JP5963535B2 - Server system and server system control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for managing electronic devices on a network and reporting management contents.

  In order to verify the service level in the network environment, it is necessary to calculate the performance against the business goal defined in Service Level Agreement (SLA). As criteria for evaluating service performance, there are words such as incident time and availability.

  The operation rate is the ratio of the time during which actual business processing is performed to the time during which the network device is operated. On the other hand, incident time is a term that refers to “time when a customer wants to use a service but cannot use it”. An incident refers to “any event not included in the standard operation of a service that causes or may cause a service interruption or degradation in service quality”.

  The person in charge of the service records the incident occurrence and completion times as incident times in the management slip. The management slip is collected and provided to the customer as an incident report.

  There exists patent document 1 as a proposal regarding an operation rate and an incident. Patent Document 1 proposes a method of automatically calculating the operation rate of each network device based on business processing and an error that has occurred in the network device.

JP 2009-2111256 A

  Conventionally, a service person at a sales company manually registers information related to an incident in a management slip. At this time, the calculation of the incident time was also performed by the service person each time, which was a great effort.

  Further, details regarding the method for calculating the incident time are defined by the SLA, and in order to calculate an appropriate value for the contract, it is necessary for the service person to know the details of the SLA in detail. Therefore, when the service person does not correctly grasp the contents of the SLA, there is a problem that the calculated time becomes inappropriate for the contract agreed with the SLA.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.
An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism that can automatically calculate an appropriate incident time for the contract contents of an SLA and can greatly reduce a user's trouble.

The present invention is a server system composed of one or more servers, first storage means for storing agreement information with a customer regarding operation guarantee of one or more image forming apparatuses, and collected from the image forming apparatus A second storage unit that stores operation history information of the image forming apparatus; and a second storage unit that stores incident information including a call time indicating a date and time when the customer notifies that the image forming apparatus cannot be used. In accordance with the storage unit 3 and the agreement information, an incident time indicating a period in which the customer considers that the customer wants to use the image forming apparatus but cannot use it is obtained using the call time and the operation history information. Processing means for calculating;
It is characterized by having.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically calculate an appropriate incident time for the contract contents of the SLA, and to greatly reduce the labor of the user.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the network equipment management system containing the server system which shows one Example of this invention. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of an information processing apparatus that can configure a network device management apparatus 105 and a host computer 100. FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of a network device such as the printer 102 or the multifunction peripheral 103 illustrated in FIG. 1. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of a network device management apparatus 105. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of incident time calculation processing according to the first exemplary embodiment. It is a schematic diagram showing how to link an incident call and an error. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of incident time calculation processing according to the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the comparison table of an error kind and a job kind. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the calculation method of the incident time based on the incident call which can be selected in Example 3, error occurrence time, and recovery time. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of incident time calculation processing according to the fourth embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network device management system including a server system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a host computer. The host computer 100 includes hardware resources, which will be described later, and software resources including an operating system (OS) and device drivers. Furthermore, the host computer 100 is connected to a device connected to the network so as to communicate with a predetermined protocol. The user can use the host computer 100 to generate image data and perform a print execution operation or the like.

  A printer 102 is one type of network device that receives print data received via a network and prints on actual paper using a known print technology such as an electrophotographic technology or an inkjet technology.

  Reference numeral 103 denotes a multi-function peripheral (MFP) which is a form of network equipment. The multi-function peripheral 103 receives print data received via a network and prints on actual paper using a known print technology such as electrophotographic technology or inkjet technology. The multifunction machine 103 also has a function of reading a paper document through a scanner and copying it, or converting it into image data and transmitting it by Email or the like. Of course, a printer having no copy function may also be included in the multifunction machine 103.

In FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a multifunction peripheral is illustrated as the network device. However, the present invention can be applied to other network devices.
A firewall 104 monitors data exchanged over the Internet. Note that the host computer 100, the printer 102, and the multifunction peripheral 103 are connected to each other via a network 101 using a known technology such as Ethernet (registered trademark).

  Reference numeral 105 denotes a network device management apparatus, which is a server having a function of analyzing the operation status of network devices such as the printer 102 and the multifunction device 103. Here, the analysis process includes a process of calculating an incident time from a user call time and an error recovery time, which will be described later. The incident in this embodiment indicates “any event not included in the standard operation of the service that causes or may cause service interruption or service quality degradation” for network devices such as image forming apparatuses. The incident time indicates “time that cannot be used even though the customer wants to use the service” for a network device such as an image forming apparatus. The incident call time indicates the date and time when the customer notified that the network device cannot be used.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a sales company server owned by the sales company, which is operated by a service person who performs situation analysis and actual response when an incident call is received from a user (customer). For example, incident information such as incident call time and incident content (for example, print defect, copy defect, SEND defect, etc.) is registered in the sales company server 106 by the service person. The sales company server 106 may be configured such that the incident call time is automatically registered by an incident call from a customer. In addition, it is assumed that SLA information (including business time information (business time) defined in SLA) to be described later is registered in advance in the sales company server 106 for each customer by a service person.

