JPH06214835A - Error preventing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an error preventing system capable of predicting the occurrence of a permanent error with high accuracy. CONSTITUTION:Data with respect to an error occurring in peripheral equipment such as a printer 11, a disk 12, etc., is stored in a memory unit 14. A control part 13 performs retry processing when the error occurs in the peripheral equipment, and also, the number of times of occurrence of the error at every peripheral equipment and error factor is stored cumulatively in a memory unit 12. Also, the control part 13 transmits error information stored cumulatively in the unit to a central processing unit periodically. The central processing unit predicts the time when the permanent error will occur based on received error information at every peripheral equipment and the factor of inferior characteristic and working time at every peripheral equipment held in advance, etc.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to a computer system and POS.
The present invention relates to a maintenance method for peripheral devices in a system or the like, and particularly to a failure prevention system for preventing permanent failures of peripheral devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of a maintenance system for peripheral devices, a preventive maintenance system for a magnetic disk drive disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-271828 is known. This method
A magnetic disk device control means, a magnetic disk device preventive maintenance means, an application program operating using the magnetic disk device, the magnetic disk device control means, the magnetic disk device preventive maintenance means, and the application program Storage device, the magnetic disk device control means, the magnetic disk device preventive maintenance means, a processing device for executing the application program, a magnetic disk device connected to the storage device and the processing device, and the magnetic disk And a terminal device for displaying a warning before the device fails.

In this system, a program for controlling the magnetic disk device includes a process for counting the number of times the magnetic disk device has been used and the number of times the error has occurred to constantly monitor the error occurrence rate, and the error occurrence rate exceeds a specified value. In this case, it is considered that a failure of the magnetic disk device will occur soon, and a warning is issued. As a result, the data in the magnetic disk device can be saved and the magnetic disk device can be repaired before the failure, and the data in the magnetic disk device can be prevented from being lost due to the failure of the magnetic disk device. be able to.

[0004]

However, in the above maintenance method, since the prediction of occurrence of permanent failure requiring repair is made only by the error occurrence rate, the accuracy of the prediction varies. In consideration of this, in order to prevent the occurrence of a permanent failure, it is necessary to make the prediction period sufficiently long, and there is a problem that it is not practical.

In view of these problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a failure prevention system which can predict the occurrence of a permanent failure with high accuracy.

[0006]

A method for preventing a failure according to the present invention
An expression is one or more peripherals and the controls that control the peripherals.
A communication line between the control unit, the control unit and the central processing unit.
Centralized management system including communication line controller for connection
The data related to the error that occurred in the peripheral device.
And a memory for storing the control unit,
If an error occurs in the
For each peripheral device, count the number of error occurrences for each error factor
The accumulated error information is stored in the memory.
Information is periodically transmitted to the central processing unit, and the central processing is performed.
The device should explain the error information received for each peripheral device.
Deterioration characteristics and operating time of each peripheral device that is held
Predict the time of permanent failure occurrence based on factors such as
It is characterized by

[0007]

In the failure prevention system according to the present invention, the control unit performs control based on the control program, and when an intermittent error in the peripheral device is detected, retry is executed and the number of times is written in the memory. The control unit also uses the communication line control unit to periodically send the retry information for each peripheral device stored in the memory to the central processing unit.

In the central processing unit, the retry information is statistically processed based on factors such as deterioration characteristics of peripheral equipment, operating time (frequency of use), environment of use of peripheral equipment, and the time for preventive maintenance before a permanent failure occurs. To judge.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which P
It shows a case where it is applied to a cash register in an OS system. This cash register includes peripheral devices such as a printer 11 and a disk unit 12, a control unit 13 including a CPU, and a memory unit 14 including a nonvolatile memory. The control unit 13 controls the operation by a control program, and is connected to a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a computer) by a computer (not shown) via the communication line control unit 15. The memory unit 14 is for accumulatively storing the peripheral device name or number and the number of retries corresponding to the intermittent error that occurs in the peripheral device, and has a storage area of possible intermittent error factors for each peripheral device. When an intermittent error occurs in any of the peripheral devices, the number of retries is stored in the corresponding intermittent error factor storage area of the peripheral device. The memory unit 14 also has an area for storing the operating time of each peripheral device.

Next, the details of the operation of this configuration will be described for the case of the disk unit 12. After executing the control command to the disk unit 12 based on the control program, the control unit 13 checks the end state, cumulatively stores the operating time of the disk unit 12, and, in the case of occurrence of an intermittent error, the necessary number of times. Try again. When the retry process ends normally, the number of retries up to that time is the cause of the corresponding intermittent error of the target disk unit 12 (for example, not ready).
Is written as intermittent error information in the storage area of the memory unit 14 corresponding to. Further, at the end of the work on the day, the control unit 13 causes the memory unit 14 to operate based on the control program.
The intermittent error information within is transmitted to the computer using the communication line control unit 15. At this time, the operating time of the corresponding device is also transmitted.

In the computer, statistical processing is performed based on the transmitted intermittent error information, the operating time, the deterioration characteristics of each peripheral device, which have been input in advance, and the usage environment of each peripheral device. As a result, the time of permanent failure occurrence is calculated for each peripheral device, and the name and intermittent error factor are displayed for peripheral devices that are near the time of permanent failure occurrence. Have preventive maintenance for error factors.

As described above, the conventional retry for an intermittent error is performed as it is, and the information of the intermittent error is collected and the preventive maintenance is performed before the permanent failure without damaging the effect. As a result, an unexpected permanent failure does not occur in which the peripheral device cannot be used until maintenance personnel complete maintenance of the failed peripheral device.

Further, since the information of the intermittent error can be continuously collected and can be accumulated in correspondence with the operating time, the deterioration characteristic and the use environment, the statistical processing by the computer becomes possible and the accuracy of the prediction of the permanent failure occurrence time itself is accumulated. There is also an effect of improving according to the amount of intermittent error information.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the timing of occurrence of a permanent failure of peripheral equipment can be predicted with high accuracy and preventive maintenance can be performed before the failure occurs, which is highly practical and causes an unexpected permanent failure. Thus, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the peripheral device cannot be used until the maintenance staff completes the maintenance and repair of the defective peripheral device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 printer 12 disk unit 13 control unit 14 memory unit 15 communication line control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A centralized management system including one or more peripheral devices, a control unit for controlling the peripheral devices, and a communication line control unit for connecting the control unit and the central processing unit with a communication line. In the above, a memory for storing data relating to an error that has occurred in the peripheral device is provided, and the control unit performs retry processing when an error occurs in the peripheral device, and also for each peripheral device and for each error factor. The number of error occurrences is cumulatively stored in the memory, and the cumulatively stored error information is periodically transmitted to the central processing unit, and the central processing unit holds in advance the received error information for each peripheral device. A failure prevention method characterized by predicting the time of occurrence of a permanent failure based on factors such as deterioration characteristics and operating time of each peripheral device.