JP3117139B2 - Troubleshooting method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure tracking method for a controlled device, for example, a failure tracking method for tracking a failure of a device such as a facsimile adapter.

[Problems to be solved by conventional technology and invention]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a fault occurs in a facsimile adapter that controls transmission and reception of data between a host and a facsimile machine, an operator collects the details of the fault and the state of occurrence. Then, a reproducibility test corresponding to the state is performed to confirm the reproducibility of the fault.If the reproducibility does not recur, detailed information is collected again and a reproducibility test is performed. However, the renovation work did not proceed, and there was often a problem that the workers had to stay for a long time.

According to the present invention, when a host exchanges information with a plurality of facsimile apparatuses via a facsimile adapter, trace information is collected at each layer in the facsimile adapter and can be transferred in response to an instruction from the host. The purpose is to collect trace information of the hierarchy, automatically collect failure information by the host, and quickly investigate and repair.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, a failure tracking method for a controlled device that communicates with a facsimile device in response to an instruction from a host device side, wherein the controlled device communicates with the facsimile device A physical layer for receiving data, a logical layer for analyzing the received data, and an interface layer for passing the analyzed content to a main control unit that controls the controlled device, and trace information indicating the state of each layer. In this case, the information is sequentially stored, and when the controlled device does not operate correctly, the trace information of each layer is transmitted to the host device. FIG. 1 shows a case where the present invention is applied to a facsimile adapter which is a controlled device.

In FIG. 1, a facsimile adapter 1 controls transmission and reception of data between a host 2 and a plurality of facsimile machines.

The host 2 provides various services to the facsimile machine.

The interface (OA interface 4, G3 interface 7, G4 interface 8, etc.) is the host 2
(Or a facsimile machine), and is composed of a physical layer (task (1)), a logical layer (task (2)), an interface layer (task (3)), and the like. Things.

[Action]

According to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, an interface for exchanging data with a host 2 (or a facsimile machine) is provided in a facsimile adapter 1 to provide a physical layer (task (1)) and a logical layer. (Task (2)) and information in the interface layer (Task (3)) are collected as trace information 9, and when the host 2 detects any failure, a trace information collection command is notified to the interface. Layer (task (1)),
The transfer of the trace information 9 from the transferable one of the logical layer (task (2)) and the interface layer (task (3)) is performed to display and save the trace information 9 so that the trouble can be easily tracked. I have.

Therefore, the trace information 9 is collected in each layer in the facsimile adapter 1, and the trace information 9 of the transferable layer is transferred and collected in response to an instruction from the host 2,
By displaying and storing the information, the failure information is automatically collected by the host 2 and the investigation and repair can be performed quickly.

〔Example〕

Next, the operation of the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention will be sequentially described in detail with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.

In FIG. 1, a facsimile adapter 1 controls transmission and reception of data between a host 2 and a plurality of facsimile apparatuses, and controls transmission and reception of data (image data) by controlling various lines, GB-IB, and the like. , A main control unit 5 that controls the entire system, an image processing unit 6 that processes image data, and the like.

The line control unit 3 includes an OA interface 4 for controlling transmission and reception of data to and from the host 2, a G3 system interface 7 for controlling transmission and reception of image data via a facsimile apparatus and an analog line, and a facsimile apparatus and a digital line. It comprises a G4 system interface 8 for controlling the transfer of image data via the G4 interface.

The OA interface 4, the G3 interface, and the G4 interface 8 exchange data between the host 2 (or facsimile machine) and the main control unit 5, and include a GP-IB, an analog circuit, A physical layer (task (1)) for exchanging data (image data) via a digital line or the like; a logical layer (task (2)) for analyzing commands of received data; It is composed of an interface layer (task (3)) for interfacing between them.

The host 2 is a subject that provides various services to the facsimile machine.

The facsimile machine exchanges data with the host 2 to receive various services.

The trace information 9 is obtained by collecting the sequence information of the tasks (1), (2), and (3) of each layer of the interface as trace information as shown in the figure.

Next, the collection of trace information when a failure occurs will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, the host 2 makes a remote print reservation to the facsimile adapter 1.

 Requests data transmission.

Has no response. This is because the facsimile adapter 1 that has been requested in the above process performs the corresponding processing and returns a response (response) that the processing has been completed normally.
Here, there is no response due to some abnormality in the OA interface 4.

Detects that the host 1 has not responded to the request and has timed out, that is, that the host 1 is no longer operating normally after a predetermined time has elapsed.

Sends a trace information collection command to the OA interface 4 because the host 2 detects a time-over and determines that the operation of the OA interface 4 is abnormal.

Is the OA that was notified of the trace information collection command
The trace information 9 collected by the active data transferable one of the tasks (1), (2), and (3) of the system interface 4 is transferred to the host 2.

Outputs the trace information 9 transferred by the.
As a result, the trace information 9 of the task (1), task (2), and task (3) of the OS interface 4 to which data can be transferred is displayed as a failure table and stored on the screen of the host 2. This displayed trace information 9
The operator who sees the (failure table) can easily track the failure and repair or repair it.

Similarly, for the G3 system interface 7 and the G4 system interface 8, when the host 2 detects an abnormality, each layer (physical layer (task (1)), logical layer (task (2)), interface layer ( The trace information 9 stored for each task (3) is collected and stored, so that fault information of each layer of the G3 interface 7 and the G4 interface 8 can be automatically collected. .

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the controlled device sequentially stores trace information including a plurality of types of state information including a physical layer, a logical layer, and an interface layer, and controls the host device to control the controlled device. When the command is not executed, a configuration is adopted in which the plurality of types of status information are sequentially transmitted from the controlled device to the host-side device from those capable of being transferred, and the received status information is displayed and output by the host-side device. Therefore, the failure investigation is automatically performed by the host 2, and the investigation and repair can be performed quickly. As a result, even if a failure occurs once a day or once a month, trace information can be collected automatically from the layer where trace information can be transferred,
The cause of the failure can be easily tracked.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a facsimile adapter, 2 is a host, 3 is a line controller, 4 is an OA interface, 7 is a G3 interface, 8 is a G4 interface, and 9 is trace information.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-63-38367 (JP, A) JP-A-63-65551 (JP, A) JP-A-60-237744 (JP, A) JP-A-1-196943 (JP) JP-A-63-62437 (JP, A) JP-A-62-29345 (JP, A) JP-A-1-192245 (JP, A) JP-A-61-222336 (JP, A) 61-77451 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00 106 H04L 29/14

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A failure tracking method for a controlled device that communicates with a facsimile device in accordance with an instruction from a host device, wherein the controlled device includes a physical layer that receives data to communicate with the facsimile device. A logic layer that analyzes the received data and an interface layer that passes the analyzed content to a main control unit that controls the controlled device, sequentially stores trace information indicating the state of each layer, and the controlled device correctly A failure tracing method for transmitting the trace information of each layer to the host device when not operating;