  The network device management apparatus 105 is connected to the environment in which the network devices 102 and 103 operate and the sales company server 106 via the Internet. The network device management apparatus 105 can acquire error information and job processing execution information of each network device from the network devices 102 and 103 via the Internet. The network device management apparatus 105 can acquire the above-described incident call time, SLA information, and the like from the sales company server 106 via the Internet.

  In the present embodiment, the network device management apparatus 105 exists outside the environment in which the network device operates, and exchanges with each network device via the Internet. However, the network device management apparatus 105 may exist in the same local area network as the network device. In this case, the firewall 104 is not necessary between the network device management apparatus 105, the printer 102, and the multifunction machine 103.

  The functions of the network device management apparatus 105 and the sales company server 106 may be implemented in the same server apparatus, or may be configured in a form (server system) distributed over three or more servers.

<Hardware configuration of network device management device>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of an information processing apparatus that can configure the network device management apparatus 105 and the host computer 100.

  In FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus (PC) that can configure the network device management apparatus 105 and the host computer 100 includes a CPU 201 that executes software stored in the ROM 203 or the HD 205 as a large-scale storage device. The CPU 201 generally controls each device connected to the system bus 200.

Reference numeral 202 denotes a RAM which functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201. The ROM 203 stores software executed by the CPU 201 and various data.
A disk controller (DKC) 204 controls a hard disk (HD) 205 that is a mass storage device.
Reference numeral 206 denotes a network interface (Network I / F) that exchanges data bidirectionally with other nodes via the network 101 or the like. An input / output interface (I / F) 207 controls input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse provided on the PC and output devices such as a display.

<Configuration of network equipment>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of a network device such as the printer 102 or the multifunction machine 103 illustrated in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the network devices 102 and 103 mainly include a control unit 300, an operation unit 301, a printer mechanism 302, a scanner mechanism 303, and the like. In the case of the printer 102, the scanner mechanism 303 may not be provided.

The control unit 300 includes a CPU 310 and executes software stored in the HD 316 as a large-scale storage device such as a hard disk.
Reference numeral 311 denotes a RAM which functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 310. Reference numeral 314 denotes a ROM, which is an area for storing a program such as a system startup program.
Reference numeral 312 denotes an operation unit interface (I / F), which detects an instruction input made to the operation unit 301. A network interface (Network I / F) 313 is connected to the network 101 to exchange information.

  The disk controller (DKC) 315 reads the data of the HD 316 as necessary. The Image Bus I / F 317 is a bus bridge that connects the system bus 318 and the image bus 319 and performs data conversion.

  The system bus 318 is a common data exchange path between components constituting the control unit. The image bus 319 is configured by a PCI bus or IEEE1394, and is a path for transferring image data at high speed.

The scanner image processing unit 320 corrects, processes, and edits an input image. The printer image processing unit 321 performs correction, resolution conversion, and the like on the print output data according to the performance of the printer. A RIP (Raster Image Processor) 322 expands a PDL command sent from the network 101 into a bitmap image.
The device I / F 323 connects the printer 302 and the scanner 303, which are image input / output devices, and the control unit 300, and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data.

  Note that the network devices 102 and 103 hold their own operation history information (including device ID, error information, job processing execution information, and the like) in the HD 316 and periodically or from the network device management apparatus 105 or the like. The operation history information is transmitted to the network device management apparatus 105 in response to the request. The error information includes error occurrence date / time, error recovery date / time, error type, job identification information (job ID, etc.) related to the error, and the like. The job processing execution information includes job identification information, job start date and time, job end date and time, job type, execution result (normal end, error, etc.), user name that executed the job, and document name.

<Software configuration of network device management device>
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the network device management apparatus 105.
As shown in FIG. 4, the software in the network device management apparatus 105 includes a management utility 400, a database 404, a network module 405, and a Web server service 406. 4 is stored in the HD 205 (FIG. 2) of the network device management apparatus 105 as a program, and is realized by the CPU 201 (FIG. 2) executing this program.

  The management utility 400 includes an incident information management module 401, a drawing module 402, an error log management module 403, and a network search module 407.

