JP2009205241A - Computer system and boot control method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control the boot of an operating system by a system BIOS in a limited fashion by designating a certain device among a plurality of boot devices connected to a computer and the number of times that the operating system is booted from the certain device. <P>SOLUTION: The identification information of a device for storing a predetermined operating system selected from a plurality of devices, which information is set by a management device, and a setup program for retaining information on the number of boots of the predetermined operating system are sent to a computer. The computer stores the received identification information of the device and the information on the number of boots in an auxiliary storage device. The boot loader of the system BIOS refers to the identification information of the device and the information on the number of boots stored in the auxiliary storage device and decrements the information on the number of boots for each predetermined process; when the information on the number of boots reaches a predetermined value, the identification information of the device and the information on the number of boots are deleted from the auxiliary storage device. If the predetermined value is not reached, the predetermined operating system stored in the device is booted and executed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a computer system and a boot control method in the system, and more particularly to OS (Operating System) boot restriction control in a computer system including a plurality of devices.

  In a computer system using a personal computer, a boot device can be selected from a plurality of bootable devices in which an OS is stored in advance according to the application, and the OS can be booted (Patent Document 1). . The boot device is selected at the time of non-stationary work such as maintenance. Regarding the selection of the boot device, there are currently known a method of selecting based on information stored in a nonvolatile memory and a method of selecting by a user based on information displayed on a user interface.

  However, when work without human intervention is required, it may be necessary to change the boot device according to the situation, but there has been a drawback in that it cannot be flexibly handled conventionally. As an improvement measure, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, a boot failure detection system that automatically changes a boot device is known. This makes it possible to work by changing the boot device one after another according to the situation.

JP-A-3-42751 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-53214 (Patent No. 3,001,470)

  In the management of a plurality of computers, when it is necessary to perform maintenance on any or all of the computers, the administrator distributes a maintenance program to the target computer and performs the maintenance. At this time, in order to prevent a maintenance failure due to an erroneous operation, it is desirable that the maintenance program be provided in a format that can be executed without human intervention.

  In that case, depending on the part to be maintained, an OS different from the OS used in the regular work may be required. However, a method for selecting a boot device based on information in a nonvolatile memory according to the prior art, The selection method that requires manpower has a drawback that it is difficult to execute the maintenance program.

  In addition, when maintenance work is performed by temporarily changing the information in the non-volatile memory, and the process to restore the information in the non-volatile memory is executed after the work is completed, the maintenance work is interrupted for some reason and the non-volatile If it is not possible to restore the information in the memory, there is a problem that the situation must be repaired manually.

  Furthermore, in the above method, the program for temporarily changing the information in the nonvolatile memory and the program for restoring the information in the nonvolatile memory after the maintenance work are separate. There is also the problem that some means of sharing must be taken.

  An object of the present invention is to enable booting of an OS by limiting a device selected from a plurality of devices and the number of times of booting the OS from the device.

The computer system according to the present invention is preferably a computer system including a computer connected to a management device, wherein the computer is;
OS and application programs can be stored, a plurality of devices to be booted, a system BIOS having a boot loader for booting an OS held in the plurality of devices, and stored and referenced by the system BIOS An auxiliary storage device,
The management apparatus transmits, to the computer, a setup program that holds the identification information of a device that stores a predetermined OS selected from a plurality of the devices and the number of boots of the predetermined OS. The auxiliary storage device stores the transmitted identification information of the device and the boot count information,
The boot loader refers to the device identification information and the boot count information stored in the auxiliary storage device, decreases the boot count information every predetermined time, and confirms that the boot count information has reached a predetermined value. After confirming, the device identification information and the boot count information are deleted from the auxiliary storage device, and if the predetermined value is not reached, control is performed so as to boot a predetermined OS stored in the device. Configured as a computer system.

  In a preferred example, a specific device among the devices stores an OS for regular work, and the boot loader does not store the auxiliary storage device in the device identification information and the boot count information. After confirming this, the OS for regular work is booted.

The boot control method according to the present invention is preferably a system that can store an OS and an application program, and includes a plurality of devices to be booted and a boot loader that boots the OS held in the plurality of devices. A boot control method in a computer having a BIOS and an auxiliary storage device stored and referenced by the system BIOS,
A management apparatus connected to the computer transmits to the computer a setup program that holds identification information of a device that stores a predetermined OS selected from a plurality of the devices and information on the number of boots of the predetermined OS Receiving the transmitted identification information of the device and the boot count information in the computer and storing the information in the auxiliary storage device; and the device stored in the auxiliary storage device by the boot loader The boot number information is referred to by referring to the identification information and the boot number information, and the boot loader confirms whether the boot number information has reached a predetermined value by the boot loader. The device identification information and the boot count information are deleted from the auxiliary storage device, and the confirmation Result, when the boot count information is not a predetermined value, configured as a boot control method characterized by comprising the steps of: controlling to boot a predetermined OS stored in the device.

