Ignition paving the way with alarming - 7.6 public Beta released

The public Ignition 7.6 beta was just released. It adds a bit of complexity and brings a whole lot of capability. The main feature set is an alarming revamp that I believe pushes the envelope for automated SCADA notification. I'm not sure how many of the individual features are "firsts", but I suspect a few. For example, SMS text messaging and email both support 1 or 2 way communication, meaning you can acknowledge alarms by replying to a text message or email. Voice enunciation is supported via the SIP protocol, giving you the option of using a commercial Skype service, a cheap "asterisk" appliance box plugged into a phone line, or your existing commercial VoIP setup. The old "Intel/Dialogix/Win 911" solution I used with RSView years ago for a small hydroelectric plant did this enunciation in a cool way, but was awful for numerous reasons. The Ignition system runs everything through the "store and forward" system, which caches all historical information if connection to the SQL database is lost. It also stores all the alarm logs, system logs, and historical data in a consistent format so you can leverage pre-canned widget viewer objects. There are lots of different deadband/delay/grouping options to manage flapping values on the border or simultaneous sets of alarms. Flexible schedules and rosters are available. Most interesting, is the notion of "Alarm Pipelines", which are graphical representations of complex alarm logic. You drag and drop a flowchart to create a potentially complex system of: notifications, expressions, set properties, delays, and jumps to other alarm pipelines.

Some of the Ignition beta documentation:

Ignition 7.6 - Alarming - Beta (In progress)

Ignition 7.6 introduces a completely redesigned, feature rich alarming and notification system aimed at tackling all of your complex SCADA alarming needs.  These new features are the culmination of many years of customer feedback, as well as in depth research into SCADA alarming best practices and should put Ignition well in the lead industry-wide for alarming capabilities.

Overview

System-wide changes, from the Ignition platform to the introduction of new modules, have taken place in order to best incorporate the new alarming features in a seamless fashion into the Ignition software ecosystem.  Each of these changes are addressed in detail throughout this document, but to begin with let us take quick, higher level look at the new architecture.  The hope is to gain a little familiarity with new terminology and a loose understanding of how all of the pieces are tied together before diving into detailed explanations of how everything is configured.

Pieces of the Whole

As you can see from the above architecture diagram the new alarming system can be divided up into three major areas (Ignition Platform, Vision Module, Alarm Notification Module) with each area being home to several pieces of the new alarming system.  Each of these pieces are interconnected and provide different pieces of functionality to the alarming system.  

Ignition Platform

1. Tag Configuration - You’ll notice right away when editing a SQLTag’s alarm configuration that this has changed dramatically in 7.6. Tags can contain multiple alarms. Each alarm’s properties can be configured to be dynamic via binding them to tags or expressions. Associated data can be added to an alarm, allowing for custom organizational structure or adding process data to be stored along with the alarm event. All previous alarm configuration will be automatically converted when upgrading to Ignition 7.6.

1. User Sources - This is where you configure users (both for authentication purposes and notification purposes) and roles in Ignition. If you’re a user of Ignition 7.5 or earlier, you’ll notice that this is an evolution of the Authentication Profile system. User sources are responsible for providing Ignition users along with their associated username, password, and contact information needed for notification.
2. Schedules - Schedules define day and time availabilities that you assign to users.  They are used for determining when a user is available to be notified of active alarms.
3. Alarm Journal - The new Alarm Journal system replaces the old alert log. This journal logs all alarm activity to an external SQL database. The table structure is managed by Ignition. Querying is mostly done through new scripting functions. Querying can also be done directly against the database if need be.

Alarm Notification Module

1. Pipelines - Pipelines are a new construct that define the logic between an alarm going active/clear and people being notified. They logic graphs and are configured in the Designer via a drag-and-drop UI. Pipelines are where you can add logic like delays, message consolidation, escalation, etc. Note that pipelines are the “heart” of the notification system - you need this feature to do any alarm notification.
2. Email Notification - Email notification is included in the Alarm Notification Module. Email now has the capability to support acknowledgement as well.
3. Upgrades/Licensing - Note that the alarm notification is a new module, but since it covers functionality that was previously in the platform, users who are upgrading from pre-7.6 who are covered by our upgrade protection will get this module comped as an “upgrade”. This module will retail for $1,995.

