Virtualization

I am working on a project that will involve installations overseas. I am thinking about after the installation is complete there will no doubt be support issues. These will be complicated by distance and language barriers. We have done some virtualization of some of our platforms here and have had relative good overall experience with it. For the sake of easing some of the support issues for our end users, would Groov and kepserver EX operate in this environment, and would it be supportable by the factory?

Thank you for your input.

Hi Brian,

Would love a little more info about the virtual environment that you have in mind…
Also, we cant really speak for KepServerEX as its not ‘ours’. (We work closely with them, but we are not privy to core code).
Off the top of my head I can’t think of a good reason why groov would not be Ok, but as I said, I would like a little more input.
(NAT and network settings could be ‘fun’ to get sorted, but if you have worked in that area in the past, it should go smooth).

Also, how does running it all in a vert’ make support easier?
Lastly, ‘supportable by the factory’… what factory do you mean? Them, you or us?

Ben.

Thanks Ben

The plan to use Groov is to have a guy in a truck with a smartphone in hand. He drives to a site, does a visual of the site, checks the data on his smartphone and moves forward from that. The system will be a network of compact logix controllers connected via a wifi system like Ruckus. In the “office”, there is a pc with kepserver ex and groov on it, a wifi network manager component, and a connection to corporate IT. At each PLC site there will be a NAT device between the WiFi connection and the equipment, (PLC,HMI etc). In kepserver there will probably be one channel for each node with one plc per channel.

Now, the implementation of kepserver and groov will be sophisticated enough that troubleshooting it from halfway around the world could be challenging at best. So, I am thinking why not virtualize it? If the install gets “damaged”, it could be easier to delete it and copy a backup back onto the pc than trying to fix whatever is wrong.

I realize that a backup image could be made of the installed system too, and am working on that idea.

So, if we did a VM, we would put kepserver, its app, and Groov, and it’s app on a windows 7 pro vm, on a windows 7 64 pro host. Would your people be willing to support us in that kind of environment? How would the licensing issues work with Groov? Are there other concerns/issues that would make this a bad idea?

Thanks,
Brian

I am thinking about a windows 7 host with VMware servicing a windows 7 guest operating system.
The groov appliance and kepserver would reside in the guest os. We have used NAT in the virtual “internal network” to link the guest Ethernet with the host Ethernet.
Would there be a reason Groov would not be able to help us support it in that configuration?