TECHNICAL NOTE MN914018EN, version 2

Visual T&D built-in redundancy guide

Visual T&D server now supports a new built-in redundancy mechanism, in addition to
the existing high availability option using Microsoft’s Windows Server Clustering
Services environment. For more information about installing and setting up Visual
T&D in a failover cluster configuration under Microsoft Windows Server, please refer
to the document Visual T&D Cluster Configuration Guide, MN914008EN from Eaton.

This present document provides information about activating and setting up the built-
in redundancy mechanism of Visual T&D server.

Contents
Overview........................................................................................................2
Template: EAS-SA QF-MKT01 Rev.06 Redundancy protocol ............................................................................................. 2
2024/11/24
File synchronization ............................................................................................... 3

Visual T&D built-in redundancy setup ...........................................................3

Managing data logging in a redundant configuration ...................................5

Use of a shared external database.......................................................................... 5
Automatic synchronization of the peer historian database ........................................ 6

Redundancy status in Visual T&D Explorer ...................................................6

Activating redundancy system data points .............................................................. 6
Redundancy system data points ............................................................................. 7

Getting assistance .........................................................................................7

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Overview
When the Visual T&D Built-in redundancy mechanism is activated and configured, using the Visual
T&D Redundancy mode, the Visual T&D server is running either in Active mode or Standby
mode.

• In Active mode, the server is working normally and can be reached by client applications
(Explorer, Diagram or Excel add-In) through a dynamically mounted virtual IP address.

• In Standby mode, the Visual T&D service is still running, but no site configuration is loaded
locally, so there is no data acquisition. The service is only monitoring its peer’s server status
using a redundancy protocol, and is updating local files in its installation directory. Visual T&D
clients cannot connect to a server on Standby mode.

External Visual T&D Historian

Client WorkStation Database (optional)

Diagram VTD Excel

Explorer External
Add In
Historian
(optional)

Visual T&D Server 1 Visual T&D Server 2

Virtual IP Mount/Unmount Virtual IP
Mount/Unmount (Disabled)

Manage
Local Redundancy Redundancy
Redundancy protocol Local
Historian Server Server
(Optional) Historian
Visual T&D Visual T&D (Optional)

Server Server
Read/Write Update (Standby)
(Active)

Visual T&D Visual T&D

SMB Share

SMB Share

VTD Server
File synchronization
Server
Configuration Configuration VTD
Server HW/SW license HW/SW license
Folder Folder Server
Agent
Agent

Figure 1: Visual T&D redundancy architecture overview

Redundancy protocol
When in Visual T&D Redundancy mode, the Visual T&D service manages a local process called
Visual T&D Redundancy Server. This process is responsible of determining if the current node
should by in Standby mode or in Active mode.

The Redundancy Server periodically sends to his peer a “hello message” contaninig its current
status. If it doesn’t receive any “hello message” from its peer during more than a defined failover
timeout, or if the peer status reports a failure, the local node switches to Active mode.

The Visual T&D Redundancy Server is also in charge of mounting or umounting the Virtual IP
Address on the local ethernet adaptor according to its redundancy current mode.

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File synchronization
When the Visual T&D Redundancy mode is activated, the directory <Visual T&D installation
directory>/Server is shared on the network using a read-only Server Message Block (SMB) share,
called Visual T&D Redundancy. This share is created as soon as the redundancy configuration is
activated, and removed when redundancy mode is desactivated or aborted.

In Standby mode, the Visual T&D server is monitoring file changes in the SMB share of its peer
and updating local files. In the SMB share, these two following directories are synchronized:

1. //< Peer IP address>/Visual T&D Redundancy/Param/ : contains site configuration, site

schema and various other user configured data, such as Real-time Views, Queries, Tasks,
etc.

2. //< PeerIP address>/Visual T&D Redundancy/Log/ : This directory contains current site
states, such as Alarms, Points state, Tags, etc.

Visual T&D built-in redundancy setup

To configure Visual T&D Server on using the built-in redundancy mecanism, follows these steps:

 On the first server, open the Visual T&D Server Configuration application, select the Redundancy tab.
 In the Type dropbox , select the Visual T&D Redundancy option. The Parameter section related to
Visual T&D Redundancy will become editable (figure 2).

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Figure 2: Visual T&D Redundancy configuration tab

 Define the following redundancy parameters :

Parameter Description

Local IP IPv4 address of the local node.

• Must be Ethernet (Wi-Fi is not supported)
• Must be static (DHCP is not supported)
• Must match the IP address of the Ethernet interface you
want to use to mount the virtual IP

Peer IP IPv4 address of the peer node.

• Must be Ethernet (Wi-Fi is not supported)
• Must be static (DHCP is not supported)

Virtual IP IPv4 virtual address.

To be used by client applications (Explorer, Diagram Editor and Excel-
add-In)

Subnet mask Virtual subnet mask of the defined virtual IP.

