Inductive Automation, used in this proposal, is one of the few products developed to use SQL for its base for storing the information collected from the machines.  The term OPC (stands for OLE for Process Control) is dated and esoteric.  In short, the newer versions of the standard don’t even rely on the old Microsoft technology OLE (Object Linking and Embedding).

The Ignition server would reside on your Dell Power Edge as a virtual instance of Windows Server 2012 Web Edition.  It would run SQL Server Express Advanced Edition with reporting. 

Advantages

• Everything runs from a central server
• No client and development software is pushed from web browsers
• SQL server is at the core of TAG addressing to your devices
• Platform independent software prevents need to upgrade OS platform
• Modern design environment makes simple changes possible

* In contrast many legacy market leaders require running Windows in XP mode to have clients on 64x computers.  This is a kluge of a work around that drastically impacts usability and should not be considered compatibility with 64x versions of Windows by Microsoft’s standards. 

Application Design

The Ignition server would have the following functionality

• Centralize data on production and machine utilization
• Keep audit logs of machine settings / changes
• Provide reporting engine for customized reports
• Provide development environment for up-time down-time reporting

Cause reporting can be accessed via any operator interface to the PLC and stored in the Ignition server. 

Ignition sells MES solutions for OEE (Overall Operational Efficiency) – this may be desired down the road.   Basic up-time down-time reporting is a good first step to reaching goals with the OEE practice, if desired.

Approach:
Purchase late model Dell PowerEdge 2950 III servers that are coming off lease. We integrated 2 ESXi servers on Dell 2950s one has 16GB and the second 32GB. Upgrade the hard drives to 1T SATA enterprise class drives.
The SAS hard drives were replaced with 1T Enterprise Western Digital drives (WD1002FBYS). Both computers had the batteries replaced, after some hardship with RAID errors.

Lessons Learned:
1. Buy only servers that have PERC 6/i controllers maybe the PERC 5 is ok who wants to find out.
2. Replace the battery, the RAID array will fault if the battery is dead. Intermittent problems will occur if the battery is marginal.
3. Use Enterprise drives that are less than 2 Terabytes.
4. ESXi needs to be licensed to have backup strategy
5. Veeam is an excellent backup/migration product

Outcome:
This project was successful. I would keep the same approach if I were starting again today in 2013. The RAID arrays will write at ~80MBS under ideal conditions. The servers are running AD, VOIP, Exchange, Ubuntu PHP Web applications as well as IIS ASP applications. The server room is much cool and more efficient now that the old Pentium class servers are gone. The backup and migration strategy has realty simplified. It was prudent to invest in software over hardware. Future migrations to new server will be effortless with the virtualized servers. One of the advantages to this approach is that you can restore server between the ESXi boxes to test the restoration. Also, the restoration for all OS disruptions is the same. The quality of the 2008 era enterprise equipment is impressive. The price is extremely low. Server centers liquidate 10, 100s if not 1000s of theses server at one time overloading the market. We purchased these for well under ~$500.00.