JP2003006002A - Method and device for supporting fault analysis - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and device for supporting fault analysis by which information required for the fault analysis can be flexibly selected and the selected information can be automatically collected according to a generating state of a fault. SOLUTION: Information of a faulty state is acquired from a user of a client 2 or a client 3 to be an object of the fault analysis by a WEB page provided by a WEB server 11, and a program acquiring part 12 and a program synthesizing part 13 are operated based on the acquired information of the faulty state and generate a program to collect proper fault information and the WEB server 11 provides the client 2 or the client 3 with the generated program.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure analysis support method and apparatus, and more particularly to a failure analysis method and apparatus for automatically collecting information required to analyze a failure that has occurred in application software or a system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, application software operating on a computer has become more and more complicated and has more functions as the hardware technology has improved. For this reason, various processes required by the user can be executed, but on the other hand, there are many cases where a failure such as not performing the intended operation occurs.

When such a failure occurs, the support usually involves having a conversation with the customer by telephone, checking the occurrence status of the failure, and having the customer collect the information necessary for analyzing the failure. Become. In addition, customers are not always familiar with computers and application software, so they may not be able to gather the information necessary to analyze a failure. You will go to the customer, collect information, and deal with the failure.

As described above, information for analyzing a failure often takes a lot of time, but in reality, many failures can be dealt with by changing only one setting. In this case, This results in wasted time on both the customer and support sides.

Further, the information collected by the customer may have omissions or mistakes, and in this case, more wasted time is spent.

As a means for solving such a problem, a "fault analysis device and a fault detection device" described in JP-A-8-50555 and a "network management device" described in JP-A-8-241255 have been proposed. There is.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned "fault analysis device and fault detection device", although the operation history and the fault occurrence status information are automatically collected, the information to be collected is predetermined. In addition to the lack of flexibility in the information to be collected, it is not possible to deal with the case where the application is operating normally but some unintended operation is performed due to some setting error.

Further, the above-mentioned "network management device"
In the above, the user answers the situation at the time of failure in a question format and shows an appropriate recovery method according to the answer, but it does not perform processing such as automatically collecting information about the failure.

Therefore, the present invention provides a failure analysis support method and apparatus capable of flexibly selecting information necessary for failure analysis according to the occurrence status of a failure and automatically collecting the selected information. The purpose is to

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a failure analysis support method for supporting failure analysis of a target device connected via a network, wherein the connection is performed via a network. The third information for automatically collecting the second information required for failure analysis of the target device from the device based on the first information input from the target device, and the generated third information. Is provided to the target device.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the third information operates in the target device,
It is a program for automatically collecting the second information.

The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the third information is information for operating a program for automatically collecting the second information in the target device. To do.

The invention of claim 4 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the target device includes a system including a plurality of devices.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, a web page for inputting fault information is provided to the target device, and the description content input to the web page is used as the first information. It is characterized by acquiring.

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, in the failure analysis support device for supporting the failure analysis of the target device connected via the network, the first information input from the target device connected via the network. Based on the first information acquired by the information acquisition unit and the third information for automatically collecting the second information required for failure analysis of the target device from the target device. It is characterized by comprising: information generating means for generating; and information providing means for providing the target device with the third information generated by the information generating means.

[0016] The invention of claim 7 is the invention of claim 6, wherein the information generating means generates a program for operating the target device and automatically collecting the second information as the third information. It is characterized by doing.

Further, in the invention of claim 8, in the invention of claim 6, the information generating means uses, as the third information, information for operating a program for automatically collecting the second information in the target device. It is characterized by generating.

Further, the invention of claim 9 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 6, the target device includes a system including a plurality of devices.

According to a tenth aspect of the invention, in the invention of the sixth aspect, the information acquisition means includes an information input page providing means for providing a web page for inputting fault information to the target device. The description content input to the web page provided by the input page providing means is acquired as the first information.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a failure analysis support method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a failure analysis support apparatus to which the present invention is applied and a failure analysis support system using the failure analysis support apparatus. As shown in the figure, the failure analysis support system is configured by connecting the failure analysis support apparatus 1, the client 2 and the client 3 via the Internet 4. The client 2 is a device that is a target of failure analysis, and the client 3 is a system that is a target of failure analysis in which a plurality of devices are connected by a network.

The failure analysis support device 1 and the client 2 or the like need not necessarily be connected via the Internet 4, but may be connected via another network. Further, more clients may be connected as the target of failure analysis.

Further, the failure analysis support device 1 includes a WEB server 11, a program acquisition unit 12, and a correspondence information table 1.
3, a program storage unit 14, and a program composition unit 15 are provided. The failure analysis support device 1 may be configured by one computer device or may be configured as a system in which a plurality of computer devices are connected by a network or the like.

