Category: Latest News

We are happy to announce support for deploying the OAS Platform on Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB or 8GB of memory. With the FULL OAS Platform running on an these devices, possibilities are created for inexpensively scaling your operations. Now you can take advantage of such features as reliable on-site data logging in remote locations with limited power or connectivity. This new addition means that OAS can now be run on virtually any platform in any form factor including the following, with all platforms able to seamlessly share data:

• Windows PC/Server
• Windows Embedded
• Windows IoT
• Linux Server
• Virtual Machines (Win/Linux)
• Raspberry Pi 4
• Docker Containers (Win/Linux)

These systems can be networked together and share data creating endless network configuration possibilities. 

Now your Raspberry Pi 4 device can take full advantage of the OAS Platform, including:

• High speed data logging to open formats on MS SQL Server, Oracle, mySQL, SQL Azure, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, MariaDB, SQLite, InfluxDB, and CSV files
• Connectivity to Allen-Bradley, Siemens S7, Modbus, OPC UA devices and servers
• Connectivity to IoT cloud services such as AWS IoT and Azure IoT
• Built in high-speed MQTT Broker.
• Alarm logging and notifications via SMS, email and voice
• Host live and historical data for visualization HMIs or applications for .NET or Web environments
• Fully customizable via SDKs in .NET, Web, and any language using the built-in REST API
• Live Data Cloud networking and self hosting data servers.

If you are new to Raspberry Pi 4, it is an inexpensive (ranging in price from $55 to $75), mini, credit-card sized computer with the ability to output 4K video at 60 Hz or power dual monitors. Among other languages, it can be programmed using Python, Java, C and C++.  It is a full Linux computer with both ethernet and serial communications for connecting to external devices and its own set of I/O pins.

See Raspberry Pi 4 Specifications.

Here are just a few of the possibilities with OAS and Raspberry Pi:

• With the Raspberry Pi’s low equipment cost OEMS and systems integrators can build software and hardware solutions using OAS and deploy them out to their customers all in one small form factor.
• You could have thousands of Raspberry Pi devices out in the field all aggregating the data into a central OAS Engine or sharing data directly with each other.
• The Raspberry pi 4 can be used in areas with limited power or internet access. You could hook it up to an external solid state 2tb hard drive and use the OAS Data Historian to collect data on it without internet access for years.
• Deploy and run in remote locations with very low power usage powered by solar panels.
• Replace legacy Remote Terminal Units with open architecture OAS.
• Remote asset and personnel monitoring with on board data processing.

View the following video for easy to follow instructions to install OAS on a Raspberry Pi 4 device and see the Web HMI Dashboard hosted directly from the Raspberry Pi 4.

More:

Linux Installation

Raspberry Pi Installation

A comparison of logging Industry 4.0 data in an open format vs. a proprietary format

Logging industrial automation data in an open format provides users and automated systems the flexibility to utilize reporting tools, business analytics, and learning engines to harvest data with 100% transparency and accuracy.  An open format allows engineers to select the best tools to match the application requirements without being locked into proprietary systems to access their data.

Have you been locked out of data access due to proprietary formats and cumbersome development tools?

Open vs Proprietary

There are several features an open database format can support that are not achievable with a proprietary format.

Open Automation Software Solution

If you’d like to learn more or try the OAS Data Historian please submit the form below to receive a fully-functional trial of the OAS Platform today.

Using Docker to containerize an application is an efficient and secure way to make your configurations portable as well as scaleable. If you are not familiar with what Docker is or how it can used to encapsulate your application infrastructure, see the online reference, What is a Container? on the Docker.com site.

Unlike virtualization where a host operating system runs multiple copies of an entire guest operating system, containers run as self-contained and isolated applications on the host OS itself. Multiple instances of the application can be spun up and shut down using the minimum of system resources.

With the latest release of the OAS Platform, we now fully support the deployment of an OAS server within a Docker container on both Windows and Linux platforms with the ability to centrally manage container licenses either directly on the host or remotely from a client PC. Each instance of the OAS Platform in a container is the full OAS runtime with all product features available, which can be used to independently move data from PLCs or other IoT devices, databases, and applications to any destination.

