JP6205909B2 - Information processing apparatus and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a program.

  In Patent Document 1, in a hard disk device including a storage device control unit and a hard disk as a storage device unit, the storage device control unit is not accessed from a host device after a preset time has elapsed. The hard disk device is characterized by having a detecting means for detecting a failure when the previous storage device control unit independently performs a read operation to the hard disk.

  In addition, the hard disk failure information management table as a hard disk failure information management table is stored in the storage device control unit, and the data reported in the case of a failure that cannot be repaired among the previously determined data reported at the time of failure. Is stored in advance, whether the failure detected by the detection means can be repaired, compared with the hard disk failure information management table, and if the detected failure is determined to be a repairable failure on the hard disk, It discloses that it has a repair request means for making a processing request for repairing a defective area to a hard disk.

  Further, it is disclosed that the storage device control unit further has a notification means for notifying the outside of the device as abnormality information when it is determined that the detected failure is an irreparable failure.

  Since Cited Document 2 stores image data (input image, image data after compression conversion) of the primary storage unit (image memory) in the HDD, fragmentation may occur if there is a bad sector in the HDD. A table in which an area that cannot be accessed is registered based on the information on the occurrence of a bad sector is held on the memory control unit side, and an area is secured in DMA transfer (for example, secured by indicating either a continuous area or a divided area) It is disclosed that by referring to the table, it is possible to avoid the use of the inaccessible area and to set the transfer operation condition at high speed and appropriately.

  The cited document 3 is an image processing apparatus that can be used by connecting an HDD, and includes a main control unit that controls a startup process of the image processing apparatus, and a storage controller that controls the HDD. When the information stored in the HDD is read in the startup processing of the processing device, the speed of the reading is measured, and it is determined that a problem has occurred in the HDD based on the measurement result. It discloses that the storage area of the HDD is restored.

JP 2001-256005 A JP 2003-178295 A JP 2009-194462 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and program capable of suppressing a delay in reading or writing data to a storage device.

  The present invention according to claim 1 obtains, from the storage device, the number of storage regions determined by the storage device as being in a preliminary stage in which the storage region state is defective among the storage regions provided by the storage device And when the number acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the storage device determined by the storage device to be in the defective preliminary stage is the defective storage region. Information having processing instruction means for instructing the storage device to perform a process of switching a reading destination or a writing destination to a storage area that replaces reading or writing to the storage area with respect to the storage area determined by the storage device It is a processing device.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the processing instructing unit is configured to store the storage device when the number acquired by the acquiring unit is equal to or greater than a first threshold or greater than a second threshold greater than the first threshold. The number acquired by the acquisition unit is the first threshold after the time when the switching process is performed after the number acquired by the acquisition unit is determined to be greater than or equal to the second threshold. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is shorter than a period from when it is determined as above to when the switching process is performed.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the process instruction unit, the number acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a threshold selected according to the processing performance of the own apparatus among a plurality of predetermined thresholds. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus instructs the storage apparatus.

  In the present invention according to claim 4, it is determined by the preliminary stage determination means that the storage area is in a defective preliminary stage state, and determined by the preliminary stage determination means as a defective preliminary stage state. Defect determination means for determining whether or not the storage area is in a defective state, and for the storage area determined to be defective by the defect determination means, the reading destination or the writing destination is replaced with reading or writing to the storage area A storage device including processing means for performing a process of switching to the storage area, and the number of storage areas determined to be in a defective preliminary stage among the storage areas provided by the storage device. Instructing the storage device to perform processing by the processing means when the acquisition means acquired from the storage device and the number acquired by the acquisition means are equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold An information processing apparatus and a management instruction means.

  The present invention according to claim 5 is a step of acquiring, from the storage device, the number of storage regions determined by the storage device as being in a preliminary stage where the storage region is in a defective state among the storage regions provided by the storage device. When the acquired number is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the storage device determines that the storage device is a defective storage region among the storage regions determined by the storage device as being in the preliminary stage of the failure. A program that causes the computer to execute a step of instructing the storage device to perform a process of switching a reading destination or a writing destination to a storage area that replaces reading or writing to the storage area.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that can suppress a delay in reading or writing data to or from a storage device as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, the execution timing of the process for suppressing the delay is controlled according to the probability that the read or write process will be delayed. It is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that can

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the present invention according to the first or second aspect, the execution of processing for suppressing delay is controlled according to the performance required for the information processing apparatus. It is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that can

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that can suppress a delay in reading or writing data to or from a storage device as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a program that can suppress a delay in reading or writing data to or from a storage device as compared with a case where the present configuration is not provided.

