JP7532882B2 - Fault determination device, fault determination method, and fault determination program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a fault determination device, a fault determination method, and a fault determination program.

Currently, many thin client systems are being constructed in various fields. In a thin client system, for example, a large number of virtual PCs (Personal Computers) are installed on a virtual platform, and a connection broker is used to appropriately allocate virtual PCs to users. The connection broker is a component that controls the allocation of resources to users on the virtual platform. By connecting to a virtual PC from a terminal device and performing work on the virtual PC, users can carry out actual work without leaving any information on the terminal device.

To operate such a thin client system, it is necessary to manage a large number of virtual PCs (for example, thousands or tens of thousands), as well as user profiles (also called user environments) that reflect the environmental settings of each user, for the number of users. Furthermore, virtual PCs that operate under a large number of user profiles on a virtual infrastructure shared by such a large number of users can experience problems due to a variety of factors, making it difficult to respond to such problems.

For example, because different applications are deployed depending on the user environment, it is necessary to check a large number of logs in order to properly determine whether a fault has occurred. Also, because not all applications or system management functions necessarily output logs correctly, even if logs indicating the system's normality are obtained, there may actually be a fault. Therefore, there is a growing need for technology that can properly determine whether a fault has occurred in such large-scale thin client systems.

As a technology related to this technology, Patent Document 1 discloses a system that measures the connection time between a terminal device and a destination device for each combination of terminal device and destination device, and judges whether the destination device is operating normally or not based on the measurement results. For example, when the subject of judgment is a thin client system including a virtual PC, this system judges the occurrence of a fault in the virtual PC by using information indicating the connection status of the user to the virtual PC, etc., collected by a connection broker.

Patent No. 6380774

In computer systems, failures can occur due to changes in the settings of the operating environment, such as software updates or additions. Such failures can occur due to, for example, logical irregularities in the operating environment, or problems in the combination of the computer system configuration and the operating environment. For example, in the large-scale thin client system mentioned above, user profiles are frequently changed by many users, and various failures occur due to these changes. Therefore, there is a demand for technology that can efficiently determine whether the operating environment set in the target device for which a failure is to be determined is invalid, but Patent Document 1 does not specifically mention such technology.

The main objective of the present invention is to provide a fault determination device that efficiently determines whether the operating environment set for the target device for which a fault is to be determined is invalid.

A fault determination device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a determination means for determining, among a plurality of fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device that sets a predetermined operating environment and a second fault determination target device that does not set the predetermined operating environment, a monitoring means for monitoring the operation of the first and second fault determination target devices after the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device, and a determination means for comparing the monitoring results of the operation between the first and second fault determination target devices and determining that the predetermined operating environment is invalid if the comparison result satisfies a criterion.

In another aspect of achieving the above object, a fault determination method according to one aspect of the present invention uses an information processing device to determine, among multiple fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device that sets a specified operating environment and a second fault determination target device that does not set the specified operating environment, and after the specified operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device, monitors the operation of the first and second fault determination target devices, compares the operation monitoring results between the first and second fault determination target devices, and determines that the specified operating environment is invalid if the comparison result satisfies a criterion.

In addition, in a further aspect of achieving the above object, a fault determination program according to one aspect of the present invention causes a computer to execute a determination process for determining, among a plurality of fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device that sets a predetermined operating environment and a second fault determination target device that does not set the predetermined operating environment, a monitoring process for monitoring the operation of the first and second fault determination target devices after the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device, and a determination process for comparing the monitoring results of the operation between the first and second fault determination target devices and determining that the predetermined operating environment is invalid if the comparison result satisfies a criterion.

Furthermore, the present invention can also be realized by a computer-readable, non-volatile recording medium on which such a fault determination program (computer program) is stored.

The present invention provides a fault determination device that can efficiently determine whether the operating environment set for a target device for fault determination is invalid.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a thin client system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of data in a virtual PC configuration management table 151 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the data contents of an update management table 152 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of data in an update history table 153 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data contents of a connection history table 154 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of data in an update/connection history correspondence table 155 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of data in a reference table 156 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the fault determination device 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention to update software on some of the virtual PCs 21. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the fault determination device 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention to determine whether or not a software update applied to a virtual PC 21 is unauthorized. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fault determination device 50 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing device 900 capable of realizing a fault determination device according to each embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes in detail the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment
1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a thin client system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The thin client system 1 mainly includes a fault determination device 10, a thin client server 20, and a terminal device 30. The fault determination device 10, the thin client server 20, and the terminal device 30 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate with each other via a communication network 40. The communication network 40 is, for example, the Internet or an intranet.

