JP7242430B2 - Systems, network devices, control methods and programs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to systems, network devices, control methods, and programs.

With the spread of cloud services and the Internet of Things (IoT), a system is known in which network devices such as image forming apparatuses are connected for communication to a device management server and managed by the device management server. In such a system, many network devices can be registered with the device management server for each customer.

Here, in the management system described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to register management information of the image forming apparatus in the management server in order to start the monitoring service of the image forming apparatus. After the image forming apparatus is installed in the customer system, the image forming apparatus issues a registration confirmation request to the management server to confirm whether or not its own management information has been registered according to instructions from the installation company. If the management information is not registered, the image forming apparatus resends the registration confirmation request until it receives a response indicating registration completion from the management server.

Users of the device management server include not only customers who receive the service, but also sales companies entrusted with the installation and management of customer devices. The device management server manages sales company and customer data in tenants, which are dedicated areas in the database. Customers can access only the tenant to which they belong (customer tenant), and manage backup data related to the settings of applications running on their devices in their own tenant. On the other hand, the sales company can access the tenant to which it belongs (sales company tenant) and the tenants of the customers who own devices to be managed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2013-114654

When a person in charge of installation installs a network device such as an image forming apparatus in a customer's office or the like, it performs processing for registering device information in the device management server. Additionally, the installer configures the applications that run on the device.

Here, there is a case where a customer tenant has not yet been created in the device management server when the device is installed. In such a case, the device information can be registered once with another tenant and later moved to the customer tenant. However, when trying to register the application setting information in the application server for the purpose of backup, etc., there is a possibility that it cannot be registered once in a tenant other than the customer tenant. If it takes a long time after the customer tenant is created until the setting information is registered in the customer tenant, it will be impossible to provide sufficient services during that time.

Therefore, the present invention provides a mechanism for registering application setting information in a customer tenant when a customer tenant is created and device information is moved from a tenant other than the customer tenant to the customer tenant. intended to provide

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a system that includes a network device, a device management server that manages information about the network device, and an application server that communicates with an application running on the network device, The device management server transmits, to the network device, an event indicating that device information of the network device has been registered in a customer tenant that is a private storage area of a customer who owns the network device. means, wherein the network device comprises: receiving means for receiving the transmitted event; and second transmitting means for transmitting setting information of the application to the application server in response to receiving the event. the application server has a first registration means for receiving the transmitted setting information of the application and registering the received setting information in the customer tenant; wherein the event is transmitted to the network device when the customer tenant is created and device information of the network device is moved from a tenant other than the customer tenant to the customer tenant. and

According to the present invention, when a customer tenant is created and device information is moved from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant, application setting information can be registered in the customer tenant. .

System diagram of this embodiment Hardware configuration diagram of server and MFP in this embodiment Configuration diagram showing the system configuration of the server application Functional block diagram Data structure diagram Sequence diagram of sales company tenant and customer tenant creation processing Sequence diagram of device registration processing Sequence diagram of authority update processing Sequence diagram of application setting value synchronization processing Sequence diagram showing processing when setting values are changed UI diagram of application setting screen Sequence diagram of application setting value synchronization processing when resending is not performed Sequence diagram showing processing when moving a device between tenants UI diagram of device move instruction screen between tenants Sequence diagram of setting value synchronization processing by timer UI diagram of the device list screen of the application

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of this embodiment.

This system comprises a device management server 101, a message server 102, an application server 103, terminals 104, devices 105 and a network 106. FIG.

Device management server 101, message server 102, application server 103, terminal 104, and device 105 are connected to network 106 and can communicate with each other.

The device management server 101 is a server that manages information about the device 105 to be managed and the tenant that manages it. A message server 102 is a server that performs asynchronous message communication between the device management server 101 and the application server 103 . The application server 103 is a server that provides various application functions to the device 105 . Specifically, there are a backup service for backing up setting information of the device 105 and a so-called pull print service for acquiring a print target from the application server 103 and printing it, but the service is not limited thereto. The terminal 104 is a so-called personal computer that gives instructions to the device management server 101 and the application server 103 via the network 106 .

