JPS62171046A - Monitor device for logical unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To freely select a communication system for a monitor device by providing a logical unit monitoring part, a memory, a communication line control part and a communication control part, monitoring the action of the logical unit and collecting information on maintenance diagnosis and trouble information at the time of causing abnormalities. CONSTITUTION:In normal operation a CPU 12 in the monitor device 1 monitors the logical unit 2, collects and stores information on maintenance diagnosis in the memory 13. If the device 2 develops trouble, trouble information is stored in the memory 13. The communication circuit control part 15 selects the 1st communication system decided by a MODEM 5 as an initial state. A personal computer 6 is connected to an operator device 1 through an RS-232C interface 42. for collecting information by the computer 6, the 1st communication type is used at the time of activation so as to connect. When the prescribed parameter is inputted from a keyboard, it is received by a control part 15 and switches the 1st type to the 2nd communication type, afterward, the information is collected by the 2nd communication type.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a logic device monitoring device that monitors the operation of a logic device.

[Conventional technology]

In order to improve the reliability of the operations of various logical devices such as information processing devices, their operations are monitored using monitoring devices, and information for maintenance diagnosis and fault information is collected as necessary. ing.

When a failure or the like occurs in a logical device, this monitoring device stops its operation, or switches its operation if a backup logical device is provided. Further, the occurrence of such a failure is displayed on a predetermined display device. Furthermore, the operating state of the logical device before and after the occurrence of a fault and data stored in registers and the like are read and stored in the memory as fault information.

When an operator is notified of the occurrence of a failure in a logical device by looking at a display device or the like, the operator outputs the contents of this memory to a printer or the like to perform failure diagnosis or the like.

Here, if the operator is located far away from the monitoring device, the contents of the memory of the monitoring device can be read through a communication line such as a telephone line. If monitoring devices are installed at various locations, data can be collected by calling these devices in sequence. Additionally, the monitoring device is controlled through this communication line to perform various maintenance and diagnosis tasks. Such a monitoring device is provided with a communication line control section to send data to the communication line.

A so-called modem (MODEM) is usually used to connect this type of equipment to a telephone line. The communication line control unit has a certain communication format (communication protocol) set to match the function of this modem. Furthermore, for the use of telephone lines, a communication speed of about 300 to 1200 vods is selected.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, at such a communication speed, there is a problem in that it takes an extremely long time to transfer data when, for example, a memory dump is executed.

Furthermore, since the communication format is fixed, the receiving side also required a dedicated terminal.

On the other hand, if the operator is near the monitoring device,
There are cases where data can be read directly from there without going through a communication line. At this time, the operator connects the terminal to the communication line control section and proceeds with the work.

However, in this case as well, the communication format of the communication line control unit is fixed and cannot be easily changed, so it is not possible to speed up data reading or the like. Moreover, this communication format had the disadvantage that it was difficult to connect to general-purpose terminals. 'Furthermore, there are various operations that a monitoring device must perform, such as maintenance diagnosis and collecting information when an abnormality occurs, but the optimal communication format for each of these operations is different, so it is important to adopt a certain communication format at a certain rate. This also has the disadvantage that it reduces the efficiency of analysis of maintenance diagnosis data, etc., and takes more time than necessary.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring device for a logical device that is capable of selecting the communication format most suitable for various operations of the monitoring device and switching between the communication formats. It is something to do.

[Means for solving problems]

The device of the present invention monitors the operation of a logical device and collects information for maintenance diagnosis and failure information when an abnormality occurs. A communication line control unit that transfers the stored information to an external device via a communication line using one of two or more communication formats, and a communication line control unit that monitors the communication line and changes the communication format when a communication abnormality occurs. The device is characterized in that it has a communication management section that returns the device to its initial state.

[Effect]

By giving the communication line control unit the ability to select two or more communication formats, for example, data can be transmitted at low speed when connecting to a telephone line, and when connecting directly to a general-purpose terminal, etc. can transfer data at high speed.

This switching of communication formats is performed, for example, in response to parameters input from the terminal. Further, if switching of communication formats is made possible in this way, an abnormality may occur during switching, or a terminal with a mismatched communication format may be erroneously connected.

The communication management unit monitors the communication line, promptly detects an abnormality due to the mismatch of communication formats, and restores the communication state to the initial state. This makes it possible to prevent data from being sent erroneously.

〔Example〕

The figure is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a logical device monitoring device of the present invention.

This monitoring device 1 is connected to a logical device 2 via a monitoring ink face 3. Further, since it is used using a normal telephone line 41, it is connected to a modem 5, and on the other hand, it is connected to a so-called personal computer 6 via an R3-232C interface 42, which is a general-purpose ink face.

