Manuals > Monitoring System Construction Guide > System Installation and Operation > System Configuration and Operation (Runtime Execution) > System Configuration and Operation Form > Operation with Server Duplication

Overview of setup steps

To set up duplication for FA-Panel, follow the steps below.

Step 1	Windows	•Configuring Network Shares Configure Windows network sharing for both the primary and standby PCs.
Step 2	Panel Server	•Configuring a redundant interface Specifies whether to enable or disable the redundant communication line, and the IP address and port number of the communication path used by each communication line.
Step 3	Panel Server	•Action duplication settings Configure duplication for actions that support duplication. In the duplication settings, specify the paths for the main folder and subfolder in the settings for the data save destination for logging, etc. Also, configure the data save destination for the memory device as necessary.
Step 4	Panel Editor	•Client duplication settings Open the client configuration file (XML) in Panel Editor and configure the properties related to duplication.
Step 5	Panel Server	•Server duplex startup mode setting In the server operation settings, set the initial startup mode of your PC (whether your PC will start as the main or sub). This setting is performed for each PC in the main and standby systems.

In this example, we will assume that the primary and secondary PCs each have two LAN cards installed, and that the network configuration allows two communication paths to be used.

•Network Configuration Example
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Step 1 (Network Share Setup)

The duplication function of FA-Panel uses the network sharing function provided as a standard feature of the Windows OS. Please set up the network sharing settings of the Windows OS so that the folders of both the primary and standby PCs are shared over the network.

As an example, let's assume the following folder structure:

C:\Project Project folder.

\ServerData Under this folder, divide into subfolders

\Alarm Stores server data (alarms, logging, reports, etc.).

　　　　\LogData

　　　　\Report

　　　　　：　：：：

As shown in the above configuration, by consolidating the server-related data you want to duplicate under a folder such as "ServerData," the ServerData folder will be the only folder that is subject to network sharing settings. Also, in the network sharing settings, you can set the main PC and standby PC to share the same folder on each other's PCs with the same drive letter (such as "X:").

The figure below is an example in which each other's "C:\Project\ServerData" is shared as "X:".

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If there are multiple communication paths for LAN, specify the IP address directly in the network path name for the network share. If you specify the computer name, an unintended communication path may be selected.

(example)

\\PC2\ServerData → \\192.168.1.2\ServerData

When an application is run in administrator mode, it may not be possible to access network drives correctly. This is a phenomenon that depends on the UAC (User Account Control) mechanism that has been installed in OSs since WindowsVista, and occurs because the connection state of network drives is not shared between administrator privileges and user privileges (before elevation). Specifically, even if it appears that you can connect to the network drive without any problems from Explorer, the network drive may be recognized as disconnected from an application run with administrator privileges.

This issue can be avoided by changing the settings on the OS side (it cannot be controlled from the application side).

If this problem occurs when referencing a network drive in redundant operation or with File operation actions, please take the following measures.

*Please be careful when performing the following as it changes the registry settings. If you accidentally change anything other than the following, the OS may not function properly.

[Solution]

By configuring the registry value "EnableLinkedConnections", the network share mapping settings will be shared between the two tokens.

This setting allows access to network shares even when the application is run with administrator privileges.

1.Enter "regedit" in "Run" or "Search" and run regedit.exe

2.Once the Registry Editor is open, go to the following key:
key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

3.Create the following new value and set its value data:
Value: EnableLinkedConnections (DWORD 32-bit)
Value data: 1

4.Exit Registry Editor and restart your computer.

When starting Windows, if the PC you are sharing with is not running, the network shared drive may not be reconnected automatically. In such cases, start Windows Explorer and click once on the target network drive (folder) from the folder tree to reconnect the network drive. When starting up the system, please check to make sure the network drive is connected correctly.

Even if the network drive for duplication is connected correctly at the start of operation, the network drive may be unintentionally disconnected during operation for some reason. If such a problem occurs, it can be avoided by periodically calling a simple external application for connecting to the network drive from a server action to automatically reconnect. A sample of this issue is posted on the following FAQ page on our website (click to display in a separate browser).

"In a duplicated configuration, the network drive may be disconnected. Is there a solution?"