The OAS Platform in each container also supports full programmatic configuration and visualization APIs (both Windows and Web UIs as well as REST API support), so custom applications can target one or more container instances. And container instances can be networked together with Live Data Cloud for data aggregation or even failover.

With this new release, OAS extends its ability to be the ideal IoT solution for industrial automation, IoT Edge solutions, and IoT Gateway implementations. See our article on Getting Started with OAS in Docker for more technical information and instructions on how to configure your Docker installation.

OAS expands platform compatibility again with runtime support for Linux

Many of our customers have mixed platform environments and have both Windows and Linux OS servers within their enterprise. We have also heard from several system integrators and automation specialists that they would like the ability to run OAS on a Linux server to expand their deployment options. This provides them with expanded possibilities for new solutions, potential cost savings that come with the use of commodity Linux devices, all while retaining the same interconnectivity and flexibility of the OAS Platform.

With the release of v14 of the OAS Platform, customers can now choose either Windows or Linux distributions and are free to mix and connect both platforms within the same solution architecture.

The Linux version of the OAS Platform is based on the .NET Core Framework technology which allows it to maintain virtually all features* available on the Windows version.
These include but are not limited to:

• All native drivers for Allen Bradley, Siemens, and Modbus devices
• Universal Driver Interface support
• Connectivity to AWS and Azure IOT Gateway
• High-speed data logging
• Recipe for using DBs as data sources
• Tag management
• Alarm Logging and Notification
• Real time and historical Trends
• REST API and web product integration
• Live Data Cloud and server-to-server networking
• Security 

*Currently, the Linux release does not support the Classic OPC Automation, Automated Reports, and Logging or Recipe integration with MS Access

The .NET Core Framework allows for runtime support on the following Linux Distributions:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux  7
• Fedora 29, 30
• Debian 9
• Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 18.10
• Linux Mint 17, 18
• openSUSE 15+
• SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES) 12 SP2+

Learn More

• Operating System Support
  Knowledge Base article covering all operating systems and versions supported by the OAS Platform
• Linux Installation
  Step-by-step instructions for installing the OAS Platform on Linux
• Wikipedia: .NET Core
  Wikipedia on .NET Core and related technologies

OAS expands platform compatibility

Open Automation Software has always been dedicated to moving data between any system in an open format. With the release of the Universal Driver Interface (UDI), OAS expanded integration possibilities by allowing custom communications drivers to be written by developers, and deployed to platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac, and even iOS and Android devices. This was all made possible by building the UDI on the .NET Standard Framework.

Now, OAS has released versions of our .NET Data Connector components built upon the .NET Standard. These two components can be used to read and write real time data, as well as automate OAS Platform configuration, and now can be added to applications deployed across platforms.

New applications can now be developed such as:

• HMIs and dashboards running on a Linux computer
• Server administration tools running on a handheld iOS or Android device
• Automated configuration and deployment tools that can be used on either Windows or Mac desktops

.NET Standard Architecture

.NET Standard components support development in .NET Core and full .NET Framework applications. This allows you to build either targeted platform solutions, or reusable libraries that can be deployed to any supported platform. All implementations of the .NET runtime support .NET Standard components, so you have the flexibility to choose your target platform.

The OAS Platform now ships with the two components needed to build your own .NET Standard based solutions:

• OASConfig.dll
  Used to automate all aspects of OAS Server configuration. Create and modify tag configurations, data logging, user and group security and more.
• OASData.dll
  Read and write both real time and historical data. This component can be used to build user interfaces or to integrate your systems, acting as new data sources.

Learn More

• Programmatic Interface Overview
  Knowledge Base reference for .NET Programmatic Interface
• Learn more about .NET Standard
  External Microsoft documentation on .NET Standard

The fastest OAS Platform yet!

