JP2016184289A - Information processing device, failure detection method, and program therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect a failure of an initially defective connection device.SOLUTION: An information processing device includes: means for determining an initialization monitoring time of a connected connection device on the basis of monitoring time information that indicates an initialization monitoring time corresponding to initialization of the connection device for each type of the connection device; means for detecting a failure in initialization of the connection device on the basis of the initialization monitoring time and outputting failure information on the basis of the detected failure.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for detecting a failure of an information processing apparatus.

  Various related techniques for detecting a failure or abnormality of an information processing apparatus are known.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an example of a computer apparatus abnormality inspection method. In the abnormality detection method disclosed in Patent Document 1, firstly, the startup time from the power-on of the computer device to the completion of the OS (Operating System) startup process is measured, stored, and accumulated. Secondly, in the abnormality detection method, it is determined that there is an abnormality when the activation time exceeds a predetermined time or when the accumulated deviation of the activation time exceeds a predetermined range.

  However, such an abnormality inspection method has a problem that accuracy in detecting an abnormality is low. In the abnormality inspection method, abnormality detection is performed based on the startup time of the entire computer device. At this time, for example, if the diagnosis execution time of most of the other hardware components is shorter than the reference value even if the diagnosis execution time of any hardware is long, the diagnosis execution time of the entire device is within the normal range. It becomes. In this case, a hardware failure whose diagnosis execution time is long may be concealed.

  A technique for solving such problems is described in Patent Document 2. The failure prediction apparatus described in Patent Literature 2 includes a measurement unit and a report unit. The measuring means measures the execution time required for diagnosis for each of the hardware components included in the electronic device. The diagnosis is performed by a POST (Power On Self Test) execution unit. The reporting means reports an abnormality when the execution time of any hardware component exceeds a reference value set for the hardware component.

  The POST execution unit is disclosed as a POST processing unit in Patent Document 3, for example. As shown in Patent Document 3, the POST processing unit sequentially executes a process called a post task, and sequentially checks various devices one by one by each post task.

JP 2012-058882 A JP 2014-021577 A JP 2006-190061 A

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 2 described above, a failure of a connected device (hardware component) that has failed from the beginning (particularly, a failure that causes intermittent operation abnormality) cannot be detected. There is a problem that there is.

  This is because the reference value used by the reporting unit is based on the startup time at the first startup of the connected device measured by the measuring unit.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, a failure prediction method, and a program therefor for detecting a failure of a connected device that has failed from the beginning.

  The information processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention provides an initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected based on monitoring time information indicating an initialization monitoring time corresponding to initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device. Based on the initialization time determined by the monitoring time determining means and the monitoring time determining means, detecting a failure in the initialization of the connected device, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure Fault detection means.

  An information processing system according to an aspect of the present invention provides an initialization monitoring time of a connected device based on monitoring time information indicating an initialization monitoring time corresponding to initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device. Based on the initialization time determined by the monitoring time determining means and the monitoring time determining means, detecting a failure in the initialization of the connected device, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure An information processing apparatus including a failure detection unit; and a maintenance server that outputs the failure information to a user.

  In the failure detection method according to an aspect of the present invention, the initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected based on the monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device. And detecting a failure in the initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the monitoring time determining means, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure.

  The program according to one aspect of the present invention determines the initialization monitoring time of the connected device based on the monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device. And detecting a failure in the initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the monitoring time determining means, and outputting a failure information based on the detected failure to cause the computer to execute a process. .

  The present invention has an effect that it is possible to detect a failure of a connected device that has failed from the beginning.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the information processing system containing the information processing apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the computer which implement | achieves the information processing apparatus which concerns on 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the monitoring time determination part in 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the monitoring time setting table in 1st and 2nd embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information processing apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

  Embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In each embodiment described in each drawing and description, the same reference numerals are given to the same components, and the description will be omitted as appropriate.

<<<< first embodiment >>>>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing system 100 including an information processing apparatus 110 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing system 100 according to the present embodiment includes an information processing apparatus 110 and a maintenance server 180.

  The information processing apparatus 110 includes a power input unit 20, a BIOS (Basic Input Output System) 50, and a BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) 40.

