JP2009294819A - Monitoring system, monitoring method, and server device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To present to an operator at which terminal the response priority is high by reflecting an environmental element concerning the terminal in the response priority as well as the information the terminal transmits. <P>SOLUTION: In a monitoring system 1, a terminal 21 has an NIC that transmits notification information indicative of a terminal status to a server 11 when it goes into a terminal status in which notification to the server 11 is required. The server 11 comprises: an NIC that receives the notification information from the terminal 21; a CPU that acquires environmental element information indicative of an environmental element different from the terminal status concerning the terminal 21; a CPU that decides the response priority based on the terminal status in the notification information and the environmental element in the environmental element information; and an NIC that transmits the response priority decided on to a client 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a monitoring system, a monitoring method, and a server device that monitor, for example, a terminal connected to a network, and in particular, presents an operator with priority corresponding to a terminal in a system that monitors a plurality of terminals with a plurality of operators. It is related to the system.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a computer operating status confirmation method and system for weighting information to be confirmed by an operator and assigning priorities to the operator's operating status and displaying the information to the operator based on the result have been proposed (patent). Reference 1). In this system, information desired by an operator is stored in a weighted state in advance, this information is compared with information notified by the terminal, and if they match, a predetermined weight calculation is performed to give priority. .

  Since such a system performs weighting calculation only with information such as a failure notified by a terminal, priority cannot be given when, for example, a plurality of terminals notify the same failure information. For this reason, a terminal that has passed for a long time while a failure has occurred and a terminal that has not passed much time since the failure has the same priority order.

  However, depending on the content of the failure, the urgency of the response may increase with time. For example, when an end user uses a terminal and a failure occurs, the dissatisfaction of the end user increases as time passes. For this reason, if processing is performed using only the priority order due to a failure or the like employed by the above-described system, there is a possibility that an inappropriate response is made such as causing the end user to wait indefinitely.

  Further, when a maintenance person needs to be dispatched, such as a hardware failure of a terminal, the prior art does not change the priority until a notification is given that the terminal has recovered from the failure. However, the action that the operator has to take is finished when the maintenance staff is requested to be dispatched. For this reason, it is desirable that the corresponding priority of the terminal is lowered when a maintenance worker is requested to attend work.

As described above, there is a problem that the correspondence priority of a terminal may be insufficient only by information notified from the terminal, and there may be a case where the correspondence cannot be appropriately handled.
JP 2003-271421 A

  In view of the above-described problems, the present invention reflects which not only the information notified by the terminal but also the environmental element related to the terminal in the corresponding priority, which operator has the higher corresponding priority. It is an object of the present invention to provide a monitoring system and a monitoring method, and a server device that are appropriately presented.

  The present invention is a monitoring system comprising one or a plurality of terminal devices, an operator terminal used by an operator, and the server device connected to the terminal device and the operator terminal via a network, the terminal device Comprises a transmission means for transmitting notification information indicating the terminal status to the server device when the terminal status requires notification to the server device, and the server device receives the notification information from the terminal device. Means, environmental element acquisition means for acquiring environmental element information indicating an environmental element different from the terminal state with respect to the terminal device, based on the terminal state of the notification information and the environmental element of the environmental element information Monitoring comprising response priority determining means for determining response priority, and transmission means for transmitting the determined response priority to the operator terminal Characterized in that it is a stem.

  The server device includes an environmental element change detection unit that detects a change in the environmental element information, and the response priority determination unit changes the response priority when a change is detected by the environmental element change detection unit. It can be set as the structure to do.

  In addition, the operator terminal can include a display means for displaying a list display screen in which the correspondence priorities for each of a plurality of terminal devices are arranged.

  According to the present invention, by reflecting not only the information notified by the terminal but also environmental factors related to the terminal in the corresponding priority, it is possible to appropriately present to the operator which terminal has the higher corresponding priority. it can.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a network to which a monitoring system 1 for deriving the correspondence priority of a terminal is applied.

  The monitoring system 1 is configured by connecting a plurality of branch side LANs (private network) 20 via a branch side router 42 to a WAN 200 as a network. A branch side router 42 provided between a WAN (Wide Area Network) and a LAN (Local Area Network) relays the data flow between the WAN and the LAN.

  The server side LAN 10 and the branch side LAN 20 are not directly connected but are connected via the WAN 200.

