HQ VISU HQ INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS

Input HQControl scenario configuration

Choose the panel, station, or server role first. Panels browse and operate screens; HQControl tag services run on an IPC or server.

Choose field role Recommendation

Resource reference Tag-scale resource conversion

Measured sample: 367k tags use about 1.6 GB memory and about 3% CPU on an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H / 48 GB; used only as the conversion baseline.

1M-tag configuration reference: about 6.6 GB memory / 13% CPU reserved
2M-tag configuration reference: about 13.1 GB memory / 25% CPU reserved
Useful for host selection, server budgeting, and field load-test planning

Conversions include about a 1.5x safety margin; CPU percentages are relative to the reference machine (Ultra 7 255H, 16 cores); scale them up for less powerful hosts. Project scale is confirmed together with PLC scan cycle, history writes, alarms, trends, API concurrency, and field load tests.

Server scenario Server deployment guidance

Reserve room for runtime services, database, history data, alarms, trends, and third-party interfaces.

16 GB: fits a 500k-1M tag project budget; close to 1M tags, move the database to its own host or step up to 32 GB
32 GB: recommended for 1M-2M tag server deployments
64 GB: recommended for 2M-4M tag load-test and expansion planning

Production sizing is confirmed across PLC communication, scan cycle, history writes, alarms, trends, and concurrent access. Targets above 2M tags are conversion-based planning figures, confirmed by field load tests.

Connectivity measurement PLC connectivity, types, and import

Verified on: Intel Core Ultra 7 255H / 48 GB · Windows · Siemens S7-1500

PLC connection: S7-1500 connected (TCP + S7 handshake passed)
Data types: 13 / 13 passed (BOOL/INT/DINT/REAL/STRING/TIME/DTL, etc.)
Import speed: about 1,500 points / sec

PLC connectivity and import speed are independent measurements; read them separately from the resource conversion.

PLC collection PLC scale depends on the controller model

HQControl can connect multiple PLCs per project. A single PLC collection scale depends on CPU model, firmware, communication path, exposed variables, DB continuity, and scan cycle.

Symbolic addressing (OPC UA / 4840): follow the PLC OPC UA Server specification. In one S7-1515F-2 PN example, accessible variables are 100,000 and Siemens recommends about 2,000 monitored items for 1s sampling / publishing (a performance recommendation, not a hard limit; higher on newer firmware).
Controller classes differ widely: S7-1200 exposes about 1,000 accessible variables, while S7-1500 ranges from about 50,000 (1511/1513) and 100,000 (1515/1516) up to 200,000 (1517/1518), with monitored-item recommendations rising by model and firmware.
Absolute addressing (S7 TCP / 102): suited to continuous DB batch reads; block length, job data, timeout, and communication load follow the PLC specification.
Large projects can split scan cycles, IO Owners, and server resources by device, then confirm the final scale through field load tests.

The real scale limit sits on the PLC side: maximum tag count depends on PLC model, communication path, and tag count × scan rate. These are not HQControl collection limits; HQControl can collect from multiple PLCs in parallel, so evaluate PLC capacity and server resources separately.

Manual

Federation and redundancy: site topology is not the same as active collection

A Site is an independent HQControl runtime. Local site is the current server, and Remote site is one that the current site explicitly joins. If A joins B, A may use only the capabilities that B exposes; B does not automatically join A. Use a stable site code and a reachable HTTPS address for every site.

Federation

Federation: Federation and redundancy: site topology is not the same as active collection

Federation establishes directional trust and capability boundaries between sites. Redundancy decides which node directly collects a PLC. Neither feature creates a second active PLC connection.

Federation is directional

A Site is an independent HQControl runtime. Local site is the current server, and Remote site is one that the current site explicitly joins. If A joins B, A may use only the capabilities that B exposes; B does not automatically join A. Use a stable site code and a reachable HTTPS address for every site.

Single-site projects only need a verified local site and node.
Configure each required direction separately in a multi-site project.
When a reverse proxy is used, enter the actual external HTTPS address.
Web, IO, alarm, and trend capabilities can be enabled independently.

Redundancy changes collection responsibility

Only one active IO Owner directly polls a PLC at a time. A standby node can become the new owner only after the takeover conditions are met; a non-owner does not open a second PLC connection. Changing owner cannot restore data when the PLC itself is offline.

Verify value, quality, and source together

Check System Status, Sites, Devices, and Tag Diagnostics in that order. Verify federation and IO module health, identify the current owner, then inspect the value, quality, source, and timestamp of critical tags. When the remote source is unavailable, quality must degrade explicitly; never treat a cached or persisted old value as current Good data.