JP2002229816A - Fault information acquiring system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fault information acquiring system capable of taking out easily only fault information necessary for fault recovery, and executing quickly the fault recovery by using the acquired fault information. SOLUTION: An execution processing content at the fault generation time in peripheral equipment A1 is preserved in a RAM 12. A fault data collection table 17A wherein the effect that a required part of the RAM 12 is read out in every fault generation spot (down code) is defined is stored beforehand in a hard disc 17. When a fault is generated in the peripheral equipment A1, a CPU 10 reads out the required part of the execution processing content from the RAM 12 on reference to the fault data collection table 17A, and creates a fault information file 17C by using the read-out result as the fault information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fault information obtaining system for obtaining a fault occurring on a printer as information in a system in which a printer as a peripheral device is connected to a computer, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a system in which a printer as a peripheral device is connected to a computer, when a failure occurs in the printer, the contents of the processing executed at the time of occurrence of the failure are stored in a memory of the printer or the computer. It is configured as follows. A printer maintenance person or user performs a memory dump to extract information about a failure, and uses this to perform analysis work for recovery from the failure.

[0003] By the way, it is not limited to the recent remarkable network system but also a stand-alone system. However, there is a case where there is a physical distance between a failed peripheral device and a maintenance person. Many. When a failure occurs in a peripheral device, a maintenance person is dispatched to the site to take out necessary trouble information, or to perform a task of taking out trouble information by a user. More specifically, when extracting the failure information, the content of the execution process at the time of occurrence of the failure is output as failure information by a memory dump.

[0004]

However, since the execution processing contents at the time of occurrence of the failure output by the memory dump uniformly include information irrelevant to the location of the failure, essentially the necessary failure information is output. Sometimes it took time and effort to identify the. In particular, some inexperienced users may not be able to obtain necessary fault information at all, or may not be able to obtain sufficient fault information, and have a problem that it is not possible to quickly take measures against the fault.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been conceived under the circumstances described above, and it is possible to easily extract only the fault information necessary for recovery from a fault. It is an object of the present invention to provide a failure information acquisition system that can promptly recover from a failure using the failure information.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides:
The following technical measures have been taken:

According to the present invention, there is provided a failure information acquisition system for acquiring a failure that has occurred on an apparatus as information, comprising: a storage unit for storing execution processing content when a failure occurs in the apparatus; Refer to the table accommodating means for accommodating a table that defines that a required part of the storage means is read out for each type of failure that may occur above, and the table accommodated in the table accommodating means when a failure occurs in the device. A failure information creation unit that reads a required portion of the execution processing content from the storage unit and creates failure information based on the read result.

According to the preferred embodiment, the table stored in the table accommodating means includes a mail address indicating a notification destination of the fault information for each type of fault, and the fault information created by the fault information creating means is provided. Is transmitted to the notification destination of the corresponding mail address based on the table.

According to another preferred embodiment, the table accommodating means accommodates the table so that its contents can be rewritten.

According to yet another preferred embodiment,
The fault information creating means specifies the fault location as the type of the fault, and reads out only a part of the execution processing contents to be analyzed according to the fault location from the storage means.

According to yet another preferred embodiment,
The failure information creating means acquires environment information indicating an operating environment when a failure occurs in the device, and creates the environment information by including the environmental information in the failure information.

That is, according to the present invention, for example, the failure information is created with reference to the table indicating the correspondence between the location of the failure and the content of the execution processing related thereto, so that the analysis work for the recovery from the failure is performed. In this case, it is possible to easily extract only a part of the execution processing essentially required in relation to the location of the failure as failure information, and to quickly recover from the failure using the obtained failure information. Can be planned.