  The incident information management module 401 accesses the external sales company server 106 via the network module 405, and acquires the incident call time and SLA information. In addition, the incident information management module 401 is a subject for calculating the incident time. The incident information management module 401 stores the calculated incident time in the database 404.

  In the present embodiment, the SLA information indicates agreement information with the customer regarding the operation guarantee of one or more network devices (for example, image forming apparatuses) as shown in 102 and 103. The incident time follows information defined by the SLA information, and indicates a period during which the customer considers that the customer cannot use the network device even though he wants to use the network device.

The drawing module 402 has a function of drawing the incident time calculated by the incident information management module 401 on a display.
The error log management module 403 acquires operation history information (including the error information and job processing execution information described above) of each device (network devices 102, 103, etc.). This process may assume not only a system that directly acquires information from each device but also a system that acquires error information once collected by an external server (or the sales company server 106). The error log management module 403 stores and manages the acquired operation history information of each device in the HD 205 (FIG. 2) of the network device management apparatus 105, and extracts data in response to requests from other modules.

  The database 404 registers and retrieves data in response to data storage management and requests from other modules. The operation history information acquired by the error log management module 403 may also be stored and managed in the database 404. Further, the database 404 may be on a device different from the network device management apparatus 105 as long as it can be accessed from the management utility 400.

The network module 405 communicates with the network devices 102 and 103 connected to the network via the network 101.
The Web server service 406 provides a service for transmitting Web page data stored in the HD 205 of the network device management apparatus 105 upon receiving an HTTP GET request from the Web browser of the client apparatus operated by the user. With this Web server service 406, it is possible to connect to the network device management apparatus 105 from the outside via the network 101.

  The network search module 407 uses the network module 405 to search for the network devices 102 and 103 connected to the network and the external sales company server 106. In addition, the network search module 407 acquires setting information and the like from the search target, and passes the information to the incident information management module 401 and the error log management module 403.

The network device management apparatus 105 functions as a management apparatus by executing the management utility 400 installed in the Web server service 406. The management utility 400 is implemented as a program that executes processing in response to a request for a Web page provided by the Web server service 406, for example. As described above, the management utility 400 implements a Web application that manages the network devices 102 and 103 together with the Web server service 406.

  A part or all of the management utility 400, the database 404, the network module 405, and the Web server service 406 may be distributed and implemented in a plurality of server devices. Also, some or all of the modules constituting the management utility 400, the incident information management module 401, the drawing module 402, the error log management module 403, and the network search module 407 may be distributed and implemented in a plurality of server devices. Good. That is, the network device management apparatus 105 may be realized by a server system having one or more servers.

  The server system of this embodiment is composed of one or more servers, and a storage area (first storage unit) for storing SLA information in one or more storage devices provided in the server system. A storage area for storing the collected operation history information (second storage section), a storage area for storing incident information (third storage section), and a storage area for storing a comparison table in FIG. 4 storage units).

<Description of processing>
Hereinafter, the flow of processing in which the network device management apparatus 105 calculates the incident time will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of the incident time calculation process in the first embodiment. The subject of this processing is the incident information management module 401 shown in FIG.

  It is assumed that the incident information management module 401 executes the process of FIG. 5 at the date and time set in advance by the administrator of the network device management apparatus 105 and stored in the HD 205 of the network device management apparatus 105, for example. The incident information management module 401 may be configured to periodically execute the process of FIG. 5 in accordance with the above settings, or may be executed in response to a manual instruction from the administrator.

  First, in S <b> 500, the incident information management module 401 acquires an error log acquired from each network device from the error log management module 403. In the error log, job execution information of a specific network device and the start time and end time of an error that occurred during job execution are described.

  In step S <b> 501, the incident information management module 401 acquires incident call information from the sales company server 106. For example, the incident information management module 401 transmits an incident call information acquisition request to the sales company server 106 and receives incident call information returned from the sales company server 106.

  Next, in S502, the incident information management module 401 links (links) each error extracted from the error log acquired in S500 and the incident call information acquired in S501 based on the error occurrence time.

  Next, in S503, the incident information management module 401 temporarily calculates the incident time for the incident call information and each error linked in S502 from the incident call time, the error start time of each error, and the error recovery time. The method for associating the incident call with the error in S502 and the provisional calculation of the incident time in S503 will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing how to link an incident call and an error. In particular, FIG. 6 corresponds to a case where an incident call occurs in a situation where two errors, error 1 and error 2, have occurred. In FIG. 6, the horizontal axis represents time.

  In FIG. 6A, a time 600 represents a time when an incident call by a customer occurs. Reference numeral 601 denotes a time period from the occurrence of error 1 to recovery. Reference numeral 602 denotes a time period from the occurrence of error 2 to recovery.

