step of internally notifying error information when a timeout occurs is provided. is there.

A network according to a tenth aspect of the present invention
The device control method is a network device control method including a program for ignoring data received from a server application after a timeout in the timer management step of the network device control method.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium comprising: a display step of displaying device information; a communication step of communicating with a server application for acquiring and setting device information; A data conversion step of converting data to be performed, a timer management step of managing the communication step by a timer, and a timeout value management step of managing information of a timeout value used by the timer management step. This is a computer-readable storage medium.

A computer-readable storage medium according to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, wherein the timeout value management step of the network device control method stores a timeout value determined according to a characteristic of each synchronization function. Is a computer-readable storage medium having a.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the computer readable storage medium has a program for calculating a timeout value in accordance with characteristics of each asynchronous function in the timeout value management step of the network device control method. This is a computer-readable storage medium.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the timer management step of the network device control method, the computer readable storage medium is readable by a computer having a program for internally notifying error information when a timeout occurs. Storage medium.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, a computer readable storage medium is a computer having a program for ignoring data received from a server application after a timeout in the timer management step of the network device control method. It is a readable storage medium.

[0023]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, a network to which the present invention is applied will be described. FIG. 1 shows a network board (NB) 1 for connecting a printer to a network.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a case where the printer is connected to a printer having an open architecture. NB101 is local
To an area network (LAN) 100, for example,
An Ethernet (registered trademark) interface 10Base-2 having a coaxial connector and a 1 having an RJ-45
It is connected via a LAN interface such as 0Base-T.

A plurality of personal computers (PCs) such as a PC 103 and a PC 104 are also connected to the LAN 100, and under the control of a network operating system, these PCs 103 and 104
1 can be communicated with. Also, PC1
A printer such as the printer 105 connected to the printer 04 may be connected.

A file server 106 is connected to the LAN 100 and has a large capacity (for example, 10
Manages access to files stored on the network disk 107 (100 million bytes). The print server 108 has connected printers 109a and 10
9b, or a printer such as the printer 105 at a remote location.

More specifically, the network shown in FIG. 1 can use network software such as Novell or UNIX (registered trademark) software in order to efficiently communicate between various network members. Although any network software can be used, for example, Novell's NetWare (registered trademark of Novell, hereinafter abbreviated) software can be used. A detailed description of this software package can be found at NetWar
Refer to the online documentation included with the ePackage. This is N from Novell
It can be purchased with the etWare package.

Briefly describing the configuration of FIG. 1, the file server 106 serves as a file manager for receiving or storing, queuing, caching, and transmitting data files between LAN members. For example, the data files created by each of PC 103 and PC 104 are sent to file server 106, which sorts these data files in sequence, and is ordered according to commands from print server 108. The data file is transmitted to the printer 109a.

The PC 103 and the PC 104 are respectively
Generation of data file and L of generated data file
It comprises a normal PC capable of transmitting to the AN 100, receiving a file from the LAN 100, and displaying and / or processing such a file. It should be noted that although FIG. 1 shows a personal computer device, other computer devices that are suitable for executing network software may be included. For example, if using UNIX software, UNIX workstations may be included in the network, and these workstations may be used with the illustrated PC under appropriate circumstances.

Typically, a LAN such as LAN 100 provides services to a somewhat local group of users, such as a group of users on one floor or multiple consecutive floors in a building. For example, a wide area network (WAN) may be created as a user moves away from another user, such as when the user is in another building or another prefecture. A WAN is basically an aggregation formed by connecting several LANs with a high-speed digital line such as an integrated high-speed service digital network (ISDN) telephone line. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
, LAN 110 and LAN 120 are modulated / demodulated (M
ODEM) / transponder 130 and backbone 140 to form a WAN. These connections are simple electrical connections with several buses. Each LAN includes a dedicated PC, and usually, but not necessarily, includes a file server and a print server.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
0 includes a PC 111, a PC 112, a file server 113, a network disk 114, a print server 115, a printer 116 and a printer 117. In contrast, LAN 120 is PC 121
And the PC 122 only. LAN100 and LAN11
0 and the devices connected to the LAN 120 are WAN
Through the connection, functions of other LAN devices can be accessed.

