JP4438405B2 - Monitoring device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for monitoring a device connected to a network.

  In recent years, in a system for monitoring devices connected to a network, it is common to use a protocol called SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) (see Patent Document 1 below).

  In a system using SNMP, an SNMP manager operating on a monitoring device acquires various status information by making an inquiry called polling to an SNMP agent operating on a device. The status information is recorded in a kind of database called MIB (Management Information Base) held by the device.

JP 2000-115168 A

  Since various status information is recorded in the MIB, if more detailed status information is to be acquired, the amount of data flowing on the network increases accordingly, which hinders communication other than SNMP. There was a risk. Such a problem is not limited to a monitoring system using SNMP, but is common to monitoring systems using other communication methods.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to suppress an increase in network traffic when monitoring various status information of a device.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as the following monitoring device. That is, a monitoring device that monitors devices connected via a network,
A first inquiry unit that periodically inquires the device for first status information indicating a predetermined state of the device at predetermined intervals;
An adjusting unit that adjusts an interval for periodically inquiring second status information representing another state of the device based on the inquired first status information;
A second inquiry unit that inquires the device for second status information at the adjusted timing;
With
The gist is that the first status information and the second status information have a correlation with each state of the device represented by the status information.

  In the monitoring apparatus of the present invention, at least two types of status information are monitored, but the timing for monitoring one status information is adjusted according to the status of the other status information. For example, when monitoring a printer as a device, if the first status information is the number of printed sheets and the second status information is the remaining amount of toner, if the number of printed sheets is small, the interval for inquiring about the remaining amount of toner is lengthened and printing If the number of sheets is large, it is possible to adjust such that the interval for inquiring about the remaining amount of toner is shortened. Therefore, according to the monitoring apparatus of the present invention, since it is not necessary to inquire a plurality of status information in synchronization, an increase in network traffic can be suppressed and the device can be monitored efficiently.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
And a prediction unit for predicting the second status information based on the inquired first status information,
The adjustment unit may further adjust a timing for inquiring the device about the second status information based on the predicted second status information.

  According to such a configuration, for example, it is possible to predict the remaining amount of toner from the inquired number of printed sheets and to adjust the timing for inquiring the actual remaining amount of toner from the predicted value. In addition, for example, the remaining amount of toner and the number of printed sheets can be predicted from the size of the print job, and the number of runnings of the photosensitive drum and the paper feed mechanism can be predicted from the number of printed sheets and the remaining amount of toner.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
The adjustment unit may adjust the timing according to a comparison result between the predicted second status information and a predetermined threshold.

  According to such a configuration, for example, after the toner remaining amount is predicted from the number of printed sheets, the predicted toner remaining amount is compared with a predetermined threshold value, and if the toner remaining amount exceeds the threshold value, the toner is sufficiently charged. It is possible to perform control such that an inquiry is not made when it is determined that it remains. By doing so, an increase in network traffic can be further suppressed. Also, if the remaining amount of toner is equal to or less than the threshold value, it is possible to perform control such that an inquiry is made with a sufficient frequency regardless of the number of printed sheets.

In the monitoring device having the above configuration,
And a receiving unit for receiving information related to the second status information and transmitted spontaneously by the device,
The adjustment unit may further adjust a timing for inquiring the second status information from the device based on the received information.

  By doing so, it is possible to adjust the timing for inquiring the second status information based not only on the first status information but also on the alert information received from the device. For example, when alert information indicating that the remaining amount of toner is small is received, it is possible to perform control such that the timing for inquiring the remaining amount of toner is shortened regardless of the number of printed sheets.

In the monitoring device of the present invention,
The adjustment unit is configured so that the timing at which the second inquiry unit inquires about the second status information is longer than the timing at which the first inquiry unit inquires about the first status information. It is good also as what performs.

  By doing so, since the inquiry frequency of the second status information can be suppressed lower than the inquiry frequency of the first status information, an increase in network traffic can be more reliably suppressed.

In the monitoring device of the present invention,
It is preferable that the first status information and the second status information have a correlation. This is because if there is a correlation, the inquiry timing of the second status information can be easily adjusted based on the first status information.

  In the present invention, the various aspects described above can be applied by appropriately combining or omitting some of them. The present invention can also be configured as a monitoring method for monitoring a device connected by a computer via a network, a computer program for monitoring a device connected by a computer via a network, and the like. In any configuration, the various aspects described above can be applied.

  The computer program may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. As the recording medium, for example, various media such as a flexible disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, and a hard disk can be used.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order based on examples.
A. General configuration of the monitoring system:
B. General configuration of the monitoring server:
C. General printer configuration:
D. Monitoring process:
E. Variations:

A. General configuration of the monitoring system:
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the monitoring system 10. The monitoring system 10 includes a computer 100, a monitoring server 200, and a printer 300, which are connected by a LAN (Local Area Network). The monitoring system 10 is a system in which the monitoring server 200 monitors various status information of the printer 300 and notifies the computer 100 of the monitoring results. Although one printer 300 to be monitored is shown in FIG. 1, the number is not particularly limited. The number of computers 100 is also arbitrary.

