JPH10271113A - Fault tracing method and fault tracing device for realizing the method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely trace important fault information such as the number of times of generating faults and the fault generation time, to cancel tracing suppression in the case that fault generation is stopped for fixed time and to accurately provide conditions at the time of starting the tracing suppression again by suppressing fault contents to be traced in the case that the fault is repeatedly and continuously generated. SOLUTION: A fault tracing identification part 5 outputs the fault information to a tracing suppression part 6 in the case of judging that the fault generated in an ATM communication system is the fault to be traced. A tracing suppression control part 6 judges whether or not the fault is during the tracing suppression, and in the case that it is during the tracing suppression, traces the fault code, the number of times of generation and generation time of the generated fault without tracing all the fault information of the generated fault by controlling a monitoring timer 7. Thus, without filling up a tracing area even for the frequently generated fault, generation tendency is recognized and a fault generation cause is easily investigated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fault tracing method for tracing fault information in order to analyze the cause of a fault that has occurred in a system, and an apparatus for implementing the method. Computer, router, CLAD (cell assembly and disassembly device)
Tracing applicable to an ATM communication system in which an ATM terminal such as an ATM is connected to an ATM switch device constituting an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network via a UNI (User Network Interface) and communicates with each other using the ATM. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for realizing the apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a conventional fault tracing method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-27139, in which reference numeral 31 denotes a trace buffer writing unit for writing trace information to a trace buffer 32, and 33 denotes a unit each time the trace buffer 32 becomes full. A trace file writing unit that writes the contents of the trace buffer 32 into the trace file 34, and a trace control unit 35 that instructs only the trace file writing unit 33 to start and stop the operation. 36 is a failure information buffer writing unit that writes failure information to the failure information buffer 37 and then notifies the failure type determination unit 38 of the end of the writing. 38 is the latest failure information written in the failure information buffer 37. Is a failure type determination unit that determines whether the nearby trace unit 39 is a necessary failure and activates the nearby trace unit 39 if necessary. 39
Reads out the current vicinity trace information from the trace buffer 32 and writes it in the failure information buffer 37, and then notifies the failure information file writing unit 40
Is a neighborhood tracing unit for notifying the user. Reference numeral 40 denotes a failure information file writing unit that writes the latest failure information written in the failure information buffer 37 and the related neighborhood trace information to the failure information file 41. The failure information buffer writing unit 36, the failure information buffer 37, the failure type determination unit 38, the neighborhood tracing unit 39, the failure information file writing unit 40, and the failure information file 41 constitute a failure information collection unit.

Next, the operation will be described. First, the trace buffer writing unit 31 writes the relevant trace information to the trace buffer 32 every time an event that requires collection of trace information occurs in the system to which this method is applied. Then, each time the trace buffer 32 becomes full, the writing unit 33 for the trace file
The contents are written to the trace file 34. When receiving the trace stop command from outside the system, the trace controller 35 operates only the trace file writer 33 (trace file write operation).
Command to start and stop. Therefore, even if the writing unit 33 for the trace file stops its operation, the operation of the writing unit 31 for the trace buffer is continued.
As a result, even if the trace buffer 32 becomes full, the trace file 34 is not saved, the latest trace information is sequentially overwritten on the oldest trace information, and only the latest trace information corresponding to the capacity of the trace buffer 32 is stored. The state is left in the trace buffer 32.

At the same time, the fault information collecting units 36 to 4
1 collects failure information with nearby trace information added to predetermined information generated in the system. That is, each time a failure occurs in the system, the failure information buffer writing unit 36 writes failure information including the failure code and the time of occurrence into the failure information buffer 37, and then terminates the writing. Type determination unit 3
Notify 8. Upon receiving the write completion notification, the failure type determination unit 38 reads out the latest failure information written in the failure information buffer 37, and compares the latest failure information contained therein with a predetermined failure code. It is determined whether or not the near trace is a necessary obstacle, and if necessary, the near trace unit 39 is activated. The activated neighborhood trace unit 39 reads a predetermined number of neighborhood trace information from the trace buffer 32 at the present time and writes the information in the failure information buffer 37, and then notifies the failure information file writing unit 40 of the completion of the writing. The failure information file writing unit 40 that has received the write completion notification writes the latest failure information written in the failure information buffer 37 and the related neighborhood trace information to the failure information file 41.

As another prior art document related to the present invention, there is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-298144.

[0006]

Since the conventional fault tracing method is configured as described above, when such a method for collecting trace information is applied to an ATM communication network, the following problem occurs.
TM cell discard, overflow of cell switch buffer, or UPC (Usage Parameter)
Network failures such as user cells being discarded due to the control function of Control are not always caused by the device that has detected the failure, and are therefore likely to be frequently repeated. When a problem begins to occur, most of the trace files are filled with such failure information, and the duration of the failure and the information at the time of the first occurrence are lost, which hinders the analysis of the cause of the network failure. was there.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. When tracing frequently occurring faults, the tracing of fault information is suppressed, while the number of fault occurrences and the latest or oldest are traced. Important fault information such as the time when the fault occurred can be traced so as not to be missed, and if the fault has stopped for a certain period of time, trace suppression is released and the situation when trace suppression is started again is checked. It is an object of the present invention to obtain a fault tracing method that can be accurately obtained and a device that realizes the method.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fault tracing method comprising: a detecting step of detecting a fault occurring in a system; a tracing step of tracing the content of the fault detected by the detecting step; When the failure detected by the detection step repeatedly occurs continuously, the tracing step includes a trace suppression step of suppressing the contents of the failure traced.