When logging to a network shared folder in a large volume at high speeds in the CSV logging process, delays in writing to the network drive, etc., can occur depending on the hardware configuration, resulting in missing log data. This problem can be caused by a variety of factors, including low hardware specifications (insufficient memory, slow disk rotation speed), overhead due to the RAID configuration, and slow network communication speeds.

Please consider the following as countermeasures (for reference):

•Is it possible to slow down the logging cycle?

•Is it possible to reduce the number of files (by increasing the number of columns per file, etc.)?

•Disable the OS disk cache settings.
*However, if the cache setting is turned off, the data loss problem will be improved, but the overall system performance will decrease.

When sharing over a network, sharing the entire directory of a drive such as "C:" is not recommended for security reasons. Network sharing should be limited to only folders that contain server data that requires duplication.

Step 2 (Configuring redundant interfaces)

Configure the redundant interface for Panel Server.

1.Open Interface/Redundancy from the Panel Server tree, right-click to display the menu, and select Properties to display the redundant interface setting screen.

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2.Configuring a redundant interface

In the settings for redundant communication line 1, specify the IP address of the LAN card to be used exclusively for the redundant communication line. Specify the IP addresses for both the main machine and the sub machine. The port number is displayed as 6002 by default. If you need to change it, change the setting from this screen.

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If redundant communication line 2 can be used, check the box to enable redundant communication line 2 and specify the IP addresses and port numbers of the main and sub machines.

When you have finished setting up, click the OK button to close the dialog.

Step 3 (Duplication of actions, etc.)

The duplication settings for an action differ depending on the type of action. Also, if you use the disk save function of the memory device tag as a function other than an action, you can also set duplication for the memory device save destination settings.

The duplication settings for each target function are as follows:

Duplication setting (action)

Logger(CSV)

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1.Open the Text Settings tab.

2.Clicking the Duplicate Settings button displays the Duplicate File Name dialog box.

3.If you check Enable Duplication, the input area will be enabled.

4.For the subfolder, specify the same folder name under the shared drive.

Logger (ODBC)

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1.Open the ODBC settings tab.

2.Clicking the Duplication Settings button displays the ODBC Duplication Settings dialog.

3.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

4.In "Main machine settings," specify the DSN of the main DB as the main data source and the DSN of the sub DB as the sub data source.

5.In "Sub-machine settings," specify the DSN of the sub-DB as the main data source and the DSN of the main DB as the sub-data source.

To duplicate ODBC, you need to create two databases with the same table structure, a "main DB" and a "sub DB", and create an ODBC data source to connect to each DB. In addition, the ODBC data source needs to be registered on both the main PC and the standby PC.

In the ODBC Duplication Settings dialog, set the main DB as the correct DB when it is running on the main machine, and the sub DB as the correct DB when it is running on the sub machine. In other words, set it so that the main data source of the main machine is the main DB, and the main data source of the sub machine is the sub DB, so that they are cross-connected.

Summary

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1.Open the Basic Settings tab.

2.Clicking the Duplicate Settings button displays the Duplicate File Name dialog box.

3.If you check Enable Duplication, the input area will be enabled.

4.For the subfolder, specify the same folder name under the shared drive.

Summary (ODBC)

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1.Open the ODBC settings tab.

2.Clicking the Duplication Settings button displays the ODBC Duplication Settings dialog.

3.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

4.In "Main machine settings," specify the DSN of the main DB as the main data source and the DSN of the sub DB as the sub data source.

5.In "Sub-machine settings," specify the DSN of the sub-DB as the main data source and the DSN of the main DB as the sub-data source.

Alarm server

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1.Open the Basic Settings tab.

2.Click the Alarm Folder Duplication Setting button.

3.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

4.For the subfolder, specify the same folder name under the shared drive.

Alarm server (ODBC)

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1.Open the Basic Settings tab.

2.Click the Duplication Processing Settings button in the Alarm Folder Settings.

3.The duplicated folder name setting is the same as “Alarm server”.

4.Open the ODBC Settings tab and click the Duplication Processing Settings button.

5.Check Enable Duplication and set each data source for the main machine settings and the sub machine settings.

6.The data source configuration is similar to the Logger ODBC concept. Please refer to the Logger ODBC documentation for details.

File server

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1.Open the Settings tab.

2.Click the duplicate public folder setting button.

