JP2007226287A - System environment reproducing method and system environment correcting method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reproduce the state of a computer currently being used by a system without a bad influence on the system. <P>SOLUTION: This method includes a step for copying the information of a storage medium currently being used by the computer of the system, and a step for reproducing the state of the computer using a virtual computer based on the copied information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system environment reproduction method for reproducing a system environment using a computer and a system environment correction method for correcting the system environment using a computer.

  When an abnormality occurs in a plant system, in general, the cause is various, such as hardware, software, field equipment, and network, and it is difficult to specify. In recent years, personal computers have been used as handy hardware for plant control based on continuous operation 24 hours a day, 365 days, and failures caused by software used in personal computers have also occurred frequently. Tend to increase. When a failure caused by software occurs, the software provider or developer usually pursues the cause by constructing a reproduction environment based on information from the plant site.

  For example, if there is a possibility of software failure, collect information such as the occurrence status and system configuration, build a site reproduction environment in the department that developed the software, incorporate a log, apply a debugger, etc. Generally, a method of investigating the cause of the failure is used. In addition, in the process of creating an on-site reproduction environment, in order to collect information on abnormal conditions that occurred on site, we listened to the occurrence of abnormalities and the system configuration via telephone or e-mail, and sometimes an engineer went to the site directly to detect abnormalities. Human work such as investigating the condition is required.

  In addition, after the correction of the software is completed, it is necessary to mount the corrected version of the software on a personal computer at the site and check the operation at the site.

  Patent Document 1 describes a method of reproducing a hardware failure in an operation test of a computer system.

JP-A-6-139093

  However, if the computer used in the field is a general-purpose personal computer, there are various types of hardware and installed software, and it takes a lot of man-hours just to create a reproduction environment. There are many things to become.

  To understand the abnormal condition at the site, detailed information such as the situation at the time of the abnormality, the procedure performed before the occurrence, the system configuration is necessary, and the situation is heard from the customer who is the user of the plant system It often takes a long time. In addition, grasping the situation often requires work in the plant system, which may increase the work burden on the customer. Furthermore, in the event of special abnormalities that occur less frequently, the target personal computer cannot be rebooted or used for another task at least until the necessary information collection is completed. It may affect the production efficiency of the system.

  In addition, in order to reproduce a failure in the plant system, it is necessary to prepare a personal computer having the same configuration as that used in the plant system, but the combination of personal computer and peripheral hardware is installed or installed. There are innumerable combinations of software, and building the same environment is not practical.

  If the plant system can be operated directly and the deficiencies can be corrected, the fault can be investigated and removed at an early stage. However, it is usually not realistic to stop the operation of the plant, and it is impossible to change the plant system unnecessarily.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a system environment reproduction method and a system environment correction method capable of reproducing the state of a computer used in the system without adversely affecting the system.

The system environment reproduction method of the present invention is a system environment reproduction method for reproducing the environment of a system using a computer, the step of copying information on a storage medium used in the computer of the system, and the copied information And a step of reproducing the state of the computer using a virtual computer.
According to this system environment reproduction method, since the state of the computer used in the system is reproduced using the virtual computer, the state of the computer used in the system can be reproduced without adversely affecting the system. .

  In the duplicating step, the information may be duplicated while the computer of the system is functioning.

  In the step of reproducing the state of the computer, a virtual environment for accepting operations on the system may be formed.

The system environment correcting method of the present invention is a system environment correcting method for correcting a system environment using a computer, the step of copying information on a storage medium used in the computer of the system, and the copied information And a step of accepting rewriting of the information while reproducing the state of the computer using a virtual computer, and a step of writing the rewritten information to a storage medium of a computer of the system. .
According to this system environment reproduction method, since the state of the computer used in the system is reproduced using the virtual computer, the state of the computer used in the system can be reproduced without adversely affecting the system. . In addition, since the rewriting of the information in the storage medium is accepted while reproducing the state of the computer using the virtual computer, the system environment can be easily corrected.

  In the duplicating step, the information may be duplicated while the computer of the system is functioning.

  In the step of accepting the operation, a virtual environment for accepting an operation on the system may be formed, and the information may be rewritten according to the accepted operation.

  According to the system environment reproduction method of the present invention, since the state of the computer used in the system is reproduced using a virtual computer, the state of the computer used in the system can be changed without adversely affecting the system. Can be reproduced.

  According to the system environment correcting method of the present invention, since the state of the computer used in the system is reproduced using a virtual computer, the state of the computer used in the system can be changed without adversely affecting the system. Can be reproduced. In addition, since the rewriting of the information in the storage medium is accepted while reproducing the state of the computer using the virtual computer, the system environment can be easily corrected.