The device 105 is a network device that communicates with the device management server 101 and the application server 103 via the network 106 and provides functions. The device 105 of this embodiment is a so-called IoT device. In this embodiment, the device 105 will be described as a multi-function machine, but the device is not limited to a multi-function machine. Any device managed through the Internet is included in the scope of this embodiment. The network 106 is, for example, a LAN such as the Internet, a WAN, a telephone line, a dedicated digital line, an ATM, a frame relay line, a cable television line, a radio line for data broadcasting, or the like. Or a so-called communication network realized by a combination of these.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of this embodiment.

FIG. 2A is a hardware configuration diagram of the device management server 101, message server 102, application server 103, and terminal 104. FIG. These can be configured with the hardware of a general information processing device (so-called PC). When the device management server 101 is a virtual machine, the information processing apparatus also includes a server computer on which a virtual machine functioning as the device management server 101 operates. The same is true for message server 102 and application server 103, respectively.

The CPU 201 executes programs stored in the ROM 203 and programs such as an OS (Operating System) and applications loaded from the external memory 210 to the RAM 202 . That is, the CPU 201 functions as each processing unit that executes the processing of each flowchart described later by executing the program stored in the readable storage medium. A RAM 202 is a main memory of the CPU 201 and functions as a work area or the like. A keyboard controller 204 controls operation inputs from a keyboard 208 and pointing devices (not shown) (mouse, touch pad, touch panel, trackball, etc.). A display controller 205 controls the display of the display 209 . A disk controller 206 controls data access to an external memory 210 such as a hard disk (HD) or flexible disk (FD) that stores various data. A network I/F 207 is connected to a network and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network. Each controller and CPU are interconnected by an internal bus 211 .

FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the device 105. As shown in FIG. Device 105 is an example of an image forming apparatus. The CPU 221 has programs stored in the ROM 223 (including programs for realizing each process described later), and comprehensively controls each device via the internal bus 231 . The RAM 222 functions as a memory and work area for the CPU 221 . The network I/F 225 exchanges data unidirectionally or bidirectionally with external network equipment. A proximity communication I/F 226 is a network I/F for proximity communication such as NFC or BlueTooth (registered trademark), and communicates with the mobile terminal 102 or the like to exchange data. Device control 227 controls printing unit 228 .

The CPU 221 performs program execution processing together with the RAM 222 and the ROM 223 and performs processing for recording image data in a recording medium such as the storage device 224 . Storage device 224 functions as an external storage device. Input/output device 230 represents multiple configurations responsible for input and output on device 105 . Specifically, an input (such as a button input) from the user is received, and a signal corresponding to the input is transmitted to each processing unit described above via the input/output I/F 229 . In addition, the input/output device 230 also includes a display device (such as a touch panel) for providing necessary information to the user and accepting user operations. Further, input/output device 230 may also include a scanning device for reading documents and accepting electronic data as input. The timer 232 performs processing for detecting that a predetermined time has elapsed, generating an interrupt, and notifying the CPU 221 of the interrupt. By registering the schedule determined based on the program in the timer 232, the CPU 221 can drive and operate periodic processing from an interrupt.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a server and applications and a connection state on software. This system is a management system composed of a plurality of application servers 103, and uses a common device management server 101 to manage device information of each application. Each application server 103 and the device management server 101 are configured to be able to communicate with each other by general TCP communication or the like.

Messaging server 102 is an asynchronous messaging server for relaying and distributing events occurring within the system. By registering the event information to be received with the messaging server 102 in advance, each application can start a specified function when a corresponding event is sent to the messaging server 102. . Such a service that executes lightweight processing in response to an event that occurs on a specific computing resource is called an event-driven computing service. For example, AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Microsoft Azure Functions, and the like. In these services, a program code for realizing desired processing for a cloud computing service is registered in advance by designating the specifications of the CPU, memory, etc. of the virtual machine that executes the program code. The registered program code is then associated with a computing resource and a particular event occurring on that computing resource. In this embodiment, all events sent by the device management server 101 are received by the application server 103 via the messaging server 102 . Although the description of the messaging server 102 will be omitted in the following description, it is assumed that all events generated by the device management server 101 pass through the messaging server 102 .

