JPH07239802A - Fault information managing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve reliability in the operation of a service processor by reducing the number of times to write fault information into an EEPROM provided at the service processor. CONSTITUTION:When any fault is generated at a diagnostic object instrument 20, that fault information is compared with fault information already stored in an EEPROM 24 by a write control circuit 23, and the execution of write concerning the same fault information into an EEPROM 24 is inhibited. Therefore, even when the same fault is continuously generated, the unnecessary continuous write of the same fault information can be prevented from being generated in the following detection processing of a fault generating part, and the number of times of write to the EEPROM 24 can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fault information management device such as a service processor, and more particularly to a fault information management device for managing fault information of a data processing device for maintenance / diagnosis of the data processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, maintenance / diagnosis of various data processing devices is performed by a service processor (SVP). This service processor is realized by a microprocessor, a minicomputer, or the like which is connected to a data processing device to be maintained / diagnosed and can operate independently of the data processing device.

The service processor records a fault detection of the data processing device and the fault information. The failure information is recorded and maintained as a history of the operating status of the data processing device.
It is used for diagnosis. The configuration of a typical conventional service processor is shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the service processor (SVP) 11 includes an SVP-FW memory 12, E.
EPROM 13, panel display device interface 14,
It is composed of a panel display device 15 and a diagnosis interface 16, and is connected to a diagnosis target device 10 such as a computer.

The SVP-FW memory 12 stores firmware for maintenance / diagnosis executed by the service processor (SVP) 11. The service processor (SVP) 11 checks the status of the diagnosis target device 10 via the diagnosis interface 16 at any time to check whether a failure has occurred. Upon recognizing the occurrence of the failure, the service processor (SVP) 11 displays the failure information collected from the diagnosis target device 10 on the panel display device 15 via the panel display device interface 14, and starts the process after the failure.

After that, the service processor (SVP) 1
1 is the EEP indicating the failure information collected from the diagnosis target device 10.
It is recorded in the ROM 13. The failure information recorded in the EEPROM 13 is left as a failure history of the diagnosis target device 10,
It is used for maintenance of the diagnostic target device 10.

However, in the service processor (SVP) 11 configured as described above, writing to the EEPROM 13 occurs each time failure information is received, so that there is a problem in that the number of writings to the EEPROM 13 increases. The EEPROM 13 is limited in the number of data rewrites due to its characteristics. Therefore, in the conventional service processor (SVP) 11, the EEPR
There is a drawback that the life of the OM 13 is shortened and, as a result, the reliability of its operation is reduced.

[0008]

Conventionally, the service processor (SVP) writes fault information to the EEPROM each time a fault occurs, and when the same fault occurs continuously, the same fault information is written. However, there is a problem in that the number of unnecessary writings to the EEPROM increases. Therefore, the life of the EEPROM is shortened, and as a result, the reliability of its operation is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a fault information management apparatus having a highly reliable operation by making it possible to reduce the number of times of useless fault information writing to an EEPROM. And

[0010]

Means and Actions for Solving the Problems
In a fault information management device that manages fault information of the data processing device for maintenance and diagnosis of the data processing device, a non-volatile memory for storing fault information of the data processing device, and the data are collected from the data processing device. Fault information writing means for writing fault information in the non-volatile memory, fault information collected from the data processing device is compared with fault information stored in the non-volatile memory, and the fault information writing means is executed according to the comparison result. Write control means for permitting or prohibiting writing of fault information to the non-volatile memory by means of the above, and being configured so that writing of the same fault information to the non-volatile memory is prohibited. It is a feature of.

In this fault information management device, maintenance /
When a failure occurs in the data processing device to be diagnosed, the failure information is compared with the failure information already stored in the non-volatile memory, and writing of the same failure information in the non-volatile memory is prohibited. . Therefore, even when the same failure occurs continuously, it is possible to prevent the problem that the same failure information is repeatedly written, and it is possible to reduce the number of times of writing to the nonvolatile memory.

Further, the present invention is a failure information management apparatus for managing failure information of a data processing apparatus for maintenance / diagnosis of the data processing apparatus, wherein a nonvolatile memory for storing the failure information of the data processing apparatus. A fault information writing means for writing fault information collected from the data processing device to the non-volatile memory, and comparing the fault information collected from the data processing device and the fault information stored in the non-volatile memory, Write control means for permitting or prohibiting writing of the fault information to the non-volatile memory by the fault information writing means according to the comparison result so that writing of the same fault information to the non-volatile memory is prohibited. When the writing of the fault information to the non-volatile memory is permitted, the fault information writing means is The failure information and the contents of the non-volatile memory at the write target position of the failure information are sequentially compared in units of data writing size of the non-volatile memory, and only unmatched data in the failure information is set to the corresponding writing position. A second feature is that the writing is configured.

