JPH0648481B2 - Message processing method for shared peripheral device management - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION [Outline] A system in which a plurality of host processing devices share a peripheral device that automatically loads a storage medium such as a cartridge or tape and inputs / outputs data. In a data processing system in which each host processing device is capable of executing the processing of an asynchronous event by the above, each host processing device sends a message related to an asynchronous event such as input of a medium to the mail shared by the intersystem DASD. The host processor of the primary host, which is automatically stored in advance when the service is started, checks the mailbox at a predetermined time interval and outputs the stored message so that one Shared peripherals that enable the host processor to centrally output messages related to asynchronous events such as media input It discloses a message processing method for location management.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a peripheral device or the like having an automatic loading mechanism of a recording medium for recording data in a so-called loosely coupled multiprocessor system, and particularly, to output a message regarding an asynchronous event such as medium insertion. The present invention relates to a shared peripheral device management message processing method that can be concentrated on one host processing device.

[Conventional technology]

A mass storage system (MSS) is known as a peripheral device having an automatic loading mechanism of a storage medium for recording data. The loading process and the discharging process of the data cartridge in the mass storage system are performed by the firmware in the mass storage system. When the MSS firmware implements the medium loading process name, it sends out a loading message including information such as the medium type and the stored storage address only to the so-called initialization order issuing host processing device. As a result, in the conventional mass storage system, it becomes possible to centralize the messages related to the medium loading process, the ejecting process, etc., in one host processing device and to output them collectively by a specific host processing device. There is.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In a peripheral device with an automatic media loading mechanism, when this device is shared and used by multiple host processing devices, if only one specific host processing device is notified of the attention interrupt due to the media loading, the media loading will be performed. Inter-host exclusive control of processing is not required, and messages regarding media insertion can be output centrally in one host processing device.

However, if the host processing device that performs media processing is fixed, for example, when a plurality of attention events occur, the processing for each attention event cannot be distributed and executed by each host processing device. However, there is a problem that the efficiency becomes poor. Therefore, it has been considered that each attention interrupt due to the medium input or the like is notified to all the host processing devices, and the host processing device that first picks up the attention event executes the processing such as the medium input. . But in this case,
Since the host processing device that performs the medium loading process is unspecified, a message such as medium loading will be output for each host processing device that performed the process, and a unified message output There is a new problem of being unable to manage.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and even when the processing such as medium loading / unloading is executed by each unspecified host processor, those messages can be concentrated on one host processor and output. Provide the means to do so.

FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of the present invention.

The host processing devices 11A and 11B are data processing devices each having a main storage device and loosely coupled by a shared peripheral device.

The primary host determination unit 12 uses each host processing device 11
It is provided in A, 11B, ..., It is activated at the time of starting the service, and executes the processing for determining the primary host to which the message is centrally output. The host processing device that first secures and initializes the peripheral device 16 with the automatic medium loading mechanism is made to be the primary host.

The medium loading / unloading processing unit 13 processes loading or unloading of a medium in accordance with an attention interruption caused by loading a medium to the peripheral device 16 with an automatic medium loading mechanism or a request for a processing of unloading the medium. The message setting unit 14 in the medium loading / ejecting processing unit 13 executes a process of setting a message regarding medium loading / ejecting or the like in the mailbox 24 described later.

The message output processing unit 15 is activated at a predetermined time interval in the primary host and collectively outputs the messages stored in the mailbox 24 to the operator console 25 of the host processing apparatus.

The peripheral device 16 with an automatic medium loading mechanism is a peripheral device having a mechanism for automatically loading a storage medium such as a data cartridge, inputting / outputting data from the medium, and storing the medium in an internal storage. It is a device.

The medium loading / unloading mechanism (TAS) 17 is a mechanism for receiving a medium loaded by the operator into the peripheral device 16 and discharging a used medium. A sensor for detecting the input of the medium is provided, and when the input of the medium is detected, an attention interrupt is given to all the host processing devices such as the host processing device 11A and the host processing device 11B. The automatic medium operation unit (THU) 18 is a device for moving a medium in the peripheral device 16 and automatically loading the medium. Medium storage (CELL)
Reference numeral 19 denotes a mechanism for storing the medium, and the medium automatic operation device 18 automatically takes in and out the medium. Data input / output unit (MTU) 20-1,
20-2, ... Are devices for storing data in a medium or reading data recorded in the medium. This data input / output device can be installed in one peripheral device 16, for example, up to 16 devices.