On the other hand, the device 105 is also composed of multiple applications. The configuration includes a device management application 301 that communicates with the device management server 101 and performs authentication and authorization, and an application 303 that performs the functionality of each application server 103 . When communicating with the application server 103 , the application 303 acquires an access token for communicating from the device management server 101 through the device management application 301 . The application 303 gives the token and communicates with the application server 103 . The application server 103 uses the information provided by the device management server 101 to verify the validity of the granted token. As a result, the device management server 101 can centrally manage the authentication status and the relationship between managed devices.

Events generated by the device management application 301 are executed using callback functions registered in advance by each application 303 .

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing each function of the first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, each functional block represents a block of programs processed by a CPU mounted as hardware.

The device management server 101 comprises a tenant management section 401 , a device management section 402 and a credential management section 403 . The tenant management unit 401 manages information about so-called tenants for using this application system. The device management unit 402 manages the status and information about the device 105 associated with each tenant. The credential management unit 403 manages so-called credential, which corresponds to a password for the device to communicate with the device management server.

The application server 103 includes a customer management section 411 , a device management section 412 , an application setting management section 413 and an application processing section 414 . The customer management unit 411 manages tenant information of customers who use this application on the owned device 105 . The device management unit 412 manages information and status of devices using this application. The application setting management unit 413 manages, for each device, values set in the device and values to be set in the device when the device uses this application. The application processing unit 414 executes an application based on a request from the device or user based on the settings of the application setting management unit 413 for each application.

The device management application 301 is composed of a connection destination management section 421 . The connection destination management unit 421 acquires from the device management server 101 information about which tenant the device 105 is associated with, and holds credential information for communicating with the tenant.

The application 303 is composed of an application setting management unit 431 and an application processing unit 432 . The application setting management unit 431 manages application-specific setting values on the device side. Furthermore, it has a function of transmitting and receiving its own set values to the application server 103 . The application processing unit 432 performs application-specific processing based on the setting contents of the application setting management unit 431 .

In the following examples, the flow with a single application will be explained, but the application does not need to be single as described above. Also, the application in this embodiment will be described as a backup application for backing up device setting values.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the data configuration of each functional block in this embodiment.

The functions in this embodiment are roughly divided into five functions: "tenant creation", "device registration", "setting value change from application", "device migration", and "periodic synchronization of application setting values". These functions will be described below with reference to each processing unit in FIG. 4 and the data configuration diagram in FIG.

<Tenant creation>
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a sequence diagram of tenant creation processing.

In this embodiment, the data of each device 105 is managed by the device management server 101 while being logically separated for each customer organization and sales company organization. Therefore, in the device management server 101, a "tenant", which is a dedicated storage area as a virtual organization, is created for each customer organization or sales company organization and assigned to the customer organization or sales company organization. By registering the device 105 in advance for each tenant assigned to the customer organization or the sales company organization, the data of the device 105 can be managed separately for each tenant.

First, the terminal 104 transmits a sales company creation request for creating a sales company tenant to the device management server 101 by user operation (S601). Upon receiving the sales company creation request from the terminal 104, the tenant management unit 401 of the device management server 101 creates a tenant entry in its own database (not shown) (S602). The content of the created tenant entry is shown in FIG. 5(a). In FIG. 5(a), the tenant ID and display name are included in the sales company creation request. A license is data given only to a customer when creating a customer, which will be described later. Sales company/customer is data for determining whether the created tenant is a sales company or a customer. A connection key is a unique character string within the system that is used in the device registration flow described later. A detailed usage method will be described later with reference to FIG.