The latest release of the OAS Platform is a major milestone in performance improvements over several features. You can take advantage of these dramatic speed boosts by simply updating your existing installations. Some of the highlights include:

• Improved data processing for write operations from client applications up to 200,000 writes per second
• Improved Data Route processing, with support for up to 200,000 Tags per operation
• Improved speed of data networking, now supporting up to 300,000 values per second
• Greatly improved Oracle Data Logging speeds through bulk copy
• PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQLite now support 1 millisecond data recording
• Major performance improvements for the MQTT Connector

New and Improved Features

In addition to the performance enhancements, OAS v12 also includes additional features and improvements to existing features.

• The .NET Data Connector has been updated to support .NET Standard 2.0, allowing client applications to be written to deploy to non-Windows platforms such as Linux, Android, iOS and more. This supports both real time data access as well as automated OAS Platform configuration
• MQTT has been added as a destination to Data Route, allowing for new classes of cloud integrations
• Services have been consolidated into the OAS Engine, including MQTT, AWS, Azure IoT, and the OAS REST API
• Database connectors including PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQLite, and Cassandra have also been consolidated into the OAS Engine
• Added high-precision Date and Time field support for Data Historian while maintaining backward compatibility with pervious versions of Oracle, MS SQL Server, and mySQL database engines
• Miscellaneous improvements such as HTML report generation in the Reports product
• Updated Automated Reports to the latest Active Reports 13
• Improved Modbus support

Database Benchmarks

With all of the new speed upgrades, we’ve also performed some new benchmark testing of the  Data Historian product to help you choose the best DB engine for your solution.

Read more about OAS Data Historian Performance Benchmarks >>

 

OAS and Edge Computing

So what is Edge Computing? See this previous article that covers the basics and describes the differences between Cloud Computing and Edge Computing. OAS is a true Edge Computing platform as it allows you to deploy instances of the OAS server close to the source of your data, and connecting it to other instances of OAS services on both local and wide area networks. With OAS you can even share or aggregate your data with OAS instances on the internet. How you choose to deploy OAS is up to you and your requirements.

By deploying an instance of OAS next to your data source, you can perform data logging, data transformations and calculations at the source, thereby distributing the load of the entire system and allowing each component to continue working in the face of network interruptions.

In a typical cloud based system, a controller will communicate and push data up to a cloud system for easy connectivity. However, there is a big flaw in this design as you don’t know if the control is communicating with the cloud unless safeguards like watch dogs and confirmations of delivery are written into the code. In these circumstances, data can be lost because the data is not resident at the source.

Benefits of Edge Computing over Cloud Computing include:

• Data accuracy and reliability
  An event may have occurred during communications information which affects the data accuracy. Cloud computing results in lost data. Edge Computing with OAS retains data at the source until it can be passed along.
• Reduced operating costs
  In a typical cloud system, customers (you) are charged for all data used on a monthly basis and if data is lost due to a network failure, you are still charged for that data. Compare this with OAS where data is distributed and are not charged for any data usage as it is hosted on your own hardware.
• Increased efficiency and flexibility
  In a cloud system, all data access is bottlenecked and distributed through a central cloud server. With OAS and Edge Computing, each data source or location can be configured as an independent point of processing or access. Local data can be used and managed without relying upon a remote connection. OAS also delivers data at very high speeds. Every single value that occurs from the data source is delivered – first in, first out – processing down to 100 nanoseconds.
• Security

  Open Automation Software communications is very light weight, it’s a binary communications system – compressed and encrypted so that it can’t be hacked for terrorist activity. Edge Computing also reduces single points of failure in your system, reducing inherent vulnerabilities in a central cloud solution.

Store and Forward

One of the key features of the OAS Platform is Store-and-Forward, which caches captured data at the data source and transmits it to other systems when network communications resume. Typically, cloud computing solutions cannot do this. If a system is dependent upon cloud storage and processing, data is lost when communications are interrupted.

Store-and-forward enables your solution to self-heal and your data remains intact. If the database engine or data source to data logging isn’t available, that data is buffered locally and written onto a hard disk.

