JPH06266581A - Remote maintenance fault monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable more speedy following dealing by more speedily and more exactly reporting various faults, which are generated in a remote information system, to a maintenance center. CONSTITUTION:When any fault is generated, it is reported from a peripheral device to a central processing unit (CPU) 3. When the fault affects the restart of the system, the CPU 3 prepares data (H/W information) and requests processing to an operating system (OS). In the OS, a request is performed to a communication equipment 4, and the communication equipment 4 performs automatic dialing by using a first line 7. When the first line can not be used, any usable line is selected out of installed public lines (11-12) and the data are reported to a remote maintenance device 8 by using the selected public line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system for an information processing system, and more particularly to an automatic notification system for urgent critical failures.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system having a CPU, a plurality of peripheral devices connected to the CPU, and a remote maintenance device connected to these devices via a public line is known. For example, it is a system as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-300328. In the conventional system, the purpose of the notification of the failure is to report a failure that the CPU can notify, that is, a light failure such as a failure of a peripheral device.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned maintenance system, the notification of the failure is made only for the failure (for example, a minor failure such as a failure of a peripheral device) in a state in which the CPU making the notification can process. Yes, serious failures that could lead to system down could only be reported after automatic recovery.

Further, as a means for reporting a serious failure, a processing device (for example, a personal computer) different from the CPU is added, and these additional devices are used to perform a remote maintenance system. Was needed. Further, these notifications are carried out by a trigger that the CPU automatically recovers, and the condition is that the CPU itself is normal, and if it falls into a hang-up state, it is abnormal as a system. However, there is a problem that the abnormality notification is not given regardless.

Further, the number of lines for making the notification is usually only one line, and there is a problem in the reliability of the notification method requiring urgency.

Furthermore, after the system is automatically restored after the occurrence of a serious failure, the analysis data is sent to the location where the system is present and copied to a medium such as tape after receiving a report to the remote maintenance device. It is usual to do it and bring it back, and there is a problem that it is not possible to deal with the case where quick analysis is necessary to prevent the next failure.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it notifies various troubles occurring in a remote information system to a maintenance center more quickly and more accurately, and then the The purpose is to obtain a remote maintenance fault monitoring system that enables quick response.

[0008]

A remote maintenance fault monitoring system according to the present invention comprises a CPU, a plurality of peripheral devices connected to the CPU, and a remote maintenance device connected to these devices via a public line. In the system, the procedure for controlling the communication device is prepared as firmware inside the device. When the system continues to operate or when an impossible failure (machine check, system disk damage, etc.) occurs, the machine check processing unit inside the operating system first initializes the communication device and then stores the firmware in the main memory. Load inside. Next, the fault information is transferred by transferring the processing to the firmware. In this way, the occurrence of the serious failure is notified to the remote maintenance device by using the public line before the system is automatically restored.

A function for detecting a hang-up state of the system (state in which normal processing cannot be executed, for example, a loop in the operating system) (that is, a computer system using a timer interrupt is used). It has the function of confirming that the system itself has not hung up, and if there is a hangup, it has the function of going down and rebooting itself, and when a hangup occurs, the system is automatically rebooted. After the restart is completed, the failure occurrence is notified to the remote maintenance device using the public line.

When notifying the failure, if the first line is unavailable, another available line is automatically selected and the notification is given.

In addition to the minimum necessary information when a failure occurs, the analysis data (secondary information) collected in the magnetic disk unit at the time of automatic restoration is automatically transferred to the remote maintenance device using the public line. Do.

[0012]

In the present invention, in a system having a CPU, a plurality of peripheral devices connected to the CPU, and a remote maintenance device connected to these devices via a public line,
Before the automatic recovery of the system in case of serious failure occurrence,
Since the public maintenance line is used to notify the remote maintenance device, it is possible to notify the remote maintenance device of a system abnormality notification that requires urgency before the system goes down.

Further, since the system has a function of detecting the hang-up state of the system and notifies the remote maintenance device of the occurrence of the fault after the restart of the system is finished, the system hang-up state is reported as in the case of the serious fault notification. Even in the case of occurrence, it is possible to notify the remote maintenance device.

In addition, when the first line is unavailable when the fault is notified, another line that can be used is automatically selected and the notice is given, so that the fault occurs even if the line is abnormal. The notification is transmitted to the remote maintenance device.