Next, the terminal 104 transmits a customer creation request for creating a customer tenant to the device management server 101 by user operation (S603). The customer-created request contains license information. The license information indicates whether or not the creating customer can use each application. Specifically, it may be a JSON string such as {“applicationA”: “available”, “application”: “not available”}.

Upon receiving the customer creation request from the terminal 104, the tenant management unit 401 of the device management server 101 creates a tenant entry in its own database (S604). In this tenant entry, the sales company tenant ID is an ID for linking which sales company manages the customer.

After confirming that the license has been granted to the created customer tenant, the tenant management unit 401 of the device management server 101 transmits a license grant event to each application server 103 (S605). The licensing event includes the customer's tenant ID, the distributor's tenant ID, the customer's display name, and the granted license. Upon receiving the licensing event, the customer management unit 411 of the application server 103 confirms whether or not the license allows the application to be provided (S606). This processing is performed by confirming that the license included in the licensing event includes the license of its own application and that the content is valid. If the license allows the application to be provided to the customer, the application server 103 creates a customer entry in its own database (not shown) (S607). FIG. 5(f) shows the contents of the customer entity created and stored by the application server 103. FIG.

With this flow, each application creates customer information based on the customer tenant's license created in the device management server. In addition, when creating a customer tenant using a sales company tenant that has already been created, it is possible to create a customer tenant multiple times without creating a sales company tenant. Also, if the next device registration process is to be performed for an already created customer tenant, this creation flow can be omitted.

<Device registration>
FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing the flow of device registration processing in this embodiment. Device registration processing is processing for associating tenants with devices.

The user operates the UI of the device management application 301 and inputs the connection key created in S602 or S604. If a customer tenant has been created, enter the connection key for accessing the customer tenant here. If the customer tenant has not been created, enter the connection key for accessing another tenant such as a sales company tenant. be. The connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 transmits the content input by the user to the device management server 101 as a device registration request (S701). The tenant management unit 401 of the device management server 101 searches for a tenant having a connection key that matches the connection key included in the device registration request from among its own tenant entities (S702). If no tenant with the specified connection key is found (No in S703), the connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 displays that no tenant corresponding to the input connection key is found and continues the flow. End (S704). If a tenant is found (Yes in S703), the device management unit 402 of the device management server creates and saves a device entity (S705). FIG. 5(b) shows the contents of the device entity. In FIG. 5B, the tenant ID indicates the tenant ID of the tenant searched in S702.

Further, the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 creates and stores a credential for communication by the application that has sent the device registration request (S706). The contents of the credential are shown in FIG. 5(c). In FIG. 5(c), the credential ID is a unique character string determined by the system, the password is a random character string determined by the system, and the authority is the access right of the credential. The credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 returns the credential created in S706 to the device management application 301. FIG. The connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 saves the received credential in its own storage (S707). In FIG. 5(i), a device registration event is then issued to each application that uses the device management application (S708). A device registration event includes a tenant ID and device serial. The application 303 performs setting value synchronization processing with the reception of the device registration event as a trigger (S900). Details of the setting synchronization process will be described later with reference to FIG.

On the other hand, the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 transmits a device registration event to each application server 103 after the credential generation in S706 is completed (S710). The device management unit 412 of the application server 103 performs authority update processing (S800) with the device registration event as a trigger. Details of the authority update process will be described later with reference to FIG. In addition to the content of the device registration event transmitted by the device management application 301, the event transmitted by the device management server 101 includes a client ID. This is so that the application server can appropriately grant or remove privileges to the client according to its own circumstances.

FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing the contents of authority update processing in this embodiment. First, the customer management unit 411 of the application server 103 searches the customer entity for a customer corresponding to the tenant ID included in the device registration event (S801). If the customer exists, it is found that the customer has the correct license, so the device management unit 412 of the application server 103 creates and saves a device entity (S802).