Vision Module

1. Alarm Status Table - The vision module has a newly renovated alarm status table. It is much more customizable than the old table: row styles are dynamic and configurable via a customizer, columns are configurable as well. It has an ad-hoc chart feature for tags using the SQLTag Historian. This is also where the shelving feature is accessed.
2. Alarm Journal Table - There is now a built-in table for viewing alarm history, now called the alarm journal. You’ll find this component on the Tables tab of the component palette. You’ll probably want to bind the start/end dates to something appropriate, like a date range component.
3. Upgrades / Licensing - The major version number of the Vision module has not changed, so this does not constitute an upgrade.

SMS Notification Module

1. SMS Notification -  This module adds the ability to notify users via SMS. This is done using an Airlink Raven XE from Sierra Wireless. Communication between Ignition and this cell modem are over ethernet.
2. Upgrades / Licensing - This is a brand new module, so upgrades do not apply. This module will retail for $595 and requires the Alarm Notification Module.

Voice Notification Module

1. Voice Notification - This module adds the ability to notify users via a phone call. It uses a TTS (text-to-speech) engine to turn alarm messages into audio, and uses VOIP (specifically SIP) to make phone calls. If you do not have a SIP gateway on premise, you may use a commercial Skype account (requires internet) or an Atcom IP01 FXO gateway which will convert SIP to a plain old telephone line. (http://www.atcom.cn/IP01.html)
2. Upgrades / Licensing -  This is a brand new module, so upgrades do not apply. This module will retail for $695 with one voice, additional voices $99, and requires the alarm notification module.

Voice Alarming

The new Phone Notification Module adds the ability to deliver alarm notifications to users via telephone, using any SIP compatible phone system. Messages are constructed in text, and are delivered through a high quality text-to-speech engine. The engine supports multiple voices and languages.

Core Features

1. Deliver voice calls through any SIP compatible phone system. No dedicated hardware required.
2. Messages generated by high-quality text to speech, and not a canned set of prerecorded files.
3. Supports multiple languages concurrently, based on user preference.
4. Allows users to acknowledge events.
5. Supports requiring a personal identification number for additional security.
6. Ties into the audit log to audit call events, successful message delivery, and user acknowledgements.
7. Supports throttled message delivery.

Using Skype

If you don’t have an existing VOIP system in place, using a hosted service is the quickest way to get going with the voice notification module. Skype offers SIP based service through their Skype Connect product. To get started, you must have a business account, which provides you access to the Skype Manager. From there, you can create a new Skype Connect channel. For more information, visit http://manager.skype.com

Once you have created a Skype Connect channel, configuration in the gateway is similar to that of any other PBX system. The host will be “sip.skype.com”, and the user name and password will be those provided by skype during the registration process.

Schedules and On-Call Rosters

Schedules and On-Call Rosters are new to Ignition 7.6 and allow you greater control over managing who should be notified and when. These two elements work together when it comes to sending out alarm notifications to users.  

Schedules

Schedules define when a user is available to be notified, and rosters create a grouping of users that should be notified when certain alarms pass through different notification blocks in your alarm pipelines (see the alarm pipelines section below for an in-depth explanation).  Each notification block in an alarm pipeline has an On-Call roster property that associates the block with a roster.  When an alarm passes through that block the alarming system begins to work its way through the members (users) of the specified roster and notifications are sent to the users whose schedules list them as being available.

Alarm Pipelines

Alarm pipelines are something new to Ignition 7.6.  No longer is the logic for when, how, and to whom notifications are sent contained in the gateway.  As detailed above, notification profiles themselves have been stripped entirely of any functionality that doesn't have to deal directly with the delivery and receipt of notifications and acknowledgement.  All notification logic is now designed/specified and edited in the designer by creating Alarm Pipelines.  There is a dedicated workspace in the designer for pipeline construction that allows you to create and manage any number of unique pipelines.

Pipelines aim to give the user an easy to use, drag and drop mechanism for creating complex notification scenarios that allow for the incorporation of key features that were previously unavailable. Alarm escalation, notification throttling, dynamic/custom properties for alarm events, all of these features are now made available through Alarm Pipelines enabling you to customize pipelines to fit all of your alarming and notification needs. Understanding the flow of alarm events through a pipeline and how exactly pipelines work is key to being able to fully exploit the potential of Alarm Pipelines.

Alarms are configured on Individual SQLTags and each alarm is tied to an Alarm Pipeline. When the condition for that alarm is met a new alarm event is generated and sent to the entry point of it’s associated pipeline.  The alarm event then moves through the different logical elements of the pipeline until it finally reaches a pipeline endpoint upon which it then exits the pipeline.  There can be multiple alarm events in a pipeline at any given point in time and you can view the current status of the pipeline from the Alarm Pipelines status screen in the Ignition Gateway.  Some pipeline objects let an alarm event exit the pipeline it is currently in and jump to another pipeline entrypoint allow alarm events to be redirected when certain conditions are met. Once the alarm event reaches an endpoint of a pipeline that does not redirect to another pipeline it drops out then that alarm event’s existence comes to an end. 

