SINEMA Server: Network management software upgrade

Siemens has released Service Pack 1 as an upgrade to its Sinema Server V13 network management software. The upgrade simplifies network maintenance, acceptance and data save operations with new management, validation and backup functions. The Sinema Server software was developed specifically for industrial applications, and allows complete networks to be visualized and monitored.

Using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) with simultaneous diagnostics making use of Simatic and Profinet mechanisms, wide-ranging aspects of plant diagnostics can be mapped using a single tool. The new management functions open up added scope for users, for example the central downloading and updating of firmware from Scalance network devices (in bulk). This substantially reduces the work involved in constructing a homogenous firmware landscape. In addition, the components can be configured using CLI (Command-Line-Interface).

For network validation, users now benefit from the availability of configurable test patterns which can be quickly and simply used to test important properties of the network (such as capacity utilization, device names, IP configurations). In this way, the status of the network can be documented at any time, for example during acceptance, with a minimum of effort. New online backup and restore functions

allow Sinema Server to back up its current database on an automated basis without interruption to network monitoring. The restore progress can either be triggered by the user or automatically by the system.