A script language-based relay protection device automatic upgrading system and method

Abstract

The application discloses a kind of based on script language's relay protection device automation upgrade system and method, belong to electric power system relay protection operation and maintenance technical field.The tool includes GUI interaction module, FTP compatible communication module, version intelligent extraction module, byte level check module, safe upgrade module, audit log module, and protection device FTP upgrade whole process automation is realized by interpretive script, version consistency check, fixed value full backup, atomization file replacement are automatically completed in upgrade process, whole process does not modify device running fixed value and configuration parameter, and audit record meeting electric power operation and maintenance specification is automatically generated.The application solves the technical problems of low efficiency, easy misoperation, fixed value loss and no audit traceability in existing manual upgrade, can be adapted to devices of multiple manufacturers, upgrade efficiency is improved by more than 80%, effectively avoids human operation risk, and meets the requirements of electric power system operation and maintenance compliance.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of power system relay protection operation and maintenance technology, specifically involving an automated firmware upgrade tool and method for relay protection devices based on scripting language. It is applicable to remote upgrade and maintenance operations of relay protection devices from various manufacturers with built-in standard FTP services in scenarios such as substations, railway traction substations, and distribution network automation areas. Background Technology

[0002] Relay protection devices are core secondary equipment for the safe and stable operation of power systems. Firmware upgrades are routine maintenance operations for defect elimination, function iteration, and version iteration. Currently, most mainstream relay protection devices in China have built-in standard FTP service as the default channel for firmware upgrades. Existing upgrade operations generally rely on manual execution by maintenance personnel: that is, logging into the device through a third-party commercial FTP client, manually finding the version file, manually comparing the old and new versions, manually backing up the settings, manually uploading the firmware file, and manually performing file replacement and device restart operations.

[0003] The existing manual upgrade method has the following inherent technical flaws: First, the operation efficiency is extremely low. Upgrading a single device takes a long time, and the workload of maintenance personnel is huge in the case of batch upgrades, which cannot meet the maintenance needs of large power grids and multiple sites. Second, human error poses a high risk, which can easily lead to problems such as incorrect version comparison leading to incorrect version upgrades / downgrades, accidental deletion of setting files resulting in loss of protection configurations, and transmission of incorrect firmware files causing abnormal device operation. In severe cases, it may cause protection malfunctions or failures to operate, resulting in power grid accidents. Third, there is no standardized operation record, no automatic log recording of the upgrade process, and the operation process is not traceable, which cannot meet the compliance requirements of the power system information protection 2.0 and operation and maintenance audit. Fourth, it has poor compatibility, relies on third-party commercial FTP clients, and the embedded FTP services of different manufacturers' devices have private implementation differences, which can easily lead to problems such as connection interruption, garbled encoding, and transmission interruption.

[0004] Currently, the dedicated upgrade tools provided by some equipment manufacturers generally have problems such as being strongly bound to the device model, being unable to adapt to different manufacturers, requiring the installation of dedicated client software, and forcibly overwriting the device configuration area during the upgrade process. They have extremely poor versatility and cannot meet the actual upgrade needs of power operation and maintenance sites with mixed deployments of devices from multiple manufacturers and of multiple models. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to address the shortcomings of existing technologies by providing an automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting languages. This system solves the technical problems of low operational efficiency, high human risk, lack of audit traceability, and poor cross-manufacturer compatibility in existing manual upgrade methods. It achieves full automation of the relay protection device upgrade process, zero loss of settings, and full traceability of operations, adapting to the upgrade and maintenance needs of multiple manufacturers and multiple scenarios.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solution: an automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language, including a GUI visual interaction module, an FTP-compatible communication module, a version intelligent extraction module, a byte-level version verification module, a security upgrade execution module, and an audit log generation module; The GUI visualization interaction module is used to provide an input interface for operation and maintenance parameters, a visualization interface for upgrade status, operation triggering controls, and abnormal alarm prompts. The FTP-compatible communication module is used to establish a cross-mode secure connection between the maintenance host and the manufacturer's relay protection device's built-in FTP service, maintain a long connection state, and handle connection anomalies. The version intelligent extraction module is used to extract the version information of the firmware running locally on the protection device and the version information of the local program release package to be upgraded, and automatically adapts to multiple text encoding formats. The byte-level version verification module is used to perform byte-level consistency verification on the two types of version information, identify version anomalies and block operations that do not meet the upgrade conditions; The security upgrade execution module is used to automatically complete firmware file transfer and version replacement after verification, without modifying the original operating settings, communication configuration and historical records of the protection device; The audit log generation module is used to record operation information throughout the entire process and automatically generate archived reports that comply with power operation and maintenance audit standards.

