JP2008217272A - Remote operation system and method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a remote operation system that facilitates a system test by enabling devices used with an information processing apparatus to be operated as if it is on a server and enabling the server and the information processing terminal to exchange data without using a network function. <P>SOLUTION: A signal processing apparatus 2 has virtual devices. The server 1 requests a peripheral device input/output from the signal processing apparatus 2 via a device interface, and a PC provides the signal processing apparatus 2 with a peripheral device function via a communication processing part interface. In remote-operating the server 1, the PC 3 emulates the peripheral device input/output of the server 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for remotely operating a server by communicating an input / output signal of the server with an information processing apparatus such as a PC (Personal Computer) via a signal processing apparatus.

  Conventionally, there is a technique for directly remotely controlling a server on a network (see, for example, Patent Document 1). An example of a remote control system constructed using such a technique is shown in FIG.

  In the remote operation system shown in FIG. 9, the server 1 and the signal processing device 2 are connected via a display connector, a serial connector, a keyboard connector, a mouse connector, and the like that output a display screen. The signal processing apparatus is connected to a LAN 3 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet, and is configured to be able to communicate with an information processing apparatus 5 that is a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) or a workstation via the LAN 3. .

  The signal processing device 2 generates image data based on the display signal D output from the display connector or the like of the server 1, converts it into an IP packet P, and transmits it to the information processing device 5 via the LAN 3. The information processing device 5 receives the IP packet P transmitted from the signal processing device 2 via the LAN 3 and displays the display screen of the server 1 on the display 5 based on this. Further, the information processing device 5 converts the operation information input from the keyboard 6 and the mouse 7 into an IP packet and transmits it to the signal processing device 2 on the display screen. The signal processing device 2 receives an IP packet which is operation information from the LAN 3 based on the IP address, extracts a keyboard signal K and a mouse signal M from the IP packet, and inputs these signals to the keyboard connector or the mouse connector of the server 1. .

That is, the signal processing device 2 enables the information processing device 5 to function as an input / output device such as a display, a keyboard, and a mouse connected to the server 1. This makes it possible to provide the operator with an environment as if input / output devices such as the display 5, the keyboard 6, and the mouse 7 are directly connected to the server.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-044198

  However, the conventional remote control system has the following problems. The first problem is that there is an OS (Operating System) and a communication application in which the information processing apparatus 5 and the server 1 are connected via a network and can transmit and receive data in order to remotely transmit and receive information on the server. Must be running. Also, if a failure occurs in the network function or software of the server itself, data transmission / reception becomes impossible.

  The second problem is that the information processing apparatus simply operates the server, and a medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM cannot be used on the server from the information processing apparatus. For this reason, when testing the installation media etc. remotely, it is necessary to prepare a dedicated server for installation, such as a PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) server, or to insert the media directly into the machine. It was difficult to perform installation work.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. Its purpose is to operate the device used in the information processing device as if it were on the server, and to send and receive data between the server and the information processing terminal without using the network function. It is to provide a remote operation system.

  In the present invention, the signal processing apparatus has a virtual device, the server requests the signal processing apparatus for input / output of a peripheral device by a device interface, and the PC has a peripheral for the signal processing apparatus by a communication processing unit interface Provided is a remote operation system that provides a device function and emulates input / output of peripheral devices of the server on the PC side in remote operation of the server.

  Further, according to the present invention, the signal processing apparatus has a virtual device, the server requests the signal processing apparatus to input / output peripheral devices through the device interface, and the PC transmits to the signal processing apparatus through the communication processing unit interface. And providing a peripheral device function, and a remote operation method for emulating input / output of the peripheral device of the server on the PC side in the remote operation of the server.

  According to the present invention, in addition to the remote operation of the server, only the signal processing device and the server are connected, and the operation and data can be transmitted and received even when the system or application is not activated on the server. It is possible to facilitate testing, construction and management of the server by a remote operation system that can use peripheral devices of the information processing apparatus as the operation source.

  In addition, since a device that virtually emulates is used, a device can be easily added without changing hardware, and the versatility of the system can be improved.

  Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The remote operation system in the present embodiment is configured as shown in FIG.

  The server 1 and the signal processing device 2 are connected via a display connector or a device connector. A connection form is assumed to be USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection, but this is the best form of the present invention, and other connection methods such as IEEE 1394 (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 1394) connection are used. It doesn't matter.

  The signal processing apparatus 2 is also connected to the PC 3 and transmits the video signal acquired from the server 1 and the device signal output from the server 1 to the PC 3. Further, the communication data transmitted from the PC 3 is converted into a device signal and input to the server.

  Further, the PC 3 converts the communication data transmitted from the signal processing device 2 and displays the display video of the server 1 and the serial console on the display 4. Further, input information from the keyboard 5 and mouse 6 to the server 1 and data of the peripheral device 7 are transmitted to the signal processing device 2.

  Therefore, the operator can remotely operate the server 1 from the PC 3 through the signal processing device 2, and can exchange data between the server 1 and the peripheral device 7. Note that data in the PC 3 is virtually used as a peripheral device, so that data can be exchanged between the server 1 and the PC 3.

Next, the detailed configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to the block diagram 2.
The virtual device management table 27 of the signal processing device 2 manages the virtual devices managed by the virtual device processing unit 24 and their states. Based on the information in the virtual device management table 27, the signal processing device control unit 25 determines the destination of the data received by the communication processing unit 26 and delivers the data to the image processing unit 23 and the virtual device processing unit 24. The image processing unit 23 receives image data, the virtual device processing unit 24 receives data and an output signal, and transfers the data to the communication processing unit 26. The communication processing unit 26 exchanges communication data with the communication processing unit 31 of the PC 3. The data transfer rate can be increased according to the capacity of the interface used for the communication processing unit 26. For example, there are connection methods such as Ethernet (registered trademark) and IEEE1394.

  The video signal processing unit 21 is connected to the display connector 11 of the server 1, converts the video signal V into video, and delivers the video to the image processing unit 23. The image processing unit 23 converts the received video into image data and delivers the data to the signal processing device control unit 25. The transferred data is transmitted to the PC 3 via the communication processing unit 26. The image processing unit 23 can not only simply convert the received data into image data, but also reduce the data capacity by transmitting only the difference from the previously transmitted image. Further, the signal processing device control unit 25 can instruct the image processing unit 23 to transmit an image with a specified resolution in accordance with the request transmitted from the PC 3. Note that the video signal processing unit 21 and the image processing unit 23 may be omitted if the video on the display of the server 1 is not necessary and can be operated only by a serial console.

  The virtual device processing unit 24 is connected to the device connector 12 of the server 1, receives a request from the server 1, converts data in the virtual device into a device signal by the virtual device signal processing unit 22, and sends it to the device connector of the server 1. input. If the requested data does not exist in the virtual device processing unit 24, the signal processing device control unit 25 is requested to acquire the data. The signal processing device control unit 25 receives the request and requests data from the PC 3 through the communication processing unit 26.

Next, a detailed configuration of the virtual device processing unit 24 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 3, the virtual device processing unit 24 includes a virtual device branching unit 241 that organizes data to be transmitted to and received from the virtual device signal processing unit, a virtual CD / DVD drive 242 that artificially provides peripheral devices, and a virtual floppy (registered). Trademark) disk 243, virtual hard disk 244, virtual keyboard 245, virtual mouse 246, virtual serial 247, and virtual device control unit 248 for controlling them. The virtual device control unit 248 receives a request from the signal processing device control unit 25 and connects the corresponding virtual device to the server 1. A plurality of virtual devices to be connected may be connected simultaneously, and the virtual device branching unit 241 serves to control communication. Note that the virtual device is provided by software, and the server 1 can recognize the device as if it is present without preparing hardware for performing actual processing. Further, it becomes easy to add a new virtual device later.

