Logic Supply Releases New ThinManager Ready Thin Clients

Global industrial and IoT computer hardware manufacturer, Logic Supply (www.logicsupply.com), has updated their line of thin client computer hardware to include the latest generation of Intel® processors. 

These new systems allow Logic Supply thin client users to leverage the improved performance and multitasking capabilities provided by Intel’s latest Apollo Lake and Coffee Lake CPUs while lowering total cost of ownership with longer hardware life cycles.

For more information please visit the following links. [...]

Cybertrol Uses ThinManager to Centralize Management, Reduce Downtime of Large Facility

Cybertrol Engineering has used ThinManager across numerous sites ranging from installations of less than five clients to more than 50. When setting up plants with the best possible solution, ThinManager is the go-to solution for managing thin clients. Here is an example of a large-scale facility that has benefited from the use of centralized technologies and uses ThinManager managed clients every day.

One of our customers has a plant that has been around for over 20 years, and they have seen the evolution of technology on the factory floor—from Windows NT 4 workstations and NT 4 servers to highly available datacenters and 50+ thin clients. From its humble beginnings as a small meal replacement beverage manufacturing operation to what has morphed into one of the largest ice cream manufacturing operations in the nation, the growth pace has been nothing short of astounding. In the midst of this ever-changing operational climate, they’ve also had to manage the never-ending evolution of technology and its impact on their ways of working.

Early on, it was evident that the management of a large-scale facility with many HMI stations was no easy task. The amount of setup time required for each client and the downtime to replace a workstation failure are both labor intensive and costly.

With the advancement of technology, the plant floor went from having legacy computers that were difficult to manage and expensive to replace, to a highly available automation datacenter. Today, the datacenter consist of 6 physical servers that are running multiple virtual server platforms (i.e. domain controllers and related services, Terminal Servers, Web Servers, Database Servers, WMS Servers, Batching Servers, an MES style HMI platform, etc.) and over 50 HMI thin clients leveraging ThinManager. This new centralized architecture has future-proofed the plant and now allows for easy management, reduced maintenance, high availability and scalable deployment.

ThinManager, coupled with the use of thin clients on the shop floor, brings about true central management. With ThinManager and the current redundant Terminal Server solution, HMI availability is nearly 100%. A virtual PC failure usually means nothing more than a simple failover that isn’t even noticed by the end user. Managers have visibility and control of every thin client on the floor. This allows them to be more efficient and increase productivity by being able to troubleshoot problems as soon as they happen without having to travel across the plant.

One of the biggest benefits of ThinManager is also the hardware replacement time. By keeping spare thin clients on hand, the time to replace terminals equates to mere minutes instead of hours. The frequency of failed hardware has been significantly reduced as well due to the robust construction of the thin client devices. Also, making a configuration change is simple, quick, and can be done from a single location as opposed to visiting 50+ units on the shop floor. ThinManager enhances thin client innovation by simplifying the configuration, deployment, and management of every device.

To quote one of the controls engineers, “Without a doubt, ThinManager has made supporting the HMI workcenter portion of our operation much simpler. From direct time savings to reduced energy costs and greater reliability, ThinManager has proven to be an asset worthy of investment.”

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Dairy Farmers of America Reduces Downtime with Resilient Thin Client Tech

When you think of Dairy Farmers of America you probably think of milk. While you wouldn’t be wrong to have such a thought, milk processors do a lot more than you think with the raw milk that comes from the cow.

Dairy Farmers of America is a co-op owned by over 14,000 dairy farmers. With 2015 net sales over $13.8 billion you can see that dairy production is serious business. It’s more than milk though. This particular plant takes in over 160 trucks full of raw milk every day. The material skimmed from the raw milk is turned into milk powder that is used in all manner of food production.

ACP recently spoke with Dan Malyszko from Malisko Engineering about upgrades to the DFA skimming plant in Portales, NM. “One of the biggest issues was an obsolete HMI server and client infrastructure.  The Windows® XP client computers are now out of support and the server was at the end of its serviceable life.  This outdated infrastructure was prone to system crashes that either slowed production or stopped it completely,” Malyszko stated. “These folks need to skim milk, not have their profits skimmed from outdated computer systems.”

The plant had tried to modernize its computer network before by using commercial grade thin clients with embedded OSes. These clients were still hard to manage and they didn’t stand up well in the process intensive environment.  What’s more, the server side still required manual intervention to switch to backup HMI client servers in the event of a server crash. Downtime was still an issue.

Enter Malisko Engineering and an idea for a superior, fault-tolerant system that would not only reduce downtime, it would also make the whole system easier to manage.

Malisko Engineering is a Rockwell Automation Solution Partner and have had the chance to attend several Rockwell roadshows within the last couple of years. Recently a series of those roadshows focused on the benefits of server virtualization and application deployment to thin clients.

There were three main participants at these shows and their combined technology offered what Dan Malyszko considered to be the most “resilient” plant floor technology available. Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx Process Automation solution was front and center, but Stratus Technologies was showcasing their fault-tolerant server hardware and ACP was demonstrating their new ThinManager thin client management platform. Taking advantage of virtualization along with these three powerhouse solutions was something Malyszko was sure would meet and exceed the needs of the DFA plant in Portales.