One server 11 as a server device and a plurality of clients 12 as operator terminals are connected to the server LAN 10.
A plurality of terminals 21 as terminal devices are connected to each branch side LAN 20. The terminal 21 is a device that serves an unattended customer to an end user, such as an ATM installed in a financial institution, for example. Further, the terminal 21 transmits notification information to the server 11 when it is in a state that requires notification to the server 11 such as an operator call from an end user, a hardware failure, or a medium out.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the server 11 of the monitoring system 1 (remote maintenance system).
The server 11 includes a CPU (central processing unit) 13, an input unit 14, an output unit 15, a NIC (network interface) 16, and a storage unit 17.

  The CPU 13 is the center of the server 11. The CPU 13 controls the server 11 and calculates / processes data, stores the calculated / processed result in the storage unit 17, or outputs it to the output unit 15.

The input unit 14 is an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse.
The output unit 15 is a device that outputs a result of data calculation / processing by the CPU 13, and includes a display device such as a CRT display or a liquid crystal display.
The NIC 16 is a network interface card that functions as a transmission unit and a reception unit, and connects the server 11 to the server-side LAN 10.

  The storage unit 17 includes a control program for the CPU 13, input unit 14, output unit 15, and NIC 16, a terminal status table 171 that indicates the status of the terminal, a terminal priority definition file 172, a generated event priority definition file 173, priority information A management table 174 and a display screen management table 175 are stored. Details of these files and tables will be described later.

  As with the server 11, the client 12 includes a computer provided with a CPU, an input unit, an output unit as a display unit, a NIC as a transmission unit, and a storage unit. Examples of the output unit include a display device such as a CRT display or a liquid crystal display.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the terminal state table 171.
The terminal state table 171 is information regarding the terminal 21 including notification information that the terminal 21 has notified to the server.

  The terminal status table 171 includes a terminal identification number 50 that is an identifier of the terminal, a terminal event 51 that occurs in the terminal, an event occurrence time 52 that displays the event occurrence time to the operator, and an operator response status that indicates the response status of the operator A field 53 is provided. When information to be confirmed by the operator is notified from the terminal 21 as notification information, the field of the terminal 21 is updated.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the terminal priority definition file 172.
The terminal priority definition file 172 is a file for storing the corresponding priority assigned to the terminal in advance.

  The terminal priority definition file 172 has a terminal identification number 60 for terminal identification and a weight 61 of the terminal in the field. The terminal weight 61 is a value used when deriving the corresponding priority of the terminal, and is defined in advance by the operator or the system administrator. For example, a large weight is set for a terminal that the system administrator considers that an operator needs to respond immediately when a failure occurs, such as a terminal that has only one base.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the occurrence event priority definition file 173.
The occurrence event priority definition file 173 is a file in which the priority of correspondence to environmental elements other than the state of the terminal is defined for each information to be confirmed by the operator.

  The occurrence event priority definition file 173 has contents of environmental elements for each event and priority operations for the contents in the field. Specifically, a terminal occurrence event 70, an environmental element 71, content 72, a priority operation 73, a weight 74, and an invalid item 75 are provided.

The terminal occurrence event 70 defines an event such as a call, a hardware failure or a medium out.
In the environmental element 71, elements such as a handling operator, an operator handling situation, and an elapsed time since the occurrence of an event are defined.

  The content 72 defines the content for the environmental element 71. Specifically, for example, the presence or absence of an operator in response to the terminal that has notified the information to be confirmed by the operator, whether the operator response status is unsupported, in progress, pending, or completion of response, progress from event occurrence The definition is such that every 30 seconds have elapsed with respect to time.

The priority operation 73 defines an operation for the variable “priority” as the corresponding priority, and stores addition or a fixed value set. It should be noted that operations other than the fixed value set for the variable “priority” are not limited to addition, but may be other arithmetic operations such as other four arithmetic operations.
The weight 74 is defined for each priority operation 73 in the priority operation.

  In the item 75 to be invalidated, an item for invalidating the priority operation is defined. For example, if the content 72 of the environmental element 71 is “pending”, the operator has already started to respond, so there is no need to add a weight according to the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event. Disable operations that add weights.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the priority information management table 174.
The priority information management table 174 is a table that represents the priority change operation for each element and the validity of the priority change operation for the element necessary for deriving the priority.