  The computer 100 is a so-called personal computer, and includes a CPU, a RAM, a hard disk drive, a display, and the like. An operating system and a web browser are installed in the hard disk drive. The administrator of the printer 300 can check the status information of the printer 300 by accessing the monitoring server 200 via this Web browser. In the lower part of the computer 100 in the figure, an example is shown in which the number of printed sheets and the remaining amount of toner are displayed as status information on the Web browser.

  The monitoring server 200 is a device that monitors the status information of the printer 300 using the SNMP protocol. In this embodiment, as the status information of the printer 300, the number of printed sheets and the remaining amount of toner are monitored. The monitoring server 200 periodically polls (inquires) the number of prints to the printer 300, and adjusts the polling timing of the remaining amount of toner having a correlation with the number of prints according to the number of prints.

  A diagram representing the concept of this timing adjustment is shown below the monitoring server 200 in the figure. For example, the monitoring server 200 polls the printer 300 for the number of prints at an interval of one hour as shown in the figure. As a result of the polling, if the number of printed sheets is increased, it is predicted that the remaining amount of toner is decreased. Therefore, the monitoring server 200 sets the polling interval of the remaining amount of toner to 3 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, shorten. This makes it possible to frequently monitor the situation when the remaining amount of toner is low.

B. General configuration of the monitoring server:
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the monitoring server 200. The monitoring server 200 is configured as a computer in which a CPU 210, a RAM 220, a NIC (network interface controller) 230, an HDD (hard disk drive) 240, and the like are connected by a predetermined bus. The NIC 230 is a controller that performs control for communicating with other devices via the LAN.

  In the HDD 240, an operating system 241 and a WWW server program 242 and an SNMP manager 243 that operate on the operating system 241 are installed. The CPU 210 develops these programs in the RAM 220 and executes them.

  The WWW server program 242 is used for displaying status information of the printer 300 on a Web browser operating on the computer 100. The status information may be transmitted in response to a request from the Web browser, or may be periodically push-distributed to the Web browser.

  The SNMP manager 243 is software for monitoring the printer 300 using the SNMP protocol. In the lower part of FIG. 2, functional blocks realized by software when the SNMP manager 243 is executed by the CPU 210 are shown. As shown in the figure, the SNMP manager 243 includes an inquiry unit 250, a trap reception unit 251, a toner remaining amount prediction unit 252, a timing adjustment unit 253, and the like.

  The inquiry unit 250 polls the printer 300 for various status information such as the number of printed sheets and the remaining amount of toner. This corresponds to the first inquiry unit and the second inquiry unit of the present invention.

  The trap receiver 251 receives alert information that the printer 300 spontaneously transmits. The alert information is, for example, information indicating that there is little paper remaining or information indicating that the toner is low. In the SNMP protocol, information spontaneously transmitted from the monitoring target is called a “trap”.

  The toner remaining amount prediction unit 252 predicts the remaining amount of toner remaining in the printer 300 from the number of printed pages polled by the inquiry unit 250.

  The timing adjustment unit 253 adjusts the timing for polling the remaining toner amount according to the remaining toner amount predicted by the remaining toner amount prediction unit 252 and the trap received by the trap receiver 251.

C. General printer configuration:
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the printer 300. The printer 300 is a network-compatible laser printer, and includes a CPU 310, a RAM 320, a NIC 330, an EEPROM 340, a ROM 350, a printing mechanism 360, a toner sensor 370, and the like.

  The printing mechanism 360 is a mechanism for printing on fed paper, and includes a laser control unit, a photosensitive drum, a toner cartridge, a paper supply / discharge mechanism, and the like.

  The EEPROM 340 stores the MIB 341. Various status information of the printer 300 is recorded in the MIB 341. As status information, for example, information such as the number of printed sheets, toner remaining amount, printer manufacturing number, model name, network address, print job size, and the number of times the photosensitive drum or paper feed mechanism has run is recorded. The MIB 341 may be stored in the RAM 320.

  Various programs such as the print engine 351 and the SNMP agent 352 are stored in the ROM 350. The CPU 310 develops these programs in the RAM 320 and executes them.

  The print engine 351 is a program that performs print processing of a print job received from the computer 100 or the like via the NIC 330 by controlling the printing mechanism 360. The print engine 351 counts the number of printed sheets during the printing process, and records the counted number of printed sheets in the MIB 341. Further, the print engine 351 detects the remaining amount of toner using the toner sensor 370 and records the detected remaining amount of toner in the MIB 341. The “number of printed sheets” in this embodiment refers to the total number of printed sheets accumulated after the toner cartridge is replaced with a new one.