UDI with Store and Forward

The OAS Universal Driver Interface is a natural extension of the OAS operating philosophy – moving data from anywhere to anywhere. The UDI allows developers to create custom communication drivers for ANY data source, whether it be a proprietary database, 3rd party API, previously unsupported devices, file systems, or literally anything that can generate data. The UDI architecture also allows you to deploy a driver on any system, including Windows, Mac, Linux and even Raspberry Pi devices without requiring a full OAS Platform installation at the data source. And the UDI fully supports the Store-and-Forward capabilities of OAS.

This means you can create a simple driver that behaves just like a built-in OAS device driver with all of the Edge Computing benefits built in!

Would you like to learn more?

See the following resources for more information on Edge Computing, The Universal Driver Interface, OAS Data Historian, and more:

• OAS IoT Networking
• Edge Computing vs. Cloud Computing
• Universal Driver Interface Overview
• Universal Driver Technical Overview
• Download a FREE Demo of the OAS Platform

Automated Set-Up & Deployment

What if you could connect and read data from any device (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS) from anywhere in the world? What if you could spin up a device and it could automatically set up data points and start transmitting data as soon as it came online?

With Open Automation Software (OAS) Universal Driver Interface SDK, or UDI you can build a custom driver that automates configuration on startup. Once created, the driver can be deployed to multiple systems with no additional coding, simplifying new installations and dramatically reducing the cost of scaling your operations. The UDI also opens up new connectivity options by making it possible to connect to any other data source, device, or external API.  

Eliminate human error, capture all your data and save time by automating processes previously manually entered across your enterprise.

The Open Automation Software Platform is already incredibly cost effective and flexible with unlimited connections and a decentralized network. While the platform supports MOST Data Sources and Endpoints, it does not support all….until now with the integration of the Universal Driver Interface.  

Introducing The Universal Driver Interface SDK (UDI)

The OAS Platform has always been highly configurable and supported automated configuration through the use of the .NET Connector. But OAS has embraced the auto set up even further with the introduction of the Universal Driver Interface SDK. The UDI allows you to create communication drivers between devices, data, and APIs to integrate with the Open Automation Software IIoT Framework.

The Universal Driver Interface is also designed for cross-platform communications, it can be run remotely on different operating systems (PC’s – Linux, Mac OS, Android, iOS, even Raspberry Pi).

Simply run the Universal Driver Interface and it can automatically set itself up with the data model and individual data points you defined within the driver.  The set-up of the communication points between different machinery is then automated.

How Does It Work?

In a typical platform communication, Open Automation Software communicates with controllers in a manufacturing plant, e.g .Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus and OPC servers and Clients.

This is all done on a Windows Server PC. Below, you can see a typical platform working on a windows server as well as other cloud-based technology communications.

The above diagram illustrates the existing Open Automation Software platform without the new driver interface.  Each OAS Platform installation communicates with data sources and destinations using built-in drivers. Once data is within the OAS Platform, it can be shared with other instances of OAS over wide or local networks.

By implementing a driver using the UDI SDK, you can now open up many more opportunities to connect between devices, data, and APIs. A UDI implementation bridges the gap between previously unsupported or proprietary data sources and the OAS Platform.

Some of the advantages of the Universal Driver Interface are:

• flexible networking
• remote connectivity
• support for multiple operating systems
• one-click deployment
• no touch, automated set up
• one-click data logging
• speed – develop the code, run it and it’s done
• scalability – auto set up of multiple data points across manufacturing plants and remote locations eradicating human error and is far more time efficient.

Universal Driver Interface Set-Up

The Universal Driver Interface is built upon the .NET Standard 2.0 Framework, allowing it to be deployed and run on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and even Raspberry Pi platforms.  (See all supported platforms)

It’s simple to implement into your existing Open Automation Software platform.  The online working code examples are installed with the software.

Your Developer can then use the custom code supplied in VB.Net or C# to create your own custom communication drivers, data models and have those data points automatically set themselves up in the OAS Platform. Within the same code set, Developers can add default properties for the new set up to occur. 

