Redundancy for Tag Alarm and Event servers

To help ensure that alarm conditions are monitored and reported to clients in a distributed automation system, even during server disruptions, the FactoryTalk platform supports built-in redundancy features that are completely automatic and transparent to clients. During server failure detection and switchover (fail over), operators need not take any action or restart client software to continue using the system.
In addition, when a FactoryTalk client is disconnected from the FactoryTalk Network Directory Server, the client can continue to run, using a local cache of directory information. While disconnected, the client cannot change directory information, such as areas, Tag Alarm and Event Servers, and user accounts.
Ensuring redundant data
A FactoryTalk Alarm and Event system includes the following alarm and event servers that can be made redundant through standard configuration options:
  • Alarm events coming from
    Studio 5000
     controllers can be made fault tolerant through redundant
    Rockwell Automation
     Device Servers (
    FactoryTalk Linx
    ).
  • Tag-based alarm monitoring can be made fault tolerant through redundant FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event Servers.
  • OPC UA alarm monitoring can be made fault tolerant through redundant OPC UA servers using
    FactoryTalk Linx
     OPC UA Connector.
The servers can be hosted on the same, or on different, computers on the network, allowing for many different ways of configuring redundant systems. Once configured, each redundant pair of servers is accessible to all FactoryTalk clients within the system. Adding additional clients does not require any additional configuration.
Redundant
Rockwell Automation
 Device Servers (
FactoryTalk Linx
)
Rockwell Automation
 Device Server (
FactoryTalk Linx
) publishes alarms and events from alarm information in
Studio 5000
 controllers.
A primary
Rockwell Automation
 Device Server can be configured to fail over to a backup server when the primary server fails. As part of configuring redundancy for
Rockwell Automation
 Device Servers, you can specify whether, after a failed primary server is repaired, the system should automatically switch back to the primary server or continue using the secondary server. This option allows you to avoid unnecessary interruptions in the flow of data from servers to clients.
To configure redundancy for
Rockwell Automation
 Device Servers (
FactoryTalk Linx
), use either
FactoryTalk Administration Console
 or
FactoryTalk View Studio
.
Redundant FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event Servers
FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event Servers provide tag-based alarm condition monitoring.
As with
Rockwell Automation
 Device Servers (
FactoryTalk Linx
), a primary Tag Alarm and Event Server can be configured to fail over to a backup server when the primary server fails. As part of configuring redundancy for Tag Alarm and Event Servers, you can specify whether, after a failed primary server is repaired, the system should automatically switch back to the primary server or continue using the secondary server. This option allows you to avoid unnecessary interruptions in the flow of data from servers to clients.
To configure redundancy for FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event Servers, use either
FactoryTalk Administration Console
 or
FactoryTalk View Studio
.
Redundant OPC UA servers
FactoryTalk Linx
 OPC UA Connector communicates alarm information from third-party OPC UA servers to
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events
.
A primary OPC UA server can be configured using
FactoryTalk Linx
 OPC UA Connector to fail over to a backup server when the primary server fails. The system continues using the secondary server when the primary server becomes available again. You can choose to switch to the primary or the secondary server.
To configure redundancy for OPC UA servers, use either
FactoryTalk Administration Console
 or
FactoryTalk View Studio
.
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