JP2020017312A - Information processing device, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program that can obtain multiple pieces of information on a device while keeping communication traffic down.SOLUTION: An information processing device collectively obtains first device information which is information not involved in the setting of a device or a function of the device, from the device, obtains second device information which is information corresponding to the setting of the device or the function of the device, and stores the obtained first and second device information in storage means. On the basis of the obtained first device information, the information processing device identifies a device connected via communication.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program for controlling a network device using network management software using, for example, an SNMP protocol.

  Conventionally, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) has been devised for managing devices and the like on a network, and is used as a communication protocol when managing the devices and the like. In a network management system using the SNMP protocol, management information can be obtained and settings can be changed for network devices to be managed, which are called managed nodes. In communication using the SNMP protocol, a plurality of attributes can be collectively acquired by specifying a plurality of attributes in one SNMP message. When acquiring multiple attribute information in a lump, if there is an acquisition error in any of the information that is being acquired, the SNMP request itself will result in an error. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which an SNMP request message in which an attribute part in which an acquisition error has occurred is eliminated and a request is made again to prevent an information acquisition error (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Application No. 7-97247

  However, when communication such as device search is performed on a plurality of managed nodes using the SNMP protocol and retransmission processing is performed on a device in which an error has occurred during information acquisition, communication traffic increases. there is a possibility. In addition, when a plurality of attributes that result in an acquisition error are included in the plurality of attributes to be acquired, there is a problem that communication traffic increases in proportion to the number of error items.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology. An object of the present invention is to enable acquisition of a plurality of pieces of information about a device while reducing the influence on communication traffic.

  In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: first acquisition means for collectively acquiring first device information from a device, which is information irrespective of device settings or functions of the device; Second acquisition means for acquiring from the device second device information that is information corresponding to settings or functions of the device, and first device information acquired by the first acquisition means and acquired by the second acquisition means A storage unit for storing second device information; and a specification unit for specifying a device connected by communication based on the first device information acquired by the first acquisition unit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to acquire a plurality of pieces of information on a device while suppressing communication traffic.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an information collection device and a device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of a host computer according to the first embodiment. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process implemented by the host computer according to the first embodiment. It is a figure showing an example of a search result list.

  In the invention according to the present embodiment, when searching for a device using SNMP, particularly the SNMP ver. 1 protocol, information to be obtained is not handled uniformly, but can be obtained without depending on device settings or functions of the device. Information acquisition is performed separately for assumed information (device-independent information) and information (device-dependent information) whose availability may change depending on device settings and functions of the device. By dividing information acquisition according to the type of information, it is not necessary to uniformly perform error processing on the acquired information, reduce the influence on communication traffic, search for devices, and acquire multiple pieces of device information. (Or collection).

<First embodiment>
[System configuration]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a host computer 1 (hereinafter, host) as an example of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention, and a device management system including a plurality of printers. In the present embodiment, a device to be managed is a printer, and a process of searching for the printer from a host is described as an example. The printer is not limited to a single-function printer, but may be a multi-function printer having a printer function together with a scanner function. The device to be managed is not limited to a printer, but may be another information processing device.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the host 1 and the printer 2 are connected to each other via a predetermined bidirectional interface 3. The host 1 is, for example, a personal computer (PC). The host 1 functions as an information collection device that acquires device information from a printer 2 that is a connected device. The host 1 has a main board 109 including a CPU 101 and the like, a keyboard 110, a display 111 such as an LCD, and a storage device 112 such as a hard disk (HDD). The main board 109 further controls inputs from a RAM 102, a ROM 103, a keyboard controller (KBC) 106, a keyboard 110, and a pointing device (not shown). The keyboard controller 110 is also called an operation unit or an input unit. The display controller (DISPC) 107 controls the display on the display 111. The RAM 102 functions as a main memory or a work area of the CPU 101. The ROM 103 stores a boot program and the like.

  A disk controller (DKC) 108 controls access to a storage device 112 such as a hard disk. The storage device 112 stores an update program for executing each function according to the present embodiment, an operating system, various applications, and the like. A protocol stack including SNMP and TCP / IP as a base thereof is also stored in the storage device 112 as a program file.

  An interface controller (I / FC) 104 is connected to the printer 2 via a bidirectional interface 3 realized by communication such as a LAN, and controls communication processing of data and commands with the printer 2.

