JP2008278092A - Electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To immediately recognize a time in the time zone of electronic equipment where a log is generated in the case of referring to a log to be generated in electronic equipment from external equipment (log server). <P>SOLUTION: This electronic equipment 10 associates the content of executed processing with a processing generation time "16:00 on December 1" in a UTC, and stores it as a log in an HDD11, and transfers the log and a processing generation time "18:00 on December 1"(which may be a time difference of TZ1 and UTC) at a job site (TZ1) as the information of a time zone to a log server 20. The log server 20 stores the log in an HDD 21. Therefore, it is possible to display the processing generation time "18:00 on December 1" at the job site of the log server 20 and the processing generation time "18:00 on the December 1" at the job site of the electronic equipment 10 on the picture of the display device of the client PC in the case of referring from a client PC installed in the TZ1 to the log information of the electronic equipment 10 stored in the log server 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital copying machine, a printer, a facsimile apparatus, an image forming apparatus such as a digital multifunction peripheral (MFP) having these functions, an information processing apparatus such as an image reading apparatus (scanner apparatus, etc.) and a personal computer (PC). It relates to electronic equipment (information equipment).

In the electronic devices as described above, a mechanism is well known in which a log (history) is written at the timing when an event occurs and the device manager or the like refers to the log later.
For example, a log stored in an electronic device is transferred to a log server, referenced from a client PC, and used for various purposes. Although various time attributes of logs stored in electronic devices and log servers are conceivable, they are generally stored in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional log management system using UTC as a log time attribute.
In this log management system, the electronic device (device A) 10 and the log server 20 are installed in the same first time zone (standard time zone), and the electronic device 30 (device B) is different in the second time zone. Is installed. In this example, the first time zone (hereinafter referred to as “TZ1”) has a time difference with respect to UTC of +2 hours, and the second time zone (hereinafter referred to as “TZ2”) has a time difference with respect to UTC of −3 hours.

In the electronic device 10, when an event (processing) to be logged occurs at 18:00 local time on December 1 at TZ1, the accumulated time is stored in UTC as the log, so the HDD ( The information is stored in the hard disk device 11 and transferred to the log server 20. The log server 20 also stores the log from the electronic device 10 in the HDD 21 by UTC. When referring to the log information of the electronic device 10 stored in the log server 20 from a client PC (not shown) provided in the TZ1, the UTC is the local time of the TZ1, that is, the time of the installation location of the log server 20. It is corrected to the zone (local time zone) and displayed on the display device.
As described above, in the same time zone, a method of correcting the time of log management using the time on the server side that received the log data is common (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2005-284520 A

  In TZ2, when an event to be logged occurs in electronic device 30 at 3:00 local time on December 1, 13:00, the storage by log server 20 is managed by UTC as in the case of electronic device 10. However, when the log of the electronic device 30 stored in the log server 20 is referred to by a client PC (not shown) installed in the TZ2, the time at the TZ1, not the time at the UTC, that is, the electronic device 10 Similarly to the above, the time zone of the installation location of the log server 20 is corrected and displayed on the display device.

  Therefore, if the network administrator or information manager of TZ2 does not recognize the relationship between the time zone of the log server 20 and UTC and the relationship between the time zone of the device in which the log to be managed is generated and UTC, it is originally understood. The generation time of the management target log in the electronic device 30 to be managed could not be known. In addition, for example, when it is necessary to check logs urgently to track information leakage, assuming that such a relationship is assumed, there is a risk that the source of the leakage may be mistaken, leading to loss of trust in the company. Absent. When these problems are large-scale systems and there are a plurality of log management servers, the burden and the risk become more prominent.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and each of the plurality of electronic devices using UTC as a log time attribute (having a function of measuring the log generation time by UTC) has a plurality of different time zones. Even when installed in a distributed environment, when referring to the log generated by each electronic device from an external device (log server), it is possible to immediately recognize the time in the time zone of the electronic device that generated the log. The purpose is to.