The fault tracing method according to the second aspect of the present invention further includes a trace suppression canceling step of canceling the trace suppression when the fault detected by the detecting step does not occur for a predetermined period.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the fault tracing method, the tracing step is performed by tracing the content of the fault and the time of occurrence of the fault for the first time, and within a predetermined monitoring period after the first fault occurs. The fault that has occurred is traced for the fault content, the number of fault occurrences, and the latest fault occurrence time that has occurred within the predetermined monitoring period. A trace suppression step is configured to trace the content of the fault, the number of occurrences, and the latest fault occurrence time.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the fault tracing method, a tracing step is performed by tracing the content of the fault and the time of occurrence of the fault for the first time, and within a predetermined monitoring period after the first fault occurs. For the faults that have occurred, the content of the fault, the number of faults that have occurred, and the oldest fault occurrence time that has occurred within the predetermined monitoring period are traced. The trace suppression step is configured to trace the fault content, the number of occurrences, and the oldest fault occurrence time of the fault that occurred during the period.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fault tracing method, a tracing step is performed by tracing the content of the fault and the time of occurrence of the first fault, and within a predetermined monitoring period after the first fault occurs. For the faults that have occurred, the details of the fault, the number of faults that have occurred, and the latest fault occurrence time that has occurred within the above-mentioned predetermined monitoring period are traced. The trace suppression step is configured to trace the failure content, the number of occurrences, and the latest failure occurrence time of the failure that has occurred.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fault tracing method, the tracing step is performed by tracing the content of the fault and the time of occurrence of the fault for the first time, and within a predetermined monitoring period after the first fault occurs. For the faults that have occurred, the content of the fault, the number of faults that have occurred, and the oldest fault occurrence time that has occurred within the above-mentioned predetermined monitoring period are traced. In order to trace the fault content, the number of occurrences, the oldest fault occurrence time, and the latest fault occurrence time,
This constitutes a trace suppression step.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the fault tracing method, an upper limit value is provided for a monitoring period, and the upper limit value is fixed when the monitoring period reaches the upper limit value.

[0015] In the fault tracing method according to the present invention, a fault occurring during the monitoring period is traced in such a manner that a plurality of factors are collectively associated with one factor.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the failure tracing method, the detection step detects a failure that has occurred during the monitoring period for each predetermined failure detection period.
The trace is performed every monitoring period.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, a fault tracing device writes a fault content in a fault trace buffer, writes a fault content into the fault trace buffer, and stores the fault trace buffer in the fault trace buffer. A trace writing unit that writes to a fault trace file, and a trace suppression control that executes a trace suppression process using a monitoring timer based on the content of the fault output from the writing unit to the fault trace buffer. And a nearby trace unit that writes the content of the fault of the fault subjected to the trace suppression process by the trace suppression control unit to the content of the fault trace buffer.

[0018] According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, a fault tracing device stores various fault tracing method setting items,
The apparatus is also provided with a failure tracing method setting table in which the setting items can be appropriately changed.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an ATM communication system. In FIG.
M switch device, 11-1 is a microprocessor of the ATM switch device 11, and 11-2 is an ATM switch device 1.
11-3 is the ATM of the ATM switch device 11.
The switch card 11-4 is a user interface card of the ATM switch device 11, and the user interface card 11-4 is an ATM interface (UN
I (User Network Interface) or NNI
A plurality of ports 11-4-1 for providing (network network interface)) are mounted. As described above, the ATM switch device 11 includes one microprocessor 11-1, memory 11-2, ATM switch card 11-3, and ATM interface card 11-4.
It is composed of

The microprocessor 11-1 has a memory 1
1-2, each port 11-4-1 of the ATM switch card 11-3 and the user interface card 11-4 can be accessed, and the protocol processing required for ATM communication is performed by the microprocessor 11-1 and the ATM. The switch card 11-3 and the user interface card 11-4 share. The microprocessor 11-
1 detects a failure of the memory 11-2, the ATM switch card 11-3, and the user interface card as its peripheral circuits, and detects the failure of the ATM switch card 11-3.
And traces fault information detected by the interrupt or polling from the user interface card 11-4.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a terminal device of the ATM communication system,
2-1 is the CPU of the terminal device 12, 12-2 is the terminal device 1
Reference numeral 12-3 denotes an ATM interface of the terminal device 12 for interfacing with the ATM switch device 11. Reference numeral 3 denotes a data transmission path formed of an optical fiber or a twisted bare cable, which connects between the ATM switch device 11 and the terminal device 12 and between the ATM switch device 11. As described above, the terminal device 12 includes the CPU 12-
1. Main memory 12-2 and ATM interface 12
The terminal device 12 is UNI-connected to the ATM switch device 11 via the data transmission line 3.

The CPU 12-1 can access the main memory 12-2 and the ATM interface 12-3, and the protocol processing required for the ATM communication is performed by the CP.
U12-1 and ATM interface 12-3 share. Further, the CPU 12-1 detects a failure in the main memory 12-2 and the ATM interface 12-3 as its peripheral circuits, and traces failure information detected by interruption or polling from the ATM interface 12-3.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a fault tracing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 indicates that fault tracing information is written in the fault tracing buffer 2 and fault tracing identification section 5 writes fault tracing information. This is a unit for writing information to a fault trace buffer that outputs information. Reference numeral 3 denotes a unit for writing the contents of the failure trace buffer 2 to the failure trace file 4 for writing the contents of the failure trace file 4 to the failure trace file 4. 5 is a writing unit 1 for writing a failure trace buffer.
Identifies the failure information output from (determines whether it is a failure to be traced), and if it is a failure to be traced,
This is a fault trace identification unit that outputs fault information to the trace suppression control unit 6. Reference numeral 6 denotes a trace suppression control unit that executes a trace suppression process using the monitoring timer 7 (the occurrence monitoring timer 7a and the unoccurrence monitoring timer 7b) based on the failure information output from the failure trace identification unit 5. Reference numeral 8 denotes a neighborhood tracing unit that, when the tracing suppression control unit 6 determines that the failure is a trace to be traced, writes additional information such as the occurrence time and the number of occurrences of the failure in the contents of the failure trace buffer 2.