A network board NB for connecting to a network is mounted on the printer 102, and an agent is mounted on this board. Thus, the printer can be managed by the network management software. The user can obtain the information of the printer to be controlled using the network management software and change the status. More specifically, for example, it is possible to obtain a character string displayed on a liquid crystal display of a printer, or to change a default paper cassette.

The PC on which the network management software runs will be described below. In FIG. 2, 200
Is a PC on which network management software runs, which is equivalent to 103 in FIG.

The network management device according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized on a PC having the same configuration as a PC (personal computer) capable of realizing the conventional network management device as shown in FIG. The hard disk (HD) 211 stores a network management software program according to the present invention, which is an operation main body in all the descriptions below. In all of the following description, unless otherwise specified, the subject of execution is the CPU 2 on the hardware.
01. On the other hand, the subject of control on the software is network management software stored on the hard disk (HD) 211. In this embodiment, the OS
The (operating system) is assumed to be, for example, Windows 95 (manufactured by Microsoft), but is not limited to this.

The network management program according to the present invention is a floppy (registered trademark) disk or CD-ROM.
In such a case, the program may be read from the storage medium by a floppy disk controller (FD) 212 or a CD-ROM drive (not shown) shown in FIG. It is installed on the hard disk (HD) 211.

In the following description, the process of the GUI part of the network management software according to the present application is referred to as “Ne”.
The process of the part that communicates with the “tSpot GUI” and the device is called “VDC”.

In FIG. 3 or FIG. 1, the NetSpot GUI process on the PC 103 and the VDC process on the PC 121 are activated to
(Where an SNMP agent is implemented). The NetSpot GUI communicates with the VDC using the inter-process communication function, and the VDC communicates with the device using the SNMP protocol.

To obtain information from the device, Ne
The tSpot GUI performs inter-process communication using a proxy, and transmits device information to be obtained to the VDC. V
The DC receives the information sent from the stub and sends the SNMP
MIB (Manage) from device using protocol
(ment information Base; data relating to the status of the device itself, indicating a data base relating to the status of the device). The acquired information is transmitted from the VDC stub to the proxy using inter-process communication.
The GUI is notified of the callback. NetSpot G
The UI displays device information by performing bitmap display or the like based on the information notified from the VDC by callback.
This example is shown in FIG. In this example, the presence of six devices in the management target range, the product name, network address, and MAC address of each device are displayed, and the state of the device displayed at the bottom is the sleep mode. It is shown that.

To set information in the device, Net
The Spot GUI performs inter-process communication using a proxy, and transmits device information to be set to the VDC. VD
C receives the information transmitted from the stub and sets MIB information in the device using the SNMP protocol. Information indicating the success or failure of the setting is sent from the VDC stub to the proxy using inter-process communication,
The proxy notifies the NetSpot GUI of the callback. The NetSpot GUI displays setting information by performing bitmap display or the like based on information notified from the VDC by callback. This example is shown in FIG. 7 shows a display example of a status sheet of a printer as a device. This figure is a window for managing and controlling network peripheral devices, that is, a device detail window. When a user starts NetSpot in the administrator mode, NetSpot is operated according to the user's instruction.
Is an example showing one display state of windows sequentially displayed. Here, the device shown in FIG. 4 (the lowermost device), LASER SHOT LBP-
930 is shown. From this window, a job sheet, an information sheet, and a network sheet can be selectively displayed. Here, an attempt is made to show a display area relating to an error displayed below the diagram of the printer. NetSpot automatically displays various windows in accordance with the operation status of NetSpot and information obtained from the network even when there is no instruction from the user.
It is not described here.

FIG. 6 shows a window for performing communication with a device according to a request of the NetSpot GUI.