  This priority information management table 174 has the operation and weight of the priority 81 of each environmental element 80 and the validity flag 82 of the priority operation in the field, and has one table for each terminal 21. Here, the priority operation and the weight are described in the weight by performing some calculation using the current priority value and the weight for the priority value to be obtained or discarding the current priority value. It is used to assign a fixed numerical value to the priority. The priority operation valid flag is used to determine whether or not to perform the calculation or fixed value assignment for the priority described above.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the display screen management table 175.
The display screen management table 175 is a table indicating which screen is used by which operator.
The display screen management table 175 includes fields such as an operator ID 91 and a screen ID 92.
The operator ID 91 stores the operator ID, and the screen ID 92 stores the screen ID displayed on the display of the client 12 by the operator. The screen ID 92 is an ID that can identify which terminal 21 corresponds to the screen. Thus, it is possible to confirm which terminal 21 each operator corresponds to.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of the failure handling screen 100 displayed on the display of the client 12.
In the failure handling screen 100, for a plurality of terminals 21, the ID of the terminal 21, the event, the ID of the corresponding operator, the handling status, and the necessity of handling are displayed in a vertical list. A failure handling button 101 is provided so as to function as a list display screen.

  When the failure handling button 101 is pressed, the screen shifts to a detailed screen (not shown) for displaying details of events occurring in the terminal 21. As a result, the operator has started the failure handling for the terminal 21.

  An update button 102 for manually updating the screen display is provided at the lower right of the failure handling screen 100. The screen display of the failure handling screen 100 is updated at regular intervals, but can be forcibly updated by the operator pressing the update button 102 when viewing the latest information.

  9 and 10 are flowcharts of operations executed by the CPU 13 of the server 11 when deriving the correspondence priority of the terminal. This flowchart shows the operation in which the CPU 13 of the server 11 derives the correspondence priority from the state and environmental factors of the terminal after receiving information to be confirmed by the operator from the terminal 21.

  The CPU 13 of the server 11 clears the priority information management table 174 of all terminals 21 (step S101), and waits until notification information is received from the terminal 21 (step S102: N).

  CPU13 performs the reception step which receives this notification information from the terminal 21 which performed the transmission step which transmits notification information (step S102). When the notification information is received (step S102: Y), the CPU 13 generates the occurrence event of the terminal 21 and the occurrence of the occurrence of the event based on the occurrence event that is the state of the terminal 21 in the terminal state table 171 and the received notification information. The time is stored (set) as the state of the terminal 21 in the terminal state table 171 (step S103). Here, it is assumed that the occurrence event to be stored has a high priority set in advance among the occurrence event already stored in the terminal state table 171 and the terminal event in the notification information received from the terminal 21. At this time, the operator response status indicating the response status of the operator with respect to the occurrence event to be stored is also stored.

  The CPU 13 determines whether the occurrence event in the stored terminal state is an event to be confirmed by the operator (step S104). Here, as an event to be confirmed by the operator, for example, if the terminal 21 is an ATM, there are abnormalities, medium END, medium FULL, clogging, forgetting to remove a card, disconnection of communication, center monitoring, and calling. Examples of events that do not require operator confirmation include normality and branch monitoring.

  If the received content is not an event to be confirmed by the operator (step S104: N), the CPU 13 does not calculate the corresponding priority of the terminal 21 and returns the process to step S102.

If the received content is an event to be confirmed by the operator (step S104: Y), the CPU 13 proceeds to a process of calculating the corresponding priority of the terminal 21.
In the calculation of the corresponding priority, the CPU 13 first refers to the terminal priority definition file 172 and stores the weight of the terminal 21 in the variable “priority” (step S105).

  Subsequently, the CPU 13 refers to the generated event priority definition file 173 and adds a value corresponding to the event that has occurred in the terminal 21 to the variable “priority” (step S106). Thereafter, the CPU 13 evaluates all the environmental elements related to the occurrence event.

  First, the CPU 13 resets the priority information management table 174 of the terminal 21 (step S107). Subsequently, the CPU 13 refers to the occurrence event priority definition file 173 and determines whether there are any undetermined items in environmental elements related to the occurrence event (step S108). The environmental element items determined at this time are unevaluated items among all the environmental elements such as the presence / absence of an operating operator, the contents of the operator response status, and the elapsed time since the occurrence of an event. Whether or not it is unevaluated is determined, for example, as an unevaluated item for which the operation and weight of the priority 81 in the priority information management table 174 have not been input, or a check item for whether or not evaluation has been performed The determination is made by an appropriate method such as determining whether each environmental element of the table 174 is checked or not.

When there is no unevaluated item (step S108: N), the CPU 13 advances the processing to the corresponding priority derivation in step S110 described later.
When there is an unevaluated item (step S108: Y), the CPU 13 evaluates the item, and stores (stores) the operation and weight in the corresponding part of the priority information management table 174 (step S109). This memory performs an environmental element acquisition step of acquiring environmental element information such as presence / absence of a corresponding operator by inquiring the status of the environmental element to the corresponding terminal 21, for example, and the occurrence event priority definition based on this This can be realized by acquiring the priority operation and the weight from the file 173 and storing the acquired operation and the weight. The CPU 13 that executes step S109 functions as an environmental element acquisition unit. Note that the status of the environmental elements in the terminal 21 is always stored as environmental element information in the storage unit 17 of the server 11, and the status of the environmental elements in each terminal 21 is referred to by referring to this environmental element information. You may make it the structure acquired.

