JPH07121303A - Constitution recognition system for external storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a need of newly generating information, where the consti tution of an external storage device is described, unless the change of the consti tution of the external storage device connected to a connection cord occurs even at the time of the change of a computer main body to another main body or the version change of an operating system. CONSTITUTION:In the computer system consisting of a computer main body 1 including a, central processing part 11, a main storage part 12, an input/output control part 13, and a storage part 14 and plural external storage devices 2-1 to 2-4 connected to the computer main body 1 by a connection cord, the specific external storage device 2-1 is provided with a memory 23 where external storage device information 51 related to all external storage devices 2-1 to 2-4 is held. The computer main body 1 refers to contents of the memory 23 in the external storage device 2-1 at the time of start to recognize the constitution of all external storage devices 2-1 to 2-4 connected to the connection cord 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer system in which a plurality of external storage devices are connected to a computer main body including a central processing unit, a main storage unit and an input / output control unit by connection cords, and in particular connection by connection cords The present invention relates to a method for recognizing the configuration of an external storage device that is used on the computer body side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a computer such as an engineering workstation has a central processing unit 11 as shown in FIG.
A main storage unit 12 including a RAM and the like, an input / output control unit 13, and a storage unit 1 including a hard disk device and the like.
4 are housed in one housing as the computer main body 1 and an external storage device such as a hard disk device 2-1 or 2-2, an optical disk device 2-3 or a magnetic tape device 2-4 is incorporated, for example, a standard I / O interface 1
SCSI (Small ComputerSy)
The plurality of external storage devices 2-1 to 2-4 are connected to the input / output control unit 13 of the computer main body 1 through the connection cord 3 by using the system interface.

Each external storage device includes an input / output control unit 21 for exchanging data with the computer main body 1 and a storage unit 22 which is an external storage medium, as illustrated in the hard disk device 2-1. include.

In such a computer system, when the computer main body 1 is started, it is checked whether or not any external storage device is connected through the connection cord 3, and if so, what external storage device is connected. It is necessary to recognize the configuration of the external storage device such as whether or not is connected.

Therefore, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 3, in the storage unit 14 of the computer main body 1, a file 141 holding external storage device information 51 regarding all external storage devices connected by the connection cord 3 is operated.・
It is provided as a part of the system, and the computer main body 1 recognizes the configuration of the external storage device by referring to this file 141 at the time of startup.

In the external storage device information 51 stored in the file 141, as illustrated in the figure, the number assigned to each external storage device to indicate the number of connected devices, and the type and type of the external storage device. Device name, storage capacity,
The division capacity is retained. Here, the storage capacity means the entire storage capacity of the external storage device, and the divided capacity is
It means individual capacity when the external storage device is divided and used as a plurality of external storage devices, and is set mainly when the external storage device is a hard disk device.

[0007]

Conventionally, since the configuration of the external storage device has been recognized as described above, when the computer main body 1 is replaced with another computer main body 1, the computer main body 1 remains in the computer main body 1 after the exchange. If the configuration of the external storage device indicated by the file 141 is different from the actual configuration of the external storage device connected to the connection cord 3, the contents of the file 141 must be changed to newly create the configuration information of the external storage device. There is a problem that it does not become.

When the file 141 is incorporated as a part of the operating system, the same problem occurs when the version of the operating system is changed.

The present invention has been proposed in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to configure an external storage device connected to a connection cord even if the computer main body is changed to another computer main body. It is to provide a configuration recognition method for an external storage device that does not need to recreate the information describing the configuration of the external storage device unless the above change.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a configuration recognition method for an external storage device according to the present invention includes a computer main body including a central processing unit, a main storage unit and an input / output control unit,
In a computer system configured with an external storage device connected to the input / output control unit of the computer main body by a connection cord, a specific external storage device connected to the computer main body through the connection cord is passed through the connection cord. The central processing unit of the computer main body stores the contents of the memory in the specific external storage device through the input / output control unit and the connection code. The configuration of the external storage device is recognized by referring to it.

[0011]

According to the configuration recognition method of the external storage device of the present invention, the memory provided in the specific external storage device connected to the computer main body holds information about all the external storage devices connected to the computer main body through the connection code. Therefore, the central processing unit of the computer main body refers to the contents of the memory and recognizes the configuration of all external storage devices connected through the connection cord.

[0012]

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

Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a computer system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied is a computer main body 1
And hard disk devices 2-1 and 2-2, an optical disk device 2-3, and a magnetic tape device 2-4 which are connected to the computer main body 1 by a connection cord 3.

The computer main unit 1 includes a central processing unit 11 and an RA.
A main storage unit 12 composed of M and the like, and an input / output control unit 13
An engineering workstation in which a hard disk drive and a storage unit 14 including a hard disk drive are housed in a single housing, such as a hard disk drive 2-1, 2-2, an optical disk drive 2-3, and a magnetic tape drive 2-4. In the case of incorporating an external storage device, in the case of this embodiment, a SCSI (Small C) which is one of the standard input / output interfaces.
computer System Interface)
Connect these external storage devices to each other using the connection cord 3
Through the input / output control unit 13 of the computer main body 1.