The writing unit 1 for writing the fault trace buffer, the writing unit 3 for writing the fault trace file, the fault trace identification unit 5, the trace suppression control unit 6, and the monitoring timer 7 are the microprocessor 1 of the ATM switch device 11.
1-1 and the CPU 12-1 of the terminal device 12, and the fault trace buffer 2 and the fault trace file 4 are realized by the memory 12-2 of the ATM switch device 11 and the main memory 12-2 of the terminal device 12. Is what is done.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the fault tracing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the generation monitoring timer processing operation, and FIG. 5 is the non-generation monitoring timer processing operation. It is a flowchart for performing. Hereinafter, the flow of processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

When a fault occurs in the ATM communication system (step ST1, detection step), the microprocessor 11-1 or the CPU 12-1 collects information on the fault that has occurred. The failure information collected by the failure trace buffer writing unit 1 is written into the failure trace buffer 2 (step ST2, detection step), and at the same time, the failure information is output to the failure trace identification unit 5.

Upon receiving the fault information, the fault trace identification unit 5 determines whether or not the fault is a fault to be traced based on the fault type (this type is variously changed according to the system) ( Step ST3, trace suppression step). (A) When it is not a failure to be traced When the failure trace identification unit 5 determines that it is not a failure to be traced, the processing ends without performing any processing.

(B) In the case of a failure to be traced When the failure trace identification unit 5 determines that the failure is a trace to be traced, the failure trace identification unit 5 outputs failure information to the trace suppression control unit 6. Trace suppression control unit 6
Upon receiving the failure information output from the failure trace identification unit 5, the device determines whether or not the failure is under trace suppression (step ST4, trace suppression step).

(A) When the trace is not suppressed When the trace is not suppressed (that is, when the failure occurs for the first time), the neighboring trace unit 8 sets the failure occurrence count to 1
(Step ST5, trace suppression step), and the fault occurrence time is set to the current time (step ST6,
Trace suppression step), the number of times and the time of occurrence of the fault are written in the contents of the fault trace buffer 2, and the writing unit 3 for writing the fault trace file is used by the fault trace buffer 2 in which the number of times and the time of the fault are written together with the fault information. Is written into the failure trace file 4 (step ST7, trace step). Then, the processing of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (started) (step S).
T8, trace suppression step).

The processing of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is performed as shown in FIG. First, when the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a starts, it is determined whether or not activation by the monitoring timer 7 has been performed (step ST101, trace suppression step). When the monitoring is not started by the monitoring timer 7 (that is, when the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is directly started when the trace is not suppressed), the monitoring timer 7 is set to the trace being suppressed (trace suppressed state) (step ST102, trace suppression). Step), reset the failure occurrence count to 0 (Step ST106, trace suppression step), and set the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a to T1 (Step ST1).
07, trace suppression step) The generation monitoring timer 7a is started (step ST108, trace suppression step).

Thereafter, in order to release the trace suppression state of the trace suppression control unit 6 when no failure occurs for a predetermined time (T2), T2 is set as an initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST9, trace suppression release). Steps),
Start the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST10,
Trace suppression release step).

The processing of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is performed as shown in FIG. When the non-occurrence monitoring period of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b expires, the corresponding failure occurrence monitoring timer 7a
(Step ST201, trace suppression release step), and the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7 of the corresponding fault
b is stopped (step ST202, trace suppression canceling step), and the trace inhibition of the corresponding fault is reset (step ST203, trace suppression canceling step).

(B) When the trace is being suppressed When the trace is being suppressed, the occurrence monitoring timer 7
The process of (a) is activated, and the fault occurrence count is updated without directly performing the trace process. That is, the fault occurrence count is added by the number of times of the new fault occurrence (step ST11, trace suppression step), and only the current time is set as the fault occurrence time (step ST12,
Trace suppression step).

The process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a when the trace is being suppressed is performed as shown in FIG. First, it is determined whether or not the monitoring timer 7 is activated (step 101). If it is determined that the monitoring timer 7 is activated (in this case, the monitoring timer 7 is activated), then the failure occurrence count is counted. It is determined whether it is 0 (step ST103, trace suppression step). If the failure occurrence count is 0, the trace processing is not performed,
Occurrence monitoring timer 7 to start a new occurrence monitoring period
The initial value of a is set to T1 (step ST107), and the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (step ST108). If the failure occurrence count is 0, the trace contents (contents of the failure trace buffer) are assembled from the failure code, the failure occurrence count, and the failure occurrence time (step ST104,
(Trace suppression step), writing to the failure trace file 4 is executed by the failure trace file writing unit 3 (step ST105, trace step).

In the first embodiment, since the fault occurrence time is updated with the current time every time a fault occurs, the traced fault occurrence time is the latest fault occurrence time. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a case where the number of times of occurrence of a failure and the time of occurrence of a failure are traced during trace suppression. In this case, the number of failure occurrences (the number of failures occurring during the occurrence monitoring period T1 of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a) is five, and the latest failure occurrence time t5 is recorded (traced) as the trace occurrence time.