2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a hard disk drive 100. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of data reading or writing operation in the hard disk drive 100. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the operation | movement of reading or writing when the sector of an access destination is a sector of a normal state. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus 2. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 2 that is realized by executing a control program. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of table information stored in the table storage unit 24, where (a) illustrates table information used when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is higher than a predetermined reference, and (b). Indicates table information used when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is lower than a predetermined reference. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating another example of table information used when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is lower than a predetermined reference. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation when a pre-substitution process is performed in the image forming apparatus 2.

[background]
First, in order to help understanding of the present invention, the background that led to the present invention will be described.

  In a hard disk drive, a storage area (bad sector) where data cannot be read or written is generated due to physical damage or aging of the disk. When the hard disk drive determines that the storage area is a bad sector, the hard disk drive switches the reading destination or the writing destination to an alternative sector that is a storage area that substitutes access to the bad sector, and accesses the bad sector. Control so as not to break.

  In the control device in the hard disk drive, when there is a sector that cannot be read or written normally, first, the sector is distinguished from a normal sector as a pending sector indicating a state of a preliminary stage in a defective state. Of the pending sectors, a sector that cannot be normally read or written at the next access is distinguished as a defective sector indicating a defective sector. Note that when reading or writing is normally performed at the time of this next access, the state of the sector is returned from the pending sector to the normal sector.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the hard disk drive 100.
The read / write control unit 102 receives a read instruction or a write instruction from a device that uses the hard disk drive 100 and controls to perform reading or writing based on the received instruction.

  The preliminary stage determination unit 104 determines whether or not the reading destination or the writing destination sector designated by the reading instruction or the writing instruction is in a defective preliminary stage state. When it is determined that the state is in a defective preliminary stage, the position of the sector is recorded in the position information storage unit 106 as a pending sector.

  The position information storage unit 106 stores the position information of the sector determined by the preliminary stage determination unit 104 as a pending sector.

  The defect determination unit 108 determines whether or not the sector determined to be a pending sector is in a defective state. If it is determined that the state is defective, it is determined that the sector is a defective sector, and the replacement processing unit 110 is notified to perform replacement processing. If it is determined that the state is not defective, the position information of the pending sector is deleted from the position information storage unit 106, and the pending sector is returned to a normal sector.

  The replacement processing unit 110 performs a process of switching the reading destination or the writing destination to a replacement sector that substitutes reading or writing to the defective sector for the sector determined to be a defective sector by the defect determination unit 108. Specifically, the logical position information is switched so as to refer to an alternative sector having a physical position different from that of the defective sector in response to the reference to the defective sector. Further, the substitute processing unit 110 stores substitute information such as position information indicating this switching in the substitute information storage unit 112, and deletes the position information of the defective sector stored in the position information storage unit 106. Hereinafter, processing performed by the alternative processing unit 110 is referred to as alternative processing.

  Note that the hard disk drive 100 also determines whether the pending sector is in a defective state or a normal state even when there is an instruction from a device that uses the hard disk drive 100. The function to perform.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of data reading or writing operation in the hard disk drive 100.

  In step 10 (S10), it is determined whether or not position information is recorded as a pending sector in the position information storage unit 106 for an access destination sector based on a read or write instruction. When the position information of the sector is recorded, the process proceeds to step 12 as being a pending sector, and when it is not recorded, the process proceeds to step 32 as being a normal sector.

  In step 12 (S12), a seek operation and a search operation are performed, and control is performed so that the head of the hard disk drive 100 is positioned in the access destination sector.

  In step 14 (S14), it is determined whether or not the head is normally positioned in the access destination sector. If normal, the process proceeds to step 16, and if the head is not positioned in the access sector, Control goes to step 20.

  In step 16 (S16), a reading process or a writing process is performed.

  In step 18 (S18), whether or not the reading process or the writing process is normally completed is verified (verification). If the reading process or the writing process is normally completed, the process proceeds to step 30. Then, the process proceeds to step 22.

  In step 20 (S20) and step 22 (S22), it is determined whether or not a retry (retry) is permitted. If it is permitted, the process returns to step 12 and is retried. On the other hand, if the retry is not permitted, the pending sector is determined to be a bad sector, and the process proceeds to step 24. For example, if the number of retries is within a predetermined number, retries are allowed.

  In step 24 (S24), replacement processing is performed for the defective sector, and the access destination is switched to the replacement sector.

  In step 26 (S26), the substitute information by the process in step 24 is recorded.

  In step 28 (S28), a read or write process for the alternative sector is performed.

  In step 30 (S30), the position information confirmed in S10 is deleted from the position information storage unit 106.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of data reading or writing operation in the hard disk drive 100, and is a flowchart for S32 shown in FIG. The flowchart shown in FIG. 3 shows an example of the read or write operation when the access destination sector is a normal sector.

