[foxboro] Automation of upload/checkpoint/save_all at sites with IACC, ICC, or IEE!!
- From: "tjvandew@xxxxxxxxx" <tjvandew@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:08:30 -1000
Terry,
Using the checkpoint file as the master for all CP information IS
the best idea. There are utilities such as dbvu that already extract
data from the checkpoint file and they are lightening fast. Alex talked
about Foxboro moving in that direction back before the Infusion
development and it sounded like a good idea then. When using IEE as the
configuration tool is there still a checkpoint file as we know it
today? I would think it would still have to exist. If so, the
checkpoint file should be a great and absolute source of all information
in the CP regardless of whether you are using IEE, IACC, or ICC.
De-compiling the checkpoint file might be a bit complicated but it seems
like it would be money well spent by Foxboro and would provide users
with more credible information in a much faster and more reliable way.
The relationship between the checkpoint and workfile has been a source
of confusion from day one and the workfile has become corrupted on too
many occasions. Since the checkpoint creates a raw image dump of what
is running in the CP at the time the checkpoint is initiated it contains
all of the data needed and it is now quick enough to be invoked at the
beginning of a configuration session to insure the user is seeing what
is really running in the CP.
Alex or Russ, what were the factors that facilitated the quantum
reduction in the time it takes to checkpoint a 270 series CP? Was it
just the 100mb/s bandwidth and switched Ethernet that the MESH provides
between the 270 CP's and the boot host where the checkpoint file is
stored? The increased processor power of the CP and/or boot host? Or a
change in the checkpoint communication data stream? At any rate, the
270's checkpoint in seconds rather than minutes that the nodebus based
CP's take.
The silence on my last email asking questions about automating
uploads in IACC was deafening. I think that silence was a positive
confirmation that there is no mechanism in place to allow it and it
points out a glaring deficiency in IACC.
This email proposes a possible solution to a problem that has
plagued IA users from the beginning of IA time but it would be no
surprise to me if it falls on deaf ears also.
Before retiring from Dow Corning and working on the Tesoro Hawaii
project I had no experience with IACC. Although I am still not an
expert on IACC I see little advantage to using IACC as a day-to-day
configuration tool. All of the people I have seen use it are still
using ICC driver tasks functions, (iccprt), to provide the bulk of data
they need to do their jobs. There are a lot better tools that users
have developed with individually developed applications than what IACC
provides. I can understand that it provides people developing the
software applications from a remote location a better tool to create
loop templates and standards but IACC actually gets in the way down at
the day-to-day use level IMHO. But IACC is the only mechanism on a
multi-boot-host MESH network that allows for a centrally located
configuration workstation. If you use ICC on the MESH you have to be in
a direct session with the CP boot host. That was a large step backward
from the UNIX based use of ICC that allowed configuration of any CP from
any workstation on the nodebus/carrierband network.
Cheers,
Tom VandeWater
Control Conversions Inc.
Kapolei, HI
_______________________________________________________________________
This mailing list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Invensys Process
Systems (formerly The Foxboro Company). Use the info you obtain here at
your own risks. Read http://www.thecassandraproject.org/disclaimer.html
foxboro mailing list: //www.freelists.org/list/foxboro
to subscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=join
to unsubscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=leave
Other related posts:
- » [foxboro] Automation of upload/checkpoint/save_all at sites with IACC, ICC, or IEE!!