Thereafter, the fault occurrence count is reset to 0 (step ST106, trace suppression step), and the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is set to T1 (step ST106).
107) Start the occurrence monitoring timer 7a (step ST)
108).

Thereafter, as in the case where the trace is not suppressed, T2 is set to the initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST9), and the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is activated (step ST10).

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of tracing by the fault tracing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 7, the occurrence monitoring period of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is T
1, and the non-occurrence monitoring period of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is set to T2.
And The first fault is unconditionally traced, but two faults that occurred in the next occurrence monitoring period T1 are traced together, and the same trace suppression is continued three times. After that, no trouble has occurred for a while, but since the trouble has occurred before the non-generation monitoring period T2 of the non-generation monitoring timer elapses, the trace suppression is continued. However, since no failure has occurred in the second occurrence monitoring period T2, the trace suppression state is released, and the trace is unconditionally performed at the first subsequent failure.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the trace suppression control unit 6 controls the monitoring timer 7 to
Instead of tracing all the fault information of the fault that occurred, the fault code, the number of occurrences, and the time at which the fault occurred are traced, so that the trace area can be filled up even for frequently occurring faults. The occurrence tendency can be grasped without any trouble, and the cause of the failure occurrence (or failure analysis) can be easily performed.

Embodiment 2 In the first embodiment, the latest failure occurrence time is traced among the failures that occurred during the trace suppression period. In the second embodiment,
It traces the time of occurrence of the oldest failure among the failures that occurred during the trace suppression period. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of such a fault trace method according to the second embodiment of the present invention. still,
Since the configuration for realizing the fault tracing method is the same as that of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment, the description is omitted.

Generation of fault information (step ST1), writing to a fault trace buffer (step ST2), and determining whether or not a fault is to be traced (step ST3) in the first embodiment (A) When not a fault to be traced (B) If it is a fault to be traced It is determined whether or not the fault is under trace suppression (step ST4) (a) If the trace is not under suppression The failure occurrence count is 1 (step ST5), and the failure occurrence time is the current time (Step ST6), write to the failure trace file 4 (step ST7), start the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a (step ST8), set T2 to the initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST9), and monitor the non-occurrence. The processing (processing step) of starting the timer 7b (step ST10) is the same as the processing shown in FIG. The same applies to the processing operation form 2.

(B) When the trace is being suppressed When the trace is being suppressed, the failure occurrence count is updated without performing the direct trace processing. That is, the fault occurrence count is added by the new fault occurrence count (step ST11), and it is determined whether or not the fault occurrence count is 1 (step ST12A, trace suppression step).
The current time is set as the failure occurrence time only when the failure occurrence count is 1 (step ST13A, trace suppression step).

As described above, in the second embodiment, the fault occurrence time to be traced is the oldest fault occurrence time.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a case in which the number of times of occurrence of a failure and the time of occurrence of a failure are traced during trace suppression. In this case, the number of failure occurrences (the number of failures occurring during the occurrence monitoring period T1 of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a) is 5, and the oldest failure occurrence time t1 is recorded (traced) as the trace occurrence time.

The subsequent process non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is set to T2 as an initial value (step ST9), and the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is activated (step ST10) in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the first occurrence of a fault can be traced unconditionally, so that the time interval from the time of occurrence of the first fault to the time of occurrence of the next fault is reduced. High fault analysis performance can be exhibited for important faults.

Embodiment 3 In the first embodiment, in the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a, the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started unconditionally with the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a set to T1, but in the third embodiment, trace suppression is continued. As far as possible, the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer is sequentially multiplied by n (real number) from the initial value of the previous occurrence monitoring timer.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the processing of the occurrence monitoring timer according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Among these processing steps, the monitoring timer 7
(Step ST101), sets the monitoring timer 7 when the monitoring is not started by the monitoring timer 7 while the trace is suppressed (step ST102), determines whether the failure occurrence count is 0 (step ST103), Assembling the trace contents when the occurrence count is 0 (step ST104), writing to the failure trace file (step ST105), and setting the failure occurrence count to 0
(Step ST106) is the same as the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a according to the first embodiment shown in FIG.

In the third embodiment, after resetting the failure occurrence count to 0 (step ST106), the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is set to n times the initial value of the previous occurrence monitoring timer (step ST107B). , Trace suppression step), and activates the occurrence monitoring timer 7a (step ST108, trace suppression step).

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of tracing by the fault tracing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, as long as a fault occurs during the trace suppression period, the occurrence monitoring period of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is multiplied by n. If no failure occurs for a certain period of time, the trace suppression state is released.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, the trace suppression period can be exponentially increased, so that once a fault occurs, the trace area is further suppressed for a fault having a long continuous occurrence period. be able to.

Embodiment 4 FIG. In the fourth embodiment, the oldest fault occurrence time and the newest fault occurrence time among the faults that occurred during the trace suppression period are written (trace).
This is different from the third embodiment in the point. FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of such a fault trace method according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The description of the processing operations that are the same as the processing operations described in the first and third embodiments will be omitted.

