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RemoteTool

OGS supports connecting tools over a ToolGateway. This enables advanced tool management scenarios, e.g. "roaming" tools between multiple stations.

Using the RemoteTool driver requires a ToolGateway running on a server - the server then actually controls the tool, whereas the OGS stations only communication with the ToolGateway. This allows delegating tool management to the central ToolGateway.

For each tool managed through the ToolGateway, OGS only uses a generic RemoteTool type channel in its local configuration, the ToolGateway then has the actual tool-specific configuration (like e.g. OpenProtocol tools).

Installation

The RemoteTool driver is implemented in RemoteTool.dll. To use any RemoteTool tool, the driver must be loaded in the [TOOL_DLL] section of the projects station.ini configuration file (see also Tool configuration).

To enable the driver in station.ini, set it as follows:

[TOOL_DLL]
RemoteTool.dll=1

The overall parameters for the RemoteTool driver are configured in the ยด[RemoteTool]section. This is basically used to configure theToolGateway` connection parameters, here is a sample setup:

[RemoteTool]
ToolGateway_Addr=mytoolgateway.mycompany.com
ToolGateway_Port=

For more information about the driver parameters, see Driver Parameters below.

Tool registration and configuration

All RemoteTool-tools are registered in the [CHANNELS] section of the projects station.ini file.

The [CHANNELS] section only defines a channel number to channel name mapping - the channel/tool specific settings are then configured in a seperate section defined by the channel name. Inside the section, a reference to the RemoteTool driver then links driver and channel accordingly.

The overall layout is therefore as follows (sample is for channel 2):

[CHANNELS]
# Map the channel/tool 2 to the 'RemoteTool_Nexo1'-section
2=RemoteTool_Nexo1

[RemoteTool_Nexo1]
# link to the RemoteTool driver
DRIVER=RemoteTool
# more channel/tool specific parameters for this tool/driver

Please see Channel/tool parameter reference below for more information about the available parameters.

Channel/tool parameter reference

Currently, there are no channel/tool-specific parameters needed (other than specifying the DRIVER=RemoteTool) to use this driver. All concrete tool communication settings are to be configured on the ToolGateway server side.

Driver parameter reference

The driver parameters are defined in the [RemoteTool] section in the projects station.ini.

The following parameters are available:

ToolGateway_Addr

IP address or hostname of the tool gateway.

ToolGateway_Port

(optional)

Port number to use for connecting to the tool gateway. If not given, the driver tries to use the RPC endpoint mapper using the service UUID to resolve the connection endpoint (might require additional firewall settings).