Architecture

Overview

Through DeviceLink, Copia provides the ability to back up projects and files either on-demand or through scheduled operation. Using the Copia Web App, users of DeviceLink can configure their Projects and Devices for backup with a client-side app called the Copia Agent.

The example below demonstrates how an Organization might configure two Sites for DeviceLink:

As seen above, the Copia DeviceLink system consists of the following items:

• Site

  A Site is a logical grouping of user-defined Projects, Devices and Agents. A Site could be home to a factory, an area with a factory, a large region, etc.

• Project

  Projects are pointers to specific automation projects which are stored in the repositories within an Organization.

• Device

  Devices represent the actual hardware device(s) or location(s) that Projects are backed up from (i.e. PLC's, robot controller, etc). They often contain communication information, like an IP address.

• Job

  A Job is a scheduled operation that is used to perform a backup and comparison of your Project to the current instance in the Copia Server.

• Agent

  An Agent is a piece of software that will perform or request the actual backup of the Device directly. This is downloaded and installed on a PC in the customer network which has access to perform this operation.

What is the Copia Agent?

The Copia Agent is a small client-side application that enables DeviceLink to back up the code running on customer devices to Copia's Git-Based Source Control product.

The Agent works through a specific set of operations:

• The Agent will poll for Jobs from the Copia Web App via HTTPS at a polling interval of approximately 15 seconds.

• If any Jobs are found, the Agent will attempt to communicate to the Device to perform the backup.

• If the backup is successful, the program on the Device will be saved to disk in a temporary folder on the system. Prior to the next backup, the program will be deleted from local storage.

• If the backup is successful, the Agent will upload the results to the Web App via HTTPS.

Network Requirements

The Copia Agent has only a few network requirements to run successfully:

• The Agent must be launched with Administrator rights

• Access to Devices to perform backups

• High-availability, with outbound-only access to the Web App via HTTPS to both poll for Jobs and also upload backup results to Copia's Git-Based Source Control

  • As a result, the Copia Agent should always be active, and not be configured to hibernate, sleep or become inactive in any manner.

DeviceLink will not be able to function if the Agent loses connectivity to the Web App. Until connectivity is restored, scheduled Jobs will not run and Agent updates will not take place.

System Requirements

The Copia Agent should be dedicated for Copia Jobs and activities. It should not be accessed or used for other purposes, as this may interfere with the operations that are being performed.

• OS: Windows 7 or later (32 or 64-bit)

• RAM: At least 4 GB recommended

• Storage: Less than 1GB to install

In addition to the above, there may be additonal requirements based on the device types that will be managed. These requirements can be found in the Vendor Configuration section of the documentation, by vendor.