An Overview of the Deployment Model in Application Server

In previous posts I provided an overview of the objects you get out of the box when you create a new Galaxy in Application Server. When discussing the System Objects I (very) briefly mentioned two important configurations of a Galaxy: the Plant Model and the Deployment Model.

Today I want to talk a little bit about the Deployment Model.

The Deployment Model is a hierarchical representation of where your objects are running; in other words, the distribution of all of your objects across all the computers that are part of your Galaxy. You build the deployment model in the Deployment View of the ArchestrA IDE.

The key object to build the deployment model is the WinPlatform object. How many computers you will use to host and run your objects will dictate the base of your deployment model. Afterwards, you distribute the rest of your objects based on the following hosting relationship:

The Galaxy Repository computer always need a platform, and a special one at it (indicated by a yellow icon). So let's start with that:

Next, let's say that I'm going to have 2 automation object servers (running all my equipment and device integration objects) and 3 visualization nodes (operation stations):

The AOS and VIS nodes will need their corresponding engines:

Areas, equipment, and PLCs distributed across the AOS nodes, and the InTouch applications assigned to the VIS nodes:

If Information Server is part of the solution, I will need a platform to gather real-time data for any published process graphics or ArchestrA Symbols. And just for good measure, might as well add a platform to the Historian Server for diagnostic purposes:

After you deploy the Galaxy, all the objects in the deployment model will be installed and run in the target computers.