The thin client server 20 includes virtual PCs 21-1 to 21-n (n is any integer equal to or greater than 2) that operate on a virtual infrastructure constructed by a hypervisor 22. In the following description of this embodiment, the virtual PCs 21-1 to 21-n may be collectively referred to as a virtual PC 21, or any one of the virtual PCs 21-1 to 21-n may be referred to as a virtual PC 21. Although FIG. 1 shows only one thin client server 20 due to space limitations, the thin client system 1 may include multiple thin client servers 20. When the thin client system 1 is a large-scale system, the total number of virtual PCs 21 provided by the multiple thin client servers 20 may be, for example, several thousand to tens of thousands.

The user uses a terminal device 30 to use a virtual PC 21 assigned to the user by a connection broker (not shown) in the thin client server 20. That is, the user instructs the virtual PC 21 to execute information processing via the user interface (e.g., a keyboard and mouse) of the terminal device 30. The user then checks the results of the information processing executed by the virtual PC 21 via the user interface (e.g., a display screen) of the terminal device 30. Note that, due to space limitations, only one terminal device 30 is shown in FIG. 1, but the thin client system 1 may have multiple terminal devices 30.

The fault determination device 10 is a device such as an information processing device 900 illustrated in FIG. 11 below, which has the function of setting the operating environment of the virtual PC 21 and determining (also called detecting) faults that occur as a result of setting the operating environment. Such faults occur, for example, due to a logical error (logical bug) contained in the operating environment, or a problem (so-called incompatibility) that exists in the combination of the configuration of the virtual PC 21 and the operating environment.

The operating environment settings include, for example, software updates, new software additions, and OS (Operating System) parameter settings. In this embodiment, of the various operating environment settings for the virtual PC 21, a case where software updates are performed will be described, but the operation of the thin client system 1 is similar in the case of operating environment settings other than software updates.

The fault determination device 10 includes a determination unit 11, a setting unit 12, a monitoring unit 13, a determination unit 14, and a memory unit 15. The determination unit 11, the setting unit 12, the monitoring unit 13, and the determination unit 14 are examples of a determination means, a setting means, a monitoring means, and a determination means, respectively.

The storage unit 15 is a storage device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) 903 or a hard disk 904 as shown in FIG. 11. The storage unit 15 stores a virtual PC configuration management table 151, an update management table 152, an update history table 153, a connection history table 154, an update/connection history correspondence table 155, and a reference table 156. The information stored in the storage unit 15 will be described in detail later.

The determination unit 11 determines the virtual PC 21 for which software is to be updated based on the virtual PC configuration management table 151, the update management table 152, and the update history table 153 stored in the storage unit 15 at a predetermined timing. The determination unit 11 may perform this operation periodically, or may perform it in response to information input by the administrator of the thin client system 1 or the like that instructs the start of the operation.

2 is a diagram illustrating the contents of data in the virtual PC configuration management table 151 according to this embodiment. The virtual PC configuration management table 151 is information for managing the individual configurations of the virtual PCs 21. The virtual PC configuration management table 151 represents the OS type, number of central processing units (CPUs), memory capacity, disk capacity, identifier of the hypervisor being controlled, identifier of the storage being used, and group to which each virtual PC 21 belongs. The information (items) included in the virtual PC configuration management table 151 may be different from the information illustrated in FIG. 2. The virtual PC configuration management table 151 may be created or updated by an administrator of the thin client system 1, or may be generated or updated by a system management function of the thin client server 20.

The groups represented by the virtual PC configuration management table 151 represent the identifiers of the groups to which the virtual PCs 21 belong, which are grouped based on the similarity of the virtual PCs 21's configuration. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the virtual PCs 21-1, 21-3, 21-4, and 21-6 have the same configuration in terms of OS type, number of CPUs, memory capacity, disk capacity, hypervisor, and storage. Therefore, the virtual PCs 21-1, 21-3, 21-4, and 21-6 are classified into group 1. Similarly, the virtual PCs 21-2, 21-5, and 21-8 have the same configuration and are classified into group 4.

