JPH0981226A - Method for managing system constitution information of control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system constitution information collecting method capable of allowing system constitution information to be managed on an engineering work station to coincide with the constitution of practical devices. SOLUTION: Plural devices 1 to 8 are connected to plural transmission networks 21 to 25 through transmission ports IF1 to IF12 loaded on respective devices 1 to 8 and each device is provided with a storage part for storing the constitution information of the transmission ports loaded on the device itself. Each of the transmission ports IF1 to IF12 is provided with a storage part for storing network connection information such as a communication address list and a communication state for a device to be a communication party on the networks and a system managing device 1 is provided with a system constitution information collecting means for collecting the constitution information of respective transmission ports and network connection information and manages the connection states of all the devices 1 to 8 in the system and the constitution of the ports IF1 to IF12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an engineering function of a control system in the field of factory automation (FA) and process automation, and relates to a method of collecting device configuration information of the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in control systems in the field of FA and process automation, a plurality of transmission networks and a plurality of devices connected to each transmission network, for example, MMI (Man Machine Interface) .E.
The system configuration includes a WS (engineering workstation), various controllers, and the like, and has a system configuration in which the respective transmission networks are connected via the transmission ports provided in the respective devices. In a system management device (hereinafter, EWS) that centrally manages and controls such a control system, it is necessary to hold system configuration information of all devices to be engineered, and between each device. To manage and maintain the communication status,
It is necessary to collect the connection configuration and communication status of each device. Here, the system configuration information includes the model, the number of the plurality of devices connected to the network, the addresses on the network, the type of the network, the type and number of the transmission ports attached to each device, and the like. The system configuration information of the control system is referred to as system configuration information below. For this reason, conventionally, the system management device manually inputs all system configuration information or downloads data input by an offline input device to the EWS, thereby the system of all devices connected to the transmission system. EW collects configuration information, converts it into a predetermined chart format according to the operator's request, and
It was displayed on the display device of S.

[0003]

However, in the prior art, the connection status of all the devices of the system displayed on the EWS and the actual device configuration due to an error in the system installation work, an error in the input of the system configuration information, or the like. If there was a discrepancy between them, there was no way to detect this serious error. Not only that, if there is a change in the system configuration, E
There is a problem that the system configuration information downloaded on the WS has to be changed and maintenance is troublesome. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting system configuration information that can match the system configuration information managed on the EWS with the actual device configuration.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention connects a plurality of transmission networks and a plurality of devices connected to the respective transmission networks, and the respective transmission networks equipped in the respective devices and connecting the respective transmission networks. In the method of managing system configuration information of a control system including a transmission port, in each of the devices, a storage unit that holds the configuration information of the transmission port attached to the device is provided, and the device is attached to each of the devices and is connected via a network. In the transmission port for connecting the respective devices to perform communication processing between the devices, the communication address list of the devices directly communicating with each other on the one network to which the transmission port is connected and its communication It is equipped with a storage unit that holds network connection information for each transmission port such as status, and the connection status of all devices in the control system A system management device for managing the transmission port comprises system configuration information collecting means for collecting the configuration information of the transmission port and the network connection information. Is to collect. Further, the system configuration information collecting means in the present invention collects the configuration information of the transmission port and the network connection information by the following steps. 1) Collect configuration information of transmission ports of arbitrary EWSs in the control system, 2) Subsequently, based on the collected configuration information of the transmission ports, a program for sequentially collecting network connection information for each transmission port is created. 3) In the network connection information collecting process, based on the connection information of the network in the corresponding transmission port, for each device network-connected to the transmission port, the configuration of the transmission port in the device is sequentially performed. 4) Start the information collection processing program, and then 4) collect the connection information of the transmission port network based on the collected configuration information of the transmission port, and connect to the destination based on the connection information of the network. By collecting the configuration information of the transmission port in each device and repeating 5) 2) to 4), To collect the connection status of the location.

