JPS6116098B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a maintenance program execution control method, particularly a service program used for maintenance, diagnosis, and other purposes.
The present invention relates to a maintenance program execution control method that facilitates management and execution control of a maintenance program in a computer system having a processor, and that saves storage space on an auxiliary storage device associated with the service processor.

In recent years, as the fields of use of computers have expanded and their contents have become more sophisticated and complex, their social role has also become greater. Therefore,
When a failure occurs in these computer systems, the social impact is often extremely large. Therefore, preventive maintenance to prevent failures before they occur, and techniques for early detection of the cause and location of failure when a failure occurs during operation, and corrective maintenance techniques for recovery are becoming increasingly important. The programs used for these preventive maintenance or corrective maintenance are so-called maintenance programs, and they perform processes such as checking and diagnosing the functions of various devices in the computer system, or detecting errors related to interactions with the entire hardware of the computer system. I do. Recently, in addition to a data processing device (hereinafter referred to as a "HOST") that performs normal operations in a computer system, there is also a service processor that supports the host and specializes in the above-mentioned maintenance and other processing. (SVP) is being established in an increasing number of systems to facilitate maintenance work. This service processor is characterized in that it can directly access various registers and memories in the host, and can refer to and update data in the registers and memory. On the other hand, from the host side, the service processor can be controlled by specific diagnostic commands prepared in advance. In addition to the memos used by the service processor itself, the service processor also maintains an auxiliary storage device such as a magnetic disk device as needed.

Programs generally related to maintenance under the hardware configuration described above are (a) a maintenance control program (MCP) that runs on the service processor and manages and controls various maintenance programs and starts the host processing device; ), (b) Operates on the service processor, starts the maintenance control program MCP in response to a diagnostic instruction request from the host side, and sets conditions for diagnosing the computer system, such as setting values to registers. (hereinafter referred to as the "parent program"); and (c) a program that is started by the maintenance control program MCP and runs on the host side processing device (hereinafter referred to as the "bring-up program").

The above parent program prepares the environment conditions for the test, so a large number of them are required for each type of test. Conventionally, they are stored in the executable program management table on the auxiliary memory of the service processor, separately from the bring-up program mentioned above. It was registered and kept in executable form.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional maintenance program execution control mode in the above-mentioned state. First, a maintenance control program (MCP) 1 loads a bring-up program 2 running on the host side into the memory of the host side in response to an operator's request. This loaded bring-up program may be stored on the auxiliary storage on the service processor side, or may be stored on the host side on an external storage such as a magnetic tape. The maintenance control program 1 then sets the start address of the loaded bring-up program 2 in the program status word (PSW) of the host and starts the bring-up program 2 (FIG. 1). The brought-up program 2 that is started performs various hardware diagnostics, but prior to diagnosis, it sets the conditions for the diagnosis, such as setting the values of registers and memory, and initializing various signal lines. is required, so the service processor is requested to handle it. Generally, it is often difficult to set these conditions on the host-side processing device, and even if it is possible to set them, there is a risk of incorrect settings if the host-side processing device, which is the device under test, sets them directly. Yes, it's not good. Therefore, a program for setting these conditions, that is, a parent program 3, is operated on the service processor SVP side. This palette
A request to start the program 3 is made by a parent diagnostic command, which is one of various diagnostic commands from the host side (FIG. 1). When a parent diagnostic command is issued, the maintenance control program 1 running on the service processor side executes an executable program 3 to check whether the specified parent program 3 exists on auxiliary storage such as a magnetic disk. Refer to program management table 4, and if the corresponding parent program 3 exists, move that parent program 3 to the service processor.
Rotates to SVP memory and starts (first
figure). The parent program 3 sets conditions for diagnosis, and after setting the conditions, notifies the maintenance control program 1 of completion (FIG. 1). The maintenance control program 1 notifies the bring-up program 2 on the host side that the condition settings have been completed (Figure 1), and the bring-up program 2 that receives the notification performs the necessary operations under the set conditions. Diagnosis processing is performed (Figure 1). After performing the diagnostic processing, the maintenance control program 1 sends a notification that the diagnosis has ended.
(Fig. 1), and maintenance control program 1 executes the following necessary bring-up program 2.
1 or terminate all diagnostic processing (FIG. 1).