  The incident information management module 401 determines that an error occurring at the time 600 when an incident call is made by a customer is linked to the incident call. That is, it is determined that an error included in the time zone from the occurrence of an error to the recovery at the time 600 when the incident call occurs is an error associated with the incident call. In the example of FIG. 6A, since error 1 and error 2 have occurred at the customer call time 600, two errors of error 1 and error 2 are linked to the incident call at time 600. (S502 in FIG. 5).

Further, the incident information management module 401 calculates from the time when the incident call occurs to the time when all errors associated with the incident call are recovered as the temporarily calculated incident time (S503 in FIG. 5). In the example of FIG. 6A, as indicated by 604, from the customer call occurrence time 600 to the error 1 recovery time 603 is provisionally calculated as the incident time.
FIG. 6B will be described in the second embodiment.

Returning to the flowchart of FIG.
Next, in S504, the incident information management module 401 uses the SLA information acquired from the sales company server 106 to use a time outside the business time during the incident time temporarily calculated in S503 (period other than the business time). ) Exists. The business time indicates a period during which the network device should be operated and is included in the SLA information.

  If it is determined that there is a time outside the business time in the provisionally calculated incident time (Yes in S504), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S505. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no time outside the business time in the provisionally calculated incident time (No in S504), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S506.

  In step S505, the incident information management module 401 newly calculates the incident time excluding the time outside the business time from the incident time temporarily calculated in step S503, and advances the process to step S506.

  Depending on the error status of the network device, it may be difficult to immediately remove the root cause. For example, there may be a case where a serious failure occurs in the network device and the service person cannot solve it locally. In this case, one of the options is a method using an alternative means of taking the network device once for repair and providing a substitute network device (alternative machine) to be used by the customer during the repair. When such an alternative means is used, it is often an operational rule that the incident information in the sales company server 106 describes that the alternative means is used by a service person. Information indicating that this alternative means has been used is included in the incident information acquired from the sales company server 106 by the incident information management module 401 in S501.

  For this reason, in the next S506, the incident information management module 401 determines whether or not there is a record in the incident information acquired from the sales company server 106 that the alternative means is used for the countermeasure against the incident call.

  If it is determined that there is no record using the alternative means in the incident information (No in S506), the incident information management module 401 calculates the calculation result at this point (that is, the calculation result in S503 or S505 above). ) Is the final incident time, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that there is a record using the alternative means in the incident information (Yes in S506), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S507.

  In step S <b> 507, the incident information management module 401 first acquires the error log and job execution information of the alternative device from the error log management module 403. Since the replacement device has the same identification ID (IP address, MAC address, serial number) as the network device in which the error occurred, the error log management module 403 identifies the error log of the replacement device using the identification ID. It is possible. Next, the incident information management module 401 analyzes the acquired error log and job execution information, and during the incident time provisionally calculated up to this point, the job execution by the alternative machine is performed and the process ends normally. Judgment is made. Here, when it is determined that the job execution by the alternative device has been performed and has been normally completed, the incident information management module 401 determines that the job execution by the alternative device has been completed normally from the start time of the temporarily calculated incident time. The process is terminated with the final incident time until the time at which is started. On the other hand, when it is determined that the job execution by the alternative device has not been performed (or has been performed but did not end normally), the incident information management module 401 uses the incident time temporarily calculated so far as the final incident. As time passes, the process ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the incident time is automatically calculated by using the incident call time and the error recovery time of the network device, thereby reducing the load on the service personnel of the sales company. be able to. Furthermore, by using the business time information defined in the SLA for calculating the incident time, it is possible to obtain an appropriate incident time for the contract contents of the SLA.

  In the first embodiment, a method for calculating an incident time using the time of an incident call by a customer and the error recovery time of each network device is shown. However, when multiple errors occur at the same time and an incident call occurs, the error related to the incident is recovered, and when the job related to the error ends normally, the time when the error is recovered It is more appropriate to end the time. Accordingly, in the second embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, if it can be confirmed that the job executed by the customer before all the errors are recovered and the error has been successfully completed, before the job is executed. The method to calculate the incident time until the time when the error is recovered is shown.

  Note that the system configuration, the hardware configuration of the network device management apparatus, the configuration of the network device, and the software configuration of the network device management device are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

<Description of processing>
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of incident time calculation processing according to the second embodiment. The subject of this processing is the incident information management module 401 shown in FIG.

First, the processing of S700 to S703 is the same as the processing of S500 to S503 in FIG.
In next step S704, the incident information management module 401 determines whether a plurality of errors are associated with one incident call.
If it is determined that there is an incident call associated with two or more errors (Yes in S704), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S705. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no incident call associated with two or more errors (No in S704), the incident information management module 401 proceeds to S707 as it is.

