Ab ethernet plc's to plant network

Hi everyone,

I have run into a problem here at the plant.
we have a plant novell network and we want to put all our ab
ethernet plc's on it.

Trouble is, the powers that be think that we can simply hook
directly to the plc's and get the data we want. they say its ethernet, so what's the big deal.

I try to tell them that you just can't simply hook to the plc.
first, we need a way to recognize the plc. so we need a driver to find the plc.
second, we need a program that can communicate with the plc to get the exact data we need.
third, since novell is not compatible with rslinx, we need a pc bridge to go from the plc to the plant network.

is there a way to communicate with a novell network and yet work with rslinx?

if i have missed something, pleas explain. I definately want to learn how to make this work.
thanks,
james

James Mcquade said:

Hi everyone,

I have run into a problem here at the plant.
we have a plant novell network and we want to put all our ab
ethernet plc's on it.

Trouble is, the powers that be think that we can simply hook
directly to the plc's and get the data we want. they say its ethernet, so what's the big deal.

I try to tell them that you just can't simply hook to the plc.
first, we need a way to recognize the plc. so we need a driver to find the plc.
second, we need a program that can communicate with the plc to get the exact data we need.
third, since novell is not compatible with rslinx, we need a pc bridge to go from the plc to the plant network.

is there a way to communicate with a novell network and yet work with rslinx?

if i have missed something, pleas explain. I definately want to learn how to make this work.
thanks,
james

Click to expand...

See earlier thread: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=60475

thanks,

i forgot about my earlier post.

regards,
james

RA Knowledgebase - 39059

The Knowledgebase states that RSLinx can not be used on a Novell network.

Curious.
What it it that is special about Novell networks ?
Does Novell networks not support TCP/IP ?

Here is what i did for our sister plant as they have novell also.

We used http://www.oldi.com/ Eatm and Catm modules to connect controller and gather data and put it into a server running a sql database as well as a oracle DB as their buisness system is oracle so the data is in oracle format and sql format. They use it for reports in oracle and we setup Novell SQl integrator http://support.novell.com/techcenter/articles/dnd19990411.html to be able to pull the data across for reporting.

I will be honest it was not easy to setup. I work on this for close to 6 months.

Ours here was even more fun because we were runing a part novell and part microsoft network with oracle and sap buisnes systems. We now have a all microsoft network and are working to get the entire corp on 1 buisness system as we now have 3 corporation wide. It is between Oracle and SAP. I prefer sap myself.

But i will be making changes to this soon. The oldi modules can write to IBM systems and networks also including AS/400.

I strongly recommend that you NOT connect PLC's to your Admin LAN.

Review the S95 Standard.

Your control system should be an isolated Level 1/2 network. Use your SCADA system to push the data to the correct repository at the correct level. Then you can use reporting software to get the data to whom ever wants it in an acceptable format.