Typical deployment options for network interconnections

Four typical network interconnect solutions using the Report Server are provided here as examples.

The office users need access to the Report Server from the Plant Business network. The Report Server requires access to the Database Server (on the Plant Production network) to get the data for the reports.

• Place the Report Server on the Plant Production Network. The networks are connected via a router that is configured to isolate traffic to its own subnet while allowing communication to devices on other subnets based on configuration. This may simply consist of opening access to port 80 of the Report Server.

  Note: To achieve better system performance, set up an Archive/Report server rather than have Reporting run directly from the Production database.

• For the link between the Application Server and the PLC, a smart switch can be used. It connects to the router and allows configuring a virtual network where traffic between servers connected to the smart switch is performed directly without being broadcast on the main Plant Production backbone.

• Setup the Report Server on the office network and provide access to the Database Server. This might require communication between the Database Server and the Report Server through the firewall. Other access might be needed if other AVEVA server features are used (such as viewing InTouch graphics). The following are some typical approaches to support the Report Server communication:

  • Dual network cards in the Report Server (however, this might violate security policies).

  • Placing the Report Server in a DMZ between the Business network and the Production network [for information about a network DMZ, see DMZ (computing) in Wikipedia]. A DMZ separates the server from the two networks that need to be separated from each other for security reasons. This will allow communication to occur from the Business network to the Report Server and from the Production network to the Report Server, but not between the Business network and the Production network. Routers that include firewalls with multiple ports are commercially available.

The following figure illustrates the four network deployment approaches.