Monitoring device, information processing apparatus, and monitoring method

• US 9,092,453 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Tsukamoto, Nina, Matsuda, Shinnosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US13/902,847
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 793 Days
• Field of Search: 714/45, 714/47.1, 714/48, 714/42, 714/54
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0778 Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3024 where the computing system component is a central processing unit [CPU]

Abstract

A monitoring device includes a detection unit which is inserted between the device to be monitored and a processing apparatus performing processing for the device to be monitored and detects a failure which occurs in the device to be monitored, a notification unit generating failure information indicating a content of the failure detected by the detection unit and notifying the generated failure information and the occurrence of the failure to the processing apparatus, and an acquisition unit acquiring status information after the occurrence of the failure of the device to be monitored from the device to be monitored and storing the acquired status information in a storage unit as the failure occurs.

Claims

1. A monitoring device which monitors an device to be monitored, wherein

the monitoring device is inserted and installed between the device to be monitored and a processing device that performs process for the device to be monitored, and

the monitoring device comprises:

a detection unit that detects a failure which occurs in the device to be monitored;

a notification unit that generates failure information indicating a content of the failure detected by the detection unit, and notifies the generated failure information and occurrence of the failure to the processing device; and

an acquisition unit that, in accordance with the occurrence of the failure, accesses to the device to be monitored to acquire status information from the device to be monitored and stores the status information in a storage unit, the status information indicating status of the device to be monitored after the occurrence of the failure thereof.

2. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit

periodically accesses to the device to be monitored to acquire status information from the device to be monitored and stores the acquired status information in a first area of the storage unit, and

in accordance with the occurrence of the failure, suppresses the periodical access to the device to be monitored to acquire the status information, and accesses to the device to be monitored to acquire status information and stores the acquired status information in a second area in the storage unit.

3. The monitoring device according to claim 2, wherein the acquisition unit stores the acquired periodic status information in the first area of the storage unit which is a nonvolatile memory to which the processing device is accessible and stores the acquired status information after the failure occurs in the second area of the nonvolatile memory.

4. The monitoring device according to claim 2, wherein the acquisition unit stores the acquired periodic status information in the first area of the storage unit which is a memory of the processing device and stores the acquired status information after the failure occurs in the second area of the memory.

5. The monitoring device according to claim 4, wherein the acquisition unit accesses to the device to be monitored to acquire the status information from the device to be monitored, which is instructed by an acquisition request and stores the acquired status information in a third area of the memory when receiving the acquisition request of the status information of the device to be monitored from the processing device.

6. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit separates the device to be monitored where the failure occurs from a system when the notification unit notifies the generated failure information and the occurrence of the failure to the processing device.

7. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit is connected with the device to be monitored through a signal line for notifying the occurrence of the failure and detects the failure when receiving a notification through the signal line from the device to be monitored.

8. The monitoring device according to claim 7, wherein the detection unit detects the failure in at least one case of the case in which the notification of the occurrence of the failure is received from the processing device, the case in which the failure occurs in the periodic acquisition of the status information by the acquisition unit, and the case in which the notification is received from the device to be monitored through the signal line.

9. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit stores the generated failure information in a predetermined area of the storage unit, and notifies the occurrence of the failure to the processing device by interruption.

10. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the processing device is a processor, and the monitoring device is a monitoring circuit.

11. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

an device to be monitored;

a processing device that performs process for the device to be monitored;

a monitoring device that monitors the device to be monitored; and

a storage unit that stores a monitoring result by the monitoring device,

wherein the monitoring device is inserted and installed between the device to be monitored and the processing device, and includes;

a detection unit that detects a failure which occurs in the device to be monitored;

a notification unit that generates failure information indicating a content of the failure detected by the detection unit, and notifies the generated failure information and occurrence of the failure to the processing device; and

an acquisition unit that, in accordance with the occurrence of the failure, accesses to the device to be monitored to acquire status information from the device to be monitored and stores the status information in the storage unit, the status information indicating status of the device to be monitored after the occurrence of the failure thereof.

12. A monitoring method in a monitoring device comprising:

monitoring the device to be monitored by the monitoring device, the monitoring device being inserted and installed between an device to be monitored and a processing device that performs process for the device to be monitored;

detecting a failure which occurs in the device to be monitored;

generating failure information indicating a content of the detected failure;

notifying the generated failure information and the occurrence of the failure to the processing device; and

accessing, in accordance with the occurrence of the failure, to the device to be monitored to acquire status information and storing the acquired status information in a storage unit, the status information indicating status of the device to be monitored after the occurrence of the failure thereof.

13. The monitoring method according to claim 12, wherein in the storing,

the status information is periodically acquired by a periodic access from the device to be monitored and stored in a first area of the storage unit, and

in accordance with the occurrence of the failure, the periodic access to the device to be monitored to acquire the status information is suppressed, and an access to the device to be monitored to acquire the status information is performed and the acquired status information is stored in a second area of the storage unit.

14. The monitoring method according to claim 13, wherein in the storing,

the acquired periodic status information is stored in the first area of the storage unit which is a nonvolatile memory to which the processing device is accessible, and

the acquired status information after the failure occurs is stored in the second area of the nonvolatile memory.

15. The monitoring method according to claim 13, wherein in the storing,

the acquired periodic status information is stored in the first area of the storage unit which is a memory of the processing device, and

the acquired status information after the failure occurs is stored in the second area of the memory.

16. The monitoring method according to claim 15, wherein the status information is acquired by an access from the device to be monitored, which is instructed by an acquisition request and the acquired status information is stored in a third area of the memory when the acquisition request of the status information of the device to be monitored from the processing device is received.

17. The monitoring method according to claim 12, wherein in the detecting,

the device to be monitored where the failure occurs is separated from a system when the generated failure information and the occurrence of the failure are notified to the processing device in the notifying.

18. The monitoring method according to claim 12, wherein in the detecting,

the failure is detected when a notification is received from the device to be monitored through a signal line for notifying the occurrence of the failure.

19. The monitoring method according to claim 18, wherein in the detecting,

the failure is detected in at least one case of the case in which the notification of the occurrence of the failure is received from the processing device, the case in which the failure occurs in the periodic acquisition of the status information by the storing, and the case in which the notification is received from the device to be monitored through the signal line.

20. The monitoring method according to claim 12, wherein in the notifying,

the generated failure information is stored in a predetermined area of the storage unit, and

the occurrence of the failure is notified to the processing device by interruption.