[0005]

According to the above means, in the EWS which needs information on the device configuration of the entire system, if only the configuration information of the transmission port mounted on the own device is managed, each device and each transmission port retain it from there. Transmission port configuration information,
Network connection information can be collected sequentially. Also, in each device, the transmission port on each transmission port,
It suffices to manage the minimum amount of information necessary for them to operate. Here, the minimum means that it is not necessary to hold the configuration information of the transmission port in another device or the configuration of a device connected to another network.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a network configuration example of an embodiment of the present invention. The figure shows a control system for FA (factory automation) to which a variable speed control device is connected. 1 is an upper layer of the control system, and is an MMI (Man Machine Interface) that monitors the operating state of the system and performs control operations. 2 is a No. for engineering and maintenance. 1 EWS (engineering workstation), 3 and 4 are Nos. For performing automatic operation such as sequence control and analog control. 1PC (Programmable Controller), No. 2PC and 5 are Nos. For maintenance / management of each device (DC, INV1, INV2, etc.) on the network 23. 2 EWS, 6 is a DC (small-scale digital controller), 7 and 8 are inverter devices No. 1 INV, No. It is 2 INV. Each of these devices 1 to 8 has a plurality of networks 21.
~ Each device 1 connected by the network 25
.. to 8 interface with the network, transmission ports (IF1 to IF12) corresponding to the network are mounted on each device. Regarding the small-scale digital controller DC of 6, the transmission port I / F1
0 and I / O modules I / O1, 1 / O2, I / O3,
It is composed of I / O 4, and these are connected not by the network but by the internal bus. Reference numeral 11 is a programming device for PC (hereinafter abbreviated as PP). FIG. 2 is an example of configuration information of transmission ports managed by each of the devices 1 to 8. This database consists of device attributes and transmission port configurations. Device attributes include device name, format, version,
There is a vendor name etc. As the transmission port configuration information, the maximum number of ports, the number of mounted ports, the PORT1 state to P
There are ORTn states and so on. As the content of the data in the PORTn state, not only the presence / absence of mounting, normality / abnormality, but also data for screen display such as a network name may be held. The concrete example of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Taking the PC of the device 3 as an example, the device name is No. 1PC, maximum number of ports 5,
Number of mounted ports: 3, PORT1 is IF4, PORT2 is I
F5 and PORT3 become IF6, and the status of each port includes information such as the presence / absence of mounting, normality / abnormality, and the like. FIG. 3 is an example of a network connection state for each transmission port. This database consists of network attributes and network node information, and the network attributes include a network name and a network type. Also, as the network node information, the maximum number of devices, the number of mounted devices, the device #
There are 1 state to device #n state. In the figure, device # 1
As the content of the data such as the status, not only the presence / absence of the mounting, the normal / abnormal status, but also the screen display data such as the device name may be held. A concrete example of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The network name and network type are, for example, the network 3 of FIG. 1 and 1 MBPS polling method, and the maximum number of devices is 32, the number of mounted devices is 4, and the device # 1 is E
WS2, device # 2 is DC, device # 3 is INV1, device #
Reference numeral 4 is INV2, and the states of the devices # 1 to # 4 are normal or abnormal. The operation of FIG. 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. In FIG. 1, the EWS 2 manages the device configuration of the entire system and regularly collects system configuration information. The collection of the system configuration information is executed by the in-device database collection and the in-port database collection. 4 and 5 are examples of the database collection processing, FIG. 4 is a processing flow for collecting configuration information of transmission ports in the apparatus, and FIG. 5 is a processing flow for collecting network connection information for each transmission port. is there. In the EWS 2 of FIG. 1, first, in accordance with the in-apparatus database collection flow of FIG. 4, the apparatus information (FIG. 2) in its own apparatus is collected,
Transmission port registered in the same information (IF3 in Fig. 1)
For each transmission port is checked and if it is a transmission port that is mounted and is operating normally, call the database collection processing in the transmission port (Fig. 5) for the transmission port (for example, IF3) and respond to the transmission port. Information (FIG. 3) regarding the configuration of each device (MMI1, PC3, PC4 in FIG. 1) connected to the network (for example, network 1) is obtained. When the in-port database collection processing is completed for all transmission ports (IF3) in the EWS 2, all device configuration collection processing is completed. On the other hand, the in-port database collection processing called during the processing of FIG. 4 is executed according to the processing flow of FIG. First, after collecting the database in the transmission port for the specified transmission port, all the devices registered in the database are checked one by one, and if the device is mounted and operating normally, the device concerned To the in-apparatus database collection process (FIG. 2) to obtain information about the configuration of the transmission port implemented in the subordinate apparatus. Therefore, the in-apparatus database collection processing of FIG. 4 and the in-port database collection processing of FIG. 5 are alternately called, and finally looped until all in-apparatus databases and transmission-port database in the system are collected. The processing operation is performed. The foregoing is a description of the pre-programmed periodical device configuration collection processing in EWS2. An application example in which the system operator interactively searches for the device configuration is shown in FIG. Figure 6
2 confirms the device status such as the status of I / O1 in the DC of 6 from the MMI of 1 in FIG. 1 when the database management as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is performed in the system of the configuration example of FIG. In this case, the flow of the MMI display screen, operation, and device processing in that case is shown. According to this, the screen of the MMI displays the selection screen of the transmission port mounted in the own device based on the database in the own device. First, the screen shows the MMI port selection screen (screen). When PORT1 is selected on this screen (● in the figure indicates selection), the database for the network 22 corresponding to the I / F1 is read, and the information of each node (device) on the network 22 is displayed based on this. Then, the selection screen for the destination or relay destination device is displayed (screen). Next, when the operator selects st # 2 (PC1), the MMI is changed from the I / F1 to the network 22.
The database regarding the transmission port in the PC 3 is read out via the transmission port IF4, and the selection screen of the transmission port corresponding to this is displayed (screen). Furthermore, when the operator selects PORT2 (network 3), MM
I reads the network database of the network 3 corresponding to IF5, and displays the device selection screen corresponding to this (screen). By repeating the same operation / process, the device information selection screen (screen) in the DC 6 is finally displayed, and the target I / O is selected from this screen.
1 can be specified and its related information can be obtained. At this time, in MMI, MMI1
→ Network 22 → PC 3 → Network 23 → DC
It is possible to follow the route of 6.