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating the data contents of the update management table 152 according to this embodiment. The update management table 152 is information that manages a list of software updates that are applied to the virtual PC 21, and for each update, the name of the update is associated with the type of OS that is the target of the update. The information (items) included in the update management table 152 may be different from the information illustrated in Figure 3.

According to the update management table 152 illustrated in FIG. 3, for example, "Update #1" and "Update #3" are applied to a virtual PC 21 whose OS is Windows 10 (registered trademark), and "Update #2" is applied to a virtual PC 21 whose OS is Windows 7 (registered trademark). The update management table 152 may be created or updated by an administrator of the thin client system 1, or may be generated or updated by a system management function of a thin client server 20. When a system management function of a thin client server 20 generates the update management table 152, the system management function may obtain information about updates from, for example, another thin client server 20.

Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the data contents of the update history table 153 according to this embodiment. The update history table 153 is information that represents the application history of updates indicated by the update management table 152 described above for each virtual PC 21. The information (items) included in the update history table 153 may be different from the information illustrated in Figure 4.

According to the update history table 153 illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, for virtual PC 21-1, "Update #1" was applied on 4/1 (April 1st), but "Update #3" has not been applied. As illustrated in the virtual PC configuration management table 151 illustrated in FIG. 2, the OS for virtual PC 21-1 is Windows 10, and as illustrated in the update management table 152 illustrated in FIG. 3, the OS to which "Update #2" is applied is Windows 7. Therefore, since "Update #2" is not applicable to virtual PC 21-1, this is shown as a blank column in the update history table 153 illustrated in FIG. 4.

Also, according to the update history table 153 illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, for virtual PC 21-2, "Update #2" has not been applied because its application failed on 4/20 (April 20).

The decision unit 11 shown in FIG. 1 selects one of the updates indicated by the update management table 152 based on the update history table 153. For example, according to the update history table 153 illustrated in FIG. 3, since "Update #3" has not been applied to many virtual PCs 21, the decision unit 11 selects "Update #3" as the software update to be applied to the virtual PCs 21. Alternatively, the decision unit 11 may select an update indicated by information input by the administrator.

The fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment does not simultaneously apply "Update #3" selected as described above to all virtual PCs 21 to which "Update #3" is to be applied, but first applies it to some of the virtual PCs 21 to which "Update #3" is to be applied. This is to check whether or not a fault will occur due to the application of "Update #3" by comparing the operation of a virtual PC to which "Update #3" has been applied with the operation of a virtual PC to which "Update #3" has not been applied.

The determination unit 11 determines, in the virtual PC configuration management table 151, the group with the largest number of virtual PCs 21 among the groups of virtual PCs 21 to which "Update #3" selected as described above will be applied. According to the virtual PC configuration management table 151 illustrated in FIG. 1, the group in question is group 1, which includes four virtual PCs 21-1, 21-3, 21-4, and 21-6.

The determination unit 11 determines which virtual PCs 21 (also referred to as first failure determination target devices) to apply "Update #3" to and which virtual PCs 21 (also referred to as second failure determination target devices) to not apply "Update #3" to, of the four virtual PCs 21 belonging to group 1 determined as described above. The determination unit 11 may, for example, determine the number of virtual PCs 21 to apply the update to be equal to the number of virtual PCs 21 to not apply the update. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6 described later, the determination unit 11 determines that, of the four virtual PCs 21 belonging to group 1, "Update #3" is to be applied to virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6, and that "Update #3" is not to be applied to virtual PCs 21-1 and 21-3. The determination unit 11 notifies the setting unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 of the result of the determination as described above.

The setting unit 12 applies "Update #3" to the virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6 in accordance with the decision result notified by the decision unit 11. However, it is assumed that the data for "Update #3" (e.g., patch data for software executed in the virtual PC 21) is stored in, for example, the storage unit 15. When the setting unit 12 updates the software for the virtual PC 21, it reflects the application result of the update in the update history table 153.

The monitoring unit 13 monitors the operation of the virtual PC 21 and generates or updates a connection history table 154 that represents the monitoring results.

Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating the contents of data in the connection history table 154 according to this embodiment. The connection history table 154 is information that represents the history of users' actual connections to the virtual PC 21 using the terminal device 30, and is information that can be collected by the connection broker described above. In other words, the monitoring unit 13 can obtain the information necessary to generate or update the connection history table 154 via the connection broker.

