How can I realize redundant PXI based system?

[Mallesh]

Hello,

I have to impliment a redundant PXI based system for my application. The System should have 64 channel DIO, 16 channel ADC, 8 channel RS232(redundant), 8 channel DAC.

Overall the system must have redundancy at power supply level, Processor level, communication level, and also at software level.

Can anybody please help me in configuring such a system on PXI or any other NI products? Dual redundant ethernet ports, and redundant processor based systems highly preffered. The system realization model figures will help me more. If any further technical information is required in this regard also I will provide. Please help me in this regard.

Thanks and regards,

A.D.M.Rao

[Brooks W.]

HI A.D.M. Rao,
We have a few PXI chassis that runs on an AC power supply and also has a back-up DC power supply (for example the 1031 DC).  We also have the PXI 8231 which is a Gigabit ethernet board.  You can use 2 of these for redundancy.  So, I think that we can meet the redundancy requirement for power supply and communication.  However, there is no way to have redundancy at the software or processor level.  Our PXI chassis only allow one controller.  The controller can be an embedded PXI controller or a MXI link to a PC.

Let me know if you have further questions about this.  I will be happy to talk with you about this over the phone if you would like to post your phone number.

Best Regards,
Brooks W.
National Instruments

[Mallesh]

Hello Mr. Brooks,

Thanks for your reply. Least case, Can I use two different PXI chassis with two embedded controllers and each hardware boards two sets so that incase controller one fails, the whole program shall transfer to the control of second controller. Will Labview support this redundancy feature? The main theme in this is if one set of hardware fails, immediately the whole control and acquisition should be taken care by to second set of hardware. For this, LabVIEW should have this redundancy just likle NI Lookout features it.

If so can you please tell me how to realize this setup?

Regards,

ADM.Rao

[Brooks W.]

HI A.D.M. Rao,
LabVIEW does not have a native redundancy feature.  However, all the tools exist in LabVIEW to create a redundant setup.  If you are considering LabVIEW DSC then the following post will be of interest to you.  http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=37638&requireLogin=False

If you are considering only the built-in functionality of LabVIEW then you still have the tools needed to create the redundant setup but it will take a bit more work.  I would suggest creating an application on the standby machine that will montior a "heartbeat" from the primary machine via TCP/IP (There are some TCP/IP example VIs that ship with LabVIEW that will be helpful to you).  If the standby machine no longer gets a "pulse" from the primary machine then the standby machine would take over...

Hope this helps!  Let me know if you have further questions about this.

Best Regards,
Brooks W.
National Instruments

[Mallesh]

Hello Mr. Brooks,

Thank you for your last reply. I have gone through the following link as you refered.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-does-Labview-support-redundancy/m-p/60671?requireLogin=False

We are  interested to impliment the heart beat system. So, please send me how to impliment this system using my earlier inputs to you. I request you to help me in configuring our system for redundancy.

Please send me the detailed information in this regard.

Looking forward for your reply.

With regards,

A.D.M.Rao

[Prashanth]

Hi A.D.M Rao,

Please take a look at this link which talks about redundancy in fieldpoint systems. Though you dont have a fieldpoint system, it should give you more information about implementing heartbeats. Also, are you using LabVIEW RT on your PXI controller?

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/102fe91f4b8157df86256bf1007cca1f 

Regards,
Prashanth