AggreGate 5.4 brings 10x faster storage, Graphical programming languages, Widget Component SDK
10x Faster Event/Update Storage
We've achieved great results in optimizing AggreGate server performance, especially event and value update storage performance. From now on, a single server can process and persistently store up to a hundred thousand events/updates per second, which is almost equal to 10 billion events per day. Such performance figures don't even require any high-end server hardware.
A conventional 2 CPU server with typical server-grade HDDs is the right hardware option. Those results are based on using embedded Apache Cassandra NoSQL database for event storage. Thus, a dedicated multi-node Cassandra cluster may be used for getting even higher event storage/retrieval rates on a single AggreGate server.
Graphical Programming Languages
A new chapter is opened by this release. Presenting AggreGate's graphical and textual programming languages inspired by IEC 61131-3 standard, also known as "SoftPLC". Being one of the major programmable logic controller standards it is widely adopted in various automation fields all over the world. Millions of engineers familiar with SoftPLC languages are now able to use AggreGate as a process control logic development environment.
One innovative feature of AggreGate's automation languages is a tight integration of the runtime with the Tibbo Project System hardware. Your programmed logic can access and control all Tibbit modules of a Linux-based TPS board/box.
Currently, available languages are:
- Function Block Diagram (graphical)
- Structured Text (textual)
- Sequential Function Chart (graphical)
At your fingertips now is a new IDE with UI editors for graphical languages, code editors for textual languages, debug tools as well as the runtime environment. SoftPLC is a large development effort we will continue in the future releases.
Widget Component SDK
Widget capabilities are no longer limited by the standard set of components. Now it can be easily extended. New Widget Component SDK allows implementing custom visual components in Java and use them in AggreGate widgets. Extend AggreGate's wide component palette with UI controls best suited to your needs.
Built-in Timestamps and Quality
Every atomic data item of AggreGate is a Data Table. From this release on, all data tables have two important properties: timestamp and quality. Timestamp holds a date-time mark of value received or updated. Quality is a number that usually indicates a trust level of the data items which is determined by a device protocol in most cases. These traits come from the automation industry but AggreGate's cross-industry nature allows to use them in any type of solution. Most popular AggreGate drivers already enrich every data item with appropriate quality and timestamp.
Refreshed Icons
We continue to make our UI interface more clear and user-friendly. The next step is the lightweight icons. We redesigned them to be up to date with modern flat paradigm. New color coding assists user to navigate over various available toolbar actions.
Server Remote Upgrading
As every software, AggreGate needs to be upgraded from time to time. This operation frequently requires a field visit and can cost a lot in case of multi-server distributed installations. To reduce company's expenses a remote AggreGate server upgrade operation is now supported. You can use our Unified Console application to connect to a remote server, upload a server upgrade bundle file and wait while the upgrade process is finished. That's it! All operations including database backup, stopping server, upgrading and restarting will be performed at the server side automatically.
Secure and Reliable Agent Communications
Another major feature of the release is encrypted and/or compressed communication over AggreGate protocol. Agent-Server communications now can be SSL-protected. When transferred data amount is critical, data compression can be enabled in parallel to encryption.
In release 5.4 Local Agent driver got embedded buffering and event confirmation mechanism. You will not lose any important data on sudden connection breaks. Agent accumulates historical values while there is no connection with the server. Once connection is reestablished all buffered data is sent to the server. Another new option enables the server to confirm received and persistently stored events. This means the agent will buffer events and consider them as non-delivered until it has received a confirmation from the server.
Component Connectors
It's now easier to draw diagrams in AggreGate. Connectors allow to visually link UI components with each other, so when the component is dragged in UI editor it remains linked with the other one. A set of pin points allowing to attach connectors to components can be defined manually or automatically. You can use connectors to visualize structured maps and electrical/piping schemes.
IT Service Modeling and Monitoring
We are bringing our IT & Network Management solution to a new level by turning it into a full-fledged IT Service Management System. In this release, we introduce several essential instruments for that: Configuration Management Database (CMDB), metrics engine and topology-based root-cause analysis tools. Another ITSM functionality - IP address management module - is now available and you can use it out of the box.
Granulation
We're introducing a brand-new highly customizable data aggregation and consolidation tool: Granulation. The granulation engine allows combining datasets into compact representation that contains all important aspects of original information in virtually any form suitable for later processing. This allows to reduce memory and storage consumption along with boosting data processing performance.
New Drivers
AggreGate 5.4 includes new device drivers:
- CoAP - gives the possibility to send requests and response messages of the CoAP protocol.
- MQTT - allows communicating with MQTT broker and to subscribe to its topics.
- IEC 104 - provides communication with devices supporting IEC 60870-5-104 Protocol.
- DLMS/COSEM - implements smart metering communications open standard (IEC 62056).
- SMI-S - provides read/write access to SMI-S properties and allows calling SMI-S object methods.
