Getting Started¶

Integration of industrial equipment, periphery and devices with IT systems can become a quite complex task. SMARTUNIFIER delivers a standard way of implementing such integration scenarios. We recommend following the procedures described below.

Step	Action (Phases)	Description
1	Preparation	Collect the requirements of systems that are going to be integrated: Find out what protocols are in use. Identify the data structures. Identify the overall communication scenarios (creation of sequence diagrams might be useful). Test and validate the communication of the systems that are going to be integrated (e.g., testing basic connections to the systems using tools like MQTT Explorer). Define a plan on how to conduct the testing before the rollout.
2	Deployment of Manager	The number of SMARTUNIFIER Manager installations depends on the scope of the integration. If several plants are involved, it is recommended to have one installation per plant. Note: Reusable configuration components such as Information Models can be shared across multiple SMARTUNIFIER Manager installations (Backup and Restore).
3	Configuration of the Communication Instance	For each Communication Instance: Create Information Models based on the data structure of the system that is going to be integrated. Create and configure the Communication Channels that are needed to connect to the systems. Create the Mapping between the Information Models of the systems based on the previously defined communication scenario. Create the Device Type that acts as a template for the Communication Instance. Create and configure the Communication Instance.
4	Deployment of the Communication Instance	For each Communication Instance: Plan the deployment of the Communication Instance. Determine the proper deployment type for the Communication Instance (on-premises, edge, or cloud deployment). Deploy the Communication Instance accordingly.
5	Testing	Test the communication according to the previously defined test plan.
6	Rollout	Rollout and scaling.