The present invention is an electronic device capable of communicating with an external device connected via a network. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized as follows.
The electronic device according to the invention of claim 1 is a storage for associating and storing time measuring means for measuring the time at the electronic device in coordinated universal time, the contents of the processing executed by the electronic device, and the generation time of the processing. Means and transfer means for transferring information on the standard time zone of the area where the electronic device is installed to the external device together with information on the contents of the associated processing and the time of occurrence.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising means for adding the information of the standard time zone to the transfer means for each of the contents of the associated processing and the information of the generation time. Is.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic device according to the first or second aspect, wherein the electronic device according to the first or second aspect further comprises a standard time zone information storage means for storing information on a time difference from the coordinated universal time as the standard time zone information. It is.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, comprising an application program for performing image processing in the electronic apparatus and hardware resources.

  According to the present invention, even when a plurality of electronic devices each using UTC as a time attribute of a log are distributed and installed in a plurality of different time zones, the contents of the processing executed by each of the electronic devices. And the time of occurrence of the process in UTC in association with each other, then transfer the information on the time zone of the area where it is installed to the external device (log server) together with the contents of the associated process and the information on the time of occurrence. As a result, the information is stored in the external device as information of the transmission source device. Therefore, when referring to the log (history of the contents of the executed processing) generated in each electronic device from the external device, It is possible to immediately recognize the time in the time zone of the electronic device where the log is generated.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
[Configuration example of log management system]
First, an outline of a log management system in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the log management system, and parts corresponding to those in FIG.

In the log management system of FIG. 1, as in the example of FIG. 8, the electronic device (device A) 10 and the log server 20 are installed in TZ1 (first time zone), and the electronic device 30 (device B) is connected. It is installed in TZ2 (second time zone). TZ1 assumes that the time difference with respect to UTC is +2 hours, and TZ2 assumes that the time difference with respect to UTC is -3 hours.
In the electronic device 10, when the event (processing) to be logged occurs at the local time (local time) “December 1 at 18:00”, which is the time at TZ 1, the log shows the time “December 1 at UTC”. It is stored in the HDD 11 at “16:00”.

That is, the content of the executed event is associated with the UTC occurrence time (event occurrence time) “December 1 16:00 (UTC)”, and is stored in the HDD 11 as a log.
Subsequently, the log accumulated in the HDD 11 and the event occurrence time “December 1, 18:00” in TZ 1, which is time zone information, are transferred to the log server 20. The event occurrence time at TZ1 is “UTC + 2” because the time difference with respect to UTC of TZ1 is +2 hours in this example, but it is preferable to take into account the correction amount at the time of daylight saving time implementation in addition to the time difference if necessary. Note that the time zone information may be information on the time difference between TZ1 and UTC (adding a correction amount during daylight saving time if necessary). The same applies to the other electronic devices 30.

On the other hand, in the electronic device 30, when the event to be logged occurs at the local time “December 1 at 13:00”, which is the time at TZ2, the log is HDD at the UTC time “December 1 at 16:00”. Accumulated in.
In other words, the contents of the executed event are associated with the UTC occurrence time (event occurrence time) “December 1 16:00 (UTC)” and stored as a log in an HDD (not shown).
Subsequently, the event occurrence time “December 1 at 13:00”, which is time zone information corresponding to the log stored in the HDD, is transferred to the log server 20. The event occurrence time at TZ2 is “UTC-3” because the time difference with respect to UTC in TZ2 in this example is −3 hours. However, if necessary, the correction for summer time may be taken into account in addition to the time difference in real time. .

The log server 20 stores the logs from the electronic devices 10 and 30 in the HDD 21 as they are.
Therefore, when referring to the log information of the electronic device 10 stored in the log server 20 from the client PC installed in TZ1, the event occurrence time “December 1 18 at the local time of the installation location of the log server 20”. "Time (TZ1)" and the event occurrence time "December 1, 18:00 (TZ1)" at the local time of the installation location of the electronic device 10 can be displayed on the screen of the display device of the client PC. When referring to the log information of the electronic device 30 stored in the log server 20 from the client PC installed in the TZ 2, the event occurrence time “December 1 18:00 at the local time of the installation location of the log server 20 ( TZ1) ”and the event occurrence time“ December 1, 13:00 (TZ2) ”at the local time of the installation location of the electronic device 30 can be displayed on the screen of the display device of the client PC.

