JPH0635614A - Automatic switching method for test medium in library device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve test efficiency for the automatic test medium switching method in library device. CONSTITUTION:At the time of testing a library device, in the order of a driving cell 2 from which a cartridge type medium (1) is unloaded, two sets of driving cell addresses and the address of a user cell 1 for which the cartridge type medium (1) is moved are stored in a change table 40 on a main storage device, a first and a second moved user cell addresses are switched on the change table 40, thereafter, the cartridge type medium (1) is moved from the user cell 1 of the address instructed by the switching table 40 to the drive cell 2 and the cartridge type medium (1) for a test, used by the drive cell 2 is changed. A read/write test by the drive cell 2 is executed random times, thereafter, by unloading the cartridge type medium (1), the order of the drive cell 2 to be unloaded is varied at random and the number of the drive cell 2 stored in the change table 40 is varied at random.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of automatically replacing a test medium in a library device. Conventionally, a user cell for storing a plurality of cartridge type media, a plurality of drive cells for writing / reading data to / from the cartridge type medium, the user cell and the drive cells, the user cells, and the drive cells. In U.S.A., a library device including an accessor device for moving the cartridge type medium is known.

In mass production test of the library apparatus in a factory, a new cartridge type medium, a cartridge type medium that consumes a lot of wear, or a cartridge type medium of various makers is tested. At this time,
Generally, in a state where nothing is stored in the user cell, while performing a movement test of only the robot arm by the accessor device (ACC device), the various cartridge type media are set in the drive cell, I was testing writing and reading cartridge-type media.

In particular, as recently, the material of the magnetic tape,
With the diversification of magnetic materials applied to the magnetic tape,
When various cartridge type media come into circulation, in a mass production test at the factory or the like, if the various cartridge type media were manually set in the drive cells, the test efficiency would be extremely poor. Effective test methods are needed.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a library device. Details of the system running test method for the library apparatus are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-95621 "System running test method for library apparatus" filed by the applicant of the present application.

As shown in the figure, the library device includes a user cell 1 for storing a plurality of cartridge type media (corresponding to a storing part of the cartridge type medium in the figure) 1 and a cartridge type medium. Multiple drive cells that write and read data (in this figure, MTU
2), above user cell 1 and drive cell 2
, A user cell 1 and a drive cell 2 are equipped with an accessor device (ACC device) 3 for moving the cartridge type medium, and a central processing unit (CPU) 5 is controlled in a factory test during mass production. The system running test program is executed under.

The system running test program is an ACC test program (hereinafter referred to as ACC-TP) for testing the function of moving a cartridge type medium by a robot arm (not shown) of the accessor device (ACC device) 3. Access path {each channel (CH1, C
H2, ..., etc.) to each ACC device} and the drive cell (actually, the drive set in the drive cell (device that writes / reads data to / from a cartridge type medium, MTU), but since the drive is installed in a drive cell to which a predetermined cell address is given, for convenience of explanation, hereinafter, a drive test program for testing the function of the drive cell} , DRV-TP) exists for access paths {paths from each channel (CH1, CH2, ..., etc.) to each MTU}, and tests are performed simultaneously (actually, in time division) from each access path. ing.

Each ACC-TP checks the state of each drive cell from the state table 41 on the main storage device 4, and if any of the drive cells is in the unload state, it again After the cartridge type medium is loaded, a transfer test of the transfer mechanism (robot arm) by the accessor device (ACC device) 3 is randomly performed between the user cell 1 and the drive cell 2 or the like.

Each DRV-TP monitors the above-mentioned status table 41 in which the set (ready) of the cartridge type medium in each drive cell 2 on the main memory 4 and the discharge status (unload) are stored. However, when the cartridge type medium is unloaded (discharged) after the write and read tests for the cartridge type medium, the unload flag table 420 on the common memory 42 is set,
Accessor device (ACC device) based on the above ACC-TP instruction
The cartridge type medium is loaded again by 3 to be in a ready state, the status table 41 is updated and the unload flag table 420 is reset by the ACC-TP, and the drive cell 2 is read. When activated by an attention interrupt, the write and read tests for the loaded cartridge type medium are repeated again. In this way, the accessor device (ACC device) 3 and each drive cell
2, the access cells are simultaneously activated from each access path, the accessor device (ACC device) 3 and each drive cell 2 can operate simultaneously, and the drive cell 2 that is operating using one access path 2 Then, the accessor device 3 is tested for busy response when it is activated from another access path.

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional test, the same cartridge type medium is always tested in the same drive cell 2, so that one drive cell 2, for example, a new drive cell is used. In order to perform a test using a medium, a medium that consumes a lot of wear, or a medium of various manufacturers, a person must set the medium to be tested to the drive cell 2 and activate the DRV-TP each time. Therefore, there was a problem that the test efficiency was poor.