  The virtual device correspondence table 33 of the PC 3 is created when the PC 3 is connected to the signal processing apparatus 2 and is updated when the device information is changed. This table is a table representing the correspondence between devices on the PC 3 and virtual devices in the virtual device processing unit 24 in the signal processing apparatus. When there is an input, the remote operation control unit 32 refers to the virtual device correspondence table 33 and adds the device information to create data to be transmitted to the signal processing device 2. When data is received, the virtual device correspondence table 33 is referred to and the data is transmitted to each device connected to the PC 3.

  Next, the operation of the remote control system in this embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram and flowchart of FIG.

  First, the operation when starting to use the remote control system from the PC 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the operator makes a use start request for the server 1, the remote operation control unit 32 of the PC 3 causes the communication processing unit 31 to transmit a connection request (S41).

  When the communication processing unit 26 of the signal processing device 2 receives the data, it passes it to the signal processing device control unit 25. The signal processing device control unit 25 transfers the information in the virtual device management table 25 to the virtual device correspondence table 33 of the PC 3 (S42), and instructs the image processing unit 22 to start capturing image data (S43). Further, the virtual device management video signal processing unit 21 receives and converts the video signal V from the display connector 11 to the PC 3, and delivers the display video to the image processing unit 22.

  The image processing unit 22 captures the display video, converts it into video data, and passes it to the signal processing device control unit 25. The signal processing device control unit 25 transmits the received video data from the communication processing unit 26 to the PC 3. (S44). Thereafter, this process is repeated until the PC 3 disconnects (S45).

  Next, the operation when the server 1 is operated from the keyboard 5 and mouse 6 of the PC 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Inputs from the keyboard 5 and mouse 6 are sent to the remote operation control unit 32 and transmitted to the signal processing device 2 through the communication processing unit 31 (S51).

  When data is received by the signal processing device 26, the keyboard / mouse signal is analyzed and transmitted to the virtual device processing unit 24 (S52).

  The received data is converted by the virtual device processing unit 24 and input to the server via the virtual device signal processing unit (S53). Thereafter, this process is repeated each time input data is received until it is disconnected, and if it is disconnected, the process ends (S54).

  Next, the operation when the peripheral device 7 is used will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When there is a usage request for a peripheral device from the server 1 (S61), the virtual device signal processing unit 22 receives a signal, and when data exists in the virtual device processing unit 24, the data is transmitted via the virtual device signal processing unit. input.

  If it does not exist, it requests data from the PC 3. (S62) Upon receiving the request, the PC 3 refers to the virtual device correspondence table 33 and transmits data from the corresponding peripheral device to the virtual device processing unit 24 (S63).

  When requested by the signal processing device 2, the PC 3 acquires data from the peripheral device 7 and transmits the data toward the signal processing device 2 (S64).

  The signal processing device 2 receives the data, copies it to the virtual device, leaves the cache (S65), and transmits the requested data to the virtual device signal processing unit (S66).

  When transmitting / receiving data of the internal data 34, the internal data 34 is treated virtually as a storage device, and data is transmitted / received by performing the same processing as the peripheral device 7.

As described above, the present embodiment has the following effects.
The first effect is that data can be transmitted and received even when the information processing apparatus and the server are not connected via a network in order to collect information on the server from a remote location.

  The second effect is not only that the server is operated simply from the device of the information processing apparatus for remote operation, but also that a medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is directly inserted into the server from the information processing apparatus. Can be used as This made it easier to test remote systems.

  Third, by leaving the data of the virtual device as a cache in the signal processing apparatus, the number of remote data communications is reduced and the efficiency is improved.

  The fourth effect is. By providing the virtual device in software, it is easy to expand and new hardware can be added later.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 shows a remote control system according to this embodiment. This configuration differs from the first embodiment in that a plurality of signal processing devices 2A, 2B, 2C are connected by a switching device 9. Each of the servers 1A, 1B, and 1C has the same configuration as the server 1 according to the first embodiment, and the other configurations are the same.

  The switching device 8 holds the server information obtained from the connected signal processing device, and selectively selects one of the servers 1A, 1B, 1C and the PC 3 through the signal processing devices 2A, 2B, 2C in response to a request from the PC 3. Connect.

