Echelon LonMaker - Manual (Page 263)

LonMaker User’s Guide 247
Merging LonMaker Networks
You can initially install a large LonWorks network as a number of smaller independent networks—
each with their own network database—and then later merge the networks into one network.
Examples of installations that may use this technique include the following scenarios:
• Multiple systems. When multiple systems are being installed, the installers for each system want
to install and debug their installation without interference from other systems. When each system
has been correctly installed, they can be merged into a single network.
• Incomplete infrastructure. Portions of a building, such as the floors of a high-rise, may need to
be installed before connectivity exists for the entire site (before there is a backbone channel
connecting the floors together, for instance). You can install each floor of the network as part of a
single network using a portable network server under a sequential network installation scenario, in
which no permanent server is needed. In most cases, however, it may be easier (if not necessary)
to install each floor as a separate network. Once the entire site has connectivity, the individual
floor networks can be merged into a single network representing the high rise.
To support these scenarios, the LonMaker tool provides the ability to merge LonMaker networks.
Network Merge Considerations
When you create a new LonWorks network that will entail merging individual networks, minimize the
number of objects in the top-level subsystem. When you merge two LonMaker network designs, the
merge process will be disruptive to the operation of the networks. For example, devices in the source
network will be assigned new subnet/node addresses, connections will be recreated, and authenticated
devices will have authentication disabled for a period of time. Devices in the destination network will
generally be impacted less, but they can be affected if their connections are modified to accommodate
the new devices from the source networks.
Limitations
The network merge process has several limitations:
• Server support only. You can only merge networks from a local client. You cannot merge
networks from a remote client.
• Single direction only. You cannot stop the merge process once it has begun. You can, however,
restore a network from a LonMaker backup file, if needed.
• Single root subsystem. You can only merge networks that have a single top-level subsystem (this
is the default for LonMaker drawings). If the network has more than one top-level subsystem, as
may be the case when using an LNS network database created by another network tool, the
pre-merge utility will fail. You must remove or relocate all but one of the top-level subsystems,
before retrying the pre-merge utility.
Information Loss
When you merge networks, the following information in the source network will be lost:
• Registered plug-ins. Plug-ins registered in the source database but not in the destination database
must be re-registered following the merge.
• Non-channel object descriptions. Channel descriptions are stored in the channel shapes as well
as in the network database; therefore, they are transferred to the destination database. Other object
descriptions that are not stored in the shapes are lost.
• Source network addresses, group IDs, NV selectors, and other related information. All
devices in the source network are assigned new addresses in the destination network domain and
all connections are reconstructed. Therefore, all subnet/node IDs, group IDs, and NV selectors,