JP2005202449A - Monitor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an information amount required for inquiry of a monitor to a device when a failure or the like occurs in the device. <P>SOLUTION: When a monitoring server 200 receives a trap of the effect that an error such as a paper jam occurs from a printer 300, the monitoring server 200 decides whether related information related to the trap is cached in a cache area 267 or not. When it is cached, the related information is acquired from the cache. When it is not cached, polling is performed to the printer 300 to acquire the related information. Thereby, because the monitoring server 200 can reduce information inquired to the printer by using the cache, increase of network traffic accompanying a monitoring process can be suppressed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for monitoring a device via a network.

  In recent years, in a system that monitors devices connected to a network, it is common to use a protocol called SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).

  In a system using SNMP, an SNMP manager operating on a monitoring device acquires various management information by making an inquiry called polling to an SNMP agent operating on a device. The management information includes, for example, device-specific name and address information, status information indicating various operation states of the device, and the like. Such management information is recorded in a kind of database called MIB (Management Information Base) held by the device.

  In a system using SNMP, when a failure occurs in a device, a message called a trap is notified from the SNMP agent to the SNMP manager. By this notification, the monitoring apparatus can recognize that a failure has occurred in the device.

  However, in general, the amount of information notified to the monitoring device by the trap is not sufficient to accurately grasp the status of the failure that has occurred, so the monitoring device has to inquire the device by polling for detailed information on the failure ( See Patent Document 1 below).

JP 2000-115168 A

  Therefore, the conventional monitoring method has a problem that the network traffic increases with polling the device for detailed information on the failure. In particular, as the number of devices to be monitored increased, the network traffic further increased and could not be overlooked. Such a problem is not limited to the monitoring method using the SNMP protocol, but is a problem common to various methods for monitoring a device via a network.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of information inquired to a device when a failure or the like occurs in the device and to suppress an increase in network traffic.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as the following monitoring device. That is, the monitoring apparatus of the present invention is a monitoring apparatus that monitors a device via a network,
A cache unit that caches management information about the device acquired from the device;
A receiver for receiving a message spontaneously transmitted by the device;
A determination unit that determines whether management information associated in advance according to the type of the message is cached in the cache unit when the message is received;
A gist is provided with an acquisition unit that acquires management information corresponding to the received message from the cache or the device based on the determination result.

  In the monitoring apparatus configured as described above, management information related to the message is acquired from the device or the cache in accordance with the message received from the device. As a mode of using the cache, for example, if the management information to be acquired is cached in the monitoring device, a method of acquiring the management information from the cache can be employed.

  According to such a configuration, even when the amount of information of the message received from the device is small, more detailed information can be acquired by inquiring management information related to the message. Also, by using a cache, it is only necessary to query the device for information that has not been cached, and therefore it is possible to suppress an increase in network traffic associated with acquisition of management information.

  The message sent by the device includes, for example, a trap indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the device, an error message, alert information, etc. The management information acquired from the device or cache includes the name of the device that sent the message And information indicating the state of an anomaly occurring in the device and the location where it occurred.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
It is preferable that the cache unit caches static management information of the device.

  The static management information is information such as the name of the printer, the model number of the toner, the color name of the toner, the name of the lid provided in the printer, the name of the place where the paper jam is detected, for example, when the device is considered as a printer. . Since such static information is unlikely to fluctuate with time, etc., once it is cached in the monitoring device, the frequency of inquiring to the device again can be suppressed, and management information can be efficiently acquired. Is possible.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
Further, a notification unit that notifies at least a part of the acquired management information and a message received from the device to a client connected to the monitoring apparatus via a network may be provided.

  By doing so, the administrator of the device can monitor the device by using a client other than the monitoring device, so that convenience can be improved. Also, when multiple clients are connected to the network, it is not necessary for the device to notify the clients directly of the message, and the monitoring device notifies the client of the message on behalf of the device. Such a load can be reduced.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
Furthermore, a registration unit that registers the correspondence between the message type and the management information to be acquired may be provided.

  By doing so, the administrator can flexibly set the management information that the monitoring apparatus inquires of the device according to the message of the device.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
The determination unit may further determine whether the management information associated in advance according to the type of message is static information.