[Hardware configuration example of electronic equipment]
Next, a hardware configuration example of the electronic device 10 in FIG. 1 will be specifically described with reference to FIG. Since the other electronic devices 30 have the same hardware configuration, illustration and description thereof are omitted.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the electronic device 10 of FIG.

  The electronic device 10 is an image forming apparatus capable of realizing various functions including functions as a digital copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and a scanner, that is, a copy function, a document storage (document box) function, a facsimile function, a printer function, and a scanner function. (Digital multifunction peripheral), which includes an HDD 11, a RAM 12, an NVRAM 13, a ROM 14, a CPU 15, a scanner / plotter engine 16, a network interface (hereinafter referred to as “I / F”) 17, and a real-time clock circuit 18. . These configurations are hardware resources for performing image processing such as reading of image data of a document, transmission / reception of image data and the like, printing of image data (image formation), and the like. In addition, although not shown in the figure, an operation unit that is operated by the user is provided.

  The HDD 11 is a hard disk device used as a log non-volatile storage medium that associates the content of the process executed by the electronic device 10 with the time of occurrence of the process in UTC and stores it as a log. Log accumulation may fail in log transfer to the log server 20, so it is necessary to perform log accumulation even when transferring to the log server 20 immediately. Instead of the HDD 11, other large capacity disks such as MO, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD + R, DVD + RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM may be used. Alternatively, a nonvolatile memory (semiconductor memory) such as an EEPROM or a flash memory can be used.

The RAM 12 is a readable / writable memory used as a work memory necessary for processing executed by the electronic device 10 or an image memory for storing image data.
The NVRAM 13 is a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory that stores various parameters including information on the time zone of the area where the electronic device 10 is installed. As time zone information, a time difference with respect to UTC (time difference) or time information in this time zone can be considered. If there is no HDD 11, the above-described log can be stored in the NVRAM 13. The NVRAM 13 functions as a standard time zone information storage unit.

The ROM 14 is a read-only memory that stores programs (software) executed by the CPU 15 and fixed data. The program includes a boot program, an OS (operating system), an application program (hereinafter, abbreviated as “application” or “application”) for realizing various functions described below, and the like.
The CPU 15 is a central processing unit that controls the entire electronic device 10 in an integrated manner.

  The scanner / plotter engine 16 is a scanner (image reading means) that reads an image of a document as image data, and image data read by the scanner or print information received from an external device as a visible image on paper (other recording medium may be used). ) Plotter (image forming means) for printing on top, automatic document feeder (ADF) for automatically feeding the document to the image reading position of the scanner, sorting, stacking, stapling, etc. on the paper printed by the plotter This corresponds to a hardware device such as a post-processing apparatus that performs post-processing. If print information received from an external device such as the client PC 40 is not image data for printing but character code or drawing information, the CPU 15 converts it into image data for printing.

The network I / F 17 is a communication unit that communicates with another electronic device 30, the client PC 40, and the log server 20 via a network 19 such as a LAN (local area network).
The real-time clock circuit 18 is a clocking means (for example, a timekeeping chip) that clocks the time (current time) of the electronic device 10 with UTC, and the built-in battery or the like is used while the power of the electronic device 10 is shut off. Operate.
Here, the CPU 15 can realize functions as a storage unit and a transfer unit by executing a program in the ROM 14 and controlling the electronic device 10.

[Examples of major software configurations of electronic devices]
Next, a configuration of main software of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2 and each program module that configures the software will be described with reference to FIG. Since the other electronic devices 30 have the same software configuration, illustration and description thereof are omitted. In the following description, for the sake of convenience, the program module itself performs processing.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of main software of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2 and a communication interface between each program module and each peripheral device (the log server 20 and the client PC 40) constituting the software.
The application 101 in FIG. 3 is a program that executes a process (event) that generates a log, and includes a copy application, a printer application, a FAX (facsimile) application, a scanner application, and the like.

The copy application is for realizing a copy function. The copy function is a function that causes a scanner to read an image of an original, sends the image data to a plotter, and prints the image on a sheet as a visible image.
The printer application is for realizing a printer function. The printer function is a function that prints print information from the client PC 40 as it is or after performing conversion processing and sends it to a plotter to print it as a visible image on paper.

