Accessing and updating a configuration database of distributed physical locations within a process control system

摘要

A configuration database contains multiple databases that are distributed across a variety of physical locations within a process control system. Each of the databases can store a subset of the configuration data, and this subset of the configuration data can be accessible by users at any of the locations within the process control system. A database server that has a shared cache accesses a database in a way that enables multiple participants to read configuration data from the database with the lowest possible number of reads in the database. In order to prevent the configuration data viewed by the participants in the process control system from becoming obsolete, the database server automatically detects changes to an element in the configuration database and sends notifications of changes made to the element to each of the subscribers of that element, so that a user always sees the status of the configuration that is currently in the configuration database.