DeltaV | 13.3.1 | Redundant Application Station pair and OPC Remote

Looking for some information about the inner workings of the communication between a non-DeltaV Machine running OPC Remote and a redundant Application station pair.

As i understand it, this is primarily handled by the Redundant Hander application installed on the 3rd Party OPC Client.  You simply input the Deltav Application station name as it appears in Exploring DeltaV, it validates that it is a redundant pair and then creates a local OPC server on the 3rd Party machine (ROPC.<Machine_Name>.1)  The OPC client then communicates with this local server directly and the redundant handler\OPC subsystem handles the rest automagically.

I am curious about the network requirements between the 3rd party machine and the DeltaV network\Application station pair. 
What mechanism is being used by the Redundant Handler to identify the application station?
What are the common network architectures between these systems?  


Do you add a third (in addition to DV Primary and Secondary) network to the Application stations and then route between that network and the third party network where the machine with the Redundant Handler is installed?  
If the 3rd party machine is secured and air gapped, do you create this third shared network between the 3 machines with switching only and no routing?

  • If I'm not mistaken, entering the Application Station's name (as it appears in DeltaV Explorer) into the OPC client on another machine will work fine IF & ONLY IF the "Preferred Active" partner is the currently-active workstation... but if the "Preferred Standby" partner (e.g. APPSTN_S) is the currently-active workstation, then the OPC client won't get live data anymore. To avoid that scenario, one should enter "ROPC.nodename.1" (where nodename is the name of the Application Station as it appears in DeltaV Explorer). Refer to the "Run the Redundant DeltaV OPC Server Configuration program on a non-DeltaV workstation" topic in Books Online for more details.

    Typically, data from a DeltaV machine to a non-DeltaV machine will be communicated via a private network (3rd NIC).