Pipeline Blocks

There are six types of pipeline blocks that are used to construct your pipelines and each are used to accomplish specific tasks: Switch, Jump, Expression, Delay, Notification, Set Property, and Splitter.

Alarm Properties

Main -

1. Name - A unique name for the alarm
2. Enabled - Enables or disables the alarm
3. Priority - Choose from five priorities, from Diagnostic to Critical, for the alarm
4. Active Pipeline - Sets the pipeline to use when the alarm goes active
5. Clear Pipeline - Sets the pipeline to use when the alarm clears
6. Timestamp Source - Whether the timestamp comes from the system or from the value
7. Display Path - Optional path that will be used for display.  Takes a string separated by “/”
8. Ack Mode - Auto: Alarm is automatically acknowledged when it clears; Manual: Alarm must be acknowledged by the user; Unused: The alarm will always be marked as acknowledged
9. Notes - Optional notes regarding the alarm
10. Ack Notes Required - When set to true operators will be required to enter some explanation when the alarm is acknowledged
11. Shelving Allowed - Whether or not the alarm can be shelved (snoozed)

Alarm Mode Settings

There are ten different alarm modes to choose from.  The mode you select will determine any additional Alarm Mode Settings properties to be displayed.  Below are the different modes and their relative additional properties:

1. Equal

1. Setpoint - In this mode when the tag value is equal to this setpoint value then the alarm will be considered active.

2. Not Equal

1. Setpoint - In this mode when the tag value is not equal to this setpoint value then the alarm will be considered active.

3. Above Setpoint

1. Setpoint - In this mode when the tag value is above this setpoint value then the alarm will be considered active
2. Inclusive - When true then alarm will be considered active when the tag value is equal to or greater the setpoint value

4. Below Setpoint

1. Setpoint - In this mode when the tag value is below this setpoint value then the alarm will be considered active
2. Inclusive - When true then alarm will be considered active when the tag value is equal to or less than the setpoint value

5. Between Setpoints

1. Low Setpoint/High Setpoint - These setpoints create a range that the tag value must fall within in order for the alarm to be considered active.
2. Low Inclusive/High Inclusive - When true then alarm will be considered active when the tag value is equal to or less than/greater than the respective setpoint value
3. Any Change - When true any change in tag value that falls within the range defined by the high and low setpoints will generate an alarm event that isimmediately cleared. Be aware that by default dropout conditions on pipelines include when an alarm event is acknowledged and or cleared.  This means that if left at the default settings you will not receive notifications for alarm events generated by the Any Change setting.  This behavior of alarms generated by any change events may change before the final release of 7.6.  Make sure to check documentation for any changes when 7.6 is officially released.

6. Outside Setpoints

1. This mode operates similar to the Between Setpoints alarm mode.  You configure a range using the low and high setpoints and when the tag value falls outside of this range then the alarm is considered active
2. Any Change - When true any change in tag value that falls within the range defined by the high and low setpoints will generate an alarm event that isimmediately cleared. Be aware that by default dropout conditions on pipelines include when an alarm event is acknowledged and or cleared.  This means that if left at the default settings you will not receive notifications for alarm events generated by the Any Change setting.  This behavior of alarms generated by any change events may change before the final release of 7.6.  Make sure to check documentation for any changes when 7.6 is officially released.

7. Out of Range

1. Generates an alarm event whenever the tag value falls outside of the Eng Limits defined in the tag’s numeric section

8. Bad Quality

1. Alarm events will be generated whenever the tag reports having a bad quality

9. Any Change

1. Alarm events are generated whenever the tag value changes.  These events are immediately cleared and if the Ack Mode is set to auto they will also be auto acknowledged.  Be aware that by default dropout conditions on pipelines include when an alarm event is acknowledged and or cleared.  This means that if left at the default settings you will not receive notifications for alarm events generated by the Any Change setting.  This behavior of alarms generated by any change events may change before the final release of 7.6.  Make sure to check documentation for any changes when 7.6 is officially released.

10. On Condition

1. Is Active - This is a bindable property allowing you to specify an expression that will evaluate to true or false and determine whether or not the alarm should be active.  You also have the ability to bind this property to another driving tag.