FIG. 5G shows the contents of the device entity created by the device management unit 412 of the application server 103. FIG. The application setting value indicates the setting value of the application transmitted from the application 303 in setting value synchronization processing described later with reference to FIG. 9 . The last update time indicates the date and time when the setting value was last registered from the application 303 . In S802, the application setting location and last update time are created in an empty state. After that, the device management unit 412 requests the device management server 101 to grant the right to use its own application to the credential having the credential ID added to the tenant registration event (S803). The authorization request includes authorization in addition to the client ID. The authority is a JSON character string such as {“applicationA”: “available”}, for example, and indicates whether or not to permit use of the own application. The authority may be a fine-grained permission to use the own application, for example, it may be a description that some functions of the application can be used, but other functions cannot be used.

Upon receiving the authorization request, the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 identifies the credential entity from the credential ID attached to the authorization request, and assigns the authorization attached to the authorization request to the entity (S804). ). If the customer entity cannot be found in S801, it is determined that the tenant does not have the authority to use the application, and the flow ends without granting the authority.

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram for explaining the details of the set value synchronization process in this embodiment. First, the application 303 waits for a predetermined time after receiving a device registration event from the device management application 301 (S901). The authorization processing in FIG. 8 and the setting value synchronization processing in FIG. 9 are each performed asynchronously with an event as a trigger. Therefore, depending on the timing of the event, the authority confirmation process of S904 may occur before the authority update process of S804. In that case, even though the access is from a device that should have authority, it is determined that there is no authority. In order to avoid this, it waits for a predetermined time in S901. Next, the application setting management unit 431 sends an access token acquisition request to the device management application 301 to acquire an access token for transmitting application settings to the application server 103 (S902). The connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 receives the access token acquisition request from the application 303 . Then, the connection destination management unit 421 attaches the credential ID and password it owns to the request, and issues an access token acquisition request to the device management server 101 (S903).

The credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 verifies the access token acquisition request from the device management application 301 (S904). Specifically, the same credential as the credential ID included in the access token acquisition request is searched, and it is confirmed whether the password of the credential is the same as the password included in the access token acquisition request. Furthermore, it is checked whether the authority of the stored credential includes the authority included in the access token acquisition request. If all verifications are OK, it determines that the client possessed by the device management application is valid, creates and saves an access token entity (S905), and stores the created access token, expiration date, and refresh token. return (S906). If the verification is NG, the verification failure is returned in S906 without creating an access token.

FIG. 5D shows the contents of the access token created by the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 5(d), the expiration date indicates the expiration date of the access token. Expired access tokens can no longer be used. A refresh token is a token used to re-acquire an access token. The access token is called a JSON Web Token (JWT), and is obtained by encrypting authentication information and requested authority described in JSON format using a private key held by the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101. be. The server that receives the access token can acquire user authentication information and authorization information by decrypting the access token using the public key provided by the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101. becomes. The connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 passes the confirmation result received from the device management server 101 to the application 303 (S907).

The application setting management unit 413 of the application 303 checks whether the token has been acquired from the device management application 301 (S908). If the token can be acquired, the application setting management unit 431 of the application 303 assigns the token as authentication information and transmits its own setting values to the application server 103 (S909). The device management unit 412 of the application server 103 verifies whether the token included in the request from the application 303 is valid (S910). If authorized, the application setting management unit 413 of the application server 103 updates or registers the setting values of the application linked to the device (S911), and ends the process.

If there is no authority in S908, there is a high possibility that the authority update processing in S804 has not been completed. Therefore, if the number of times the setting information has been transmitted is equal to or less than the predetermined number of times, the process returns to S901, and the setting value update process is repeated a predetermined number of times (S912). By repeating this operation a predetermined number of times, the authority update processing of S804 is completed, and the set values can be appropriately transmitted to the application server 103. FIG. If the authorization has not been granted even after executing the procedure a sufficient number of times, it is determined that the status is not correct, and this flow ends.

<Change setting value from application>
FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing processing when the user changes the setting value in this embodiment. Processing when the user operates the application 303 to change the setting value will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. 10 .

