JPS61167245A - Spare switching system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a centralized supervisory controlling device of exclusive use unnecessary and to improve operation rate of the system by taking status supervisory and controlling function of the device in a service device when presently used device got out of order. CONSTITUTION:When a presently used main device 20 that is realizing master station function of a loop circuit 11 got out of order, this is detected by a service processor 201 and the presently used main device 20 is blocked. The service processor 201 itself shifts from a slave station to a master station, and informs a service processor 401 corresponding to a spare main device of the impediment of the device 20. The service processor 401 gives indication to a spare main device 40 to execute loading of SP and HM from an auxiliary storage unit 402. On receiving rising competion report from the service processor 401, the service processor 201 makes the connection of a circuit connector 21 the device 40 with respect to an adapter 21 and returns from a master station to a slave station.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a standby switching system in the event of a fault in a working device in a system in which a plurality of working devices and standby devices are connected via a loop line.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, in a system where multiple active devices and backup devices are connected via a loop line, switching to the backup device in the event of a failure in the active device has been controlled by a dedicated central monitoring and control device that centrally monitors and controls system operations, etc. It is common to do so.

FIG. 3 shows an example. In FIG. 3, 10 is a central monitoring and control device, 20, 30, and 40 are computer main units (CPUs) to be switched, and in this case, 20°30 is an active main unit, and 40 is a backup main unit.

201.301 and 401 are the main device 20.3 respectively
0.40 service processor (
SVP). 21 and 31 are line connection devices;
It accommodates a plurality of communication lines 5. During normal operation, the single-line connection device 21 is logically connected to the current main device 20, and the line connection device 31 is logically connected to the current main device 30.

211 and 3], 1 is each 9 line connection device 2],
, 31 is an adapter that performs status monitoring and switching control.

Centralized monitoring and control device 10 and service processor 201゜3
01.4.0] and the adapters 211 and 31.1 are connected in a loop by the loop line 11.

Now, when a failure occurs in the current main unit 20, the service processor 201 detects the failure and notifies the central monitoring and control unit 1o through the loop line 11. When the centralized monitoring and control device 10 receives a notification of the occurrence of a failure in the current main device 20, it sends a message to the adapter 211 via the loop line 11.
A command is issued to set the connection destination of the line connection device 21 to the standby main unit 40, and similarly, an instruction to set the standby main unit 4o to the active main unit is issued to the service processor 401 through the loop line 11. As a result, the spare main unit 4
0 is switched to the active main unit, the line connection device 21 is logically connected to the main unit 40, and the backup switching is completed.

By the way, the centralized monitoring and control device 10 is the main station of the loop line, and the service processors 20, 301 and 401, and the adapters 211 and 31.1 are slave stations, respectively. The reasons for providing the centralized monitoring and control device 10 include the elimination of processing inconsistencies among device groups through central management, ease of management by operators, and ease of developing control programs using dedicated devices. However, in this switching control method, a centralized monitoring and control device is required even for standby switching in a relatively small-scale system consisting of a small number of devices, and the ratio of the centralized monitoring and control device in the system becomes large, resulting in an economical problem. There is a problem with sexuality.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a standby switching method that realizes switching control to a standby device when a failure occurs in the active device without using a dedicated centralized monitoring and control device.

[Summary of the invention]

In a system in which multiple active devices and backup devices are connected via a loop line, the present invention provides backup switching control in which the main station function for monitoring and controlling all devices is carried over to any active device using the loop line. If the current device with the main station function fails, the standby device can be provided with the main station function and continue operation, allowing standby switching control without using a dedicated central monitoring and control device. This is to realize the following.

[Embodiments of the invention]

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. 1st
In the figure, 20, 30, and 40 are computer main units (CPUs) to be switched, and in this case, 20.30 is the active main unit, and 40 is the backup main unit. 201, 301, and 401 are service processors (SVP) that monitor and control the status of the main devices 20, 30, and 40, respectively.

202, 303, and 402 are auxiliary storage devices provided in the containers [20, 30, and 40, respectively. It stores a monitoring/control program (hereinafter referred to as HM). 20, 201, and 202 or 30, 301, and 302 each form one active device, and 40, 401, and 402 form a standby device.

21 and 31 are line connection devices, which accommodate a plurality of general service lines 5 and loop lines 11.

During normal operation, the line connection device 21 connects to the current main device 20,
The line connection devices 31 are each logically connected to the current main device 30. 211 and 311 are adapters that monitor the status and control switching of the line connection devices 21 and 31, respectively, and have slave station functions for the loop line 11.