The connection history table 154 indicates the connection start time, user name, destination virtual PC 21, connection time, and current connection status regarding a connection by a certain user to a certain virtual PC 21. The information (items) included in the connection history table 154 may be different from the information illustrated in FIG. 5.

The monitoring unit 13 further generates an update/connection history correspondence table 155 based on the connection history table 154, which represents the monitoring results of the operation of a virtual PC 21 that belongs to the same group and to which a software update has been applied and a virtual PC 21 to which the update has not been applied.

Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating the data contents of the update/connection history correspondence table 155 according to this embodiment. As illustrated in Figure 6, the monitoring unit 13 extracts the connection history of virtual PCs 21-1 and 21-3 to which the above-mentioned "Update #3" has not been applied, and virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6 to which "Update #3" has been applied, from the connection history table 154, and generates an update/connection history correspondence table 155 that represents the extraction results. The information (items) included in the update/connection history correspondence table 155 may be different from the information illustrated in Figure 6.

The determination unit 14 shown in FIG. 1 determines whether the operation of the virtual PC 21 represented by the update/connection history correspondence table 155 satisfies the criteria indicated by the criteria table 156. The criteria table 156 represents the criteria used when determining whether a failure has occurred due to the application of a software update (i.e., whether the update is unauthorized). The criteria table 156 is created, for example, by the administrator of the thin client system 1.

Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of data in the reference table 156 according to this embodiment. According to the reference table 156 illustrated in Fig. 7, when the operation of the virtual PC 21 satisfies both of the following conditions 1 and 2, the determination unit 14 determines that the software update performed on the virtual PC 21 is unauthorized.
(Condition 1) There is one or more users whose continuous connection time is one hour or more for a virtual PC 21 to which software updates have not been applied.
(Condition 2) There are two or more users whose continuous connection time is two minutes or less for a virtual PC 21 to which a software update has been applied.

The above conditions 1 and 2 are criteria based on the following idea. That is, when no failure occurs, a user typically uses the virtual PC 21 for more than one hour. Nevertheless, if there are two or more users (i.e., multiple users) with a continuous connection time of two minutes or less for a virtual PC 21 to which a software update has been applied, it is highly likely that a failure has occurred due to the application of the software update. Note that the criteria shown in the criteria table 156 illustrated in FIG. 7 are merely examples, and the criteria shown in the criteria table 156 may be different from the criteria illustrated in FIG. 7.

According to the update/connection history correspondence table 155 illustrated in FIG. 6, there are three users who have been using virtual PCs 21-1 and 21-3, to which "Update #3" has not been applied, for more than one hour. In addition, there are two users whose continuous connection time to virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6, to which "Update #3" has been applied, is less than two minutes. In this case, the operation of virtual PC 21 illustrated in FIG. 6 satisfies the judgment criteria illustrated in FIG. 7, so that judgment unit 14 judges that "Update #3" applied to virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6 is unauthorized. Judgment unit 14 notifies setting unit 12 illustrated in FIG. 1 of the above-mentioned judgment result.

When the judgment result notified by the judgment unit 14 indicates that "Update #3" is invalid, the setting unit 12 returns the virtual PCs 21-4 and 21-6 to which "Update #3" has been applied to the state before "Update #3" was applied.

Next, the operation (processing) of the fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts in Figures 8 and 9.

The flowchart in FIG. 8 shows the operation of the fault determination device 10 to update software on some of the virtual PCs 21.

At a predetermined timing, the determination unit 11 reads the virtual PC configuration management table 151, the update management table 152, and the update history table 153 from the storage unit 15 (step S101). The determination unit 11 selects one of the software updates indicated by the update management table 152 based on the update history table 153 (step S102).

The determination unit 11 determines, from among the groups to which the selected software update is to be applied in the virtual PC configuration management table 151, the group that has the largest number of virtual PCs 21 (step S103). Of the virtual PCs 21 that belong to the determined group, the determination unit 11 determines which virtual PCs 21 should receive the software update and which should not receive the software update (step S104).

The setting unit 12 applies the software update to the virtual PC 21 for which the decision unit 11 has determined that the software update should be applied (step S105), and the entire process ends.

The flowchart in FIG. 9 shows the operation of the fault determination device 10 to determine whether the software update applied to the virtual PC 21 by the operation shown in the flowchart in FIG. 8 is invalid.