Further, when the failure information is transmitted to the notification destination of a different e-mail address for each failure location based on the table, it is most suitable to determine the cause of the failure according to the failure location. The person in charge can be notified of necessary trouble information by e-mail. If the contents of the table are rewritable, for example, it is possible to easily change the e-mail address of the person in charge, add or delete a code indicating the type of failure, the location where the failure occurred, and the part to be read as the execution processing content it can. When the failure information includes environmental information, for example, the date and time of the failure and the version of the software being executed at that time can be acquired as the environmental information, and the environmental information is effectively used as a material for determining the cause of the failure. be able to.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing one embodiment of a failure information acquisition system according to the present invention. In the system shown in this figure, a plurality of peripheral devices A1 to A3 are connected to a higher-level device B. In particular, a main part is configured by the peripheral device denoted by reference numeral A1 and the higher-level device B.

The peripheral devices A1 to A3 are, for example, printers and scanners used by being connected to a computer, and are generally connected devices other than the main body of the computer. The peripheral device denoted by reference numeral A1 is used as a printer, and the peripheral device A1 will be described in detail below. The host device B is used, for example, as an office computer, a workstation, or a personal computer. Although not particularly shown, the host device B is connectable to the Internet.

The peripheral device A1 comprises a CPU 10, a ROM 1
1, RAM 12, interface 13, communication unit 14,
It has a schematic configuration including a display unit 15, a printing unit 16, a hard disk 17, and the like. CPU 10, ROM
The RAM 11, the RAM 12, and the interface 13 are interconnected by a bus line 18. The bus line 18 includes an address bus, a data bus, and a control signal line. The communication unit 14, the display unit 15, the printing unit 16, and the hard disk 17 are connected to the interface 13.

The CPU 10 controls the operation of the entire peripheral device A1. Although not particularly shown, the CPU 10 has a built-in real-time clock circuit for measuring the current time. The ROM 11 stores a program to be executed by the CPU 10 and the like. The RAM 12 provides a work area for the CPU 10 and a storage area for various data. In particular, the RAM 12 functions as a stack memory for storing the contents being executed when a failure occurs in the peripheral device A1. The interface 13 exchanges various data and control commands between the bus line 18 and the outside. The communication unit 14 exchanges data and control commands with the host device B. The display unit 15 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, and is operated by a user's key operation or CP.
A message or the like according to the control of U10 is displayed. The printing unit 16 performs a printing operation in response to a command from the CPU 10. The hard disk 17 is used to store a failure data collection table 17A described later, an environment information file 17B, a failure information file 17C, and the like.

The host device B is provided with hardware and software as a general computer, and the details thereof are not shown in the drawings. However, the peripheral device A1 is particularly related to the present invention. A management application B1 for management is provided. The management application B1 includes a failure information selection unit B1a and a mail transmission / reception unit B1b for executing a function described later.

The main point will be described.
May cause some failure while processing data. For example, a failure in a communication process with the host device B, a failure in a data analysis process such as analysis of print data, a failure in a display process related to the display unit 15, a failure in a data development process such as development of print data, various Failure in the control process.

When such a failure occurs, the CPU 10 of the peripheral device A1 can identify the process in which the failure has occurred and, at the same time, identify the location of the failure in the process. The failure location here is the CPU 1
Part of a task that has a problem in execution processing, such as 0
It cannot be specified by the user or the like. On the other hand, when a failure occurs, the content of the execution process at the time of the failure is stored in the RAM 12 of the peripheral device A1 as it is. The contents of the execution process at the time of occurrence of a failure stored in the RAM 12 can be output by a memory dump as failure information serving as a clue for failure recovery, and the output results of the memory dump include all execution processes that were being executed at the time of the failure occurrence. Since the contents are included, it is difficult for a user or the like to find the cause of the failure even if the failure information is viewed by the memory dump.

For this reason, in the present embodiment, a location where a failure may occur for each process is represented by a down code, and a check point dump is stored for each down code as a RAM.
12, a table address to be read is defined, and a failure data collection table 17A including such table definition information is stored in the hard disk 17 in advance.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the failure data collection table 17A. As shown in FIG.
The failure data collection table 17A is classified for each process (task) that causes a failure. The table of each process includes a mail address and a table address for each down code. The e-mail address is used to notify failure information by e-mail to the maintenance person who is most suitable for locating the cause of the failure according to the failure location, and is specified for each down code corresponding to the failure location I have. On the other hand, the table address is
A part of the execution processing content corresponding to the failure occurrence location is in the RAM 1
2 is a pointer indicating that the data is stored in the specified area, and a part of the execution processing content corresponding to the location of the failure based on the table address is stored in the RAM 12 as failure information.
Is read from.