The user inputs setting values to the UI of the application 303 (S1001). An example of UI is shown in FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a UI screen for setting application setting values in this embodiment. In this embodiment, it is assumed that when the backup is to be performed is input in order to perform the backup periodically.

When the user presses the input confirmation button 1101, the application setting management unit 431 of the application 303 displays on the UI that the setting has been completed (S1002). Furthermore, the application setting management unit 431 of the application 303 registers the setting values in the application server asynchronously with the UI processing (S1200). The processing of S1200 will be described later using FIG.

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing detailed processing contents of setting value synchronization processing when retransmission is not performed. This processing is the same as the sequence diagram of FIG. 9 except that there is no waiting processing in S901 and retry processing in case of authority confirmation failure in S912, compared to the case of performing retransmission described in FIG. In the setting value synchronization processing of FIG. 9, retransmission processing was necessary because the authority confirmation processing of S904 may occur prior to the authority update processing of S804 due to the configuration in which each processing unit operates according to an event. However, in the setting value synchronization processing of FIG. 12, since it is not a function executed by an event, it is assumed that the authority has already been granted. Therefore, it is possible to realize equivalent functions without retransmission.

In FIG. 12, the processes from S902 to S907 are the same as those described in FIG. 9, and therefore are omitted. The application setting management unit 413 of the application 303 checks whether the token has been acquired from the device management application 301 (S1208). If the token cannot be obtained, it is determined that synchronization is impossible, and this flow ends. If the token can be acquired, setting value transmission processing of S909 is performed. Since the processing from S909 to S911 is the same as that described in FIG. 9, the description is omitted.

By the above procedure, it becomes possible to synchronize the setting values with the application server 103 when the setting values are changed from the UI. Note that this procedure can be performed even when the device is not connected to the customer tenant. In other words, it is possible to carry out the device transfer processing after being registered with the sales company.

<Move device information>
Next, using the sequence diagram of FIG. 13, the process of moving device information will be described.

First, the user operates the terminal 104 and gives an instruction to move the device information to the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 (S1301). When the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 receives the instruction to move the device information, it creates and saves a device movement entity from the contents of the movement instruction. FIG. 5(e) shows the contents of the device movement entity. The device transfer entity indicates which device information should be transferred from which tenant to which tenant. FIG. 14 shows an example of a UI screen provided by the device management server 101 for giving an instruction to move device information. This UI is a UI that can display a list of devices connected to a tenant for each tenant. In addition to basic device information, a destination selection box 1401 for selecting a destination is displayed for each device information. A user who wants to move device information can select a customer as a destination from a destination selection box 1401 and press a move button 1402 to transmit a move instruction. Furthermore, by pressing a move cancel button 1403 for device information to which a move instruction has already been given, it is possible to delete the created move instruction. A description of the sequence for deleting the movement instruction is omitted in this embodiment.

After that, the connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 assigns the held credential information to the device management server 101, and confirms whether or not an instruction to move the device information has been issued (S1302). ). The timing of performing this process is not limited, but it is desirable to perform this process immediately before communication from another application occurs, such as before processing an access token request from another application. That is, at the timing of communication by another application, the connection destination management unit 421 confirms whether an instruction to move device information has been issued. As a result, there is a high possibility that the setting value synchronization processing can be performed earlier than when the setting value synchronization processing is performed according to the regular schedule described later with reference to FIG. 15 .

The device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 searches the device migration entity for the device serial of the access source (S1303), and confirms whether or not there is a migration instruction (S1304). If the device movement entity does not exist, no movement instruction has been issued, so a response to the effect that no movement instruction has been issued is sent to the device management application 301, and this flow ends. If the device migration entity exists, perform device migration processing. Specifically, first, the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 deletes the device information associated with the source tenant. Further, the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 deletes all device credentials and access tokens associated with the source tenant (S1305).