The monitoring unit 13 monitors the operation of the virtual PC 21, generates a connection history table 154 that indicates the monitoring results, and stores the generated connection history table 154 in the storage unit 15 (step S201). The monitoring unit 13 generates an update/connection history correspondence table 155 based on the connection history table 154 that indicates the operation of virtual PCs 21 that belong to the same group and to which a software update has been applied and virtual PCs 21 that have not been applied, and stores this in the storage unit 15 (step S202).

The determination unit 14 determines whether the operation of the virtual PC 21 represented by the update/connection history correspondence table 155 satisfies the criteria indicated by the criteria table 156 (step S203). If the operation of the virtual PC 21 does not satisfy the criteria (No in step S204), the determination unit 14 determines that the update is not unauthorized (step S205), and the entire process ends.

If the operation of the virtual PC 21 satisfies the criteria (Yes in step S204), the determination unit 14 determines that the update is unauthorized (step S206). The setting unit 12 returns the state of the virtual PC 21 to which the update has been applied to the state before the update was applied (step S207), and the entire process ends.

The fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment can efficiently determine whether the operating environment set for the target device for which a fault is to be determined is unauthorized. The fault determination device 10 sets the operating environment for a portion of the target device, compares the operation of the target device in which the operating environment is set with that of a target device in which the operating environment is not set, and, if the comparison result satisfies a criterion, determines that the operating environment is unauthorized.

The effects achieved by the fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment are described in detail below.

In computer systems, failures can occur due to changes to the settings of the operating environment, such as software updates or additions. Such failures can occur, for example, due to logical errors in the operating environment, or compatibility issues with the combination of the computer system configuration and the operating environment. For example, in large-scale thin client systems, user profiles are frequently changed by many users, and various failures occur due to these changes. Therefore, the challenge is to efficiently determine whether the operating environment set in the target device for which a failure is to be determined is invalid.

In response to such a problem, the fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment includes a determination unit 11, a monitoring unit 13, and a determination unit 14, and operates as described above with reference to, for example, FIGS. 1 to 9. That is, the determination unit 11 determines, among the multiple virtual PCs 21, a virtual PC 21 (a first fault determination target device) that sets a predetermined operating environment (e.g., software update) and a virtual PC 21 (a second fault determination target device) that does not set the predetermined operating environment. After the predetermined operating environment is set for some of the virtual PCs 21 as described above, the monitoring unit 13 monitors the operation of the virtual PC 21 in which the predetermined operating environment is set and the virtual PC 21 in which the predetermined operating environment is not set. Then, the determination unit 14 compares the monitoring results of the operation of the virtual PC 21 in which the predetermined operating environment is set and the virtual PC 21 in which the predetermined operating environment is not set, and if the comparison result satisfies the criteria indicated by the criteria table 156, determines that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized.

In other words, when determining whether a specific operating environment is unauthorized, the fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment performs a simple process of comparing the difference in the operation of the virtual PC 21 depending on whether or not the specific operating environment is set, without requiring complex processing such as analyzing a log output from the virtual PC 21. This allows the fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment to efficiently determine whether or not the operating environment set in the target device for which a fault is to be determined is unauthorized.

The fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment also selects, from among virtual PCs 21 with similar or equivalent configurations, virtual PCs 21 that set a specified operating environment and virtual PCs 21 that do not set a specified operating environment, and compares the operation of these virtual PCs 21. Since faults caused by the setting of the operating environment may depend on differences in the configuration of the virtual PCs 21, the fault determination device 10 can eliminate the influence of differences in configuration by selecting virtual PCs 21 with similar configurations as the determination target, thereby improving the accuracy of the determination.

The fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment determines, among the virtual PCs 21 classified into a plurality of groups based on the similarity of their configurations, the virtual PCs 21 that belong to the same group with the greatest number of virtual PCs 21, as the virtual PCs 21 that will or will not set a specified operating environment. That is, the fault determination device 10 can increase the accuracy of the determination by making as many virtual PCs 21 as possible the targets of determination. The determination unit 11 of the fault determination device 10 may also determine, as the target of determination, a virtual PC 21 that belongs to the same group as a virtual PC 21 designated from the outside (for example, by information input by an administrator of the thin client system 1) as one of the virtual PCs 21 that will set a specified operating environment.