This monitoring device 1 includes a microprocessor (CPU) 12, a memory 13, and a logical device monitoring section 1 on a path line 11.
4, a communication line control section 15, a maintenance panel 16, and a communication management section 17 are connected.

The microprocessor 12 is a circuit that controls the operation of monitoring the logical device 2 according to a predetermined maintenance diagnosis and monitoring operation program, and also controls data transmission and the like.

The memory 13 is composed of a storage element and the like that obtains certain maintenance diagnosis information and failure information from the monitoring device 1 and stores this information.

The logic device monitoring unit 14 is a known circuit that monitors the operation of the logic device 2 and performs operations such as interrupting the processing of the microprocessor 12 when, for example, a certain failure occurs.

These circuits are similar to those provided in various known monitoring devices, and a more detailed explanation will be omitted.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the communication line control unit 15 can select two types of communication formats.

In the first communication format, the telephone line 41 is used, the transmission rate is set to, for example, 1200 baud, and predetermined parity pits, data bit length, stop bit length, etc. are set.

In addition, in the second communication format, the transmission speed is set to, for example, 5400 baud, and the general-purpose R3-232C ink face 4
2, the data can be exchanged with the personal computer 6.

The maintenance panel 16 is provided so that the operator can manually switch the communication format to the initial state, and is equipped with a trigger switch 21 and an indicator lamp 22 to display which communication format is selected. It is being This is assumed to be lit, for example, when the first communication format is selected (this is the initial state).

When this switch 21 is pressed once, a signal is transmitted through the path line 11, and the communication line control section 15 switches its communication format to the initial state in response.

The communication management unit 17 (WDT) is a circuit called a watchdog timer, and monitors the communication line 4 consisting of the R3-232C interface 42 and the telephone line 41 connected to the modem, and detects mismatches in communication formats, etc. This is a circuit that issues a predetermined signal to interrupt the processing of the microprocessor 12 when a communication abnormality occurs, stopping the processing and returning to the initial state. For this purpose, a circuit well known as a runaway monitoring circuit for an information processing device or the like is used.

As a personal computer, for example, PC-980
0 (a general-purpose desktop computer manufactured by NEC Corporation) is used. This computer allows an operator to select various communication formats by manually inputting predetermined parameters from a keyboard.

The communication line control section 15 may have the same configuration as the communication line control section built into this computer.

The logical device monitoring device of the present invention having the above configuration operates as follows.

First, during normal operation, in the monitoring device 1, the microprocessor 12 monitors the logical device 2, collects maintenance diagnosis information, and writes it into the memory 13.

Further, when a failure occurs in the logical device 2, failure information is written to the memory 13.

When an operator collects this information, he or she typically does this through the telephone line 41. Communication line control unit 15
For this purpose, the first communication format defined by the modem 5 is selected as the initial state.

Here, the operator installs the R3-232C on this monitoring device 1.
The personal computer 6 via the interface 42
Connect. When collecting information using this personal computer 6, connection is made using the first communication format selected as the initial state at startup. Then, when predetermined parameters are entered manually from the keyboard, the parameters are received by the communication line control section 15. The communication line control unit is switched to the second communication format by this parameter.

Thereafter, information collection proceeds using the second communication format.

By doing so, for example, when high-speed data transmission is required, a communication format that achieves the maximum communication speed of the personal computer 6 can be selected.

[Modified example]

The logical device monitoring device of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

Two or more communication formats or any number of communication formats that can be selected by the communication line control unit may be provided. 4. The optimum communication format may be selected each time by changing the parameters as appropriate, taking into account the work content of the monitoring device, the amount of data to be transferred, and other conditions.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The logical device monitoring device of the present invention described above can freely select a communication format suitable for various operations performed by the monitoring device from among the prepared communication formats.

Therefore, in the case of data transfer, for example, it is possible to speed up the process, and analysis of the cause of an abnormality can be performed more quickly.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a logical device monitoring device according to the present invention. 1...Monitoring device, 2...Logic device, 13...Memory, 14...Logic device monitoring section, 15...Communication line Control unit, 17...Communication management unit.
゛Applicant: NEC Corporation Agent

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a device that monitors the operation of a logical device and collects information for maintenance diagnosis and failure information when an abnormality occurs, there is a logical device monitoring unit, a memory that stores the information, and a memory that stores the information stored in this memory. a communication line control unit that transfers data to an external device via a communication line using one of the above communication formats; and a communication line control unit that monitors the communication line and returns the communication format to its initial state when a communication abnormality occurs. 1. A monitoring device for a logical device, comprising: a communication management section.