JPH02129736A - Remote supervisory system for information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To monitor by a maintenance center even whether a fault is generated in a system support device and a communication line itself or not by sending out a report for showing the normalness of the system support device itself to the maintenance center through the communication line at every prescribed time. CONSTITUTION:When a fault is generated in an information processor 2, information of its fault is collected by a system support device 1 and transmitted to a maintenance center 3 through a communication line 4. By keeping pace with a fundamental operation related to remote supervisory of this information processor 2, a normalness report mechanism 14 provided on the system support device 1 sends out a report for showing the normalness of the system support device 1 itself to the maintenance center 3 through the communication line 4 at every prescribed time. Subsequently, normalness report supervisory mechanisms 32, 33 of the maintenance center 3 monitors whether the report is executed at every prescribed time from the system support device 1 or not, and display the generation of abnormality at the time when the report stops. In such a way, even whether a fault is generated in the system support device 1 and the communication line 4 itself or not is monitored by the maintenance center 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is a remote control system for an information processing device that monitors whether or not a failure has occurred in the information processing device at a remote maintenance center connected via a communication line. It concerns a surveillance system.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional remote monitoring systems of this type connect a system support device with automatic failure information collection and transmission functions to an information processing device, and communicate between this system support device and a maintenance center located in a remote location. 2. Description of the Related Art There is a remote monitoring system connected via a line so that when a failure occurs in an information processing device, a system support device automatically collects failure information and reports the information to a maintenance center through a communication line.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The remote monitoring system as described above makes it possible to monitor the occurrence of failures and their status in information processing equipment from a remote maintenance center, but there are the following problems. Ta. In other words, unless a fault occurs in the information processing device, fault information will not be sent from the system support device to the maintenance center.
Is the reason why failure information is not being sent because there is no failure in the information processing device, or is there a failure but it is a system support bag! This is because the maintenance center cannot determine whether the problem itself cannot be reported due to a fault occurring in the communication line.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring system that allows a maintenance center to monitor whether or not a failure has occurred in a system support device or a communication line itself.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention connects a system support device connected to an information processing device and a maintenance center via a communication line, and when a failure occurs in the information processing device, the system support device is connected to a maintenance center. In a remote monitoring system for an information processing device in which the system support device collects information and transmits the information to the maintenance center via the communication line, the system support device sends a report indicating the normality of its own device at predetermined intervals. A normality notification mechanism is provided to send to the maintenance center via the communication line, and the maintenance center monitors whether or not the notification is sent from the system support device at predetermined intervals, and when the notification is interrupted. It is equipped with a normality notification monitoring mechanism that occasionally indicates the occurrence of an abnormality.

[Effect]

In the remote monitoring system of the present invention, when a failure occurs in the information processing apparatus, the system support device collects information on the failure and transmits the information to the maintenance center via the communication line. In parallel with this operation, a normality reporting mechanism provided in the system support device sends a report indicating the normality of the system support device itself to the maintenance center via the communication line at predetermined intervals, and The normality report monitoring mechanism of the center monitors whether or not the system support device sends the report at predetermined time intervals, and displays the occurrence of an abnormality when the report stops.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

11th! 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which a system support device 1 connected to an information processing device 2 and a remote maintenance center 3 are connected via a communication line 4, and a failure occurs in the information processing device 2. This shows a remote monitoring system in which the system support device 1 collects failure information when a failure occurs and sends it to the maintenance center 3 via the communication line 4. 11. Fault information collection means 12, power disconnection detection means 13, and first time measurement means 1
Contains 4. The maintenance center 3 also includes a monitoring control means 31. Second clocking means 32 and monitoring abnormality detection means 33
Contains.

The failure information collection means 12 of the system support apparatus 1 is connected to the information processing apparatus 2, and when a failure occurs in the information processing apparatus E2, collects various failure information from the information processing apparatus 2 and outputs it to the notification control means 11. Has a function.

The power disconnection detection means 13 is connected to the information processing device 2,
It has a function of outputting information to that effect to the notification control means 11 when it detects that the power of the information processing device 2 is cut off due to suspension of operation or the like.

