JPH09172690A - Operating system for memory contents of remote supervisory equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control the memory content of the remote supervisory equipment from a remote controller. SOLUTION: A watchdog timer 24 detects runaway of a control program, control data and processing result information are read from a RAM 23 and fault occurrence notice information is displayed on an input output device 30. A fault location is estimated from the fault occurrence notice information is estimated, an address of the control data and revision data are entered, a control program of a remote supervisory equipment 20 is started to locate the fault occurrence position, the revision data and its address are sent to the remote supervisory equipment 20 with operation end information being the content of the RAM and after the control data in the RAM 23 are rewritten, the control program is started to restore the content.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for operating a memory content of a remote control device, and more particularly to a system for monitoring and operating a memory content of a remote monitoring device by a central remote control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A plurality of remote monitoring devices connected by wire or wireless to a plurality of monitored devices and a central remote control device are connected via a public network or a dedicated line, and monitoring is performed by the remote monitoring device. There is a remote monitoring system that centrally manages information with a remote control device.

Conventionally, in this type of remote monitoring system, there are cases where the remote monitoring system cannot be operated sufficiently due to a failure of the remote monitoring device, the public network, the leased line, etc. In some cases, the system also goes down and recovery processing is performed. Requires a short time. Therefore, the remote control device collects operating state information when a failure occurs from the remote monitoring device, analyzes the operating state information when the failure occurs, and investigates the cause.

A method of collecting fault information generated at a remote place through a public network and investigating the cause is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-230893 (data line remote monitoring system).
Has been proposed. This data line remote monitoring system uses a data line terminal device to connect a data terminal device to a communication line,
In a network system in which a computer or the like is connected and data communication is performed between data terminal devices or between a computer and a data terminal device, a data line remote that monitors status information of various interface signals between the data line terminal device and the data terminal device. A monitoring device is installed, and a maintenance person operates an input / output device connected to a remote control device installed in a maintenance center, etc., and sends operation start instruction information to a data line remote monitoring device via a communication line. This starts the operation of the data line remote monitoring device.

The data line remote monitoring device stores the status information of the data and the interface signal transmitted / received by the data terminal device together with the current time, and when the abnormality of the interface signal is detected, the storage of the transmission / reception data and the status information is stopped. The transmission / reception data and status information stored up to now are automatically transferred to the remote control device via the communication line and stored in the file of the remote control device so that the maintenance person can operate the input / output device connected to the remote control device. Then, the interface information status information and the transmission / reception data read from the file are read, analyzed, and the cause is investigated to shorten the time and cost for collecting the failure information.

[0006]

As described above, in collecting the fault information in the conventional data line remote monitoring system, the data line remote monitoring device is installed between the data line terminal device and the data terminal device, and the data terminal device is installed. Data and its status information that are sent and received between devices and / or the host computer are given a current time and stored, and when an abnormality in the interface signal is detected, the storage of the sent and received data and status information is stopped Data and status information are transferred via a communication line to a remote control device installed in a maintenance center, etc., and status information when a failure occurs is automatically collected, so that data due to intermittent interruptions in the network Identify where the error occurred.

Therefore, although it is possible to automatically collect the fault information in the network detected by the data line remote monitoring device and identify the faulty part, when the fault occurs in the data line remote monitoring device itself, the fault information is Cannot be collected.

That is, the contents of the memory of the data line remote control device itself cannot be confirmed or changed. For example, when investigating a failure, it is impossible to perform so-called software debugging in which the memory content or the control flag to be accessed by the software program is forcibly changed to confirm the operation.

Also, in such a remote monitoring system, a watchdog timer is usually provided in the remote monitoring device to monitor the operating state, and when the control software of the remote monitoring device runs out of control, the operation of the software of the remote monitoring device is performed. It is common to automatically reset (reset) and then recover (initialize) the software, but even in such a system, the software operation is once reset to save the operation up to that point stored in the memory such as RAM. The status information will be erased and the clue of investigating the cause of the failure will be lost.

An object of the present invention is, when a control program of a remote monitoring device runs out of control, the control data and the address of the control program stored in the RAM are designated from the remote monitoring device to specify the control data for investigating the cause. It is an object of the present invention to provide a memory content operation method of a remote monitoring device which can restore the remote monitoring device after inputting and operating the remote monitoring device and rewriting the changed control data after investigating the cause.