  Here, Step 100 (S100) to Step 110 (S110) perform the same operations as Step 12 to Step 22 in FIG. 2, respectively. However, unlike FIG. 2, if it is determined in step 106 that the reading process or the writing process has been normally completed, the operation is ended as being normally completed. If the retry is not permitted in step 108 and step 110, it is determined that the access destination sector is a pending sector, and the process proceeds to step 112. In step 112, the position information of the access destination sector is stored in the position information storage unit. 106.

  As described above, when a reading or writing instruction is given to a certain sector, if the reading or writing is not completed normally, the sector shifts to a pending sector. When the next read or write instruction is issued to this sector, if the read or write is not completed normally, the process shifts to a defective sector and a substitute process is performed. When the alternative processing is performed, the processing shown in step 24 to step 30 is performed in addition to the retry operation in step 20 or step 22 in FIG. 2, so that the time until reading or writing is completed is delayed by that amount. Will be.

[Embodiment]
Next, an image forming apparatus 2 as an example of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The image forming apparatus 2 prints, for example, image data transmitted from a terminal device (not shown) via a network or image data transmitted from a reading device such as a scanner (not shown) that optically reads an image on a sheet.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 2. As shown in FIG. 4, the image forming apparatus 2 includes the hard disk drive 100 described above.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the image forming apparatus 2 transmits and receives data to and from a CPU 4, a memory 6, a hard disk drive (HDD) 100 as a storage device, and an external device via a network. It has an interface (IF) 10, a user interface (UI) device 12 including a touch panel or a liquid crystal display and a keyboard, a scanner 14, and a printer 16. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 18.

  The CPU 4 executes processing based on the control program and controls the operation of the image forming apparatus 2 such as reading or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive 100. The control program can be stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and provided to the CPU 4.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 2 realized by executing the control program.

  The SMART information acquisition unit 20 acquires SMART information from the hard disk drive 100 and stores the acquired information in the memory 6. SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a self-diagnosis function of the hard disk drive, and SMART information is composed of status values of each diagnosis item of the hard disk drive, and the current number of pending sectors (Current Pending) The number of sectors), that is, information indicating the number of sectors determined to be defective preliminary stages is also included.

  The alternative processing instruction unit 22 reads the reading destination or the sector determined to be a bad sector among the pending sectors when the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. The hard disk drive 100 is instructed to perform processing (hereinafter referred to as pre-alternative processing) for switching the write destination to an alternative sector that replaces reading or writing to this sector. Upon receiving this instruction, the hard disk drive 100 performs an operation of testing, for example, reading or writing with respect to the pending sector, and shifts the state of each pending sector to a defective sector or a normal sector. Then, the replacement processing in the replacement processing unit 110 is performed for the sector whose state has shifted to a defective sector.

  Here, for example, a case is assumed in which reading or writing processing to the hard disk drive 100 occurs during processing such as image forming processing in the image forming apparatus 2. When the access destination in the read or write process is a pending sector, there is a possibility that a substitute process may be performed. When the substitute process is performed, the read or write time is delayed by the processing time, and image forming process, etc. Affects the processing of For example, in the image forming process, the access time may time out, the access itself may cause an error, the productivity of the image forming process may decrease, and the image forming process may stop due to an error in some cases. . The possibility that the delay will occur increases as the number of pending sectors existing in the hard disk drive 100 increases. In this embodiment, since the alternative process instruction unit 22 issues an instruction to perform the alternative process in advance at a predetermined time, the possibility that the alternative process may occur during the process such as the image forming process is an alternative process instruction unit. Compared to the case where 22 is not provided.

  The alternative processing instruction unit 22 according to the present embodiment determines whether to instruct the hard disk drive 100 based on the table information stored in the table storage unit 24 and the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20. Determine whether.

  The table storage unit 24 stores table information that defines an operation according to the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20. Table information includes the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20 and the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20 when the instruction is given. Specifies when and how much replacement processing is performed.

  In addition, the table storage unit 24 of the present embodiment stores a plurality of table information, and the table information used according to the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is different. For example, when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is higher than a predetermined standard, the time required for the reading or writing process in the hard disk drive 100 is smaller than that of the image forming apparatus whose processing performance is lower than the predetermined standard. The influence of delay on processing such as image formation processing is large. Therefore, for example, when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is higher than a predetermined standard, the frequency of performing the alternative process based on the above instruction is higher than that of the image forming apparatus whose processing performance is lower than the predetermined standard. Set the table information to

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of table information stored in the table storage unit 24. 6A shows table information used when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is higher than a predetermined reference, and FIG. 6B shows the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 determined in advance. Table information used when it is lower than the standard.

  In the example shown in FIG. 6A, when the number of pending sectors acquired by the SMART information acquisition unit 20 is 0 to 4, the alternative processing instruction unit 22 specifies that the above instruction is not given to the hard disk drive 100. Has been. When the number of pending sectors is 5 to 9, it is specified that the hard disk drive 100 is instructed to perform pre-alternative processing when the image forming apparatus 2 shifts to the sleep state. In the sleep state, the power consumption of the image forming apparatus 2 is small and the vibration due to the operation of the image forming apparatus 2 is less than in the state before the transition to the sleep state.