  Further, when invalidating the priority operation of another item, the CPU 13 invalidates the validity flag of the item (step S109). Then, the process returns to step S108, and is repeated until there are no unevaluated items.

  When all the environmental elements are evaluated, the contents of the priority information management table 174 are used, and the derivation of the priority that has been performed up to step S106 is resumed. First, the CPU 13 refers to the valid flag among the items in the priority information management table 174, and investigates the priority operation only for the valid items (step S110).

  If all of the investigated operations are calculations instead of a fixed value set (step S110: Y), the weights of the corresponding items are calculated sequentially (for example, addition), and the calculation result and the value stored in the variable “priority” are obtained. An operation (for example, addition) is performed to execute a corresponding priority determination step for deriving the latest priority (step S111). At this time, the variable “priority” is also updated to the latest priority, and a transmission step of transmitting the updated priority to the client 12 is also executed.

  If a fixed value set is included in the investigated operation (step S110: N), the corresponding priority determination step of comparing the respective weights of the fixed value set and storing the maximum value in the variable “priority” is executed. (Step S112). At this time, a transmission step of transmitting the updated priority to the client 12 is also executed. The CPU 13 that executes steps S106 to S112 functions as a correspondence priority determination unit.

  In this embodiment, “0” is stored as the maximum value stored in the fixed value set. For this reason, when the fixed value is set, the variable “priority” is cleared. After deriving the priority, it waits whether the occurrence event of the terminal 21 (stored in the terminal state table 171) is updated or whether the environmental element related to the terminal 21 changes.

  Here, it is preferable that the occurrence event is not updated when the same occurrence event is received, and is not executed even when the priority of the occurrence event to be updated is lower than the current occurrence event. As a result, it is possible to adopt the event having the highest priority among the generated events and add the weight according to the elapsed time.

  However, it is preferable to forcibly update the occurrence event for clearing the occurrence event due to completion of the operator's response. As a result, it is possible to prevent the priority order from continuing to rise, and it is possible to reduce the priority order or make the correspondence unnecessary as soon as the correspondence is completed.

  If the occurrence event is updated (step S113: Y), the CPU 13 determines the state of the terminal 21 and the time when the state occurred based on the state of the terminal 21 in the terminal state table 171 and the received notification information. The process returns to step S103 stored in the state table 171.

  When the occurrence event is not updated (step S113: N) and the environmental element is changed (step S114: Y), the priority information management table 174 is stored in order to recalculate the variable “priority” of the terminal 21. The process returns to step S107 for resetting. The CPU 13 that executes step S114 functions as an environmental element change detection unit.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the client 12.
The client 12 waits until the operator requests the data by pressing the failure handling button 101 on the failure handling screen 100 (step S201: N). When there is a data request (step S201: Y), the client 12 displays detailed information about the terminal 21 that requested the data on a detailed information display screen (not shown), and the terminal of the terminal 21 that requested the data. The operator response status in the status table 171 is updated to indicate that there is an operator response (step S202). Since this update is a change in the environmental element, the server 11 detects this update in step S114 described above, and executes the processing from step S107 corresponding to the change in the environmental element.

  When the response status button is pressed on the detailed information display screen (not shown) (step S203: Y), the client 12 transmits the response status to the server 11 to update the operator response status in the terminal status table 171 (step S203). S204). It should be noted that as the operator response status that can be updated at this time, it is desirable to prepare various statuses such as response enabled, response disabled, not supported, in progress, pending, and response completed.

  With the above configuration and operation, the monitoring system 1 according to the present embodiment gives priority to the response of the terminal 21 including environmental elements other than the state of the terminal 21 to the terminal 21 that has notified the information to be confirmed by the operator. Degrees can be derived. Thereby, the high-priority terminal 21 to be handled can be appropriately presented to the operator. In addition, this allows the operator to respond with an appropriate priority, and the end user's satisfaction with the response in the event of trouble can be increased.

  Since the environmental factors affecting the priority include the presence or absence of the operator's response, the priority of the terminal 21 can be lowered or no other response is required at the moment when the operator responds. In particular, the operator can start the response to the terminal 21 only by pressing the failure handling button 101, and the environmental factors change by this pressing. For this reason, it is possible to prevent a plurality of operators from responding to one terminal 21 without causing a time lag.