  Each component included in the information processing apparatus 110 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be a hardware unit circuit, a module included in a microchip, or a component divided into functional units of a computer device. Here, the description will be made assuming that the components shown in FIG. 1 are components divided into functional units of the computer apparatus.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a computer 700 that implements the information processing apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 2, the computer 700 includes a processor 701, a memory 702, a BMC 40, an input unit 704, an output unit 705, a communication unit 706, a connection circuit 707, and a connection device 708. Further, the computer 700 includes a recording medium (or storage medium) 709 supplied from the outside. For example, the recording medium 709 is a non-volatile recording medium (non-temporary recording medium) that stores information non-temporarily. The recording medium 709 may be a temporary recording medium that holds information as a signal.

  The processor 701 controls the overall operation of the computer 700 by operating the BIOS 50 and OS (not shown). For example, the processor 701 reads the program and data from the recording medium 709 attached to the connection device 708 connected via the connection circuit 707, and writes the read program and data to the memory 702. Here, the program is a program for causing the computer 700 to execute an operation of a flowchart shown in FIG.

  The processor 701 executes various processes as the post task 150 and the monitoring time determination unit 160 of the information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1 according to the read program and based on the read data.

  The processor 701 may download the program and the data to the memory 702 from an external computer (not shown) connected to a communication network (not shown).

  The memory 702 stores the program and its data. For example, the memory 702 may store a monitoring time setting table 163 described later.

  The input unit 704 receives an input of an operation by an operator and an input of information from the outside. Devices used for the input operation are, for example, a mouse, a keyboard, a built-in key button, and a touch panel.

  The output unit 705 is realized by a display, for example. The output unit 705 is used, for example, for an input request to an operator through GUI (GRAPHICAL User Interface), an output presentation to the operator, or the like.

  The communication unit 706 implements an interface with the outside. The communication unit 706 may be included as part of the monitoring time determination unit 160.

  The connection circuit 707 is a circuit that connects the connection device 708. Note that the computer 700 may include a plurality of connection circuits 707 corresponding to the plurality of connection devices 708, respectively.

  The connection device 708 is, for example, a hard disk drive, an optical disk drive, a flexible disk drive, a magnetic optical disk drive, or a semiconductor storage device such as a flash memory.

  A recording medium 709 in which the above-described program code is recorded may be installed in the connection device 708 and supplied to the computer 700. In this case, the processor 701 may read and execute the program code stored in the recording medium 709. Alternatively, the processor 701 may store the code of the program stored in the recording medium 709 in the memory 702. That is, this embodiment includes an embodiment of a recording medium 709 that stores the program (software) executed by the computer 700 (processor 701) temporarily or non-temporarily. A recording medium that stores information non-temporarily is also called a non-volatile recording medium.

  As described above, each functional unit of the information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1 is realized by the computer 700 having the hardware configuration shown in FIG.

  Returning to FIG. 1, each component of the information processing apparatus 110 will be described.

=== Power Input Unit 20 ===
The power input unit 20 activates the information processing apparatus 110. For example, the power input unit 20 turns on the information processing apparatus 110 and transmits power input information 820 to the BIOS 50.

=== BIOS50 ===
The BIOS 50 includes a post task 150 corresponding to each of the connection circuits 707 and a monitoring time determination unit 160.

  The BIOS 50 executes an initialization process of the information processing apparatus 110 based on the fact that the information processing apparatus 110 has been activated at 120 (for example, that the power input information 820 has been received). At this time, the BIOS 50 executes each of the post tasks 150. Furthermore, the BIOS 50 executes processing by the monitoring time determination unit 160 for each post task 150.

=== Posttask 150 ===
Each of the post tasks 150 executes initialization processing of the connection circuit 707 corresponding to the post task 150 and the connection device 708 connected to the connection circuit 707.

=== Monitoring Time Determining Unit 160 ===
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the monitoring time determination unit 160. As shown in FIG. 3, the monitoring time determination unit 160 includes a type confirmation unit 161, a correspondence determination unit 162, and a monitoring time setting table (also called monitoring time information) 163.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the monitoring time setting table 163. As shown in FIG. 4, the monitoring time setting table 163 includes the connected device type and the initialization monitoring time in association with each other.