[0011]

A method of operating a memory content of a remote monitoring device according to the present invention is a remote monitoring system in which a plurality of remote monitoring devices are connected to a monitoring control device via a line to transmit and receive various monitoring data; The remote control device side operates the memory contents of the remote monitoring device to perform software debugging of the remote monitoring device.

The remote monitoring device stores at least; a first memory for storing a control program; control data for controlling the control program and processing result information of the control program operated based on the control data. A second memory for storing; a watchdog timer for monitoring the operating state of the control program stored in the first memory; the first memory based on the control data stored in the second memory A CPU that executes program processing of the control program stored in the memory of
The remote control device accommodates an input / output device including a keyboard for inputting various information and a display unit;
When the watchdog timer detects a runaway of the control program, the CPU remote-controls failure occurrence notification information including processing result information before program runaway stored in the second memory via a dedicated line. The remote control device transmits a control command corresponding to the address of the estimated failure location input from the input / output device and the control data to be changed to the remote monitoring device. The control program is started, the processing result information is received again from the remote monitoring device, displayed on the input / output device, the cause of the runaway of the control program is investigated, and the change control data when the cause of the runaway is specified and its An end command including an address is transmitted to the remote monitoring device, and the control data before the program runaway of the second memory is searched for the runaway cause. After replacing written to the change control data after, characterized by recovering the remote monitoring device.

Further, the first memory is a non-volatile storage device, and the second memory is a volatile storage device.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining the operation at the time of restarting (restoring) the remote monitoring device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation when operating the memory contents of the remote monitoring device from the remote control device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of the remote monitoring system of the present invention.

In the remote monitoring system shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of remote monitoring devices 20 to which a plurality of monitored devices (not shown) are connected are respectively connected to the remote control device 10 via a dedicated line 40, and remote control is performed. The device 10 is connected to an input / output device 30 for displaying and changing control data for controlling the control program of the remote monitoring device. In addition, the remote monitoring device 20
Is a ROM 22 for storing a control program, a RAM 23 for storing control data for operating the control program and a processing result processed by the control program based on the control data, and a watchdog timer 24 for monitoring the operation of the control program. , A CPU 21 that controls the remote monitoring device based on a control program.

First, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together with FIG. 3, in order to investigate the cause of the failure, the cause of the failure is investigated by referring to or changing the contents of the control data of the control program stored in the RAM. The software debugging that is performed will be described.

The watchdog timer 24 of the remote monitoring device 20 constantly monitors the operating state of the control software, and if the control software runs out of control, the watchdog timer 24 times out. Watchdog timer 24
If the time-out occurs, the CPU 21 sets a flag “ON” indicating a failure occurrence in an output port (not shown) that outputs the operation state information of the watchdog timer 24, resets the remote monitoring device 20 once, and then stores it in the ROM 22. The remote monitoring device 20 is restarted according to the control program.

For this restart, the CPU 21 first initializes the hardware (step S1 in FIG. 1) and then confirms the flag of the watchdog timer 24 (step S2). If the flag of the watchdog timer is "ON", it is determined that the reset is due to a runaway of the control software, and the control data of the program and the processing result data processed based on the control data are read from the RAM 23 (step S3), Failure occurrence notification information including the read control data and processing result information is generated (step S4),
It is transmitted to the monitoring controller 10 via the dedicated line 40. The monitoring control device 10 receives this failure occurrence notification information (step S5) and displays it on the display unit (not shown) of the input / output device 30 (step S6).

The operator of the input / output device 30 estimates the location of the failure from the failure occurrence notification information displayed on the display section (step S7 in FIG. 2) and operates the input / output device 30 by a predetermined method to perform remote operation. When referring to the control data of the estimated failure occurrence point in the control data table in which the control data for controlling the control program stored in the RAM 23 of the monitoring device 20 is stored, the address and the control data are stored. When changing and investigating the location of the failure, the address to be changed and the change data are input (step S8).

The supervisory control device 10 generates a control command corresponding to the input information from the input / output device 30, and the dedicated line 4
0 to the remote monitoring device 20. (Step S
9). The CPU 21 of the remote monitoring device 20, which has received the control command via the dedicated line 40, corresponds to the address designated by the control command from the control data table stored in the RAM 23 when accessing the RAM 23 and referring to the control data. The control data is read, and in the case of changing the control data, the program processing is executed by the control data designated by the control command (step S10), and the execution result of the control data or the program processing is created as the processing result information (step S10). S11), and transmits to the remote monitoring device 10 via the dedicated line 40.

The remote monitoring device 10 receives the control data or the processing result information (step S12) and displays it on the input / output device 30 (step S13).