The WEB server 11 provides the WEB page to the clients 2 and 3 and acquires the information input from the clients 2 and 3. The program storage unit 14 stores a program module for acquiring information necessary for failure analysis, and the correspondence information table 13 stores a failure state and a program module necessary for analyzing the state. The correspondence of is recorded. Program acquisition unit 12
Is the correspondence information table 13 based on the information from the clients 2 and 3 acquired by the WEB server 11.
And the program storage unit 1 based on the reference result.
Obtain the required program module from 4. The program synthesis unit 15 synthesizes the program modules acquired by the program acquisition unit 12 to generate a program for acquiring information necessary for failure analysis. The program generated by the program composition unit 15 is provided to the client 2 and the client 3 by the WEB server 11.

The operation of the failure analysis support device 1 will now be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the failure analysis support device 1 and the operation flow of the clients 2 and 3.

First, the user (administrator) of the client 2 or client 3 uses the WEB browser to
When accessing the WEB server 11 (step 10
1), the WEB server 11 provides the WEB page for inputting the information regarding the failure to the client 2 (or the client 3, the same hereinafter) (step 151).

The WEB page provided to the client 2 by the WEB server 11 is as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, for example. The user sequentially inputs the failure information on the WEB page displayed on the WEB browser of the client 2 (step 102).

For example, for the WEB page 200 shown in FIG. 3, the failure type is checked by selecting the selection column 201 and the like, and the button 202 is pressed to proceed to the next WEB page. Next, the WEB page 210 shown in FIG.
The information is displayed according to the failure result selected on the page 200. During this period, the WEB server 11 and the client 2 exchange information as necessary. And WEB
For page 210, select the occurrence status of failure 21
Select by checking 1 etc. It is possible to select more than one occurrence status of this failure.
Press 12 to go to the next WEB page. In the web page 220 shown in FIG. 5, the user name and printer name, which are the information specified in the entry field 221, etc., the time zone in which the failure has occurred, etc. are entered, and in the entry field 222, arbitrary characters are entered. Fill in the columns (keywords, sentences, etc.). Then, when entry into these is completed, press the button 223,
Finish entering information.

When the user finishes inputting the fault information (YES in step 103), the input information is transmitted to the WEB server 11 (step 104).

On the other hand, when the WEB server 11 receives the failure information, it passes it to the program acquisition section 12. The program acquisition unit 12 refers to the correspondence information table 13 based on the failure information passed from the WEB server 11 and acquires a program module for collecting information necessary for failure analysis from the program storage unit 14 (step 15).
3). This acquisition of the program module is repeated until all of the failure information is referenced in all of the correspondence information table 13 (NO in step 154).

In the correspondence information table 13, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the content of the trouble and the program module are managed in association with each other. The content of the trouble is
Actually, it is described as a flag or code.

By the way, the program acquisition unit 12 uses the WEB
The failure information passed from the server 11 is, as described above,
The entry field 222 may include an arbitrarily entered character string. In this case, a predetermined keyword may be detected from the character string, and when the keyword is detected, the program module corresponding to the keyword may be acquired. Further, it is not always necessary to detect the keyword for the character string, and the character string may be recorded as a file so that the staff can refer to it later.

Now, when the program acquisition unit 12 acquires the program module and refers to all of the failure information with all of the correspondence information table 13 (YE in step 154).
S), the program acquisition unit 12 passes the acquired program module to the program composition unit 15, and the program composition unit 15 combines the program modules to generate a failure information collection program (step 155).

The program stored in the program storage unit 14 is a program described in a character string such as a batch file or a shell script, or an execution format in which a program described in a programming language is compiled. The program composition unit 15 concatenates the programs described by the character strings with each other, and generates the batch file and the shell script for sequentially operating the programs for the execution format, Generate a fault information collection program.

Next, the fault information collecting program generated by the program synthesizing unit 15 is passed to the WEB server 11,
The WEB server 11 sends a WEB page for downloading this fault information collection program to the client 2
(Step 156). This WEB page is
For example, a WEB page 230 as shown in FIG. 7,
By pressing the button 231, the user downloads the failure information collection program to the client 2 (step 105).

Then, the program downloaded by the user is executed by the client 2 (in the case of the client 3, the device in which the failure has occurred) (step 10
6), the failure information collection program automatically collects information necessary for failure analysis.

This fault information collection program is, for example,
#! Bin / sh ......... echo "Collect the information necessary for trouble analysis" when the program module is run by a shell script "echo" Save the collected file Please enter the location "logPath = ckpath .... GetErrorLog Job002 PrinterA $ logPath ......... where the information collected for the user is stored. After that, the information is automatically collected and a file is created. "GetErrorLog"
Is an instruction to operate the error information acquisition module. As its arguments, "Job002", "PrinterA", "$
“LogPath” is the job ID, the printer name, and the file name that the user has just input.