The first clocking means 14 is initialized when the system support device 1 is powered on or upon receiving an initialization command from the notification control means 11, and once it is initialized, if it has been performing a timing operation immediately before that, it starts to clock. Once completed, time measurement is started again, and if there is no time measurement operation immediately before initialization, time measurement is started immediately, and either a certain period of time TI has passed after the start of time measurement or a time measurement stop command is issued from the notification control means 11. It has a function of continuing to count the time until the specified time Tl is received, and outputting information to the notification control means 11 that the specified time has elapsed when the time measurement is continued until the specified time Tl has elapsed.

The notification control means 11 initializes the first timekeeping means 14 when failure information is output from the failure information collection means 12 or when information indicating that a certain period of time has elapsed from the first timekeeping means 14. Along with this, there is also a function of transmitting the above-mentioned failure information or information that a certain period of time has passed to the maintenance center 3 via the communication line 4, and a function that outputs information that the power of the information processing device 2 has been cut off from the power cutoff detection means 13. It has the function of instructing the first timer 14 to stop timekeeping when the timer 14 is turned off, and transmitting information indicating that the power is cut off to the maintenance center 3 via the communication diagram vA4. FIG. 2 shows the flow of an example of such processing by the notification control means 11.

On the other hand, the monitoring control means 31 of the maintenance center 3
The information processing device 2 failure information, the information that a certain period of time has passed, and the information that the information processing device is powered off are received from the system support device ll via the system support device ll, and the received information indicates that the information processing device 2 has a failure When the received information is information or information indicating that a certain period of time has passed, an initialization command is issued to the second timekeeping means 32, and when the received information is information indicating that the information processing device 2 is powered off, an initialization command is issued to the second timekeeping means 32. It has the function of issuing a timekeeping stop command to the FIG. 3 shows the flow of an example of such processing by the supervisory control means 31.

When receiving the initialization command from the supervisory control means 31, if the second timekeeping means 32 had been performing a timekeeping operation immediately before, the second timekeeping means 32 terminates the timekeeping operation once and starts a new timekeeping, and immediately before initialization, the second timekeeping means 32 starts timekeeping. If no movement is in progress, start timing immediately.
Both continue to measure time until a certain period of time T2 has elapsed after the start of time measurement or a command to stop timing is received from the monitoring control means 31, and when the time measurement continues until the certain period of time T2 has elapsed, the abnormality detection means monitors information that the certain period of time has elapsed. It has the function of outputting to 33. Here, the fixed time T2 is set to be longer than the elapsed fixed time in the first timer 14.

The monitoring abnormality detection means 33 has a function of displaying that an abnormality has occurred in the system support device 1 or the communication line 4 when the second timer 32 outputs information indicating that a certain period of time has elapsed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained with reference to the drawings.

First, if the information processing device 2, system support device 1, and communication line 4 shown in FIG. When a certain period of time T1 has elapsed after the start of time counting, information to the effect that a certain period of time has elapsed is sent from the first timing means 14 to the notification control means 11.0 The notification control means 11 receives information indicating that a certain period of time has elapsed. When it is determined in the process 111 of FIG. 2 that the information is that
Sending an initialization command to the clock means 14 of the controller to initialize it;
Next, in process 114, the received information is converted into a communication diagram vi14.
The data is sent to the maintenance center 3 via.

At the maintenance center 3, the monitoring control means 31 receives the above information. That is, the process 31 of FIG. 3 of the monitoring control means/means 31
1. When the monitoring control means 31 receives the information, it determines in process 312 that the information is information indicating that a certain period of time has elapsed, and in process 313 sends an initialization 1m command to the second timer 32 to initialize it. become

When the above operations are performed, the first timer 14 of the system support device 1 has started the second timer, and the second timer 32 of the maintenance center 3 has started the first timer. ing. Here, when each timer does not receive an initialization command or a timer stop command, the time for which each timer continues counting is determined in advance by the timer T2 of the second timer 32 being longer than the time T2 of the second timer 32.
For example, the time measurement time of the first time measurement means 14 is set to one hour, and the time measurement time of the second time measurement means 32 is set to two hours.

Therefore, for example, one hour after the above operation, the first timer 14 outputs the information that a certain period of time has elapsed again, and the above-mentioned series including notification to the maintenance center 3 and initialization of the second timer 32 is performed. The operation is repeated. In this way, as long as the information processing device 2, system support device 1, and communication line 4 are operating normally, the system support device 1 will repeatedly notify the maintenance center 3 of the elapse of a certain period of time at regular intervals. The second timer 32 is always initialized before it finishes counting the time T2.