  For example, the monitoring time setting table 163 may be stored in advance in either the memory 702 illustrated in FIG. 2 or the connection device 708 connected to the connection circuit 707 illustrated in FIG. The monitoring time determination unit 160 may acquire the monitoring time setting table 163 input by the operator via the input unit 704 illustrated in FIG. The monitoring time determination unit 160 may receive the monitoring time setting table 163 from a device (not shown) via the communication unit 706 shown in FIG. The monitoring time determination unit 160 may acquire the monitoring time setting table 163 recorded in the recording medium 709 installed in the connection device 708 via the connection circuit 707 illustrated in FIG.

  The monitoring time determination unit 160 confirms the presence of the connected device 708 for each post task 150. When the connected device 708 exists, the type confirmation unit 161 of the monitoring time determination unit 160 detects the type of the connected device 708. Next, the correspondence determination unit 162 of the monitoring time determination unit 160 determines whether or not the connected device type that matches the type is included in the monitoring time setting table 163. When the connected device type that matches the type is included in the monitoring time setting table 163, the monitoring time determination unit 160 sets the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the connected device type to the initialization monitoring time 860 of the connected device 708. Determine as.

=== BMC 40 ===
The BMC 40 includes a failure detection unit 140 and a log storage unit 190.

=== Failure Detection Unit 140 ===
The failure detection unit 140 monitors whether the execution time of the post task 150 for the connected device 708 exceeds the initialization monitoring time 860 corresponding to the connected device 708. When the execution time exceeds the initialization monitoring time 860, the failure detection unit 140 detects that at least one of the connection device 708 and the connection circuit 707 connecting the connection device 708 has a failure.

  The failure detection unit 140 outputs information regarding the detected failure to the log storage unit 190 as failure information 840.

=== Log Storage Unit 190 ===
The log storage unit 190 stores the failure information 840 as a log. The failure information 840 includes, for example, the time when the failure is detected, the identifier of the connection device 708 and the identifier of the connection circuit 707 corresponding to the failure. The failure information 840 may further include arbitrary information such as an initialization monitoring time 860 corresponding to the failure and an execution time of the post task 150.

  The BMC 40 may transmit the failure information 840 stored in the log storage unit 190 to the maintenance server 180.

  This completes the description of each component of the functional unit of the information processing apparatus 110.

=== Maintenance server 180 ===
The maintenance server 180 outputs the failure information 840 to the user. As a result, the user can obtain information on a failure (intermittent failure or a sign of a fixed failure).

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the monitoring time determination unit 160 of this embodiment. Note that the processing according to this flowchart may be executed based on the program control by the processor 701 described above. Further, the step name of the process is described by a symbol as in S601.
The monitoring time determination unit 160 of the BIOS 50 starts the operation of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 when each post task 150 is started.

  The monitoring time determination unit 160 checks whether or not there is a connected device 708 corresponding to the post task 150 (step S601). If the connected device 708 does not exist (NO in S601), the process ends.

  If the connected device 708 exists (YES in step S601), the type confirmation unit 161 of the monitoring time determination unit 160 detects the type of the connected device 708 (step S602).

  Next, the correspondence determination unit 162 of the monitoring time determination unit 160 determines whether or not the connected device type that matches the type is included in the monitoring time setting table 163 (step S603).

  If the connected device type that matches the type is included in the monitoring time setting table 163 (YES in step S603), the monitoring time determination unit 160 sets the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the connected device type to the connected device 708. The initialization monitoring time 860 is determined (step S604).

  When the connected device type that matches the type is not included in the monitoring time setting table 163 (“NO” determination) (NO in step S603), the monitoring time determination unit 160 determines “NO” for the connected device 708. It is further determined whether or not a predetermined number of times (for example, 3 times) has been reached (step S605). If the “No” determination has not reached the predetermined number of times (NO in step S605), the process returns to step S602.

  When the “No” determination has reached the predetermined number of times (YES in step S605), the monitoring time determination unit 160 determines the specified value as the initialization monitoring time 860 of the connected device 708 (step S606). The specified value is, for example, that the connected device type in the monitoring time setting table 163 is “not applicable (“ the type of the connected device 708 is not included in the connected device type in the monitoring time setting table 163 ”)”. May be a value of the initialization monitoring time corresponding to. That is, the specified value is not the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the type of the connected device 708.

  Next, the BIOS 50 outputs the initialization monitoring time 860 to the BMC 40 (step S607).

