Alarm Server high bandwidth in ethernet network to SQL Server

Hi all,

We have a SCADA redundant system with Citect SCADA 2018.

Machine 1 - Citect Primary Server
Machine 2 - Citect Standby Server
Machine 3 - SQL Server (for alarm log device)

The larms are logged in SQL Server, using the Device AlarmHistDB.

Lately, we have observed extreme bandwidth from SQL Server to Citect Server 1 (constantly at the network limit which is 100Mbits/s).

if we stop the alarm server process in citect server 1, the network bandwidth to Citect 1 normalizes and the Citect Server 2 remains constantly low bandwidth.

Someone have the same issue. can you share the experience.

Thank you

Miguel

Bas over 5 years ago

If you stop the primary alarm server the transition logging of the alarms stops. I can't see the alarm category numbers in the screencapture. The last one differs. Could it be that this alarm category is used for some sort of event logging? If there are a large number of alarms logged into this category this could be the cause.
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Miguel over 5 years ago

The category 4 (line 5) is configured but we don't have any alarm configured in this category. Maybe, we will delete this category to avoid doubts .
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Bas over 5 years ago

Miguel, which update for Citect V2018 is installed? What's the CPU usage of your alarm servers? Can you also send the configuration of your device?
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Miguel over 5 years ago

Hello Bass

I have installed the Citect SCADA 2018, version 8.10 Update April 9.

The CPU usage is very low, like you can confirm it in picture below
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Miguel over 5 years ago

The Device configuration is shown in picture below
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Miguel over 5 years ago

CPU Usage in Server 2 (standby server)
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Miguel over 5 years ago

Today, we have made additional tests.

We saw that the Network bandwidth increase to the limit 100Mbit, every time that there is an interaction with SQL Database ( New Alarm, Alarm Acknowledge, Alarm fallback).

Without interactions (New Alarm or Alarm Acknowledge or Alarm fallback), the network is working in normally.

So, we tested this using some PLC Alarms, forcing an alarm entry in SCADA system.

A simple one alarm entry in SCADA, produces an increase to 100% bandwidth, during approximately 40 to 60 seconds. Then it normalizes.

So, we can conclude that if we have many alarm coming at same time to the system this can crash the Alarm Server.
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Bas over 5 years ago

What we can conclude is that the Alarm Server has a TCPIP timeout when it tries to write a transition to the SQL database. Can you ping the machine with the SQL Server? Are you sure there is no firewall blocking IP traffic? Can you connect to the SQL Server without any problem using the DSN you configured? Does it need username and password and is it configured correctly? Can you create a file with extension udl and connect to the database without any problem?
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Miguel over 5 years ago

Hello

Can you ping the machine with the SQL Server?

YES

Are you sure there is no firewall blocking IP traffic?

YES

Can you connect to the SQL Server without any problem using the DSN you configured?

YES

Does it need username and password and is it configured correctly?

The permissions are configured with Windows Authentication and works.

Can you create a file with extension udl and connect to the database without any problem?

Connection is Successful
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Miguel over 5 years ago

We made some tests described in following images:
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