  The SNMP agent 352 is a program that transmits the status information of the printer 300 to the monitoring server 200 using the SNMP protocol. In the lower part of the figure, functional blocks realized by software when the SNMP agent 352 is executed by the CPU 310 are shown. As shown in the figure, the SNMP agent 352 includes a polling processing unit 380 and a trap transmission unit 381.

  The polling processing unit 380 performs processing for retrieving the specified status information from the MIB 341 and returning it when polling is received from the monitoring server 200.

  The trap sending unit 381 sends a message to that effect to the monitoring server 200 when the remaining paper or toner is low.

D. Monitoring process:
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the monitoring process executed by the CPU 210 of the monitoring server 200. This monitoring process is a process executed for the monitoring server 200 to monitor the printer 300.

  First, the CPU 210 periodically polls the printer 300 for the number of prints (step S10). Then, it is determined whether or not a trap indicating that the remaining amount of toner is low is received from the printer 300 (step S11). If the trap is not received (step S11: No), the remaining amount of toner is predicted using the polled number of printed sheets (step S12). The graph shown in the figure is a graph showing an example of a function used for such prediction. According to the graph shown in the figure, it is predicted that the remaining amount of toner decreases as the number of printed sheets increases. The prediction of the remaining amount of toner may use a table instead of a function.

  Next, the CPU 210 determines whether or not the predicted remaining toner amount is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold (step S13). The threshold value can be set to 60%, for example. If the predicted remaining toner amount exceeds the threshold (step S13: No), it is determined that sufficient toner remains, and the monitoring process is performed without polling the printer 300 for the remaining toner amount. finish.

  If the predicted remaining toner amount is equal to or less than the threshold (step S13: Yes), the CPU 210 adjusts the timing for polling the remaining toner amount (step S14). The graph shown in the figure is a graph showing an example of a function used for such timing adjustment. According to the graph shown in the drawing, the timing is adjusted so that the polling interval becomes longer as the remaining amount of toner increases. This is because if the toner remains sufficiently, the operation of the printer 300 is not hindered without frequent monitoring. At this time, the CPU 210 adjusts the timing so that the frequency of polling the remaining amount of toner is less than the frequency of polling the number of printed sheets. This is to prevent the network traffic from increasing more than necessary. Note that the timing adjustment may be performed using a table instead of a function.

  If a trap indicating that the remaining amount of toner is low is received in Step S11 (Step S11: Yes), the above-described prediction of the remaining amount of toner (Step S12) and adjustment of the polling interval (Step S14) are not performed. The polling interval is fixed to a certain time (step S15). The fixing time is set to be a short time such as 0.5 hours. The situation in which such a trap is transmitted from the printer 300 is a situation in which the remaining amount of toner is almost close to zero, so that the administrator of the printer 300 grasps the remaining amount by frequently monitoring.

  Finally, the CPU 210 polls the remaining amount of toner at the polling interval adjusted in step S14 or step S15 (step S16). The CPU 210 always executes the monitoring process in a loop while the monitoring server 200 is activated.

  According to the monitoring process described above, the interval for polling the remaining amount of toner can be adjusted according to the number of printed sheets, so there is no need to make an inquiry to the printer 300 by synchronizing two pieces of status information. Therefore, an increase in network traffic can be suppressed and monitoring can be performed efficiently. In the case where the monitoring server 200 monitors a plurality of printers 300, the number of status information to be monitored also increases, and this effect is particularly remarkable.

E. Variations:
(1) In the monitoring process in the above-described embodiment, it has been described that the polling interval is set to a fixed time when a trap indicating that the remaining amount of toner is low is received, but this process may be omitted. In this way, processing can be simplified. In such a case, steps S11 and S15 of the monitoring process may be omitted.

(2) In the monitoring process in the above embodiment, it has been described that polling of the remaining amount of toner is not performed when the predicted remaining amount of toner exceeds a threshold value. However, for simplification of processing, determination based on a threshold value may be omitted. In such a case, the process of step S13 may be omitted.

(3) In the monitoring process in the above-described embodiment, the actual value of the toner remaining amount polled in step S16 may be fed back to the toner remaining amount prediction process in step S12 to correct the predicted value. This makes it possible to accurately predict the remaining amount of toner.

(4) In the monitoring process in the above embodiment, it has been described that the toner remaining amount polling timing is adjusted after the toner remaining amount is predicted from the number of printed sheets. However, the toner remaining amount polling interval may be directly adjusted based on the number of printed polled sheets without estimating the remaining toner amount. FIG. 5 is a graph showing an example of a function used for such timing adjustment. By using such a function, the remaining amount of toner is considered to decrease as the number of printed sheets increases, and the timing can be adjusted so that the polling interval is shortened. By doing so, the processing can be simplified.

