JP2017010430A - Information processing apparatus and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a processing speed when performing mirroring with a plurality of storages and after detection of impact.SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus 10 comprises: a plurality of storages (first HDD 51, second HDD 52) that are used to perform mirroring; a storage device control part 60 that controls the operation of the storages (first HDD 51, second HDD 52); and first and second G sensors 51a, 52a. The storage device control part 60 executes a format of the storages as necessary on the basis of a result of detection performed by the first and second G sensors 51a, 52a. The storage device control part 60 controls a writing speed (disk rotation speed) of the storages on the basis of a result of detection performed by the first and second G sensors 51a, 52a.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus that include a large-capacity storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive).

  An information processing apparatus such as a server system, a PC, or a multifunction peripheral includes a plurality of storage devices and performs processing with improved redundancy. For example, RAID1 is a technique for increasing the fault tolerance of a disk, and the same data is written to a plurality of disks. Even if one disk fails, the other disk can continue processing. That is, in RAID1, a “copy” of a disk storing the same data is prepared to prepare for a failure, and is normally realized using two disks.

  Also, from the viewpoint of data and HDD protection, when a vibration or impact is detected by a 3D sensor, data writing is executed by controlling the number of rotations of the motor that rotates the disk during data access. It is a technique (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2011-134392 A

  By the way, in RAID1 with two HDDs, when one HDD fails or rotation is not stable, there is a problem that processing is performed in accordance with the HDD with the lower rotation speed and waiting time occurs. Further, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a problem that the writing time becomes long because processing is performed in accordance with the disk having the lowest rotational speed in a RAID 1 environment.

  This invention is made | formed in view of such a condition, and it aims at providing the technique which can solve the said subject.

The present invention is an information processing apparatus including a plurality of storages that are mirrored, a storage device control unit that controls operations of the plurality of storages, and an impact sensor provided in the storage, wherein the storage device control The unit executes the formatting of the storage based on the detection result of the impact sensor.
The storage device control unit may control the writing speed of the storage based on the detection result of the impact sensor.
In addition, the storage device control unit may determine whether there is a failure in the plurality of storages based on the detection result of the impact sensor, and increase the write speed of the storage that is determined as not having failed. .
Further, the storage device control unit may perform error detection processing of data written in the plurality of storages before executing the mirroring.
Further, at least one of the plurality of storages may be an HDD, and the storage device control unit may control the disk rotation speed of the HDD based on a detection result of the impact sensor.
The present invention is an image forming apparatus including the information processing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a technique for improving the processing speed after detecting an impact even when mirroring is performed by a plurality of storages.

1 is a functional block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment. 6 is a flowchart when the HDD is impacted according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment. It is a flowchart at the time of the storage receiving an impact according to the second embodiment.

  Hereinafter, modes for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter referred to as “embodiments”) will be described with reference to the drawings. )

<First Embodiment>
The outline of the present embodiment is as follows.
(1) In an environment where RAID 1 is used, an impact is detected by a G sensor (3-axis acceleration sensor), and the rotational speed of the HDD is controlled by software according to the magnitude of the impact. As a result, it is possible to perform data write processing faster than existing RAID1.
(2) If one of the HDDs has failed, control is performed to increase the disk rotation speed of the HDD that has not failed. As a result, writing can be completed earlier than in the existing case.
(3) Before executing mirroring, make sure that unsupported extensions and broken file data are not reflected in mirroring.
More specific description will be given below.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 10 is, for example, a multifunction peripheral (MFP) or a printer. The image forming apparatus 10 includes a control unit 20, a communication processing unit 22, a print execution processing unit 31, a scan execution processing unit 32, a user IF 40, a storage device connection IF 45, and a storage device unit 50.

  The communication processing unit 22 is a communication interface such as a wired LAN, a wireless LAN, or USB communication, and is communicably connected to an external device such as a PC.

  The control unit 20 includes an MPU (Micro-Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like. It performs read processing, status monitoring processing of component operations, operation control, and the like. Furthermore, the control unit 20 includes a storage device control unit 60 as an element for realizing an operation characteristic of the present embodiment.

  The print execution processing unit 31 has a general print execution function, and executes a printing operation according to an instruction from the control unit 20. The scan execution processing unit 32 has a general configuration and includes a scanner, a platen glass, a document reading slit, and the like, and executes a document reading process according to an instruction from the control unit 20.