Deadbands and Time Delays

1. Deadband - A numeric deadband for the alarm condition.  This deadband is separate from and evaluated after the tag’s deadband.  An alarm event will be generated as soon as the tag value crosses the active threshold but will only clear after the tag value goes outside the active range by more than the deadband.
2. Active Delay (rising edge time deadband)- The time in seconds before the alarm will be considered truly active after the active condition evaluates to true.  If a tag value crosses the active threshold and then clears before the delay period elapses then an alarm event will not be generated.
3. Clear Delay (falling edge time deadband) - The amount of time in seconds before the alarm will be considered truly clear after the clear condition evaluates to true.  If a tag value goes into the cleared state but then becomes active again before the clear delay period elapses then the alarm will stay active.

Sierra Nevada Brewery MES, ERP Ignition Case Study - Awesome!

This 5 minute case study video illustrates how Sierra Nevada Brewing Company ended up using Ignition as their MES and ERP platform. "We use it for everything as our go-to product". They do most of their design work in house, constantly updating their "slightly unique" process.

It's interesting to see the evolution of the importance and use of the brewery's SCADA system. They started with a small pilot project to capture PLC data, basically just as a stand alone OPC data logger. Another department tried out that same server as an HMI. The video shows how the demand signal for Ignition flowed from department to department by word of mouth. "Once it proved itself we started adding". Everyone really liked it - they added their section and wanted access to the growing realtime database: the brewhouse, fermenters, the cellars, filtration, the lab, packaging, tracking trucks, Quality Assurance (QA). Even their IT department.

The Ignition system grew with fan-based requests. The more information was available the more users craved. Everyone wanted to add their devices, sensors, and part of the process.  Once users see what's possible, they want a lot more: reports, charts, graphs, realtime and historical information. Sierra Nevada beer is tracked from tank to tank, information like "yeast cell counts", "CO2 values", and "temperatures", recorded automatically, which represents the production phase that the batch of product is in. They used to walk around the facility to track their beer through whiteboards. Now all of their information is tracked in their SQL databases, accessible from any desktop computer. Pretty cool!

Module Marketplace Industry Feedback

Inductive Automation released the Module Marketplace at the ARC Forum in 2013 and in this webinar.

Gary Mintchell called it, "a platform and business model worth watching" and described the company as "developing something disruptive that is going to revolutionize the industry"

Dave Greenfield of Automation world explains the significance as "Consumer technology driving Automation" with a comparison to the iTunes store.

ARCWeb news from Craig Resnick describing "The ability to share modules with other Ignition users opens up application opportunities and removes proprietary boundaries".

Dale Peterson of Digital Bond picked it up here

I'm curious to see how developers and consumers embrace this technology. Will we see new communities form and when will other SCADA vendors follow suit?

SCADA Security in the Cloud - common sense design considerations

Inductive Automation just just released this white paper on Cloud Computing and SCADA and hosted an informative webinar on the topic. I wanted to provide my perspective on a few good design practices, when looking through a security prism.

How to plan for the cloud with security in mind
- Consider the tenant of "local control". This may or may not translate to "isolated network". It's better to not even think about implementation at this point. The idea is, "from where do I want to allow my operators to control equipment"?

-Decide what it is that you need to access from anywhere. This is a business decision, not a tech decision.  

- In terms of your security planning, cloud hosting is basically the same as making your application accessible via the Internet. Do not confuse this with "public". Both approaches can provide worldwide access. Both can be secured with SSL/TLS and/or even require VPN connectivity. Consider the implications of a "worst case" compromise in the back of your mind.

- "The Cloud" is probably more robust than your server. The gold star for Availability more likely goes to the cloud. Consider that you're not taxing your bandwidth or storage resources and can pay more money to scale on an as needed basis. The whitepaper refers to this as leveraging or outsourcing IT costs. This is a good thing.

- Consider separating your Internet or Cloud services from the rest of your network, including control, business, public web, etc. I am not a fan of your cloud server being able to reach out to your PLC. Why would you do that except in the case of deliberate cloud based control, which is generally not recommended? It's just as easy to have your internal control system write data out to your online (Internet or Cloud) database. You might even log data to a local database then replicate that online. Control the flow of your communication!