In this fault information management device, maintenance and
When a failure occurs in the data processing device to be diagnosed, the failure information is compared with the failure information already stored in the non-volatile memory, and writing of the same failure information in the non-volatile memory is prohibited. Only writing different fault information is allowed. In this case, the write-permitted fault information is sequentially compared with the content of the non-volatile memory at the write target position of the fault information in units of data write size, and only the mismatched data in the fault information is written to the corresponding write position. Be done. Normally, "1" is set even in the storage location where failure information is not written in the non-volatile memory.
Alternatively, any data of "0" is stored. Therefore, by comparing the failure information and the stored content of the non-volatile memory in units of data writing of the non-volatile memory, the portion of the failure information that matches the stored content of the non-volatile memory is not written and the non-match The number of times of writing can be further reduced by writing only the data of.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a service processor (SVP) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The service processor (SVP) 21 is a dedicated processor for maintaining and diagnosing the diagnosis target device 20 such as a computer system main body, and is used to turn on / off the power to the diagnosis target device 20, start / stop, load programs, and the like. Various failure processes are performed when a failure occurs in the device to be diagnosed 20.

This service processor (SVP) 21
Is a computer system having its own CPU, memory, disk, etc., and has a keyboard and display for interfacing with the operator. Functions implemented by the service processor (SVP) 21 are classified into panel functions, RAS functions, and configuration control functions.

The RAS function is a function for realizing the reliability, availability and maintainability of the system. In the following, the service processor 21 for realizing this RAS function will be described.
The configuration of will be described.

The service processor (SVP) 21 includes
SVP-FW memory 22, write control circuit 23, EEP
A ROM 24, a panel display device interface 25, a panel display device 26, and a diagnostic interface 27 are provided.

The SVP-FW memory 22 is a memory such as a ROM in which a microprogram for controlling the service processor (SVP) 21 is stored, and the RAS function of the service processor (SVP) 21 is executed by this microprogram. The RAS function includes a failure detection and recording function, and a failure location indication function that detects a failure occurrence location based on the recorded failure information (logout information or the like).

The write control circuit 23 is an EEPROM 24.
This is for controlling the writing of the failure information to the. When writing the failure information, the failure information to be written is compared with the failure information stored in the EEPRPM 24, and the writing of the same failure information is prohibited. As described above, the writing of the fault information is permitted or prohibited according to the comparison result.

The EEPROM 24 is a failure information storage memory mounted on the service processor (SVP) 21, and the failure information stored in the EEPROM 24 is stored in the diagnosis target device 20 in the later-executed detection processing of a failure occurrence location. It is used as fault history information.

The panel display interface 25 is
This is an interface for performing panel display, and displays failure information and the like on the panel display device 26. The diagnosis interface 27 detects the occurrence of a failure in the diagnosis target device 20 in cooperation with the CPU of the diagnosis target device 20 and the like.
Logout information at that time is collected from.

This service processor (SVP) 21
Checks the operation status of the device to be diagnosed 20 with the diagnosis interface 27 at any time, recognizes the occurrence of a failure, processes each failure, and instructs the write control circuit 23 to write failure information to the EEPROM 24.

In the write control circuit 23, the EEPROM 2
The fault information history on the upper side of the No. 4 is sequentially read and compared with the fault information to be written. Here, if the same failure information does not exist, the failure information is written to the EEPROM 24, and if the same failure information exists, control is performed not to write. After that, the panel display device 26 displays the failure information on the panel.

FIG. 2 shows the principle of operation for permitting / prohibiting the writing of fault information to the EEPROM 24, which is executed by the write control circuit 23. The write control circuit 23 is provided with a failure information comparison device 231, and EE is obtained according to the comparison result by the failure information comparison device 231.
Writing of fault information to the PROM 24 is permitted or prohibited.

That is, when the failure information comparison device 231 is instructed to write the failure information, the failure information identical to the failure information received from the diagnostic interface 27 is EEP.
In order to detect whether or not it is already stored in the ROM 24, first, the failure information T1 is read from the head storage position of the EEPROM 24, and the failure information T1 is compared with the failure information to be written. If they match, writing of the write-targeted failure information into the EEPROM 24 is prohibited.

On the other hand, if they do not match, the EEPROM
The failure information T2 is read from the storage position next to 24, and the failure information T2 is similarly compared with the failure information to be written. If they match, writing is prohibited, and if they do not match, comparison with the next failure information T3 is performed.

All fault information T1 of the EEPROM 24
When it is compared with Tn, and the failure information of the writing target does not match any of the failure information, the writing of the failure information of the writing object is permitted, and the failure information of the writing object is written at the head of the empty area of the EEPROM 24. .

