Application Director (station management)

The Application Director () is the platform view used to start and stop a station running in any host (whether a remote controller, a local, or a remote Supervisor PC).

The term application refers to an installed station. In addition to starting and stopping, you use the Application Director to examine standard station output, for troubleshooting and debug purposes. From it, you define a station’s restart settings, plus have access to other station actions.

Figure 1. Application Director view, looking at a station


If, when you open the Application Director you cannot see the station row, drag down the horizontal space just above the daemon output.

Every 1.5 seconds, the platform daemon fetches data about the station(s) and updates the Application Director.

The station's Details column indicates which types of connections (and their corresponding ports) are supported by the station for connecting to it. For any connection types supported by the station, a port value will be specified, for example, "n/a" means that the connection type is not enabled by the station.

The options and buttons on the right perform a variety of station functions.

  • Auto-Start, when enabled, configures the station to start automatically following platform daemon startup.

  • Restart on Failure, when enabled, causes the platform daemon to restart the station if its process exits with a non-zero return code (for example, the engine watchdog had killed the station because of a deadlock condition). In Niagara 4, controllers can have a station restart without a reboot. Therefore, if this option is enabled, and the station fails (terminates with error), it restarts. If a controller has three automatic restarts within 10 minutes (or however many specified in the station’s PlatformService Failure Reboot Limit property, the station remains in a failed state, regardless of the setting above.

  • Start causes the host’s platform daemon to immediately start the station, clear the text in the station output, and display messages for the station session.

  • Stop opens a confirmation window. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon saves the station’s configuration to its config.bog file, and potentially saves history data, then shuts the station down.

  • Restart when pressed, opens a confirmation window. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon shuts the station down gracefully, then restarts it.

  • Reboot opens a confirmation window. If you confirm, the framework reboots the selected host. This is considered a drastic action.

  • Kill opens a confirmation window. If you confirm, the host’s platform daemon terminates the station process immediately.

  • Dump Threads causes the host’s platform daemon to send from the station a VM thread dump to its station output.

  • Save Bog causes the host’s platform daemon to locally save the station’s configuration to its config.bog.

  • Verify Software causes Workbench to parse the station’s config.bog and the host’s platform.bog files looking for module references. It then checks to see if those modules, and any other software upon which they depend, are installed.

  • Clear Output removes the output.

  • Pause Output freezes the output from updating further (no longer in real time). When you freeze the output, the button changes to Load Output.

  • Output Dialog produces a separate, non-modal output window displaying the same output text as in the Application Director’s standard output area. Included are buttons to Dump Threads, Pause Output, Clear Output, and Close the window.

  • Stream To File opens a window for assigning a file name. Once open, the system saves all application output to this file.

  • Output Settings opens a window for specifying how the platform daemon buffers the output from the station.