Example
The point is, think about your security architecture requirements from a simple perspective. Don't worry about how you will implement it. For example, your thought process might go like this: I want to be able to change setpoints from anywhere within the control network of my 3 sites, I even need a secure way of doing this remotely. If the network goes down, local operators need to be able to control the system without missing a beat. QA needs to examine our realtime process in detail and management wants to be able to access production reports from anywhere. As you come up with this you'll inevitably realize that QA and management systems don't need a path to the PLC - that's the Principal of Least Privilege (POPL) in action! Keep up on defining requirements! Availability really matters at the operator terminals, but not for control between sites - so we don't need redundancy there. Maybe QA has regulatory requirements requiring strict Integrity (prevention of unauthorized data modification). Do we care if the management reports get out? Maybe a lot, maybe not at all. If so, we'll want to protect the confidentiality of the system. Notice that I'm focusing on what and not how?

Get the idea? Now we have our business requirements, driven by operators, management, and our process. Notice that we didn't even consider technical limitations or implementation details? Now it's time to come up with a tech plan, get with IT and let them know what are objectives are. 

Your solution may be a complex multi-part system with firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), VPNs, local systems and online ones. It could also be really simple.

Closing Advice

1. First consider your business/operational requirements in the absence of naysayers who are thinking about implementation/security details.
2.  Keep security in mind as part of your requirements. This can be done without extreme paranoia.
3. Involve IT early on the design phase. Once you provide the what they should be able to help you out with the how.
4. Don't forget about upgrades/updates, backups, and other ongoing support requirements.
5. Follow the good practices that you already know. Use strong passwords, update your systems, etc. 
6. Read this whitepaper.

Ignition awarded prestigious Oracle Duke's Choice Award

Inductive Automation was awarded as one of 10 annual Duke's Choice Awards from Oracle for Ignition as an innovative use of Java technology. Congratulations!!! Press release announcement.

Ignition 7.3 Beta available

Ignition 7.3 represents a major version increase for the Vision module and may significant changes for the others. If you've never beta tested Inductive Automation software you'll have to request access to the beta forum here.  I must say, it's fun to play with the new vector drawing capabilities.

• Drawing tools added for vector graphics.
• Zooming in the Designer.
• Better grouping support for components and shapes.
• New Symbol Factory module.
• More efficient serialization format for windows.
• Better color-choosing UI.
• Internationalization in Gateway/Designer.
• New compression algorithm for analog SQLHistorian tags.
• New ability for SQLHistorian to create preprocessed history tables for better query performance over long time spans.
• New query cache in the client to avoid unnecessary repeated querying of the same time span.
• Data density histogram on the Easy Chart for SQLHistorian pens.
• Improved memory usage for SQLTags in the Gateway.
• Automatic SQLTag creation when dragging and dropping OPC items.
• Improved performance and scan class settings for SQLTags (one-shot, triggered on-change, subscribed vs polled).
• Improved memory usage for ControlLogix driver.
• Improved performance and stability for all drivers.
• Improved installer allows choosing individual modules on install and upgrade.
• New graphical and command-line installer for Linux.
• Ignition installation directory structure changed.

Going mobile with industrial computing

Mobile is hot in manufacturing! The web sites of the major SCADA vendors, industry blogs, and consumer feedback indicates a strong interest in "mobile", be it tablet, PDA or smartphone. Who wouldn't want the capability to see, if not control your process from the palm of your hand? Why deal with text messages, phone calls, or email alerting when you can see, acknowledge, and handle alarms from your mobile device in real time? What about tying this to your MES/ERP system to view production efficiencies?

Sure there are red flags - you will probably have an increased requirement for security including physical access, user accountability (auditing), and all the typical considerations. For most organizations the benefits will most likely outweigh the risk and cost. Security is a mature enough field - if the credit card companies, banks, financial institutions, and even the military can be successful with it, so can you. Apply defense in depth, implement/follow your company policy, adhere to strong practices, hire experts if you need it - nothing new here.

From my perspective, industrial computing has been following the path of commercial computing. Those same basic technologies that have become widespread in your office will usually show up on the plant floor in some form. You can trace industrial controls from relays to PLCs as opposed to vacuum tubes then transistors, but the technologies have been converging and are basically one in the same.

Perhaps a driving force of computing paradigms is the relative shift in local processing power versus the capability of the "network". How thick versus thin is the ideal environment - in other words, do we want to perform the computing locally or remotely? We've seen this shift between centralized and de-centralized SCADA systems - the balance between central administration versus local setup, scalability and performance, and dependence on the network. The models roughly share the considerations we've seen in the migration between: Mainframe, Micro, Mini, and PC.

