Emerson Exchange 365

Batch List Export

We have been having some issues with utility power to the site.  We are working our way through those, but the interim condition leaves us at risk when the power goes out.  We have limited time (UPS backup of about 30 minutes) to gather all of the information about the batches currently running in the batch.  I may be over thinking this, but it occurs to me that I not only need to know what phases are running (easy screen capture in the Batch Operator Interface), but which units are acquired as well.  That takes more time, as there are multiple clicks to arrive at this information in the BOI (arbitration page).

Is there any way to trigger a report that would tell me what units are acquired by which batches in the current batch list?  It would be equally helpful to get the phases that are running, but the screen capture may satisfy that need enough to get by.

• Batch Executive

smhartigan

• 4 Jan 2018 7:18 PM
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8 Replies

• Neil Castro

  

  • 4 Jan 2018 11:15 PM

  I think what you need is in the Batch Executive machine under the D:\DeltaV\DVData\Batch\Journals. This folder is where the batch events are stored. You can open the latest .EVT file in Microsoft Excel and it will show you all the information of certain batches.
  
  You can actually copy this folder directly to a flash drive or over the network if your system or system administrator permits then you can open it in Excel from your office PC. Take note that this data (.EVT) is usually confidential and should not be brought outside of the plant or to anyone who is not authorized since it shows the entire batch events of the product process.
  
  In the .EVT file you will see the following columns in Excel.
  GMTtime
  BatchID
  Recipe Descript
  Event
  PValue EU
  Area
  ProcCell
  Unit
  Phase
  PhaseDesc
  UserID
  UniqueID
  Comment
  ParamDesc
  
  Happy New Year!
  Hope this helps.
  
  Regards,
  Neil Castro

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• smhartigan

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 5:36 PM

  In reply to Neil Castro:

  Thanks for the reply Neil,
  That has given me some ideas for how to address it, but currently that isn't quite enough. If I open the "eventdir.txt" file, it has all of the batches, and a reference to the event file associated with them. There is not, however, any indication of which batches are currently "running", which I believe would be needed.
  
  The event files themselves are the equivalent of what can be found in the event journal within the Batch Operator Interface (BOI). That is how I typically gain some of the information I would need when restarting a batch, and Excel makes it easier to sort / parse some of that data, so your suggestion there was invaluable. With that said, I still need to scroll through many rows to obtain the information that is inherently available in the arbitration page. I may be able to automate all of that through visual basic (VBA, VBscript, or both), but the queries could get complicated when multiple units are acquired by the same recipe.
  
  In short, thank you for the reply... it will be helpful. With that said, if anybody has a more elegant / direct route to the report I'm looking to generate, I'd appreciate it greatly.
  
  Regards,
  Steve

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• Matt Stoner

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 6:14 PM

  In reply to smhartigan:

  Not sure why you need to generate this list as the system will handle what I think you are tying to do automatically for you as long as you do a "Warm restart" in the event of the Batch Executive going down or being stopped while batches are running.
  
  In a production system a Warm Restart should always be done which can be enforced by changing the configuration on the Batch Executive Properties on the Server tab, change the Restart behavior to "Warm Restart" and download if any changes are made.
  
  When power has been restored, power up the executive and start the service (if it isn't set to automatically start) and all the batches will be there but depending on the DeltaV revision you have you may have a little work or some more. Your batches may be in a "Lost" state which has a recovery method (don't remove or you will lose your batches!).
  
  Look in DeltaV Books Online-> Batch-> Batch Reference-> DeltaV Batch Executive (v12 and v13 anyway) for more information. Specifically look at the Batch Executive architecture and Batch Executive Restart Behavior sections.

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• smhartigan

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 7:25 PM

  In reply to Matt Stoner:

  Matt,
  This is exactly what has worked for us more than 95% of the time. We had a power failure recently that resulted in the batches all being displaced (specifically avoiding the term "Lost")... meaning that they did not show up in any state in the BOI when the plant was brought online. The solution provided was to change the batch executive to "Query User" to synchronize the arbitration state for each batch.
  
  The ensuing recovery was slow and painful at best. We know that we have at least 20 minutes of UPS time before we lost the servers (and are currently trying to establish more elegant shut downs for the servers under these conditions that might have prevented such conditions). Our 24 hour staff are production operators across four shifts that do not normally access our server room. Short of staffing 24 hour IT support (not a viable option), the chance of a server crash presents risk for us. One way to mitigate some of that risk, is to instantly take a snapshot of our batch status at the time that the power to the plant is lost (recognizing that there is a short window, and that the existing personnel are already engaged in other activities to secure the facility under such an event).
  
  A bug with Batch Executive redundancy previously made such events more likely, but that seems to have been fixed with the associated Hot Fix. With that history not so far out of memory, my management team has asked for me to investigate methods for speeding the recovery from such interruptions (the Northeast just had another storm this weekend threatening more calamity). While we continue to investigate methods for providing backup power or triggered shutdown commands, this was a parallel path contingency plan I was asked to consider.
  
  With that long winded reply, I do appreciate your response. It helps to ensure that I understand the existing contingencies (and I believe I do).
  
  Regards,
  Steve

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• smhartigan

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 7:31 PM

  In reply to Matt Stoner:

  One other nugget... we are currently at version 11.3.1.

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• Matt Stoner

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 7:52 PM

  In reply to smhartigan:

  So do your Phases continue to run when power is lost and Batch Executive is on UPS?
  
  I would suggest either having the operators put all the recipes to HOLD when this occurs (either manually or automatically via Failure Monitoring in phases).
  
  I could definetly see the system having issues if it was in the middle of something and the Batch Executive lost power (Server machines typically don't like losing power while preforming a task).
  
  If you have Professional Station in a control room or office, they can start and stop the batch executive from that machine (once they select the correct machine with the executive) and wouldn't need to be in a server room.
  
  But the manual way will be difficult...as you are finding

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• smhartigan

  

  • 5 Jan 2018 9:23 PM

  In reply to Matt Stoner:

  Most phases tend to fail, but the operators have become accustomed to putting them in hold (unless at a prompt, but I could change that procedure for a power outage). The option to stop the batch executive from a pro station hadn't occurred to me. There is potential there. In fact, that may be my best bet given the available options (even more robust than gathering the data, as a warm restart becomes more probable in that scenario).
  
  Thanks for the suggestions, I think that may work. Out of curiosity, would a product like Batch Analytics provide any help here? I doubt I could justify the cost on this alone, but figured I'd ask.
  
  Best regards,
  Steve

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• Matt Stoner

  

  • 8 Jan 2018 12:38 PM

  In reply to smhartigan:

  Batch Analytics won't do anything with regards to this Batch Executive issue as it is tool to help minimize batch to batch variations and make product as quickly as possible by comparing running batches to a "golden batch" process model.

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