In other words, if a fault occurs in the peripheral device A1, the CPU 10 of the peripheral device A1 refers to the fault data collection table 17A to execute the most effective execution process at the time of occurrence of the fault as a material for determining the cause of the fault. A part of the contents is read from the RAM 12 and created as a failure information file 17C. The failure information file 17C thus created is stored in the hard disk 17
While being transferred to the host device B or the like in response to an output request. In the higher-level device B, the failure information file 17C is transmitted to the appropriate maintenance staff as an e-mail attachment via the mail transmission / reception unit B1b of the management application B1. The contents of the failure data collection table 17A can be rewritten by directly operating the peripheral device A1 or through the management application B1 of the higher-level device B. As a result, for example, it is possible to easily change the mail address of the person in charge of maintenance, and add or delete a down code or a table address.

On the other hand, the failure information file 17C includes a part of the execution processing content at the time of occurrence of a failure as described above, and also includes environment information relating to an operating environment at the time of occurrence of the failure. The environment information means the date and time of occurrence of a failure, the version of driver software for controlling the peripheral device A1 by the host device B, and the like. Environmental information other than the failure, such as the date and time when the failure occurred, is stored when the peripheral A1 starts up.
It can be imported from the environment information file 17B created by the PU 10. The maintenance person who has received the failure information file 17C
By referring to the failure information and the environment information included in C, the execution processing environment at the time of occurrence of the failure can be clearly grasped.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the contents of the failure information file 17C. As shown in FIG.
The failure information file 17C includes “down code”, “transmission mail address”, “date and time of file creation”, “version of peripheral software”, “table contents at the time of failure”, “environment information file”, and the like. The “down code” indicates a failure location at the time of the failure. "Outgoing email address"
Indicates the mail address of the maintenance person to whom this failure information file 17C is to be transmitted. The “file creation date and time” indicates the date and time when the failure information file 17C was created, that is, the failure occurrence date and time. The “version number of peripheral software” indicates a version of driver software or the like. "Table contents at the time of failure" is stored in RAM according to the down code.
12 represents the dump list read from the memory 12. "Environment information file" indicates the contents of the environment information file 17B at the time of occurrence of the failure. The failure information file 17C having such contents is exchanged between the peripheral device A1 and the higher-level device B, or between the higher-level device B and a maintenance person.

The hard disk 17 of the peripheral device A1
When a plurality of failure information files 17C are stored in the host device B, the management application B1
By operating the failure information selection unit B1a, a required failure information file 17C can be searched for by using a failure occurrence location, an operating environment at the time of failure occurrence, or a keyword related to the failure as a search condition.

Further, the host device B can extract the environment information file 17B from the hard disk 17A of the peripheral device A1 through the management application B1. After that, in the higher-level device B, a process of porting the contents included in the environment information file 17B to other peripheral devices (not shown) through the management application B1 is performed, and the same execution processing environment as at the time of occurrence of the failure is changed to another system. Can be reproduced above.

Next, the operation of the present system will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the environment information acquisition processing in the peripheral device A1. As shown in this figure, when the CPU 10 of the peripheral device A1 is started up by turning on the power regardless of whether there is a failure, the CPU 10 mainly acquires various device environment and setting information from inside the peripheral device A1 (S1). The device environment acquired at this time,
The setting information includes, for example, the type and version of a communication protocol defined with the higher-level device B, a network address, and the like.

Subsequently, the CPU 10 obtains the version number of the peripheral software from the host device B (S2). As described above, the version number of the peripheral software means the version of the driver software for controlling the peripheral device A1.