So where are we going next? Cloud computing or even thinner clients? To me, mobile computing represents an advance in both categories. That's not to say that smart phones won't get more computationally capable - they will continue to shrink and get faster and faster. However, with the increasing reliability of infrastructure, "the network", it makes more sense to centralize your control applications. Why? In one word, ubiquity. For the same reason the web has standardized on HTML. Users will demand access from anywhere they deem appropriate, regardless of the mobile platform. Will they create a separate app for each: iPods/iPads, Blackberry, Droid, Win 7 phones, Palm PDAs, embedded MS OSs, Linux devices, etc, etc? Each of those platforms has a large enough user base to support its own "apps" - Solitare, or a web browser, which turns out to be the common denominator.

I don't think organizations will put up with only supporting one mobile platform. This is somewhat akin to requiring you to buy a Bell phone in order to use the phone network. Nor is it acceptable for a complex installation or configuration. Successful SCADA vendors will need to support feature rich mobile applications that run on most, if not all, mobile devices out of the box. As our networks get more robust, secure, and cheap, we'll be rewarded with new levels of capability that make that transition from novelty to necessity - just like PCs once did. In the end, competitive organizations from all industries will benefit from these incredible mobile technologies.

Computing Without Boundaries

Steve Hechtman, the President of Inductive Automation, has been busy updating his blog, Computing Without Boundaries. It's a fantastic, albeit biased, prospective on modern technologies, methodologies, and considerations for modern Industrial Software applications. Taken with a vendor neutral approach, his points focus on today's issues and technology on the forefront. He isn't afraid to lay it down with points of frustration, digging into his 26+ years as an Industrial Integrator, which can be quite entertaining as you relate it to common situations. He sometimes relates the approach that Inductive Automation uses, justifying exactly why it makes sense in each case - to the Integrator and end user. Definitely worth a read. In fact, leave a comment or two.

VCP at last, and virtualization in Industry

I had the opportunity to attend VMWare's Fast Track course last December. It was a good class. The info came fast and furious! After nearly allowing my test voucher to expire, I buckled down and hit the books.On Wednesday I passed the test, so now I'm officially a VMWare Certified Professional!

Virtualization has been an interest of mine for awhile. I live by VMWare Workstation on my desktop and await the day when I get a laptop that's powerful enough to support my too-many VMs at once habit. For the Industrial Integrator/programmer/professional, Virtualization makes too much sense! Check it out if you haven't already! It readily solves problems that Industrial Software vendors have created (you need this version of Windows without a patch, can't run with competing software, older programming tools for some customers, etc, etc). Using multiple Virtual Machines, you can have exactly the right tool for whatever task at hand - without ever needing to make any changes. You get additional benefits of features like "snapshots" and "cloning". The only real issue is that none of the vendors have decided to support PCMCIA/PC Cards, so you'll have to use serial or USB connectors. This should matter less and less as time goes on.

On the server side (which is what the VCP is all about), VMWare may or may not make sense for your Industrial applications. Don't get me wrong - ESX and ESXi are awesome packages, but if you don't have a competent IT department - you're adding another layer of complexity for what might benefit you. For those larger companies that provide a lot of server based services - you're probably already using a virtualized environment. It just doesn't make sense not to.

Web based SCADA - a perspective from the Netherlands

Web based SCADA article by Eduard van Loenen of Yokogawa’s Global SCADA Center in The Netherlands. Kudos to Dan for pointing it out. He brings many great points to the table of the advantages to the trend of web based SCADA systems. 

From a security perspective, I disagree that IT technologies are "more susceptable to cyber attacks" than "rigid proprietary software". The cyber attacks will come since systems are being networked and remotely accessbile, which is a productivity enhancing user requirement in modern manufacturing. Proprietary software tends to be less secure than modern IT technologies, especially as the Internet makes exploits more widely available.

Good article, though!

Introducing Ignition by Inductive Automation - Web-based, cross-platform SCADA Webinar

From an official Inductive Automation email....


Say goodbye to rationing clients, patchwork control systems and project development constraints caused by oppressive licensing systems.

Ignition by Inductive Automation is being released January 27th. Ignition is a major next step in the evolution of FactorySQL and FactoryPMI.

Join us for this new release webinar to see how the Ignition platform opens up possibilities in the industrial automation industry. The webinar will give an overview and demonstration of Ignition's features and its capabilities, such as:

• Web-based clients that enable scalability
• Unlimited clients and tags, licensed by the server
• A flexible database-centered architecture
• OPC-UA support
• 100% cross platform: Windows and Linux
• Simplified software setup and ...

Also accompanying the product launch is Inductive Automation's new website design at http://www.inductiveautomation.com/, which will launch January 27th with details about Ignition.

Register here to attend the new release webinar.