“Uptime, continuous availability, and redundancy were my customer’s main concerns. The Stratus ftServer system made the server hardware redundant while ACP ThinManager offered thin client failover as well as server redundancy,” said Malyszko. “Add in fault-tolerant, scalable storage along with FactoryTalk View SE software redundancy, and this architecture is as bullet proof as you can make a modern industrial automation and control system. Having a solid infrastructure like this is a huge step in working towards the ‘connected enterprise’ that so many of our customers are striving for.”

The new ThinManager-Ready thin clients make a large part of the resilience of the system. These clients do not have an embedded OS. They boot over the network and can be replaced in under two minutes in case of a hardware failure. They are also very easy to manage from a central location because they do not require local configuration.

“Hours and perhaps days of downtime have been eliminated by removing the unsupported PCs and replacing them with ThinManager-Ready thin clients,” stated Eric Miller, Engineering Manager for DFA. “Hopefully other DFA plants around the country will be able to replicate our success. Getting rid of the old and bringing in the new has been the best technology decision we have made. Now we can focus on our process and stop wasting time with outdated computer systems.”

For more information please visit: https://malisko.com/


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Happy Manufacturing Day

Today, October 2nd, 2015, is Manufacturing Day. Manufacturing Day℠ is a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. This is an exciting opportunity as many manufacturers are opening their doors to the public today to offer tours and to show just how the manufacturing process works for them.

As a “tip of the cap” to all those in this great industry, we have put together a video about ThinManager in a sit down interview with ACP’s CEO, Matt Crandell, asking where it all started, and where it is going.  ThinManager is the global leader in thin client management and industrial mobility.  Without our partners and customers in the manufacturing industry, we simply would not be where we are today.

To download and try ThinManager free for 30 days, please click the link below.  Thank you to all that support us and the manufacturing industry.  Happy Manufacturing Day!

 

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Data Secure with ThinManager

Using ThinManager – Safety and Security

Data Security – not just a buzzword.  Today we know all too well that our data is important and keeping it secure and safe is often even more important.

This video focuses on the security and data safety in ThinManager.  ThinManager gives you complete control in your production environment over who sees what, where and when.  Secure data management has always been in the forefront when creating ThinManager. Our location-based resolvers create “Geo-Fences” for total security when integrating mobility in to your production environment.

 

 

The Factory of the future runs on ThinManager. Start a free trial of ThinManager today.

 

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MailBag Friday (#48)

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

I am trying to set up a Redundant Pair of ThinManager Servers. But I got an error stating “Synchronization failed” when I was finishing the process. Can I redo it again ? Where can I see the Synchronization status?

The Synchronization tab will show you your Synchronization Status. If you have Auto-Sync setup, ThinManager will automatically attempt to re-sync with it’s peer.  You also need to assign multiple terminal servers to a display client for fail over to work. Once the session is unreachable on the terminal server, the clients will failover.

Don’t forget to reboot the Terminal after you make the change. [...]

MailBag Friday (#47)

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

We are currently using ThinManager 3.1 with an older Advantech thin client that has failed and needs to be replaced.  It appears they offer a newer comparable model, and your web site lists it as being ThinManager Ready with the ACP BIOS preloaded.  Does that mean that we could replace the failed unit with the upgraded unit with no issue?  Would we have to specify anything or do the thin clients listed on your web site as ThinManager Ready automatically come with the ACP BIOS?

You would have to clear the MAC assignment from the Terminal within ThinManager. You should be prompted at the thin client to replace a Terminal or create a new one.  ThinManager Version 3.1 is no longer supported by ACP so we cannot say with certainty whether it would work with 3.1.

However, the units that are listed “ThinManager Ready” ship with the ACP BIOS.

-TM

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Monthly Integrator Spotlight

Using ThinManager to Drive a Cutting Edge Facility

 

Third Evolution Inc. 

For years, businesses and governments have been talking more and more about the environmental impact of modern industrial manufacturing processes and the costs associated with conventional energy sources such as coal and oil.  That combined with the projected increase in fossil fuel consumption in countries such as China and India has lead to a resurgence of new investment and research in the renewable energy commercialization sector.

Robert Maxfield, the Vice President and Control System Architect of Third Evolution, recently got to see just how cutting edge companies can be in this sector while deploying ThinManager in a new state of the art facility specializing in Biomethane capture and processing.  “Our client originally came to us wanting to implement a Citrix XenDesktop thin client architecture into one of their existing facilities.  Having worked with it before, I knew that ThinManager was much easier to deploy and operate as well as offering greater management capabilities, so I offered to show them proof of concept of our proposed architecture using Wonderware InTouch and ThinManager instead.  After seeing it in person, they were sold.”