  In step S <b> 705, the incident information management module 401 searches the error log management module 403 for information on the error job that resumed and ended normally during the incident time temporarily calculated in step S <b> 703. The above-mentioned “error job resumed during the provisionally calculated incident time and completed normally” is a job related to the error associated with the incident, and the error is recovered and resumed during the provisionally calculated incident time. Indicates a job that ended normally. If the information on the error job that resumed and ended normally during the incident time temporarily calculated in the above process can be retrieved, the incident information management module 401 determines whether the error job is an error job related to the incident call. Is determined using a comparison table (FIG. 8A) to be described later. The determination method will be described later.

  If the incident information management module 401 determines that the error job is not an error job related to an incident call, the incident information management module 401 determines that there is no job that has been resumed and completed normally during the temporary incident time (No in S705). And the process proceeds to S707 as it is.

  On the other hand, when the incident information management module 401 determines that the error job is an error job related to an incident call, the incident information management module 401 determines that there is a job that resumes and ends normally during the temporary incident time (S705). Yes), the process proceeds to S706.

  In S <b> 706, the incident information management module 401 newly sets the incident time excluding the time after the time when the error related to the resumed and normally completed job is recovered from the incident time temporarily calculated in S <b> 703 as the incident time. Provisional calculation is performed, and the process proceeds to S707.

  The incident information management module 401 calculates the final incident time through the processing of S707 to S710. In addition, about the process of S707-S710, since it is the same as the process of S505-S507 of FIG. 5, description is abbreviate | omitted.

Hereinafter, an incident time determination method according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an example of an incident time determination method, which is an extension of the basic incident time calculation method shown in FIG.
In the example shown in FIG. 6B, two types of errors, error 1 and error 2, occur at the time when the incident call is made. However, when multiple errors occur, it is considered that the service staff will make corrections in order starting with the urgent error.

  Therefore, when the error 2 related to the incident call is recovered at the time 605 and the customer can resume the job related to the error 2 in the time zone indicated by 606 and the job ends normally, the incident information management module 401 The error recovery time 605 of the error 2 is set as the incident end time.

<Comparison table>
As an example of a method for confirming that the error corrected by the service person is the same as the error targeted by the customer as an incident call, there is a method using a comparison table shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a comparison table of error types and job types.
The comparison table of FIG. 8A shows the correspondence between the incident content (contact content from the customer) and the error content.
As shown in FIG. 8A, for example, in the example of the “01” line, when the incident content is “print defect”, the service person removes the “paper jam” error, Judge that it has recovered from the related error. If the job in which the error has occurred (job related to the error) can be normally completed, the incident information management module 401 sets the error recovery time as the incident end time, and the incident after the error recovery time It excludes from time (S706 of FIG. 7).
It is assumed that the comparison table in FIG. 8A is stored in advance in the HD 205 of the network device management apparatus 105 together with the software shown in FIG.
FIG. 8B will be described in the fifth embodiment.

  As described above, in this embodiment, among the jobs of network devices that are interrupted due to an error related to an incident call, when there is a job that resumes within the temporarily calculated incident time and then ends normally, By excluding the period after the date and time when the error related to the job is recovered from the calculated incident time, the incident time related to the incident call can be calculated appropriately.

  In the first and second embodiments, the incident time is calculated by one method. However, since the contents of the SLA exchanged between the sales company and the customer are diverse, it is desirable that the incident time calculation method can be selected from a plurality of types. Therefore, in the third embodiment, in addition to the configurations of the first and second embodiments, a plurality of incident time calculation methods are presented, and a method capable of selecting which calculation method to use when the SLA is concluded is presented. To do.

  Note that the system configuration, the hardware configuration of the network device management apparatus, the configuration of the network device, and the software configuration of the network device management device are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

<Selection of incident time calculation method>
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an incident time calculation method based on an incident call, an error occurrence time, and a recovery time that can be selected in the third embodiment.

  900 indicates a customer call time, 901 indicates a time zone from the occurrence of an error to recovery, and 902 indicates a time when the error is recovered. In this embodiment, the incident time calculation method can be selected from the following calculation methods (1) to (3) according to the contents of the SLA.

<Calculation method (1)>
FIG. 9A illustrates the calculation method (1).
The calculation method (1) shown in FIG. 9A is a calculation in which the final incident time 903 from the incident call time to the error recovery time is the same as in the first and second embodiments. Is the method.

