JP2012221193A - Device management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem associated with a system in which a server managing status information of plural devices collects the status information by polling the devices to provide a client with the status information, the problem of a sleep state of a device being cancelled in the case of the device polled by the server having been in the sleep state, thus generating extraneous power consumption.SOLUTION: The number of times of polling a device in a sleep state is reduced by setting a large polling interval for a device with low-frequency of uses on the basis of the frequencies of uses of client devices logged in a server.

Description

  The present invention relates to a device management system in which a plurality of client terminal devices, a plurality of devices, and a device management server device are interconnected via a network, and in particular, the device management server device polls management information from a plurality of devices. It relates to a device management system to collect.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, systems that use devices such as copiers and printers connected to a local area network have been constructed. In such a system, a management server for managing a plurality of devices may be installed. The management server can collect the states of a plurality of devices connected to the network at predetermined time intervals, and can grasp in real time what state the devices are currently in. Further, the client can refer to the device information collected by the management server.

  However, in such a printer system, if all the devices are always in a usable state, there is a device that has been turned on for a long time even though it is not used at all, which wastes power. Resulting in. In order to prevent this problem, there is a printing system that saves power by using a device that can shift to a power saving mode when it is not used for a certain period of time. However, when acquiring information on a device that can be shifted to the power saving mode, there is a problem that extra power is consumed by releasing the power saving mode of the device at each polling interval.

  In order to solve such a problem, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the power of the device is switched between ON / OFF / Sleep modes according to the print job history for each client connected to the management server. To save power.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-234082

  However, in the technique disclosed in the above publication, the device needs to have a function of switching the power supply to each mode of ON / OFF / Sleep by remote control from the management server device, and the device does not have such a function. There is a problem that it cannot be applied.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. The object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for the device to have a function of switching the power source to each mode of ON / OFF / Sleep by remote control from the management server device. Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer system that can save power.

  In order to achieve the above object, a device management system according to the present invention is a device management system in which a plurality of clients, a plurality of devices, and a management apparatus that manages the devices are interconnected via a network. Means for collecting management information related to the device by communicating with a device connected to the network at a predetermined interval and holding a print history of the client connected to the network; and each device from the print history of the client And a means for changing the predetermined interval according to the usage frequency of the device of the connected client.

  Based on the device usage frequency of the client logged in to the server, it is possible to reduce the number of times that the device in the sleep state is polled by setting a large polling interval to the device with low usage frequency.

  Even if the device does not have a function of switching the power supply mode by remote control, wasteful power consumption can be reduced by reducing the number of times the management apparatus polls the device in the sleep state.

Diagram showing the overall configuration of the print processing system The figure which shows the structure of the management server concerning this invention. Figure showing an example of the print job history table Figure showing an example of the polling interval table Diagram showing the processing flow of the management server when the client logs in / logs off The figure which shows the processing flow of the management server when the client prints Diagram showing the polling process flow The figure which shows an example of a polling interval setting table The figure which shows an example of device status information A diagram showing the detailed overall configuration of the print processing system

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment>
<Description of system configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print processing system to which the device management system according to the first embodiment of the present invention can be applied. The print processing system in FIG. 1 includes a management server 100 that manages devices, a plurality (three in this embodiment) of clients 200A to 200C, and a plurality of (three in this embodiment) devices 300A to 300A. 300C is connected to each other via a network so that they can communicate with each other.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating details of the print processing system. The polling control unit 110 of the management server 100 acquires device status information from the device status information holding unit 302 of the devices 300 </ b> A to 300 </ b> C via a network at a predetermined time interval and records it in the device status information management unit 140. The device status information includes, for example, power on / off as shown in FIG. 9, the number of print jobs being printed, error information such as paper jam and out of toner, and remaining consumables such as remaining paper and toner. This is configuration information such as the amount, whether or not double-sided printing is possible, and the presence or absence of a finisher. The device status information acquisition unit 202 of the clients 200A to 200C can acquire the status information of the devices 300A to 300C from the device status information management unit 140 of the management server 100.

  The print data created by the clients 200A to 200C can be output to the devices 300A to 300C via the print control unit 120 of the management server 100 by the print data transmission unit 201. The devices 300 </ b> A to 300 </ b> C can output data received from the client by the printing unit 301.

<Description of management server>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the management server 100 according to the present embodiment. The management server 100 includes a logged-in client management unit 101, a polling interval setting unit 102, a polling processing unit 103, a polling interval storage unit 104, a logged-in client storage unit 105, a print job history storage unit 106, a print processing unit 107, a device status An information storage unit 108 is included.

  The logged-in client management unit 101 manages client information logged in to the management server 100. The information of the logged-in client is stored in the logged-in client storage unit 105. When the clients 200A to 200C log in / log off, the logged-in client management unit 101 updates the information in the logged-in client storage unit 105.

  The print job history storage unit 106 stores a history of print jobs output from the clients 200A to 200C to the devices 300A to 300C. The contents of the stored print job history are composed of a print job history table shown in FIG.

  The polling interval setting unit 102 calculates a polling interval for collecting device status information from the devices 300A to 300C with reference to the logged-in client storage unit 105 and the print job history storage unit 106, and stores the calculated value in the polling interval storage. Stored in the unit 104.