  Moreover, the environmental element includes the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event. For this reason, the priority of the terminal 21 with the end user waiting for the operator's response can be increased according to the elapsed time. Therefore, when there is an operator call or the like in which there is no difference in the priority with respect to the failure and the priority with respect to the terminal 21, the priority of the terminal 21 that has been called first can be increased. Therefore, the operator can respond to the appropriate order without causing the end user to wait unduly for a long time simply by responding to the terminal 21 with the highest priority. Thereby, an end user's satisfaction can be raised.

  In addition, by providing the invalidation item priority definition file 173 with the item 75 to be invalidated, it is possible to prevent the priority order from becoming unnecessarily high. For example, it is assumed that the operator responds to a call generated at the terminal 21 and puts it in a “pending” state. In this case, since the operator has already started the response and is continuously responding while setting the processing state to “pending”, it is not necessary to correspond to another operator. Therefore, it is not necessary to increase the priority even if the elapsed time becomes longer. For this reason, when the environmental element is “pending”, priority operation (weight addition) based on the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event is disabled to prevent the priority from being increased due to the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event. is doing.

  In addition, as a priority operation, not only addition but also a fixed value set is provided, so that the priority can be forcibly set to a constant value regardless of the change of the priorities. Thereby, for example, the priority can be easily set to 0 after completion of the response or at the start of the response, and it is possible to prevent the priority from changing or continuing to rise even if the operator responds.

  As described above, the monitoring system 1 can derive the correspondence priority of the terminal 21 including environmental factors to the terminal 21 that has notified the information to be confirmed by the operator. The priority can be presented without causing the operator to determine the priority.

  The present invention is not limited only to the configuration of the above-described embodiment, and many embodiments can be obtained.

The system block diagram of a monitoring system. The block diagram which shows the structure of the server of a monitoring system. The block diagram which shows the structure of a terminal state table. The block diagram which shows the structure of a terminal priority definition file. The block diagram which shows the structure of the occurring event priority definition file. The block diagram which shows the structure of a priority information management table. The block diagram which shows the structure of a display screen management table. The block diagram of the failure response screen displayed on a client's display. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of a server. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of a server. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of a client.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Monitoring system, 11 ... Server, 12 ... Client, 13 ... CPU, 16 ... NIC, 21 ... Terminal, 100 ... Fault response screen, 200 ... WAN

Claims (5)

A monitoring system comprising one or more terminal devices, an operator terminal used by an operator, and a server device connected to the terminal device and the operator terminal via a network,
The terminal device
A transmission means for transmitting notification information indicating the terminal status to the server device when the terminal status requires notification to the server device;
The server device
Receiving means for receiving the notification information from the terminal device;
Environmental element acquisition means for acquiring environmental element information indicating environmental elements different from the terminal state with respect to the terminal device;
Correspondence priority determining means for determining the correspondence priority based on the terminal state of the notification information and the environmental element of the environmental element information;
A monitoring system comprising: transmission means for transmitting the determined correspondence priority to the operator terminal. The server device
An environmental element change detecting means for detecting a change in the environmental element information;
The monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the response priority determination unit is configured to change the response priority when a change is detected by the environmental element change detection unit. The operator terminal is
The monitoring system according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying a list display screen in which the correspondence priorities of each of a plurality of terminal devices are arranged. A monitoring method comprising: one or more terminal devices, an operator terminal used by an operator, and the terminal device and a server device connected to the operator terminal via a network, and monitoring the terminal device. ,
As the step executed by the terminal device,
A transmission step of transmitting notification information indicating the terminal state to the server device when the terminal state requires notification to the server device;
As the step executed by the server device,
A receiving step of receiving the notification information from the terminal device;
An environmental element acquisition step of acquiring environmental element information indicating an environmental element different from the terminal state with respect to the terminal device;
A correspondence priority determining step for determining a correspondence priority based on a terminal state of the notification information and an environmental element of the environmental element information;
And a transmission step of transmitting the determined correspondence priority to the operator terminal. A server device connected via a network to one or more terminal devices and an operator terminal used by an operator,
Receiving means for receiving notification information indicating a terminal state from the terminal device;
Environmental element acquisition means for acquiring environmental element information indicating environmental elements different from the terminal state with respect to the terminal device;
Correspondence priority determining means for determining the correspondence priority based on the terminal state of the notification information and the environmental element of the environmental element information;
A server apparatus comprising: a transmission unit that transmits the determined correspondence priority to the operator terminal.

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