  According to such a configuration, management information can be acquired in consideration of the type of management information that is static or dynamic. By doing this, for example, even when the cache unit caches not only static management information but also dynamic management information, only the static management information is extracted and acquired from the cache. Can do. If the static management information to be acquired is not cached, or if the management information to be acquired is dynamic management information, the device may be directly inquired. The dynamic management information is information that changes from time to time. When the device is considered as a printer, the management information is information such as the name of the print job being printed, the name of the printer, and the remaining amount of toner and ink.

  In the present invention, the various aspects described above can be applied by appropriately combining or omitting some of them. The present invention can also be configured as a monitoring method in which a computer monitors a device via a network, a computer program for the computer to monitor a device via a network, and the like. In any configuration, the various aspects described above can be applied.

  The computer program may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. As the recording medium, for example, various media such as a flexible disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, and a hard disk can be used.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order based on examples.
A. General configuration of the monitoring system:
B. General configuration of the monitoring server:
C. General printer configuration:
D. Monitoring process:
E. Variation:

A. General configuration of the monitoring system:
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a monitoring system 10 as an embodiment. The monitoring system 10 includes a client 100, a monitoring server 200, and a printer 300, which are connected by a LAN (Local Area Network).

  The monitoring system 10 is a system in which the monitoring server 200 monitors the printer 300 using the SNMP protocol and notifies the client 100 of the monitoring result. Although one printer 300 to be monitored is shown in FIG. 1, the number is not particularly limited. Further, the number of clients 100 is also arbitrary.

  The client 100 is a so-called personal computer and includes a CPU, a RAM, a hard disk drive, a display, and the like. An operating system and a web browser are installed in the hard disk drive. The administrator of the printer 300 can check the monitoring result of the printer 300 by accessing the monitoring server 200 via this Web browser. In the lower part of the client 100 in the figure, an example is shown in which error information indicating that the front cover of the printer named “LP3000” is open is displayed as a monitoring result on the Web browser.

  The monitoring server 200 is a device that monitors the printer 300 using the SNMP protocol. The printer 300 transmits a trap indicating an error state when the toner runs out, the cover is opened, or a paper jam occurs. A trap refers to a message sent spontaneously from a monitoring target device in the SNMP protocol. In accordance with the type of trap transmitted from the printer 300, the monitoring server 200 polls the printer 300 for management information related to the trap (hereinafter also simply referred to as “related information”). Polling refers to inquiring specified management information to a monitoring target device in the SNMP protocol. By doing so, the monitoring server 200 can acquire the detailed information from the printer 300 according to the error state received by the trap and notify the client 100 of the detailed information.

  The related information to be polled is set in advance by the administrator according to the type of trap. The setting contents set by the administrator are recorded in the related information table 266 held by the monitoring server 200. In the lower part of the monitoring server 200 in the figure, the setting contents of the related information table 266 in this embodiment are shown. In this embodiment, as shown in the figure, when the monitoring server 200 receives a trap indicating that the toner has run out from the printer 300, the model number, color name, remaining amount of other toner, printer When the name is inquired as related information and a trap indicating that the cover of the printer 300 is open is received, the name of the cover and the printer name are inquired. When a trap indicating that a paper jam has occurred is received, the print job name, printer name, name of the location where the paper jam occurred, and printer name are inquired. Yes.

  The monitoring server 200 of this embodiment includes a cache area 267 for caching management information acquired from the printer 300. When the related information to be polled is already cached in the cache area 267, the monitoring server 200 acquires the related information from the cache area 267. By doing so, an increase in network traffic accompanying the monitoring process can be suppressed.

B. General configuration of the monitoring server:
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the monitoring server 200. The monitoring server 200 is configured as a computer in which a CPU 210, RAM 220, ROM 230, NIC (network interface controller) 240, HDD (hard disk drive) 250, and the like are connected by a predetermined bus.

  The ROM 230 stores a BIOS (basic input / output system) for initializing the monitoring server 200 and the like. The NIC 240 is a controller that performs control for communicating with the printer 300 and the client 100 via the LAN.