In each external storage device (2-1 to 2-4),
As illustrated in the hard disk device 2-1, an input / output control unit 21 for exchanging data with the computer main body 1,
A storage unit (a magnetic disk medium in a hard disk device, an optical disk in an optical disk device, a magnetic tape in a magnetic tape device) 22 which is an external storage medium is included.

In particular, the hard disk device 2-1 directly connected to the computer main body 1 is provided with a memory 23 different from the storage section 22, and the input / output control section 21 controls the input / output of the memory 23. Also controls.

The memory 23 includes all external storage devices connected to the computer main body 1 by the connection cord 3, that is, the hard disk devices 2-1 and 2-2 and the optical disk device 2-3.
And the external storage device information 51 regarding the magnetic tape device 2-4 is a memory set when the system is installed, for example, R
It is composed of OM or RAM. The external storage device information 51 held in the memory 23 is the same as the conventional one. For example, as shown in the figure, the numbers assigned to the external storage devices, the device names that define the types and types of the external storage devices, Includes storage capacity and split capacity.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of processing performed by the computer main body 1 at the time of booting. The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

When the computer main body 1 is activated, it starts the activation process shown in FIG. First, the central processing unit 11 checks the operation of the main storage unit 12 and the like existing in the computer main body 1 (step A), and when it is determined that all are normal,
The operating system stored in the storage unit 14 is loaded into the main storage unit 12 through the input / output control unit 13 (step B). It should be noted that if an abnormality is detected in the operation check, the processing ends abnormally and the system startup is stopped.

Next, the central processing unit 11 executes the operating system loaded in the main storage unit 12 to perform the processing of steps C, D and E.

First, it is checked whether any external storage device is connected through the connection cord 3 (step C). If none of the external storage devices are connected, the startup process ends.

When any external storage device is connected, the external storage device information 51 directly connected by the connection cord 3, that is, the external storage device information 51 stored in the memory 23 in the nearest hard disk device 2-1 is displayed. , Is read through the input / output control unit 21 of the hard disk device 2-1 and loaded into the main storage unit 12 (step D).

Based on the contents of the loaded external storage device information 51, the configurations of all the external storage devices (2-1 to 2-4) connected to the connection cord 3 are recognized and necessary control is performed. Processing is performed (step E). Then, the activation process ends. Note that the necessary control processing here includes, for example, the following processing.

A list of recognized data stored in each external storage device is created in the main storage unit 12. This is used as information for grasping in which external storage device the corresponding data is stored when the application program or the like is executed later. In the case of an external storage device for which a divided capacity is designated, the total storage capacity of the external storage device is divided into designated divided capacities and managed, and each divided portion is controlled as an independent external storage device.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, all the external storages connected to a specific external storage device among the plurality of external storages connected to the computer main body through the connection cord are connected through the connection cord. The computer main body recognizes the configuration of the external storage device by referring to the contents of this memory by holding the memory that holds information about the device.Therefore, unless the configuration of the external storage device connected to the connection cord changes, the computer main body Even if the computer is changed to another computer or the operating system version is changed, there is an effect that the information describing the configuration of the external storage device need not be recreated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a computer system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of processing that is performed when the computer main body is started in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional computer system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Computer main body 11 ... Central processing unit 12 ... Main storage unit 13 ... Input / output control unit 14 ... Storage unit 2-1 and 2-2 ... Hard disk device 2-3 ... Optical disk device 2-4 ... Magnetic tape device 3 ... Connection Code 21 ... Input / output control unit 22 ... Storage unit 23 ... Memory for holding external storage device information 51 ... External storage device information

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A computer system comprising a computer main body including a central processing unit, a main storage unit and an input / output control unit, and an external storage device connected to the input / output control unit of the computer main unit by a connection cord. A specific external storage device connected to the computer main body through the connection cord is provided with a memory that holds information regarding all external storage devices connected through the connection cord, and the central processing unit of the computer main body is A configuration recognition method for an external storage device, wherein the configuration of the external storage device is recognized by referring to the contents of the memory in the specific external storage device through the input / output control unit and the connection code. 2. The information about the external storage device held in the memory is the number of connected external storage devices, the type of each external storage device, the storage capacity, and the external storage device that is divided and used individually. The configuration recognition method for an external storage device according to claim 1, wherein the information is information indicating a divided capacity of. 3. The specific external storage device is a hard disk device including a magnetic disk medium and an input / output control unit that controls input / output of the magnetic disk medium and the memory, and the central processing unit 3. The system recognition method for an external storage device according to claim 2, wherein the contents of the memory are referenced through the input / output control unit of the hard disk device. 4. The hard disk directly connected to the engineering workstation, wherein the computer main body is an engineering workstation, a plurality of external storage devices are connected to the engineering workstation by SCSI which is a standard input / output interface. 4. The configuration recognition method for an external storage device according to claim 3, wherein the device is the specific external storage device.