Citect - One Project, Multiple User Development

Currently I'm using v7.5 on Windows Server 2012, I have some Wondeware/FT experience, but relatively new to Citect.

Up till now we have had the project running on a single server, with multiple users logging in via remote desktop for development. However this tends to be very slow & crashes a lot.

I have 2 other servers, would it be possible to spread users across the 3 servers while still working on the same master project? - ie not having separate development projects & then having to import the changes to the master.

Similar to how in Wonderware multiple users can do development on the same project.

As a possible solution, I know there is server redundancy, but if changes are made to the standby server, will they propagate through the Primary server?

If anyone has any suggestions or could point me towards a relevant knowledge base article it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Strom said:

I have 2 other servers, would it be possible to spread users across the 3 servers while still working on the same master project? - ie not having separate development projects & then having to import the changes to the master.

Click to expand...

Not as far as I know. The problem is that each Citect node runs its own local project files. Any development you do to a Citect node will not propagate through to any of the other nodes unless you manually copy the modified files over.

Strom said:

As a possible solution, I know there is server redundancy, but if changes are made to the standby server, will they propagate through the Primary server?

Click to expand...

Configuration changes such as project modifications will not sync this way - the server redundancy is more intended for vital runtime data such as alarms, historic trends and I/O.

Deployment of project changes is always an issue when working with large Citect systems. Every Citect installation I've worked with so far has always had a single development node that deploys out to the rest of SCADA network.

scrambled said:

Not as far as I know. The problem is that each Citect node runs its own local project files. Any development you do to a Citect node will not propagate through to any of the other nodes unless you manually copy the modified files over.

Check out the Copy and Run ini parameters.



Configuration changes such as project modifications will not sync this way - the server redundancy is more intended for vital runtime data such as alarms, historic trends and I/O.

Deployment of project changes is always an issue when working with large Citect systems. Every Citect installation I've worked with so far has always had a single development node that deploys out to the rest of SCADA network.

Click to expand...

This is typical.
One way to have multiple developers is to break tbe project t up into multiple projects and make them "Includes" of a main project. This requires carefull use of a common include project to hold common components. Genies, Functions etc.

kellian said:

This is typical.
One way to have multiple developers is to break tbe project t up into multiple projects and make them "Includes" of a main project. This requires carefull use of a common include project to hold common components. Genies, Functions etc.

Click to expand...

If you're working on a project that's primarily using text, then you have a lot of options for revision control; Git and SVN being the most common.

It's quite difficult to sync binary files though.

Have you considered using a large EC2 instance for development? Since you're probably only doing development during working hours, you can shut it off and not be billed during that time too.