Hardware requirements

Various hardware configurations for WinCC OA - client, server, large-scale systems, remote workstations and minimum - hardware requirements

Hardware requirements depend considerably on the size and dynamics of the projects to be implemented. A large number of statistical data point functions (compression of readings, A/C) negatively impacts start-up time and capacity and should be taken into account. The role of the respective computer (for example, UI client only), the number of managers running, the number of managers linked (for example, user interfaces), and possibly any external software running have a decisive effect on hardware requirements. In general will a high capacity of memory and CPU power improve the overall performance of the WinCC OA projects.

CAUTION:

Hard disk size figures refer to the WinCC OA installation only and the space required to start a minimum project (without going into Emergency mode). For larger projects, recording history data, alert archives, log files and others, you will need to calculate more storage capacity.

Note:

The size of the swap file (this is a hidden file used under Windows to store the program components and data files that were swapped out because of too low working memory) should be one or two times the size of the working memory (RAM) and should not be "floating". A similar size should be used for the /swap partition of a Linux system.

Depending on the planned usage, WinCC OA supports a wide range of input devices, for example mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, trackball and others.

For controlling a development system (image creation, scripting, configuration, etc.) it is highly recommended to use a mouse (with at least 2 buttons) and a standard keyboard.

Minimum Hardware Recommendations

The recommendations below describe the minimum hardware configuration that is required for WinCC OA in specific use cases. These use cases are:

Note:

A personal computer with x86_64 architecture is required!

Additional information that should be considered for planning your WinCC OA system:

Minimum Recommendation ( WinCC OA General)

Hardware component Specifications
Processor Intel Core i5 2,3 GHz or equivalent
RAM 8 GB RAM
Hard disk SSD/HDD with 5 GB free*
Graphics Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Network adapter 10/100 MBit/s
USB interface For the licensing of WinCC OA with a hardware dongle a free USB port is required

Minimum Recommendation - Development System

Hardware component Specifications
Processor Intel Core i7 / Xeon with 3 GHz or equivalent
RAM 32 GB RAM
Hard disk SSD/HDD with 5 GB free
Graphics Resolution: 1280 x 1024
3-button mouse A 3 button mouse is required for specific operations within the WinCC OA trend. See Trend widget and Trend functionality for further information.
Network adapter 10/100 MBit/s
USB interface For the licensing of WinCC OA with a hardware dongle a free USB port is required

Minimum Recommendation - Small Server

Hardware component Specifications
Processor Intel i7 / Xeon with 3 GHz or equivalent
RAM 32 GB RAM
Hard disk SSD/HDD with 10 GB free*
Graphics Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Network adapter 1 GBit/s
USB interface For the licensing of WinCC OA with a hardware dongle a free USB port is required
UPS Uninterruptible power supply (important for databases)

*... depending on the archive configuration

Minimum Recommendation - Large Scale System Server

Hardware component Specifications
Processor Intel i9 / Xeon Quad Core with 5 GHz or equivalent
RAM 128 GB RAM
Hard disk SSD/HDD with 10 GB free*
Graphics Resolution: 1280x1024
Network adapter 2x 1GBit/s
USB interface For the licensing of WinCC OA with a hardware dongle a free USB port is required
UPS Uninterruptible power supply (important for databases)

*... depending on the archive configuration

Minimum Recommendation - Remote Client

Hardware component Specifications
Processor Core i5 with 2,3 GHz or equivalent
RAM 8 GB RAM
Hard disk SSD/HDD with 5 GB free
Graphics Resolution: 1280x1024
Network adapter 10/100 MBit/s

Network requirements

When setting up the hardware for a WinCC OA project, make some benchmark tests before installing WinCC OA to avoid problems due to insufficient hardware performance (make the tests especially when using redundant systems).

Network connection

You should have at least at least a 100MBit connection between the servers and clients. A fast connection between the servers in redundant system is necessary. Additionally a time synchronization is required within the network.

NIC-Teaming

NIC teaming is not supported. Deactivate the NIC teaming for all connections (Redu, Dist, UI).

Use of multi-core processors

Some processors offer the possibility of multithreading, in which each processor core can run up to 8 threads in parallel. With top models, a "parallel" processing of 128 threads can take place simultaneously with two CPUs (each of which has 8 cores with 8 threads each)!