(B) When the fault is a trace to be traced (a) When the trace is not suppressed When the trace is not suppressed, the nearby trace unit 8
The fault occurrence count is set to 1 (step ST5), the current time is set to the oldest fault occurrence time and the latest fault occurrence time (step ST6C, trace suppression step), and the number of times and the time of occurrence of the fault are set in the fault trace buffer 2. To write the contents of the error trace file 3
Writes the contents of the failure trace buffer 2 in which the number of occurrences and the occurrence time of the failure are written together with the failure information in the failure trace file 4 (step ST7). Next, the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (started) (step ST8). Thereafter, in order to release the trace suppression state of the trace suppression control unit 6 when the failure does not occur for a predetermined time (T2), T2 is set to the initial value of the non-generation monitoring timer 7b (step ST9), and the non-generation monitoring timer 7b Is started (step ST10).

(B) When Trace is Suppressed When trace is being suppressed, after updating the failure occurrence count, that is, after adding the failure occurrence count by the number of new failure occurrences (step ST11), The current time is set to the latest failure occurrence time (step ST12C, trace suppression step), and the current time is set to the oldest failure occurrence time only when the failure occurrence count is 1 (step ST13C, trace suppression step) (step ST14).
C, trace suppression step). Thereafter, as in the case where the trace is not suppressed, T2 is set to the initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST9), and
b is started (step ST10).

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, in the third embodiment, the oldest fault occurrence time and the latest fault occurrence time among the faults occurring during the trace suppression period are traced. Therefore, during the long trace suppression period in the third embodiment, it is possible to obtain information as to whether a failure is occurring on average or in a burst manner. In addition, the trace area can be suppressed, and high fault analysis can be achieved.

Embodiment 5 The fifth embodiment is different from the third and the third embodiments in that an upper limit value is provided for the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a, and when the upper limit value is reached, the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is fixed to the upper limit value. This is different from the fourth mode. FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining such processing of the occurrence monitoring timer according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention. The description of the processing operations that are the same as the processing operations described in the first, third, and fourth embodiments will be omitted.

In the fifth embodiment, after resetting the failure occurrence count to 0 (step ST106), it is determined whether or not the occurrence monitoring period of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a has reached an upper limit (step ST107D, trace suppression). (Step) If the upper limit has not been reached, the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is set to n times the initial value of the previous occurrence monitoring timer (step ST108D), and the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (step ST108D). On the other hand, if the upper limit has been reached, the upper limit is reset to the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a (step ST109D, trace suppression step), and the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (step ST110D). ST110D).

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, in the third embodiment and the fourth embodiment,
An upper limit value is provided for the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a, and when the upper limit value is reached, the initial value of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is fixed to the upper limit value, so that the trace suppression period becomes extremely long and is not useful for failure analysis. This can be prevented beforehand, and an increase in H / W cost due to increasing the count value of the timer H / W can be suppressed.

Embodiment 6 FIG. According to the sixth embodiment, instead of tracing a fault that has occurred during the trace suppression period (during the occurrence monitoring period of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a) for each factor, a plurality of factors are grouped and one bit is assigned to one factor. This is different from the first embodiment in that the trace is performed so as to correspond to. FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining such processing of the occurrence monitoring timer according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention. The description of the processing operations that are the same as the processing operations described in the first embodiment will be omitted.

(B) When Trace is Suppressed When trace is being suppressed, the failure occurrence count is updated without directly performing the trace processing. That is, the fault occurrence count is added by the new fault occurrence count (step ST11). Then, only the current time is set as the failure occurrence time (step ST12). Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the troubles that have occurred are to be traced collectively (step ST13E, tracing step). If the troubles are to be traced collectively, the contents of the trouble cause buffer are stored in the accumulated contents of the trouble cause buffer. And the contents of the fault cause register are updated by a bitwise OR (step ST14E, trace step). After that, the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b
Is set to T2 (step ST9), and the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is started (step ST10).

As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, in the first embodiment, a plurality of faults that occur during the monitoring period of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a are not traced for each factor, but a plurality of faults are traced. Since the factors are collectively traced in such a manner that each bit corresponds to one factor, a fault that may cause a plurality of factors to be set when it occurs (for example, a fault defined by SDH (synchronous data hierarchy)) (BIP8 error, LOS, LOF, etc.)
Are traced collectively, so that if traces are taken for each factor, although they are related to each other, it is possible to prevent the trace size from becoming enormous.

Embodiment 7 FIG. In the seventh embodiment, the microprocessor 11-1 or the CPU 12-1 does not detect the failure every time a failure occurs, but performs the failure detection timing only every T3 time to suppress the detection frequency. In addition, the present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the trace timing is also set for each occurrence monitoring period.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining such a fault detecting process and a detected interrupt mask timer process according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
The failure detection processing shown in (a) corresponds to the failure information generation processing (step ST1) shown in FIG. In this process, when a failure detection interrupt occurs (step ST301, detection step), it is determined whether the detection interruption is being suppressed (step ST302, detection step). If the detection interrupt is not suppressed, nothing is performed. If the detection interrupt is suppressed, the detection interrupt of the corresponding fault is masked (step ST303, detection step), and T3 is set to the initial value of the detection interrupt mask timer. At the same time as setting (step ST304, detection step), a detection interrupt mask timer is started (step ST305, detection step). The detection interrupt mask timer process shown in FIG. 15B is started when the detection interrupt mask timer expires (step ST401, trace step), and releases the detection interrupt mask of the corresponding fault (step ST402, trace step).

As described above, according to the seventh embodiment, as the timing for detecting a fault, the frequency of detection is suppressed by performing the fault detection timing only every T3 time, and the trace timing is set to be equal to the occurrence monitoring period. Therefore, the load of the detection process can be reduced for a failure that has a high frequency of occurrence and whose occurrence tendency is more important than the detailed occurrence time in the failure analysis.

