System Administration: always up to date
Central, clear and efficient: system inventory, license management and administration
For optimum interaction of all system components, it is important to know the version status of the installed hardware and software. As the service life of the plants increases, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of the current software and hardware status. Convenient tools and services are available for the life cycle management of your SIMATIC PCS 7 plants. With these you can inventory your plant, manage your licenses and keep the software of your plant continuously up to date over the entire life cycle.
Overall view across all levels of your SIMATIC PCS 7 plants
Your instrumentation and control system comprises a large number of heterogeneous components. It is also subject to a dynamic change process through updates and upgrades as well as modernization and expansion. As the service life of the plants increases, it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of the current status of hardware and software. This is where the SIMATIC Management Console (SMMC) comes in: It helps you to minimize the administrative effort for your SIMATIC PCS 7 plants and to have the current status of the installed hardware and software components immediately available at the push of a button. We support you with inventory, planning & compatibility, management and installation (roll out) so that the plants can easily be kept up to date for the future.The SMMC shows the current status of all installed hardware and software components. The system inventory covers all levels of your SIMATIC PCS 7 plants: plant management level, control level and field level. All SIMATIC PCS 7 system components on these levels are recorded, e.g. SIMATIC PCS 7 workstations, Industrial Ethernet Switches, automation systems (controllers), remote I/Os, links, field devices, drives, etc.
Two highlights of the SIMATIC PCS 7 system inventory:
- Central recording of inventory data by reading from the database of the SIMATIC PCS 7 Engineering System or directly from the component
- Creation of an inventory report in Excel format: Creation of a license certificate in the form of a list of installed and actually used software licenses.
With the compatibility tool, Industry Online Support provides a function with which you can compile a compatible selection of software products or check existing configurations for compatibility. The compatibility statements for automation and drive technology can be found in the compatibility tool of the Industry Online Support.
It is intended to assist you with questions regarding the compatibility of different hardware and software products. The stored data basis is constantly maintained and extended. In addition, you can download the compatibility lists of the individual product lines as Excel files centrally in the tool. Further information and links to the compatibility tool can be found here.
The continuous further development of the SIMATIC software ensures the integration of all automation components at the latest state of the art. By choosing the right license, you will benefit optimally. Modern automation solutions have to master a multitude of challenges. This requires powerful software that is as efficient, flexible and secure as possible - and remains so. By choosing the most suitable license for your individual application, you can keep your software up to date cost-efficiently.
The SMMC supports you with new installations, updates and service packs of SIMATIC PCS 7 software components. Software administration with a central management console is more efficient than with a local PCS 7 installation. Different installation processes can thus be started centrally and run in parallel. Thanks to upstream safety mechanisms, unintentional impairments of operation are prevented. The SIMATIC PCS 7 Management Console communicates encrypted with the individual components and is based on Windows security mechanisms, such as user administration with different users and coordinated access rights.