<Calculation method (2)>
In some cases, when a customer makes an incident call, a considerable amount of time has already passed since the error occurred. Then, it is considered that the time when the customer cannot use the service is generated from the time when the error job is submitted. Therefore, in this calculation method, not the call time but the time when the error occurs is set as the incident time start time.

FIG. 9B illustrates the calculation method (2).
In the calculation method (2) shown in FIG. 9B, the final incident time 904 is a time zone 901 from the time when the error occurs until the time when the error is recovered.
<Calculation method (3)>
When an incident occurs, the service may be unstable before the call is made. For example, there are cases where paper jams frequently occur due to a paper tray failure of a multifunction machine. In this case, the customer cannot use the service due to frequent paper jams before making an incident call. Therefore, a calculation method for including the paper jam time in the incident time will be described.

FIG. 9C shows the calculation method (3).
In FIG. 9C, reference numeral 905 represents the time from the occurrence of error 1 to recovery. An incident analysis time 908 is defined from a time 906 when the error is recovered to a time 907 that is a certain time before. Then, all errors having the same error code as error 1 corresponding to the incident call are picked up among errors occurring during the incident analysis time 908. In this example, error 2 and error 3 are picked up.

  In the calculation method (3) shown in FIG. 9C, the incident time 904 of the calculation method (2), the time 910 from the occurrence time of the error 2 to the recovery time, and the recovery time from the occurrence time of the error 3 are displayed. 912 (the union of time 910, time 911, and time 912), which is counted as time 911 up to 911, is the final incident time.

  Note that the calculation method (1) to (3) to be used (incident time calculation method selection setting) is set by the sales person in charge at the sales company to the sales company server 106 for each customer. It shall be registered in the information.

  The incident information management module 401 selectively executes the above-described calculation methods (1) to (3) based on the incident time calculation method selection setting included in the SLA information for each customer acquired from the sales company server 106.

  Even when the calculation methods (2) and (3) are selected, if a plurality of errors occur at the incident call time, as in the second embodiment, among the jobs of the network device in which the error is interrupted, When there is a job that resumes within the temporarily calculated incident time and then ends normally, the period after the date and time when the error related to the job is recovered is excluded from the calculated incident time. May be.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the incident time calculation method can be selected based on the SLA concluded with the customer.

  Examples 1 to 3 show various incident time calculation methods. However, there are various patterns for deductions outside business hours, and it is necessary to present them as logic. Therefore, in the fourth embodiment, the processing procedure of the deduction method outside business hours is shown.

  In the fourth embodiment, the system configuration, the hardware configuration of the network device management device, the configuration of the network device, and the software configuration of the network device management device are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  If you spend outside business hours on error recovery and the error job is resumed after the error recovery, the customer should stop working at the time it took to recover, so this time should be included in the incident time . Even if an error job is canceled once, if the job is restarted with the same user and the same document, the time until the job restarts and completes normally is extra time for the user to do business. Therefore, it is better to use the incident time.

<Description of processing>
Hereinafter, the deduction method outside business hours according to the situation will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of incident time calculation processing according to the fourth embodiment. The subject of this processing is the incident information management module 401 shown in FIG.

First, the processing of S1000 to S1002 is the same as the processing of S700 to S702 of FIG.
The processing of S1003 corresponds to the processing of S703 to S706 in FIG.
In next step S1004, the incident information management module 401 determines whether or not a time outside business hours is included between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call (for example, error 2 in FIG. 6B) and recovery. .

  If it is determined that the time outside the business hours is not included between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call and the recovery (No in S1004), the incident information management module 401 proceeds to S1008 as it is.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the time outside business hours is included between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call and the recovery (Yes in S1004), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S1005.

  In step S1005, the incident information management module 401 cancels the error job (job related to the error) before the error related to the incident call is recovered based on the information acquired from the error log management module 403. Determine whether or not.

  If it is determined that the job has not been canceled before the error related to the incident call is recovered (No in S1005), the incident information management module 401 proceeds to S1008.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S1005 that the error job has been canceled before the error related to the incident call is recovered (Yes in S1005), the incident information management module 401 performs the process in S1006. Proceed.

  In step S1006, the incident information management module 401 uses the SLA information acquired from the sales company server 106 to generate an out-of-business time period between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call and the time when the error job is canceled. It is determined whether or not time exists.

  If it is determined that there is no time outside business hours between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call and the time when the error job is canceled (No in S1006), the incident The information management module 401 proceeds directly to S1008.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that there is a time outside business hours between the occurrence of an error related to the incident call and the time when the error job is canceled (Yes in S1006), the incident The information management module 401 advances the process to S1007.

  In S1007, the incident information management module 401 excludes the business hours after the time when the error job was canceled from the incident time provisionally calculated in S1003, and advances the process to S1008.

