Deployment Guide

Driver Architecture

Dedicated Redundant IPFusion Data Servers

Dedicated data servers are used to host the IPFusion drivers. These can be hosted on physical servers, or virtually. See recommended hardware specifications - IPFusionSystemRequirements.pdf. It is recommended to use two servers, one as the primary and the other as the backup, but this model can be scaled as required. Data servers should be dedicated to IPFusion drivers and software; avoid using them for other software or services.

This deployment architecture is recommended for medium and large deployments with many IPFusion workstations. It provides the most flexibility and reduces communication load on third-party systems.

Table 1.
Pros Cons

  • Limits the number of connections to third-party systems to reduce the communication load on the third-party system. This is an important consideration when working with third-party systems that require connection licenses.

  • Data Server Redundancy can be scaled as much as needed.

  • Distributes computing load to multiple workstations/servers reducing load on individual workstations.

  • Provides a single connection point for third-party systems that only accept one connection. (e.g. serial connection).

  • Easier to maintain with fewer services to manage during updates and reduced impact to workstation operators.

  • This creates a single point of failure for an active system. Many workstations will be connected to the same data server. If that server goes offline, all workstations connected to that data server will be impacted. Workstations will failover to the secondary data server, but there will be a temporary impact to operation.

  • Increased hardware costs as additional compute resources and Operating System licenses are required for data servers.

  • Communication between third-party systems and IPFusion may be impacted by the network as there are extra points in the communication path.

Independent IPFusion Workstations

Each individual IPFusion workstation will locally host the drivers. Redundancy can be set up between the workstations so that there is no single point of failure anywhere in the IPFusion deployment.

This deployment architecture is recommended for small sites with fewer IPFusion workstations. In this model, each third-party system will need to provide bi-directional communication to each workstation. Often, third-party systems, such as PLCs, provide a limited number of concurrent connections.

Table 2.
Pros Cons

  • Each workstation is completely self-sufficient; it does not rely on any other computers/workstations to be operational.

  • Any one workstation going offline will have no effect on any of the other workstations.

  • More cost-effective, as data server hardware will not be required.

Creates many connections to third-party systems, which increases communication load on the third-party system. This is an important consideration when working with third-party systems that are limited in client connections.

Maintenance Workstation

Regardless of the architecture chosen it is highly recommended to make use of a maintenance workstation. This should be a computer on the network that is not being used by operators and not running Runtime. This computer should have Designer, debug tools, Access and Identity Management, and any other tools needed for maintaining your IPFusion project. This computer will be used as a publication server, allowing you to make changes to the project and push updates remotely to other workstations with minimal disruption to operators. This computer can also be used for collecting logs and debugging any issues without interruption to the operators.

Audit Trailing and Reporting

Typically, a dedicated server (physical or virtual) is recommended for audit trailing and reporting; however, the audit trailing software can be installed on any computer as long as it is reachable by IPFusion workstations on the network.

In smaller sites, the maintenance computer can also be used for audit trailing and reporting purposes. Microsoft SQL Server and IPFusion audit trailing software can be installed on the maintenance workstation and used as the logging server for all workstations. The reporting tool can be installed on the maintenance workstation which allows investigators to review incident logs from a workstation that will not interrupt operators.

Audit trailing supports a secondary logging server which can be used on sites where full redundancy of audit trailing data is required. SQL Database mirroring is another option where redundancy of audit trailing is required.