JP3107104B2 - Standby redundancy method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a standby redundancy system for a redundant information processing apparatus comprising a main system and a redundant system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional standby redundancy system for an information processing apparatus is as follows.
As shown in FIG. 2, a main information processing device 40, a redundant information processing device 50, and a monitoring device 60 are provided.

In the standby redundancy system of the conventional information processing device, when the main information processing device 40 is operating as an active system, a monitoring device 60 monitors a status signal 41 output from the main information processing device 40, When a failure of the main information processing device 40 is detected from the contents of the status signal 41, the main information processing device 40 is put into a standby state (called an OFF state) by an OFF signal 42, and the redundant information processing device 50 is operated by an ON signal 53. State (called ON state). When the redundant information processing device 50 is operating as the active system, the monitoring device 60 monitors the status signal 51 output from the redundant information processing device 50 and, based on the content of the status signal 51, When a failure is detected, the redundant information processing device 50 is turned off by the OFF signal 52 and turned on.
The main information processing device 40 is turned on by the signal 43.

[0004]

The conventional standby redundancy system requires a monitoring device independent of the information processing device, and the monitoring device has a function of turning on / off the information processing device. In this case, the information processing devices of both systems are erroneously turned off and the entire system does not operate.
There is a problem that the N system is set to the N state and both systems operate.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for a monitoring device for an information processing device in an information processing device of a standby redundancy system, thereby preventing the standby and operation of both the main system and the redundant system from being caused by a failure of the monitoring device. An object of the present invention is to provide a standby redundancy system for switching operation of a redundant system.

[0006]

According to the standby redundancy system of the present invention, in a redundant information processing apparatus having two information processing apparatuses of a main system and a redundant system, each of the information processing apparatuses detects a fault in its own system. Function to output a failure detection signal to another system's information processing device, a function to start from a standby state to an operation state when a failure detection signal is received from another system, and exchange information with another system. Communication means that can be performed,
Start redundant information processing apparatus by the failure detection signal upon failure of the main system information processing apparatus, the redundant information processing apparatus that started attempted information exchange by the main system processing unit and the communications unit, the main system information received by this Operating state of processing unit
From the data indicating that the main information processing device is operating
If it is determined, the main information processing device is communicated via the communication means.
Notify that the redundant information processing device has started,
In response to this, the main information processing device shuts itself down.
And then stop .

Further, in the present invention, it is possible to use a circuit for calculating a logical sum of signals indicating a fatal failure detected in each section in the information processing apparatus as the failure detection circuit. Further, in the present invention, an open collector circuit can be used for the output circuit of the failure detection signal.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the main information processing apparatus 10 has a fault detection circuit 11. The failure detection circuit 11 receives data indicating the presence or absence of an abnormality from each unit of the information processing device 10 and outputs a failure detection signal 12 indicating occurrence of a failure in the entire device. The failure detection signal 12 is transmitted to the redundant information processing device 2.
Input to 0.

First, it is assumed that the information processing apparatus 10 is in an ON state and the information processing apparatus 20 is in an OFF state. When the information processing device 10 is operating normally, the data input to the failure detection circuit 11 indicates normal, and the failure detection signal 12 output is false. The failure detection signal 12 is input to the control circuit 23 of the information processing device 20. When the failure detection signal 12 is false, the control circuit 23 keeps the information processing device 20 OFF. The operation of the entire system is continued. Here, when a failure occurs in the information processing device 10, data input from each part of the information processing device 10 to the failure detection circuit 11 indicates an abnormality. As a result, the fault detection signal 12 becomes true. The control circuit 23 of the information processing device 20 turns the information processing device 20 from OFF to ON when the input failure detection signal 12 is true.
To start. The activated information processing device 20 is a communication unit 30
And attempts to receive data indicating the operation state of the information processing device 10 by using the communication device. Since the information processing apparatus 10 has a failure, the information processing apparatus 20 cannot communicate with the information processing apparatus 10 or, even if the information processing apparatus 10 is able to communicate, data transmitted from the information processing apparatus 10 is not normal data. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 20 confirms that the information processing apparatus 10 has been activated by the occurrence of a failure in the information processing apparatus 10, and starts an operation for system operation. In this way, switching of the processing from the information processing apparatus 10 to the information processing apparatus 20 is performed. Further, the failure detection circuit 11 is configured so that the failure detection signal 12 becomes true when the information processing device 10 is turned off. Therefore, even when the power of the information processing device 10 is turned off after being turned off. It can be detected as a failure.