Title: Introducing Ignition by Inductive Automation - Web-based, cross-platform SCADA
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010
Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM PST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendeesRequired: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/273245266

Ignition preview and a visit to Inductive Automation

Over the holidays I had the opportunity to visit my good friends, Colby and Carl, who are lead developers at Inductive Automation. They gave me an in depth technical "sneak peak" of what is becoming their next product line, "Ignition".

The plan is a single product platform that replaces the separate functionality of FactorySQL and FactoryPMI. They really went all out with levering technologies! The product is platform independent (Windows 32 or 64 bit, Linux, Mac, etc), fully web based (no client installation), and supports separate "modules" that all have access to the same powerful core technologies. Everything runs from a cluster aware web server similar to the current FactoryPMI Gateway but they had new behind the scene tricks (Non-Blocking IO for multithreading, advanced serialization schemes for saving/storing projects, and a whole slew of security upgrades consistent with the OPC-UA specification).

They showed me an OPC-UA application that securely connected to different PLCs (many AB, Siemens, and AD) via different PCs without an OPC tunneller. All this worked equally well on Windows and Linux systems. Once the data is accessible from the PLC, you get the full visualization spectrum that FactoryPMI already offers (graphics, multimedia, historical trends, reporting, etc).

The coolest part is that development time should be cut down substantially, for both Inductive Automation proper and 3rd parties/end users as the API is released, since the platform performs so much native functionality (network, database, project launching/hosting/editing, clustering, storage, alerting, auditing, authentication, etc, etc.). The Ignition platform should become to controls software what Metasploit is to ethical hackers/penetration testers.

An interesting conversation with a traveller in Bali

I had an interesting poolside conversation with "Jeff" at a resort in Bali. He works for Juniper networks, setting up core networks for huge accounts overseas. He told me of the $400 million project in Malaysia that will go on for the next 3 years, and about his project in Brazil. He said that he's gotten used to the long flight back that he takes monthly, but hey, how bad could business class be? More importantly he mentioned that Cisco's IOS is outdated - that engineers left there after being turned away with (then) cutting edge ideas of using ASICS (specialized integrated circuits as opposed to generalized processors) in routers. They maintain a monsterous market share and provide lots of enterprise services (like voice and conferencing over IP). It was weird to hear him refer to enterprise accounts as the small ones (compared to major telecoms and infastructure).

Poking into Jeff's past revealed a masters degree in Electrical Engineering, a CCIE certification about 10 years ago (distinguish youself - don't mess around with the little ones, he said), and "various others". I guess he did some defense contracting at the Pentagon earlier as well. But I got the usual, "certs and education get you in the door...specialize and learn the industry to move up" explanation.

So why mention any of this here? It's all about infrastructure! First, it used to surprise me that I get a 100 megabit Internet connection at home in Korea. That's not fast in terms of network equipment and Korea is on the cutting edge. Heck, I'm getting 700k at the resort in Bali! He was talking about OC768 (40 gigabit) core routing equipment in Malaysia! There's plenty of fiber under the ocean! We, the US, have piles of legacy equipment that we're dealing with. These new countries coming online get to engineer their solutions properly and deal with the latest and greatest! Mr. Obama - if you're reading this, I think investing in our digital infastructure would make a great part of the stimulus package! Our industrial control networks will benefit from such upgrades.

OPC Interoperability Conference, UA and Java

In the spirit of catching up with my backlogged blogging (recent personal Japan trip from January), I'll post about a few topics that I missed.

I had a chance to visit old friends at Inductive Automation. They gave me a demonstration of the working Java OPC UA stack that they unveiled back in the beginning of March, at the North American OPC Interoperability conference. The "test program" was a slick AJAX web page that browsed, read, and wrote tags to an AB SLC with no noticable delay.

The Java UA stack is significant for a number of reasons. First, the UA spec is notional. I'd guess that the OPC Foundation hoped, but didn't really expect, to see it implemented independently - at least not right off. (*a Java stack on their C/C++ implementation is planned with a pure jave stack in the dreamy future) - (*correction again - Randy Armstrong points out in a comment that a Java stack is currently available). This leads to the second point about Java being platform and Operating System independent - everything supports the Java Virtual Machine these days. The point is that we have millions of users across continents and lots of reasons to seek Windows alternatives. I'd bet that there's a dissociated army of programmers in the industrial space who are doing their own thing, but would jump on a standards based bandwagon. That's really what our industry needs for: efficiency, simplicity, and cost savings. The idea being that everything "speaks OPC UA" so historically dissimilar hardware, appliances, and applications can talk with ease - securely.