Your Developer can define your own data model, names, data types and parameters. Those Tags can then auto set up in the Open Automation Software server to begin the communication process. Then, when a user starts their device, it will automatically add a driver interface with a specific set of values across all data points.

How do you currently enter data into your Open Automation Software platform?

If it is plant-by-plant or process-by-process through manual entry, there is room for human error as well as inaccurate data being introduced into your systems.

With automated entry, you do take some time to figure out what you want the code to do, but it is well worth the effort. Auto setup eliminates human error by 100% based on the code routines and saves a lot of time since incremental deployments require minimal effort.

Driver set-up

Within the Open Automation Software, you can specify driver types and specific properties of the driver interface as well as manually set up Tags and other features. While the manual process works, it is not as effective or efficient, especially if you have many points of data to enter. Instead of multiple manual entry points, you can run the Universal Driver Interface which automatically tells the Open Automation Software its data model for the driver and data points and automatically adds them to the programming.

The Universal Driver Interface has been designed for cross platform communication. In other words, it allows you even greater flexibility to create your own basic code to communicate with the Open Automation Software platform and run on different operating systems. The Universal Driver Interface has a flexible networking and operating system to define your data models integrating them into the Open Automation Software platform.

Related articles/further reading:

• Universal Driver Interface Product Overview
• UDI Technical Overview
• UDI Platform Support

What’s not to like about Cloud based IoT Platforms?

Nothing, if you are comfortable with relying on other services and infrastructure to manage, maintain and secure your data. If lost or missing data is OK, if someone misses a notification of a song download or about a new product release, or maybe even if you are low on milk. But if you rely on up-to-date real-time data for critical decisions, then current cloud-based IoT platforms may not be the best choice.  When seconds count, are you sure of your IoT infrastructure provider?

A few of the major questions or concerns with the current cloud-based IoT platforms are:

1. Connectivity. How do I get my data from my devices to the Cloud based IoT environment? A lot of industrial devices do not support IoT protocols. Do I have to replace all of these devices that I have invested in just to get my data to Cloud? What if my data source is a spread sheet, a database or an existing application? What if I want to perform calculations on the data prior to transmission?
2. IoT Protocol. There are more than a few. Which do I choose? Since it will be a large investment, what happens in a few years if there is a new protocol required by my IoT provider? Will the old protocol still work or will I have to reinvest in converting all my devices to the new protocol. If I decide to switch to a different cloud-based IoT provider, will my existing devices / system still work?
3. Security. Is my data going to be secure from hackers, and who is controlling my data? What 3^rd party partners will have access? Is SSL secure? How about TLS? Which one will work with my IoT Provider? How do I manage the certificates required by my cloud-based IoT provider? How secure are the cloud-based servers? The major players in the IoT arena are a prime target for hacking because of the wealth of data available and the visibility of their servers and infrastructure, so a single breach could expose thousands of customers including you.
4. Reliability. What happens when the Internet connection or the cloud-based servers go down? Will my organization be blind for decision making? What happens when my cloud based IoT provider is under a DDOS attack? Will I be losing data that can’t get transferred to the cloud?
5. Pricing. What happens if my provider decides to raise its subscription price or worse yet decides to get out of the IoT market? For the big players, IoT is just a side business.
6. Tools. What tools can I use to access, display, analyze, and store my data? Only the tools provided by my subscription?

What if there existed a platform that provides you all of the advantages of connecting not only to IoT specific devices and platforms, but literally 10s of thousands of existing real time and legacy devices? What if this platform could rapidly, securely and cost-effectively transfer millions of data points per second and insure that you have all of the data maintained even when the communications between the source and destination is down, while providing N levels of redundancy?  And better yet, what if it didn’t rely on 3^rd parties services to handle and disseminate your data, allowing the platform to be completely managed by your own IT department or hosted in the cloud? What about a platform that offered interfaces to SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL database and the ability to generate real-time and historical applications based on .Net, HTML, JS, and iPhone and Android OS?

