JP2638513B2 - Network system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network system for automatically selecting a server when data distributed and managed on a network is transferred between workstations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a network system in which data is distributed and managed by a plurality of workstations on a network, when transferring management data between the workstations, a client workstation (hereinafter, referred to as a client workstation) which is to receive the management data transfer. Simply referred to as the client)
Is a server workstation that is a virtual master device that manages the management data (hereinafter simply referred to as a server)
It is necessary to recognize the location of the management data and issue a transfer request of the management data to the server.

In this type of conventional technology, predefined information defining the relationship between management data and a workstation (that is, a server) that manages the management data is supplied to other workstations (that is, clients). The client checks the location of the server for the management data to be transferred by referring to the above-mentioned predefined information and issues a transfer request of the management data.

Further, in the conventional network system, the routing for selecting the transfer route of the management data is directed to the selection of the optimum route when both the server and the client, which are the end-end nodes of the data transfer, are determined. Was. In other words, when one of the server and the client is not specified (actually, the client requests the management data transfer and is always specified, so only when the server is not specified) No route was selected.

In a network system, when a plurality of workstations hold the same management data for the purpose of maintenance or the like, a reduction in data transfer time can be expected in order to improve the management data transfer efficiency. It is desirable to receive the management data from the server. For example, in a network system including a plurality of sub-networks, if data required by a client is held by two workstations in different sub-networks in the network, the client may have 9.6 kbp in one server sub-network.
s, and the other server is connected at 10 Mbps, the data transfer time can be expected to be shorter by selecting the latter server and requesting data transfer. In addition, in order to reduce the data transfer time in a network system including a plurality of sub-networks as described above, it is necessary to consider not only the above-described line speed but also data transfer efficiency between sub-networks.

As described above, when there are a plurality of servers, it is required that a routing function not only selects a data transfer path when a server and a client are determined but also selects a server in consideration of data transfer efficiency. You. In order to respond to such a request, in the conventional network system, information such as the line speed and the data transfer efficiency between sub-networks is stored in advance in advance, and the optimum server and data transfer route are referred to by referring to the information. Or the operator intervenes to select the optimal server.

[0007]

However, as described above, in the prior art in which the selection of a server in routing when the same management data is held by a plurality of workstations is performed by using predefined information or operator intervention. The creator or operator of the predefined information needs to know the system configuration of the network system. For this reason, as the amount of information has become enormous with the increase in the scale and complexity of the network, it has become difficult to create appropriate pre-defined information and to select a server by an operator.

In addition, when a server is selected according to a pre-defined method on the client side, if the system configuration of the network system is changed, it is necessary to update the pre-defined information of each client, which is troublesome. There were drawbacks.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the related art, and manages information on the system configuration of a network system in a unified manner, thereby efficiently performing routing including server selection, and improving the system configuration of the network system. An object of the present invention is to provide a network system that can easily respond to changes.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a network system for storing and managing management data in a plurality of workstations in a distributed manner. Means for selecting a server by referring to the network configuration information in response to a server selection request issued by a station.

In another aspect, the network configuration management host is configured to store, as network configuration information, information divisions of information held in each workstation in association with each workstation.

In another aspect, the network configuration management host is configured to store, as network configuration information, information on whether or not data transfer is possible at each workstation.

In another aspect, the network configuration management host is configured to store, as network configuration information, information on a line speed between each workstation and a network to which the workstation is connected.

In another aspect, a network system includes a plurality of sub-network systems, and the network configuration management host stores information relating to data transfer efficiency between each sub-network as network configuration information. And

[0015]

The present invention provides a network configuration comprising means for storing network configuration information, and means for selecting a server by referring to the network configuration information in response to a server selection request issued by an arbitrary workstation. The management host can centrally manage the network configuration information.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a network system that implements a server selection method according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the network system of the present embodiment comprises sub-networks 10, 20, 3 to which one or more workstations (terminal devices) are connected.
0, 40, 50, 60, and a network configuration management host 10 for managing data transfer of the entire network system.
0.

In the figure, sub-networks 10, 2
0 and 30 are Ether nets and subnetwork 4
0 indicates a network based on the FDDI method, and sub-networks 50 and 60 indicate a wide area network (WAN).
Each sub-network 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 6
0 are connected via a gateway (not shown). The format and connection of the sub-network
The present embodiment does not affect the present invention at all, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated type of network.