Next, the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 creates device information under the destination tenant (S1306). Further, the credential management unit 403 of the device management server 101 creates a new credential for the device management application 301 (S1307). The created credential is sent to the device management application 301 as a response. Finally, the device management unit 402 of the device management server 101 creates a device information registration event and transmits it to each application server (S1310). The application server then performs authority update processing (S800), but the content is the same as that shown in FIG. 8, so the description is omitted. Upon receiving the credential from the device management server 101, the connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 replaces the credential held by itself with the received credential and saves it (S1308). After that, the connection destination management unit 421 of the device management application 301 creates a device information registration event and transmits it to each application (S1309). After that, the application 303 performs setting value synchronization processing (S900), but the content thereof is the same as that shown in FIG. 9, so the description thereof is omitted.

By using the above flow, it is possible to send device setting values to a new tenant after an instruction to move device information is issued to the cloud.

<Regular synchronization of application settings>
Finally, periodic synchronization processing of application setting values will be described. FIG. 15 is a sequence diagram showing the details of periodical synchronization of application setting values.

As described with reference to FIG. 13, by receiving the device information registration event and operating each application, it is possible to immediately synchronize setting values with the moved tenant. However, if the transmission of the setting value fails due to a communication error, etc., or if the application is forcibly terminated and does not start, the device information registration event cannot be processed and the setting value is not sent to the server. It may not be possible to send to In order to reliably transmit the setting values to the application server even in such a case, it is preferable to periodically transmit the setting values held by the application 303 to the application server 103 using timer processing.

First, the application setting management unit 431 of the application 303 sets a timer for the operating system in which it operates so that processing is periodically performed (S1501). The contents of the timer may be set so that the timer process can be appropriately executed at a predetermined timing, such as once a day, even if the power supply of the device is shut off when the timer is started. After that, the application setting management unit 431 of the application 303 waits for timer activation from the operating system (S1502), and performs setting value synchronization processing by timer activation (S1200). Since the contents of S1200 are the same as those explained in FIG. 12, the explanation is omitted.

Finally, the UI of the application will be explained. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a UI that the application 303 has.

A device registration event from the device management server 101 always displays the same device as the device registered in the device management server 101 on the UI of the application. Furthermore, the unique values (setting values, last update time) of the application 303 can be confirmed on the UI. In FIG. 16, for example, for a device whose device serial number is AAA00000, the setting value is reflected on the UI and the last update time is displayed. This state indicates a state in which the setting value synchronization processing shown in FIGS. On the other hand, a device with a device serial number of AAA00001 is displayed with empty setting values even though the device is displayed on the UI of the customer tenant. This indicates a state in which the device registration event from the device management server 101 has been properly processed, but the device registration event from the device management application 301 has failed to be processed.

As explained above, it is possible to register the device information once in another tenant when installing the device and move it to the customer tenant later, but the application setting information is registered once in a tenant other than the customer tenant. may not be possible. Therefore, in this embodiment, when a customer tenant is created and device information is moved from a tenant other than the customer tenant to the customer tenant, the device management server sends an event to the device. bottom. This enables the device to send and register application setting information to the application server in response to event reception. In other words, compared to registering the setting information in the customer tenant according to the setting information transmission schedule, the time from the creation of the customer tenant to the registration of the setting information is shortened, which hinders the provision of services. without coming.

(Other examples)
The present invention also includes an apparatus or system configured by appropriately combining the above-described embodiments, and a method therefor.

Here, the present invention is a main device or system that executes one or more software (programs) that realize the functions of the above-described embodiments. A method for realizing the above-described embodiments executed by the device or system is also one aspect of the present invention. Also, the program is supplied to a system or device via a network or various storage media, and is read and executed by one or more computers (CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or device. In other words, one aspect of the present invention includes the program itself or various computer-readable storage media storing the program. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (for example, an ASIC) that implements the functions of the above-described embodiments.

