Architecture (technical)

WinCC Unified V18

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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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Architecture – Internal system
Login and show tags on a web client

Unified RT
Data & visualization

client
Unified Clients

clients

Unified RT server
GfxRT service
Data & visualization
provider UMC service
(user management)

Data collectors
Tag worker (tags)

PLC

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Architecture – Internal system
Archive tags to show in trend view

Unified RT
Data & visualization

client
Unified Clients

clients

Unified RT server
GfxRT service
Data & visualization
provider UMC service
(user management)

Data collectors TagLogging worker

Tag worker (tags)

PLC

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Architecture – Internal system
Show logged and online alarms in Alarm control

Unified RT
Data & visualization

client
Unified Clients

clients

Unified RT server
GfxRT service
Data & visualization
provider UMC service
(user management)

Data collectors TagLogging worker

Tag worker (tags)

PLC

AlarmLogging worker Alarm worker (alarms)

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Architecture – Internal system
Internal access on tags and alarms via Scripting

Unified RT
Data & visualization

client
Unified Clients

clients

Unified RT server
GfxRT service
Data & visualization
Scripts
provider UMC service
{ }
(user management)

Data collectors TagLogging worker

Tag worker (tags)

PLC

AlarmLogging worker Alarm worker (alarms)

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Architecture – Internal system - Overview
External access on tags and alarms via RT ODK or OpenPipe

Unified RT
Data & visualization

client
Unified Clients

clients
• PM Addons
• AlarmCenter
• Edge apps
• …

Unified RT server
GfxRT service
Data & visualization
Scripts
provider UMC service
OpennessRT { }
(user management)
(RT ODK & OpenPipe)

Data collectors TagLogging worker

Tag worker (tags)

PLC

AlarmLogging worker Alarm worker (alarms)

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Architecture – Internal system – Overview in TIA Portal
SIMATIC WinCC Unified

GfxRT service
OpennessRT (not relevant in Engineering)
Tag worker
Alarm worker
TagLogging worker
AlarmLogging worker
UMC service

All workers are connected to a corresponding tab in TIA Portal.

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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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 Architecture – Internal system – Tag, Alarm, TagLogging & AlarmLogging
worker
SIMATIC WinCC Unified
Data & visualization
provider

• Tag & Alarm worker: gathers tags or alarms from

Data collectors
PLCs (or OPC UA servers) to offer them in a
TagLogging worker
(SQLite or MSSQL) standardized format for other workers and services
Tag worker (tags)

• TagLogging & AlarmLogging worker: gathers data

from Tag or Alarm worker to store it in a database
AlarmLogging worker Alarm worker (alarms) (SQLite or MS-SQL)

PLC

The Tag and Alarm worker collect data, which can be shown directly by a screen via GfxRT service.
The data could also be saved in a database via TagLogging or AlarmLogging worker to be accessed later on.
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 Architecture – Internal system – GfxRT, OpennessRT & UMC service
SIMATIC WinCC Unified

Data & visualization

Unified Clients
• GfxRT service: gathers all data from Tag, Alarm,
clients TagLogging and AlarmLogging workers and
• PM Addons represents them to the client via native HTML
• AlarmCenter
• Edge App website or QT (Panel only).
• … Runs all JavaScripts in a separate NodeJS worker
with all features except importing 3rd party libraries
Data & visualization
or accessing external data (e.g. web service)
provider
UMC service GfxRT service • OpennessRT: gathers all data from Tag, Alarm,
OpennessRT (user
Scripts TagLogging and AlarmLogging workers and sends
(RT ODK & OpenPipe) management)
{ } them to a customized client project via RT ODK or
OpenPipe
Data collectors • UMC service: before a user can access a certain
Unified object, his or her rights will be checked here

As a data or visualization provider you can access any data in the same way regardless the connection (S7,
OPC UA, …) – Same for logs and the database type (SQLite or MSSQL)
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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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WinCC Unified
Detailed Runtime Architecture on PC and Unified Comfort Panel

GfxRT GfxRT
Web Rendering Host QT Rendering Host
(user interface) Web Rendering Host
(WebRH) (user interface) (QTRH)
(WebRH)
Screen1 Screen1

Runtime services Alarming Logging …

Runtime services Alarming Logging …
and workers License and workers
UMC Tags License
Manager UMC Tags
Manager

Operating System Firmware and Operating system

Device Driver Device Driver

PC Hardware Unified Comfort Hardware

TIA Portal Project Download via Engineering

Engineered screens in TIA Portal will be downloaded in an abstract format.

The Runtime converts it to QT (Panel) or HTML5 (PC & Panel) → No HTML5 engineering is possible!
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Architecture – Internal system – Panel vs. PC systems
SIMATIC WinCC Unified

Panel PC
Operating system Linux based Windows
• Accessing files via scripting • Folder paths like: /home/industrial/… • Folder paths like: C:\Users\siemens\...
• Database • Only SQLite • SQLite and Microsoft SQL database
Yes: Unified RT runs as operating user No: Unified RT runs as service user, only programs without
StartProgram with GUI
GUI are possible
Only as Edge App (via OpenPipe) As normal Windows application or service (via OpenPipe or
Run customer program
RT ODK)
Every Web control is one Chromium instance running Every Web control is one iframe on the Web surface
Runtime: using Web control on the QT surface. → only websites that allow to be embedded in an iframe can
→ every website can be shown. be shown.
Every CWC is on Chromium instance which loads the Every CWC is one iframe and the CWC is hosted by Unified.
CWC from files. → every CWC works
Runtime: using Custom Web Controls
→ CWCs that load resources dynamically during
(CWC)
runtime cannot be shown, because “cross origin
requests” are not supported when loading from files.

Panels and PCs differ in operating system (Windows vs. Linux) and developer rights.
This affects the usage of scripting and external applications.
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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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Architecture – External connections to Unified – Browser clients
SIMATIC WinCC Unified

Unified Clients

• Browsers: most common modern browsers like

Google Chrome, MS Chromium Edge, Firefox,
Safari

• Default web security is implemented to be used

anywhere in the world. Technical preconditions:
• HTTPS: Certificates
• Authentication: Login always needed

Unified RT server
(Web server)

Because WinCC Unified publishes its screens as HTML via web server, external browsers can access them
(both for Panels and PCs)
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Agenda

Time Topic Presenter

1 Internal system
1.1 Description of services and workers
1.2 Panel vs. PC systems
2 External connections to Unified
2.1 Browser clients
2.2 Data clients

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 Architecture – External connections to Unified – Data clients
SIMATIC WinCC Unified

Customer Database
•
•
PM Addons
AlarmCenter
• Customer applications to Unified:
• Edge app • Edge app: access via OpenPipe
• …
RT ODK (PC only) ODBC (PC only)
• Windows application or service: access via
/ OpenPipe
Local file system OpenPipe or RT ODK
File access • Unified to external database: scripting via ODBC
Scripts
{ }
• Unified to local filesystem: scripting
Another RT
OpennessRT • Collaboration: internal communication between
Collaboration
(using TCP/IP)
different Unified stations
• OPC UA client: handled like a S7 connection
TagLogging worker Tag worker (tags) (handled by Tag worker)
Communication
(S7, 3rd party, OPC UA)

Alarm worker (alarms)

AlarmLogging worker
OPC UA
server

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