Application program on AC450

Dear Stefan,

I have a query about checking running application program on AC450.
For example,
*Day-000, I have a AC450 controller (redundancy config and Battery backup) running with full application.

*Day-111, I have online changes in application by Online builder then dump application backup then write it to Application backup Flashcard to insert into controller.

*Day-222, I have online change in application without re-write dump application to Flashcard.

*Day-333, I face a reboot of both Processors of Controller at the same time due to electrical problem in 2 minutes.

==> After controller rebooted successfully, how can I check the running application (by command or system information) is the version of Day-111 or Day-222?
(except for going thru all applications to check what I've done before)

Thanks in advance.

Vu,

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vutq Rank: 112

Asked 1 year ago

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Hello Vu.
This was a good question, I have not thought about this before.

It's not possible to see if the system make a startup with reload of duap from PCMCIA or if it makes a warm start, but if it start from a DUAP its possible to check
other values or TTD logs to see if you lost TTD data and if parameters where changed back to the day before.

One good idea is to use a dedicated DIC or PC element and store and update a version value constant after every change.

It also takes long time to start from a application PCMCIA flash card is much longer than a normal warm start.

One way may be to take a new DUAP and program it on a PCMCIA card and then compare the memory usage of the two cards, it m,ay be hard to see a small change only.
By heart, I don't know if it's easy or a possibility to compare the checksum of two DUAP's

I guess the easies way is to have knowledge of what modifications that was made online.
Normally, and strongly recommended is that you have those changes saved in the Function Chart Builder, (available offline) or written in red on printed diagrams.

Best Regards
Jan-Erik

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Jan-Erik Rask Rank: 85

Answered 1 year ago

Source: tHIS WAS A GOOD QUESTION

The date of the last modification should be evident in the User Map. When you connect to the controller with ONB it compares the user disk to the backup area within the controller. If they match you know the application is current with what you have in ONB. If there is a mismatch the logon procedure will report if the symbol table date in the controller is newer or older than the ONB copy, and it will show the dates on each. You should be able to tell from that.

You said you had to reboot your controller...what position was the selector switch in when you pressed the button? If in position 1 then the existing code in the controller would not have been changed. IIRC only a reset in position 3 clears the controller memory to force a load from the PCMCIA card.

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by Jan-Erik Rask Rank: 85 on 8/22/2019 6:49:37 AM | Like (0) | Report

Jon. FYI. When using "prommed" application the switch shall always be set to AUTO, if you loose you application due to power failure and no or out of battery the application will be loaded and controller started in P1 from the PCMCIA card which contain the DUAP.
As I understood the question he lost power for a period of time, if no backup battery is used the application on the PCMCIA card will be loaded and started automatically. Checking the version of the "user disk" is a good idea bit all changes does not reflrect to a new version of User disk segment.
Anyhow the command SHUDAS can be used to compare the segments stored in the controller with the segments on the "USER disk area"
BR JER

by jon.jackson Rank: 1064 on 8/22/2019 7:20:07 AM | Like (0) | Report

Ok - I don't use "prommed" application so I see the problem now. In my experience any change to DB, modification of a named variable or page heading, changing a connection involving a named variable, or insert/delete of a PC block will force a new version of the user disk. If we know what work we have done over time it should be apparent whether to expect a newer user disk version or not. If we are uncertain if any of the above work has been done...yes, that makes it difficult to know and if the logon (SHUDAS) reports the user disk as matching you'd need to look at your actual running code to confirm.

by vutq Rank: 112 on 8/22/2019 9:07:41 AM | Like (0) | Report

Hello Jan-Erik, long time no see.
Jon,
My situation was an electrical spike down on Power supply that made both Processors rebooting at the same time. We have battery backup hookup on controller already, and selector switch is at "1" all time.
That spent about 2 minutes for rebooting successfully on both Processors, "b1" went up first then over a half of minute later, "P1" went up.
After that, I connected to controller with ONB, there weren't any message to warn the difference in User Disk's version.
==> I knew the theory you explained but in that situation, we were passive. So I would like to check to be sure which version running.

One thing, like Jan-Erik said, in my example (my real case), the last modification was I changed a number of value in many blocks such as PC28.1.5:1 from "0" to "1", ..... Then I think that will not change the version of User Disk segment.

by jon.jackson Rank: 1064 on 8/22/2019 10:26:59 AM | Like (0) | Report

Hello Vu,
Yes, I agree a simple change of a constant will not change the User Disk. You can force a User Disk update with SUDAS - no harm done and it records the date of your changes to avoid such a problem in future.

by vutq Rank: 112 on 8/22/2019 6:55:11 PM | Like (0) | Report

Hi Jon,
Thanks for advice. I will do that whenever I make change.

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jon.jackson Rank: 1064

Answered 1 year ago

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Application program on AC450

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