  The polling processing unit 103 acquires the polling interval of each device from the polling interval storage unit 104, polls the devices 300A to 300C at the acquired interval, collects device status information, and stores the device status information in the device status information storage unit 108. Is stored.

  The print processing unit 107 outputs the print job received from the clients 200A to 200C to the devices 300A to 300C, and updates the print job history storage unit 106.

<Description of print job history>
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a print job history table 400 stored in the print job history storage unit 106. In the print job history table 400, print request times of print jobs output to the devices 300A to 300C are recorded for each client, and information is output every time the clients 200A to 200C output print jobs to the devices 300A to 300C. Is updated.

<Description of polling interval>
FIG. 4 is a diagram of a polling interval table 500 stored in the polling interval storage unit 104. The polling interval table 500 records the usage frequency and polling interval for each client of the devices 300 </ b> A to 300 </ b> C, and the polling interval storage unit 104 updates the information. The polling processing unit 103 performs polling processing at the polling interval recorded in the polling interval storage unit 104.

  Next, the operation of the management server 100 according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

<Description of processing flow when client logs in / log off>
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating processing of the management server 100 when the clients 200 </ b> A to 200 </ b> C log in or log off from the management server 100.

  When the clients 200A to 200C log in or log off from the management server 100, the logged-in client management unit 101 updates information in the logged-in client storage unit 105 in step S601.

  In step S602, the polling interval setting unit 102 refers to the print job history storage unit 106 and determines whether print job history data exists in the client that has logged in or logged off.

  If there is no print job history data, the process ends. If it exists, in step S603, the polling interval setting unit 102 refers to the logged-in client storage unit 105 and the print job history storage unit 106 to determine the usage frequency of the devices 300A to 300C for each client. The polling interval setting unit 102 updates the usage frequency item of the polling interval table 500 stored in the polling interval storage unit 104 with the obtained usage frequency. In step S604, the polling interval setting unit 102 refers to the usage frequency item in the polling interval table 500, determines the polling interval based on the value, and updates the polling interval item in the polling interval table 500.

  In this embodiment, a polling interval setting table 900 shown in FIG. 8 is used to determine a polling interval from the polling usage frequency. In the polling interval setting table 900, a range of usage frequency X and a corresponding polling interval are defined. Usage frequency X is the sum of the usage frequencies of the logged-in clients. For example, in FIG. 4, when the logged-in clients are clientA, clientB, and clientC, the usage frequency X of deviceB is X = 1job / day + 2job / day = 3job / day. At this time, since X <5job / day, the polling interval of deviceB is set to 6 hours.

<Description of processing flow during printing>
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating processing of the management server 100 when the clients 200 </ b> A to 200 </ b> C output print jobs to the devices 300 </ b> A to 300 </ b> C via the management server 100.

  First, in step S701, the print processing unit 103 receives a print job transmitted from the client, and transmits the print job to the device in step S702.

  In step S <b> 703, the print processing unit 103 refers to the print job history storage unit 106 and determines whether the print history data of the client that transmitted the print job exists in the print job history table 400. If there is no print history data, client data is created in the print job history table 400 in step S704.

  In step S705, the print job history table 400 is updated.

<Description of polling process flow>
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating processing when the management server 100 collects device status information by polling the devices 300A to 300C.

  The management server 100 performs a polling process in order to collect device status information from the devices 300A to 300C. As a flow of the polling process, first, in step S801, the polling processing unit 103 refers to the device status information storage unit 108 and determines whether or not the polling destination device is printing.

  If printing is in progress, the device will not be released from the status state by polling. In step S802, the polling processing unit 103 sets the polling interval to a predefined value. This value is shorter than the polling interval in the polling interval table 500, and is 5 seconds in this embodiment.

  If printing is not in progress, in step S803, the polling processing unit 103 refers to the polling interval in the polling interval table 500 stored in the polling interval storage unit 104, and sets the value as the polling interval.

  Next, in step S804, the polling processing unit 103 waits until the set polling interval time elapses.

  In step S805, the polling processing unit 103 transmits a polling message to the device, acquires device status information from the device, and updates information in the device status information storage unit 108.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Management server 101 Login client management part 102 Polling interval setting part 103 Polling process part 104 Polling interval storage part 105 Login client storage part 106 Print job history storage part 107 Print processing part 108 Device status information storage part 400 Print job history table 500 Polling interval table 1000 Device status information

Claims (4)

Collection means (103) for collecting management information about the device by communicating with a device connected to the network at a predetermined interval;
Means (106) for holding a print history of a client connected to the network;
Means (102) for calculating the frequency of use of each device from the print history of the client;
In a management device having
A device management system comprising: changing means (102) for changing the predetermined interval in accordance with a frequency of use of the device of the connected client. The changing unit calculates a use frequency of each device from a list of connected clients and a print history of the client at the time of login / logout of the client, and sets the predetermined interval according to the use frequency of the device. The device management system according to claim 1, wherein the device management system is changed. The device management system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined interval is set to a value different from the predetermined interval determined by the changing unit for the device during printing. The device management system according to claim 1, wherein the print history of the client is updated when the client prints.