Next, consider a case where the failure detection circuit 11 becomes abnormal when the information processing apparatus 10 is on and the information processing apparatus 20 is off, and the failure detection signal 12 is erroneously set to true. At this time, the control circuit 23 sets the information processing device 20 to O
Start from FF to ON. The activated information processing apparatus 20 communicates with the information processing apparatus 10 by using the communication unit 30 and receives data indicating the operation state of the information processing apparatus 10. However, since normal data is received, the failure detection signal 12 Judge as abnormal. The information processing device 20 notifies the information processing device 10 of this by communication, and the information processing device 10
Receives this, performs a shutdown process by itself, and is turned off. The information processing device 20 starts an operation for system operation. In this way, switching of the processing from the information processing apparatus 10 to the information processing apparatus 20 is performed.

When the information processing apparatus 10 is initially in the OFF state and the information processing apparatus 20 is in the ON state, the operation in which the information processing apparatus 10 and the information processing apparatus 20 are exchanged as described above is performed. Is switched from the process to the information processing device 10.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. In the information processing apparatus of the standby redundant system configured in the same manner as in FIG. 1, the failure detection circuit 11 of the main information processing apparatus 10 operates the information processing apparatus 10 out of the signals indicating the states of the components in the information processing apparatus 10. Signals 111, 112, and 1 indicating that a failure (a fatal failure) that cannot be performed has occurred.
13 and outputs the result to the redundant information processing device 20 as a failure detection signal 12. As a result, when a fatal failure occurs in the information processing apparatus 10, the failure detection signal 12 becomes true, and the information processing apparatus 10 is switched to the redundant information processing apparatus 20. Similarly, the redundant information processing device 20 performs a logical OR operation on signals indicating that a fatal failure has occurred, and outputs the result to the main information processing device 10 as a failure detection signal 22.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of still another embodiment of the present invention. In the information processing apparatus of the standby redundant system configured in the same manner as in FIG. 1, the output circuit of the failure detection circuit 11 of the main information processing apparatus 10 is an open collector circuit using a transistor 110. The failure detection signal 12 is received by the photocoupler 230 in the control circuit 23 of the redundant information processing device 20. When the information processing device 10 is operating normally, a voltage is applied to the base of the transistor 110, and the transistor is ON (conductive). Therefore, a current flows in the failure detection signal 12 in the direction of the arrow (indicating false), the photocoupler 230 is turned on, and the information processing device 20 is not started. When a failure occurs in the information processing device 10, no voltage is applied to the base of the transistor 110, and the transistor is turned off (cut off). Therefore, no current flows to the failure detection signal 12 (representing true), the photocoupler 230 is turned off, and the information processing device 20 is started. When the power of the information processing device 10 is turned off, no voltage is applied to the base of the transistor 110, so that the information processing device 20 is similarly started.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the function of detecting an abnormality of the information processing apparatus and activating another system in the event of an abnormality is incorporated in the information processing apparatus. And there is no communication means for exchanging data between the main information processing apparatus and the redundant information processing apparatus because both the main information processing apparatus and the redundant information processing apparatus are not turned off due to the failure of the monitoring apparatus. This has an effect that both systems can be prevented from being in the operation state when the failure detection signal is abnormal.

Further, according to the present invention, the configuration of the fault detection circuit can be made extremely simple by using a circuit for taking the logical sum of the signals indicating the fatal faults detected in the respective parts in the fault detection circuit. The reliability of the fault detection circuit can be increased.

Further, according to the present invention, by using an open collector circuit for the output circuit of the fault detection signal, the fault detection signal becomes true when the power of the information processing apparatus is cut off, and the information processing apparatus of another system is used. Can be started.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20 Information processing device 11, 21 Fault detection circuit 12, 22 Fault detection signal 13, 23 Control circuit 30 Communication means 111-113 Fatal fault signal 110 Transistor 230 Photocoupler 40, 50 Information processing device 41, 51 Status signal 42 , 52 OFF signal 43, 53 ON signal 60 Monitoring device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 11/16-11/20 G06F 15/16-15/177 G06F 11/30

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] In a redundant information processing apparatus having two information processing apparatuses of a main system and a redundant system, each information processing apparatus has a function of detecting a fault in its own system, and a function of detecting a fault detection signal based on information of another system. A main system including a function to output to the processing device, a function to start from a standby state to an operation state when a failure detection signal is received from another system, and communication means capable of exchanging information with another system. When the information processing device fails, the redundant information processing device is activated by the failure detection signal, and the activated redundant information processing device attempts to exchange information with the main information processing device through communication means , and receives the main information processing device. of
The operation status of the main information processing device is determined from the data indicating the operation status.
If it is determined that the
That the redundant information processor has started
Notify and the main information processing device shuts itself down
A standby redundancy system characterized by performing down processing and stopping . Wherein although the failure detection signal outputted by the information processing apparatus by extracting only a signal indicating a fault, such as the information processing apparatus from a signal indicating the states of the respective units of the information processing apparatus becomes inoperable standby redundancy scheme according to claim 1, characterized in that it is a logical sum. 3. The standby redundancy system according to claim 1, wherein an output circuit of the failure detection signal output from the information processing device is an open collector output.