A detailed configuration of the switching device will be described with reference to a block diagram of FIG.
When there is a request from the PC 3, the switching device control unit 82 receives a list of information on servers connected to the switching device 8 from the server management unit 84 and transmits the list from the communication processing unit 81 to the PC 3. In the PC 3, the data received by the communication processing unit 31 is extracted and transferred to the remote operation control unit 32, and a server list is displayed on the display 4. In response to a server operation request from the PC 3, the communication data is transferred to the signal processing device of the selected operation target server, and the communication data from the signal processing device is transmitted to the PC 3.

  The device data storage unit 83 stores virtual device cache data in the virtual device processing unit 24. When there is a request from the signal processing device 2 to the PC 3 and there is a cache in the device data storage unit, data is transmitted to the signal processing device 2. If there is no requested data, the communication processing unit 81 requests peripheral device data from the PC 3. The data transmitted from the PC 3 is received, copied to the device data storage unit 83, left as a cache, and then transmitted to the signal processing device 2. When the same data is requested from the next time, the data present in the device data storage unit 83 is transmitted to the signal processing device 2 instead of directly requesting data from the PC 3.

  Data stored in the device data storage unit 83 can be used even when other servers are operated, and communication between the PC 3 and the switching device 8 can be reduced when the same data is used in a plurality of machines. Data can be transmitted and received more efficiently.

  Further, by providing the function of the switching device 8 on the PC 3 as software, the PC 3 can switch and use a plurality of devices without physically arranging the switching device 8.

  The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, you may perform the process which implement | achieves the function of each apparatus by making each apparatus read and run the program for implement | achieving functions, such as the server 1, the signal processing apparatus 2, and PC3. Further, the program is transmitted to another computer system by a transmission wave via a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a magneto-optical disk, or via a transmission medium such as the Internet or a telephone line. Also good.

  The present invention can be applied to testing and management of a remote system. In particular, media installation tests can be performed.

It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the remote control system of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a virtual device according to the first embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart at the time of receiving the utilization start request | requirement of the server of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart at the time of inputting from the keyboard mouse | mouth of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart in the case of using the USB apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the remote control system of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the conventional remote control system.

Explanation of symbols

1, 1A, 1B, 1C Server 2A, 2B, 2C Signal processing device 3 PC
4 Display 5 Keyboard 6 Mouse 7 Peripheral Device 11 Display Connector 12 Device Connector 21 Video Signal Processing Unit 22 Virtual Device Signal Processing Unit 23 Image Processing Unit 24 Virtual Device Processing Unit 25 Signal Processing Device Control Unit 26 Communication Processing Unit 27 Virtual Device Management Table 31 Communication processing unit 32 Remote operation control unit 33 Virtual device correspondence table 34 Internal data 81 Communication processing unit 82 Switching device control unit 83 Device data storage unit 84 Server management unit 241 Virtual device branching unit 242 Virtual CD / DVD drive 243 Virtual floppy (Registered trademark) disk drive 244 virtual hard disk drive 245 virtual keyboard 246 virtual mouse 247 virtual serial 248 virtual device controller

Claims (7)

  The signal processing device has a virtual device, the server requests the signal processing device for input / output of the peripheral device through the device interface, and the PC provides the peripheral device function to the signal processing device through the communication processing unit interface In the remote operation of the server, the remote operation system emulates input / output of peripheral devices of the server on the PC side.   The remote operation system according to claim 1, wherein difference data is exchanged between the signal processing device and the PC.   3. The remote operation system according to claim 1, further comprising means for switching a plurality of sets of the server and the signal processing device.   The signal processing device has a virtual device, the server requests the signal processing device for input / output of the peripheral device through the device interface, and the PC provides the peripheral device function to the signal processing device through the communication processing unit interface A remote operation method characterized by emulating input / output of peripheral devices of the server on the PC side in the remote operation of the server.   5. The remote operation method according to claim 4, wherein difference data is exchanged between the signal processing device and the PC.   6. The remote operation method according to claim 4, further comprising means for switching a plurality of sets of the server and the signal processing device.   A program for causing a computer system to realize the function according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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