JPH064223A - Disk copying system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To copy a medium without interrupting on-line operation when the disk user for the on-line operation wherein a file is updated is copied. CONSTITUTION:If a fault suspicious device deciding means 2 judges the necessity of medium copying, a medium copying means 4 copies the medium. If a file on a fault suspicious device D2 is updated during the medium copying, a medium copying execution control means 3 secure a data saving area D4 on a main storage device. The updated data (d) in the file are saved in the data saving area D4 by a data saving restoring means 5. After the copying operation is completed, a data means 6 restores the updated data (d) in the fault suspicious device D3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk copying system, and more particularly to a disk copying system for copying information stored in a disk device to another disk device to prevent a failure in an online system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a disk copying system, when an internal error of a disk device occurs and there is a possibility that a media error of the disk device occurs from a history of past error situations, a failure suspected device to a failure backup device is performed as a preventive maintenance. This is a system for copying a disc to a disc.

Next, a conventional technique will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a conventional disk copying system.

In this example, the error information a of the disk is collected,
The disk error collecting means 1 for outputting to the error history collecting file D1 and the error history collecting file D1 are inputted,
Failure suspected device discriminating means 2 for discriminating the fault suspected device D2
And the medium copying means 7 for inputting the copy data b of the fault suspected device D2 and outputting it to the fault spare device D3.

In the conventional disk copying system, if the failure suspected device discriminating means 2 recognizes that the disk copying is necessary, after interrupting the online processing using the suspected failure device D2, the medium copying means 7 sends the disk to the failure spare device D3. The procedure was to make a copy and restart the online processing after the copy was completed.

If the online processing is interrupted, the user's work is stopped and the user is lost in time and money.

[0008]

However, in such a conventional disk copying system, it is impossible to copy the medium for the purpose of preventing a failure unless the online business is interrupted. It is not possible to meet user needs and improve serviceability,
There was a drawback.

[0009]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION A disk copying system of the present invention is a disk error collecting means for outputting disk error information obtained from an operating system to an error history collecting file, and an error history collecting file as an input, and a device suspected of failure Failure suspected device discriminating means for identifying the failure suspected device, inputting the copy data of the suspected failure device, and outputting to the failure standby device, and inputting the update data of the suspected failure device during the medium copying, to the main storage device. A data saving means for outputting to the secured data saving area, a data restoring means for inputting update data from the data saving area and outputting it to the failure protection device after completion of the medium copying, the medium copying means, the data saving means, A medium copy execution control means for controlling execution of the data restoration means and securing / releasing the data save area is provided.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a disk copying system of the present invention. 2, 3 and 4
3 is a flowchart showing an example of operation in one embodiment of the present invention.

The disk copying system of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a disk error collecting unit 1 that collects the error information a of the disk and outputs it to the error history collection file D1 and a failure suspected device discriminating unit 2 that inputs the error history collection file D1 and discriminates the suspected device D2. And medium copy execution control means 3 for controlling execution of automatic medium copy
When the copy data b of the fault suspected device D2 is input and is output to the fault spare device D3, and the update data c is generated in the fault suspected device D2 during the medium copying,
A failure occurs by inputting the data saving means 5 for outputting the update data d in the updated file to the data save area D4 secured in the main storage device and the update data d in the data save area D4 after the medium copying is completed. The backup device D3 comprises a data restoring means 6 for updating the disk.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the disk error collecting means 1
The operation of will be described. In operation step S101, it is checked whether or not there is a disk error occurrence notification from the operating system. If there is no notification of the occurrence of a disk error, the process waits for a fixed time in operation step S102. When a disk error occurrence notification is received, error information is collected in the error history collection file D1 in operation step S103.
Write to. The error history collection file D1 records the error content and error occurrence location for each device. In the operation step S104, since a disk error has occurred, an error occurrence notification is sent to the failure suspected device discriminating means 2 in order to determine the necessity of medium copying.

Next, the operation of the failure suspected device discriminating means 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In operation step S201, the presence or absence of an error occurrence notification from the disk error collecting means 1 is checked. If there is no notification that an error has occurred, the process waits for a fixed time in operation step S202. When the notification of the error occurrence is received, the error history collection file D1 is read in the operation step S203, and the read end judgment is performed in the operation step S204. In operation step S205, the necessity of medium copying is determined based on the error history status of each device. If copying is necessary, medium copying execution control means 3 is notified to medium copying execution control means 3 in operation step S206.

Next, the operation of the medium copy execution control means 3 will be described with reference to FIG. In operation step 301, the medium copying means 4 is activated. In operation step S302, the copy data b is input from the fault suspected device D2 and output to the fault spare device D3. In operation step S303, it is determined whether or not the medium copy is completed, and when the copy is completed, operation step S312 described later is executed. In operation step S304, during the copying of the medium, it is checked whether or not the update data c is generated in the fault suspected device D2. If update data c has occurred, operation step S30
In step 5, it is checked whether the data saving means 5 has been activated. If it has not been activated, it is activated in operation step S306. In the operation step S307, the update data c is stored in the fault suspected device D2.
It is checked whether or not the data save area D4 for saving the update data d of the file updated by is secured in the main storage device, and if not secured, it is secured in operation step S308. In operation step S309, it is checked whether or not the area expansion of the data save area D4 is necessary due to the increase of the update data d, and if necessary, it is expanded in operation step S310.
Since the area setting of the data save area D4 is completed here,
In operation step S311, the update data d is stored in the data save area D4. If a reference or re-update request for the update data d stored earlier occurs during copying of the medium, the data save area D4 is referenced or updated instead of the device suspected of failure D2.

The above operation is performed during copying of the medium, and after the copying is completed, the next operation is performed. In the operation step S312, whether the update data d is generated during the medium copying, that is, the data save area D
It is checked whether or not No. 4 is secured, and if not secured, the processing is ended. If the data save area D4 is secured, the data restoring means 6 is activated in operation step S313. In operation step S314, the file in the failure protection device D3 is updated based on the update data d stored in the data save area D4, and in operation step S315, the end determination is performed. After all the data restoration is completed, the data save area D4 on the main memory is released in operation step S316, and the process is completed.

[0017]

As described above, in the disk copying system of the present invention, by adding the medium copying execution control means, the data saving means and the data restoring means to the prior art, the online work can be performed without interruption. Since it is possible to copy media for prevention of failures, it is possible to reduce time and money loss, and thus improve serviceability to users.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a disk copying system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of a disk error collecting means in the disk copying system of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of a device suspected of failure in the disk copying system of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the medium copy execution control means in the disk copy system of this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional disk copying system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Disk Error Collecting Means 2 Failure Suspected Device Discriminating Means 3 Medium Copy Execution Control Means 4 Medium Copying Means 5 Data Saving Means 6 Data Restoring Means D1 Error History Collection File D2 Failure Suspected Means D3 Failure Spare Device D4 Data Saving Area a Error Information b Copy data c, d Update data

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A disk error collection means for outputting disk error information obtained from an operating system to an error history collection file, a failure suspected device discriminating means for inputting the error history collection file, and identifying a suspected device, and a suspected failure device. A medium copying means for inputting the copy data of the device and outputting it to the failure protection device, and a file update request occurs for a file in the failure suspected device while copying the copy data from the suspected failure device to the failure protection device by the medium copying means. Enter the update data when
A data saving means for outputting to a data saving area secured in the main storage device; a data restoring means for inputting update data from the data saving area and outputting it to a failure backup device after completion of medium copying; A disk copying system comprising: a medium saving execution means, a data copying means execution control, and a medium copying execution control means for securing and releasing a data saving area.