Unlike in most Workbench views, where changes are entered first and then applied with a “Save” button, in the Application Director when you click checkboxes and buttons (Figure 11), changes are applied immediately to the selected station.
From top-to-bottom, these controls are grouped as follows:
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start checkboxes (Auto-Start, Restart on Failure)
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Application control buttons (Start, Stop, Restart, Reboot, Kill, Dump Threads, Save Bog, Verify Software)
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Output control buttons (Clear Output, Pause Output, Output Dialog)
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Output Settings button
For the currently selected station in the Application Director, you can enable (check) or disable (clear) two start settings using checkboxes (Figure 11). Typically, for any JACE station you enable both checkboxes. In certain troubleshooting scenarios, you may clear Restart on Failure in order keep the station from constantly restarting (or host rebooting) after successive failures.
Changes are reflected in the corresponding column of the Application Director’s installed applications area.
The two start settings for a station are as follows:
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Auto-start
Specifies whether the station starts following platform daemon startup. This means following a host reboot, perhaps as a result of a power cycle, but possibly from a Reboot command.
For any QNX-based JACE, a reboot also occurs following any installed dist file(s), as well any TCP/IP-related changes. However, installing
new modules from the Software Manager—say, for a new driver, does not always result in a reboot (yet in a few cases, in order
for a module to become effective, a reboot may be required—and so is prompted following the module install). At the same time,
note that changing any existing module (upgrading or downgrading) always results in a reboot.
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Restart on Failure
Specifies whether the platform daemon restarts the station if its process exits with a nonzero return code (e.g., engine watchdog had killed the station because of a “deadlock” condition).
QNX-based JACEs cannot have a station restart without a reboot. Therefore, if this setting is enabled on such a JACE, if the station
fails (terminates with error), the JACE reboots.If a JACE continues to have 3 “automatic reboots” like this within an hour
(or however many specified in the station’s PlatformService “Failure Reboot Limit” property), it remains in a “Failed” state,
regardless of the setting above. For related details, see configuration.
For the selected station in the Application Director, application control buttons (Figure 11) apply as follows:
Be careful about using station controls, and understand the difference between them before using them.
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Start
Enabled only if the station has an “Idle” or “Failed” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, that host’s platform daemon immediately starts that station. Text in the standard output is cleared, and output messages begin with the new startup of that station.
If you manually stop a station on a QNX-based JACE (using button), it has a status of “Halted.” In this case, the Start button will not be available. You must Reboot the platform
to restart the station. This differs from a manually stopped station on a Windows-based host or Linux-based Supervisor, which then shows a status “Idle.”
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Stop
Enabled only if the station has a “Running” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, a popup confirmation appears. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon shuts the station down gracefully (saving its configuration to its
config.bogfile, and potentially saving history data). See the preceding note about stopping the station on a QNX-based host. -
Restart
(Available Windows-based platforms only) Enabled only if the station has a “Running” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, a popup confirmation dialog appears. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon shuts the station down gracefully, then restarts it.
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Reboot
Always enabled. When pressed, a popup confirmation dialog appears. If you confirm, the selected host is rebooted. This is considered a drastic action. For details, see Reboot.
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Kill
Enabled only if the station has a status of “Starting”, “Stopping”, or “Running” in the installed applications area. When pressed, a popup confirmation dialog appears. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon terminates the station process immediately.
Always use instead of , unless unavailable (stuck for a long time as either “Starting” or “Stopping”). Unlike a station stop, a station kill does
not cause the station to save its database (config.bog), histories or alarms, nor does it update the standard output area. -
Dump Threads
(station only) Enabled only if the station has a “Running” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, the host’s platform daemon has the station send a VM thread dump to its standard output.
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Save Bog
Enabled only if the station has a “Running” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, the host’s platform daemon has the station locally save its configuration to
config.bog. -
Verify Software
Enabled regardless of station status. When pressed, Workbench parses the station’s
config.bogfile and the host’splatform.bogfile, looking for module references. Workbench then checks to see if those modules (and any other software upon which they depend) are installed. Any missing software is listed in a popup dialog, and if available in your Workbench installation, the dialog offers to install the missing software into the remote host.Only modules (or versions of modules) needed by the station are installed that do not require commissioning. If the station
needs modules that require commissioning, meaning an upgrade of core NiagaraAX software, those modules are not copied.
For the selected station in the Application Director, output control buttons (Figure 11) apply as follows:
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Clear Output
Enabled regardless of station status. When pressed, all text in the standard output area is cleared.
Data in the standard output area is fetched from a memory buffer in the platform daemon. Clearing the output does not actually
clear the daemon’s buffer. Therefore, if you change the selection away from, and then back to the station, it re-fetches all
buffered data.
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Pause Output
Enabled only if the station has a “Running” status in the installed applications area. When pressed, the button toggles to “”, and the next press back to “” (and so on).
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During a paused output, text remains frozen in the standard output area. This is useful when the station is rapidly writing output.
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When you press , text in the standard output area is reloaded with the station’s buffered output, and output remains updating in real time.
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Output Dialog
Enabled regardless of station status. When pressed, this produces a separate “non-modal” output window displaying the same output text as in the Application Director’s standard output area. Included are buttons to , , , and the window.
You may find this “compact” version of a station’s standard output easier to work with than in the main area of the Application Director. Also, if needed you can open multiple output dialogs for comparison purposes.
For the currently selected station in the Application Director, the button produces a dialog (Figure 12) in which you specify how the platform daemon buffers the output from that station.
The two available settings are in bytes, and are:
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Memory Buffer Size
Size of the memory buffer for the station output. If the station creates more output that the size of the memory buffer, the oldest output is lost.
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Maximum File Size
When the station stops, its output buffer is written to a
console.txtfile. This setting defines the maximum size of that file.
Changes to either output setting may result in the output buffer’s contents to be cleared.