The FAX application is for realizing a FAX function. The FAX function allows a scanner to read an image of a document and send the image data by FAX to a preset external device, or causes the image data stored in the RAM 12 to be faxed to a preset external device in the same manner. Or image data transmitted from an external device by FAX, and stored in the RAM 12 or sent to a plotter to be printed as a visible image on paper.
The scanner application is for realizing a scanner function. The scanner function is a function of causing the scanner to read an image of a document, and of course transmitting (distributing) the scanned document image data to an external device set in advance by e-mail or file transfer.

The LCS (long control service) 102 has a log management function for storing a log of processing executed by the application 101 in the HDD (nonvolatile storage medium for log) 11.
The HTTP client 103 has a client function for reading and acquiring a log from the HDD 11 via the LCS 102 and transferring it to the log server 20 together with time zone information.

[Examples of processing electronic equipment and peripheral equipment]
Next, processing by each program module (FIG. 3) of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 1 and processing by each peripheral device will be described with reference to FIGS. Since the other electronic device 30 performs the same process, its illustration and description are omitted.

4 shows each program from the execution of the event (process) in the application 101 of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2 until the log is written and transferred to the log server 20 and the log is referenced from the client PC 40. It is a figure which shows an example of the communication sequence between a module and each peripheral device.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of log accumulation (writing) / transfer by the electronic device 10.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing from the log server 20 to accumulation of logs transferred from the electronic device 10 and log reference.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the application 101 of the electronic device 10 executes a process (event) when there is a request for executing a process for realizing a copy function or the like. Then, after the processing is completed, a log write request (log accumulation request) is transmitted to the LCS 102.
The LCS 102 acquires time information (process generation time in UTC) from the real-time clock circuit 18 based on the log write request from the application 101, associates it with the content of the process executed by the application 101, and stores it in the HDD 11 as a log. Accumulate (write). This process is performed for each log. Note that time zone information may be added to the accumulated log. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the accumulated log plus time zone information from the NVRAM 13 is referred to as “accumulated log information”. The accumulated log information is preferably XML in view of processing performed by the log server 20.

The HTTP client 103 reads and acquires the accumulated log information from the HDD 11 via the LCS 102 and transfers it to the log server 20. At this time, by transmitting an accumulation log transfer request to the LCS 102, the LCS 102 acquires accumulation log information from the HDD 11 based on the accumulation log transfer request and passes it to the HTTP client 103.
As shown in FIG. 6, the log server 20 receives the accumulated log information transferred from the HTTP client 103 of the electronic device 10 and accumulates it in the HDD 21. Further, the result of the transfer of the accumulated log information is notified to the electronic device 10 that is the transfer source of the accumulated log information as an information transfer response.

When the HTTP client 103 of the electronic device 10 receives the information transfer response notification from the log server 20 by transferring the accumulated log information, the HTTP client 103 notifies the LCS 102 of the result as a log transfer result. In this example, since it is assumed that communication with the log server 20 is performed by HTTP, the HTTP client 103 is used, but an FTP client may be used. From the recent security orientation, it is also possible to use an HTTPS client or an FTPS client using SSL for transferring the accumulated log information.
The LCS 102 receives the log transfer result from the HTTP client 103 and accumulates the log transfer result in the HDD 11.

  Thereafter, the log server 20 converts the stored log information of the electronic device 10 stored in the HDD 21 into a format that can be displayed by the client PC 40 based on the log reference request from the client PC 40. That is, based on the processing occurrence time (UTC time) at UTC in the accumulated log information of the electronic device 10 and the information of the time zone where the device is installed (in this example, the time difference with respect to UTC of the corresponding time zone) The processing occurrence time at the local time of the installation location of is calculated. Further, based on the processing occurrence time (UTC time) at UTC and the time zone information (in this example, the time difference with respect to UTC in the corresponding time zone) in the accumulated log information of the electronic device 10, The processing occurrence time at the local time is calculated. If the time zone information in the accumulated log information of the electronic device 10 is the processing occurrence time in the time zone (local time) where the electronic device 10 is installed, it is used as it is.

Then, the accumulated log information in a format that can be displayed by the client PC 40 is transmitted to the client PC 40 that is the transmission source of the log reference request.
When the client PC 40 receives the accumulated log information sent from the log server 20 in response to the log reference request to the log server 20, the client PC 40 displays the contents on the screen of its own display device.