Further, by using the robot arm moving function of the above ACC-TP, the medium to be tested is set in the user cell 1 and moved from the user cell 1 to any drive cell 2. Let the drive cell
A method of loading the data into the user cell 1 and testing it can be considered. In this method, a predetermined medium is set at a predetermined position of the user cell 1, and the user cell 1 is set based on a random number, for example.
Select a medium to be tested at random from among the above, move it to the drive cell 2 determined by another random number, load it, write and read with the DRV-TP, and when the test by the write and read is completed, select the medium. Unload and
The ACC-TP is used to move to the empty cell of the user cell 1, the test medium is manually set in the predetermined user cell 1, and the test in the drive cell 2 is completed, the predetermined user cell In the area of 1, it is necessary to search for an empty cell and move it.
There was a problem that control became complicated.

In view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of replacing a cartridge type medium, which is a library apparatus, with which each cartridge type medium to be tested can be efficiently tested. is there.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. The above problems can be solved by an automatic test medium replacement method in a library device configured as follows.

(1) A user cell 1 for storing a plurality of cartridge type media, a plurality of drive cells 2 for writing / reading data to / from the cartridge type medium,
Between user cell 1 and drive cell 2 above, user cell 1
Between the drive cell 2 and the drive cell 2, in the library device including the accessor device 3 for moving the cartridge type medium, the drive cell 2 in which the cartridge type medium is unloaded is arranged in this order from the drive cell 2 to any user cell 1 And the two sets of drive cell addresses and the destination user cell address are stored in the exchange table 40 on the main storage device 4 in the order in which the cartridge type medium is moved. After the second user cell address is exchanged on the exchange table 40, the cartridge type medium is moved from the user cell 1 to the drive cell 2 and the test cartridge type medium used in the drive cell 2 is changed. Configure to replace.

(2) In the library device according to the item (1), the read / write test in the drive cell 2 is performed a random number of times, and then the cartridge type medium is unloaded to perform the unloading. Drive cell 2
The order is changed randomly, and the address of the drive cell 2 stored in the exchange table 40 is changed randomly.

[0015]

That is, in the present invention, first, a cartridge-type medium to be tested, such as a new medium, a medium that consumes a lot of wear, a medium of various manufacturers, etc., is set in each drive cell. Drive cell lights,
When the read test is completed and the drive cell is unloaded (the medium is ejected), the medium is moved to an arbitrary user cell, and the address of the unloaded drive cell and the medium are moved. The address of the user cell is stored in an exchange table on the main storage device that can be commonly accessed by each ACC-TP.

Next, when unloading is performed in another drive cell, the medium of the drive cell is moved to another user cell different from the user cell previously moved, and the address of the unloaded drive cell is stored. , The address of the user cell is stored in the exchange table.

Thus, when the medium used in the two drive cells is stored in the user cell, the user cell address moved first and the user cell address moved second are exchanged on the exchange table. To do.

After that, when the medium is moved from the two user addresses set in the exchange table to the drive cell designated by the drive cell address, the medium is used in the first unloaded drive cell. The medium will be used in the second unloaded drive cell, and the medium used in the second unloaded drive cell will be used in the first unloaded drive cell. . After that, the same operation is repeated.

Further, in order to randomly change the medium to be exchanged, it is necessary to randomly change the order of the drive cells to be unloaded, but in the present invention, writing and reading are performed by DRV-TP. By setting the test to be performed a random number of times, the unload timing in each drive cell can be changed at random.

In this way, each time various media that have been set arbitrarily in each drive cell are first unloaded, the media that have been used until then are unloaded. The media set in any drive cell can be tested in another drive cell by manually replacing the medium used in the above procedure and repeating the test. Therefore, there is an effect that the test efficiency can be improved.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The above-mentioned FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
3, FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are flow charts showing the operation of DRV-TP and ACC-TP, respectively, and FIG. 5 shows an example of the exchange operation of the exchange table.

According to the present invention, in the test of the library apparatus, two sets of drive cell addresses are arranged in the order of the drive cell 2 in which the cartridge type medium is unloaded,
The address of the user cell to which the cartridge type medium is moved is stored in the exchange table 40 on the main storage device 4, and the moved first and second user cell addresses are exchanged on the exchange table 40. After that, the exchange table 40
User cell 1 to drive cell 2 at the address indicated by
Means for moving the cartridge-type medium to replace the test cartridge-type medium used in the drive cell 2, after performing random read / write tests in each drive cell 2, the cartridge-type medium Unloading, the order of the drive cells 2 to be unloaded is randomly changed, and the exchange table
Means for randomly changing the address of the drive cell 2 stored in 40 is the means necessary for carrying out the present invention. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the drawings.

The test medium automatic exchange method of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5 with reference to the data processing system including the library device shown in FIGS.
A cartridge-type medium to be tested is manually set in each of a plurality of, for example, four drive cells (addresses A to D) 2 shown in FIG. The position of the set is not specified in the case of the present invention.