In addition to the minimum necessary information when a failure occurs, the analysis data (secondary information) collected in the magnetic disk device at the time of automatic restoration is automatically transferred to the remote maintenance device using the public line. Since the required minimum information is quickly transmitted to the remote maintenance device and the secondary information is selectively transmitted, the system and the line can be used without waste.

[0016]

【Example】

Example 1. Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the remote maintenance system in this embodiment. A plurality of peripheral devices (1-2), a central processing unit 3, a main storage unit 14, a message processing unit 4 having an automatic alternate dial function 7, a magnetic disk unit 5, and a remote function for restarting the system by information from a timer monitor. The device 6 exists as a system to be maintained.
A remote maintenance device 8 connected to this system via a public line is installed in a maintenance center 9.

The public lines are the first line 10 and the second line.
Three public lines, a line 11 and a third line 12, are prepared. The automatic alternate dial 7 of the communication device 4 is usually the first
Automatic dial using line 10. If the first line cannot be used, the second line is automatically dialed. If the second line cannot be used, the third line 1
Dial 2 automatically.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the central processing unit 3 and the communication device 4 operate normally. The main storage device 14 also includes a part of the operating system (for example, an interrupt handler and a machine check processing unit described later) necessary for the failure report for the central processing unit to operate, and the control firmware 13 read from the communication control device 4. It is premised that the necessary parts to operate normally.

The peripheral devices (1-2) are devices for processing the input / output of the system, and when a failure occurs, the failure is reported from the peripheral device to the central processing unit 3. When the failure extends to the system restart, the central processing unit 3 prepares data (H / W information) and requests the operating system for processing.

The H / W information prepared here is, for example, when the peripheral device 1 is a magnetic disk device, a failure location, a cause of the failure, request information which caused the failure, and the like. Gather information and request the operating system to handle the failure.

In the operating system, a request is made to the notification processing device 4, and the notification processing device 4
Automatic dialing is performed using the first line 10. If the first line is unavailable, the installed line (11-1
From 2), select an available line and use the public line to notify the remote maintenance device 8 of the data.

Example 2. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a processing flow showing how the notification device 4 operates when a serious failure occurs, and here, the processing when a machine check occurs will be described as an example. If a machine check occurs 20, an interrupt occurs 21, and the central processing unit 3 activates 22 an interrupt process in the operating system. Next, in the machine check processing unit 23 inside the operating system, the notification device 4 is initialized 24.

Next, the control firmware 13 prepared in advance in the notification device 4 is loaded 25 into the main memory 14. The loaded firmware tries to notify 26 of the data prepared by the H / W using the first line 10.
In case of error 27, other installed lines 11 to 1
From 2, the usable line is selected 28, and the data is notified to the remote maintenance device 8 using the public line 29.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of detecting a hang-up state. In the figure, 30 is a time recording area provided in the remote function device 6, 31 is a time check for checking the value of the time recording area 30 at regular intervals, and 32 is a time recording area at regular intervals from the central processing unit 3. Update request issued to update 30, 3
3 is the remote function device 6 to the central processing unit 3
Is an interrupt for notifying the occurrence of an abnormality to.

Here, it is assumed that the central processing unit 3 periodically generates an update request 32 using predetermined control software to update the value of the time recording area 30. In addition, the remote function device 6 includes control software 1
5 is provided, the control software 15 can cancel the hung-up state and restart the system when the central processing unit 3 is in the hang-up state.

The remote function device 6 with a time monitoring function, which is connected to the central processing unit 3, monitors the time update of a predetermined area (time storage area) 30 in the device 31, which is a predetermined time or more. , If there is no update 32 by the control software to this area, the central processing unit 3
To generate an abnormal interrupt 34.

The central processing unit 3 requests the operating system to process 35 in order to process this interrupt. The operating system activates the control software 14 of the remote function device 6 36.
Then, a system restart request is issued to the remote function device 6 (37). When the system is restored, the operating system requests the control software 13 of the reporting device 4 to communicate data. The subsequent notification method is the same as that from step 26 in FIG.

Example 3. Next, with reference to FIG. 4, how the analysis data (secondary information) collected in the magnetic disk device 5 is transferred to the remote maintenance device when a serious failure occurs will be described. . After a serious failure occurs and the system is restored, or after the system is automatically restored by the remote function device with the time monitoring mechanism 40, the operating system has data to be communicated when the system is restored. It is determined whether 41. Before shutting down the system, save information such as failure location and failure cause to the disk. When the failed system is restarted, the operating system reads the saved data from the disk before shutting down the system, and determines whether there is data to be communicated among the data. Here, the operating system determines whether or not there is data to be communicated at the time of system startup, although it is also performed during normal system startup, but in the case of normal system startup, there is no data due to system down, so Communication device 4
No data communication request is issued to. When there is data to be communicated 42, the control software 13 of the communication device 4
To request data communication 44.