3.Check Enable Duplication and specify the folder name of the shared drive in Subfolder.

Query server

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1.Open the ODBC settings tab.

2.Click the ODBC duplication setting button.

3.Check Enable Duplication and set each data source for the main machine settings and the sub machine settings.

When you configure Query server for duplication, a functional restriction occurs that makes the ExecuteSQL method unavailable. This is not a problem if the system meets the requirements by executing only reference queries such as SELECT, but if you absolutely need to meet processing requirements such as DELETE of records, for example, you can avoid configuring Query server for duplication, register Query server actions separately for the main DB and sub DB, and update both DBs simultaneously through each action. However, with this configuration, there is a possibility that only one DB will be updated when one DB is stopped, so in order to strictly maintain the consistency of the DBs on both PCs, it is necessary to build a data synchronization mechanism as an application. Please be careful.

demand

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1.Open the Demand tab.

2.Click the Duplex Settings button.

3.On the duplicated folder name setting screen, specify the main and subfolder names for the demand master storage destination folder.

4.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

5.For the subfolder, specify the same folder name under the shared drive.

Daily/Monthly/Yearly Report

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1.Open the Basic Settings tab.

2.Clicking the Duplicate Settings button displays the Duplicate File Name dialog box.

3.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

4.For the subfolder, specify the same folder name under the shared drive.

When creating a subreport, please note that you must also configure the duplication settings for each subreport. The duplication settings for subreports are configured using the Duplication Processing Settings button in the Subreport Settings dialog.

Subreport Settings Dialog

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Duplication settings (other than actions)

Memory Devices

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1.Open the unit properties of the memory device and open the Communication Settings dialog.

2.Click the Duplication Processing Settings button in the Value Retention Folder.

3.Checking Enable Duplication will enable the input area.

4.Specifies the subfolder name for the disk location of the tag value.

Public Folder

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1.Open the properties of Panel-Interface and select the Public Folder tab.

2.Select the public folder that needs to be duplicated and click the Change button.

3.From the Public Folder dialog, click the Duplication Settings button.

4.Check Enable Duplication and specify the subfolder name.

There is no need to configure duplicated settings for the public folder "server_data_cnf_readonly."

Be careful not to configure it in duplicate.

Step 4 (Client duplication setup)

The client-side duplication configuration is done for the following three route properties:

Route Property Name	Contents
PSNode	IP address of the main PC
PSNode2	IP address of the standby PC
PSNodeRedundancy	True: Enable duplication, False: Do not enable duplication

The steps to set up the client are as follows:

1.Start Panel Editor and open the client configuration file (XML).

2.Select root from the properties page.

3.For the above properties, set the IP addresses of the destination nodes (main PC and standby PC) (the IP addresses specified in "Interface" and "Panel" of Panel Server) and enable redundancy, then save the configuration file.

This completes the client duplication setting. After saving the settings, execute the setting file in Panel Browser and it will start in duplication mode.

The IP address and port number set in the PSNode root property, PSNode2 root property, PSPanelPort root property, and PSPanelPort2 root property must match the settings specified in "Interface" and "Panel" of Panel Server. Note that these are not the IP address and port number set in "Interface" and "Redundancy".

Panel Browser startup settings, such as creating shortcuts and registering in startup, are the same as normal execution methods even in a duplicated environment.

Step 5 (Setting the server's redundant startup mode)

Set the redundant startup mode for Panel Server. The redundant settings must be configured on both the main and sub Panel Server machines.

1.From the Panel Server menu, select Operations > Options.

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2.Open the Boot Settings tab and set the "Boot Duplex Mode".

For the main device, select "Start your device as the main device." For the sub device, select "Start your device as the sub device."

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3.When you change the duplex settings, the following dialog box will be displayed. Click the OK button to save the settings.

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4.The change to the dual boot mode setting will be reflected the next time Panel Server is started. To reflect the change, close Panel Server and then start it again.

By using the Panel Server environment variable, it is possible to standardize the server configuration files for the main and sub servers. In other words, there is no need to have separate server configuration files for the main and sub servers. Specifically, define the IP address in the environment variable and set the environment variable to the IP address in Panel-Interface. For more information about environment variables, see "Environment variables".

Setting up a redundant system

Setting up a redundant system