  According to the present invention, the system BIOS can boot the OS a predetermined number of times from a temporarily designated device. After the predetermined number of times of booting, the predetermined OS, for example, for regular work OS boot processing can be performed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system according to one embodiment.
In this computer system, for example, a computer (for example, a personal computer (PC)) 10 used by an individual of a company is connected to an administrator PC 7 (administrator device) via a network. Actually, a large number of user PCs 1 are connected to the administrator PC 7, but in the example shown, one user PC 1 is shown.

  The computer 10 is connected to each component connected to the common bus via the system BIOS 1, auxiliary storage device 2, flexible disk (FD) 3, compact disk (CD) 4, hard disk (HD) 5, and network. It has a network device 6. Reference numerals 3 to 6 are devices that can be used as boot devices by the system BIOS 1. Each of the devices 3 to 6 stores a bootable OS. The auxiliary storage device 2 stores identification information of a boot device to be booted and information on the number of times of booting from the device.

  The administrator PC 7 can distribute the program to each computer 10 via the network by the operation of the administrator. The administrator can arbitrarily set the OS or application program to be provided to each device 3-6. In particular, it is possible to specify a device for setting an OS for maintenance work and limit the number of boots of the OS. For this purpose, the identification information of the device to be booted and the number of boots to be restricted can be set in the setup program 52.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the system BIOS 1.
The system BIOS 1 includes a boot loader 11 that boots an OS from each device, a setup interface (I / F) 12 for receiving boot device identification information and the number of boots from the setup program 52, and a boot device that is stored in the auxiliary storage device 2 And an auxiliary storage device I / F 13 for transferring the identification information and the number of boots. The setting of the boot device and the number of boots can be performed from the administrator PC 7 using a setup program whenever necessary, and is transferred to the auxiliary storage device 2 via the auxiliary storage device I / F 13.

In the present embodiment, among the devices 3 to 6, the hard disk 5 particularly stores an OS and application programs for regular work. The other devices 3, 4, and 6 store the application program, but do not store the OS for regular work, and can store the OS for maintenance work instead.
When the user PC 10 is activated, the OS and application program for regular work can be booted from the hard disk 5. Also, the maintenance OS can be booted from the devices 3, 4, 6.

Next, a configuration example of the device will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.
In FIG. 3, the hard disk 5 stores a steady work OS 51 to be booted, a setup program 52 for setting a boot target device and the number of boots, and various application programs 53. The regular work OS 51, the setup program 52, and the application program 53 are transferred from the administrator PC 7 and stored in the hard disk 5 according to the intention of the administrator.

Other devices 3, 4, 6, for example, the compact disc 4, can store an OS 41 and an application program 43 for maintenance work as shown in FIG. 4. The device that is the storage destination of the maintenance work OS 41 and the number of boots thereof are set in the setup program 52 by the administrator. When the setup program 52 is executed, the number of boots of the maintenance target device and the maintenance work OS 41 from the device are set in the system BIOS 1 via the setup interface (I / F) 12. The system BIOS 1 stores the boot device and the number of boots received from the setup program 52 in the auxiliary storage device 2 via the auxiliary storage device I / F 13.
The devices 3 and 6 can have the same configuration as that shown in FIG.

  Next, the boot control operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the administrator decides a maintenance target device for the purpose of maintenance work, and creates a setup program 52 that stores the identification information of the device storing the maintenance work OS and the boot count information of the OS. Then, the setup program 52 is distributed from the administrator PC 7 to the user PC 10 to be maintained. The distributed setup program 52 is stored in the hard disk 5 of the computer 10. In the case of this example, it is assumed that FD3 is designated and the number of boots (n times) is set.

  Next, the setup program 52 stored in the hard disk 5 is executed by the user's operation on the OS 51 that is operating in a routine operation. That is, the setup program 52 uses the setup interface (I / F) 12 of the system BIOS 1 to provide boot system identification information and boot count information to the system BIOS 1. At this time, the system BIOS 1 stores boot device identification information and boot count information in the auxiliary storage device 2 via the auxiliary storage device I / F 13. Thereafter, the OS 51 is terminated due to the termination of the regular work.