  Next, an embodiment of a system environment reproduction method according to the present invention will be described.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the system environment reproduction method according to the present invention is applied to environment reproduction of a plant system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for implementing the system environment reproduction method of the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the plant system 1 is configured using a personal computer 2. For example, the personal computer 2 executes monitoring and control of field devices provided in the plant system 1.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a hard disk 21 is mounted on the personal computer 2. The hard disk 21 stores various software programs used by the personal computer 2. The hard disk 21 stores various data reflecting the current state of the personal computer 2 temporarily or for a long time.

  On the other hand, a software program developer that provides a software program used in the personal computer 2 provides a service for investigating and eliminating a system failure by reproducing the system environment of the customer. As shown in FIG. 1, the system 3 of the development manufacturer includes a computer 4 for reproducing the system environment. In FIG. 1, the plant system 1 corresponds to one of customers.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a procedure of the system environment reproduction method according to the present embodiment.

  When a failure occurs in the plant system 1, the development manufacturer receives a notification of the occurrence of the failure and acquires the disk image from the hard disk 21 of the personal computer 2 (step 1).

  In general, a “disk image” refers to the entire information of a hard disk converted into a single file, and the created disk image is expanded (restored) to another hard disk, whereby the hard disk is cloned (duplicated). Also, by expanding (restoring) on the same hard disk, it replaces the hard disk information at the time of creating the disk image. There are many commercially available packaged software for obtaining a disk image because it eliminates the trouble of re-installing from an OS (operating system) by creating and restoring a disk image.

  In step 1, a disk image of the hard disk 21 can be obtained using commercially available package software. Further, while the disk image of the hard disk 21 is acquired, the personal computer 2 functions in the same manner as in normal times, and the operation of acquiring the disk image does not affect the plant system 1. For example, software that is functioning normally on the personal computer 2 can continue to function.

  Next, the environment of the plant system 1 is reproduced using the disk image of the hard disk 21 (step 2).

  Here, the state of the personal computer 2 is reproduced by the virtual computer 2 </ b> A created using the computer 4. The virtual computer 2A is generated by an emulator mounted on the computer 4, and the virtual computer 2A operates in substantially the same manner as the personal computer 2. Commercially available package software that provides an emulator exists, and in Step 2, these commercially available software can be used.

  In step 2, the disk image of the hard disk 21 is converted into the virtual computer 2A. That is, the disk image of the hard disk 21 that physically exists is migrated so as to operate on the virtual computer 2A, and functions as the hard disk 21A of the virtual computer 2A. Generally, the same hardware and the same peripheral device are required for the development of the disk image. However, by converting the disk image to operate on the virtual computer 2A, the hardware dependency information is shared. Currently, commercial package software for companies exists as software for converting a disk image, and such commercially available software can be used.

  With the above procedure, the virtual computer 2A can be created inside the computer 4 as a host computer. The virtual computer 2A can operate independently as a single computer without being affected by the computer 4 as a host computer.

  Next, the development manufacturer uses the virtual computer 2A to perform trouble investigation and trouble removal work. For example, it is investigated whether the failure is based on a defect in the software program itself, or occurs in the context of hardware or other software. Also, the cause of the failure is removed by correcting the software program or other inconveniences according to the cause of the failure found by the investigation. Such work is reflected in real time on the state of the virtual computer 2A, as in the case where the same work is performed on the plant system 1. The state of the virtual computer 2A is expressed in real time as information on the hard disk 21A.

  After the work for removing the fault is completed, next, an operation check on the virtual computer 2A is performed (step 4). When normal operation is secured, the state is reflected in the information on the hard disk 21A.

  Next, the disk image of the hard disk 21A in a normal state is converted and installed in the plant system 1 (step 5). That is, the information on the hard disk 21 of the personal computer 2 is rewritten with information in a normal state. As a result, the result of the fault removal work using the virtual computer 2A is reflected in the plant system 1 as it is. By restarting the personal computer 2, the plant system 1 acquires a normal operating state (step 6).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, by creating a disk image for the computer environment of the personal computer 2 in which an abnormality has occurred, creating a clone of the system and converting the disk image into a virtual computer environment, The field environment of the plant system 1 can be reproduced on the virtual computer 2A. Further, since the operation to the reproduction environment is almost the same value as the virtual operation to the plant system 1 at the site, it approaches an ideal failure investigation method in which the customer's plant system 1 is directly operated, and the plant system. It is not necessary to consider the influence on others by manipulating 1 directly.

  The advantages of the system environment reproduction method of this embodiment will be described below.

  (1) According to the present embodiment, the reproduction environment of the plant system 1 can be quickly constructed only by transferring the disk image of the personal computer 2 used in the plant system 1 to the virtual computer 2A. Therefore, when requesting information collection from a customer, it is only necessary to instruct the collection of a disk image, and there is no need for complicated operations such as collecting detailed circumstances up to the occurrence of a failure, such as the system configuration and the situation at the time of the failure. It becomes. In addition, it is possible to reduce the burden on the customer, such as answering questions from development manufacturers.