The CPU 10 that has obtained various information in this way
Creates an environment information file 17B in which the information is summarized as environment information in a content (S3).

Finally, after storing the created environment information file 17B in the hard disk 17 (S4), the CPU 10 ends the environment information acquisition processing.

Next, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the failure information acquisition processing in the peripheral device A1.
As shown in the figure, the CPU 10 of the peripheral device A1 is in the event that any failure occurs during operation or startup (S10).
11: YES), the down code corresponding to the failure occurrence location is specified (S12).

Subsequently, the CPU 10 inquires the specified down code in the failure data collection table 17A (S1).
3).

If there is a corresponding down code in the failure data collection table 17A (S14: YES), the CPU 1
0 reads the table address corresponding to the down code from the failure data collection table 17A, and reads the execution processing content from the RAM 12 based on the table address (S15). The contents of the execution processing read out in this way are stored in the RAM 12 at the time of the occurrence of the failure, but are a part of the contents of the execution processing corresponding to the failure occurrence location (down code).

The CPU 10 that has read the contents of the execution processing corresponding to the location where the failure has occurred creates a failure information file 17C in which the contents of the execution processing are summarized as the failure information (S16). At this time, the failure information file 17
As described above, the contents of C include "downcode",
"Sending mail address", "File creation date and time", "Version number of peripheral software", "Table contents at the time of failure", "Environment information file" and the like are included.

Finally, the CPU 10 stores the created failure information file 17C in the hard disk 17 (S17), and ends this environment information acquisition processing.

In S14, when there is no corresponding down code in the failure data collection table 17A (S14: N
O), the CPU 10 reads out the execution processing content within the general range that has been taken into the RAM 12 at the time of occurrence of the failure (S
18) Then, the process proceeds to S16, where the failure information file 17C
Create Here, the execution processing content within the general range means all execution processing contents that can be output by memory dump. In other words, if an appropriate execution process is not specified in accordance with the location of the failure, a failure information file 17C including all the execution processes is created.

In S11, even if the failure does not occur (S11: NO), for example, if there is an access request for confirming the current operation status from the host B, the CPU 10 proceeds to S18. The execution processing contents within the general range are read out, and thereafter, the process proceeds to S16 to create the failure information file 17C. In this case, since there is no fault occurrence location in the first place, a fault information file 17C including all the current execution processing contents is created.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the failure information file operation processing in the host B. In the following, a description will be given mainly of a processor of the higher-level device B (not shown) that controls the operation of the higher-level device B as a whole.

As shown in FIG. 6, the processor of the higher-level device B responds to an operation of a user or the like who wants to take in the fault information file 17C from the peripheral device A1.
Is inquired as to whether the failure information file 17C exists (S21).

If the failure information file 17C exists (S21: YES), the processor determines whether or not the user has selected a mode for performing a search for the failure information (S22).

When the search mode is selected (S22: Y
ES), the processor displays a screen for inputting a search keyword on a monitor (not shown) provided in the host device B (S23).

In response, a keyword relating to the fault information is input, and when the input is determined (S24: YE)
S), the processor stores the failure information file 17C corresponding to the keyword in the hard disk 17 of the peripheral device A1.
It is inquired whether or not it exists within (S25).

Fault information file 1 corresponding to the keyword
If 7C exists (S25: YES), the processor fetches the failure information file 17C from the peripheral device A1 (S26). The failure information file 17C thus captured by the host device B is stored in the management application B1.
And is stored in a hard disk (not shown) of the higher-level device B and used for display and printing.

Thereafter, when an operation to transmit the failure information file 17C by e-mail is performed from the upper apparatus B (S27: YES), the processor reads the mail address from the contents of the failure information file 17C to be transmitted. Then, while generating an e-mail addressed to the read mail address, the e-mail is transmitted with the trouble information file 17C as an attached file (S28), and the trouble information file operation processing ends. That is, the transmitted e-mail is sent to the failure information file 17C attached to it.
Is sent to the maintenance person who is most suitable for locating the cause of the failure with reference to the information, and the maintenance person performs the analysis work for the restoration of the failure by using the failure information and the environmental information included in the failure information file 17C as clues. You can do it.