  The user IF 40 includes a display panel unit 41 and an operation button unit 42. The display panel unit 41 displays status information, operation information, and the like regarding the image forming apparatus 10. The operation button unit 42 receives a user operation on the image forming apparatus 10. The operation button unit 42 includes a touch panel type IF and a physical button IF which are integrated with the display panel unit 41, and may be an interface in which these are combined.

  The storage device connection IF 45 controls connection and communication with the storage device unit 50. The storage device connection IF 45 also functions as a connection interface with a predetermined external storage device (external large-capacity HDD or memory card). The print job for the number of copies in the print output and the transmission job from the scan execution processing unit 32 are executed after data is accumulated in the storage device unit 50 from the viewpoint of smooth output and network error prevention.

  The storage device unit 50 includes a first HDD 51 and a second HDD 52, and configures RAID1. The first HDD 51 includes a first G sensor 51a, detects an impact or a drop on the first HDD 51, and when detected, lowers the disk rotation speed of the first HDD 51 or automatically turns off the power. The second HDD 52 also includes a second G sensor 52a, which detects an impact or a drop on the second HDD 52, and when detected, lowers the disk rotation speed of the second HDD 52 or automatically turns off the power. The detection results of the first G sensor 51 a and the second G sensor 52 a are notified to the storage device control unit 60. When the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 are not distinguished, they are simply referred to as “HDD”.

  The storage device control unit 60 controls the operations of the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 constituting the RAID 1. That is, the storage device control unit 60 controls access to the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52, that is, write / read processing, disk rotation speed, and mirroring processing based on RAID1. The disk rotation speed is executed by a so-called software tool provided in the storage device control unit 60.

  The operation of the image forming apparatus 10 when subjected to an impact with the above configuration will be described below. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing of the storage device unit 50 when an impact is detected by the impact sensor (G sensor). Here, it is assumed that the first HDD 51 is not impacted or the impact received is small, and the second HDD 52 is impacted.

  When the impact sensors (the first G sensor 51a and the second G sensor 52a) mounted on the HDD detect an impact (S10), the storage device control unit 60 determines whether to format one or both HDDs (S12). ). If it is necessary to format (Y of S14), the storage device control unit 60 executes the formatting of the storage device unit 50 (S16). By executing the format, it is possible to create an environment where writing is easy to execute. If this point is not particularly taken into consideration, the format execution process may be omitted. In that case, determination processing based on the presence / absence of formatting is not necessary in the subsequent processing.

  When the formatting is unnecessary (N in S14) or when the formatting process is completed (S16), the storage device control unit 60 sets the sensitivity level of the impact detected by the impact sensors (the first G sensor 51a and the second G sensor 52a). Accordingly, it is determined whether to control the rotation speed of the disks of the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 (S18). Here, the presence / absence of the above-described format is used as a reference for determining whether or not data has been read / written from / to the formatted HDD when performing disk rotation control. Therefore, there is no specification about the formatting method.

  If the impact sensitivity level is a level that does not cause a problem with data writing to the HDD, in other words, particularly when rotation control is not required (a in S18), the storage device control unit 60 performs the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52. Then, the process is performed with the current rotational speed of the disk (S20), and mirroring is executed (S22). This is equivalent to the existing RAID1 processing.

  When the sensitivity level of the impact on one HDD (here, the second HDD 52) is a level at which the data writing speed has to be reduced, or when the second HDD 52 is formatted due to the impact (S18) b) The storage device control unit 60 decreases the rotational speed of the disk of the second HDD 52, increases the rotational speed of the disk of the first HDD 51 that has not been shocked, and executes data writing (S24).

  If formatting has been executed in both the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52, data writing is executed in the same procedure as described above from the one that has completed formatting first.

  Then, after the writing to the first HDD 51 whose rotational speed has been increased in S24 is completed, the storage device control unit 60 increases the rotational speed of the disk of the second HDD 52 whose rotational speed has been decreased and executes the writing (S26). At this time, the storage device control unit 60 checks the presence / absence of an error, such as writing a file with an extension that is not supported at the time of writing, by reducing the rotational speed of the disk of the first HDD 51. If there is an error, write the data again only at the error location.

  When writing to both the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 is completed (S28), the storage device control unit 60 checks whether there is a data write error in the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 (S30).

  If there is a write error in one, that is, the second HDD 52 having a large impact (a in S30), the storage device control unit 60 executes data writing again only in the area where the error occurred (S32). After completion of the execution, the storage device control unit 60 executes mirroring (S22). In this case, it is assumed that there is no write error in the first HDD 51, or rewriting to the write error portion has already been completed when waiting for data writing to the second HDD 52.