Embodiment 8 FIG. The eighth embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that a fault trace method setting table 9 is provided. In the fault trace method setting table 9, whether a fault trace is made for each monitoring period for each fault factor or not.
It is possible to selectively set whether tracing is performed every time occurrence is detected or whether tracing is not performed even if a fault is detected repeatedly until the device is reset. It can be changed at an arbitrary timing by the user via the Internet.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a fault trace method according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention. Note that FIG.
In FIG. 2, the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will not be repeated. In the figure, 9
Is a fault storing setting items of various fault tracing methods (as shown in FIG. 16, whether the fault occurred is to be traced, traced every time, executed only once before reset, or trace suppressed). The trace method setting table 10 is a maintenance tool that can update the fault trace method setting table 9 at an arbitrary timing.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 17 is a flowchart for illustrating a processing operation of the fault trace method according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.

When a failure occurs in the ATM communication system (step ST1), the microprocessor 11-1 or CPU 12-1 collects information on the failure that has occurred. Writing to Failure Information Buffer The failure information collected by the writing unit 1 is written to the failure trace buffer 2 (step S).
At the same time as T2), failure information is output to the failure trace identification unit 5.

Upon receiving the fault information, the fault trace identification unit 5 determines whether or not the fault is a fault to be traced based on the fault type (this type is variously changed according to the system) ( Step ST3). (A) When it is not a failure to be traced When the failure trace identification unit 5 determines that it is not a failure to be traced, the processing ends without performing any processing.

(B) In the case of a failure to be traced When the failure trace identification unit 5 determines that the failure is a traceable failure, the failure trace identification unit 5 outputs failure information to the trace suppression control unit 6. Trace suppression control unit 6
Receives the fault information output from the fault trace identification unit 5, refers to the fault trace method setting table 9 and determines whether or not the fault is not detected until the device is reset (whether or not the fault is a trace target) ( Step ST4
F).

(I) When the failure is not detected until reset When the trace suppression control unit 6 determines that the failure output from the failure trace identification unit 5 is not detected until the device reset, the corresponding failure detection mask (Step ST5F), the nearby trace unit 8 sets 1 to the failure occurrence count (step ST6).
F), the current time is set as the failure occurrence time (step S)
T7F), the number of times and the time of occurrence of the failure are written in the contents of the failure trace buffer 2, and the writing unit 3 for writing the failure trace file writes the contents of the failure trace buffer 2 in which the number of times of the failure and the time of the failure are written together with the failure information. Is written to the failure trace file 4 (step ST8F). Then, the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (started) (step ST9F).

(II) Cases Not Applicable to Not Detected Until Reset The trace suppression control unit 6 determines that the fault output from the fault trace identification unit 5 is not applicable until the device is reset until it is detected. The suppression control unit 6
With reference to the fault tracing method setting table 9, it is determined whether or not this fault is traced each time (step ST).
10F).

(1) In the case of tracing every time When the trace suppression control unit 6 determines that the tracing is performed every time, the nearby tracing unit 8 sets 1 to the failure occurrence count (step ST6F), and The current time is set to the occurrence time (step ST7F), the failure trace file writer 3 writes the failure trace file (step ST8F), and starts (starts) the processing of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a (step S7).
T9F).

(2) When the trace does not correspond to tracing every time When the trace suppression control unit 6 determines that it does not correspond to tracing every time, the trace suppression control unit 6 next refers to the fault trace method setting table 9. Then, it is determined whether or not this failure is during trace suppression (step ST11).
F).

(A) When the trace is not suppressed When the trace is not suppressed (that is, when the failure occurs for the first time), the neighboring trace unit 8 sets the failure occurrence count to 1
Is set (step ST12F), and the fault occurrence time is set to the current time (step ST13F).
The number of times and the time of occurrence of the failure are stored in the failure trace buffer 2
Then, the writing unit 3 writes the content of the fault trace buffer 2 in which the number of times and the time of occurrence of the fault are written together with the fault information to the fault trace file 4 (step ST14F).
Then, the process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is started (started) (step ST15F). The process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a is performed as shown in FIG. 4, similarly to the first embodiment.

Thereafter, in order to release the trace suppression state of the trace suppression control unit 6 when no failure occurs for a predetermined time (T2), T2 is set as an initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b (step ST16F). The monitoring timer 7b is started (step ST17F). The process of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is performed as shown in FIG. 5, as in the first embodiment.

(B) When Trace is Suppressed When trace is being suppressed, the failure occurrence count is updated without directly performing the trace processing. That is, the fault occurrence count is added by the new fault occurrence count (step ST18F). Then, only the current time is set as the failure occurrence time (step ST19F). The process of the occurrence monitoring timer 7a when the trace is being suppressed is performed as shown in FIG. 4, similarly to the first embodiment. Thereafter, T2 is set to the initial value of the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b as in the case where the trace is not suppressed (step S2).
T16F), the non-occurrence monitoring timer 7b is started (step ST17F).

As described above, according to the eighth embodiment, the fault tracing method setting table 9 storing the setting items of various fault tracing methods is provided, thereby enabling selective setting. Since the method setting table 9 can be changed at an arbitrary timing from the user via the maintenance tool 10, the tracing method considering the occurrence of a fault can be flexibly selected, and the entire fault can be selected without lowering the fault analysis capability. The trace processing load can be reduced, and the trace capacity can be reduced.

In the first to eighth embodiments, the case where the failure tracing method is applied to an ATM communication system has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to various systems. It is possible.

