JPH07200282A - Non-interruption program update system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a processor system which recognizes the travel of main function in a new program before the program is updated with a real machine. and can update the program without interrupting the service. CONSTITUTION:Judgement/writing circuits 13 and 23 are provided at the crossing of duplexed memories. The memory contents of areas where succeeding information are stored are compared. When the memory content of a standby system is not matched with the memory content of an act system, it is updated by adjusting it to agree with the memory content of the act system, and basic functions are sequentially processed. Thus, the succeeding information content of the act system is copied on the standby system. When whole copy is terminated, system constitution is switched, and a processor becoming a new act system succeeds an operation in the new program.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program updating method for a duplex information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a non-interruptive program updating method for updating a program without interrupting the operation of the system when updating the program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method for updating a program in a dual-structured information processing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-090227.
As described in the Gazette (uninterrupted software revision method by application version control), the new functions included in the updated program have not been confirmed in advance in the environment in which the program actually runs. When switching from the current program to the new program, the data contents of the memories of both systems are not guaranteed to be the same, so the running of the current program is stopped once, and then the new program is initialized and the memory of both systems is initialized. The method was to start the operation after matching the data contents.

[0003]

In this conventional program updating method, processing is interrupted after the current program is stopped and after the initial setting of the new program until the functions of the new program become effective. Furthermore, since the normality of processing by the new program is not known until after updating to the new program, it is necessary to detect in advance a potential failure that may cause a failure only when running the new program without affecting the service. There was a problem that I could not do it.

[0004]

A non-disruptive program updating method of the present invention is a program updating method for an information processing apparatus having a dual processor, wherein each processor is a CPU, a memory, a current program and a new program. The memory has means for comparing and judging the takeover information necessary for common basic function processing with other systems, and the memory has an area for storing takeover information necessary for basic function processing common to the current program and the new program; The program and the new program have an area for storing a judgment result by means for judging and comparing the takeover information necessary for basic function processing with another system,
The PU has information indicating a comparison area on the memory with respect to the means for comparing and determining the takeover information necessary for the basic function processing common to the current program and the new program with another system,
Information for indicating whether the own system is an act system or a standby system is transmitted, and means for comparing and determining the takeover information necessary for basic function processing common to the current program and the new program with another system is the CPU. Based on the information indicating the comparison area on the memory sent from the device, the memory content of the specified area is compared and determined with its own system and another system, and the comparison determination result is stored as the determination result set in the memory. Set to the area to be determined, the determination result is not matched, and the CPU
If the information indicating that the own system is the standby system is received from, the memory contents of the designated area of the act system is further written in the memory of the designated area of the own system, and the processor of the act system If the judgment results show a match, the processor of the other system is instructed to stop the processing of its own system, and the processor of the new system becomes the basic function processing common to the current program and the new program. The program is updated by starting a new program function process other than the above.

[0005]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an updating method of an uninterrupted program according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a processor 1 and a processor 2 constitute a 0-system and a 1-system, respectively, of a duplicated processor system, and an I / O which is a device to be controlled by selecting one of them by a selector 3. It is connected to the device 4.

Processors 1 and 2 are each a memory 1
1, 12, CPUs 12 and 22, and takeover content determination writing circuits 13 and 23.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing in (a) the concept of takeover information in the program processing relating to the operation of one embodiment of the present invention, and (b) in the concept of allocating the takeover information on the memory. is there.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the software program is composed of a set of a plurality of program processing units 300, 400, etc., and the processing required when necessary under the control of the operation software (OS). Units are running sequentially.

At the time of the processing, the takeover information 301, 4 of various data required for the processing is executed before the execution of each processing.
01 is input, and after the processing is finished, various data based on the processing result is output as takeover information 302 and 402.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2B, the memory 11
An inter-program processing unit takeover information storage area 111 as an area for storing takeover information, and a processor 1 described later.
And the inheritance information of the processor 2 are compared with each other, and the coincidence determination result display area 112 for displaying the coincidence or non-coincidence is allocated.

In a state where the processors having the redundant configuration are normally operated in synchronization with the same program, the same data is written in the same processor even in the standby processor because the same data is written in the same processor. The memory contents of the processors are always the same.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of an embodiment of the non-disruptive program updating method of the present invention.

Next, the operation of the non-disruptive program updating method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

In the following description, the act system (active system) and the standby system (standby system) which are duplicated configurations.
Among the processors, the current act system is the 0 system, the system which becomes a new act system is the 1 system, and the current program is updated to the new program when the act system is switched from the 0 system to the 1 system.

First, in updating a program, a new program is loaded from an external storage device (not shown) by a known technique to the processor 2 of the standby system 1 of the processors 1 and 2 having such a duplex configuration.

In this state, the 0-system processor 1 continues to execute the actual processing, while the 1-system processor 2 is stopped in the program loaded state. The contents are inconsistent.

Therefore, when executing the processing by the new program by the 1-system processor 2, it is necessary to match the data in the memory which is inconsistent with the 0-system processor 1, so that the method of the present invention does not interrupt the processing. You can match the data and continue processing with the new program.

When the loading of the new program is completed, the CPU 12 of the 0 system processor 1 becomes the CPU 2 of the 1 system processor 2.
Instruct 2 to start the program (S10).

The 1-system processor 2 loaded with the new program makes necessary initial settings according to the instruction (S20).
Transition to the idling operation state (S21).

