The PKS Hardware View is the primary workspace for I/O Spares Management. It displays the full Experion PKS hardware topology - controllers, I/O links, module racks, and individual channels - as a navigable diagram and lets engineers open the Channel Reservation dialog for any spare channel.
Opening the PKS Hardware View
1. Click the PKS Hardware View tab in the main Control Architect workspace.
2. Use the Open Database toolbar button to select a hardware community database.
3. The view loads the hardware topology and synchronizes with IOSparesDb in a single background operation. A busy indicator is displayed while loading.
4. Once loaded, the diagram shows all controllers, I/O links, and module racks. The ribbon toolbar becomes active.
Note Loading time depends on the size of the hardware community and the speed of the MongoDB connection. Typical communities load in two to ten seconds.
The Ribbon Toolbar
The context-sensitive PKS Hardware View ribbon tab appears whenever the PKS Hardware View has focus. It contains the following groups:
Layout Group
Button
Key Tip
Purpose
Re-Layout
RL
Re-runs the tree layout algorithm to reposition all nodes in the diagram.
View Group
Button
Key Tip
Purpose
Zoom Fit
ZF
Auto-fits the diagram so all hardware nodes are visible in the viewport.
Zoom Selection
ZS
Zooms the diagram to fit the currently selected nodes.
Filter Group
Button
Key Tip
Purpose
Show L1 (Controllers)
F1
Toggles visibility of controller nodes (C300, C200, UOC).
Exports all I/O module slots in the loaded community to a single Excel workbook cross-referenced with reservation data. See Export All Hardware I/O Channels.
Reconcile Group
Button
Key Tip
Purpose
Reconcile I/O Reservations
RI
Compares all IOSparesDb records against the current snapshot and flags discrepancies. See Reconcile I/O Reservations.
Opens the User Administration dialog. Visible but grayed out for non-SuperAdmin users. See User Administration.
Navigating the Diagram
The diagram is organized in a tree hierarchy:
L1 - Controllers (C300, C200, UOC) at the top level.
I/O Links (IOP racks) connected beneath each controller.
Module Slots displayed within each I/O Link rack panel.
Channels displayed within each selected module slot panel.
Click a module slot in the rack panel to expand it and see its individual channels in the I/O Channel panel. Click a channel row to open the Channel Reservation dialog for that channel.
Resizing the Hardware View Panes
The PKS Hardware View is divided into three side-by-side panes: the Network Diagram on the left, the I/O Module Rack View in the center, and the I/O Channel View on the right. Each pane boundary is marked by a thin splitter bar. Drag the splitter between the Network Diagram and the I/O Module Rack View left or right to trade width between those two panes. Drag the splitter between the I/O Module Rack View and the I/O Channel View left or right to grow or shrink the I/O Channel View, with the Network Diagram absorbing the difference so neither adjacent pane is disturbed. Individual grid columns within both the I/O Module Rack View and the I/O Channel View can also be resized by dragging their column header borders. All pane widths and column widths are saved automatically when you close or navigate away from the Hardware View and are restored exactly as you left them the next time the view is opened.
Stale Reservation Highlighting
Module rows in the rack panel are highlighted in amber when one or more of their channels has a Stale reservation record. This gives a quick visual indication that the module requires attention without requiring the engineer to open each channel individually.
Tip Use Reconcile I/O Reservations after importing a new hardware snapshot to automatically identify and flag stale reservations across the entire community.