The operation of the NetSpot GUI proxy in a synchronous function will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 7, and the operation in the asynchronous function will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

A called in S101 of FIG.
An appropriate timeout value is obtained according to the characteristics of the PI.
The timeout value is registered in the database for each API of each module. In S102, the data subjected to the synchronization function processing on the VDC (stub) side and marshaling (marshalling) is N
A timer is set using the timeout value calculated in S101 in order to monitor the time during which the proxy returns to the etSpot GUI proxy. In S103, Ne
A request by the synchronization function is made from the tSpot GUI to the proxy. The proxy marshalls the request data and sends it to another process, the VDC. Proxy sends N after sending the marshalled data
To provide a synchronization function to the etSpot GUI, V
A temporarily until data is returned from DC (stub)
Stop the thread where the PI was called. In S104, it is confirmed whether a response has been received from the VDC. VD
If a response is received from C, N
It is checked whether the return value and the argument of the synchronization function have been notified to the etSpot GUI. NetSpot
If the return value and the argument of the synchronization function have already been notified to the GUI, the processing is terminated ignoring the information received from the VDC. When the return value and the argument of the synchronization function have not been notified to the NetSpot GUI, S106
And unmarshalling (expanding) the data received from the VDC to notify a normal return value and argument. Then, the fact that the return value and the argument of the synchronization function have been notified to the NetSpot GUI in S107 is stored. If a response has not been received from the VDC in S104, the process proceeds to S108, and it is checked whether the timer set in S102 has timed out. If the timeout has not occurred, the process returns to S104 and waits for reception of a response from the VDC. If a timeout has occurred, the process advances to step S109, and the return value and argument of the error information are set in the NetSpot GUI
Notify to Then, the process proceeds to S107 and NetSp
It stores that the return value and the argument of the synchronization function have been notified to the ot GUI.

Next, the callback call of the asynchronous function will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
In S201, an appropriate timeout value is calculated according to the called API. The calculation method of the timeout value will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG. S2
In 02, a timer is set using the timeout value calculated in S201 to monitor the time for receiving the callback of the asynchronous function from the VDC. In S203, a request is made from the NetSpot GUI to the proxy using an asynchronous function. The proxy marshalls the request data and creates a separate process, VD
Send to C. In S204, it is confirmed whether a callback for the asynchronous function has been received from the VDC. VDC
If a callback is received from
Check if the callback has already been notified to the etSpot GUI. If the callback has already been notified to the NetSpot GUI, the processing is terminated ignoring the information received from the VDC. NetSpot
If the callback has not been notified to the GUI, S
In step 206, the data received from the VDC is unmarshalled and a normal callback is notified. And S
At 207, the fact that a callback has been made to the NetSpot GUI is stored. VD in S204
If the callback has not been received from C, the process proceeds to S208, and it is confirmed whether or not the timer set in S202 has timed out. If the timeout has not occurred, the process returns to S204 and waits for the reception of the callback from the VDC. If a timeout has occurred, the process advances to step S209 to notify the NetSpot GUI of a callback including error information. Then, the process proceeds to S207, and the fact that the callback is performed to the NetSpot GUI is stored.

A method of calculating a timeout value when acquiring device information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In order to obtain device information, a property indicating attribute data representing the operation status of the device and various settings is used. This set of properties is VDC
, It is possible to obtain information from the device. In step S301, a timeout value A, which is a time to wait for acquisition of one property, is acquired from the database. In S302, a timeout value B based on the operation characteristics of the VDC is obtained from the database. For example, in the acquisition of device information, if acquisition of each property information fails, there is a mechanism for resending the information three times every 3 seconds. Therefore, a timeout value B considering this characteristic is held in the database. . S30
In step 3, using the obtained timeout values A and B, a time for actually waiting for the reception of the callback from the VDC is calculated. In obtaining the device information, a calculation formula of (timeout value A × number of properties) × timeout value B is used.

[0044]

As described above, according to the network device control apparatus and method of the present invention, the communication application of the network management software is implemented by the GUI.
GU if failed to send data to application
By performing timer processing on the I application side, G
Preventing the operation of the UI application from being stopped;
By deleting the information notified after the timeout in the proxy, it is possible to prevent the operation of the GUI application from being disturbed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a case where a network board for connecting a printer to a network is connected to a printer having an open architecture.

FIG. 2 shows a P on which network management software can operate.
It is a block diagram which shows the structure of C.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a state of a PC or a process of inter-process communication when a NetSpot GUI process and a VDC process are activated to manage devices.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which device information is displayed by performing bitmap display or the like based on information notified by a callback from the VDC.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a status (Status) sheet of a device to be managed;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a window of a VDC that communicates with a device to be managed.

FIG. 7 shows NetSpot G in the embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a synchronization function for a UI proxy.

