Step7: Does a hardware download affect Netpro connections?

[Bakkei]

If I change the hardware configuration of a Simatic S7-400 PLC and perform a download in order to add new slaves to the profbus, does this automaticly download any configured NetPro connection too?

This is my situation:

- I need to add hardware to an existing S7-400.
- There are some difference between my offline and on-line hardware configuration. Some in the profibus range, one in the configured connections.
- There are several ISO-ON-TCP connections configured, but I know there must be one S7 connection also. The connectionpartner is another S7-400 over which I have no control. I don't have the S7 project of the partner PLC and I won't be able to get it. It's completely "Closed Source".
- I've performed an upload of the hardware configuration of the partner PLC and see a configured S7 connection. However I can't find the connection in Netpro in the PLC I need to modify, not in my offline project, nor in an upload I've made.

Is there any chance a hardware download affects the NetPro connections? If the current connections are overwritten I'll lose the S7 connection and the plant will come to a halt. This situation will not be welcomed by me or my customer.

 

[Bakkei]

To answer my own question: Apperently it does not.

Today I've downloaded the modified hardware configuration to the S7 PLC. The NetPro configuration was not affected.
After I modified the hardware configuration I performed a Save/Compile followed by a download. Now the online and offline hardware configuration are equal, but a compare of the modified System Datablock reveals that there still is a difference in the Netpro configuration.