[0079]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a detecting step of detecting a fault that has occurred in the system, a tracing step of tracing the content of the fault detected by the detecting step, and the detecting step When the failure detected by the step repeatedly occurs continuously, the tracing step includes a trace suppression step for suppressing the contents of the failure to be traced, so that the trace area is filled with frequently occurring failure information. In addition, it is possible to prevent the duration of the failure and the information at the time of the first occurrence from being lost, thereby preventing the cause of the network failure from being analyzed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a trace suppression canceling step for canceling the trace suppression when the fault detected by the detecting step does not occur for a predetermined period, so that the fault continuously occurs. If the trace area is not full, the detailed failure content (failure information) can be traced when the trace area is not full, and the cause of the failure can be investigated as usual. There is an effect that can be done.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the tracing step allows the first fault to be traced for the fault content and the fault occurrence time, and for the fault occurring within a predetermined monitoring period after the first fault has occurred. Is the content of the failure, the number of failure occurrences,
And, the latest failure occurrence time traced within the predetermined monitoring period is traced, and further continuously occurring failures are the failure content, the number of occurrences of the latest failure occurring within the predetermined monitoring period for each of the predetermined monitoring periods, And the trace suppression step is configured to trace the latest failure occurrence time, so that the failure area does not fill up with the repeatedly and continuously occurring failures, the failure occurrence tendency can be grasped, and the cause of the failure occurrence can be determined (or Failure analysis) can be easily performed.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the tracing step is performed for the first occurrence of a failure by tracing the contents of the failure and the time of occurrence of the failure, and the failure occurring within a predetermined monitoring period after the occurrence of the first failure. Is the content of the failure, the number of failure occurrences,
And the oldest fault occurrence time that occurred during the predetermined monitoring period is traced, and further continuously occurring faults are the fault content and the number of occurrences of the fault that occurred within the latest predetermined monitoring period for each predetermined monitoring period. , And the trace suppression step is configured to trace the oldest fault occurrence time, so that the first fault can be traced unconditionally, so that the time of occurrence of the next fault from the time of occurrence of the first fault This has an effect that high fault analysis can be exhibited for a fault whose time interval is important.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the tracing step is performed by first tracing the content of the fault and the time of occurrence of the fault, and the fault occurring within a predetermined monitoring period after the occurrence of the first fault. Is the content of the failure, the number of failure occurrences,
And trace the latest failure occurrence time that occurred within the predetermined monitoring period, and further determine that the continuously occurring failure is the failure content, the number of occurrences, and the number of failures that occurred within the monitoring period sequentially multiplied by n. Since the trace suppression step is configured to trace the latest failure occurrence time,
The monitoring period can be increased exponentially,
Once generated, there is an effect that a trace area can be further suppressed for a fault having a long continuous generation period.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the tracing step is performed for the first occurrence of a failure by tracing the contents of the failure and the time of occurrence of the failure, and the failure occurring within a predetermined monitoring period after the occurrence of the first failure. Is the content of the failure, the number of failure occurrences,
And the oldest fault occurrence time that occurred during the predetermined monitoring period is traced, and the continuously occurring faults are the fault content, the number of occurrences, and the number of faults that have occurred within the monitoring period obtained by sequentially multiplying the predetermined monitoring period by n. Since the trace suppression step is configured to trace the oldest failure occurrence time and the latest failure occurrence time, during the long trace suppression period, failures occur on average or in bursts. This makes it possible to obtain information on whether or not the trace area can be suppressed even for a fault having a long continuous occurrence period, and to exhibit high fault analysis performance.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, an upper limit is provided for the monitoring period, and when the monitoring period reaches the upper limit, the upper limit is fixed. Therefore, the trace suppression period is extremely long. In other words, it is possible to prevent the failure analysis from becoming useless, and to suppress an increase in H / W cost due to increasing the count value of the timer H / W.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of factors are set and traced in such a manner that a fault occurring during the monitoring period is traced in association with one factor. It is possible to collectively trace faults that may possibly occur, and it is possible to prevent a trace size from becoming enormous if traces are taken for each factor although they are related to each other.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the detecting step detects a fault that has occurred during the monitoring period every predetermined fault detecting period, and the tracing step traces the fault every monitoring period. Therefore, as the timing for detecting a failure, the failure detection timing is performed only for each predetermined failure detection period, so that the frequency of detection can be suppressed. For a failure whose occurrence tendency is more important than failure in the failure analysis, the load of the detection processing can be reduced.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the contents of the failure are written to the failure trace buffer,
A unit that writes the contents of the failure trace buffer to the failure trace buffer, a unit that writes the contents of the failure trace buffer to the failure trace file, and a unit that writes the contents of the failure trace buffer. A trace suppression control unit that executes a trace suppression process using a monitoring timer based on the failure content, and a near trace that writes the failure content of the failure that the trace suppression control unit performed the trace suppression process to the content of the failure trace buffer The system does not trace all the fault information of a fault that has occurred, so that even if a fault occurs frequently, the trace area is not filled with the fault information, and the occurrence tendency can be grasped. This has the effect that the cause (or failure analysis) can be easily determined.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, since the setting items of various fault tracing methods are stored, and the fault tracing method setting table is configured so that the setting items can be appropriately changed, the fault tracing method setting table is provided. This makes it possible to flexibly select a tracing method in consideration of the occurrence of the error, and to reduce the overall load of the fault trace processing and reduce the trace capacity without lowering the fault analysis capability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an ATM communication system.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a fault tracing method according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation of the fault trace method according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an occurrence monitoring timer processing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an unoccurrence monitoring timer processing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram for describing a case where the number of times of occurrence of a failure and the time of occurrence of a failure are traced during trace suppression.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of tracing by the fault tracing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a fault trace method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a case in which the number of times of failure and the time of failure occurrence are traced during trace suppression.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining processing of an occurrence monitoring timer according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of tracing by the fault tracing method according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a failure trace method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining processing of an occurrence monitoring timer according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for illustrating processing of an occurrence monitoring timer according to Embodiment 6 of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a failure detection process and a detection interrupt mask timer process according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a fault trace method according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of a fault trace method according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of a conventional fault trace method.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Failure trace buffer writing unit, 2 Failure trace buffer, 3 Failure trace file writing unit, 4 Failure trace file, 6 Trace suppression control unit, 7 Monitoring timer, 7a Occurrence monitoring timer (monitoring timer), 7b Not generated Monitoring timer (monitoring timer), 8 neighborhood tracing unit, 9 fault tracing method setting table, ST
1, ST2, ST301 to ST305 detection step,
ST7, ST105, ST13E, ST14E, ST4
01, ST402 Trace step, ST3 to ST
6, ST8, ST11, ST12, ST101 to ST1
04, ST106 to ST108, ST12A, ST13
A, ST107B, ST108B, ST6C, ST12
C to ST14C, ST107D, ST109D trace suppression step, ST9, ST10, ST201 to ST2
03 Trace suppression release step.