When a test start command is input from the console 7 of the data processing system shown in FIG. 6, the DRV-TP shown in FIG. 2 is activated. The DRV-TP is a light,
A random value indicating the number of times of reading is generated by, for example, a random number, and the write and read tests are executed for the set random number of times. {Processing step 100 of FIG.
Refer to 102} When the execution of the specified random number of tests is completed, the medium is unloaded (ejected). The unloaded drive cell 2 is monitored by ACC-TP described later, and when it is loaded by the ACC-TP and becomes ready, it returns to the processing step 100 again to write,
The read test is started and thereafter repeated until a test end command is input. {Processing steps in FIG. 2
See 103 to 105} Next, the operation of the ACC-TP will be described with reference to FIGS.
As is clear from the processing steps 200, 206 and 207, the ACC-TP is subjected to a random movement test such as between the user cells 1 in FIG. 1 until the unload in the drive cell 2 is detected.

At this time, in a certain drive cell 2, the DRV-TP test is completed, and the medium is unloaded.
When (ejecting) is performed, the exchange table 40 of the present invention on the main storage device 4 is referenced, and it is checked whether or not the drive table 2 is an unregistered drive cell 2 in the exchange table 40. When it is recognized that the cell 2 is the cell 2, the unloaded medium is moved to the user cell 1 of an arbitrary address, and on the exchange table 40, the source drive cell address and the destination And the user cell address of {Refer to processing steps 200 and 201 in FIG. 3} At this time, the exchange table 40 is in a state as shown in FIG. 5 (a), for example. Similarly, if the medium is unloaded in another drive cell 2 and the unloaded drive cell 2 is an unregistered one, a similar registration process is executed and the replacement is performed. Table 40 is
The state shown in FIG. 5 (b) is obtained.

When the ACC-TP detects that the two drive cell addresses and the user cell address are registered in the exchange table 40, the ACC-TP determines that the first user of the exchange table 40. Cell address {user cell address A in the example of FIG. 5 (b)} and second user cell address {user cell address B in the example of FIG. 5 (b)}
Are exchanged on the exchange table 40. The contents of the exchange table 40 after the exchange are shown in FIG. 5 (c). {Refer to processing steps 202 and 203 of FIG. 3} Each medium is moved from the user cell address to the drive cell address and loaded based on the contents of the exchange table 40 after the exchange.

In the example of FIG. 5 (c), the user cell address B
The medium that has been moved to {the second unloaded medium} has been moved to drive cell address A (this is the first unloaded drive cell), and the medium that has been moved to user cell address A { The first unloaded medium} is moved to drive cell address B (which is the second unloaded drive cell) and loaded into each drive cell. At this point, the exchange table 40 is reset. The state of the exchange table 40 at this time is shown in FIG. {Refer to processing steps 204 and 205 in FIG. 4} In the ACC-TP, the movement test in processing steps 206 and 207 is performed, the processing returns to processing step 200, and the same processing is repeated.

By randomly setting the number of tests in the DRV-TP, for example, the timing at which each of the four drive cells (addresses A to D) 2 shown in FIG. 1 unloads the medium As a result, the drive cell addresses registered in the exchange table 40 are sequentially changed, the medium is exchanged between arbitrary drive cells 2, and the exchange is performed in each drive cell. Write and read tests are performed on the recorded medium.

[0029]

As described above in detail, according to the method of automatically exchanging the test medium in the library apparatus of the present invention, the test medium is first set manually in an arbitrary drive cell, Between drive cells, new media, media with high wear, media from various manufacturers, etc.
You can automatically test while exchanging, so
This has the effect of improving test efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (No. 1).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (part 2).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (part 3).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention (No. 4).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a library device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 User cell 2 Drive cell (drive) 3 Accessor device (ACC device) 4 Main storage device 41 Status table 5 Central processing unit (CPU) 42 Common memory 420 Unload flag table 100 to 105, 200 to 207 Processing step Cartridge type medium, or , Medium A to D cell address

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A user cell (1) for storing a plurality of cartridge type media (1) and a plurality of drive cells for writing / reading data to / from the cartridge type medium ().
(2) and the accessor device (3) for moving the cartridge type medium () between the user cell (1) and the drive cell (2), the user cell (1), and the drive cell (2)
In a library device including the cartridge type medium (), the cartridge type medium () is moved in the order of the drive cell (2) from the drive cell (2) to any user cell (1), and the cartridge type medium () is moved. The two sets of drive cell addresses and the destination user cell addresses are stored in the exchange table (40) on the main storage device (4) in the order in which they are moved, and the first and second user cell addresses are stored. On the exchange table (40), the cartridge type medium is moved from the user cell (1) to the drive cell (2), and the test cartridge used in the drive cell (2) is moved. A method for automatically exchanging a test medium in a library apparatus, which comprises exchanging a mold medium. 2. The library device according to claim 1, wherein after performing a read / write test on the drive cell (2) a random number of times, the cartridge type medium () is unloaded to perform the unloading. A method for automatically exchanging test media in a library device, characterized in that the order of the drive cells (2) to be loaded is randomly changed and the address of the drive cells (2) stored in the exchange table (40) is randomly changed. .