The control software 13 of the notification device 4 is
First, the minimum required data is sent 45. Here, the minimum necessary data means, for example, the information itself that the system is down. Also, as additional information, the down time, the cause of the down, etc. may be added and sent at the same time. When these minimum required data are transmitted to the remote maintenance device 8, the maintenance center 9
The operator in the field specifies the control flag specified in advance and sends it back to the communication device 4. By judging this control flag, it is possible to judge whether the operator of the maintenance center needs detailed information. The central processing unit 3 confirms 46 the value of the control flag obtained via the communication unit 4 and judges whether there is a request to send detailed data. If there is a request to send the secondary information 47, the data in the magnetic disk device is transferred 48. Here, the secondary information is, for example, a memory image immediately before the system down stored before the system down. If there is no request to send the secondary information, the process proceeds to normal processing 43.

Example 4. In the first embodiment, the case where the machine check occurs and the hardware failure occurs is described, and in the second embodiment, the case where the hang-up state is detected has been described. In the case of an impossible failure, for example, when a program check of the operating system occurs,
Alternatively, there may be a case where the system disk cannot operate due to some failure.

Example 5. In the above embodiment, the case where the remote maintenance device and the communication device are connected using the public line has been described, but a private line may be used instead of the public line. Alternatively, a fixedly connected line may be used. Alternatively, the connection may be made by a communication means such as a local area network.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the event of a serious failure that leads to a system down, the failure information can be automatically sent to the remote maintenance device through the communication line before the automatic recovery. System abnormality notifications that require more urgency can be communicated faster and more accurately. This makes it possible to respond to the subsequent processing in a shorter time. In addition, by detecting the abnormality itself, it becomes possible to convey the abnormality to the remote,
Enables more reliable remote maintenance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus relating to a remote maintenance / fault monitoring system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flow chart showing how the communication device operates when a serious failure occurs according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart for explaining a method for detecting a hang-up state according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a process flow for explaining how the analysis data (secondary information) collected in the magnetic disk device is transferred to the remote maintenance device when a serious failure occurs according to the present invention. It is a figure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Peripheral Device 2 Peripheral Device 3 Central Processing Unit 4 Communication Device 5 Magnetic Disk Device 6 Remote Function Device 7 Automatic Alternate Dial 8 Remote Maintenance Device 9 Maintenance Center 10, 11, 12 Public Line 13 Control Firmware 14 Main Storage Device 15 Control software

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A remote maintenance fault monitoring system comprising a central processing unit, peripheral devices connected to the central processing unit, and a remote maintenance unit connected to these units via a line, wherein the central processing unit and the central processing unit are provided. When a peripheral device connected to the central processing unit encounters a failure that makes it impossible to continue operating the system, the failure is notified to the remote maintenance device using the line before the system is automatically restored. A remote maintenance fault monitoring system characterized by having means. 2. A remote maintenance fault monitoring system comprising a central processing unit, peripheral devices connected to the central processing unit, and a remote maintenance unit connected to these units via a line, wherein the central processing unit and the central processing unit are provided. Peripheral device connected to the central processing unit has a means to detect the hang-up state of the system, and when the hang-up occurs, the system is automatically restarted and a failure occurs after the restart A remote maintenance fault monitoring system characterized by comprising means for notifying a remote maintenance device via a line. 3. In a remote maintenance fault monitoring system provided with means for notifying a remote maintenance device by using a line, the means for notifying the remote maintenance device by using a line has a plurality of lines in advance. If the line is unavailable,
A remote maintenance fault monitoring system characterized by having means for selecting another usable line and notifying it. 4. A remote maintenance fault monitoring system comprising a central processing unit, peripheral devices connected to the central processing unit, and a remote maintenance unit connected to these units via a line, the central processing unit comprising: When a peripheral device connected to the central processing unit detects a system abnormality, a means for collecting data related to the abnormality in the storage device before the system is restored, and a failure maintenance information for the remote maintenance device when the system is restored. A remote maintenance fault monitoring system comprising means for notifying the remote maintenance device and means for transferring the data collected in the storage device at the time of automatic restoration to the remote maintenance device based on a request from the remote maintenance device.