Dassault Enovia, a Case Study of CORBA

Dassault Enovia,
a Case Study of CORBA
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Introduction
Distributed Architecture
Orbix
Im plem entation Detail
Conlcusion

Introduction
● What's a PLM solution ?
● Who uses PLM products ?
● The distributed requirem ent of the users

Distributed Architecture of Enovia
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Relevant components
– Client , VPM Navigator
– Enovia LCA Server Manager
– Enovia Vault Manager
– Relational Database Engine
Requirements
– Accessibility
– Transparency
– Openness
– Scalability

Basic Enovia Architecture

Accessibility Requirement
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Different disciplines
– Aerospace Engineer
– Industrial Engineer
– Repeairman
Integration with existing Authentication
mechanism
Difference in measure systems
Difference in language

Transparency Requirement
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Access: hide physical representation of data
– Different IT infrastructure
Location: Hide the real location of a data
– Server Manager proxies requests
– Distributed Vaults
Migration: No reconfigurations required
– DNS, IP Aliases
Replication: Hide data replication
– Using master vault and read-only vault

Distributed Enovia Architecture

Openness Requirement
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Extendability
– CORBA
– CAA C/C++/Java API

scalability Requirement
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Geographically
– Distributed vaults
– Remote invocation using CORBA
Load wise
– Clustering of independent vault managers
– Scalable underlying technologies
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Oracle
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NFS

IONA Orbix
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CORBA3 Compliant Orb
Most Deployed in the industry
Available for leading applicative platforms
– Linux, Windows, UNIX
Advanced Features
– DII
– Bidirectional GIOP
– etc

Technical Implementation Details
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Client configuration
– VPM Navigator
– Orbix naming daemon host:port
– VaultClient.properties
– 3DCom Web Client
Naming Daemon configuration
– Implementation Repository
Server Manager Configuration
Vault Manager Configuration

Client Configuration
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Centralized
– Ease of administration
– Consistent across all sites
– Single point of failure can be avoided
Dynamic configuration
– Load balancing
– Failover
– Use of local vault replica

Centralized Dynamic Configuration

Sample VaultClient.propreties
Host A
VaultClient_DefaultAliasName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerHostName = X
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerDaemonPort = 54270
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerHostName = Z
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerDaemonPort = 54270
Host B
VaultClient_DefaultAliasName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerHostName = Y
VaultClient_Vault_ReadVaultServerDaemonPort = 54270
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerName = Vault
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerHostName = Z
VaultClient_Vault_WriteVaultServerDaemonPort = 54270

Naming Deamon Configuration
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Indirect Binding
– Object persistence
– Enovia LCA server Manager ( CATIAServerManager)
– Enovia Vault Manager
Orbix Implementation Repository
– Text, editable .imp file
– Read at runtime

Vault Manager .imp file
Name : Vault
Comms : cdr/tcp
Activation : shared
Owner : root
Launch : ;all;
Invoke : ;all;
ImpRep Version : 2
no. of servers : 1
server's port : 0
Marker Launch Command
* /...somepath.../runENOVVaultStarter 319 300

Server Manager Details
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Started by indirect binding
Responsible for activating object for clients
VPM example
– See following chart

Flow of initial VPM invocation

Vault Manager details
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Started by Indirect binding
Takes requests from Server Manager to setup file
transfers
Only one servant is required to handle file
transfers
Only receives incoming connections from clients.

Conclusion
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Enovia is a Distributed system
– Accessible
– Transparent
– Open
– Scalable
CORBA is a key component in making it possible
– Remote invocation
– Naming service & indirect binding
– Openness & Extendability