Note that the processing for converting the accumulated log information into a displayable format may be executed on the client PC 40 side. In this case, the log server 20 needs to transmit information on its own time zone to the client PC 40.
In this embodiment, the external device for displaying the log is a client PC. However, other external devices such as a mobile phone and a PDA may be used, and the log server 20 itself is an embedded device such as the electronic devices 10 and 30. You may make it mount in.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the content of accumulated log information displayed on the screen of the display device of the client PC 40 when the client PC 40 accesses the log server 20 and refers to the accumulated log information.
In FIG. 7, the server time corresponds to the processing occurrence time (time corrected to the local time) at the local time of the installation location of the log server 20. The device time corresponds to the processing occurrence time at the local time of the installation location of the electronic device where the processing (log) has occurred.
Thus, since the server time and the device time are displayed as a set, the device time can be referred to, and an easily understandable log can be obtained regardless of the environment.

[Program in this embodiment]
This program is a program for causing a CPU (computer) that controls an electronic device (digital multifunction peripheral) to realize various functions including functions as storage means and transfer means, and causes the CPU to execute such a program. Thus, the effects as described above can be obtained.

Such a program may be stored in the ROM from the beginning, but HDD, CD-ROM, flexible disk, MO, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD + R, DVD + RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, Alternatively, the program can be provided by being recorded in a nonvolatile recording medium (memory) such as a DVD-RAM, EEPROM, or memory card. The program recorded in the non-volatile recording medium can be installed in an electronic device and executed by the CPU, or the CPU can read out and execute the program from the non-volatile recording medium to execute each procedure described above. it can.
Furthermore, it is also possible to download and execute an external device that is connected to a network and includes a recording medium that records the program, or an external device that stores the program in the storage unit.

  The embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a digital multi-function peripheral has been described above. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this, and other image forming apparatuses such as a digital copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and the like, of course, have an image reading function. It can be applied to various electronic devices such as a device (scanner device, etc.) and a personal computer.

  As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, even when a plurality of electronic devices each having a function of measuring the log generation time by UTC are distributed and installed in a plurality of different time zones, When referring to a log generated in each electronic device from an external device, it is possible to immediately recognize the time in the time zone of the electronic device where the log is generated. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electronic device that is convenient for external devices.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the log management system which is one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of main software of the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2, each program module that configures the software, and a communication interface between each unit of each peripheral device. A log is written from the execution of the process in the application 101 of the electronic device 10 in FIG. 2 and transferred to the log server 20, and between each program module and each peripheral device until the log is referenced from the client PC 40. It is a figure which shows an example of a communication sequence.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of log accumulation / transfer by the electronic device 10 of FIG. 2. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process from accumulation | storage of the log transferred from the electronic device 10 and log reference by the log server 20 of FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of contents of accumulated log information displayed on the screen of the display device of the client PC 40 when the client PC 40 in FIG. 2 accesses the log server 20 to refer to accumulated log information. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the conventional log management system which uses UTC as a time attribute of a log.

Explanation of symbols

10, 30: Electronic equipment 11, 21: HDD 12: RAM 13: NVRAM
14: ROM 15: CPU 16: Scanner / plotter engine 17: Network I / F 18: Real-time clock circuit 19: Network 20: Log server 40: Client PC 101: Application 102: LCS 103: HTTP client

Claims (4)

An electronic device capable of communicating with an external device connected via a network,
A time measuring means for measuring the time of the electronic device in coordinated universal time,
Storage means for storing the contents of the process executed by the electronic device in association with the generation time of the process;
An electronic apparatus comprising: transfer means for transferring, to the external device, information on a standard time zone of a region where the electronic device is installed, together with information on the contents of the associated processing and occurrence time. The electronic device according to claim 1,
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the transfer means includes means for adding the information of the standard time zone for each of the contents of the associated processing and the information of the generation time. The electronic device according to claim 1 or 2,
An electronic apparatus comprising a standard time zone information storage means for storing time difference information with respect to the coordinated universal time as the standard time zone information. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
An electronic device comprising an application program and hardware resources for performing image processing in the electronic device.

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