Multiple Kepware or OPC Aggregators in one Instance

[pshashipreetham]

There is an Major Disadvantage of the KepServerEX or OPC Aggregators is that, they can only connect to single Industrial Connection of Thingworx. Let's Say there are 3 environments (Dev, QA, PROD). As of now, using three VM's to Connect to each Single Env from KepServerEX.

Isn't a way where all three KepServerEX can be run on the same VM such that VM cost can be Cut ?

@paic @c_lowy @slangley @CarlesColl @VladimirN @AnnaAn 

Thanks
Shashi.

[egriffin]

We currently have an enhancement request in our product queue for this kind of functionality; however it's not prioritized for active development at this time.  If you have further details about your use-case, as well as your Kepware / ThingWorx footprint, we'd be more than happy to discuss further details with you.  Please send to kep-product.management@kepware.com at your convenience!

Thank you!

[pshashipreetham]

Hi @egriffin ,

This is a biggest concerns for our clients since they are deploying Site-based solutions, so setting up a VM/windows Server for each Site is a high cost (KepServerEX License and Windows Server Cost), and KepServreEx can Only connect to one instance, that means I can connect one KepServerEx to one SiteSite only (One IP Address Only)

is there any solution for this pain point ?

Thanks,

[geva]

Hi @pshashipreetham ,  

A few ideas for you:

• You do not need a Windows Server license to run Kepware... take a normal Windows license and you'll save a lot of money
• Use a virtualisation server like vSphere ESXi or Hyper-V in order to have a single computer hosting many Windows VMs upon which you install OPC Aggregator
• Configure tags and PLC connections in a single Kepware instance (master data source)
• Use OPC Aggregator instances to connect to the master Kepware using OPC UA and connect back AlwaysOn to your various ThingWorx environments

Cheers, Greg

[danmorin]

Hi @pshashipreetham 

Here is my idea to solve your problem

You can use ThingWorx Kepware Edge so that you can use the docker container to install the kepware in one VM instance, kindly find the installation procedure on the file attached below page 148.

I am not sure whether your needed driver is supported on this TKE. If it is not supported then you can install KEPServerEX on the Windows VM and then install TKE on the docker within the same VM. Set up the KEPServerEX to act as the OPC UA server and then use all 3 TKE as the OPC UA servers. You can point all 3 TKEs to different ThingWorx instances.

I hope this helps you

Thanks!

[danmorin]

@pshashipreetham please mark this as a solution if this helps you, and please let me know if you have any concerns.

Something need to be revised from above reply statement

*3 TKE will act as OPC UA clients not servers

Thanks

[wcui · Accepted solution]

@pshashipreetham  please check workarounds in this article. https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs293840

For your purpose to save VM cost, the second workaround of ThingWorx Federation functionality might help because it use only 1 kepware. In ThingWorx, a federation can be used to obtain other Thing's services and properties. So you can share property value from the TW instance which connect to kepware to other TW instances. Here is HelpCenter of TW Federation.

https://support.ptc.com/help/thingworx/platform/r9/en/#page/ThingWorx/Help/Composer/Federation/Federation.html

Note that the 3rd workaround is not available because TW Agent is already deprecated by latest Kewpare.