Thus, this service processor (S
In the VP) 21, when a failure occurs in the device 20 to be diagnosed, the failure information is compared with the failure information already stored in the EEPROM 24 by the write control circuit 23, and the same failure information is written in the EEPROM 24. Execution is prohibited. Therefore, even when the same fault occurs continuously, it is possible to prevent unnecessary writing of the same fault information, which is unnecessary in the subsequent detection processing of the fault occurrence point, and to reduce the number of writing to the EEPROM.

Further, since it is important to prevent repetitive writing of the same fault information, it is not always necessary to compare all the information in the EEPROM 24, and at least one fault information written immediately before is not necessary. You may make it only compare.

Next, the operation of the write control circuit 23 when the writing of the fault information is permitted will be described with reference to FIG. When the writing is permitted, the write control circuit 23 directly writes the failure information of the writing target to the EEPROM 2
The process of selectively writing the fault information to be written in the EEPROM 24 instead of writing it in No. 4 is performed as follows.

That is, the write control circuit 23 has the configuration shown in FIG.
In addition to the failure information comparing device 231, the write data comparing device 232 and the write access device 23 are writing devices.
Equipped with 3.

The write data comparison device 232 reads the content of the write destination of the write target fault information from the EEPROM 24, and compares the write target fault information with the content of the write destination in the write access unit of the EEPROM 24, for example.

When writing in 1-byte units, the write data comparison device 232 compares the write target failure information with the contents of the write destination in 1-byte units, and if they do not match, 1 byte corresponding to the write access device 233. A write enable signal is generated in order to execute the writing of the failure information. On the other hand, if they match, the write data comparison device 232 prohibits the write access device 233 from writing the corresponding 1-byte failure information. Such an operation is sequentially executed in units of 1 byte.

Therefore, for example, when the data content of the write destination is "FF to FF" as shown in the figure and the first and last 1 bytes of the write target fault information are "FF", the write target fault information starts. And only the intermediate data except the last 1 byte is written to the EEPROM 24.

As described above, according to the configuration of FIG. 3, the write-permitted fault information is sequentially compared with the contents of the EEPROM 24 at the write target position of the fault information in units of data write size, and the fault information does not match. Only the data of is written in the corresponding writing position.

Normally, "1" or "0" is stored in the EEPROM 24 even at a storage location where no fault information is written.
One of the data is stored. Therefore, EE
Fault information and EEP in units of data writing of PROM 24
By comparing with the stored content of the ROM 24, the portion of the failure information that matches the stored content of the EEPROM 24 is not written, but only the inconsistent data is written, so that the number of times of writing can be further reduced.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of times of useless writing of fault information to a non-volatile memory such as an EEPROM, and to realize a fault information management device having a highly reliable operation. It becomes possible to do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a service processor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a write control circuit provided in the service processor shown in FIG.
The figure for demonstrating a prohibition operation.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the fault information which is write-enabled by the write control circuit provided in the service processor of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an operation of writing to a ROM.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional service processor.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 20 ... Diagnosis target device 11, 21, ... Service processor, 12, 22 ... SVP-FW memory, 13, 24
... EEPROM, 14, 25 ... Panel display device interface, 15, 26 ... Panel display device, 24 ... Write control circuit, 231, ... Fault information comparison device, 232 ... Write data comparison device, 233 ... Write access device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A fault information management device for managing fault information of a data processing device for maintenance / diagnosis of the data processing device, comprising: a non-volatile memory for storing fault information of the data processing device; Fault information writing means for writing fault information collected from the processing device to the non-volatile memory, fault information collected from the data processing device and fault information stored in the non-volatile memory are compared, and according to the comparison result, Write control means for permitting or prohibiting writing of the failure information to the nonvolatile memory by the failure information writing means, and being configured to prohibit writing of the same failure information to the nonvolatile memory. A fault information management device characterized by being present. 2. A fault information management device for managing fault information of a data processing device for maintenance / diagnosis of the data processing device, comprising: a non-volatile memory for storing fault information of the data processing device; Fault information writing means for writing fault information collected from the processing device to the non-volatile memory, and fault information collected from the data processing device and fault information stored in the non-volatile memory, and the non-volatile memory Write control means for permitting or prohibiting writing of the fault information to the non-volatile memory by the fault information writing means according to the comparison result such that writing of the same fault information to the non-volatile memory is prohibited. The writing means, when the writing of the fault information to the non-volatile memory is permitted, writes the fault information. It is configured to sequentially compare the content of the nonvolatile memory at the write target position of the failure information in units of data write size, and write only the mismatched data in the failure information to the corresponding write position. Characteristic fault information management device.