Next, a case where the system support device 1 and the communication line 4 are normal and a failure occurs in the information processing device 2 will be described. In this case, the failure information of the information processing device 2 is collected by the failure information collection means 12 of the system support device 1, and the information is sent to the notification control means 11.The notification control means 11 determines that the received information is failure information. When this is determined in step 111 in FIG. 2, the first timer 14 is initialized in step 112, and then the received failure information is reported to the maintenance center 3 via the communication line 4 in step 114.

In the maintenance center 3, when the monitoring control means 31 receives the fault information and processes 311), and determines in step 312 that the received information is fault information, it initializes the second timer 32 in step 313. .

Note that the received failure information is processed in the same manner as before. On the other hand, in the system support device 1 in which the notification of failure information to the maintenance center 3 due to the occurrence of a failure in the information processing device 2 has been completed, the first timekeeping means 14 has restarted timekeeping again, and the period of time described in the following paragraphs continues. Each report is repeated.

Next, the operation when the information processing device 2 is powered off will be described. In this case, the system support device 1 continues to operate regardless of the t'm disconnection of the information processing device 2, and the power disconnection detection means 13 detects the power disconnection and sends the information to the notification control means 11. When the means 11 determines in the process 111 of FIG.
A timekeeping stop command is sent to stop the timekeeping operation, and in step 114, the received information regarding power disconnection is reported to the maintenance center 3 via the communication line 4. Maintenance center 3
Then, the supervisory control means 31 processes the received information (step 311), and when it is determined in step 312 that the information is power-off information, it sends a timekeeping stop command to the second timekeeping means 33 and starts its timekeeping operation. to stop. When the taI of the information processing device 2 is disconnected in this way, information regarding power disconnection is sent from the system support device 1 to the maintenance center 3, and thereafter, the first clock means 1 of the system support device 1
4, the time measurement is stopped, and the above-mentioned notifications at fixed time intervals are no longer generated. However, since the second timer 32 also stops timing at the maintenance center 3 at the same time, the second timer 33 does not output information indicating that a certain period of time has elapsed.

Next, a description will be given of the operation when a failure occurs in the system support apparatus 1 or the communication line 4 while the information processing apparatus 2 is powered on, and the failure information reporting function stops operating. In this case, even if a fault occurs in the information processing device 2, the fault information will not reach the maintenance center 3 (also, information indicating that a certain period of time has passed or information regarding disconnecting the information processing device 2 may not reach the maintenance center 3). Therefore, the second timer 32 of the maintenance center 3 is neither initialized nor stopped within a certain period of time, and as a result of continuing to measure time, information to that effect is detected after a certain period of time T2 has been measured. It is output to the detection means 33. As a result, the monitoring abnormality detection means 33 displays the fact that a failure has occurred in the failure information reporting function.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the remote monitoring system for information processing devices of the present invention, reports indicating the normality of the system support device itself are sent to the maintenance center via the communication line at predetermined intervals, and the maintenance center provides system support. It monitors whether or not the above-mentioned report is sent from the device at predetermined intervals, and when the report is interrupted, it displays that a failure has occurred in the system support device or the communication line, and the system support device or communication line itself It becomes possible for the maintenance center to monitor whether or not a failure has occurred. Therefore, the reason why failure information is not sent is because there is no failure in the information processing equipment, or because failure information cannot be reported because a failure has occurred in the system support equipment or communication line. This has the advantage of being able to be determined on the maintenance center side.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of processing by the notification control means 11, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of processing by the monitoring control means 31. In the figure, l...System support device 2...Information processing device 3...Maintenance center 4...Communication line 11...Notification control means 12...Failure information collection means 13...Power cut off Detection means 14...First timekeeping means 31...Monitoring control means 32...Second timekeeping means 33...Monitoring abnormality detection means

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A system support device connected to an information processing device and a maintenance center are connected via a communication line, and when a failure occurs in the information processing device, information on the failure is transmitted to the system support device. In the remote monitoring system for an information processing device, the information processing device collects information and sends it to the maintenance center via the communication line, wherein the system support device sends a report indicating the normality of the device at predetermined intervals via the communication line. A normality notification mechanism is provided to send to the maintenance center, and the maintenance center monitors whether or not the notification is sent from the system support device at predetermined time intervals, and displays an abnormality occurrence when the notification stops. 1. A remote monitoring system for an information processing device, comprising a normality reporting monitoring mechanism.