  The printer 2 includes a controller 121, a printer engine 125, an operation panel 124, and a nonvolatile storage device 138, and is connected to the host 1 via the bidirectional interface 3. The non-volatile storage device 138 includes a hard disk (HDD) 122 or an EEPROM 123. The nonvolatile storage device may be called a nonvolatile memory.

  The controller 121 includes a CPU 114, a ROM 115, a RAM 116, an interface controller (I / FC) 113, a disk controller (DKC) 118, a panel interface (I / FP) 119, and an engine interface (I / FE) 120.

  The CPU 114 controls the components connected to the system bus 117 as a whole, and executes various programs. The ROM 115 receives print image data and commands from the host 1, and stores programs and various data for controlling the printer engine 125 to realize optimal printing. The RAM 116 is used as a work area for temporarily storing various data and various programs. Protocols including SNMP and its base TCP / IP are also stored in the ROM 115. The MIB (management information base) including the device information of the printer 2 and the like is stored in any of the storage units such as the ROM 115 and the HDD 122.

  The interface controller (I / FC) 113 is connected to the host 1 via the bidirectional interface 3, and controls data and command communication with the host 1. The hard disk (HDD) 122 stores a large amount of data such as data from the host 1 and information attached to the data. The EEPROM 123 stores information unique to the recording device used during the recording operation. A disk controller (DKC) 118 controls access to a hard disk 122 or an EEPROM 123 which is a nonvolatile storage device. A panel interface (I / F P) 119 controls display on the operation panel 124 and input from the operation panel 124. An engine interface (I / FE) 120 controls a printer engine 125 that directly controls hardware and realizes optimum printing.

  As the printer engine 125, a printer engine using an ink jet recording method, a printer engine according to an electrophotographic system, or the like can be used.

[Device Management System]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a search function of the device management system according to the present embodiment. The function of the host computer will be described. The application 201 is a program executed by the host 1, and executes a process of searching for a device connected by the bidirectional interface 3.

  The search processing unit 202 is a processing unit that performs a device search process, and includes a collective information acquisition unit 203, an individual information acquisition unit 204, and a search result storage unit 205. The collective information acquisition unit 203 performs a transmission process of transmitting an SNMP search packet to a plurality of devices and a process of receiving a return packet from each device. Although the transmission processing for a plurality of devices is described as broadcast communication in the present embodiment, multicast processing may be used.

  The individual information acquisition unit 204 performs a transmission process of transmitting an individual information acquisition packet to each device by unicast, and a process of receiving a reply packet from the device.

  The search result storage unit stores information in the search result list 206 based on the acquisition error state of the collective information acquisition unit (or collective acquisition unit) 203 and the individual information acquisition unit (or individual acquisition unit) 204 and the acquisition result information. Perform save processing. The search result list 206 is a database that stores search result information searched by the search processing unit 202 as a search result list. Details of the search result list stored in the search result list 206 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

[Acquisition processing procedure]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing flow of a search program (stored in the storage device 112 of the host 1) that executes each function according to the present embodiment. The procedure in FIG. 3 is realized by the CPU 101 executing the search program loaded in the RAM 102.

  When the search processing unit 202 of the application 201 is executed, first, the host 1 transmits a search SNMP packet to the bidirectional interface 3 by broadcast (301). The search packet uses, for example, GetRequest in order to request information that can be received without depending on the device setting or the function of the device (this is called common information or device-independent information). In the present embodiment, information for identifying a device such as the Mac address 401, the SerialNumber 402, and the model name 403 in FIG. 4 is device-independent information acquired by broadcasting a search packet. In this way, a plurality of types of device-independent information are requested collectively. At this time, a plurality of object designation packets are used to request a plurality of types of device-independent information. The device that has received the search packet responds with a Response packet accordingly.

  After transmitting the search packet, the subsequent processing is continued until a predetermined time limit is reached (302). In other words, it waits for a reply packet (Response) from the destination device, and upon receiving the reply packet, executes the processing of steps 304 to 311, and when it is completed, waits for the reception of the next reply packet in step 303. If there is a reply packet that has been received at this point, the process from step 304 onward should be performed immediately on the packet. The device that returns a response within the time limit is the device found (specified) by the search.