By design WinCC OA is single-threaded realized. This means that a WinCC OA manager uses only one of these threads (also called HW strands). The most important and most claimed managers of a WinCC OA project are the Event manager and the Data manager, where each of them claims only one thread. According the case mentioned above only 2 of the 128 available threads are used, whereby the computer at full load on the Event/Data manager would only use 1/64 of the "total" CPU performance.

Starting from one core (with one thread) up to 4 cores (each with one thread) WinCC OA achieves an increasingly better performance. In case of further cores the performance gain per additional core/thread is relative low. In addition, WinCC OA benefits from a higher clock rate of the CPU (e.g. 4 cores each with one thread (= 4 threads) clocked with for example 3GHz WinCC OA uses much better than 8 cores each with 8 threads (= 64 threads) clocked with 1GHz).

How to check if the hardware performance is sufficient for the recovery / backup?

For the online-backup or the recovery (in redundant systems) of the database several files will be copied from the local database to the destination directory.

If the performance of the hardware is not sufficient this process can take very long. Therefore, you should check the hardware used in the WinCC OA project.

If the required performance target is not reached please check the hardware settings for the hard-discs, the RAID-system (if installed and used) and the network.

Check the performance when WinCC OA is stopped to avoid access problems when using files from the db-directory for the tests.

Check for the online backup (applicable in all systems)

To check the performance in that case copy a few huge files (500 – 1000MB) from the db-directory of the WinCC OA project to the destination folder for the backup and check which transfer rate (MB per second) is achieved.

In a standard system a rate of 50-100 MB/sec should be possible.

Check for the database recovery (necessary only in redundant systems)

In a redundant system a md5-checksum is generated and files are copied during the recovery.

To check the performance for calculating the md5 checksum install a freeware md5-tool on your system.

Afterwards start the program and let it determine the md5 checksum for some (huge) files in the db-directory, e.g. a file from the value-archive-directory. Calculating the md5 checksum should take 1-3 seconds/100 MB.

For the copy process you can check the performance by copying huge db-files from the project-db-directory on server1 to server2 and vice versa.

In a standard system a rate of 50-100 MB/sec should be possible for copying files.

WinCC OA Support of SIMATIC IOT2050 Devices

WinCC OA supports the usage on SIMATIC IOT2050 devices.

Installation

For installing WinCC OA on a IOT2050 device follow the instructions below:

  1. Configure the IOT2050 device to use Industrial OS as operating system.
  2. Download the WinCC OA ARM version from winccoa.com.
  3. Install the WinCC OA ARM version on the IOT2050 device, similar to a regular WinCC OA Linux installation. Further details on the installation and usage of the IOT2050 can be found in the Siemens forum.
  4. You can activate the license via the WCCOAtoolCMactivation tool.
Note: Since no desktop environment is installed when the IOT2050 is delivered, it must be installed manually to use on IOT2050 devices, e.g.: IOT forum

NGA on IOT2050

  • NGA is available for InfluxDB on IOT2050. See also chapter Requirements and Installation for NGA and DB Installation
  • PostgreSQL Backend is not supported on IOT2050.
  • We recommend the remote use of the InfluxDB backend. The backend can also be used locally but the local use is not recommended due to the low system resources.
  • A project must not be created and the initial settings must not be configured on the IOT2050 device. Use another computer to create a project and configure the initial project settings.
  • The installed virus scanner may cause high system load when updating. We recommend scheduling the updates accordingly.

Restrictions

Following features and components of WinCC OA cannot be used on SIMATIC IOT2050 devices:

  • RDB Archiving
  • ProfiSafe driver
  • S7+ driver*
  • Reporting (Reporting with BIRT and Excel Report)
  • Maps Widget
  • You can access the IOT2050 project via a remote UI from another computer.
    Note:

    Monitor the system load closely due to the low hardware resources on the IOT2050.

    Due to the low hardware resources up to 2048 data points (Power tags) are guaranteed.

    Any operation beyond that is possible but is up to the judgment of the user.

    Error messages are only accepted within the guaranteed range and in a reproducible manner.

*..Is currently in progress. As soon as this is available, it will be delivered in a patch and communicated via Siemens Industry Support.

NGA InfluxDB® Hardware Requirements

For an InfluxDB® the usage of an SSD is strongly recommended. Consider the further hardware requirements under:

https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.8/guides/hardware_sizing/