  When the number of pending sectors is 10 to 14, when the image forming apparatus 2 is not executing a job such as an image forming process, the hard disk drive 100 is instructed to perform a pre-alternative process immediately and the job is being executed. In this case, it is specified that the hard disk drive 100 is instructed to perform pre-alternative processing when all jobs are completed. As described above, it is specified that the pre-substitution process is performed earlier than in the case where the number of pending sectors is 5 to 9.

  When the number of pending sectors is 15 or more and the image forming apparatus 2 is not executing a job, the hard disk drive 100 immediately forcibly shifts the image forming apparatus 2 to the sleep state and performs pre-alternative processing. When the job is being executed, the hard disk drive is configured to forcibly shift the image forming apparatus 2 to the sleep state and perform the pre-alternative process before executing the job next to the job currently being executed. 100 is specified.

  On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 6B, the threshold of the number of pending sectors for performing each correspondence is set larger than in FIG. 6A.

  The table information used when the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is lower than a predetermined reference is not limited to FIG. 6B, and may be configured as shown in FIG. 7, for example.

Next, an operation when the preliminary substitution process is performed in the image forming apparatus 2 will be described.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation when the preliminary substitution process is performed in the image forming apparatus 2. The operation shown in FIG. 8 may be performed at a predetermined time interval in the image forming apparatus 2, may be performed at a predetermined time, or by receiving an instruction from the user. It may be done.

  In step 200 (S200), performance information indicating the processing performance of the image forming apparatus 2 is acquired. For example, the performance information is stored in advance in the memory 6 or the hard disk drive 100, and the stored performance information may be read out or the performance information may be received via a network.

  In step 202 (S202), the table corresponding to the performance information acquired in step 200 is selected from the table information stored in the table storage unit 24.

  In step 204 (S204), the SMART information is read from the hard disk drive 100.

  In step 206 (S206), the read SMART information is stored in the memory 6.

  In step 208 (S208), the number of pending sectors in the SMART information stored in step 206 is referred to, and the correspondence corresponding to the number of pending sectors is determined based on the table selected in step 202.

  In step 210 (S210), the response determined in step 208 is performed.

2 Image forming apparatus 20 SMART information acquisition unit 22 Alternative processing instruction unit 24 Table storage unit 100 Hard disk drive 102 Read / write control unit 104 Preliminary stage determination unit 106 Position information storage unit 108 Defect determination unit 110 Alternative processing unit 112 Alternative information storage unit

Claims (5)

An acquisition unit that acquires, from the storage device, the number of storage regions determined by the storage device as being in a defective preliminary stage among storage regions provided by the storage device;
When the number acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the storage device determines that the storage device is a defective storage region among the storage regions determined by the storage device as being in the preliminary stage of the failure. An information processing apparatus comprising: a processing instruction unit that instructs the storage device to perform a process of switching a read destination or a write destination to a storage area that replaces reading or writing to the storage area for the determined storage area. The processing instruction means instructs the storage device when the number acquired by the acquisition means is equal to or greater than a first threshold or a second threshold greater than the first threshold, and is acquired by the acquisition means The period from when it is determined that the number obtained is greater than or equal to a second threshold to when the switching process is performed is determined after the number obtained by the obtaining unit is greater than or equal to the first threshold The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is shorter than a period until switching processing is performed. The processing instruction unit instructs the storage device when the number acquired by the acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a threshold selected according to the processing performance of the own device among a plurality of predetermined thresholds. Item 3. The information processing apparatus according to item 1 or 2. Preliminary stage determination means for determining whether or not the storage area is in a defective preliminary stage;
A failure determination means for determining whether or not the storage area determined to be in a defective preliminary stage state by the preliminary stage determination means;
A storage device comprising: processing means for performing processing for switching a reading destination or a writing destination to a storage area that substitutes reading or writing to the storage area for the storage area determined to be defective by the defect determination means;
An acquisition unit that acquires, from the storage device, the number of storage regions that are determined to be in a defective preliminary stage among the storage regions provided by the storage device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a processing instruction unit that instructs the storage device to perform processing by the processing unit when the number acquired by the acquiring unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value. Acquiring from the storage device the number of storage regions determined by the storage device as being in a defective preliminary stage among the storage regions provided by the storage device;
Memory that is determined by the storage device to be a defective storage region among the storage regions that are determined by the storage device to be in the preliminary stage of the failure when the obtained number is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. A program for causing a computer to execute a step of instructing the storage device to perform a process of switching a read destination or a write destination to a storage area that replaces reading or writing to the storage area.

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