[0007] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the FTP-compatible communication module has a built-in automatic mode adaptation unit that automatically switches between FTP passive mode and active mode during the connection handshake phase to adapt to the port blocking rules of the power monitoring system firewall. After the connection is established, a heartbeat command is sent every 30 seconds to maintain the long connection. It has a built-in exponential backoff retry mechanism that automatically retryes 3 times after a single connection failure. If the connection fails continuously, it returns a clear reason for the error and terminates the current device upgrade process without affecting the operation of other devices in the queue.

[0008] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the version intelligent extraction module has a built-in automatic encoding recognition unit that is compatible with the three mainstream text encodings of power embedded devices: GB2312, UTF-8, and GBK. It automatically locates the version identification file under the fixed path of the protection device, downloads the version file in binary read-only mode, and does not write to or modify the data in the protection device's storage area throughout the process.

[0009] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the byte-level version verification module includes a three-segment version number verification unit and a file hash verification unit; the version number verification unit is used to compare the three-segment identifier of the firmware major version, minor version and revision number to intercept downgrade operations where the version to be upgraded is lower than the currently running version; the file hash verification unit is used to calculate the MD5 digest value of the firmware file to identify abnormal situations where the version number is the same but the file content has been tampered with or damaged.

[0010] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the GUI visual interaction module has a built-in human-machine safety confirmation unit. After the version verification is passed, a forced confirmation window pops up, which fully displays the device IP, model, current version, version to be upgraded, and list of components to be updated. The window has a built-in default value backup option, which automatically performs a full backup of the device value file, communication configuration file, and device parameter file before the upgrade. The backup file is stored with the name "Device IP_Upgrade Timestamp".

[0011] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the security upgrade execution module first uploads the firmware file to be upgraded to the temporary storage area of ​​the protection device with a temporary file name, and the upload process supports resuming interrupted uploads; after all files are uploaded and their integrity is verified, an atomic file replacement operation is performed, during which the setpoint storage area, parameter storage area, and event record area of ​​the protection device are not accessed or modified; after the replacement is completed, a soft restart command is sent, and the version information is automatically read to verify the upgrade result after the device restarts and goes online.

[0012] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the operation information recorded by the audit log generation module includes at least: upgrade operation time, maintenance personnel identification, device IP and model, version number before upgrade, version number after upgrade, list of upgrade components, backup file storage path, upgrade result and failure reason; the log supports batch summary and export to standard PDF format to meet the traceability requirements of power system operation and maintenance audit.

[0013] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the tool supports batch import of protection device IP lists, executes the upgrade process in batches according to configurable concurrency, automatically performs a full connectivity pre-check of all devices before the upgrade, filters out offline devices and generates an offline list; when the upgrade of a single device fails, the uploaded temporary files are automatically rolled back without affecting the upgrade operation of other devices in the batch.

[0014] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the tool is developed using the Python interpreted scripting language, which can run directly on mainstream operating systems such as Windows and Linux without compilation, does not rely on third-party commercial FTP client software, has a runtime memory usage of no more than 100MB, and is compatible with relay protection devices that have built-in standard FTP services from various mainstream manufacturers.

[0015] The present invention also provides a method for upgrading a relay protection device based on the above system, comprising the following steps: S1. Maintenance personnel input the protection device connection parameters and select the local program release package to be upgraded through the GUI visual interaction module; S2, the FTP-compatible communication module establishes a cross-mode FTP secure connection with the protection device and maintains a long connection through a heartbeat mechanism; S3, the version intelligent extraction module automatically adapts to the encoding format and extracts the firmware version of the protection device running locally and the firmware version information of the release package to be upgraded. S4, the byte-level version verification module performs three-stage version number verification and file hash verification to identify version anomalies. When an anomaly occurs, the upgrade process is locked and a highlight is displayed. S5. After the verification is successful, a forced confirmation window will pop up, and the device settings and configuration files will be fully backed up automatically. S6. The security upgrade execution module uses atomic replacement logic to complete firmware file upload and version replacement, retaining the original settings, configurations and historical records of the device throughout the process. S7. After the device restarts, the upgrade results are automatically verified, and the audit log generation module generates a full-process operation record and archive report.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: 1. Significantly improved upgrade efficiency: The entire process is automated, and the upgrade time for a single device is greatly reduced compared to the traditional manual operation time. In the case of batch upgrades, the upgrades can be performed in batches according to the configurable number of concurrent users, reducing the workload of on-site maintenance by more than 80%. 2. Comprehensive control of operational risks: Byte-level version verification intercepts the risks of incorrect upgrades, downgrades, and file corruption; mandatory read confirmation and automatic full backup mechanisms prevent accidental operations; and atomic replacement logic ensures zero loss of setpoints during the upgrade process without touching the device's setpoint storage area. This technical mechanism prevents power grid safety accidents caused by human operation. 3. Operation and maintenance audit compliance: The entire process automatically generates standardized operation logs, which fully record the information of the entire operation chain and can be directly exported and archived, meeting the traceability requirements of power system information security 2.0 and operation and maintenance audit; 4. Strong versatility and compatibility: Developed based on the standard FTP protocol, it has a built-in multi-encoding adaptation and automatic switching mechanism for multiple FTP modes. It does not rely on third-party commercial clients or manufacturer-specific tools. It can adapt to relay protection devices with built-in standard FTP services from different manufacturers and models, covering various operation and maintenance scenarios such as substations, traction substations, and distribution network areas. It supports various operation needs such as single-unit emergency troubleshooting, batch version upgrades, and gray-scale upgrades. Attached Figure Description