However, the conventional maintenance program execution control method described above has the following drawbacks.
First, the parent program 3 requires various condition settings for diagnosis, so many programs are required for each type of diagnosis, and depending on the system, more than 200 parent programs 3 are prepared. The need may arise. However, conventionally, the parent program 3 was registered in the executable format program management table 4 on the auxiliary storage such as a magnetic disk device on the service processor side, and was fixedly held in the executable format. There is a limit to the number of parent programs 3 due to restrictions on the program number used to identify the parent program, restrictions on the entries in the management table 4, etc., and the scope of the test has sometimes been forced to be limited.

Second, the bring-up program 2 that runs on the host side and the parent program 3 that runs on the service processor side are originally intended to work as a pair to realize hardware diagnostic functions.
Since the entities of each program are configured in separate areas, program modifications, changes, additions, etc. must be handled with care to avoid conflicts between the two programs, and from the perspective of managing both programs. Maintenance was also extremely complicated.

Third, the entity of parent program 3 needs to be fixedly held in executable format on the auxiliary memory of the service processor SVP, so when a new parent program 3 is created, it must be registered in the management table. In addition to the troublesome process of having to carry out the processing, there is also the disadvantage that storage space for all the parent programs 3 must be prepared on the auxiliary memory.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and therefore, the maintenance program execution control method according to the present invention provides a method for controlling execution of a maintenance program in a computer system having a data processing device serving as a host and a service processor supporting the data processing device. The programs that run on the host side and the services listed above.
In a maintenance program execution control method that tests the hardware of the computer system using a program that runs on the processor side, the program that runs on the service processor side is added to the program that runs on the host side. When a program is integrated, the integrated program is loaded into the host side memory, the program that runs on the host side is executed on the host side, and the program that runs on the service processor side is executed. The part of the program that runs on the service processor side of the integrated program above is serviced from memory.
It is characterized in that the program is transferred to the memory on the processor side and the program that runs on the service processor side is executed. This will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the maintenance program execution control system of the present invention. Parent program 3 does not need to be registered and held in the auxiliary memory of the service processor SVP in advance. For this reason,
In the case of the present invention, the parent program 3 is added to the associated bring-up program 2 and is integrated into a bring-up program with a parent program 5. First, at the request of the operator, the maintenance control program 1 is transferred from the auxiliary storage device of the service processor SVP or the external storage device such as a magnetic tape on the host side to the host's memory as a bring-up program 5 with a parent program. and start Bringup Program 2 (Figure 2). The brought-up program 2 that has been started sets parameters in order to specify the parent program 3 to which it is attached (FIG. 2). The parameters may be set by, for example, setting the address of a parameter list in a specific register, and storing the start address of the parent program 3 and its program size in the parameter list. In this way, the service processor SVP can refer to any register or memory of the host, so that the location of the parent program 3 can be recognized later. Next, the bring-up program 2 issues a parent diagnostic command to request startup of the parent program 3 (FIG. 2).
When a parent diagnosis command is issued, the maintenance control program 1 refers to the registers and memory on the host side, finds the parent program 3 in the host memory, and stores the graphically transferred parent program 3 in the memory of the service processor. The program is transferred as program 3', and then the parent program 3' is started (FIG. 2). The parent program 3' sets conditions for diagnosis (FIG. 2). The subsequent processing (from Figure 2) is the conventional processing (Fig. 1).
It is almost the same as (not shown). In this way, there is no need to prepare the parent program 3 on the auxiliary storage of the service processor SVP, and there is no need to access the auxiliary storage, so that processing speed can be increased.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of another embodiment of the maintenance program execution control method according to the present invention. In this case as well, the parent program 3 is not fixedly provided and held on the auxiliary memory of the service processor SVP, but is added to the related bring-up program 2 and provided as the parent bring-up program 5. It will be done. However, on the auxiliary memory 6 of the service processor SVP, there should be enough space for the parent program 3 to be transferred and stored later, and at least one free entry in the executable program management table 4. . In Figure 3, from processing to
The process is the same as that shown in FIG.
When the maintenance control program 1 recognizes that the bring-up program 2 has issued a parent diagnostic command, the maintenance control program 1 directly sends the parent program 3 to the service processor from the host side in the embodiment shown in FIG.
Whereas it was previously transferred to the memory of the SVP, it is now transferred to the auxiliary memory 6 of the service processor SVP, and the parent program 3 is automatically transferred to the executable program management table without operator intervention. 4 as the graphical program 3'' (Figure 3). After that,
The parent program 3'' on the auxiliary memory 6 is loaded into the memory of the service processor SVP as a program 3', and the parent program 3' is executed (FIG. 3). The process from the figure to the previous figure is almost the same except for, for example, deregistering the entry in the executable program management table 4 after processing the parent program. Although it cannot be expected to speed up the processing,
The benefits of the present invention can be enjoyed without major changes to the conventional existing maintenance control program 1, and the auxiliary memory 6 of the service processor SVP does not need to be fixedly provided for all parent programs, which is necessary for current diagnosis. Parent program 3
An area the size of is sufficient.

