Monitoring DA Server Communications

Overview

There are a two segments of connectivity that can be monitored:

1. InTouch’s connection to a DA Server.
2. DA Server’s connection to an end device.

1. Monitor InTouch's connection to the DA Server

Note: This test will indicate if the DA Server itself can be reached regardless of whether or not the end device is available.

1. Create an access name to read data from WindowViewer’s IOStatus topic.
   1. Open WindowMaker and go to Special > Access Names.
   2. Clicking the Add button to create a new access name.

Enter the information shown below to connect to the IOStatus topic of WindowViewer.

2. Create a tag to read the status of the access name’s connection.
   1. Open the tag name dictionary in WindowMaker by going to Special > Tagname Dictionary….
   2. Click New to create a new tag. Enter a Tagname, for example: “ACCESSNAME_ServerConnectionStatus” (Replace ACCESSNAME with the name of the access name you will monitor, ex: PLC1).
   3. Set the Type to be an I/O Discrete.
   4. Set the Access Name to IOStatus, the access name we created in step 1.

Set the Item to be the name of the access name you want to monitor. (Ex: PLC1)

The newly creates tag will now indicate the connection status of the access name. If the DA Server is shutdown the new tag will be set to Off, and if the DA Server is running it will be set to On.

2. DA Server connectivity to a specific device

Most DA Servers contain a built in system tag named $SYS$Status that can be used to monitor the connection to a specific device. This bit should be tested as it is not included with all DA Servers, and was not reliable in older versions of the DA Servers.

If using an older IO Server, the status bit is named “Status” instead of $SYS$Status.

These steps assume you have already created an access name to communicate with the DA Server.

1. Create a tag to read the status of the connection between the DAServer and the device.
   1. Open the tag name dictionary in WindowMaker by going to Special > Tagname Dictionary….
   2. Click New to create a new tag. Enter a Tagname, for example “ACCESSNAME_PLCConnStatus” (Replace ACCESSNAME with the name of the access name you will monitor, ex: PLC1).
   3. Set the Type to be an IO Discrete.
   4. Set the Access Name to the name of the access name you would like to monitor.
   5. Set the Item to be “$SYS$Status” if using a DA Server, or “Status“ if using an IO Server.

The newly creates tag will now indicate the connection status of DA Server to the device. If the device is not available, tag will be set to Off, and if the device is available it will be set to On.