Next, the 1-system processor 2 starts execution of the processing of the common basic function, which is set in advance with the current program being executed by the 0-system processor 1, in synchronization with the 0-system processor 1. (S11, S22).

However, since the 1-system processor 2 is not connected to the I / O device 4 by the selector 3 at this time, the control information which is the processing result of the common basic function is I / O.
The O device 4 is not controlled.

In this state, in each of the 0-system and 1-system processors, the takeover information of the other processor is compared with its own takeover information, and whether the processing results are coincident or not is determined by the takeover content determination writing circuits 13 and 23. (S12, S23).

In comparing the takeover information, the CPUs 12 and 22 of the respective processors use the takeover content judgment writing circuit 1
Takeover area address setting signal 102 to be sent to
202 is used.

In this takeover area address setting signal, the comparison start address and the number of words to be compared in the program processing unit takeover information storage area 111, which are predetermined and set for each processing unit of the program being processed, are set. The takeover content judgment writing circuits 13 and 23 compare and judge the memory contents of the area designated by the takeover area address setting signal.

Further, the CPUs 12 and 22 also use the act display signals 101 and 201 to obtain information indicating whether the own system is the act system or the standby system, the takeover content judgment writing circuit 1
It is sent to 3,23.

That is, at this point in time, the act display signal causes the 0 system to display the act system and the 1 system to display the standby system.

The comparison result of the takeover information is set in the coincidence determination result display area 112 in which an area is secured at the next address of the interprogram processing unit takeover information storage area 111.

In the system (1 system) in which the comparison results set in the coincidence determination result display area 112 do not match and the own system is displayed as the standby system by the act display signal, the takeover content determination writing circuit 23 is The contents of the inter-program-processing-unit takeover information storage area of the other system (0-system) memory 11 are written into the inter-program-processing-unit takeover information storage area of the own system memory 21 (S24, S25), and the processing of the common basic function is repeated.

The inherited information of the 1-system memory, which was different from that of the 0-system at the start of the processing, sequentially matches the contents of the 0-system memory as the processing unit of the common basic function is processed by repeating this processing.

Further, in the 0-system processor 1 whose own system is the act system, the processing of the common basic function synchronized with the 1-system processor 2 is repeated until the comparison result shows coincidence (S1).
3).

When the 0-system processor 1 indicates that the coincidence determination result displays match, the inherited information in the common basic function processing becomes the same content in both the 0-system processor 1 and the 1-system processor 2, and the 1-system processor 2 Since it means that the preparation for processing by the new program has been completed, the 0-system processor 1 issues an instruction to switch the connection of the selector 3 to the state in which the 1-system processor 2 is connected to the I / O device 4, and when the switching is completed. 0 processor 1
Stops the processing (S14).

On the other hand, when the 1-system processor 2 connected to the selector 3 learns that its own system has become the act system (S2
6) The function processing unique to the new program other than the common basic function is also enabled (S27), and the system processing by the whole new program is started.

In this way, the processing of the system 0 processor 1 by the current program can be switched to the processing of the system 1 processor 2 by the new program loaded in the system 1 without interruption.

[0036]

As described above, according to the non-interruptive program updating method of the present invention, each data content of a duplicated program loaded with a new program and in a non-coincident state is processed by a common basic function process. In the process of synchronously executing, the comparison judgment and the rewriting process in case of disagreement make it possible to sequentially match while the processing of the act system processor continues, and when all match, the act system is switched and the new program Since the processing shifts to processing of all the functions, interruption of processing of all functions due to program update does not occur, and a potential failure that appears only when running a new program is detected without affecting the online service. This makes it possible to provide a highly reliable system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an uninterrupted program updating method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of takeover information and memory allocation in the program processing according to the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. (A) shows the concept of program processing unit and takeover information, and (b) shows the concept of memory allocation.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 processor 3 selector 4 I / O device 11, 21 memory 12, 22 CPU 13, 23 takeover content judgment writing circuit 101, 201 takeover area address setting signal 102, 202 act display signal 111 program processing unit takeover information storage area 112 Matching judgment result display area 300,400 Processing unit 301,302,401,402 Handover information

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a program updating method of an information processing apparatus having a dual processor, each processor has a CPU, a memory, and takeover information necessary for basic function processing common to a current program and a new program from other systems. The memory has means for comparing and judging, the memory stores an area for storing inheritance information necessary for basic function processing common to the current program and the new program, and an inheritance necessary for basic function processing common to the current program and the new program. The CPU has an area for storing a judgment result by means for comparing and judging information with another system, and the CPU is a means for judging and comparing the takeover information necessary for basic function processing common to the current program and the new program with another system. On the other hand, the information indicating the comparison area on the memory and the information indicating whether the own system is the act system or the standby system are transmitted. The means for comparing and determining the takeover information necessary for the basic function processing common to the current program and the new program with the other system is the designated area based on the information sent from the CPU to indicate the comparison area on the memory. Of the memory contents of the own system and the other system are compared, the comparison judgment result is set in an area for storing the judgment result set in the memory, and the judgment result is inconsistent and the CPU transmits the own system. When the information indicating the standby system is received, the memory contents of the designated area of the act system are further written to the memory of the designated area of the own system, and the act system processor agrees with the determination result. When it indicates, the processor of the other system is instructed to be the act system, the processing of the own system is stopped, and the new act system processor is shared by the current program and the new program. Uninterrupted program update method characterized by performing the program update by initiated new program function processing other than the basic function processing.