Consolidating AB Licenses - FT View ME and SE question

Tzunoch · Jul 10, 2020

So we've been taking an inventory of all our licenses across the company and I have a few FT View RT ME licenses for various numbers of stations and a whole lot more FT View SE licenses, some just for 25 stations, some for client SE, some for server SE, and one for Studio SE and also a Studio for ME.

Basically, it's a mess of product codes.

So down to my question, can we drop tech connect for the ME licenses and just run those sites using SE licenses?

rdrast · Jul 10, 2020

You can, but you have to allocate one station license, or one server + one client license to each terminal.
You also will have to re-create the HMI's graphics and logic. SE and ME are similar, but projects aren't directly compatible between them.

Honestly, I'd just toss out the ME systems entirely, and replace them with C-Mores.

Tzunoch · Jul 10, 2020

rdrast said:
You can, but you have to allocate one station license, or one server + one client license to each terminal.
You also will have to re-create the HMI's graphics and logic. SE and ME are similar, but projects aren't directly compatible between them.

Honestly, I'd just toss out the ME systems entirely, and replace them with C-Mores.

I really appreciate this response, this is extremely helpful. We also have a number of RSView32 licenses, and the data i'm finding on them is very similar. I'm making notes here that some kind of conversion project will be required if we want to drop them.

James Mcquade · Jul 10, 2020

Before you start dropping licenses, may I suggest the following.

1. look at all equipment plc's, hmi terminal, scada, dcs systems and document everything.
2. find out what version of product they are and revision.
3. what software they were programmed with.

then get with engineering and maintenance and discuss what your plans are. pros and cons.
jointly decide on a course of action.

we keep all licenses for our products.
yes, we have dropped some software upgrade contracts, but we still have the older software available and installed on some laptops.

you never know when one of those older software packages will be needed for an issue or an upgrade project.

james

Tzunoch · Jul 10, 2020

James Mcquade said:
Before you start dropping licenses, may I suggest the following.

1. look at all equipment plc's, hmi terminal, scada, dcs systems and document everything.
2. find out what version of product they are and revision.
3. what software they were programmed with.

then get with engineering and maintenance and discuss what your plans are. pros and cons.
jointly decide on a course of action.

we keep all licenses for our products.
yes, we have dropped some software upgrade contracts, but we still have the older software available and installed on some laptops.

you never know when one of those older software packages will be needed for an issue or an upgrade project.

james

Definitely. A refresh like that demands a full physical inventory. I am one of the senior automation engineers with the company, so I'm the one who'll get saddled with the problem if the project is poorly planned/executed. And agreed on keeping the older licenses even if they aren't in software upgrade contract.

Helliana · Jul 10, 2020

In the past, I have traded in no longer necessary licenses for newer ones. For example, we no longer had a PLC5 in the facility, so i traded one of our RLogix5 licenses in towards a Studio5000 license. It knocked a couple grand off if i remember correctly, and there was no I was going to need 3 RSlogix5 licenses without any of that product line in our facility.

Consolidating AB Licenses - FT View ME and SE question

Tzunoch

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rdrast

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Tzunoch

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James Mcquade

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Tzunoch

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Helliana

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