The fault determination device 10 according to this embodiment also monitors the continuous use time of the virtual PC 21 by the user, and if the difference in the continuous use time of the virtual PC 21 depending on whether or not a specific operating environment is set satisfies a criterion, determines that the specific operating environment is unauthorized. In other words, the fault determination device 10 can determine at low cost and efficiently whether the operating environment set in the target device for which a fault is to be determined is unauthorized by simply performing the simple process of comparing the continuous use time of the virtual PC 21.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the fault determination device 10 determines whether the operating environment is illegal using criteria including the threshold values indicated in the criteria table 156, but the fault determination device 10 may also perform this determination using a trained model constructed, for example, by performing machine learning.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the fault determination device 10 determines whether a fault exists on a virtual PC, but the fault determination device 10 may also determine whether a fault exists on a physical machine, for example.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the fault determination device 10 is a single information processing device having the decision unit 11, the setting unit 12, the monitoring unit 13, and the determination unit 14 as components, but the fault determination device 10 may be composed of multiple information processing devices that realize these components.
Second Embodiment
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fault determination device 50 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The fault determination device 50 according to this embodiment includes a determination unit 51, a monitoring unit 52, and a determination unit 53.

The determination unit 51 determines, from among the multiple fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device 61 that sets a predetermined operating environment 610, and a second fault determination target device 62 that does not set a predetermined operating environment 610. The first fault determination target device 61 and the second fault determination target device 62 are, for example, the virtual PC 21 according to the first embodiment. The predetermined operating environment 610 includes, for example, updates to software executed in the first fault determination target device 61, and the addition of new software.

When making the above-mentioned decision, the decision unit 51 may use, for example, information similar to the virtual PC configuration management table 151, the update management table 152, and the update history table 153, as in the decision unit 11 according to the first embodiment.

After a predetermined operating environment 610 is set for the first fault judgment target device 61, the monitoring unit 52 monitors the operation of the first fault judgment target device 61 and the second fault judgment target device 62. The monitoring unit 52 may generate information similar to the connection history table 154 and the update/connection history correspondence table 155 that represent the monitoring results, for example, in the same manner as the monitoring unit 13 according to the first embodiment.

The determination unit 53 compares the operation monitoring results between the first fault determination target device 61 and the second fault determination target device 62, and if the comparison result satisfies the criterion 530, determines that the specified operating environment 610 is unauthorized. The criterion 530 may be, for example, the same criterion as the criterion table 156 according to the first embodiment.

The fault determination device 50 according to this embodiment can efficiently determine whether the operating environment set for the target device for which a fault is to be determined is unauthorized. The fault determination device 50 sets the operating environment for a portion of the target device, compares the operation of the target device in which the operating environment is set with that of a target device in which the operating environment is not set, and, if the comparison result satisfies a criterion, determines that the operating environment is unauthorized.

<Hardware configuration example>
In each of the above-mentioned embodiments, each unit in the fault determination device shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 10 can be realized by a dedicated HW (Hardware) (electronic circuit). In Fig. 1 and Fig. 10, at least the following configurations can be regarded as functional (processing) units (software modules) of a software program including instructions executed by a processor.
Determination units 11 and 51,
Setting unit 12,
Monitoring units 13 and 52,
Determination units 14 and 53,
- Storage control function in the storage unit 15.

However, the division of the various parts shown in these drawings is for the convenience of explanation, and various configurations may be assumed when implementing the system. An example of the hardware environment in this case will be described with reference to FIG. 11.

Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an information processing device 900 (computer) capable of realizing the fault determination device according to each embodiment of the present invention. That is, Figure 11 shows the configuration of a computer (information processing device) capable of realizing the fault determination device shown in Figures 1 and 10, and represents a hardware environment capable of realizing each function in the above-mentioned embodiments.

The information processing device 900 shown in FIG. 11 includes the following components.
・CPU (Central_Processing_Unit) 901,
・ROM (Read_Only_Memory) 902,
・RAM (Random_Access_Memory) 903,
Hard disk (storage device) 904,
Communication interface 905,
Bus 906 (communication line),
A reader/writer 908 capable of reading and writing data stored in a recording medium 907 such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory),
Input/output interface 909 including a monitor, speaker, keyboard, etc.

That is, the information processing device 900 having the above components is a general computer in which these components are connected via a bus 906. The information processing device 900 may have multiple CPUs 901, or may have a CPU 901 configured with multiple cores.