FIG. 8 shows NetSpot G in the embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart showing an operation in an asynchronous function for a UI proxy.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of calculating a timeout value when acquiring device information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Local area network (LAN) 101 Network board (NB) 102 Printer having open architecture 103 Personal computer connected to LAN 100
Computer (PC) 104 Personal computer connected to LAN 100
Computer (PC) 105 Printer connected to PC 104 106 File server connected to LAN 100 107 Network disk included in LAN 100 108 Print server 109a included in LAN 100 Printer 109b connected to print server 108 Print A printer 110 connected to the server 108 a local area network (LAN) 111 a personal computer connected to the LAN 110
Computer (PC) 112 Personal computer connected to LAN 110
Computer (PC) 113 File server connected to LAN 110 114 Network disk included in LAN 110 115 Print server included in LAN 110 116 Printer connected to print server 110 117 Printer connected to print server 110 120 Local Area Network (LAN) 121 Personal Network Connected to LAN 100
Computer (PC) 122 Personal computer connected to LAN 120
Computer (PC) 130 Modulation / Demodulation (MODEM) / Transponder 140 Backbone 200 P on which network management software runs
C 201 CPU that executes a network management program supplied from FD 212 202 ROM of PC 200 203 RAM of PC 200 204 System bus of PC 200 205 Keyboard controller of PC 200 (K
BC) 206 CRT controller of PC200 (CRT
C) 207 PC 200 disk controller (DK
C) 208 Network interface card (NIC) of PC 200 209 Keyboard (KB) of PC 200 210 CRT display (CRT) of PC 200 211 Hard disk (HD) of PC 200 212 Floppy disk drive (FD)

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A client-server type network device control device that communicates with a network device, comprising: display means for displaying device information of the network device; and acquiring device information of the network device;
Communication means for communicating with a server application for setting device information in the network device; data conversion means for converting data transmitted and received by the communication means; timer management means for managing the communication means by a timer; and the timer A network device control apparatus, comprising: a timeout value management unit that manages information on a timeout value used by the management unit. 2. The network device control according to claim 1, wherein the timeout value management means of the network device control method stores a timeout value determined according to a characteristic of each synchronization function. apparatus. 3. The network device control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the timeout value management means of the network device control method calculates a timeout value according to a characteristic of each asynchronous function. 4. The network device control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the timer management means of the network device control method internally notifies error information when a timeout occurs. 5. The network device control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the timer management means of the network device control method ignores data received from a server application after a timeout. 6. A network device control method, comprising: displaying a device information of a network device; acquiring device information of the network device;
A communication step of communicating with a server application that sets device information on the network device; a data conversion step of converting data transmitted and received by the communication step; and a timer management step of managing the communication step by a timer; A timeout value management step of managing information of a timeout value used by the timer management step,
A method for controlling a network device, comprising: 7. The network device control according to claim 6, wherein in the timeout value management step of the network device control method, a timeout value determined according to characteristics of each synchronization function is stored. Method. 8. The network device control method according to claim 6, wherein in the timeout value management step of the network device control method, a timeout value is calculated according to characteristics of each asynchronous function. 9. The network device control method according to claim 6, wherein in the timer management step of the network device control method, error information is notified internally when a timeout occurs. 10. The network device control method according to claim 6, wherein in the timer management step of the network device control method, data received from a server application after a timeout is ignored. 11. A display step of displaying device information of a network device on a computer-readable storage medium, acquiring device information of the network device,
A communication step of communicating with a server application for setting device information in the network device; a data conversion step of converting data transmitted and received by the communication step; a timer management step of managing the communication step by a timer; and the timer A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for executing a time-out value management step of managing time-out value information used by the management step. 12. The time-out value management step of the program recorded on the computer-readable storage medium, wherein a time-out value determined according to characteristics of each synchronization function is stored. A computer-readable recording medium according to claim 10. 13. The timeout value management step of the program recorded on the computer-readable storage medium, wherein a timeout value is calculated according to characteristics of each asynchronous function. Computer readable recording medium. 14. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 10, wherein in the timer management step of the network device control method, error information is notified internally when a timeout occurs. 15. The computer according to claim 10, wherein in the timer management step of the program recorded on the computer-readable storage medium, data received from a server application after a timeout is ignored. A readable recording medium.