Emerson Exchange 365

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Maintenance Agent issue

Dear community members,

Does any of you use the Maintenance Agent software/tool? It is a tool to read statuses from Dell OpenManage via OPC DA directly into DeltaV. We encountered a strange issue with it, and I was wondering if this tool is used anywhere else, and if the issue is present there as well. The software is running on two application stations, through a scheduled task, which is set to run every 5 minutes. These application stations are also OPC servers. What we have noticed, is that every 5 minutes, exactly when the Maintenance Agent software is running, the OPC server doesn't send any value to the clients for 23 seconds, after which it recovers, and runs normally. It is like the Maintenance Agent freezes the OPC server. However, it looks like that the Maintenance Agent doesn't run longer than 1-2 seconds, so there is nothing that would explain the 23 seconds freeze. Sometimes the "5 minutes" are 10, sometimes 15, but always in the same time as the Maintenance Agent. When disabling the scheduled task, no issue can be seen with the OPC server.

Please share if you are using the Maintenance Agent, and you encounter this issue, or also if this issue is not present, that would mean that the root cause is somewhere else.

Thanks.

• maintenance agent

Wengritzky Tibor

• 12 Feb 2015 4:12 PM
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6 Replies

• AdrianOffield

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 8:24 AM

  We've used Kepware's SNMP OPC server before to interface to Dell OM, not had issues. What version of DV, are the OPC app stations redundant, what hotfix rev?

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• Wengritzky Tibor

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 10:25 AM

  In reply to AdrianOffield:

  We have DV 11.3.1, the app stations are redundant, newest hotfixes were installed in december last year(WS hotfix bundle 21). I have the feeling that something is overloaded, when Dell OM is accessed, and that blocks the servers, but there is nothing obvious.

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• AdrianOffield

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 11:46 AM

  In reply to Wengritzky Tibor:

  I wouldn't say it is OM, OPC doesn't directly communicate with it, there is some SNMP to OPC link that is used. Do you know what app you are using is it using SNMP or some other method?

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• Richard Dubois

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 12:00 PM

  In reply to AdrianOffield:

  Hi all, for using the statuses from Dell OpenManage, there is a Emerson procedure. First, you install the services on all servers (Pro+ and application station). for example, on DV 11.3.1, you can install Maintenance Agent 2.2.5. Second, you can install and configure Maintenance Agent only the server what is OPC licence (configuration for access, PERL, scheduled task, com security, etc). And after create a DeltaV module.
  Regards

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• Wengritzky Tibor

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 2:13 PM

  In reply to Richard Dubois:

  That's how we proceeded. We installed the SNMP service on all servers, installed Maintenance Agent on the application stations, did all the config(as you said, PERL, scheduled task, etc), and created the modules. In the documentation it doesn't say anything about redundancy, but we installed it on two servers(this might be an issue). At the beginning, they were running in the same time, now I changed the trigger, so there is a difference of 2 minutes between the two, but the issue is still there. Maybe I will try to remove it from one of the servers, to see if that helps.

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• Richard Dubois

  

  • 13 Feb 2015 2:48 PM

  In reply to Wengritzky Tibor:

  I don't have OPC app stations redundant, only Pro+ and app stations. you must install SNMP Services on all servers with Dell Open Manage.
  After, on only one, you must install the agent and be carefull when the script stop, you must configure the rights for MaintenanceAgent Account. After you install PERL on the same server that you installed the maintenance agent. You can go in the D:\MaintenanceAgent\configuration durectory and watch the DataCollector.config.xml file to know if you have all servers. But if you need to add a server you can modify the Devices-SNMP. If you add a non deltav node, you must specify a IP adress and not the name. You must also configure the com security. The scheduled task runs every 1 hour. For the module, you must create a module for each server and runs it on the pro+ for example. The module is a deltav model from Emerson.

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