1. CMS DCS: WinCC OA Installation Strategy
Lorenzo Masetti
Workshop on WinCC OA Upgrades
27th May 2016

2. Current CMS DCS overview
Distributed system of 34 WinCC OA systems running on DELL Blades
Runs on Windows Server 2008 R2
Homogeneous environment: same software (WinCC OA, OPC Servers, etc.) installed with CMF in all the blades
WinCC OA redundancy
68 WinCC OA projects on 56 DELL blades

3. Production deployment
Sub-system developers/experts have no access to DCS computers
Everything must be packaged as a JCOP component
Components are read from SVN
Production configuration is versioned and can be rebuilt if needed
Possibility to patch a component if only panel/scripts/libraries are modified (no change in postInstalls, dplist)
Installation Tool and Configuration DB System Information are critical
CMS install library standardises and simplifies postInstall scripts:
Add/stop/restart drivers and managers
Target ConfigDB configurations to the system
Defined in a custom XML file – only one line of code needed
Hardware and logical views are stored in the ConfigDB
No standard solution to store FSM trees
CMS custom XML export/import for the FSM

4. Installation tool Configuration
All the projects are configured to run in Central Management Mode
System Configuration DB is the master
all changes in the configuration db are applied to the production system
New components installed
Changes in the list of connected systems
The installation agent is always running in our production systems
Checks the consistency every 5 minutes
How to push changes in the DB?
Subdetector experts can update the version of their components (from cmsonline)
To target a new component, the intervention of the central expert is required
Using System Configuration DB WinCC OA interface

5. Consistency enforced
The CMS deployment policy tries to ensure that all the changes are reflected in the System Configuration Database
Changes are reproducible in case the system needs to be reinstalled.
Expert “hacks” forbidden or minimized
This was very important before the redundancy was introduced
The only way to restore a failed pc was to reinstall the project in a new pc
It is still important because this policy allows us to upgrade to a new WinCC OA version relatively quickly

6. Symbolic Link to Network File System
Framework Path Policy
All the projects in production share the same framework path (no local repository)
All the components are installed in the same framework path
All the projects in production must have the same version of common components (framework, CMS general components)
The framework path must be changed when upgrading WinCC OA version
Binaries are different
It is then possible to have different versions targeted to different WinCC OA versions
Framework paths are accessed via symbolic links
Easy way to switch from filer to dfs in case of problems.
[general]
pvss_path = "C:\Siemens\Automation\WinCC_OA\3.11"
proj_path = "C:\DCS\DCSRepository\FrameworkInstallation311"
proj_path = "C:/DCS/WCCOAprojects/ServiceProject"
Symbolic Link to Network File System

7. Script to install from scratch
The installation tool is used to install a project from scratch
the project must be created first (initial db, initial config files, registered as a service)
Batch file CreateServiceProject.bat
Connects to the System Configuration DB
Using fwInstallation standard functions before the project is created (WCCOActrl –n)
Retrieves all the information (system name, initial config file, system number, etc…) depending on the hostname
Creates a default project with a predefined set of basic managers (data, event, redundancy, etc…)
Starts the installation tool that finds an empty project and installs all the components in the proper order defined by dependencies
Also handles the redundancy (it can copy the project from the peer if available)

8. Installation from Scratch Flowchart
The System Configuration DB was extended with a function that produces the initial config file for the project
Most of the installation work is done by the standard fwInstallation tool. The batch script is only used to create and register the project.
Yes No

9. How to upgrade to 3.14

10. Procedure to upgrade to 3.14
Stop and backup the old system (both peers)
Update the version in the System Configuration Database
update fw_sys_stat_pvss_project set pvss_version = '3.14' where id=:1
Update the fw installation path in the database
C:\DCS\DCSRepository\FrameworkInstallation311 -> C:\DCS\DCSRepository\FrameworkInstallation314
Untarget the old fw components and target the new ones (in principle the subdetectors components are not changed)
Install WinCC OA 3.14 and update PATH to point to 3.14
Start the installation script
It will automatically use WinCC OA 3.14 to recreate the project

11. Questions???