MBLogic
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Help - Server Communications Configuration
Overview
Servers configurations are saved in a text file called "mbserver.config". This configuration file is read on start up of the software and used to determine what protocols to enable, what network addresses and ports to use, what data to read or write, etc. This file must be edited in order to configure a system for every individual application.
Configuration Overview
Editing a Configuration
There is one, and only one server communications configuration file for each system. This file is in ASCII text format and may be edited with any standard text editor. If you use a word processor, be sure to save in a plain text mode which does not insert formatting characters into the text.
The status system also provided a web based forms for editing the configuration rather than using a text editor.
Configuration Elements
A communications configuration file contains the following elements:
- Server name - This allows a name to be assigned to the system and displayed on status web pages.
- Server configurations - This configures the server names, protocol type, and IP port numbers.
- Comments - Comments may be included in the configuration file to assist in documenting the particular application configuration.
Configuration Syntax
The configuration syntax has the following general properties:
- Sections. Sections begin a series of related configuration values. A section name is an identifier which is enclosed by square brackets ("[ ]"). A section includes all items until the beginning of a new section, or until the end of the file. Section names must be unique and must not be duplicated in any other section. Duplicate section names are ignored.
- Configuration items. Any line following the beginning of a section is considered to be an item which belongs to that section (excluding comments). Configuration items are key/value pairs in the format "key=value".
- Each item must be on a separate line.
- Keys are separated from values by equal signs ("="). Because equal signs are used as key/value separators, they may not be used as part of any key or value.
- Parameters are case sensitive. All keys and values must be in the correct case. For example, "Main1", "main1", and "mAin1" are three different identifiers.
- All keys or values which are defined by the configuration syntax are always in lower case.
- User defined values may be in upper, lower, or mixed case.
- The ampersand ("&") character has special meaning. Certain sections are predefined by the configuration system. The names for these will start with an ampersand. User defined section names may not start with an ampersand. Command item names must start with an ampersand. Any item starting with an ampersand is assumed to be a command.
Comments
Any line beginning with a '#' character is considered to be a comment and is ignored. Comments must begin at the start of a line, and may not be on the same line as any other valid input.
Example
# 16-Apr-2008. This is a comment. # This is also a comment.
System Configuration
The system configuration contains parameters which are system wide as opposed to limited to a specific protocol.
Server ID Name
The server id name is the name applied to the complete system (not just an individual protocol server). The server id name may be any arbitrary text, including spaces. The server id name appears in a special section which is always called "&system" (note the ampersand). The actual name used for the server is then indicated by a key called "serverid". The server id name is in the following format:
Expanded Holding Register Map Offsets
The expanded register map configuration allows certain server protocols to access additional memory beyond the normal protocol limits. Details of this may be found in the separate section on expanced register maps. This section deals with the configuration parameters.
By default, expanded register map support for servers is turned off. If you do not configure the parameters, unit IDs will simply be ignored by the servers. If you configure the parameters incorrectly, the expanded register map feature will also be disabled, as the system will not be able to calculate the address offsets correctly.
There are two parameters relating to expanded register maps. These are:
- mbaddrexp - This enables the feature.
- mbuidoffset - This sets the numeric UID offset and factor.
The mbaddrexp parameter must be set to "incremental" to enable the expanded register map. Any other value will act to disable it. In future other algorithms may be introduced, but at present only "incremental" is available.
The mbuidoffset has two values which must be separated by a comma. These are (in order) the "UID offset" and "UID factor". Details of how to set these factors are discussed in the section on expanded register maps.
Both values must be positive integers. The UID offset must be less than 255. The UID factor must be less than the maximum holding register memory map address.
Example
[&system] serverid=Name of Example Server mbaddrexp=incremental mbuidoffset=1,65536
Server Configuration
Configuration Items
Server configurations consist of three elements:
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| The section name. | This is used as the name of the server. This name is used to identify the server in the status monitoring system and will appear on the status web pages. |
| type | This is the protocol type and is used to determing the communications method used. This must be one of the recognised protocol types (listed below). |
| protocol | This determines the protocol recognised by the server. This must be one of the recognised protocols (listed below). |
| port | The IP port number. This must be a valid integer IP port number. |
Example
[Main1] type=tcpserver protocol=modbustcp port=8502
Types
The recognised types are:
- tcpserver
Protocols
The recognised protocols are:
| Protocol | Description |
|---|---|
| modbustcp | The Modbus/TCP protocol. |
| mbrest | A Modbus-like web service protocol (obsolete). |
| mbhmi | The server used to serve HMI web pages, and also provide a web service protocol used by the HMI system. |
| rhmi | A restricted version of the "mbhmi" protocol. It uses the same configuration and resources as the "hmi" option, but write and alarm acknowledge commands are disabled. |
| erp | Another restricted version of the "mbhmi" protocol, intended for MRP/ERP and other business integration applications. It uses the same configuration and resources as the "hmi" option, but only supports "read" and "write" commands from a specified (filtered) tag list. |
| status | The status web server. This is not a communications server in the same sense that the others are, but this allows the IP port number to be configured. If this server is not configured, the status web pages will not be available. |
| help | This is similar to the status protocol, in that it sets the address used by a web server. In this case, this is the web server used for the "help" system. |
| generic | This is a special server protocol used to support generic clients. You must enable this if you wish to make use of a generic client. |
Only one server of each protocol can be configured. There is no limit however to how many incoming client connections each server will accept. If a protocol is not configured, that protocol server will not be active.
Complete Example
The following is an example showing a complete configuration file.
Example
# Test configuration for MB Server. # 23-Jul-2010 # Name of server. [&system] serverid=Loopback Server # The following parameters are optional. mbaddrexp=incremental mbuidoffset=1,65536 # Server configurations. # Modbus/TCP protocol. [Main1] type=tcpserver protocol=modbustcp port=8502 # MB-REST web service protocol. [Web1] type=tcpserver protocol=mbrest port=8085 # MB-HMI web server and web service protocol. [HMI] type=tcpserver protocol=mbhmi port=8082 # Restricted (read-only) version of the mbhmi protocol. [ROHMI] protocol = rhmi type = tcpserver port = 8083 # Limited version of the mbhmi protocol for MRP/ERP applications. [ERPAccess] protocol = erp type = tcpserver port = 8084 # Status web server. [status] type=tcpserver protocol=status port=8080 # Help system web server. [WebHelp] type=tcpserver protocol=help port=8081
Loop Back Sample
The sample configuration file supplied with the system uses what is referred to as a "loop-back" configuration for the clients. That is, a set of Modbus/TCP clients are configured to poll the system's own Modbus/TCP server. This is not in itself a useful feature. It is provided mainly to demonstrate the communications features. A different configuration should be created for a practical application. The sample configuration demonstrates the following features.
- The server is named "Loopback Server"
- A Modbus/TCP server is started on port 8502.
- A Modbus-like web service is start on port 8085.
- An HMI server is started on port 8082.
- A status web server is started on port 8080.
- A help system web server is started on port 8081.