Several systems on one RNRP Network Area
One of our clients has an 800xA production system, a test system and a development system, all with their own Aspect- and Connectivity servers, clients and so on. All these systems are connected to the same network.
Now I've seen that all these systems also use the same RNRP Network Area. They say the advantage is that they can simply connect an Engineering client to one of the systems without changing the network area in RNRP.
But can there also be disadvantages with this solution like network stability problems or other things?
In my opinion it is better to have an unique RNRP Network Area for every System, so 1 RNRP Network Area for Production, 1 RNRP network area for test and 1 RNRP network Area for development. But I can not find a manual which says I am true. Can anyone tell me where I can find more information about this?
Voted best answer
There is nothing technical preventing multiple systems on the same network.
I also believe you will get a unique answer from each person you ask the same question. Here are my two cents:
PROS:
- Easy sharing of network resources (domain, clock sync, network storage, etc)
- Easy transfer of data across systems (AC800 MMS traffic, Remote Desktop, etc.)
CONS:
- A mistake made in one system may propagate to others, e.g. IP address conflict
- A network storm or loop may affect an entire factory than just one area of it.
- Security (an attacker may target a complete factory instead if just one process area)
- RNRP Monitor will display all nodes, not just nodes from own system
I would rather support two production systems sharing network than one production system and one test system.
Activities like IP address change, download or delete of application in controller, etc are more frequent in a test system. Hence, to protect the production environment - testing should be made on an isolated network segment.
/Stefan
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