Each of the sub-networks 10, 20, 30, 4
Workstations are connected to 0, 50, and 60, respectively. In these workstations, management data managed by the system of this embodiment is stored in a distributed manner. Thus, depending on the operation, any workstation can be both a server and a client. Further, a part or all of the management data is redundantly stored in a plurality of workstations for the purpose of maintenance or the like.

At least one network configuration management host 100 is provided in the system of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the network configuration management host 100 stores a control unit 101 for selecting a server in response to a server selection request from a client, and network configuration information necessary for the control unit 101 to select a server. Data management unit 102 and data file 103
And a communication control unit 104 for connecting to a network and communicating with each workstation.

The data file 103 includes, as network configuration information, information such as information attributes of all the workstations connected to the system, operation status, connection relations with sub-networks, and connection relations between sub-networks. And information. These pieces of network configuration information are updated when the configuration of the network system is changed. In response to a server selection request from the client, the control unit 101 refers to the information stored in the data file 103, selects a server, and notifies the client.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of attribute information stored in the data file 103 of the network management host 100. As shown in the figure, the attribute information manages information attributes (division of information) held by each workstation and an operation state of the workstation. In the drawing, 1 is set when the data transfer is possible in the workstation, and 0 when the data transfer is disabled. Therefore, if the workstation is out of order or disconnected from the network due to maintenance or a change in the configuration of the network, the operation status is 0.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of connection information (WS-SN connection information) between a workstation and a subnetwork stored in the data file 103 of the network management host 100. As shown, WS-SN
The connection information manages the sub-network to which each workstation is connected and the line speed in the connection.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of connection information (inter-SN connection information) between sub-networks stored in the data file 103 of the network management host 100. As shown in the figure, the SN connection information manages sub-networks to which each sub-network is directly connected to each other and data transfer efficiency (R efficiency) between the sub-networks.

In the network system configured as described above, to select a server, first, a client makes a server selection request to the network configuration management host 100. Network configuration management host 100
Receives the server selection request,
The server is selected in consideration of the data transfer time by referring to the network configuration information stored in the server 4, and the client is notified of the selection result. The client makes a data transfer request to the selected server based on the received server selection result. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, at the server selection stage, the client connects to the network configuration management host, but at the management data transfer stage, the client directly connects to the server.

Next, a server selecting operation according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

First, a message is issued from the client to the network configuration management host 100 requesting server selection (step 301). In response to this server selection request, the control unit 101 of the network configuration management host 100
First checks the subnetwork to which the client that issued the server selection request belongs (step 302). Then, it is checked whether or not a workstation (server) having management data to be obtained by the client exists in the subnetwork (step 30).
3). At this time, if there are a plurality of workstations having the management data, all of them are detected. When the client is connected to a plurality of sub-networks, it is checked whether or not a workstation having the management data exists for each sub-network.

In the network system having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, for example, when the workstation 21 is a client, the network configuration management host 100 has a workstation having management data required in the subnetwork 20. Find out if you want to. The determination as to whether or not it has the management data is performed by referring to the characteristic information in FIG. 5 and searching for a workstation having the same type of information characteristic. In the example of FIG. 2, the workstation 22 can be a server. When the workstation 31 in FIG. 1 is a client, the search for the workstation having the requested management data is performed for both the sub-networks 30 and 40.

Next, with reference to the characteristic information shown in FIG. 5, it is determined whether or not each of the workstations confirmed to have the management data is in an operation state in which the management data can be transferred (step 304). If data transfer is possible, it is determined whether there are a plurality of workstations having such management data and capable of data transfer (step 305). If there is only one workstation to which data can be transferred, the workstation is selected as a server (step 307).

On the other hand, if there are a plurality of work stations to which data can be transferred, the control unit 101 selects a work station on the sub-network with a high line speed and determines it as a server (steps 306 and 307).

In the example of FIG. 1, the client is the workstation 31 and the sub-networks 30 and 40
If there is a workstation having the management data required for both of them, if the line speed is sc> sd in the WS-SN connection information of FIG.
The workstation connected to is selected as the server.

On the other hand, if there is no workstation having the requested management data in the sub-network to which the client belongs, or if such a workstation exists but is in an operation state in which data cannot be transferred, the network configuration The control unit 101 of the management host 100 checks whether a workstation having the management data exists in another subnetwork (steps 303, 304, and 401). At this time, if there are a plurality of sub-networks where workstations having the management data exist, all of them are detected. It also checks whether the workstation is in an operation state in which data transfer is possible.

