Apparatus maintenance system and method

• US 8,032,789 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2009
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Horikoshi, Keita
• Primary Examiner(s): MCCARTHY, CHRISTOPHER S
• Application Number:
  US12/407,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249117A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 714/31
• US Class Current: 714/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36

Abstract

An apparatus maintenance system and method are provided. The apparatus maintenance system includes an apparatus including a first control part, and a second control part connected to the first control part and a maintenance-data management server managing maintenance data about the apparatus. The second control part downloads the maintenance data from the maintenance-data management server to transfer the downloaded maintenance data to the first control part and transmits a maintenance result transferred from the first control part to the maintenance-data management server.

Claims

1. An apparatus maintenance system comprising:

an apparatus including a first control part, and a second control part connected to the first control part; and

a maintenance-data management server managing maintenance data about the apparatus,

wherein the first control part determines an error based on an error processing logic to obtain a maintenance result,

wherein the second control part downloads the maintenance data from the maintenance-data management server to transfer the downloaded maintenance data to the first control part, checks a validity of the maintenance result transferred from the first control part, and transmits the maintenance result to the maintenance-data management server.

2. The apparatus maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein the first control part generates a maintenance procedure on the basis of the transferred maintenance data.

3. The apparatus maintenance system according to claim 2, wherein the second control part analyzes a failure log of the apparatus to extract a failure history of each part in the apparatus in order to predict an occurrence of a failure of the part.

4. The apparatus maintenance system according to claim 3, further comprising:

a remote maintenance server including a known failure database storing known failure data received from the maintenance-data management server, the known failure data corresponds to a failure that is already known,

wherein, when a failure occurs in the apparatus, the apparatus notifies the remote maintenance server of the occurrence of the failure, and the remote maintenance server compares the failure that has occurred with the known failure data to determine whether the failure that has occurred is a known failure or an unknown failure.

5. The apparatus maintenance system according to claim 4,

wherein the maintenance-data management server accesses a failure database that stores failure data connected to the maintenance-data management server.

6. A maintenance method for a system including an apparatus that includes a first control part and a second control part connected to the first control part and a maintenance-data management server that manages maintenance data about the apparatus, the method comprising:

downloading the maintenance data from the maintenance-data management server to transfer the downloaded maintenance data to the first control part from the second control part;

generating a maintenance procedure on the basis of the transferred maintenance data;

transferring a maintenance result to the second control part after the maintenance from the first control part, the first control part determining an error based on an error processing logic to obtain the maintenance result; and

transmitting the transferred maintenance result to the maintenance-data management server from the second control part, and

wherein the second control part executes said downloading and checks a validity of the maintenance result transferred from the first control part.

7. The maintenance method according to claim 6, further comprising:

analyzing a failure log of the apparatus to extract a failure history of each part in the apparatus in order to predict an occurrence of a failure of the part.

8. A maintenance method performed by a processor, comprising:

downloading maintenance data from a server;

transferring the maintenance data to a first controller from a second controller, the first controller determining an error based on an error processing logic to obtain a maintenance data;

generating a maintenance procedure on a basis of the transferred maintenance data;

transferring the maintenance result to the second controller after the maintenance from the first controller; and

transmitting the transferred result to the server from the second controller, and

wherein the second controller executes said downloading and checks a validity of the maintenance result transferred from the first controller.