Issue
What options exists for redundancy and hot swap support for TAC Vista Server front end.
Environment
Vista 5.x.x
Cause
There is no direct support for redundancy in a Vista system. The software is designed to only allow a single Vista Server to receive alarms and trends from a field bus. If multiple Vista Servers are trying to access the same system the reliability of the data will be compromised.
To use any true redundancy of fail safe conditions 3rd party solutions must be designed.
Resolution
Without 3rd party tools
Ensure that the SQL database is on a full version of SQL server on another computer. Use standard SQL tools to provide reliability and data integrity of the SQL database.
Make regular backups and provide a process to restore these backups on a duplicate computer when a problem is encountered. Only one of the two Vista Servers should be running at one time.
With 3rd party tools
Use software/hardware packages that provide duplicate equipment for fail safe and high availability environments. One such option is Marathon HA & FTsolution (http://www.marathontechnologies.com/index.html)