Schneider Electric Software

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Doc Type Tech Notes

Doc Id TN269

Last Modified Date 02/20/2015

Advanced Communication Management for Wonderware Application Server

LEGACY TECH NOTE #

628

SUMMARY

Advanced Communication Management can help to manage CPU and network load for nodes hosting DAServers and DI Objects when DI Object
attributes are currently being subscribed, but whose value is not currently shown by a client.

You can utilize the DI Object Scan Mode setting of ActiveOnDemand to allow an InTouch client to scan for updated values from DI Object attributes.
Then, while the window is minimized or hidden, you can suspend the scanning without deleting the subscription. This can help to eliminate the time
required to remove and add subscriptions, making the InTouch® windows load faster, while keeping the load on the DI Object and its data source
as low as possible when switching or minimizing/restoring windows.

SITUATION

Enabling Advanced Communication Management

Advanced Communication Management (ACM) is configured at the Galaxy level within the Archestra IDE and is enabled by default.

To change the Galaxy ACM setting:

1. Launch the IDE and login to the Galaxy.

2. Click Galaxy/Configure/Communications Management.

You now have the option to enable/disable the ACM feature (Figure 1 below).

Please read the important information on this window regarding the need to restart all deployed platforms.

Figure 1: Configure Communications Management

With ACM enabled, you have the ability to configure the Scan Mode for Scan Groups within DI Objects in the Galaxy as detailed in the next section.

Scan Mode Configuration

Scan Mode Options

DI Objects contain Scan Groups, which are sets of attributes with data items associated. With ACM enabled, a new option called Scan Mode is
available for each Scan Group.

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The following Scan Mode options are available. The next section lists behavior examples.

ActiveOnDemand

Attributes that are not actively being referenced by any client or object are made Inactive and are not scanned.
New Items are deleted and added to the scan group as requested (referenced) by clients.
Items that exist when a scan mode change occurs are not deleted unless the previous mode was ActiveAll and the items are no longer
referenced.
The field device is polled for currently active items only. Inactive items are not scanned.

Active

Items are deleted and added to the scan group as requested (referenced) by the clients.
Items that exist when a scan mode change occurs are not deleted unless the previous mode was ActiveAll and the items are no longer
referenced.
The Active scan mode polls all points that are referenced, whether active or inactive.
Attributes are always in the active state. When the last reference to the attribute is unregistered/unadvised, the attribute is deleted.

ActiveAll

Scanning is continuous and dynamic attributes are never removed when unsubscribed until the DIObject is undeployed.
Items are activated by client requests, but continue to exist even after the clients are not interested in them anymore.
Items are not removed when the scan mode changes.
The scan group polls the field device for all points irrespective of whether they are currently active, inactive, or even subscribed to by items.

The following table summarizes the Scan Mode states for attributes in various reference conditions.

Attribute State ActiveOn Demand Active Active All

Items Referenced/Some Active Scan Scan Scan
Items Referenced/All Inactive No Scan Scan Scan
No Items Referenced Delete Delete Scan

Setting the Scan Mode

1. Edit a DI Object within the IDE.
2. Go to the Scan Group/Topic/Items Configuration tab. This location may differ depending on the type of DIObject you are modifying.
3. Add a new ScanGroup and set the Update Interval if required by the object.
4. Select a Scan Mode from the list (Figure 2 below).

Figure 2: DI Object Scan Group Configuration

5. Save and exit the Editor.

Special Considerations

If ACM is enabled, you should not script Indirect references to attributes that are in an ActiveOnDemand Scan Group. This could result in the
IsUsable() function always returning False.

To ensure Historized and Alarmed extensions are never suspended and no data updates are missed, they automatically register their own
reference to their related DI Object attributes and keep those references active. In the case of Alarms, the reference stays active, even if the Alarm
is disabled for an attribute.

Example Scan Mode Behavior

For this Tech Note, DASMBTCP DAServer is used to retrieve data from a Modbus Simulator. Three topics are configured (Figure 3 below).

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 Figure 3: DASMBTCP Configuration

The data is retrieved from DASMBTCP using a DDESuiteLinkClient DI Object instance called DASMBTCP_SL1. Three topics are configured to
match the DASMBTCP DAServer topics. Each topic utilizes a different Scan Mode setting (Figure 4 below).

Figure 4: DDESuiteLinkClient Object Configuration

A UserDefined Application object instance called UserDefined_1 is been configured with 15 Integer-type Field Attributes (5 from each Scan
Group) (Figure 5 below).

ActiveOnDemand: Analog_001 to Analog_005

Active: Analog_011 to Analog_015
ActiveAll: Analog_021 to Analog_025

Figure 5: Sample Field Attribute From UserDefined Object

DASMBTCP_SL1 and UserDefined_1 are deployed.

Viewing the System Management Console (SMC) Diagnostics, we can see the Active and ActiveAll items are immediately registered and active.
The ActiveOnDemand items are registered, but not active and no data is retrieved (Figures 6,7,8 below).

Figure 6: Topic Summary After Object Deploy

Figure 7: Active Scan Group Items Active After Object Deploy

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 Figure 8: ActiveDemand Scan Group Items Inactive After Object Deploy

Using Object Viewer as a client, data is retrieved from the ActiveDemand Scan Group. Only requested items are updated (Figures 9,10 below).

Figure 9: Items Advised by Object Viewer

Figure 10: ActiveDemand Scan Group Items Become Active After Advising Some Items With a Client

In this scenario, Object Viewer (client) is closed. Item updates are suspended. This same behavior occurs if these items were referenced by an
InTouch window that was minimized, hidden, or closed (Figure 11 below).

Figure 11: ActiveDemand Scan Group Items Suspended After Client Stops Requesting Updates

UserDefined_1 is undeployed. Items in ActiveDemand and Active are unregistered. Items in ActiveAll Scan Group remain registered until the
DDESuiteLinkClient object is undeployed (Figure 12 below).

Figure 12: ActiveDemand Scan Group Items Unregistered After Application Object Undeploy

The Schneider Electric industrial software business and AVEVA have merged to trade as AVEVA Group plc, a UK listed company. The Schneider Electric and Life
Is On trademarks are owned by Schneider Electric and are being licensed to AVEVA by Schneider Electric.

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Copyright © 2018 AVEVA Group Plc. All rights reserved