In this way, the operator operates the input / output device 30, repeats the operation confirmation processing of the remote monitoring device 20, investigates the cause of the failure of the remote monitoring device 20, and specifies the location of the failure (step 14). . When the operator of the input / output device 30 needs to change the control data of the control program after the identification of the location of the failure, the corresponding address and the changed data are sent together with the control data operation end information and the control data. When it is not necessary to change, only the control data operation end information is operated and input by the input / output device 30 (step S15 in FIG. 1).

The remote control device 10 generates an end command corresponding to the input information from the input / output device 30, and the dedicated line 4
0 to the remote monitoring device 20. (Step S
16). The CPU 21 of the remote monitoring device 20, which has received the end command via the leased line 40, identifies that the watchdog timer 24 is in the time-out state by the flag “ON”, and sets the flag of the watchdog timer indicating the failure occurrence to “ON”. From "" to "OFF" indicating the failure recovery (step S17).

After rewriting the flag of the watchdog timer 24 to "OFF", the CPU 21 of the remote monitoring device 20 determines whether the control data of the control program needs to be changed (step S18). When it is necessary to change the control data, it is necessary to rewrite the control data at the designated address in the control data table stored in the RAM 23 (step S19) and then activate the control program and change the control data. If there is no, start the control program as it is (step S20).
The restarting process of the remote monitoring device 20 is completed.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the watchdog timer constantly monitors the operating state of the control program, and when the control program runs out, the control data of the program stored in the RAM and its control data are detected. The result information processed by the program is read to generate fault occurrence notification information, which is displayed on the input / output device connected to the remote control device via the leased line, and the fault occurrence location is identified from the displayed fault occurrence notification information. If the control data is changed by specifying the address of the estimated failure point and reading the control data from the RAM for reference, or changing the control data to operate the remote monitoring device to identify the failure point RAM with its change control data and address
It is configured to send the termination information indicating that the operation of the content has been terminated to the remote monitoring device via a dedicated line, rewrite the control data in RAM, and then start the control program to restore the remote monitoring device in which a failure has occurred. Therefore, the failure information of the remote monitoring device itself can be automatically collected.

Further, since it is possible to estimate the location of the failure from the automatically collected failure information and confirm the contents of the RAM of the remote monitoring device and change the control data, for example, when investigating the failure,
It is possible to perform so-called software debugging by forcibly changing the memory contents and control flags that the software program should access to confirm the operation.

Further, since the control data and the processing result information of the RAM are stored until the failure occurrence location is identified and the corresponding processing is confirmed, the watchdog timer detects the runaway of the control program and activates the remote monitoring device. Even if it is once reset, the operation state data stored in the RAM up to that point is not erased, and the cause of the failure can be easily determined.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of the present invention at restarting.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining an operation of content operation of control data stored in a RAM of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a remote monitoring system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 remote control device 20 remote monitoring device 21 CPU 22 ROM 23 RAM 24 watchdog timer 30 input / output device 40 dedicated line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A remote monitoring system in which a plurality of remote monitoring devices are connected to a monitoring control device via a line to send and receive various monitoring data; the remote control device side operates a memory content of the remote monitoring device to remotely. A method for operating a memory content of a remote monitoring device, characterized by performing software debugging of the monitoring device. 2. The remote monitoring device stores at least; a first memory for storing a control program; control data for controlling the control program, and processing result information of the control program operated based on the control data. A second memory for storing; a watchdog timer for monitoring the operating state of the control program stored in the first memory; the first memory based on the control data stored in the second memory A CPU for executing a program process of the control program stored in the memory of the remote control device; and a remote control device for accommodating an input / output device having a keyboard for inputting various information and a display unit. When the watchdog timer detects a runaway of the control program, the CPU executes a program runaway stored in the second memory. Failure occurrence notification information including pre-run processing result information is transmitted to the remote control device via a dedicated line and displayed on the input / output device, and the remote control device indicates the estimated failure location input from the input / output device. And a control command corresponding to the control data to be changed to the remote monitoring device to activate the control program, and the processing result information is received again from the remote monitoring device and displayed on the input / output device. The cause of the runaway of the control program is investigated, the end command including the change control data and the address when the cause of the runaway is specified is transmitted to the remote monitoring device, and the control data before the program runaway of the second memory is runaway. The remote monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the remote monitoring device is restored after rewriting to the change control data after the cause has been investigated. Li contents operation system. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first memory is a non-volatile storage device and the second memory is a volatile storage device.