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A detecting step for detecting a fault that has occurred in a system, a tracing step for tracing the content of the fault detected by the detecting step, and a detecting step when the fault detected by the detecting step repeatedly and continuously occurs. A trace tracing method comprising: a tracing suppression step for suppressing the contents of a failure traced by the tracing step. 2. A detecting step for detecting a fault that has occurred in the system, a tracing step for tracing the content of the fault detected by the detecting step, and a detecting step when the fault detected by the detecting step repeatedly and continuously occurs. A trace tracing step comprising: a tracing suppression step for suppressing the contents of a failure traced by the tracing step; and a tracing suppression release step for releasing the tracing suppression when the failure detected by the detection step does not occur for a predetermined period. . 3. The tracing suppression step includes the step of tracing the tracing step to trace the content of the failure and the time of occurrence of the failure when the failure first occurs, and to perform the failure within a predetermined monitoring period after the occurrence of the first failure. The content, the number of failure occurrences, and the latest failure occurrence time that occurred within the predetermined monitoring period are traced, and further continuously occurring failures are the failures that occurred within the latest predetermined monitoring period for each of the predetermined monitoring periods. 3. The fault tracing method according to claim 1, wherein the content of the fault, the number of occurrences, and the latest fault occurrence time are traced. 4. The tracing suppressing step includes the step of tracing the first step of a failure to trace the contents of the failure and the time of occurrence of the failure, and the step of causing a failure within a predetermined monitoring period after the first failure occurs. The contents, the number of failure occurrences, and the oldest failure occurrence time that occurred within the predetermined monitoring period are traced, and the failures that have occurred continuously are the failures that occurred within the latest predetermined monitoring period for each of the predetermined monitoring periods. 3. The fault tracing method according to claim 1, wherein the details of the fault, the number of occurrences, and the oldest fault occurrence time are traced. 5. The tracing suppression step includes the step of tracing the tracing step to trace a failure content and a failure occurrence time for the first failure, and to perform a failure within a predetermined monitoring period after the first failure occurs. The contents, the number of failure occurrences, and the latest failure occurrence time during the above-mentioned predetermined monitoring period are traced, and the continuously occurring failures are the failures of the failures occurring within the monitoring period obtained by sequentially multiplying the above-mentioned predetermined monitoring period by n. 3. The fault tracing method according to claim 1, wherein the content, the number of occurrences, and the latest fault occurrence time are traced. 6. The tracing suppressing step includes the step of tracing the tracing step to trace the content of the failure and the time of occurrence of the failure for the first occurrence of the failure, and the failure occurring within a predetermined monitoring period after the occurrence of the first failure. The contents, the number of occurrences of the fault, and the oldest fault occurrence time occurring within the predetermined monitoring period are traced. Further, the continuously occurring faults are the faults occurring within the monitoring period obtained by sequentially multiplying the predetermined monitoring period by n. 3. The fault tracing method according to claim 1, wherein the content of the fault, the number of occurrences, the oldest fault occurrence time, and the latest fault occurrence time are traced. 7. The fault tracing method according to claim 5, wherein an upper limit value is provided for the monitoring period, and the monitoring period is fixed to the upper limit value when the monitoring period reaches the upper limit value. 8. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a fault that has occurred during the monitoring period is traced in such a manner that a plurality of factors are collectively corresponded to one factor. The failure trace method described. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detecting step detects a fault that has occurred during the monitoring period every predetermined fault detecting period, and the tracing step traces the fault every monitoring period. The failure trace method described. 10. A failure trace buffer for writing the contents of a failure to a failure trace buffer and outputting the contents of the failure to a failure trace file for writing the contents of the failure trace buffer to a failure trace file. A trace suppression control unit that executes a trace suppression process using a monitoring timer based on the contents of the failure output from the failure trace buffer writing unit; A fault tracing device comprising: a near trace unit for writing the fault content of the processed fault into the content of the fault trace buffer. 11. The fault tracing apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a fault tracing method setting table configured to store setting items of various fault tracing methods and to be able to appropriately change the setting items.