  Following step S607, the post task 150 executes an initialization process for the connected device 708. The BIOS 50 executes all the post tasks 150 as described above.

  With the above configuration, the information processing apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment detects a failure of the connected device 708 in a failure state in which an abnormality occurs intermittently from the beginning. In other words, the information processing apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment detects a sign of a fixed failure in the connection device 708 in a failure state in which an abnormality occurs intermittently from the beginning. For example, in the connection device 708 that can be a fixed failure, the initialization time tends to be delayed due to a retry process or the like (a failure in which an abnormality occurs intermittently). Therefore, when the execution time of the initialization process by the post task 150 exceeds the initialization monitoring time 860, it can be determined that there is a sign of a fixed failure.

  Compared to the present embodiment, in the related art, when the determination based on the post-task execution time of the BIOS is used as the failure determination means of the connected device, there are the following problems. In the related art, when the connected device is activated for the first time, it is assumed that the connected device has not failed, and the post task execution time at the first activation is stored as the initialization monitoring time. Then, from the next startup of the server device, the post-task execution time of the connected device is compared with the initialization monitoring time, and when the difference is outside the specified value range, it is determined that there is a failure. Therefore, the failure determination is not correctly performed for the connected device in a failure state in which an abnormality occurs intermittently from the beginning.

  The first effect of the present embodiment described above is that it is possible to detect a failure of the connection device 708 that has failed from the beginning.

  This is because the following configuration is included. First, the monitoring time determination unit 160 of the BIOS 50 determines the initialization monitoring time 860 for each posttask 150 based on the monitoring time setting table 163. Second, the BMC 40 detects a failure in the initialization of the connection device 708 based on the initialization monitoring time 860, and the failure detection unit 140 detects the failure based on the initialization monitoring time 860.

  The second effect of the present embodiment described above is that it is possible to detect a failure of the connected device 708 that has failed from the beginning even for the connected device 708 whose operation is unstable immediately after the power is turned on. is there.

  The reason is that when the connected device type of the connected device 708 is not included in the monitoring time setting table 163, the monitoring time determination unit 160 repeats the process from the detection of the connected device type of the connected device 708 a predetermined number of times. Because.

  The third effect of the present embodiment described above is to detect a failure of the connected device 708 that has failed from the beginning for the types of connected devices 708 other than the connected device types included in the monitoring time setting table 163. It is a point that becomes possible.

  The reason is that if the connected device type of the connected device 708 is not included in the monitoring time setting table 163, the monitoring time determining unit 160 determines the specified value as the initialization monitoring time 860 of the connected device 708. is there.

<<< Second Embodiment >>>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, the description overlapping with the above description is omitted as long as the description of the present embodiment is not obscured.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus 210 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  As illustrated in FIG. 6, the information processing apparatus 210 according to this embodiment includes a monitoring time determination unit 160 and a failure detection unit 140.

  The information processing apparatus 210 may be realized by the computer 700 illustrated in FIG. 2, similarly to the information processing apparatus 110 illustrated in FIG. 1.

=== Monitoring Time Determining Unit 160 ===
The monitoring time determination unit 160 determines the initialization monitoring time 860 corresponding to the initialization of the connected device 708 and the initialization monitoring time 860 of the connected device 708 based on the monitoring time setting table 163. The monitoring time setting table 163 is monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization execution time of the connected device 708 for each type of the connected device 708.

  The specific configuration and operation of the monitoring time determination unit 160 of the present embodiment may be the same as the monitoring time determination unit 160 shown in FIG.

=== Failure Detection Unit 140 ===
The failure detection unit 140 detects a failure in the initialization of the connected device 708 based on the initialization monitoring time 860 determined by the monitoring time determination unit 160, and outputs failure information 840 based on the detected failure. .

  The specific configuration and operation of the failure detection unit 140 of this embodiment may be the same as those of the failure detection unit 140 illustrated in FIG.

  The present embodiment is not limited to a computer device, and can be applied to any device (for example, a device that processes some information) including a configuration (for example, BMC 40) having a time monitoring function during initialization.

  The effect of the present embodiment described above is that it is possible to detect a failure of the connected device 708 that has failed from the beginning.

  This is because the following configuration is included. First, the monitoring time determination unit 160 determines the initialization monitoring time 860 of the connected device 708 based on the monitoring time setting table 163. Second, the failure detection unit 140 detects a failure in the initialization of the connected device 708 based on the initialization monitoring time 860.

