Rockwell Automation T8030S Trusted OPC Server Package - Manual (Page 21)

Trusted
TM
OPC T8030S
Issue 23 April 10 PD-T8030S 21
The Controller Name is the user-defined name that identifies the controller. The name is used to
address the Controller and all the tags it contains (e.g. EthernetIF.Controller1.Tag1). This name is
best kept short, and with no spaces, periods/full stops or unusual characters because some clients do
not support them. If the name is used to reference a tag, the overall name length is limited to 255
characters and some clients use periods/full stops as delimiters.
The Symbol Database Path is the location of the IEC1131 TOOLSET program files for the specific
controller. The user will be prompted to enter the directory of the APPLI.TST file. This path will be
used to locate and decode all the IEC1131 application files required to identify the tag names,
addresses, I/O type and description. Information is extracted from the APPLI.TST, APPLI.DCO,
APPLI.DLO, APPLI.VXA, APPLI.AVN and APPLI.CNX files. Note that these files are not complete
unless the application is fully compiled.
The Comms Timeout specifies the time period that the OPC Server will wait for a response from a
Controller. If this time is too short, the OPC Server can report a Controller failure when one has not
occurred. If this time is too long, the server performance will degrade significantly if a Controller does
fail. Large IEC1131 applications (with correspondingly large symbol databases) require more time to
write tag values to the Controller. In these cases, the Comms Timeout value should be increased from
the 1000ms (1 second) default to up to 10000ms (10 seconds).
The OPC standard specifies that all time-stamp information use the UTC time zone (which is the same
as the GMT time zone). When the Time Stamp Format has “Send in UTC Format” enabled, the server
will convert time-stamp information from the local time zone to UTC before it is presented to clients.
The OPC client should then convert the time-stamp information back to local before it is displayed or
logged. For OPC clients that do not perform the UTC to local time zone conversion, the “Send in UTC
Format” field should be disabled.
The timestamps generated for Sequence of Events and Process Historian changes are based on the
time in the Trusted
TM Controller. Normally the Controller clock is set to local time, but if necessary it
can be set to UTC. If the Controller clock is set to UTC the “SOE/PH in UTC Format” must be
checked. If the Controller clock is set to local time the “SOE/PH in UTC Format” must be unchecked.
Process Historian and Sequence of Events data can both be enabled/disabled and given individual
update rates. Sequence of Events or Process Historian polling can be enabled (with no ill effects)
even when Sequence of Events and/or Process Historian is not configured for the controller. When
enabled, a refresh rate of 500ms to 2000ms is appropriate. The Process Historian contains time
stamped changes to analogue variables that have been configured for Process Historian collection in
the Trusted
TM application. The SOE contains time stamped changes to Boolean and some small value
analogue variables (usually channel status variables, ranged 0 to 7) that have been configured for
SOE collection.
The Global Ungrouped Tag Update Rate specifies the poll rate of any tags that do not have an update
rate specified by the OPC client. It can only be set in the System Preferences tab, and applies to all
Controllers.
None of the update rates may be less than 10ms. Typical values for the update rate range from 100 to
500ms. More information on the OPC timing settings is given in Section 2.4.5, Server Timing.
Two Ethernet connections can be configured. Each consists of an IP Address, an Ethernet port
number and a Comms ID number.
The IP Address specifies the addresses of the Communication Interface modules (8151B) installed in
the Controller. In the case where a redundant Ethernet link is configured, the sub-network of each card
must be different. The first IP Address must be on the same Ethernet sub-network as the Primary
Ethernet Interface Card (see section 2.4.3, System Preferences). The second IP Address must be on
the same Ethernet sub-network as the Secondary Ethernet Interface Card. If only one Ethernet card is
fitted, only the first IP Address should be specified. See section 4, Suggested Network Configurations,
for details of IP networks and addresses.
The Ethernet port numbers specify the Ethernet port that the server will connect to on the Controller.
This is usually set to 2000 but must be included in the System Configuration.