PCS7 remote access options?

[dunc 8]

what options are there for remote access to a PCS7 system to view trend information?

we have a manager who wants to look at interrogating trends on the system, but the process is running 24/7 so it is not really suitable to do on the main system or even via the likes of VNC or teamviewer.

what other options are there for being able to look at this information and have a view only access to the control screens? we don't want there to be any way that the manager could accidentally click anything on the running system to affect it.

[Ken Moore 23]

Contact your Siemens person. Siemens has webserver package (Called Web Navigator), that you can setup via a firewall on a stand alone machine and allow your business people to view the process. Our business users have read only access.

Siemens also has a historian and information server package that can use historical data to produce reports and such.

 

[dunc 8]

On 26/08/2021 at 5:35 PM, Ken Moore said:

Contact your Siemens person. Siemens has webserver package (Called Web Navigator), that you can setup via a firewall on a stand alone machine and allow your business people to view the process. Our business users have read only access.

Siemens also has a historian and information server package that can use historical data to produce reports and such.

 

thanks for the reply.

 

we dot really have a siemens person to talk too. the system was just thrown in by an OEM and now it is my issue. I dont have much experience with Siemens, but im learning slowly.

 

i will have a look into both your suggestions and see which suits them the best. im sure when they see the price they will decide not to worry about it ;)

[BobLfoot 233]

Do you have only this PLC or many others in your purview?

Do you already have a Historian or Scada Package you are using elsewhere?  The reason I mention this is most of the big players {Wonderware, OSISOFT PI, Ignition, Cimplicity, etc.} make drivers for pulling data from SIemens.  

Keep in mind that once your business people see data from the Siemens, they be like "Hey one PLC is giving us data , why aren't they all?"

Brace yourself for the exponential demand for data, is all I'm saying!

[dunc 8]

18 hours ago, BobLfoot said:

Do you have only this PLC or many others in your purview?

Do you already have a Historian or Scada Package you are using elsewhere?  The reason I mention this is most of the big players {Wonderware, OSISOFT PI, Ignition, Cimplicity, etc.} make drivers for pulling data from SIemens.  

Keep in mind that once your business people see data from the Siemens, they be like "Hey one PLC is giving us data , why aren't they all?"

Brace yourself for the exponential demand for data, is all I'm saying!

we have lots of others, mostly mitsubishi. we have used kepware OPC in the past to pull data from other manufacturers as our site SCADA package doesnt have a native Siemens communication driver.

in this instance, this is the only system that isnt on a system that we can easily connect to remotely without interfering with the process. the rest can be remotely interrogated for historic information.

[progpro 0]

We were using Osisoft PI for several years, it has it's own "dashboard software" were you can see trends, live values, historic values as well as an excel addin to create reports etc.. Negative point: it's really expensive.