  Each component described in each of the above embodiments does not necessarily have to be individually independent. For example, a plurality of arbitrary constituent elements may be realized as one module. Any one of the constituent elements may be realized by a plurality of modules. Further, any one of the components may be any other one of the components. Further, any one part of the constituent elements may overlap with any other part of the constituent elements.

  In the embodiments described above, each component and a module that realizes each component may be realized as hardware as necessary. Moreover, each component and the module which implement | achieves each component may be implement | achieved by a computer and a program. Each component and a module that realizes each component may be realized by mixing hardware modules, computers, and programs.

  The program is recorded on a computer-readable non-transitory recording medium such as a magnetic disk or a semiconductor memory, and provided to the computer. The program is read from the non-transitory recording medium by the computer when the computer is started up. The read program causes the computer to function as a component in each of the above-described embodiments by controlling the operation of the computer.

  Further, in each of the embodiments described above, a plurality of operations are described in order in the form of a flowchart, but the described order does not limit the order in which the plurality of operations are executed. For this reason, when each embodiment is implemented, the order of the plurality of operations is changed within a range that does not hinder the functional, performance, and other characteristics in implementing each embodiment. be able to.

  Furthermore, in each embodiment described above, a plurality of operations are not limited to being executed at different timings. For example, other operations may occur during the execution of a certain operation within a range that does not hinder the functional, performance, and other characteristics in implementing each embodiment. In addition, the execution timing of one operation and another operation partially or entirely overlaps within a range that does not hinder the functional, performance, and other characteristics in implementing each embodiment. May be.

  Further, in each of the embodiments described above, it is described that a certain operation becomes a trigger for another operation, but the description does not limit the relationship between the certain operation and another operation. For this reason, when each embodiment is implemented, the relationship between the plurality of operations is changed within a range that does not hinder the functional, performance, and other characteristics in implementing each embodiment. be able to. The specific description of each operation of each component does not limit each operation of each component. For this reason, each specific operation | movement of each component may be changed in the range which does not cause trouble with respect to a functional, performance, and other characteristic in implementing each embodiment.

  Although the present invention has been described with reference to each embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. Various changes that can be understood by those skilled in the art can be made to the configuration and details of the present invention within the scope of the present invention.

20 Power input unit 40 BMC
50 BIOS
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 110 Information processing apparatus 140 Failure detection part 150 Post task 160 Monitoring time determination part 161 Type confirmation part 162 Correspondence determination part 163 Monitoring time setting table 180 Maintenance server 190 Log storage part 210 Information processing apparatus 700 Computer 701 Processor 702 Memory 704 Input part 705 Output unit 706 Communication unit 707 Connection circuit 708 Connection device 709 Recording medium 820 Power input information 840 Failure information 860 Initialization monitoring time

Claims (7)

Monitoring time determining means for determining the initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected based on the monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device;
Failure detection means for detecting a failure in initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the monitoring time determination means, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure. apparatus. The monitoring time determining means includes
Type confirmation means for confirming the type of the connected device connected;
Correspondence determination means for determining whether information corresponding to the type of the confirmed connected device is included in the monitoring time information,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the determination result of the correspondence determination unit is "No", the processing by the type confirmation unit and the correspondence determination unit is repeated a predetermined number of times. The monitoring time determination unit determines a predetermined value as the initialization monitoring time of the connected device when the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the type of the connected device is not included in the monitoring time information. Or the information processing apparatus of 2. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a log storage unit that stores the failure information as a log. Monitoring time determining means for determining an initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected based on monitoring time information indicating an initialization monitoring time corresponding to initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device; and the monitoring A failure detection unit that detects a failure in the initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the time determination unit and outputs failure information based on the detected failure; ,
A maintenance server that outputs the failure information to a user. Based on the monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device, determine the initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected,
A failure detection method for detecting a failure in initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the monitoring time determining means, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure. Based on the monitoring time information indicating the initialization monitoring time corresponding to the initialization of the connected device for each type of the connected device, determine the initialization monitoring time of the connected device connected,
A program for causing a computer to execute a process of detecting a failure in initialization of the connected device based on the initialization monitoring time determined by the monitoring time determining means, and outputting failure information based on the detected failure.

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