(5) In the above embodiment, the printer 300 counts the number of printed sheets after the toner cartridge is replaced with a new one. In other words, in the embodiment, the printer 300 includes a mechanism that detects that the toner cartridge has been replaced, and performs the reset process of the number of printed sheets according to the detection result. However, when the printer 300 counts the number of printed sheets from the time of manufacture and shipment and does not reset the value halfway, the monitoring server 200 may perform a process corresponding to this. That is, when the monitoring server 200 polls the printer 300 for the remaining amount of toner and the remaining amount has increased rapidly, it is determined that the toner cartridge has been replaced, and the print acquired from the printer 300 at that time is determined. The reference value may be subtracted from the number of printed pages that are polled later, using the number of sheets (the value accumulated from the time of manufacture and shipment) as a reference value. By doing so, the above-described monitoring process can be executed even when the printer 300 counts the number of printed sheets from the time of manufacture and shipment.

(6) In the above embodiment, the case where the polling interval of the remaining amount of toner is adjusted based on the number of printed sheets has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and when adjusting the polling interval for the number of printed sheets based on the remaining amount of toner, or when adjusting the polling interval for the remaining amount of toner and the remaining number of sheets based on the size of the print job, The present invention can also be applied to the case of adjusting the polling interval of the number of running times of the photosensitive drum and the paper feed mechanism based on the remaining ink amount.

(7) In the above embodiment, the monitoring server 200 monitors the printer 300. However, the SNMP protocol can monitor not only the printer but also various network devices such as an intelligent hub and a router. Therefore, by applying the present invention to these apparatuses, the timing for polling other status information can be adjusted according to the status of certain status information.

  As mentioned above, although the Example and various modifications of this invention were demonstrated, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to these, but can take a various structure in the range which does not deviate from the meaning. For example, a function realized by software may be realized by hardware. In the embodiment, the printer 300 is described as being a laser printer, but may be an ink jet printer.

It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of a monitoring system. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of the monitoring server. It is explanatory drawing which shows schematic structure of a printer. It is a flowchart of a monitoring process. 6 is a graph illustrating an example of a function used to adjust a toner remaining amount polling interval from the number of printed sheets.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... monitoring system 100 ... computer 200 ... monitoring server 210 ... CPU
220 ... RAM
230 ... Network interface controller 240 ... Hard disk drive 241 ... Operating system 242 ... WWW server program 243 ... SNMP manager 250 ... Inquiry unit 251 ... Trap receiver 252 ... Toner Remaining amount prediction unit 253 ... Timing adjustment unit 300 ... Printer 310 ... CPU
320 ... RAM
330 ... Network interface controller 340 ... EEPROM
341 ... MIB
350 ... ROM
351 ... Print engine 352 ... SNMP agent 360 ... Printing mechanism 370 ... Toner sensor 380 ... Polling processing unit 381 ... Trap sending unit

Claims (8)

A monitoring device for monitoring devices connected via a network,
A first inquiry unit that periodically inquires the device for first status information indicating a predetermined state of the device at predetermined intervals;
An adjusting unit that adjusts an interval for periodically inquiring second status information representing another state of the device based on the inquired first status information;
A second inquiry unit that inquires the device for second status information at the adjusted timing;
With
The first status information and the second status information have a correlation with each state of the device represented by the status information. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
And a prediction unit for predicting the second status information based on the inquired first status information,
The adjustment unit further adjusts the timing for inquiring the device about the second status information based on the predicted second status information. The monitoring device according to claim 2,
The adjustment unit adjusts the timing according to a comparison result between the predicted second status information and a predetermined threshold. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
And a receiving unit for receiving information related to the second status information and transmitted spontaneously by the device,
The adjustment unit further adjusts a timing for inquiring second status information from the device based on the received information. The monitoring device according to claim 1,
The adjustment unit is configured so that the timing at which the second inquiry unit inquires about the second status information is longer than the timing at which the first inquiry unit inquires about the first status information. Do the monitoring device. A monitoring method in which a computer monitors devices connected via a network,
A computer periodically inquiring of the device at a predetermined interval first status information indicating a predetermined state of the device;
Adjusting an interval for periodically inquiring second status information representing another state of the device based on the inquired first status information;
A computer inquiring second status information from the device at the adjusted timing;
With
The monitoring method in which the first status information and the second status information have a correlation with each state of the device represented by the status information. A computer program for monitoring a device connected by a computer via a network,
A function of periodically inquiring of the device first status information representing a predetermined state of the device at predetermined intervals;
A function for adjusting an interval for periodically inquiring second status information representing another state of the device based on the inquired first status information;
A function of inquiring second status information to the device at the adjusted timing;
Is a computer program for causing a computer to realize
The computer program having the correlation between the first status information and the second status information in each state of the device represented by the status information.   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the computer program of Claim 7.

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