  After transmitting the search SNMP packet in step 301, a reception process of receiving a reply packet from each device is performed (303). When a packet is received from the device, it is determined whether the error code of the received packet is noError (no error) (304). If it is not noError, the process is not added to the acquisition result list 206, the process regarding the return packet from the device is terminated, and the process of receiving from the next device (printer in the present embodiment) is continued.

  If the reply from the printer to the search packet is noError, the acquired information is added to the acquisition result list, the variable i is initialized to 0, and the processing of steps 306 to 311 is continued. The received response may include a plurality of types of device information according to the request. The acquired information is registered in the search result list 206 for each type of information in association with, for example, the device ID of the source device of the reply packet.

  In the processing of Steps 306 to 311, information whose reception is changed depending on the device settings and the functions of the device is transmitted by unicasting an acquisition packet for each attribute to acquire information. The information whose reception is changed depending on the setting of the device or the function of the device is, for example, information that the device has according to the configuration or the setting, and is also referred to as individual information or device-dependent information. In the present embodiment, the Bonjour name 404 and DeviceID 405 in FIG. 4 are device-dependent information to be acquired when acquiring individual information. The Bonjour name 404 cannot respond to the individual information acquisition request when the Bonjour function (functions such as assignment of IP address and host name and automatic search for services) is turned off on the printer side. , May result in an error. The DeviceID may not be able to be obtained depending on the function of the device. For example, DeviceID information regarding the Scan function can be acquired by a device having the Scan function, but cannot be acquired by other devices, and the acquisition request fails. Thus, device-dependent information may not be obtained in some cases.

  The processes of steps 307 to 310 are repeated for the attributes for which information is to be obtained, and when steps 307 to 310 are completed for all the attributes, the process for the device ends (306). In the individual information acquisition, a request packet for acquiring a single information is transmitted by unicast for each attribute (307). The destination (transmission destination) of the request packet in this step is the transmission source device of the reply packet received in step 303. At this time, a single object designation packet is used to request a single type of device information. In the present embodiment, the Bonjour name and the DeviceID are requested by independent request packets (that is, individual information acquisition packets). Thereafter, a reply packet from the device for each individual information acquisition packet is received (308). After receiving the reply packet, the received reply packet is analyzed to determine whether there is noError (no error) (309). If the received packet is not noError, the process proceeds to the acquisition of the next attribute (311). If the received packet is noError, the acquired information is added to the acquisition result list 206 (310), and the process proceeds to the acquisition of the next attribute (311). At this time, since the information obtained (received) in step 308 corresponds to the information obtained (received) in step 303, the information is stored in association with the information obtained (received) in step 303.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the search result information stored in the acquisition result list 206. In this embodiment, the Mac address 401, SerialNumber 402, and model name 403 of each device are information acquired in the process of step 303 and registered in step 305, and are information that can be acquired without depending on the device settings. The Bonjour name 404 and the DeviceID 405 are information acquired in the process of step 308 of the present embodiment and registered in step 310, and are information whose availability is changed depending on device settings or functions of the device. In FIG. 4, the printer having the Mac address “000085AABBCC” is an example of a device from which all information can be obtained. The printer having the Mac address “000085DDEEFF” is an example of a device in which both the Bonjour name 404 and the DeviceID 405 have failed to acquire the individual information acquisition packet. Since the individual information is requested independently for each type of information, there is a possibility that only one of them is successfully obtained. As described above, in the present embodiment, even when individual information cannot be obtained, device-independent information can be obtained and a device search result can be obtained.

  In the present embodiment, the device-independent information and the device-dependent information are determined in advance, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, only one of the device-dependent information and the device-independent information may be determined in advance, and the other information may be determined as the other information. Further, since the MIB has a tree structure, information below a predetermined node may be defined as device-independent information or device-dependent information. In any case, the device-independent information and the device-dependent information are determined (that is, predetermined) before the execution of the procedure in FIG. 3, and information indicating the distinction is stored in, for example, the storage device 112. ing. When requesting information from the device, information indicating the distinction between the device-dependent information and the device-independent information is referred to, and a packet for requesting information corresponding to each of the steps 301 and 307 is referred to. Is sent.