If there is no subnetwork in which there is a workstation capable of transferring data and having the management data, an error is output and the processing is terminated (steps 402 and 406).

On the other hand, if there is a sub-network in which a work station having the management data and capable of data transfer exists, it is determined whether there are a plurality of such sub-networks (step 403). If there is only one such sub-network, the workstation of the sub-network is selected as a server (step 405).

On the other hand, when there are a plurality of workstations having the management data and capable of transferring data, the control unit 101 selects a workstation on the sub-network with high data transfer efficiency between the sub-networks and selects it as a server. A decision is made (steps 404, 405).

In the example shown in FIG. 1, when the client is the workstation 11 and there is no workstation having the management data required for the subnetwork 10 to which the client belongs, the workstations 41 and 51 having the same information characteristic A are provided. Is a server candidate.
In the SN connection information in FIG. 7, the data transfer efficiency is ra>
If rb>rc>rd>re>rf> rg, the route that transfers data directly from the subnetwork 50 to the subnetwork 10, which is the route with the highest data transfer efficiency, is adopted, and the workstation 51 is selected as the server. In this example, for simplicity, the route is selected in consideration of only the data transfer efficiency between the sub-networks. However, it goes without saying that the route is actually selected in consideration of the line speed in each sub-network. .

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the present embodiment, the configuration of the network system is composed of a plurality of sub-networks, but the present invention can be used in the same manner in a single network system that does not configure a sub-network. In this embodiment, only one network configuration management host 100 is provided in the network system, but a plurality of network configuration management hosts 100 may be provided.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, the network configuration management host centrally manages the network configuration information, so that even if there are a plurality of workstations holding the same management data, the network configuration management host An appropriate server can be selected in consideration of the line speed, and optimal routing can be performed.

Further, the network configuration management host also manages connection information between sub-networks, so that a network system including a plurality of sub-networks is the same as a single network system having no sub-networks. To select an appropriate server for optimal routing.

Furthermore, since the network configuration information is centrally managed, it is not necessary for each workstation to have predefined information indicating the relationship with the server. Even when the network configuration is changed, only the network configuration information of the network configuration management host is used. By updating, it is possible to cope easily and centrally.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a network system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a relationship between a network management host, a server, and a client in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a server selection operation by a network configuration management host.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a server selecting operation by a network configuration management host.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of attribute information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing connection information between a workstation and a subnetwork.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing connection information between sub-networks.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Subnetwork 11, 21, 22, 31, 41, 51 Workstation 100 Network Configuration Management Host 101 Control Unit 102 Data Management Unit 103 Data File

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. Management data is transferred to a plurality of sub-networks.
In a network system that is distributed and stored in a plurality of connected workstations for management, at least one of the plurality of sub-networks includes
In response to a server selection request from the workstation,
Network to select a workstation as a server
A network configuration management host , wherein the network configuration management host manages the management data held by the plurality of workstations.
Information about the workstation, the workstation and the
Network connection information, between the sub-networks
Storing the storage network configuration information including connection information
Means, and selecting means for selecting a server by referring to the network configuration information in response to a server selection request issued by any workstation , wherein the selecting means of the network configuration management host comprises:
The server selection is required by referring to the network configuration information.
The pipe requested by the workstation that issued the request
Detecting other workstations holding the physical data, referring to various connection information of the network configuration information,
The server selection request from the other workstation
The management data for the issued workstation
The other work on the optimal route with the shortest transfer time
A network system characterized by selecting a station as a server . 2. The network configuration information of said storage means.
The front held in all of the workstations
The network configuration management host stores information indicating the information division of the management data in association with each of the workstations.
Referring to the information, the word issuing the server selection request.
The same information as the information category of the management data of
The network system according to claim 1, wherein the other workstations in the section are detected . 3. Network configuration information of said storage means.
Before being held at all the workstations
And information indicating the information division of the serial management data, each workstation
Information indicating whether the application is ready for data transfer.
And the network configuration management host stores the network configuration
Referring to the information, the word issuing the server selection request.
The same information as the information category of the management data of
The other work which is a division and capable of data transfer
The network system according to claim 1, wherein a station is detected . 4. The network configuration information of said storage means.
The workstation and the workstation
Line speed between the connected sub-network
Information about each subnetwork and the data
Stores information about over data transfer efficiency, the network configuration management host, the network
Information on line speed of configuration information and data transfer efficiency
Information on the transfer time of the management data
In front of the other workstation which is also on short optimal route
4. The network system according to claim 1, wherein the server is selected as the server .