The ArchestrAnaut

I just checked the referring searches list & found that someone was looking for how to get an array’s length in IAS.  Well,  here’s my 5 minutes worth of notes on arrays.  All IAS arrays are one based (indexes start at one).  You can refer to a single index (VariableName[#]) or the entire array (VariableName[]).  I’m breaking the rest of the information down into two parts: UDA arrays & local script variable arrays.

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Seeing all the activity at VMWorld via the Twittersphere got me to thinking about some current technologies and how what we do in the “Galaxy” might carry over.

Then it hit me, Archestra is a lot like the famed “Cloud”.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not speaking of the Cloud in a condescending manner.  I think the technologies that make up the collective Cloud are set to transform the way we do work on a scale similar to the integration of the Internet into our daily work flow.  Answer this question honestly… do you feel stranded now when you have to work on your computer without an Internet connection… kinda like leaving the house to drive more than 5 miles away without a cell phone.  Oh the horror.  What will I do if I don’t see that email 1 minute after it’s sent.  I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think that a handful of years in the future we won’t be installing local applications for editing and composition.  Note that I am intentionally leaving out runtime applications as I think that’s a tougher sell to move off site.

Anyway, back to my original thought, how is Archestra like the Cloud and what can we learn from these similarities?

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As many of you may have known, there was an issue with the alarm logger running as a service under any of the Windows Vista style OS’s.  You can reference Tech Note 725 for the details.

I exchanged a few emails with John Krajewski, the Product Manager for HMI/SCADA, and he has informed me that a fix for this issue will be released with the next patch, due out some time this Spring.  He also indicated that they are working on a longer term fix for the issue of having to run a separate component to log alarms.  In my discussions with him I told him I wanted a configuration in IAS like we have for the Historian.  We check a couple check boxes and go about our merry way.  I know underneath it might be some separate sub process but in terms of management and interface it’s simplified drastically.  No timeline on this one but I for one will be really excited to see it.

In part 1, I covered a simple example on setting up security in IAS.  We often run across scenarios where System Platform security either doesn’t work quite like we want (second person verification) or can’t do what we want (supervisor verification).  The goal for part 2 is to outline the existing holes and to cover some of the tips & tricks we’ve got for applying security above and beyond the system’s existing capabilities.

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Before I get into ways to cover some of the gaps in IAS’s security scheme, I wanted to briefly go over how to implement domain-based security in IAS & InTouch.  To be fair, you can get most of this from the help manual, but I’m going to try to explain it with an example.

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I’ve been working on something today to log custom warning or error messages to the SMC from an IAS script.  I did a little sniffing around with Red Gate’s .Net Reflector and found an existing DLL with the ArchestrA.Diagnostics namespace in it.  It has a class with some static calls to log messages to the SMC.

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I have felt for the longest time that one of the biggest problems holding back Archestra was Wonderware’s inability to communicate what exactly it did and how it benefited the system integrator and end-user.  This article by Steve Garbrecht from Invensys does a wonderful job summarizing the “big idea” and true value proposition behind Archestra technology.

http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=Current_Issue&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=83571

Enjoy,

Andy

Most of our IAS systems have a lot of vendor provided pieces of equipment (aka skids).  Those skids usually have their own PLC and HMI.  The HMI’s usually have some function to login and they apply security based on the users group or security level.  Most of them have common or shared accounts that everybody knows the password for (even the disgruntled guy you just fired).

The other way that shows up a lot is having individual user account & privileges being role based.  If you have 15 users and 30 skids, that becomes a management nightmare trying to disable users, remember passwords, etc.  You could draw the same corollary to a bunch of Windows PCs’.  Security would be much easier to manage from a single location.  Our IAS system are always built on top of a Windows ActiveDirectory (AD) Domain.  This at least simplifies all of the SCADA security to be managed in one place:  the domain controller (DC).  Wouldn’t it be nice to use that to manage the skids too?

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Andy & I just uncovered a subtlety with using input only extensions this morning.  Once you stop & think about it, it makes sense, but it isn’t something you would necessarily realize in everyday coding.

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IAS is as flexible as or more flexible than any other platform out on the market in terms of the breadth of programming possibilities. The concept of inheritance makes it possible to make changes at a template level and all of its children (templates & instances) will be changed too. Equally as powerful is IAS’s inclusion of .NET in their QuickScript language.

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