  The HDD 250 is installed with an OS (Operating System) 251, a WWW server program 252 that operates on the OS 251, and an SNMP manager 253. The CPU 210 develops these programs in the RAM 220 and executes them.

  The WWW server program 252 is used for displaying trap information and related information received from the printer 300 on a Web browser operating on the client 100. Such information may be transmitted in response to a request from the Web browser, or may be periodically push-distributed to the Web browser.

  The SNMP manager 253 is software for monitoring the printer 300 using the SNMP protocol. In the lower part of FIG. 2, functional blocks realized by software when the SNMP manager 253 is executed by the CPU 210 are shown. As illustrated, the SNMP manager 253 includes a trap receiver 260, a determination unit 261, a related information acquisition unit 262, a cache unit 263, a notification unit 264, a registration unit 265, and the like.

  The trap receiving unit 260 receives a trap transmitted from the printer 300.

  The determination unit 261 searches the related information table 266 (see FIG. 1) for related information items corresponding to the type of trap received by the trap receiving unit 260, and whether or not the related information has already been cached in the cache area 267. Determine whether. The cache area 267 is secured in a part of the recording area of the HDD 250.

  The related information acquisition unit 262 acquires the related information from the cache area 267 if the related information is cached in the cache area 267 according to the determination result by the determination unit 261, and from the printer 300 that has transmitted the trap if the related information is not cached. .

  When the related information acquired from the printer 300 by the related information acquisition unit 262 is static information, the cache unit 263 caches the information in the cache area 267. Static information refers to information that is unlikely to change over time. For example, information such as a printer name, a toner color name, a toner model number, a paper jam location name, a cover name, and the like. In contrast, the cache unit 263 does not cache information that changes at any time, that is, dynamic information. The dynamic information is, for example, the remaining toner amount, print job name, printer name, and the like. The determination of whether it is dynamic or static is made based on a setting that defines in advance which information each management information belongs to. This setting may be set by an administrator, or may be set automatically by the monitoring server 200 monitoring a change in each management information for a certain period.

  The notification unit 264 notifies the client 100 of the contents of the trap received by the trap reception unit 260 and the related information acquired by the related information acquisition unit 262. The notification is made to the Web browser of the client 100 by using the WWW server program 252 described above. In addition to notifying the Web browser, notification may be made by means such as e-mail.

  The registration unit 265 is a functional unit for receiving settings of the related information table 266 from the administrator of the monitoring system 10. The setting operation can be received, for example, by providing a predetermined GUI (graphical user interface). The GUI may be provided on a display connected to the monitoring server 200, or may be provided on the Web browser of the client 100.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of such a GUI. In this GUI, the type of trap is selected using the leftmost drop-down list DL1, and the related information table 266 is selected by selecting related information to be acquired according to the trap from the right-side dropdown list DL2. Set up. For the setting of the related information table 266, in addition to the GUI, for example, an administrator may create a setting file that describes the correspondence between trap types and related information to be acquired, and allow the SNMP manager 253 to read the setting file. Good.

C. General printer configuration:
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the printer 300. The printer 300 is a network-compatible laser printer, and includes a CPU 310, a RAM 320, a NIC 330, an EEPROM 340, a ROM 350, a printing mechanism 360, a sensor group 370, and the like.

  The printing mechanism 360 is a mechanism for printing on fed paper, and includes a photosensitive drum, a toner cartridge, a paper supply / discharge mechanism, and the like.

  The sensor group 370 includes a sensor that detects the remaining amount of toner of each color, a sensor that detects a paper jam, a sensor that detects that the cover is open, and the like.

  The EEPROM 340 stores an MIB 341 in which various management information of the printer 300 is recorded. FIG. 5 shows an example of management information recorded in the MIB 341. As shown in the figure, in the MIB 341 of this embodiment, the name is recorded as information relating to the printer 300, and the toner ID, color name, toner model number, and remaining amount are recorded as information relating to the toner. As the information regarding the paper jam, the location ID and the name of the paper jam location are recorded. Moreover, a cover ID and a cover name are recorded as information regarding the cover. Information relating to the print job includes a job ID being printed, a job name, and a printer. The MIB 341 may be stored in the RAM 320 instead of the EEPROM 340.