Open Automation Software Solution

OAS has been satisfying all of these requirements for decades and is in use in a number global fortune 100 companies, military and nuclear applications and as small as single site locations. For Reliable data transmission, Saving historical data, Analysis, Big Data, Dashboards, Reporting, Data Analysis,  Trending, Alarm and Events, Alarm Notification, SCADA/HMI, OEE and many more.

OAS is based on DNA (Distributed Network Architecture)

Connectivity:

Built in protocols for major brands of Industrial PLCs and devices.

• Allen Bradley, Siemens, Modbus and more.
• OPC UA, DA, AE
• MQTT, AMQP
• MS Excel
• SCADA / HMI applications
• Databases
• .Net or Web Applications, REST and others

What Protocol to choose for my devices:

No need to decide on what protocol to use or if you have to convert all your devices. OAS supports all of the major device protocols and if your device is not supported OAS has a universal driver interface.

Security:

• With OAS only you control your data. OAS also provides built in user security to N levels.
• OAS uses secure compressed and encrypted protocol, accepted by not only the nuclear industry but also the US military.
• You can host OAS on your own servers or on any cloud base service provider of your choice.
• You can also have multiple servers in different locations or by different providers. Providing N levels of redundancy.
• Need secure one way communications (Data Diode) OAS has that covered too.

Reliability:

OAS does not assume a consistent connection. In fact a lot of our customers choose OAS for their data transmission for this reason specifically. For instance if you are logging data to a remote database using OAS and the network connection is lost all data is buffered at the source. Not just for minutes but for days or months. Once the connection is restored, the buffered data is automatically transferred to the remote database. OAS can also move data to multiple destinations through multiple networks simultaneously.  Redundancy is easy using OAS.

IoT Service providers:

With OAS you own the software. No worries about prices going up or Cloud based IoT service providers leaving you high and dry.

Tools:

With the OAS Platform you have open and easy access to your data using a variety of software and development tools.

• Easily log and retrieve data with Microsoft SQL, SQL Express, Access, Oracle or MySQL.
• Easily create interactive applications using VB.Net or C# in Visual Studio with live or historical data. Applications that run securely over the LAN, WAN or internet.
• Easily create secure Web applications using HTML and/or JS to interact with Live or historical data. Web applications that are not dependent on a specific browser or development platform so you can view and interact with the web application from a verity of different platforms such as iPhone and Android devices.
• Interact with live and historical data with OAS REST interface.
• Interface with existing software applications through Web Services, APIs or Databases.
• Read and write data to existing SCADA/HMI application via APIs, OPC Client or Server.
• Read and Write data to Excel Spread sheets.
• No per seat licensing. (Unlimited Client Applications)
• Programmatically read and write live or historical data using VB.Net C# or JS.
• Programmatically configure OAS for rapid deployment of your system changes, updates and features
• Create business or analytical application to interact with live or historical data.
• Add Live and historical data to your existing applications
• Trend live or historical data in desktop or web applications.
• Create native IOS or Android applications using OAS .NET Core Components and Xamarin.
• View, acknowledge, log and preform notifications (Email, SMS or Voice) on any alarm or event
• Automatically generate reports based on events or time and automatically email the report to any number of recipients.

Buzzword or not, Big Data is not a passing fad or something that businesses can ignore.

At first glance the Big Data concept seems self-explanatory. Big Data, as the name suggests, is surely all about very large quantities of data.

Big Data certainly involves vast quantities of data, usually in the region of petabytes and exabytes. But the size of the data set is just one facet of Big Data.

Characteristics of Big Data

In 2001 Douglas Laney began the process of defining the emerging concept of Big Data. He did so by identifying three defining characteristics of Big Data:

• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety
• Veracity*

*Laney originally posited 3 characteristics but over time other ‘Vs’ have been added. Here we include the extra characteristic of Veracity

Like to know how OAS meets your Big Data needs? Give it a try today!