Connecting Kepserver Enterprise to MII

[Former Member]

Hi All,

There had been threads running about UDS but i have a specific question

May be got confused somewhere

Scenario is

We have Kepserver Enterprise server software. This program is what reads the data from the PLC and makes it available to other systems. On our end we would need an OPC Client that would read the data from this server following a specific structure

we have OPC Client software too

My Question is : 1)shall we install this OPC client where xMII is installed

2) is OPC UDS available with MII or we need to download or install separately

3) can Kepserver be connected directly to MII without OPC(with assumption OPC is with MII)

Does the above scenario requires

PLC -- KEP - OPC--- MII OR

PLC--KEP--MII

Please suggest

Thanks

Namita

[former_member202228 · Accepted solution]

Hello there,

We use currently Kepware EX ver. 4.500.462.0-U linked to the MII 12 for a series of applications. Here are some thoughts:

0. Your chain looks like: MII - UDS - KEP - PLC (from top to bottom), see the installation steps below:

1. Install Kepware on a 32 bit machine (virtual or not). Usually the Netweaver machine (MII host) uses 64bit operating systems and Kepware has issues in this kind of environment. Make sure it reads/writes data from the PLCs using the integrated OPC QuickClient. No need to pay for anything more than the right driver to connect to your PLC (~750 USD for one PLC driver).

2. On the same machine with Kepware, install MII OPC-DA UDS version 4.0 (downloadable from SAP Marketplace at no cost). At this moment we're running 4.0.3.20 which is working fine.

3. Define as many UDS servers you require, keeping in mind that at a certain point you either read or write data to Kepware from one applet only. If you need to read/write simultaneously, you need to do this through different connections, hence multiple servers are required. Each server has it's own communication port, make sure they are unique ..

4. Define & name the data servers in MII, pointing each newly defined MII server to one UDS server defined previously. You can set them up using the ip address of the 32bit machine where you installed the UDS & Kepware. If they're in a domain, you can use windows names. Then test connectivity.

NOTE: when defining the servers in the UDS, select "Cache Mode" = "Alias with Dynamic Metadata". Then click the Alias button and define your alias (list of tags, limits .. etc). It'll help lowering the bandwidth usage ..

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul, I'm new with MII and now I'm trying to enable the comunication between MII12.2 and MII-UDS4.0. I have a simple question. What "Connector Type" should I use in order to create the "Data Server" in MII12.2?

Regards

[Former Member]

Namitha,

For your 1st query :

Yes you can install MII and OPC client in one machine. But it is not a best practice to use.

For your 2nd query :

UDS is available in SAP Market Place .You need to just download and install.

For your 3rd query :

OPC client is not required.Any OPC enabled server can be connected to MII.

Kepserver be connected directly to MII through UDS 3.0 and 4.0 locally or remotely.

But always it is recomended that we should not directly connect to OPC server because it may possible that may effect current automated process. I have faced this kind of problems in my experiance in real scenarios.

OPC client can be a best practice.

Hope this helps you.

-Suresh Hiremath

Edited by: Suresh Hiremath on Jun 11, 2009 11:34 AM

[Former Member]

Thanks Suresh,

You are saying kepserver is OPC enabled?

if it is not then first i need to install OPC server

for installing OPC server i need some vendor?Right

then after having OPC server i can connect MII to it through UDS but it is not good practice to directly have MII connected to OPC server so we need OPC client too

OPC client ? can it be also downloaded from service market place or we need vendor for it too

i am actually not clear what is available on service market place and what needs to be bought

and what all servers client would be required in whole scenario

then what is OPCUDS . To talk to OPC we need OPC specific UDS that is OPC UDS?

Please suggest

Thanks

Namita

[Former Member]

Namitha,

Kepserver itself is a OPC server.There is no need for other OPC server.

Kepserver demo licence is available [Here|www.kepware.com/Products/products_download.asp].

Because it is OPC enabled, you can directly connect to it using UDS.

UDS is easily available in SAP Market Place.

There is nothing like OPC specific UDS.

While creating uds instance, select the OPC option in dropdown and configure with your Kepserver and save it.

Kepware is having its own OPC Client software,it is coming along with OPC Server setup.

-Suresh Hirmath

Edited by: Suresh Hiremath on Jun 11, 2009 12:04 PM