  Various programs such as the print engine 351 and the SNMP agent 352 are stored in the ROM 350. The CPU 310 develops these programs in the RAM 320 and executes them.

  The print engine 351 is a program that performs print processing of a print job received from the client 100 or the like via the NIC 330 by controlling the print mechanism 360.

  The SNMP agent 352 is a program that transmits management information and traps recorded in the MIB 341 to the monitoring server 200 using the SNMP protocol. In the lower part of the figure, functional blocks realized by software when the SNMP agent 352 is executed by the CPU 310 are shown. As shown in the figure, the SNMP agent 352 includes a polling processing unit 380 and a trap transmission unit 381.

  When the sensor group 370 detects the occurrence of an error, the trap transmission unit 381 transmits a notification to that effect to the monitoring server 200. In this embodiment, when it is detected that the cover is open, a cover ID indicating that the cover is open and the location of the open cover is transmitted, and when out of toner is detected, The fact that the toner has run out and the toner ID of the running out toner are transmitted. When a paper jam is detected, the fact that a paper jam has occurred and the location ID of the location where the paper jam has occurred are transmitted.

  When the related information is polled from the monitoring server 200, the polling processing unit 380 searches for the specified related information from the MIB 341 and sends it back.

D. Monitoring process:
FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the monitoring process executed by the CPU 210 of the monitoring server 200. This monitoring process is a process executed for the monitoring server 200 to monitor the printer 300.

  When the CPU 210 receives the trap transmitted from the printer 300 (step S10), the CPU 210 refers to the related information table 266 based on the received trap type and searches for related information to be acquired (step S11). For example, when a trap indicating that the toner has run out is received, as shown in FIG. 1, the model number, color name, remaining amount of other toner, and printer name of the toner are searched as related information to be acquired. The

  Next, the CPU 210 refers to the cache area 267 to determine whether related information to be acquired is cached (step S12). If it is cached (step S12: Yes), the related information is acquired from the cache area 267 (step S13). If it is not cached (step S12: No), the printer 300 is polled to obtain related information (step S14).

  For example, since a toner ID is included in the trap indicating toner out, by specifying a model number or color name corresponding to the toner ID and making an inquiry to the cache area 267 or the printer 300, the model number of the toner out of toner or The color name can be acquired. When inquiring about the remaining amount of other toner, a toner ID other than the notified toner ID may be specified to inquire about remaining amount information.

  If the related information acquired from the printer 300 in step S14 is static information, the CPU 210 caches the related information in the cache area 267 (step S15). That is, only static information is cached in the cache area 267. The CPU 210 performs the processes from step S12 to step S15 for all related information searched in step S11.

  Finally, the CPU 210 notifies the client 100 of the related information acquired from the cache area 267 and the printer 300 and the trapped information. When there is a limit to the amount of information that can be notified, only a part of the related information may be notified. The CPU 210 always executes the monitoring process in a loop while the monitoring server 200 is activated.

  According to the monitoring process described above, the monitoring server 200 can notify the client 100 not only of trapped information but also related information. Therefore, the administrator can know detailed error information of the printer 300. In addition, when the related information to be acquired is cached in the monitoring server 200, the related information is acquired from the cache, so that an increase in network traffic accompanying the acquisition of the related information can be suppressed.

E. Variation:
In the embodiment described above, the cache unit 263 of the monitoring server 200 has been described as caching only static information. However, in this modification, a case will be described in which the cache unit 263 caches all the acquired related information regardless of whether it is static or dynamic.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the monitoring process in this modification. First, when receiving a trap transmitted from the printer 300 (step S20), the CPU 210 refers to the related information table 266 based on the received trap type and searches for related information to be acquired (step S21).

  Next, the CPU 210 determines whether the related information to be acquired is static information (step S22). If the information is static (step S22: Yes), it is further determined with reference to the cache area 267 whether the related information is cached (step S23). If it is cached (step S23: Yes), related information is acquired from the cache area 267 (step S24).

  When the related information is not cached (step S23: No), and when it is determined in step S22 that the related information is not static information (step S22: No), the CPU 210 sends the information to the printer 300. The related information is acquired by polling (step S25). The acquired related information is cached in the cache area 267 regardless of whether it is static or dynamic (step S26).