The inter-system exclusive control device 21 is an adapter that performs distribution control related to access between host processing devices with respect to devices connected under it. As is well known, only a host processing device that has issued a reserve (RSV) command requesting occupancy of a device is allowed to access that device, and the occupancy is released by a release (RLS) command. That is, it can be considered that the inter-system exclusive control device 21 functions as a connection switch for the subordinate devices.

The inter-system shared DASDs 22-1, 22-2, ... Are direct access storage devices such as magnetic disk devices, and are peripheral devices that can be accessed by a plurality of host processing devices. The host management table 23 provided in the inter-system shared DASD 22-1 has information on the primary host,
It is a table having a down monitoring counter for each host processing device. The mailbox 24 is a storage area in which a message such as input of a medium is set by each host processing device. For example, a fixed-length area is managed by a pointer, and status management of free / busy is performed. Has become.

[Action]

In the present invention, when the medium loading / ejection processing unit 13 of each of the host processing devices 11A, 11B ... Executes processing such as medium loading for the peripheral device 16 with the automatic media loading mechanism, each message setting unit 14 causes the mailbox In 24, a message related to the processing is set. For example, when the A-system host processor 11A is the primary host, the message output processor 15 of the host processor 11A
Are activated periodically. The message output processing unit 15
All the messages stored in the mailbox 24 are read and sequentially output to the operator console 25.
Therefore, the host processor 11A that is the primary host
It is possible to focus on the message and output the message.

〔Example〕

2 is a diagram for explaining processing control according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing control by a message output processing section, and FIG. 4 is a task processing according to one embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram. For simplicity of explanation, the case where there are two host processing devices will be described below, but the same applies to the case where there are three or more host processing devices.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the service is started in each host processing device, the primary host determining unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 is started in each host processing device.

The primary host determination unit 12 first determines the DASD shared between systems.
A reserve (RSV) command is issued to 22-1. By this command, exclusive control is performed by the intersystem exclusive control device 21, and the intersystem shared DASD 22-1
Only one host processor (A host in this example) will be occupied.

The host processing device occupying the intersystem shared DASD 22-1 accesses the host management table 23 and checks whether or not the primary host is already defined. If the primary host is not registered, the local host processing device is the device that has risen to the first position.
The local host is registered in the host management table 23 as the primary host. Then, the initialization process of the peripheral device 16 with the double body automatic loading mechanism is executed.

After that, the occupancy of the inter-system shared DASD 22-1 is released by a release (RLS) command, a so-called look-in interval for time monitoring is set, and another processing request is waited.

While the A host is executing the primary host determination process, the B host side cannot reserve the inter-system shared DASD 22-1, so the process waits until the reservation is released. When the A host cancels the reservation, the cancellation is notified by a so-called busy-to-free interrupt.
The reserve process for 1 is executed again.

The primary host determination unit 12 of the B host shares the inter-system D
If the ASD 22-1 is secured, whether or not there is a primary host is checked by the host management table 23. In this case, since the A host has already become the primary host, the service start is simply displayed and the inter-system sharing is performed. DA
The SD 22-1 is released, and the host initialization process related to the peripheral device 16 with the automatic medium loading mechanism is completed.

For example, when a medium (cartridge) is loaded into the peripheral device 16 with an automatic medium loading mechanism from the medium entrance, the A host and the B host are notified of the medium loading by an attention interrupt.

In the case of the present embodiment, the inter-host exclusive control relating to the medium loading process of the peripheral device 16 with the automatic medium loading mechanism is the DA shared between the systems.
This is performed by using the exclusive control function of the intersystem exclusive control device 21 for SD22-1. That is, the host that first occupies the inter-system shared DASD 22-1 executes the process corresponding to the attention event to perform serialization regarding the medium loading process.

Therefore, each host processor receives an attention interrupt when the medium is inserted, and each DASD 22-
A reserve command is issued for 1. If the reserve is successful, the presence / absence of an attention event is checked, and the medium loading process is executed. Then, the input message is set in the empty area of the mailbox 24. After that, shared D
Release ASD22-1 and finish the loading process.