In step S1008, the incident information management module 401 determines whether the error job has been canceled once.
If it is determined that the error job has not been canceled (No in S1008), the incident information management module 401 ends the process as it is. In this case, the incident information management module 401 sets the incident time at this point as the final incident time.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the error job has been canceled once (Yes in S1008), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S1009.
In step S1009, the incident information management module 401 determines whether the error job has been re-executed with the same user and the same document.
If it is determined that the error job has not been re-executed with the same user and the same document (No in S1009), the incident information management module 401 ends the process as it is. In this case, the incident information management module 401 sets the incident time at this point as the final incident time.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the error job has been re-executed by the same user and the same document (Yes in S1009), the incident information management module 401 advances the process to S1010.

  In step S1010, the incident information management module 401 adds the time from the start to the end of the re-executed job to the incident time at this time, determines the final incident time, and ends the process.

Although not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10, processing corresponding to S506 and S507 of FIG. 5 may be performed after the flowchart of FIG. 10 ends.
As described above, in this embodiment, when the job is canceled before the error related to the job that has been resumed and completed normally during the temporarily calculated incident time is resolved, the temporary The calculated incident time is configured to exclude business hours other than the date and time after the cancellation. With this configuration, it is possible to calculate an appropriate incident time in consideration of the time outside the business hours that the customer has spent for error recovery.

  Further, when a job that executes processing of the same user and the same document as the canceled job is re-executed, the period from the start date to the end date of the re-executed job is set as the incident time. Configure to add to. With this configuration, it is possible to calculate an appropriate incident time in consideration of the extra time when the customer re-executes the job whose error was interrupted.

In the first to fourth embodiments, the method for calculating the incident time, which is the time when the customer wants to use the service but cannot use it, has been described.
However, in practice, the service cannot be used at all due to an error, but there are cases where it is necessary to use it with limited functions.
For example, it may be necessary to print in monochrome even when color printing is desired due to a color toner error. In addition, when a monochrome printer is installed as an alternative means due to a problem with a color printer, it is necessary to switch color printing to monochrome printing and execute it.

  It is considered useful to define the time when the function needs to be restricted due to such an error as “degeneration time”, calculate it separately from the incident time, and present it to the customer. Therefore, in this embodiment, a method for calculating the degeneration time will be described.

  Note that the system configuration, the hardware configuration of the network device management apparatus, the configuration of the network device, and the software configuration of the network device management device are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

<Calculation of degeneration time>
The incident information management module 401 calculates the degeneration time using the comparison table shown in FIG. 8B is assumed to be stored in advance in the HD 205 of the network device management apparatus 105 together with the software shown in FIG.

  The comparison table of FIG. 8B shows the correspondence between the type of job corresponding to the error and the type of job whose function is limited by the job corresponding to the error, for each type of error that has occurred.

  First, the incident information management module 401 determines the type of error that has occurred and the type of job that has been submitted as an error, based on the error log acquired from the error log management module 403. For example, if a color printing error occurs when a color toner error occurs, the incident information management module 401 refers to the “01” line of the comparison table shown in FIG. .

Next, the incident information management module 401 determines whether or not a job is resubmitted by the same user and the same document after the occurrence of an error.
First, the incident information management module 401 refers to the “re-submission job” column in the “01” row of the comparison table shown in FIG. The incident information management module 401 matches the type of the re-submitted job and the type of job described in the “Re-submitted job” column in the “01” row (in this case, “monochrome printing”). If it is, it is determined that “degeneration” has been performed. If it is determined that the reduction has been performed, the incident information management module 401 calculates the reduction time from the error job submission time to the completion time of the re-submitted job. Then, the incident information management module 401 stores the calculated degeneration time in the database 404.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the time required to limit the function of the network device due to an error can be appropriately calculated as the “degeneration time”.
The network device management apparatus 105 or the sales company server 106 has a function of collecting information related to incidents (information such as incident time and degeneration time) from the database 404 and creating an incident report including these information for each customer. . Further, the network device management apparatus 105 or the sales company server 106 has a function of printing the created incident report using the network devices 102 and 103 or transmitting it to the customer. For example, the information is transmitted by e-mail to a customer's e-mail address registered in advance in the sales company server 106.

  As described above, according to each embodiment, it is possible to automatically calculate the incident time, and it is possible to reduce the labor of the service person in charge at the sales company. Furthermore, it is possible to obtain an appropriate incident time for the contents of the SLA contract, and to reduce the burden of grasping the contents of the SLA contract for the service person at the sales company. Therefore, it is possible to greatly reduce the load on the service personnel of the sales company and automatically calculate an appropriate incident time.

