Redundancy |

System Virtualization - Multiple Virtual Machines run on the same server to emulate an entire networked system.

Project Summary

Pharmaceutical customer desired a redundancy scheme for a validated architecture with distributed Rockwell Software components, including PlantPAx, FactoryTalk^® Live Data, Historian, VantagePoint, and Transaction Manager.
Existing software configurations had to be retained and migrated to new redundancy hardware.

Utilized VMware’s server virtualization installation, vSphere Hypervisor, to provide a flexible “sandbox” environment for testing.
This setup allowed for the complete virtualization of multiple devices and servers, as well as a virtualized network architecture, all on a single physical server running the hypervisor installation.
A snapshot of each server in the existing system was taken to establish a base environment for testing the desired modifications.
Multiple snapshots could also be taken throughout the installation and configuration process, making it easy to start over or return an exact environment state without risk of harming the physical system.
The network design and configuration work could take place away from the physical location once the snapshots were taken.
The virtualized environment facilitated the creation of installation scripts as part of a validated IOPQ procedure later implemented on the physical system. Since any problems with the installation can be foreseen and corrected in the virtualized environment before deploying to a physical server, downtime and unexpected problems during installation are kept to a minimum.

Configured FactoryTalk^® data acquisition servers for redundancy, allowing for increased data reliability in the event of a single server outage.
Redundancy was tested in the virtual environment by virtually disconnecting individual machines from the virtual network or shutting them down completely.