Which brings me to something I heard about at the conference. Reportedly, the UA guys were asked to go home the first day so that all the legacy apps could be set up. This makes me laugh and wince simultaniously! It's not uncommon for a room full of experts to spend an afternoon getting two nodes to talk to each other - it's all about Windows DCOM security, which is equally painful as it is full of gaping vulnerabilities. At the point where you're communicating with a friend, a third party can't see either.

New standards are a funny thing - everyone knows they're coming, everyone knows they'll benefit from them, but you're not ready to commit until the next guy has. Kudos to Inductive Automation for getting the ball rolling. Kudos to Kepware and Iconics for the same. Siemens has comitted to an entire product line! Wonderware's been talking the talk, as has Rockwell (both in 2006). Here's to them coding away in their secret labs! Don't believe me - here's a video of how great and mature OPC UA really is, complements of Eric Murphy of Matrikon! It's a riot - I promise :)!

Using Open Standards in Water and Wastewater

I hadn't expected to be blown away by Inductive Automation's Using Open Standards, web-based modern SCADA technology to manage your water operations webinar, but the collection of speakers and content was phonomenial!

Don Pearson, the moderator, opened up with a brief presentation on federal 'relief' monies specific to water and wastewater. Henry Palechek presented trends that he's taken Helix Water District of San Diego through from their $2 mil VAX system, to their $350k Wonderware system, to their existing FactoryPMI system. He had a lot of interesting insight into the decision process and business ramifications of his choices. The transcript can be read here (you can also listen to a recording of the interview from the webinar).

Patrick Callaghan of MCS Integrations then presented a system integrators prospective. He showed off a live system (which, by the way, made me unnecessarily nervous) that he wrote for the City of Largo Vista in Texas. His setup was INCREDIBLE!!! Operators run around with tablet PCs, connected via VPN over the cell network. Everything looked sharp and screens were linked together intuitively. He had screens where he could create groups of operators on the fly that recieve alarms at different intervals until they're acknowledged. He showed generic tanks and valves that would display different values based on their types, but used the same objects/windows. This included animation based on setpoints (levels in a tank), an alarm history, trends, and even a custom note field that would record the operator/date_time and create an overlay icon on the main screen that showed the existence of a note. The trend screen allowed you to create, save, and edit arbitrary groups of pens. He had all sorts of reports autogenerated that operators needed to generate, and had an integrated pdf library of the ones they had to fill out by hand. It's hard to fully describe how sweet his SCADA package is - it seemed more to me like the product of a $1mil well written custom application that was tailored to the client. I've never seen such a thing from Wonderware, Rockwell, GE, or the others.

That webinar was fantastic! I'll keep my eyes open for more.

Google Chrome

Google just released a Beta version of their browser - Chrome. Never thought I'd drop Firefox so quickly. First day and it seems killer. 

Java VM on way for the iPhone

Su-weet! You know what this means!? FactoryPMI on an iPhone or iTouch. What a cool idea! Unfortunately, they're currently only developing the ME (Micro Edition), which may only contain a subset of the necessary JVM.

It's good to see this level of commitment from Sun. Java is moving forward without support from Apple in this arena. It reinforces the applicability that Java is powerful on the cutting edge in the client/UI arena, not just with Servers/web applications!

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/07/sun-iphone-java_1.html

update - Walt Boyes is talking about an SPC application for the IPhone on his blog.

Free AB Linux data logger

WebDock has been running a highly capable Linux version (60k transactions/min) in a plant since 2000. It works with Allen Bradley Ethernet PLC 5s and SLCs. I haven't had a chance to try it, so I'd appreciate, and will update this post with, feedback. Be warned, of course, that you get no promises, support, etc. That said, awesome! Maybe someone will put the project on Slashdot and get it moving!

Product Page
Download link
PLCS.net post

Superconductors in commercial power

Pretty cool article about using superconductors for commercial power. In a nutshell, superconductors are materials that have a zero electrical resistance below a threshold temperature. These particular "warm" cables have to be maintained between 65-75 K, which is still pretty cold. Electrical current can flow indefinately without a power source meaning that you don't "lose" any power during transmission (i squared r loss). From a practical perspective in the energy industry, this technology allows great amounts of power to be transferred over physically small lines. Also beneficial for safety, is the fact that superconducting properties are quickly lost during "fault circuits" - reminds me of built in nuclear reactor safety mechanisms where the system can't function when it goes to a certain range out of spec.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/jul08/6428

Linux for housewives. XP for geeks

ZDNet article on shifting Linux demographics. (substitute "server" with "sub-$300 PC")

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=342