The environment information can be automatically transferred to the peripheral devices B2 and B3 other than the peripheral device A1 that has failed under the control of the host device B. The same execution processing environment as that at the time of the failure occurrence can be set and reproduced in B3. Of course, the maintenance staff can manually set the environment information included in the failure information file 17C, and reproduce the same execution processing environment as when the failure occurred.

In S27, if the operation for transmitting the e-mail is not performed (S27: NO), the processor ends the failure information file operation process.

In S25, if the failure information file 17C corresponding to the keyword does not exist in the hard disk 17 (S25: NO), the processor returns to S23 and displays the search keyword input screen again.

If the input of the keyword is not determined in S24 (S24: NO), the processor proceeds to S23.
And the display of the search keyword input screen is continued until the input of the keyword is determined.

In S22, if the user instructs to take in the failure information file 17C without selecting the search mode (S22: NO), the processor skips a series of processes associated with the search in S23 to S25. To S26.

At S21, the failure information file 17C
Does not exist at all (S21: NO), the processor ends the failure information file operation processing. At this time, a message indicating that the failure information file 17C does not exist may be displayed.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when a maintenance person performs an analysis operation for recovery from a failure using the failure information file 17C, the failure essentially required in relation to the failure occurrence location is performed. Information and environmental information can be received by e-mail, the cause of the failure can be ascertained using the failure information and the environmental information as clues, and the failure can be quickly recovered.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

The peripheral device A1 may have the main function of the higher-level device B and function independently. Conversely, the higher-level device B may have the main function of the peripheral device A1 and operate independently. It may be one that functions with.

The maintenance technician receives the e-mail via a terminal device such as a computer. The terminal device for the maintenance technician to receive the e-mail is the system of the peripheral device A1 and the host device B. In addition to being on a different system, they may be on the same system.

Although the failure data collection table 17A has a two-dimensional array format for each process as shown in FIG. 2, it may have a one-dimensional array format according to the size of the system.

The failure data collection table 17A is
Instead of the hard disk 17, it may be stored in another storage device such as an EEPROM or a flash memory. Similarly, the environment information file 17B and the failure information file 17C may be stored in a storage device other than the hard disk 17.

When importing the failure information file 17C into the upper-level device B or sending an e-mail, the user or the like must operate the upper-level device B, but the operation corresponding to these operations is transmitted to the management application B1. It may be automatically executed based on the information.

(Supplementary Note 1) A failure information acquisition system for acquiring a failure that has occurred on a device as information.
A storage unit for storing the contents of execution processing when a failure occurs in the device, and a table for storing a table defining that a required part of the storage unit is read for each type of failure that may occur on the device. When a fault occurs in the storage unit and the device, a required part of the execution processing content is read from the storage unit with reference to the table stored in the table storage unit, and fault information is created based on the read result. And a failure information creating means. (Supplementary Note 2) The table stored in the table accommodating unit includes a mail address indicating a notification destination of the fault information for each type of fault, and stores the fault information created by the fault information creating unit in the table. 2. The failure information acquisition system according to claim 1, further comprising: a mail transmission unit configured to transmit a mail address to a notification destination of a corresponding mail address based on the mail address. (Supplementary note 3) The failure information acquisition system according to Supplementary note 1 or 2, wherein the table is stored in the table accommodating means so that its contents can be rewritten. (Supplementary Note 4) The failure information creating unit specifies the failure occurrence location as the type of failure, and reads out only a part of the execution processing content to be analyzed according to the failure occurrence location from the storage unit. 3. The failure information acquisition system according to any one of 3. (Supplementary Note 5) The failure information creating unit acquires environment information indicating an operating environment when a failure occurs in the device,
Create this environmental information by including it in the above failure information.
5. The failure information acquisition system according to any one of claims 1 to 4. (Supplementary Note 6) Fault information search for obtaining desired fault information by executing a search based on a fault type, environmental information, or a keyword from a plurality of fault information created by the fault information creating means. 6. The failure information acquisition system according to any one of supplementary notes 1 to 5, further comprising: (Supplementary Note 7) An execution processing environment setting unit that extracts the environment information through a management application of a higher-level device that manages the device, transplants the environment information to another device, and sets the same execution processing environment as when a failure occurs. Supplementary note 5
Failure information acquisition system described in. (Supplementary note 8) The failure information acquisition system according to any one of Supplementary notes 1 to 7, wherein the device that causes the failure is a peripheral device of a computer.

