Web service system, server management apparatus, and web service providing method

摘要

A virtual device management server manages location information and resource information about a virtual device server as server information. The virtual device management server receives a processing request and printer location information from a printer. Then, the virtual device management server selects a virtual device server for providing a Web service corresponding to the processing request on the basis of server information, the processing request, and location information about the printer to thereby assign the selected virtual device server to the printer.

主权项

1. A Web service system comprising:
an image forming apparatus; and a server management apparatus that manages a plurality of virtual device servers for providing a Web service corresponding to processing requested by the image forming apparatus, the server management apparatus including a processor and a memory including instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the server management apparatus to:
acquire location information about a virtual device server and resource information about a resource of the virtual device server from the plurality of virtual device servers and to manage the acquired information as server information;receive a processing request from the image forming apparatus;acquire physical location information indicating the physical location of the image forming apparatus;acquire relative location information about the relative location of the image forming apparatus indicating a distance between the image forming apparatus and a virtual device server on a network;determine whether or not a virtual device server for providing a Web service can be selected among the plurality of virtual device servers using the physical location information indicating the physical location of the image forming apparatus; andselect a virtual device server from the plurality of virtual device servers for providing a Web service corresponding to the processing request on the basis of the managed server information, a processing request, the physical location information about the image forming apparatus, the relative location information about the image forming apparatus, and the result of the determination to thereby assign the selected virtual device server to the image forming apparatus, wherein, when it is determined that the virtual device server can be selected, a virtual device server arranged at a location closest to the physical location of the image forming apparatus is selected among the plurality of virtual device servers as a virtual device server for providing a Web service corresponding to the processing request on the basis of the physical location information and the location information of the plurality of virtual device servers, and wherein, when it is determined that the virtual device server cannot be selected, a virtual device server arranged at a location closest to the physical location of the image forming apparatus is selected among the plurality of virtual device servers as a virtual device server for providing a Web service corresponding to the processing request on the basis of the physical location information and the location information of the plurality of virtual device servers, or selects a virtual device server for providing a Web service corresponding to the processing request among the plurality of virtual device servers on the basis of the relative location information.