  When there is no writing error (b in S30), the storage device control unit 60 mirrors the content of the data that has been written in the processing in S28 (S22).

  When there is a data write error in both the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52 (c in S30), the storage device control unit 60 executes data writing again only at the location where the error has occurred in each of the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52. (S34) After completion, mirroring is executed (S22). In this case, it is assumed that rewriting to the write error location of the first HDD 51 has not been completed at the time of data writing to the second HDD 52 and a write error location exists also in the second HDD 52.

  In the determination process of S18, if the sensitivity level of the impact on one HDD (second HDD 52) is an HDD failure level and data cannot be written, or even if formatting is performed, the second HDD 52 is not restored. In the case (c in S18), the storage device control unit 60 determines that one HDD, that is, the second HDD 52 has physically failed (S36), stops the rotation of the disk of the second HDD 52 that has been shocked, and is not broken. When the rotation of the disk of 1 HDD 51 is stabilized, the rotation speed is increased and the writing process is performed (S38).

  When the data writing to the first HDD 51 is completed, the storage device control unit 60 checks whether there is a data writing error (S40). If there is no write error (N in S40), the storage device controller 60 completes the writing of data to the first HDD 51 (S44). When there is a write error (Y in S40), the storage device control unit 60 executes rewriting to the error location (S42), and after the execution is completed, the data writing is completed (S44).

  In the image forming apparatus 10 that does not perform the above processing, when an impact is applied to the HDD (first HDD 51, second HDD 52) in an environment where RAID 1 is used, the impact is applied until the rotation of the affected HDD is stabilized. HDD which did not receive had to wait. In addition, when a file is created, overwritten, or copied and saved by a software tool of the storage device control unit 60, a write error on the program rarely occurs and the program of the extension file may be broken. In mirroring, even in the case of data that has been broken in this way, data is written as it is.

  However, as shown in the above-described flowchart, by controlling the number of revolutions of the motors of the disks of the first HDD 51 and the second HDD 52, data can be written earlier than when using the existing RAID1. Also, by checking before data mirroring whether there is data corruption at the time of data writing, data corrupted at the time of mirroring is not reflected, that is, erroneous writing at the time of mirroring can be reduced.

<Second Embodiment>
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 110 according to the present embodiment. This image forming apparatus 110 is a modification of the first embodiment, and mainly different parts will be described. The storage device unit 150 (storage) constituting the RAID 1 is a combination of the HDD 151 and the SSD 152, and the control content of the storage device control unit 160 of the control unit 120 is partially different. Further, the HDD 151 is provided with a first G sensor 151a, and the SSD 152 is provided with a second G sensor 152a. Since the SSD 152 does not have a physical rotation mechanism, the second G sensor 152a may be omitted. In that case, the impact on the SSD 152 is not considered, or the first G sensor 151a is substituted. If the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 are not distinguished, they are referred to as “storage”.

  The operation of the image forming apparatus 110 in the above configuration when receiving an impact will be described below. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of the storage device unit 150 and the storage device control unit 160 when an impact is detected by the storage impact sensor (first and second G sensors 151a and 152a).

  When the first G sensor 151a and the second G sensor 152a detect an impact (S110), the storage device control unit 160 determines whether to format the HDD 151 (S112). If it is necessary to format (Y in S114), the storage device controller 160 executes formatting of the HDD 151 (S116).

  When formatting is not necessary (N of S114) or when the formatting process is completed (S116), the storage device control unit 160 determines whether to format the SSD 152 (S118). If it is necessary to format (Y in S120), the storage device controller 160 executes the formatting of the SSD 152 (S122).

  Next, the storage device controller 160 determines whether to control the number of revolutions of the disk of the HDD 151 according to the impact sensitivity level detected by the first G sensor 151a (S124).

  If the impact sensitivity level is a level that does not cause a problem with data writing to the HDD 151, in other words, if rotation control is not particularly required (a in S 124), the storage device control unit 160 includes the HDD 151 and the SSD 152. Processing is performed without changing the writing speed (S126), and mirroring is executed (S128).