101 Device Management Server 103 Application Server 105 Device 106 Network

Claims (15)

A system that includes a network device, a device management server that manages information about the network device, and an application server that communicates with an application running on the network device,
The device management server
a first transmission means for transmitting to the network device an event indicating that the device information of the network device has been registered in a customer tenant, which is a dedicated storage area of the customer who owns the network device;
The network device is
receiving means for receiving the transmitted event;
a second transmission means for transmitting setting information of the application to the application server in response to reception of the event;
The application server is
a first registration means for receiving the transmitted setting information of the application and registering the received setting information in the customer tenant;
The first transmission means transmits the event to the network device when the customer tenant is created and device information of the network device is moved from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant. A system characterized by transmitting to. The device management server
a second registration means for registering the device information in response to a request from the network device;
2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first transmitting means transmits said event to said network device after registration by said second registering means. The device management server
a first holding means for holding an instruction to move the device information of the network device from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant;
3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein device information of said network device is moved to said customer tenant from a tenant different from said customer tenant according to said instruction. The device management server
further comprising a first providing means for providing a screen for accepting an instruction from a user to move the device information of the network device from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant,
4. The system according to claim 3, wherein said holding means holds said accepted instruction. The application server is
a request means for requesting the device management server to grant a customer belonging to the customer tenant the right to use the application when the customer tenant has been created;
The device management server
5. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising granting means for granting the right to use the application to the customer in response to the request. The second transmitting means transmits the setting information to the application server when the received setting information is not registered by the first registering means and the number of times the setting information is transmitted is equal to or less than a predetermined number of times. 6. The system of claim 5, further comprising transmitting. Said application is
7. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising second providing means for providing a screen for entering settings for said application. The second transmitting means transmits the changed setting information not in response to the reception of the event but in response to the change in the setting of the application on the screen provided by the second providing means. 8. The system of claim 7, sending to the application server. Said application is
further comprising second holding means for holding a schedule for the second sending means to send the setting information of the application to the application server;
9. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said second transmitting means transmits the setting information of said application to said application server according to said schedule, not according to said event reception. System as described. 10. The system according to claim 8, wherein said second transmitting means transmits said application setting information to said application server in response to acquisition of an access token for said customer tenant. The first registration means is
When setting information of the application is received from a network device owned by a customer who is not authorized to use the application, the received setting information is not registered,
11. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein when setting information of the application is received from a network device owned by a customer who is authorized to use the application, the received setting information is registered. The system described in paragraph. a network device,
communicable with a device management server that manages information of the network device and an application server that communicates with an application running on the network device;
receiving means for receiving, from the device management server, an event indicating that the device information of the network device has been registered in a customer tenant, which is a dedicated storage area of the customer who owns the network device;
transmitting means for transmitting setting information of the application to the application server in response to reception of the event;
The event is transmitted to the network device when the customer tenant is created and device information of the network device is moved from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant. A network device characterized by: A control method for a system including a network device, a device management server that manages information about the network device, and an application server that communicates with an application running on the network device,
The device management server
a first transmission step of transmitting, to the network device, an event indicating that the device information of the network device has been registered in a customer tenant that is a private storage area of the customer who owns the network device;
The network device is
a receiving step for receiving the transmitted event;
a second transmission step of transmitting setting information of the application to the application server in response to reception of the event;
The application server is
a first registration step of receiving the transmitted setting information of the application and registering the received setting information in the customer tenant;
In the first sending step, when the customer tenant is created and the device information of the network device is moved from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant, the event is sent to the network device. A control method, characterized in that it is transmitted to A network device control method comprising:
communicable with a device management server that manages information of the network device and an application server that communicates with an application running on the network device;
a receiving step of receiving, from the device management server, an event indicating that the device information of the network device has been registered in a customer tenant that is a private storage area of the customer who owns the network device;
a sending step of sending setting information of the application to the application server in response to receiving the event;
The event is transmitted to the network device when the customer tenant is created and device information of the network device is moved from a tenant different from the customer tenant to the customer tenant. Characterized control method. A program for causing a computer to function as the means according to claim 12.

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