It should be noted that the configuration and contents of the various data described above are not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the various data and configurations are configured according to the application and purpose.
Although one embodiment has been described above, the present invention can take an embodiment as a system, apparatus, method, program, storage medium, or the like. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.
Moreover, all the structures which combined said each Example are also contained in this invention.

(Other examples)
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications (including organic combinations of the embodiments) are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are excluded from the scope of the present invention. is not. That is, the present invention includes all the combinations of the above-described embodiments and modifications thereof.

101 Network 105 Network Device Management Device 401 Incident Information Management Module 402 Drawing Module 403 Error Log Management Module 404 Database 405 Network Module 406 Web Server Service

Claims (12)

A server system composed of one or more servers,
First storage means for storing agreement information with a customer regarding operation guarantee of one or more image forming apparatuses;
Second storage means for storing operation history information of the image forming apparatus collected from the image forming apparatus;
Third storage means for storing incident information including a call time indicating a date and time when the customer has notified that the image forming apparatus cannot be used;
In accordance with the agreement information, a processing means for calculating an incident time indicating a period in which the customer considers that the customer wants to use the image forming apparatus but cannot use the image forming apparatus using the call time and the operation history information;
A server system comprising:   The processing means extracts an error of the image forming apparatus occurring at the call time from the operation history information, and sets a period from the call time to the date and time when all of the extracted errors are resolved as the incident time. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the server system is calculated as:   The processing unit extracts an error of the image forming apparatus that has occurred at the call time from the operation history information, and a period from the date and time when the extracted error occurred to the date and time when it has been resolved is defined as the incident time. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the server system is calculated.   The processing means extracts, from the operation history information, an error of the image forming apparatus that has occurred in a time from a certain time before the call time to the call time, and from the date and time when each of the extracted errors occurred. The server system according to claim 1, wherein a union of periods until the date and time resolved is calculated as the incident time. The incident information includes the call time and the content of contact from the customer corresponding to the call time,
The processing means resumes within the calculated incident time among jobs of the image forming apparatus interrupted due to an error corresponding to a contact content from the customer corresponding to the call time among the extracted errors. Then, if there is a job that has been completed normally after that, the period after the date and time when the error corresponding to the contact details from the customer corresponding to the call time is eliminated is excluded from the calculated incident time. The server system according to any one of claims 2 to 4. The agreement information includes a business time indicating a period during which the image forming apparatus should operate,
6. The server system according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit excludes a period other than the business time from the calculated incident time. The agreement information includes a business time indicating a period during which the image forming apparatus should operate,
In the case where the job is canceled before the error related to the job is resolved, the processing means determines from the calculated incident time other than the business time after the date and time when the cancellation was performed. The server system according to claim 5, wherein a period is excluded.   The processing means, when a job that executes processing of the same user and the same document as the canceled job is re-executed, a period from the start date to the end date of the re-executed job, The server system according to claim 7, wherein the server system is added to the calculated incident time. When an alternative machine for the image forming apparatus is provided to the customer, information indicating that the alternative machine is provided is stored in the third storage unit, and in the second storage unit, The operation history information of the alternative machine collected from the alternative machine is stored,
When the information indicating that the alternative device is provided is stored in the third storage unit, the processing unit determines from the calculated incident time that the alternative device has been normally terminated during the incident time. 9. The server system according to claim 2, wherein a period after the start date and time of the job is excluded.   The processing means extracts an error of the image forming apparatus occurring at the call time from the operation history information, and processes the same user and the same document as the job corresponding to the extracted error, and If a job whose function is restricted by the job is executed after the occurrence of the error, the period from the date when the job corresponding to the error was submitted to the date when the job with the restricted function was completed is The server system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein a degeneration time indicated is calculated. For each type of error that has occurred, there is provided a fourth storage means for storing information indicating a correspondence relationship between the type of job corresponding to the error and the type of job whose function is restricted by the job corresponding to the error. ,
The processing means determines whether or not a job whose function is more limited than the job corresponding to the extracted error is executed after the occurrence of the error, based on information stored in the fourth storage means. The server system according to claim 10. A method for controlling a server system comprising one or more servers,
Agreement information with a customer regarding operation guarantee of one or more image forming apparatuses from one or more storage means provided in the server system, operation history information of the image forming apparatus collected from the image forming apparatus, the customer Obtaining a call time indicating a date and time when a notification indicating that the image forming apparatus cannot be used is received from,
According to the agreement information, calculating an incident time indicating a period in which the customer considers that the customer cannot use the image forming apparatus despite using the image forming apparatus, using the call time and the operation history information;
A control method characterized by comprising:

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