  In the above procedure, the device information that has failed to be received is not updated until the next collection. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the device information that has failed to be received may be retransmitted a predetermined number of times. In the case of a timeout, there is a possibility that the power of the device has been turned off or the communication has been cut off. Therefore, it is desirable to perform retransmission after a predetermined time has elapsed.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the device-dependent information is obtained individually. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the device-dependent information may be obtained collectively. That is, a plurality of types of information may also be acquired collectively for the device-dependent information. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the process of acquiring information which is assumed to be able to return without depending on the device setting or the function of the device, and whether or not the reply is possible depends on the device setting or the function of the device or both. The information acquisition process to be performed is performed separately. Then, a device to be managed can be searched (specified) based on at least device-independent information that does not depend on device settings or device functions. As described above, in the present embodiment, device-independent information can be acquired irrespective of the acquisition result of device-dependent information, and a failure in device search can be suppressed. In addition, by combining the device-independent information and the return result of the device-dependent information as a search result, it is possible to suppress communication traffic and to acquire a plurality of pieces of information during a search.

  Note that when searching for a device using the SNMP protocol, when acquiring a plurality of pieces of information one by one, it is necessary to perform communication with the device a plurality of times, which increases the processing time and increases communication traffic. turn into. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, when searching for a device by the SNMP protocol, the device-dependent information is acquired collectively. This makes it possible to perform device search and acquire a plurality of pieces of attribute information while reducing the influence on communication traffic.

[Other Embodiments]
The present invention supplies a program for realizing one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or the apparatus read and execute the program. This processing can be realized. Further, it can also be realized by a circuit (for example, an ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

1 host computer, 2 printer, 202 search processing section, 203 batch information acquisition section, 204 individual information acquisition section, 205 search result storage section, 206 search result list

In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention uses SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to provide a plurality of types of information including first information and second information different in type from the first information. A first acquisition unit that transmits a search packet for requesting information and obtains the plurality of types of information included in a reply packet transmitted from a device that has received the search packet;
Using the SNMP, a request packet for requesting a third type of information different from any of the plurality of types of information obtained by the first obtaining unit, a reply packet based on the search packet is transmitted. A second acquisition unit that transmits to a device and acquires the third information included in a reply packet transmitted from the device that has received the request packet;
Control means for storing information acquired by the first acquisition means and the second acquisition means in a storage means;
With
The third information is information related to a specific function of the device, and when the setting of the specific function is off in the device, the third information is transmitted even if the second acquisition unit transmits the request packet. Is not transmitted from the device .

Claims (13)

First acquisition means for collectively acquiring, from the device, first device information, which is information irrespective of device settings or device functions,
Second acquisition means for acquiring, from the device, second device information that is information corresponding to device settings or functions of the device;
Storage means for storing the first device information obtained by the first obtaining means and the second device information obtained by the second obtaining means;
Specifying means for specifying a device connected by communication based on the first device information obtained by the first obtaining means;
An information processing apparatus comprising:   2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second acquisition unit acquires second device information corresponding to the acquired first device information after acquiring the first device information by the first acquisition unit. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second acquisition unit acquires the second device information individually for each type of information.   The first acquisition unit and the second acquisition unit request the first and second device information from the device using an SNMP protocol, respectively, and receive the first and second device information as a response from the device. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information processing apparatus receives the information.   5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the first acquisition unit requests the first device information collectively by using a plurality of object specification packets of an SNMP protocol. 6.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the second acquisition unit acquires the request for the second device information from each device by unicast.   7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the second acquisition unit requests the second device information for each type of information using a single object designation packet of an SNMP protocol. 8. apparatus. The first obtaining unit collectively obtains a plurality of types of device information as the first device information,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores the plurality of types of device information acquired collectively by the first acquisition unit.   The second acquisition unit requests the second device information for a device that has returned a response within a predetermined time limit in response to a request for the first device information by the first acquisition unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first acquisition unit transmits the request for the first device information by broadcast or multicast.   The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the device is a device having a printer function. A first acquisition step of collectively acquiring, from the device, first device information that is information irrelevant to device settings or functions of the device;
A second acquisition step of acquiring second device information that is information according to device settings or functions of the device;
Storing the first and second device information obtained in the first obtaining step and the second obtaining step in a storage unit;
A specifying step of specifying a device connected by communication based on the first device information obtained in the first obtaining step;
An information processing method comprising:   A program for causing a computer to function as the information processing device according to claim 1.

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