Rockwell licensing for multiple deployed systems

[user1989 0]

Have a somewhat odd scenario where I'm supporting a system that uses a CompactLogix controller for one of it's subsystems.  The problem is we are considering making updates to the controller and there are over 100 instances of this system 'in the wild'.  Currently, we only have a few engineers licensed for RSLogix 5000 and do not have any Rockwell software installed on the system itself.  Ideally we'd like someway of automating downloading of projects to the CompactLogix (or even just providing a procedure), rather than having a tech visit every site and manually do this.  I'm aware of the lite edition but we unfortunately have a DeviceNet scanner that also requires updates and the lite edition of RSNetworx only supports 6 nodes (which we're over).

Curious if anyone has any ideas or suggestions.  We don't have any contractual support with Rockwell currently and I'd like to seek advice from any seasoned controls engineers before contacting them.

[BobLfoot 301]

Let me see if I can recap what I read from your post.

1.   You have an Integration or Automation Support Company.

2.    You have a stable of Five or so Engineers with licensed copies of Logix 5000.

3.    You have 100 plus remote systems to support for your End Customers, each requiring an update.

I see you have two choices:

1.    Send Engineers to each site with the related travel expense.  Depending on distance and travel method this could be $500 - $10K per site.

2.   Choose a remote VPN solution {EWON, Rockwell Stratix, Cisco} and let the engineers remote upgrade each system. - This will bee $500-$2k per site depending on your approach.

 

Just my thoughts at first glance.

[Joe E. 259]

If you were supporting machines at our site, you could send instructions for us to complete. We just did that with a machine builder who had to upgrade about 25 mostly identical machines. They sent a couple of techs to make the mechanical changes and I made the program changes per their instructions. That will work well for sites that have staff and licenses to do the work themselves. Otherwise, I would lean toward Bob's suggestion of a VPN and/or cell modem setup, assuming the staff on site can install it.

If this isn't something you do often, it may work to buy one set of hardware and ship it from site to site for the upgrade and have it returned to you at the end of the process. That would be pretty cumbersome, though, and it probably makes sense to install the remote access hardware on each machine if you're supporting them with any regularity. For sites where local staff can't install it, you could send an engineer "just this once" to install the hardware and perform the upgrade. It'll be ready for next time.

For PLCs, if they're configured to read from the SD card on boot, you could send out an updated SD card and have them return the old one. I don't know if the DeviceNet scanners have the same capability, though.

[user1989 0]

Thanks for the responses, I should add these systems aren't networked (even locally).  We've considered the round-robin approach with hardware.  The PLCs do boot from a flash card but they are somewhat buried and we don't currently provide procedures for removal/disassembly to access them.

I'm thinking we'll likely have to go the route of site visits to perform the upgrades.  I guess the real question I have is does Rockwell support any kind of enterprise licensing?  I haven't found too many white papers on licensing and their product pages seem to just show licensing per user.  I guess I should just go ahead and contact someone at Rockwell.

Thank you again

[Joe E. 259]

One thing you can do is install Factory Talk Activation Manager on a PC or server somewhere with a static IP address that your engineers' PCs can ping. Then the FTA Manager on the individual engineers' PCs can point to that license server to borrow licenses as needed. We used that at my previous site for our language pack, but the IT policies at my new site block that traffic so it wouldn't work without involving them. Each person at our new site has their own set of licenses (about 4 sets total).

With proper IT policies and a VPN set up so it looks like the license server PC is local to your PC (is ping-able), you can share a license pool amongst multiple people. If the network is set up correctly, it's seamless and "just works" in my experience.

[pturmel 157]

Without networking at the machines, site visits is all you can do.

With networking at the machines, VPN appliances are the cheapest and easiest, and require no further licensing.

Many of the appliance options include cell modem options if a local network connection is impossible.

[user1989 0]

Thanks all, site visits are likely what we'll have to do.

Networking is unfortunately not an option