As described above, according to the present invention,
For example, failure information is created by referring to a table that indicates the correspondence between the failure location and the contents of the execution processing related to the failure location. Therefore, when performing analysis work for failure recovery, Essentially only a part of the necessary execution processing contents can be easily extracted as the failure information, and the failure can be promptly recovered using the obtained failure information.

Further, when the failure information is transmitted to the notification destination of a different e-mail address for each failure location based on the table, it is most suitable for ascertaining the cause of the failure according to the failure location. The person in charge can be notified of necessary trouble information by e-mail. If the contents of the table are rewritable, for example, it is possible to easily change the e-mail address of the person in charge, add or delete a code indicating the type of failure, the location where the failure occurred, and the part to be read as the execution processing content it can. When the failure information includes environmental information, for example, the date and time of the failure and the version of the software being executed at that time can be acquired as the environmental information, and the environmental information is effectively used as a material for determining the cause of the failure. be able to.

If a desired failure information is obtained by performing a search from a plurality of pieces of failure information based on the type of the failure, environmental information, or a keyword, only the failure information corresponding to the request is reliably extracted. be able to.

Further, by extracting environment information through the management application of the higher-level device and porting this environment information to another device to set the same execution processing environment as that at the time of the failure, the time at which the failure occurs can be determined. Reproduction for failure recovery can be performed smoothly under similar conditions.

Further, if the device causing the failure is a peripheral device of a computer, it is possible to accurately obtain information on the failure that has occurred in such a peripheral device, and to quickly recover from the failure based on the obtained information. Can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a failure information acquisition system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a failure data collection table.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the contents of a failure information file.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of environment information acquisition processing in a peripheral device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of a failure information acquisition process in a peripheral device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of a failure information file operation process in a higher-level device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 CPU 11 ROM 12 RAM 13 Interface 14 Communication unit 15 Display unit 16 Printing unit 17 Hard disk 17A Failure data collection table 17B Environment information file 17C Failure information file A1 to A3 Peripheral device B Host device

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takae Takara 35th Saho, Kato-gun, Hyogo Pref.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A failure information acquisition system for acquiring a failure that has occurred on an apparatus as information, comprising: a storage unit that saves execution processing content when a failure occurs in the apparatus; A table accommodating means for accommodating a table defining that a required portion of the storage means is read out for each type of possible failure; and a table accommodated in the table accommodating means when a failure occurs in the device. A failure information creation unit that reads a required portion of the execution processing content from the storage unit with reference to the failure information, and creates failure information based on the read result. 2. The table stored in the table accommodating means includes a mail address indicating a notification destination of the fault information for each type of fault, and stores the fault information created by the fault information creating means in the table. 2. The failure information acquisition system according to claim 1, further comprising: a mail transmission unit configured to transmit to a notification destination of a corresponding mail address based on the information. 3. The fault information acquiring system according to claim 1, wherein said table accommodating means stores said table in a rewritable manner. 4. The fault information creating means specifies a fault occurrence location as a type of the fault, and reads out only a part of the execution processing contents to be analyzed according to the fault occurrence location from the storage means. 4. The failure information acquisition system according to any one of 1 to 3. 5. The failure information creating means acquires environment information indicating an operating environment when a failure occurs in the device, and creates the environment information included in the failure information. The failure information acquisition system according to any of the above.