It is now assumed that in addition to the SP, an HM is running on the current main unit 20, and is performing general services and device management at the same time. That is, it is assumed that the main station function of the loop line 11 is assigned to the current main unit W20. On the other hand, the current main unit 30
In the above example, it is assumed that only the SP is running. In addition, each service processor 201, 301, and 401 has an HM
It is assumed that the main station and slave station functions of the loop line 1 are coexisting.

During normal operation, when the current main unit 30 becomes in trouble, the service processor 301 corresponding to the current main unit 30 responds to the timing issued at regular intervals from the HM, which is the main station function of the current main unit 20. Based on the failure report or non-response, the HM on the current main body device 20 recognizes that the device 30 is at fault, and installs the spare main body device 40 into the system as a substitute device for the device 1f30.
In contrast, the connection destination of the line connection device 31 is set to the spare main device 40.
instruct the user to change it to . It also instructs the service processor 401 to load the same SP that was running on the device 30 onto the device 40 and start it.

This completes the preliminary switching operation.

On the other hand, if the current main unit 20 that implements the main station function of the loop line 11 becomes faulty, the service processor 2Q1
detects the failure and blocks the current main unit 20, that is,
block the HM/SP), service processor 20
1 itself transitions from the slave station to the master station, and notifies the service processor 401 corresponding to the standby main unit 40 of the fault in the active main unit 20 via the loop line 11. Current main unit 2
Service processor 4 receives notification that 0 is a failure.
01 instructs the spare main device 40 to load (IPL) the SP and HM from the auxiliary storage device 402 in order to generally continue servicing and monitoring and controlling all other devices as a replacement device for the device 20. instruct. When the spare main device 40 finishes loading the SP and HM from the auxiliary storage device 402, it reports this to the service processor 401, and the service processor 401 loads the SP and HM of the device 40.
The completion of startup is reported to the service processor 201.

The service processor 201, which has received the start-up completion report from the service processor 401, instructs the adapter 211 to connect the line connection device 21 to the device 40, and upon receiving the report from the line connection device 21 that the switching is complete, ,
For the service processor 401 on the device 40 side, the device 4
0'' 2nd ■Starts M and instructs to enable the main station function. Upon receiving a report from the service processor 401 that the HM startup on the device 40 has been completed, the service processor
'/- The processor 201 returns from the master station to the slave station. After that, device 2
A spare main body device 40, which is incorporated into the system as a replacement device for the device 20, continues the general services that were being performed by the device 20, and at the same time monitors and controls all the devices. FIG. 2 shows the operation flow when the current main unit 20 becomes a failure.

In this embodiment, a fixed standby system in which a specific device is assigned as a spare main unit has been described, but even in a complete group standby system in which a faulty device can become a spare main unit after repair, the service processor of all main units is assigned the main unit. It goes without saying that the present invention can be similarly applied by providing a station and a slave station function and setting the service processor of the main unit on which the HM is running so that only it can function as the master station.

In addition, the architecture of the conventional centralized monitoring and control equipment was
By making the architecture the same as that of the main unit shown in the figure, even if a central monitoring and control unit is required for a medium- to large-sized center system, it can be applied by slightly changing the program of the service processor of the main unit, and the line Connection device #8 = line switching adapter can be used as is.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, only one spare device is used, but even in a system that requires high reliability and has two or more spare devices, it is possible to clarify the order in which the spare devices are applied. , the present invention is applicable.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by incorporating the equipment status monitoring and control functions into the service equipment, dedicated equipment such as a centralized monitoring and control equipment, which was conventionally required for equipment switching in the event of equipment failure, is eliminated. This makes it possible to construct the system economically, and even if the device that manages all devices fails, the device management entity can be transferred between service devices, so the system It becomes possible to improve the operating rate.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an operation flow diagram of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional example. 11... Loop line, 20.30... Current main unit, 40... Backup main unit, 201,301゜4
01...Service processor, 202,302.
402...Auxiliary storage device, 21.31...Line connection device, 211,311...Adapter, 5...Communication line.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Multiple active devices and standby devices that can coexist with a master station function mainly for monitoring and control and a slave function that receives control instructions from the master station are connected via a loop line, so that one active device can function as the master station. function and slave function are enabled, and for other active devices and backup devices, only the slave function is enabled. If the active device with only the slave function enabled becomes a failure, the main station function and slave function are enabled. The main station function of the active device detects the failure and switches the failed active device to the backup device, and the main station function side of the active device whose master station function and slave function are enabled detects the failure. If the failure occurs, the slave function of the active device detects the failure and blocks the main station function, and instructs the backup device, for which only the slave function is enabled, to enable the master station function as well. A standby switching method characterized by the device acting as the main station and continuing operation.