The idea of integrating the bring-up program 2 and the parent program 3 of the present invention is that (i) the bring-up program 2 runs on the host side, and the parent program 3 runs on the host side, which is a service processor SVP. (ii) The processing is apparently more complicated; and (iii) Conventional hardware diagnostic programs require that the device under test be the host device. Although some programs may be transferred from the service processor side to the host side, conversely, it has become common for a part of the program to be transferred from the host side to the service processor side. It was difficult to do so. However, by configuring it as in the present invention, the drawbacks of the conventional maintenance program execution control method described above are eliminated, and the following effects are brought about.

First, it is possible to support an infinite number of parent programs that are not required at all or require only a limited area for diagnosing the auxiliary memory of the service processor SVP, and the scope of testing can be expanded. Second
If necessary, the program number of the palette program can be assigned dynamically, and there is no longer a restriction based on the program number as in the past.
Thirdly, the Bring Up Program and Parent
Since the programs are integrated, there is no confusion during program development, and maintenance such as modification, modification, improvement, and storage of programs is extremely easy. Fourth, traditional parents
A procedure for registering a program in the executable program management table on the auxiliary memory of the service processor SVP was required separately from the diagnostic process, but such a procedure is no longer necessary. Fifth, if the host side has a magnetic tape device, for example, the service processor
Even if there is no magnetic tape device on the SVP side, there are various effects such as being able to manage maintenance programs other than the maintenance control program MCP using magnetic tape, for example.

As explained above, according to the present invention, the diagnostic mode from the host side can be easily followed by the idea of combining the bring-up program and the parent program.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a conventional maintenance program execution control mode, and FIG. 2 or 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an embodiment of the maintenance program execution control method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the maintenance control program, 2 is the bring-up program, 3 is the parent program,
4 represents an executable program management table, and 5 represents a bring-up program with parent.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a computer system having a data processing device serving as a host and a service processor supporting the data processing device, a program running on the host side and a program running on the service processor side. In the execution control method of the maintenance program that is used together to test the hardware of the computer system, the service and
A program that runs on the processor side is added to the program that runs on the host side, and the two programs are integrated, the integrated program is loaded into the host side memory, and the program that runs on the host side is executed on the host side. When executing a program that runs on the service processor, transfer the part of the program that runs on the service processor from the host memory to the service processor's memory. , a maintenance program execution control method characterized in that a program running on a service processor side is executed. 2. In transferring the program running on the service processor side from the host memory to the service processor memory, an area is provided on the auxiliary memory of the service processor side to store the program running on the service processor side, Execution control of the maintenance program according to claim 1, characterized in that when the program is transferred, it is first transferred to the storage area on the auxiliary storage and then loaded from the area to the service processor side memory. method.