Failover Time that the server in standby mode must waits before becoming
timeout active, when the active server is faulty or is not reachable anymore.

Table 1 Visual T&D redundancy parameters

 Define a Windows account for accessing to the peer share for synchronization:
 The defined account can be a local or a domain user account.

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 The defined user must be in the local Administrators group because it needs write access to the
local installation directory of Visual T&D.
 If both server nodes are in the same domain, preferably use a domain user account. Otherwise,
the same local account must exist on the peer server and must have the same password.
 Repeat the previous steps on the other server node.
 Click Validate. The information message should be “Configuration of synchronization is valid”. If the
message is different, refer to the “Common Issues “ section in this document.
 Click Apply. If the Visual T&D Server is running, a restart should be requested.

Managing data logging in a redundant configuration

Three configuration types are possible in a redundant deployment:

1. By default, logged events and values of the active node are stored in a local database
historian (PostGreSQL) and are not replicated on the peer node. In such a configuration,
the local database contains only the data recorded when the local node was active, and
the peer database contains only the data recorded when it was active.

2. If datalog history needs to be redundant, databases synchronization must be setup using

a third party tool, typically Microsoft SQL Mirroring and Replication.

3. If the datalog history does not need to be redundant, the database can be setup on a
shared external database or a third server and will be shared by both nodes. In this case,
it contains data recorded by both nodes, whichever was active.

Use of a shared external database

Seting up the Visual T&D server to use a remote database for data logging:

 Start the Visual T&D Server Control Panel application, and then select the Data Logging tab.

 Click Add and follow the instructions provided in the Visual T&D Installation Guide to add the
database to the list. Section “The Visual T&D Data Log” provides detailed steps for all database
types.
 Then, select the newly added database, and then click Set as Active.

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 In the Database Name Format section, replace the default prefix with a generic one. The default prefix
is “[Machine-Name]\Visual T&D Server\”. However, in a redundant environment, both servers must use
the same prefix. For example: “REDUNDANCY\Visual T&D Server\”.
 Click OK.
 Repeat the previous steps on the other server node.

Automatic synchronization of the peer historian database

As shown in Figure 1, the historian database can reside on the same machine as VTD Server. In
that case, the database will not contain data for the period during which the Visual T&D Server was
on standby on that machine. If a single and complete historian database is needed per usage
requirement, the infrastructure must account a third machine to host the database (not redundant)
or use database replication or mirroring between redundant Visual T&D servers.

Using Microsft SQL mirroring will create a database failover functionality; the mirror database will
pick-up whenever the main database fails or is not accessible. In that case, the mirror database is
not accessible. This deployment is mostly improving availability of the database recording function.

Using Microsoft SQL replication will create and update a duplicate of the historian database. Visual
T&D server settings must be set to write into the right database. The duplicated data can be
accessed while the main database is used. This deployment is mostly improving availability of the
data being recorded. Eaton suggests to use Transactional Replication with proper throughput tests
in order to validate the performance impact in your environement.

As only one Visual T&D Server is active in a redundant deployment, the replication of the SQL
servers can be mutual.

Please, refer to Microsoft SQL documentation in order to configure your database.

Redundancy status in Visual T&D Explorer

Activating redundancy system data points

In Visual T&D Explorer, redundancy-specific system data points are not displayed by default in a
Visual T&D site configuration. To activate them, you must provide the server name of each node;
they will be used as point prefixes in the Redundancy tab settings of the site configuration.

To activate Visual T&D redundancy system data points:

 Start Visual T&D Explorer, from the Site menu, choose Edit Site Configuration.
 Select the Site view, and then the Redundancy tab.

 Type the computer name of the first cluster node in the first row.

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 Type the computer name of the second cluster node in the second row.
From the Site menu, choose Update Site Configuration.

The redundancy-specific system data points will then be available.

Redundancy system data points

Data Point Description

_<node>___rsLocal_active Indicates if the connected server is the active one.
_<node>___rsLocal_ok Indicates if the redundancy Server of the active node
is running without any errors.
This value should normally be 1.
_<node>___rsRemote_standby Indicates if a failover can be performed, by providing
the status of the peer server.
This value should normally be 1.
_<node>___rsRemote_synchroni Indicates if site configuration of the peer server is
zed synchronized with the local one.
This value should normally be 1.

Table 2: Visual T&D redundancy-specific data points

You may configure an event or alarm to monitor the status of the redundancy servers and be
informed when the fallback system is not available.

Getting assistance
If you have any questions regarding the performance, application or testing of the
Visual T&D product line, do not hesitate to contact us. Our staff will be happy to
assist you.

Technical Support
Eaton’s Energy Automation Solutions

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1.877.834-0009 or +1.800.815-2258

Business hours are from 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CST, Monday to Friday.

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