[0007]

As described above, according to the present invention, an EWS that requires information regarding the device configuration of the entire system
Then, if you manage only the configuration information of the transmission port installed in your device, you can sequentially collect the configuration information of the transmission port held by each device and each transmission port, and the network connection information from it. In addition, the transmission ports on each device and each transmission port need only manage the minimum amount of information required for them to operate. With a simple mechanism, information that matches the actual device configuration is collected. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration example showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] Example of database structure of transmission port configuration information

FIG. 3 Example of database structure of network connection information for each transmission port

FIG. 4 is a processing flow of collecting transmission port configuration information in the device.

[Fig. 5] Flow of collecting network connection information for each transmission port

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of route selection from MMI showing an application example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 MMI (Man Machine Interface) 2, 5 No. 1, No. 2 EWS (Engineering Workstation) 3, 4 No. 1, No. 2PC (programmable controller) 6 DC (small-scale digital controller) 7, 8 No. 1, No. 2 INV (inverter drive device) 9, 10 electric motor 11 PP (programming panel)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method of managing system configuration information of a control system, comprising: a plurality of transmission networks, a plurality of devices connected to each transmission network, and a transmission port that is provided in each device and connects the respective transmission networks, Each of the devices is provided with a storage unit for holding the configuration information of the transmission port attached to the device, and is attached to the device to connect the devices via a network and perform communication processing between the devices. In the transmission port, a storage unit that holds a network address information for each transmission port such as a communication address list of devices directly communicating with each other on the one network to which the transmission port is connected and its communication status. In a system management device that manages the connection status of all devices in the control system via all networks, A control system characterized by comprising system configuration information collecting means for collecting configuration information and network connection information, wherein the system configuration information collecting means collects connection states and transmission port configurations of all devices of the control system. How to manage system configuration information. 2. The method of managing system configuration information of a control system, wherein the system configuration information collecting means collects the configuration information of the transmission port and the network connection information by the following steps. 1) Collect configuration information of transmission ports of arbitrary EWSs in the control system, 2) Subsequently, based on the collected configuration information of the transmission ports, a program for sequentially collecting network connection information for each transmission port is created. 3) In the network connection information collection processing, based on the connection information of the network in the corresponding transmission port, for each device network-connected to the transmission port, the configuration of the transmission port in the device is sequentially performed. 4) Start the information collection processing program, and 4) collect the connection information of the transmission port network based on the collected configuration information of the transmission port and connect to the destination based on the connection information of the network. By collecting the configuration information of the transmission port in each device and repeating 5) 2) to 4), To collect the connection status of the location.