US 8,429,251 B2Granted

Method for the consistent provision of configuration data in an industrial automation system comprising a plurality of networked control units, and industrial automation system

AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft

InventorFelix Brunner

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Abstract

For the consistent provision of configuration data in an industrial automation system comprising a plurality of networked control units, components of a service are combined by a local service configuration unit using a standard configuration interface to form a service. Services are configured by configuration data and activated, where the configuration data comprise information relating to the attribution of services to control units and dependencies between services. The configuration data are accepted from a control and monitoring unit in the industrial automation system by a system configuration service, checked and transmitted to destination control units. The transmitted configuration data are checked by local service configuration units associated with the destination control units for changes in comparison with previously used configuration data. The local service configuration units use detected changes in the configuration data to ascertain lists of operations for performing configuration changes, where the lists are optimized to minimize service downtimes.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method for consistent provision of configuration data in an industrial automation system comprising a plurality of networked control units, comprising:

providing functions of the industrial automation system by services from each of said plural networked control units;
combining components by a local service configuration unit of said plural control units using a standard configuration interface to form a service;
configuring the service by configuration data and activating the service, the configuration data comprising information relating to an attribution of the services to the plural networked control units and to dependencies between the services of each of said plural control units;
accepting the configuration data from a control and monitoring unit in the industrial automation system by a system configuration service, checking the accepted configuration data and transmitting the checked configuration data to destination control units of said plural networked control units;
checking the transmitted configuration data by local service configuration units associated with the destination control units for changes in comparison with previously used configuration data;
utilizing the detected changes in the configuration data at the local service configuration units to ascertain lists of operations for performing configuration changes, the lists being optimized to minimize service downtimes;
and
at least one of performing and prompting the ascertained lists of operations to accept configuration changes for local services;
wherein the service comprises a local service and activating the local service comprises:
loading the configuration data in a preparation phase and providing the local service in a finishing phase using the configuration data loaded in the preparation phase;
and
providing the local service in a reset phase using configuration data associated with a last error-free status upon failure of at least one of the preparation phase and finishing phase.

9 more elements

An industrial automation system, comprising:

a plurality of control units interconnected by a communication network and configured to provide functions of the industrial automation system as services which are configurable by configuration data and activatable, each of said plural control units comprising a local service configuration unit, components of one of the services being combinable by an associated one of the local service configuration units using a standard configuration interface to form the services;
a control and monitoring unit configured to provide configuration data which comprise information relating to an attribution of the services to each of said plural control units and to dependencies between the services;
and
a computer unit for providing a system configuration service configured to accept the configuration data from the control and monitoring unit and configured to check and forward the configuration data to destination control units of said plural control units;
wherein at least one of the local service configuration units associated with one of the destination control units is configured to:
check transmitted configuration data for changes in comparison with previously used configuration data;
ascertain lists of operations for performing configuration changes using detected changes in the configuration data;
and
at least one of perform and prompt the ascertained list of operations for accepting the configuration changes for local services;
wherein the lists of operations are optimized to minimize service downtimes;
and
wherein the service comprises a local service and activating the local service comprises:
loading the configuration data in a preparation phase and providing the local service in a finishing phase using the configuration data loaded in the preparation phase;
and
providing the local service in a reset phase using configuration data associated with a last error-free status upon failure of at least one of the preparation phase and finishing phase.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.