MES middleware recommendations

The MES middleware is a process that handles two categories of tasks:

• Scheduled tasks that are referred to generally as maintenance services

• Client application transactions with the MES database

A system can have more than one MES middleware host.

The MES Middleware Proxy provides access to the MES middleware for clients. The proxy is installed on each client station and on all MES middleware hosts.

MES service tasks moved to the MES middleware

In previous releases, the MES Service was connected to the MES middleware through the proxy layer. Starting with MES version 7.0, the MES Service is part of the MES middleware. Since the MES Service is now part of the MES middleware, the database maintenance activities are performed as part of the middleware, but on different threads.

Maintenance services

The MES middleware that is currently handling the maintenance services performs the following scheduled tasks:

• Cleaning up stale sessions

• Managing entity shift changes

• Changing utilization reasons for entities for reasons that have elapsed

• Generating future quality samples for time, shift, and production unit count frequencies

• Changing quality sample states based on the passage of time

These tasks are critical to having consistent OEE and downtime data. In an active system, it is recommended to designate a specific MES middleware to run these background tasks. This MES middleware should be dedicated to these background tasks and not have additional clients directing transactions through it. For more information, see the MES Middleware and Cloud Integration User Guide.

Client application database transactions

Each active MES middleware can process client application calls to perform MES database transactions. The middleware supports the following call endpoints:

• Synchronous

• Asynchronous

• Web API

• Event Broker