After their initial upgrade, the customer sat down with Robert to design an even more advanced system for a new facility with a network architecture based on their recent facility upgrade.  Robert explained that they intended to push the envelope even further.    “Because they are such a cutting edge company, they wanted to create something ultra modern that would still allow them flexibility because as they continue to patent new technologies there will be a need to continue to fine tune their process.  They wanted a very clean Control Room with low power usage and heat output, as well as a desire to incorporate iPads instead of placing thin clients and additional network cables throughout the facility without sacrificing functionality of all the features ThinManager offers.  Essentially, they designed this facility around ThinManager.”

Robert started by designing a facility wide intranet using WPA2 security on a segmented Layer 3 Wi-Fi network.  By creating a separate VLAN and Subnet for the Wi-Fi and the control network and routing it to the ThinManager server, he ensured that if the network security was breached, the only thing that could be accessed would be ThinManager instead of the server controlling operations and data.  Then to implement the ThinManager iTMC app, he hard coded the SSID for the Wi-Fi network directly into the iPad, which would render the Wi-Fi network invisible to any other device inside or outside the facility.

After completing the wireless architecture, Robert and the team from Third Evolution turned their attention to the Control Room.  “We started with a basic ESX architecture using two VMware servers and one virtual server with Windows 2008R2 on each physical machine running redundant.  Then we have five 55” screens.  Three of them are on one Arista Box-240PC connected to one server using the ThinManager MultiMonitor feature, and the other two are connected to the backup ThinServer on a second Arista client,” Robert told us.  “We designed it so that if any one piece of hardware failed, they wouldn’t lose their screens.”

After tying the network together, Robert began layering in ThinManager features to customize the facility operations and increase functionality.  “We set up the Shadowing feature to make it easier to work remotely with the plant operators.  We have ThinManager set up at the corporate office that we can access via VPN and use that to shadow them at the plant.  If there is ever a problem, they can show us what they are doing, and we can provide accurate real time remote support.  We also layered in ThinManager AppLink and IP Camera Support to deliver the integrated camera dashboard for advanced controls as well as for delivery of their Wonderware InTouch HMI.”  By using AppLink he was able to set InTouch to deliver in full screen mode without having to configure each individual user with a separate batch file or security preferences.

The most impressive part of the Third Evolution architecture, however, was the integration of WinTMC and iTMC with the ThinManager installation at the facility and the corporate office.  “Anyone with security clearance at their headquarters or one of their 150 satellite sites can monitor the plant processes without using hardcoded security credentials, resolution settings, or even an RDP connection. We just gave them an icon on their PCs and iPads, and they have full monitoring capability right at their fingertips.  Even the President and Vice President of the company can use the app to connect via VPN and access the plant network from anywhere.”

After running for six months, Robert says the customer has not reported any problems with the system and that it is now part of the standard architecture for all of their facilities.  “I think the ease of integration when deploying ThinManager is wonderful.  Without the centralized management ThinManager delivers, we would have had to do a lot more work and had a system with less flexibility and security.”

We then asked him if he had any parting advice for other system integrators.  “If you are going to use ThinManager, utilize it to its fullest.  Don’t just use the bits and pieces you are comfortable with.  It is simple to understand and deploy, and you won’t have to edit or restructure any of the software.  We already have two more ThinManager deployments scheduled for this year, and we plan on introducing the end user to everything ThinManager has to offer.”

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To view our “Tips & Gems” video tutorials, visit our video links page here.

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here. [...]

MailBag Friday (#46)

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

How compatible is ThinManager with Virtual Workstations.  Can I use the WinTMC or iTMC features in a virtualized environment?

Presently Virtual Workstations are only supported on traditional thin client terminals. If you want a Terminal Server to be specifically configured as a Virtual Machine you have to use a thin client. You can specify the terminal server as a real, physical terminal server and it will work from either app.

-TM

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We are currently using the “drop down” selector for switching between sessions.  Our display clients are touchscreens (no keyboard/mouse), so the drop down is the only option that works consistently on the touchscreen.  The default location is the top of the screen in the center, but the top center location is not the most convenient.  Is it possible to change the location of the selector?

 

It is not possible to change the location of the selector. Instead try setting up tiling.

  • Assign multiple Display Clients to a single Terminal
  • Proceed through the Terminal Configuration Wizard until you get to the Terminal Interface Options Page and select: Enable Tiling
  • Go into Tiling Options and Check “Tile on right click (mouse or touchscreen)”
  • Go to the Modules Page for the terminal in question
  • Go into the properties for your Touchscreen Module
  • Change the “Right Click Hold Time (milliseconds)” Parameter from DISABLED to a numerical value listed in the Value dropdown.
  • Save your changes and reboot the Terminal.
  • [...]

    MailBag Friday (#45)

    Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

     

    We have a repeating video problem that started right after we upgraded to ThinManager 6.0.  We have an Advantech 3072 thin client, with one of the 6200 graphics cards fitted.  If we run the two displays at 1920 x 1080 we see 16bit color, but if the displays are spanned, then its dropping to 8bit.  Do you know if this is down to a lack of memory on the graphics card, or is it a limitation of ThinManager 6 ?

    Sounds like it is a known problem with Server 2003. There is a Microsoft patch for it at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942610

    -TM

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