When this fault information collection program is executed, error information is obtained from the client 2. For example, when the log information held by the client 2 is as shown in FIG. 8, the failure information collection program acquires the error information 302 from the log information 301 of the designated “PrinterA”. At this time, the error information 302
From among the error information 303 of the specified job ID “Job002”, only the error information 304 of the specified time zone is acquired. And the result is 2000/11/20: *** There is no setting, so the default value is used. 2000/11/20: A3 paper is not available ..... is saved as a file that describes .

If the failure information collection program is to acquire the account information, the "Printe
The account information 305 is acquired from the log information 301 of “rA”. At this time, only the account information 306 of the specified job ID “Job002” is acquired from the account information 305.

When the acquired information is made into a file, the acquired information is described in HTML or the like, which makes it easy to refer to the failure information later.

The file describing this failure information is sent by the user to the support center by e-mail or the like, so that the support side can promptly determine whether the support is to be made by telephone or to be dealt with locally. Fault information can be obtained.

In the above description, the failure analysis support apparatus 1 has been described as providing the failure information collection program to the client 2. However, the failure information collection program itself has been installed in advance in the client 2 and the failure information collection program has been installed. The failure analysis support device 1 provides data for enabling the collection program to collect appropriate failure information.
May be provided to the client 2.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, failure condition information is acquired from a user of a client who is a target of failure analysis, and appropriate failure information is collected based on the acquired failure condition information. Since it is configured to generate a program for providing the generated program to the client, the user can easily collect the failure information regardless of the presence or absence of knowledge for collecting the failure information, The support side can also obtain appropriate trouble information at an early stage. As a result, the action taken when a failure occurs becomes faster.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a failure analysis support device to which the present invention is applied and a failure analysis support system using the same.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the failure analysis support device 1 and a flow of operations of a client 2 and a client 3.

FIG. 3 is a diagram (1) showing an example of a WEB page provided to the client 2 by the WEB server 11.

FIG. 4 is a diagram (2) showing an example of a WEB page provided to the client 2 by the WEB server 11.

FIG. 5 is a diagram (3) showing an example of a WEB page provided to the client 2 by the WEB server 11.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a correspondence information table 13.

FIG. 7 is a diagram (4) showing an example of a WEB page provided to the client 2 by the WEB server 11.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of log information held by a client 2.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Failure analysis support device 2 clients 3 clients 4 Internet 11 WEB server 11 12 Program acquisition department 13 Correspondence information table 14 Program storage 15 Program Composition Department 200 WEB pages 201 selection field 202 button 210 WEB pages 211 selection field 212 button 220 WEB page 221 selection field 222 Selection column 223 button 230 WEB pages 231 button 301 log information 302 Error information 303 Error information 304 Error information 305 Account information 306 Account information

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Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A failure analysis support method for assisting failure analysis of a target device connected via a network, the target device being based on first information input from the target device connected via the network. The failure analysis support method, which comprises generating third information for automatically collecting the second information required for the failure analysis from the apparatus, and providing the generated third information to the target apparatus. 2. The failure analysis support method according to claim 1, wherein the third information is a program which operates in the target device and automatically collects the second information. 3. The failure analysis support method according to claim 1, wherein the third information is information that causes a program that automatically collects the second information to operate in the target device. 4. The failure analysis support method according to claim 1, wherein the target device includes a system including a plurality of devices. 5. The failure analysis according to claim 1, wherein a web page for inputting failure information is provided to the target device, and the description content input in the web page is acquired as the first information. Method. 6. A failure analysis support device for assisting failure analysis of a target device connected via a network, comprising: information acquisition means for acquiring first information input from the target device connected via the network. An information generating unit that generates third information for automatically collecting second information required for failure analysis of the target device from the target device based on the first information acquired by the information acquiring unit, A failure analysis support apparatus, comprising: an information providing unit that provides the target device with the third information generated by the information generating unit. 7. The failure analysis support according to claim 6, wherein the information generation unit operates in the target device and generates a program for automatically collecting the second information as the third information. apparatus. 8. The failure analysis according to claim 6, wherein the information generation unit generates information for operating a program for automatically collecting the second information in the target device as the third information. Support device. 9. The failure analysis support device according to claim 6, wherein the target device includes a system including a plurality of devices. 10. The information acquisition means comprises an information input page providing means for providing a web page for inputting fault information to the target device, and a description input to the web page provided by the information input page providing means. The failure analysis support device according to claim 6, wherein contents are acquired as the first information.