smhiestand

Can a 1769-L36ERM communicate on 2 separate Ethernet networks?

5 posts in this topic

Using its internal Ethernet ports, our 1769-L36ERM processor communicates with 15 other devices inside the same machine. Can a rack mounted Ethernet module be installed to allow communication to/from this processor and an external network containing a SCADA system and RSLogix 5000 workstations? We prefer not to add all 16 devices to our external network and our I/S department does not allow routing devices on the network that they did not install.

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I do believe, yes, the 1769-L36ERM processor, with (2) independent Ethernet/IP ports, is capable of communicating with separate Ethernet/IP networks. Both ports have ability to be configured separately. With that many Ethernet/IP device connections on your machine, I would suggest implementing the use of a managed Ethernet switch. I think where you are going is you want one Ethernet/IP port to communicate with your internal control network and the other PLC Ethernet/IP port to communicate with your external process or company LAN. If that is the case, you will have little or no security between your PLC and the external network, putting your process at risk of unplanned downtime. I personally like integrating an A-B Stratix managed Ethernet switch. If you spring the extra $ for a switch that supports NAT (Network Address Translation), you can access the system from the company LAN without having to re-address all devices (all you need is 1 reserved IP address from your IT group and program this into one of the switch ports).

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I don't have an L36ERM processor, but based on other CompactLogix 5730-L3 controllers I've used and A-B's literature, the two Ethernet ports use embedded switch technology. That feature allows for different network topologies: Device Level Ring, Linear, or Star. The ports are not independent and the controller has only one IP address. I agree with the third paragraph of kaiser_will's post about using a device supporting NAT - either a managed switch with NAT, 9300-ENA,1783-NATR, or similar device.

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I don't believe this statement is true. I can't find in RSLogix where I can separately configure the ports with different addresses. I hope someone can set me straight.

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You want to use the 1734-NATR if you are using DLR to map your PLC IP address to a an IP address on your SCADA network. http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/pp/enet-pp011_-en-p.pdf Otherwise you can use the 9300-ENA, which is another NAT device which will do the same thing, but not DLR compatible. If you have a Stratix switch already, it might have NAT, depends on the model.

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