  (2) Since the disk image is an abnormal state itself when the image is created and the entire state of the plant system 1 is stored as an image, the hardware information to the software information installed in the personal computer 2 are the same. It becomes. That is, a clone of the computer environment is created. Therefore, the reproduction environment can be constructed accurately, and the plant system 1 is directly operated virtually. Unlike the direct manipulation of the plant system 1 to operate the virtual system, there is no need to consider the adverse effects on the plant system 1, and the development manufacturer can concentrate on the failure investigation.

  (3) Regarding the migration of the disk image to the virtual computer 2A, the hardware-dependent information in the disk image is automatically converted for the virtual computer 2A. For this reason, a reproduction environment can be constructed without preparing the same hardware as the plant system 1 one by one. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, a reproduction environment can be easily constructed.

  (4) The virtual computer 2A is close to the customer's plant system 1 itself, and if the operation check after correcting the failure is performed by the virtual computer 2A, it is almost the same value as the operation check in the customer system. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the trouble of performing the operation check again in the customer system using the conventional failure correction version, and it is possible to execute the operation check in a short time.

  (5) According to this embodiment, when the disk image is created, the computer environment of the personal computer 2 in an abnormal state has been cloned. Therefore, after that, the customer can reboot the personal computer 2 or perform another work unrelated to the abnormal state using the personal computer 2. Also, if you have saved the disk image when it was working correctly, you can restore the image completely from the abnormal condition by restoring the image. Thus, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to quickly recover from the on-site abnormal state.

  (6) The personal computer 2 can be used even during information collection, and it is not necessary to stop the operation of the hardware of the plant system 1. The disk image can be created from, for example, Windows (registered trademark), and there is no need to interrupt the use of the personal computer 2 for the disk image creation. In this case, the other software that is installed on the personal computer 2 and is operating correctly continues to operate correctly.

  Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 3, a second embodiment in which the system environment reproduction method according to the present invention is applied to the environment reproduction of a plant system will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration for implementing the system environment reproduction method of the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the plant system 1 and the development manufacturer side system 3 are connected to each other online via the Internet 5.

  In this embodiment, the personal computer 2 detects its own malfunction. For example, when a serious error occurs in the system log, it is determined that a problem has occurred, and a disk image of the hard disk 21 at that time is automatically created.

  The personal computer 2 automatically uploads the created disk image to the computer 4 on the development manufacturer side via the Internet 5. As described above, when a disk image is transferred by online upload, a human work for acquiring the disk image, for example, mailing a removable disk or dispatching an engineer to the site becomes unnecessary. In addition, since the disk image is transmitted immediately online, it is possible to respond quickly when a failure occurs.

  The developer who has received the disk image removes the cause of the failure and confirms the operation on the virtual computer 2A using the computer 4 as a host computer in the same procedure as in the first embodiment. Further, the disk image of the hard disk 21 </ b> A is reflected on the hard disk 21 of the personal computer 2. In this case, information on the hard disk 21 may be rewritten by transmitting data via the Internet 5.

  In addition, after the personal computer 2 creates the disk image, the system may be automatically restored using the disk image at the time when the personal computer 2 was operating correctly. In this case, it is necessary to save in advance the disk image at the time when it was operating correctly. When the system is restored, the system is restarted.

  As described above, according to the present invention, for a computer in which a software abnormality or the like may occur, the entire system environment at that time is stored, and the system is used by using a virtual computer that is not easily affected by hardware dependence. Can reproduce the obstacles. For this reason, it is possible to quickly return the system to normal by collecting necessary information accurately and removing the trouble without requiring complicated work.

  The scope of application of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The present invention is not limited to application to a plant system, and can be widely applied to scenes in which the environment of a system using a computer is reproduced.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration for implementing the system environment reproduction method according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a procedure of a system environment reproduction method according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration for implementing the system environment reproduction method according to the second embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 Plant System 2 Personal Computer 2A Virtual Computer 21 Hard Disk

Claims (6)

In a system environment reproduction method for reproducing a system environment using a computer,
Duplicating information of a storage medium used in a computer of the system;
Recreating the state of the computer using a virtual computer based on the replicated information;
A system environment reproduction method characterized by comprising: The system environment reproduction method according to claim 1, wherein in the duplicating step, the information is duplicated in a state where a computer of the system is functioning. The system environment reproduction method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of reproducing the state of the computer, a virtual environment for accepting an operation on the system is formed. In a system environment correction method for correcting a system environment using a computer,
Duplicating information of a storage medium used in a computer of the system;
Accepting rewriting of the information based on the replicated information while reproducing the state of the computer using a virtual computer;
Writing the rewritten information to a computer storage medium of the system;
A system environment correction method comprising: 5. The system environment correction method according to claim 4, wherein in the copying step, the information is copied in a state where a computer of the system is functioning. 6. The system environment correction method according to claim 4, wherein in the step of accepting the operation, a virtual environment for accepting an operation on the system is formed, and the information is rewritten according to the accepted operation.

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