  Finally, the CPU 210 notifies the client 100 of the related information acquired from the cache area 267 and the printer 300 and the trapped information (step S27). The CPU 210 always executes the monitoring process in a loop while the monitoring server 200 is activated.

  According to the above processing, since the cache is performed regardless of whether the related information acquired from the printer 300 is static information or dynamic information, the load on the CPU 210 associated with the cache processing can be reduced. .

Hereinafter, other modifications will be listed.
(1) Although the printer 300 is described as a laser printer in the embodiments, the printer 300 may be an ink jet printer.

(2) The functional unit realized in software in the embodiment may be realized by hardware.

(3) In the embodiment, the monitoring server 200 monitors the printer 300. However, in the SNMP protocol, not only the printer but also various network devices such as intelligent hubs and routers can be monitored. The present invention can also be applied to monitoring such devices. In this case, for example, when the monitoring server 200 receives a trap indicating that a communication error has occurred from a router, it acquires information such as the name and IP address of the router in which the error has occurred from a cache or a router. Can be taken.

(4) In the embodiment, it has been described that one printer is monitored, but a plurality of printers may be monitored. In this case, static management information common to a plurality of printers may be cached for only one printer. By doing so, the cache capacity can be reduced. The common static management information is, for example, information such as a printer name, a toner color name, and a model number if all printers are the same model.

  As mentioned above, although the Example and various modifications of this invention were demonstrated, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to these, but can take a various structure in the range which does not deviate from the meaning.

It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of the monitoring system as an Example. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of the monitoring server. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of GUI used for the setting of a related information table. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of a printer. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the management information recorded on MIB. It is a flowchart of a monitoring process. It is a flowchart of the monitoring process in a modification.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... monitoring system 100 ... client 200 ... monitoring server 210 ... CPU
220 ... RAM
230 ... ROM
240 ... Network interface controller 250 ... Hard disk drive 251 ... Operating system 252 ... WWW server program 253 ... SNMP manager 260 ... Trap receiver 261 ... Judgment unit 262 ... Related Information acquisition unit 263 ... Cache unit 264 ... Notification unit 265 ... Registration unit 266 ... Related information table 267 ... Cache area 300 ... Printer 310 ... CPU
320 ... RAM
330 ... Network interface controller 340 ... EEPROM
350 ... ROM
351 ... Print engine 352 ... SNMP agent 360 ... Printing mechanism 370 ... Sensor group 380 ... Polling processing unit 381 ... Trap transmission unit

Claims (8)

A monitoring device for monitoring a device via a network,
A cache unit that caches management information about the device acquired from the device;
A receiver for receiving a message spontaneously transmitted by the device;
A determination unit that determines whether management information associated in advance according to the type of the message is cached in the cache unit when the message is received;
An acquisition unit that acquires management information corresponding to the received message from the cache or the device based on the determination result;
A monitoring device comprising: The monitoring device according to claim 1,
The monitoring unit is a monitoring device that caches static management information of the device. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
And a notification unit configured to notify at least a part of the acquired management information and a message received from the device to a client connected to the monitoring apparatus via a network. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
And a registration unit that registers a correspondence relationship between the message type and the management information to be acquired. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
The determination unit further determines whether or not the management information associated in advance according to the type of the message is static information. A monitoring method in which a computer monitors devices over a network,
Caching management information about the device acquired from the device in a cache area;
Receiving a message sent spontaneously by the device;
Determining whether or not management information associated in advance according to the type of the message is cached in the cache area when the message is received;
Obtaining management information corresponding to the received message from the cache or the device based on the determination result;
A monitoring method comprising: A computer program for a computer to monitor a device over a network,
A function of caching management information about the device acquired from the device in a cache area;
A function of receiving a message spontaneously transmitted by the device;
A function for determining whether management information associated in advance according to the type of the message is cached in the cache area when the message is received;
A function of acquiring management information corresponding to the received message from the cache or the device based on the determination result;
A computer program for realizing a computer.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the computer program according to claim 7 is recorded.

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