I'm interested in this validated environment, is this a phama industry thing? What changes require a change control (and thus I'm assuming paperwork and validation testing etc.)? It sounds like a royal PITA.
Could you, for example, spin up a new server or VM to act as an OPC server? Can you install Kepware or the like instead of RSLinx on the existing server? Downgrade the newer CompactLogix for an older one?
In the end, they're operating on obsolete, unsupported software on a server that I am sure is long in the tooth. These things are bound to come up so maybe it's time to cough up the $$$ and do it right.
Yes, it is for a pharma company. Any changes to the SCADA have to be re-validated. Typically places like this don't like to be on the cutting edge of firmware, but the only other CompactLogix with dual-ethernet option was the L43, and the firmware is capped at v20, so you'd be installing old (new) hardware. Installing a CLX for this would have been overkill. I convinced them to go with the 5069. They require dual-ethernet, as most plants do, when you are using Ethernet IO. One NIC for plant network, one for IO. Although, from what I understand, there is only one physical NIC in the CompactLogix and the isolation is done through software.