The present invention, explained using the above-mentioned embodiment as an example, supplies a computer program capable of realizing the following functions to the information processing device 900 shown in FIG. 11. The functions are the above-mentioned configurations in the block diagrams (FIGS. 1 and 10) referred to in the explanation of the embodiment, or the functions of the flowcharts (FIGS. 8 and 9). The present invention is then achieved by reading the computer program into the CPU 901 of the hardware, interpreting it, and executing it. The computer program supplied to the device may be stored in a readable and writable volatile memory (RAM 903), or a non-volatile storage device such as a ROM 902 or a hard disk 904.

In the above case, the method of supplying the computer program to the hardware can be any currently common procedure. For example, the procedure can be installing the program in the device via a recording medium 907 such as a CD-ROM, or downloading the program from an external source via a communication line such as the Internet. In such a case, the present invention can be considered to be configured by the code that constitutes the computer program, or the recording medium 907 on which the code is stored.

The present invention has been described above using the above-mentioned embodiment as an exemplary example. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. In other words, the present invention can be applied in various aspects that can be understood by a person skilled in the art within the scope of the present invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Thin client system 10 Fault determination device 11 Determination unit 12 Setting unit 13 Monitoring unit 14 Determination unit 15 Storage unit 151 Virtual PC configuration management table 152 Update management table 153 Update history table 154 Connection history table 155 Update/connection history correspondence table 156 Reference table 20 Thin client server 21 Virtual PC
22 Hypervisor 30 Terminal device 40 Communication network 50 Fault determination device 51 Determination unit 52 Monitoring unit 53 Determination unit 530 Criterion 61 First fault determination target device 610 Predetermined operating environment 62 Second fault determination target device 900 Information processing device 901 CPU
902 ROM
903 RAM
904 Hard disk (storage device)
905 Communication interface 906 Bus 907 Recording medium 908 Reader/writer 909 Input/output interface

Claims (10)

A determination means for determining, from among a plurality of fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device for which a predetermined operating environment is set and a second fault determination target device for which the predetermined operating environment is not set;
a monitoring means for monitoring operations of the first and second fault determination target devices after the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device;
a determination means for comparing the operation monitoring results between the first and second failure determination target devices and determining that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized if the comparison result satisfies a criterion;
A fault determination device comprising: the determining means determines the fault determination target devices having similar configurations as the first and second fault determination target devices.
The fault determination device according to claim 1 . the determining means determines, among the plurality of fault determination target devices classified into a plurality of groups based on similarity in configuration, the fault determination target devices having the largest number of devices belonging to the same group as the first and second fault determination target devices.
The fault determination device according to claim 2 . the determining means determines, among the plurality of fault judgment target devices classified into a plurality of groups based on similarity in configuration, the fault judgment target devices belonging to the same group as the fault judgment target device designated from the outside as one of the first fault judgment target devices, as the first and second fault judgment target devices;
The fault determination device according to claim 2 . The monitoring means monitors the continuous use time of the first and second fault determination target devices by a user,
the determining means determines that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized when the continuous use time of the first fault determination target device is equal to or less than a first threshold value and the continuous use time of the second fault determination target device is equal to or more than a second threshold value;
The fault determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. the determining means determines that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized when the number of the first fault determination target devices that satisfy the criterion in the comparison result is equal to or greater than a third threshold value.
The fault determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. and a setting unit which, when the determining unit determines that the predetermined operating environment is invalid after the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device, returns the state of the first fault determination target device to a state before the predetermined operating environment was set.
The fault determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The setting of the predetermined operating environment represents an update or addition of software related to the fault determination target device.
The fault determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. By the information processing device,
determining a first fault determination target device for which a predetermined operating environment is set and a second fault determination target device for which the predetermined operating environment is not set among the plurality of fault determination target devices;
After the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device, the operation of the first and second fault determination target devices is monitored;
comparing the operation monitoring results between the first and second failure determination target devices, and determining that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized if the comparison result satisfies a criterion;
Fault determination method. a determination process for determining, from among a plurality of fault determination target devices, a first fault determination target device for which a predetermined operating environment is set and a second fault determination target device for which the predetermined operating environment is not set;
a monitoring process for monitoring operations of the first and second fault determination target devices after the predetermined operating environment is set for the first fault determination target device;
a determination process of comparing the operation monitoring results between the first and second failure determination target devices, and determining that the predetermined operating environment is unauthorized if the comparison result satisfies a criterion;
A fault determination program for causing a computer to execute the above.

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