Thus, for example, when there are a plurality of attention events, distributed processing such as medium loading processing becomes possible in a plurality of host processing devices. When the B host executes the medium loading process, the B host sets the loading message in the mailbox 24. In the mailbox 24,
Messages from the respective host processing devices are mixed.

The message set in the mailbox 24 is the message output processing unit 15 of the A host, which is the primary host.
Output as shown in FIG. That is, the message output processing unit 15 is activated at a predetermined time interval by a timer, and if activated, reserves the inter-system shared DASD 22-1, sequentially outputs the messages in the mailbox 24, and after the output, the mailbox. 24, initializes DASD 22-1, which is shared between systems, and has the next timer start.

The task processing configuration relating to the peripheral device 16 with the automatic medium loading mechanism in each host processing device is as shown in FIG. 4, for example.

The device management task 30 is the peripheral device 1 with the automatic medium loading mechanism.
6, which is a system task for managing 6, generates a host management task 31 at the time of system startup, notifies the start of service, and generates an input processing task 32 for peripheral devices.

The host management task 31 is a task that performs processing of the primary host determination unit 12 and the message output processing unit 15 shown in FIG. In addition, down monitoring of other host processing devices is also performed. When activated by the device management task 30, task initialization relating to a control table and the like is performed, and a timer for time monitoring is set. Then, it waits for a processing request event.

First, the service start event is notified, and the host management task 31 reserves the inter-system shared DASD 22-1, executes the primary host determination processing described in FIG. 2, and the like. Wait for the event.

In the case of a timer event, the inter-system shared DASD 22-1 is reserved and the down monitoring process is executed. In the case of this embodiment, the down monitoring is performed as follows.

In the host management table 23, down monitoring counters are provided for each host processor and primary host. Each host processing device is obliged to always set a predetermined value in its own counter within a predetermined time. Also, each host processing device counts down the counter for the host processing device for conversion at a predetermined time interval. If a certain host processor fails and is down, and the counter is not initialized within a predetermined time, the counter value becomes zero due to the countdown, so the other host processors are The down of the processing device to which the counter belongs can be detected. If the processing device that has gone down is the primary host, the device that detected the downtime becomes the new primary host.

After the down monitoring process described above, the message in the mailbox 24 is output, so it is first determined whether or not the own host is the primary host. In the case of the primary host, it is determined whether there are any messages in the mailbox 24, the messages are sequentially output until all the messages are output, and finally the intersystem shared DASD 22-1 is released. Wait for the next processing request event.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, for example, the medium loading process of the peripheral device with the automatic medium loading mechanism can be distributed and processed by each host processing device, and a message such as the medium loading / unloading message can be sent. ， It becomes possible to perform centralized management on the primary host.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining processing control according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing control by a message output processing unit. FIG. 4 shows a task processing configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 11A and 11B are host processing devices, 13 is a medium loading / unloading processing unit, 14 is a message setting unit, 15 is a message output processing unit, 16 is a peripheral device with an automatic medium loading mechanism, and 21 is for intersystem exclusive control. Equipment, 22-1, 22-2 are DASD shared between systems, 23 is a host management table, 24 is a mailbox, and 25 is an operator console.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of host processing devices for processing data (1
1A, 11B, ...), a peripheral device (16) shared by the plurality of host processing devices, and an intersystem shared DASD (22) shared by the plurality of host processing devices. The processing for the asynchronous event that occurs,
In the data processing system adapted to be executed by each of the host processing devices, a mailbox in which a message regarding the peripheral device is stored on the inter-system shared DASD by the host processing device that executes the process related to the message ( twenty four)
And the host management table (2
In addition to (3), means (12) for determining the host processing device that first uses and initializes the peripheral device as a primary host and registers it in the host management table, and for an asynchronous event that occurs in the peripheral device. When the processing is executed, the host processing device, which is provided with a means (14) for setting a message regarding the processing in the mailbox, and which is the primary host,
A message processing method for shared peripheral device management, characterized in that it comprises means (15) for checking the above-mentioned mailbox at a predetermined cycle and reading the message from the above-mentioned mailbox when the message is stored and outputting the message. .