[0017] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall architecture of the automatic upgrade system for relay protection devices in this embodiment.

[0018] Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating the automated upgrade method for relay protection devices in this embodiment. Detailed Implementation

[0019] The present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

[0020] This embodiment is applied to a 220kV railway traction substation, which is equipped with a total of 32 line protection, main transformer protection and feeder protection devices, covering equipment from three mainstream protection manufacturers. All devices have built-in standard FTP service for firmware maintenance, and the device local version identification file is fixedly stored in the configuration directory. The program release package used in this upgrade is in compressed archive format, and each firmware component (protection logic program, communication program, human-machine interaction program, configuration template) has a built-in standard three-segment version identification field.

[0021] like Figure 1 As shown, the GUI visualization interaction module uses Python's standard graphics library to build an integrated visual window, with partitioned settings including an FTP parameter input area, a version file selection area, a comparison result display table, upgrade operation controls, and a real-time log preview window. The tool requires no additional compilation or installation; Windows / Linux maintenance hosts can directly run the script to launch the interface. The interface has built-in pre-parameter verification logic, automatically locking the login control when the IP address format is incorrect or the account information is empty, thus preventing invalid operations from the source.

[0022] The FTP-compatible communication module is implemented using Python's built-in standard file transfer protocol stack, eliminating the need for third-party commercial FTP clients. It features specialized compatibility adaptation for FTP services in power embedded devices: First, it verifies the format and validity of the input device IP, maintenance account, and password. Once the verification is successful, it initiates an FTP control connection. During the handshake process, it automatically detects and switches between passive and active modes, adapting to the port blocking rules of the site's firewall. After the connection is established, a no-operation heartbeat command is sent every 30 seconds to maintain the long connection and avoid connection timeout interruption during batch upgrades. The module has a built-in exponential backoff retry mechanism. After a single connection failure, it will automatically retry 3 times at intervals of 1s, 2s, and 4s. If it fails continuously, the GUI interface will clearly indicate the reason for the failure (network unreachable, incorrect account password, device FTP service not started), terminate the upgrade process of the current device, and not affect the operation of other devices in the upgrade queue.

[0023] After the connection is established, the intelligent version extraction module automatically locates the version identifier file under the fixed path of the protection device and downloads it to the temporary directory of the operation and maintenance host in binary read-only mode, without writing to or modifying any files in the device. At the same time, it decompresses and traverses the selected local program release archive package, automatically identifies the version identifier field of each firmware component in the archive package, and has a built-in automatic encoding recognition unit in the extraction process to automatically adapt to the three mainstream text encodings of power devices, namely GB2312, UTF-8 and GBK, to avoid comparison errors caused by garbled version fields. After extraction, the version numbers of all components in the local version and the version to be upgraded are stored in memory in a structured manner. After the upgrade is completed, temporary files are automatically cleaned up, and no redundant data is generated.

[0024] The byte-level version verification module performs two-layer verification on the version information of all extracted firmware components: First, it compares the major version, minor version, and revision number of the main program with each component through a three-segment version number verification unit to confirm that the version to be upgraded is higher than the current running version of the device and intercepts the version downgrade operation; Second, it calculates the MD5 digest value of each firmware file through a file hash verification unit and compares it with the official hash value of the release package to accurately identify abnormal situations where the version number is the same but the file content has been tampered with or the transmission is corrupted. After verification, a structured comparison result table is generated, clearly indicating the current version, the version to be upgraded, whether an update is needed, and the file size difference for each component. If there are any abnormalities such as version downgrade, hash mismatch, or missing necessary components in the archive package, the upgrade control is locked directly, the upgrade process is prohibited from starting, and the abnormal items are highlighted in the GUI interface.