  When the user starts the PC at the next opportunity, the system BIOS 1 executes the boot loader 11. The boot loader 11 refers to the auxiliary storage device I / F 13 and confirms whether the boot device identification information and the boot count information are stored in the auxiliary storage device 2 (S501). As a result of the confirmation, if boot device identification information and boot count information are not stored, normal boot processing is executed (S502, S503). That is, the OS 51 for regular work is booted from the hard disk 5 and executed.

  On the other hand, when the boot device identification information and the boot count information are stored (in the case of this example, the FD3 is already specified and the boot count (n times) is already set), the auxiliary device I / F 13 is used. Then, the number of boots for the device corresponding to the identification information stored in the auxiliary storage device 2 is reduced by one (S504). Then, it is confirmed whether the number of boots has become “0” (S505). As a result of the confirmation, if the number of boots becomes “0”, the boot device identification information and the boot number information stored in the auxiliary storage device 2 are deleted via the auxiliary storage device I / F 13 (S507). ). On the other hand, if the number of boots does not become “0”, the boot device identification information is acquired via the auxiliary storage device I / F 13, and the maintenance work OS is booted based on the acquired boot device information (S508).

  If the boot loader 11 is used to boot the maintenance work OS stored in the FD 3 every time the user PC is activated, the number of boots is reduced by one each time the PC is activated. Then, when the boot count becomes “0” at the n-th startup, the boot related information (that is, boot device identification information and boot count information) for the FD 3 stored in the auxiliary storage device 2 is deleted.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, by specifying an arbitrary device from the plurality of devices 3 to 6 and the number of boots of the OS from the device, the boot device for the maintenance work OS and the number of boots are limited. Can be controlled.

  In the above embodiment, the FD 3 is specified and the number of boots from the FD 3 is limited and controlled. However, according to another modification, the number of devices that store the maintenance work OS is not limited to one. In this case, identification information of a plurality of devices and the number of boots from these devices are set in the auxiliary storage device. In this case, it will be understood that the boot control of the maintenance work OS from each device is the same as the operation of the flowchart of FIG.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system according to one embodiment; The figure which shows the structure of system BIOS1. The figure which shows the structure of the hard disk 5. The figure which shows the structure of the compact disk 4, The figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating the boot control operation | movement by one Example.

Explanation of symbols

1: System BIOS, 2: Auxiliary storage device, 3: FD, 4: CD, 5: HD, 6: Network device, 7: Administrator PC, 10: Computer,
11: Boot loader, 12: Setup interface, 13: Auxiliary storage device interface, 51: OS, 52: Setup program.

Claims (4)

In a computer system including a computer connected to a management device,
The computer;
OS and application programs can be stored, a plurality of devices to be booted, a system BIOS having a boot loader for booting an OS held in the plurality of devices, and stored and referenced by the system BIOS An auxiliary storage device,
The management apparatus transmits, to the computer, a setup program that holds identification information of a device that stores a predetermined OS selected from a plurality of the devices and information on the number of boots of the predetermined OS,
The auxiliary storage device in the computer stores the transmitted identification information of the device and the boot count information,
The boot loader refers to the device identification information and the boot count information stored in the auxiliary storage device, reduces the boot count information for each predetermined process, and the boot count information becomes a predetermined value. The device identification information and the boot count information are deleted from the auxiliary storage device, and if the predetermined value is not reached, control is performed to boot a predetermined OS stored in the device. Computer system. A specific device among the devices stores an OS for regular work,
2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the boot loader confirms that the auxiliary storage device is not stored in the device identification information and the boot count information, and boots the OS for regular work. . OS and application programs can be stored, a plurality of devices to be booted, a system BIOS having a boot loader for booting an OS held in the plurality of devices, and stored and referenced by the system BIOS A boot control method in a computer having an auxiliary storage device,
A management apparatus connected to the computer transmits to the computer a setup program that holds identification information of a device that stores a predetermined OS selected from a plurality of the devices and information on the number of boots of the predetermined OS Steps,
In the computer, receiving the transmitted identification information of the device and the boot count information and storing it in the auxiliary storage device;
A step of referring to the identification information of the device and the boot count information stored in the auxiliary storage device by the boot loader and reducing the boot count information;
The boot loader confirms whether or not the boot count information has reached a predetermined value, and when the boot count information has reached a predetermined value, the device identification information and the boot count information are deleted from the auxiliary storage device When,
And a step of controlling to boot a predetermined OS stored in the device when the boot count information does not reach a predetermined value as a result of the confirmation. A specific device among the devices stores an OS for regular work,
4. The boot control according to claim 3, wherein the boot loader confirms that the auxiliary storage device is not stored in the device identification information and the boot count information, and boots the OS for regular work. Method.

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