Training on Network Information & Examples

Training
Networking Information & Examples

You use MicroScan networking to share information between MicroScan software running on different computers.

The networking can be operated in one of two modes:

File Server (Recommended)

The software uses a common folder on a network server to share files.
File Server mode supports the full range of MicroScan network operations.
The MicroScan software does not setup network folders or users access to network folders. This must be done by on site IT staff.
Peer to Peer

This mode is used for smaller networks, where a dedicated file server does not exist.

The software uses file sharing on the MicroScan computers to share files.
In some sites, use of the Peer to Peer mode is not possible because of site restrictions on the use of computer file sharing by the sites IT department.

NOTE:
Peer to Peer operation supports only a simple Active - Passive network operation.
In this mode, it is not possible for a passive to look at data from several Actives, that is, the Composite Passive or Composite Active - Passive in this mode (see below). These modes of operation are only possible with a File Server network.

The mode of operation is selected in the Network Setup Active dialog boxes.
Graphical views of network configurations are shown in Network Setup Common Examples and Network Setup Advanced Examples.

To setup sharing of data

To setup sharing, you create a common network folder with read/write access on the Network Server, or setup File Sharing on the Active for a Peer to Peer network. Each user must be granted read/write access to this folder.

You setup an Active MicroScan which reads data from remote stations, and prepares shared files. An Active uses its Job Name or another unique name to identify itself to other MicroScan computers on the network.
You then setup Passive MicroScans to read data from the shared files and display data that an Active has generated.

You can use UNC paths such as \\computername\\share name or mapped drives to share data. Mapped drives offers the advantage that the passives can auto configure themselves by searching for a known file on the drives attached to the computer.

Other types of MicroScan Network software are:

A Composite Passive, a passive that can view data from several Actives.
A Composite Active Passive, an Active that can read data from remote stations and also display data from other Actives.

Licences

The Licences are needed by the MicroScan Active software to operate in networking mode.
The MicroScan Lite software licence does not support networking.

Active Licence

Any form of Active Microscan must be licenced for operation using Register Software, to allow normal module operation and to allow operation of the network. The Active Licence includes the number of passives that can be run.

A P licence is purchased with the software which allows operation of a restricted number of passives. Thus P5 allows 5 passives to be used at any one time. If one of the passives are closed, another one can be run on another computer, as long as no more than 5 is used at once. The software includes licence checking, so if passives are terminated without releasing licences normally, the licences are timed out and released for use by another passive.

The P licence is accumulated according to the number of network Actives. If one active has P5 and another has P10, then a total of 15 passives can be run at one time (assuming both Actives are running).

Passive Licence

The Passives are not individually licenced, but use a shared file to access and release licences when they are needed to be run. The Register Software link on the Setup Tools screen is not visible on a Passive MicroScan (as it is not needed to install a licence on a per passive basis).

A Passive can connect to and use an Active "P" licence if the Active is actually running. It will not find the Active and hence the licence if the Active is not running.

Setup of Networking

The network is setup using the Network Setup link on the Setup Tools screen.
The setup of a networking system has been reduced so that a "standard" network system can be setup in a minimum number of steps.

Dynamic Update of Setups by a Passive

A Passive MicroScan Recorder is setup by reading its setups from an Active MicroScan. This is done when the passive starts, and also when setups have been changed on the Active. This is a major improvement over Version 4 networking, which allows the passives to automatically update their own settings when the settings on the Active are changed.

Passive View Mask

You can apply a mask to each passive setup so that only certain pages are visible to certain users (this is setup in Network Wizard, Passive Data & Alarm Setup Step, View Mask).

Auto Backup of Setups to the File Server

When the Active is setup to use a Server, the auto backup location is changed so that it is located on the server. Thus when any setups have been changed they are automatically recorded to the server (using the auto backup after time interval and after program close).

Passive Auto Backup of Setups

A Passive does not auto backup setups, as these are easily rebuilt from the Active(s) settings.

How is information shared ?

The MicroScan software uses file sharing to share data between MicroScans. No communications using TCP/IP or other network protocols is used. All that is needed to be setup on the network is the file sharing of drives on the network server.