[0025] After the version verification is successful, the human-machine safety confirmation unit of the GUI visual interaction module pops up a forced confirmation window. The window fully displays the IP address, device model, current running version, version to be upgraded, and list of components to be updated of the device to be upgraded. At the same time, a 10-second forced reading countdown is set. The "Confirm Upgrade" control can only be clicked after the countdown ends to avoid accidental upgrades caused by maintenance personnel. The "Full Backup of Fixed Values" option in the window is checked by default. Before confirming the upgrade, the system will automatically download the fixed value files, communication configuration files, and device parameter files from the device to the designated backup directory on the maintenance host via FTP. If the maintenance personnel manually uncheck the backup option, a secondary risk warning window will pop up, clearly indicating the risk of not backing up the upgrade. The maintenance personnel can only continue the operation after confirming the backup.

[0026] The security upgrade execution module adopts a "temporary upload-verification-atomic replacement" security upgrade logic: First, all firmware files to be upgraded are uploaded to the device's temporary storage area with temporary filenames of ".tmp". The upload process supports resuming interrupted uploads; after network interruption is recovered, the transmission can continue from the breakpoint without re-uploading all files. After all temporary files are uploaded, the MD5 digest value of the temporary files is verified again to confirm that the file transmission is complete and undamaged. After verification, an atomic file replacement operation is performed. During the replacement process, only the firmware program files are replaced; the device's setting storage area, parameter storage area, and event log area are not accessed or modified. The original operating settings, communication configurations, and historical event records of the device are preserved throughout the process. After the replacement is completed, a soft reboot command is sent to the device. During the reboot process, the device's FTP service status is continuously monitored. After the device reboots and comes online, the version identifier file is automatically read again to confirm that the upgraded version is completely consistent with the version to be upgraded, thus determining that the upgrade of a single device is successful.

[0027] After a single device upgrade is completed, the audit log generation unit automatically generates a standardized operation record for that device. The record includes: upgrade operation time, maintenance personnel account, device IP and model, version before upgrade, version after upgrade, list of upgrade components, backup file storage path, upgrade result (success / failure), and reason for failure (if failure). After all devices are upgraded, a batch upgrade operation report is automatically generated. The report format conforms to the requirements of power operation and maintenance procedures and can be directly exported as a PDF for archiving. At the same time, the log file is synchronously written to the local archive directory to retain complete operation traceability records and meet the requirements of power system operation and maintenance audit.

[0028] like Figure 2 As shown, this embodiment also provides a method for upgrading a relay protection device based on the above system, including the following steps: S1. Maintenance personnel input the protection device connection parameters and select the local program release package to be upgraded through the GUI visual interaction module; S2, the FTP-compatible communication module establishes a cross-mode FTP secure connection with the protection device and maintains a long connection through a heartbeat mechanism; S3, the version intelligent extraction module automatically adapts to the encoding format and extracts the firmware version of the protection device running locally and the firmware version information of the release package to be upgraded. S4, the byte-level version verification module performs three-stage version number verification and file hash verification to identify version anomalies. When an anomaly occurs, the upgrade process is locked and a highlight is displayed. S5. After the verification is successful, a forced confirmation window will pop up, and the device settings and configuration files will be fully backed up automatically. S6. The security upgrade execution module uses atomic replacement logic to complete firmware file upload and version replacement, retaining the original settings, configurations and historical records of the device throughout the process. S7. After the device restarts, the upgrade results are automatically verified, and the audit log generation module generates a full-process operation record and archive report.

[0029] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on a scripting language, characterized in that, include: The module includes a GUI visual interaction module, an FTP-compatible communication module, a version intelligent extraction module, a byte-level version verification module, a security upgrade execution module, and an audit log generation module. The GUI visualization interaction module is used to provide an input interface for operation and maintenance parameters, a visualization interface for upgrade status, operation triggering controls, and abnormal alarm prompts. The FTP-compatible communication module is used to establish a cross-mode secure connection between the maintenance host and the manufacturer's relay protection device's built-in FTP service, maintain a long connection state, and handle connection anomalies. The version intelligent extraction module is used to extract the version information of the firmware running locally on the protection device and the version information of the local program release package to be upgraded, and automatically adapts to multiple text encoding formats. The byte-level version verification module is used to perform byte-level consistency verification on the two types of version information, identify version anomalies and block operations that do not meet the upgrade conditions; The security upgrade execution module is used to automatically complete firmware file transfer and version replacement after verification, without modifying the original operating settings, communication configuration and historical records of the protection device; The audit log generation module is used to record operation information throughout the entire process and automatically generate archived reports that comply with power operation and maintenance audit standards.

2. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The FTP-compatible communication module has a built-in automatic mode adaptation unit that automatically switches between FTP passive and active modes during the connection handshake phase to adapt to the port blocking rules of the power monitoring system firewall. After the connection is established, a heartbeat command is sent every 30 seconds to maintain the long connection. It has a built-in exponential backoff retry mechanism that automatically retryes 3 times after a single connection failure. If the connection fails continuously, it returns a clear reason for the error and terminates the current device upgrade process without affecting the operation of other devices in the queue.

3. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The version intelligent extraction module has a built-in automatic encoding recognition unit that is compatible with three mainstream text encodings for power embedded devices: GB2312, UTF-8, and GBK. It automatically locates the version identifier file under the fixed path of the protection device and downloads the version file in binary read-only mode, without writing to or modifying the data in the protection device's storage area throughout the process.

4. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The byte-level version verification module includes a three-segment version number verification unit and a file hash verification unit. The version number verification unit is used to compare the firmware major version, minor version and revision number three-segment identifier to intercept downgrade operations where the version to be upgraded is lower than the current running version. The file hash verification unit is used to calculate the MD5 digest value of the firmware file to identify abnormal situations where the version number is the same but the file content has been tampered with or damaged.

5. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The GUI visualization interaction module has a built-in human-machine safety confirmation unit. After the version verification is successful, a forced confirmation window pops up, which fully displays the device IP, model, current version, version to be upgraded, and list of components to be updated. The built-in default option for value backup is selected in the window. Before the upgrade, the device value file, communication configuration file, and device parameter file will be automatically backed up in full. The backup file is stored with the name "Device IP_Upgrade Timestamp".

6. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The security upgrade execution module first uploads the firmware file to be upgraded to the temporary storage area of ​​the protection device with a temporary file name. The upload process supports resuming interrupted uploads. After all files are uploaded and their integrity is verified, an atomic file replacement operation is performed. During the replacement process, the protection device's setpoint storage area, parameter storage area, and event log area are not accessed or modified. After the replacement is complete, a soft reboot command is sent. Once the device restarts and comes back online, the version information will be automatically read to verify the upgrade result.

7. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The operation information recorded by the audit log generation module includes at least: upgrade operation time, maintenance personnel identification, device IP and model, version number before upgrade, version number after upgrade, list of upgrade components, backup file storage path, upgrade result and failure reason; the log supports batch summary and export to standard PDF format to meet the traceability requirements of power system operation and maintenance audit.

8. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The tool supports batch import of protection device IP lists, executes the upgrade process in batches according to the configurable number of concurrent processes, and automatically performs a full connectivity pre-check of all devices before the upgrade, filters out offline devices and generates an offline list. When the upgrade of a single device fails, the uploaded temporary files will be automatically rolled back without affecting the upgrade operations of other devices in the batch.

9. The automated upgrade system for relay protection devices based on scripting language according to claim 1, characterized in that, The tool is developed using the Python interpreted scripting language. It can run directly on mainstream operating systems such as Windows and Linux without compilation, does not rely on third-party commercial FTP client software, and has a runtime memory usage of no more than 100MB. It is compatible with relay protection devices that have built-in standard FTP services from various mainstream manufacturers.

10. A method for upgrading a relay protection device using the tool described in any one of claims 1-9, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1. Maintenance personnel input the protection device connection parameters and select the local program release package to be upgraded through the GUI visual interaction module; S2, the FTP-compatible communication module establishes a cross-mode FTP secure connection with the protection device and maintains a long connection through a heartbeat mechanism; S3, the version intelligent extraction module automatically adapts to the encoding format and extracts the firmware version of the protection device running locally and the firmware version information of the release package to be upgraded. S4, the byte-level version verification module performs three-stage version number verification and file hash verification to identify version anomalies. When an anomaly occurs, the upgrade process is locked and a highlight is displayed. S5. After the verification is successful, a forced confirmation window will pop up, and the device settings and configuration files will be fully backed up automatically. S6. The security upgrade execution module uses atomic replacement logic to complete firmware file upload and version replacement, retaining the original settings, configurations and historical records of the device throughout the process. S7. After the device restarts, the upgrade results are automatically verified, and the audit log generation module generates a full-process operation record and archive report.

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