  When the sensitivity level of the shock to the HDD 151 is a level at which the speed at which data is written must be reduced, or when the HDD 151 is formatted due to the impact (b in S124), the storage device control unit 60 Then, the rotational speed of the disk of the HDD 151 is decreased, the writing speed of the SSD 152 is increased, and data writing is executed (S130). That is, the storage device controller 160 gives priority to writing to the SSD 152. Since the SSD 152 is generally more resistant to impact than the HDD 151, in this embodiment, writing to the SSD 152 is executed first. However, only when the formatting of both storages (HDD 151 and SSD 152) has been executed, data is written from the storage whose formatting has been completed first.

  Subsequently, after the writing to the SSD 152 is completed, the storage device control unit 160 increases the number of revolutions of the disk of the HDD 151 whose number of revolutions has been lowered and executes the writing (S132). At this time, the storage device control unit 160 checks whether there is an error when writing to the SSD 152. If there is an error, at the same time as writing to the HDD 151, data is written again at the error location in the SSD 152.

  When the writing to both the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 is completed (S134), the storage device controller 160 checks whether there is a data write error in the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 (S136). In the above processing, if there is a storage for which the data write error check has been completed first, the error check is performed only on the storage for which the error check has not been completed.

  If there is a write error in one of the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 (a in S136), the storage device controller 160 executes data writing again only in the area where the error occurred in one storage (S138). After the execution is completed, the storage device control unit 160 executes mirroring (S128). In this case, it is assumed that there is no write error in the first HDD 151 or that rewriting to the write error portion has already been completed when waiting for data writing to the second HDD 152.

  When there is no write error (b in S136), the storage device controller 160 mirrors the content of the data that has been written (S128).

  When there is a data write error in both the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 (c in S136), the storage device control unit 160 executes data write again only in the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 where there is an error (S140). After completion, mirroring is executed (S128).

  In the determination process of S124, when the sensitivity level of the shock to one storage is a physical failure level and the data cannot be written, or when the storage is not restored even after formatting (S124) c) It is determined that one storage is physically out of order (S142), and the subsequent processing is executed.

  If the storage device controller 160 determines that the HDD 151 has not failed (N in S144), when the disk rotation of the HDD 151 is stable, the storage device controller 160 increases the rotation speed and performs the writing process (S146). If it is determined that the HDD 151 has failed (Y in S144), the storage device controller 160 executes writing to the SSD 152 (S148).

  When the data writing to the HDD 151 or the SSD 152 is completed, the storage device controller 160 checks whether there is a data writing error (S150). If there is no write error (N in S150), the storage device controller 160 completes the writing of data to the storage (S152). When there is a write error (Y in S150), the storage device controller 160 executes rewriting to the error location (S154), and after the execution is completed, the data writing is completed (S152).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when one storage (HDD 151 or SSD 152) has failed, the storage device control unit 160 executes the writing process only to the storage that has not failed. If the SSD 152 is out of order, the storage device control unit 160 executes control to increase the disk rotation number of the HDD 151 and can complete the writing earlier than in the existing case. Also, it is possible to prevent error data from being reflected in mirroring before executing mirroring. Also, immediately after the impact is detected, data is written at a speed more appropriate than the existing RAID 1 of the combination of the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 by writing data by using whether the formatting of the HDD 151 and the SSD 152 is executed as a trigger. be able to.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of these components, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. For example, HDDs that have been formatted due to impacts tend to cause data read / write errors. Therefore, when formatting is performed, it is possible to reduce the error rate by adjusting the speed at which data is read and written.

10, 110 Image forming apparatus 20, 120 Control unit 22 Communication processing unit 31 Print execution processing unit 32 Scan execution processing unit 40 User IF
41 Display panel section 42 Operation button section 45 Storage device connection IF
50, 150 Storage unit 51 First HDD
51a, 151a First G sensor 52 Second HDD
52a, 152a Second G sensor 60, 160 Storage device controller 151 HDD
152 SSD

Claims (6)

An information processing apparatus having a plurality of storages that are mirrored, a storage device control unit that controls operations of the plurality of storages, and an impact sensor provided in the storages,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device control unit executes formatting of the storage based on a detection result of the impact sensor.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device control unit controls a write speed of the storage based on a detection result of the impact sensor.   The storage device control unit determines whether or not there is a failure in the plurality of storages based on the detection result of the impact sensor, and increases the write speed of the storage that is determined to have no failure. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2.   4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device control unit performs error detection processing of data written in the plurality of storages before executing the mirroring. 5. . At least one of the plurality of storages is an HDD,
5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device control unit controls a disk rotation speed of the HDD based on a detection result of the impact sensor. 6.   An image forming apparatus comprising the information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

Images