The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
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This document discusses the benefits and challenges of SCADA infrastructure virtualization for wind farms, emphasizing the transition from physical to virtualized systems to enhance reliability and reduce costs. Key advantages include improved disaster recovery, higher system availability, and streamlined upgrades and testing processes. The presentation also highlights the growing need for virtualization due to aging hardware and end-of-life software support.
The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 1. The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 2. Before We Start q This webinar will be available at www.windpowerengineering.com & via email q Q&A at the end of the presentation q Hashtag for this webinar: #WindWebinar
- 3. Moderator Presenter Paul Dvorak Windpower Engineering & Development Heath Pratt UpWind Solutions
- 4. Key Takeaways Why a&end this webinar? • Why virtualization is becoming an option for wind farm owners / operators • To learn the benefits of SCADA / critical infrastructure virtualization • What the current challenges are for managing SCADA and server infrastructure The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 5. SCADA Virtualization Defined What is SCADA/Server Virtualiza;on? This the process of migra0ng the cri0cal site physical systems from many physical systems to a single/redundant virtualized environment to eliminate the hardware and so:ware element. This allows for all of the servers to live in an environment which the hardware is transparent to the infrastructure. The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 6. Why Virtualize? Owners are taking control of the hardware support of their wind farm(s) infrastructure and face new reliability challenges. New Challenges • Aging servers with reliability issues • Bad server hard drives • Servers with failing backups due to space limitations • Proprietary OEM hardware and software upgrades Most sites will have several servers requiring support • Real Time Server(s) • SQL / Database Server(s) • Customer Access Server(s) • Remote Access Server(s) • Protocol Server(s) The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 7. Why Virtualize? Reasons Why Owners Should Viritualize: • Hardware availability becoming challenging to procure • Operating systems going end of life • Software applications no longer supporting patches • Availability alerts and remote management options sometimes not supported • BeMer support tools for management The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 8. Change in Infrastructure Current Deployed Infrastructure Virtualized Infrastructure
- 9. Benefits to Virtualize Benefits of virtualizing the site infrastructure overview • Less equipment for internal I/T or SCADA department support • Higher Availability of the site infrastructure • Greater methods of Disaster Recovery Programs • Faster return to service when server(s) fail • Software upgrading and testing offline before production deployment • Cost Savings vs. the OEM The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 10. Benefits to Virtualize Less equipment to support • Most sites will have several servers running to fulfill opera0onal needs. These servers have single or mul0ple roles. • Real Time Server(s) • SQL / Database Server(s) • Customer Access Server(s) • Remote Access Server(s) • Protocol Server(s) High Availability • Uptime is key for operations • Sites depend on these systems for daily operations • Offtakers depend on these systems for load management of site output The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 11. Benefits to Virtualize Disaster Recovery This is the func0on to recover from infrastructure failure. Support staff is always determining the best prac0ces for keeping site infrastructure protected for data backups, configura0ons and up0me. A good DR program will allow for faster RTS in some cases within minutes. Scenario: Friday a:ernoon the “Real-‐Time Server” shutdowns with bad hard drives. The site opera0ons staff, no0ce they cannot see the park overview screen. They contact their support staff that SCADA is down. The support staff is not able to remote into the server to inves0gate why the system has failed. Knowing they now may need to try to troubleshoot the issue. Not knowing what the issue or parts needed may be, this may take a day or two, or even incur travel expense to the site to have the system back to full opera0ons.
- 12. Benefits to Virtualize Upgrades and Tes;ng • How do we test and deploy • In production • In test lab • Offline servers / snapshots / copies of the servers • With servers conveniently available offline you in sense have created a test lab for the safe testing and upgrading of software • Ease of deployments • Once you tested or upgraded your system(s) you can easily move them into place with a few mouse clicks. The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 13. Benefits to Virtualize The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 14. Challenges Challenges we face with current infrastructure. • Physical Hardware • Software patching and upgrading • Recovery and RTS • Application End of Life Hardware, the physical layer of the infrastructure • Technical staff need to investigate the needs of what is required to support. • They will need to know what parts they need to have on hand in case of failure. • They need to determine the availability of these parts. • Finally they need to understand the hardware they are supporting.
- 15. Challenges End of Life This is when a provider stops supporting and producing patches and updates to a product and recommends upgrading to a newer version of their product. Product LC Start Extended Support EOL Windows XP DEC-‐‑2001 N/A 22-‐‑OCT-‐‑2010 Windows 7 OCT-‐‑2009 N/A Not Established Windows 8 OCT-‐‑2012 N/A Not Established Server 2003 SP1 MAR-‐‑2005 N/A 14-‐‑APR-‐‑2009 Server 2003 Std x32 MAY-‐‑2003 14-‐‑JUL-‐‑2015 10-‐‑APR-‐‑2007 Server 2003 Std x64 MAY-‐‑2005 14-‐‑JUL-‐‑2015 14-‐‑APR-‐‑2009 Server 2008 Std MAY-‐‑2008 14-‐‑JAN-‐‑2020 12-‐‑JUL-‐‑2011
- 16. Conclusion Why Virtualize? • Migrating your SCADA Infrastructure into a virtual environment allows for support staff to perform a higher level of service to the site. • Allowing support staff to use modern I/T tools to manage and monitor the health of the infrastructure. • Supporting a higher availability and disaster recovery program • Providing a virtual test environment for support staff to test new patches and also a test environment to perform operating system upgrades to newer platforms. The Value of SCADA Infrastructure Virtualization on Wind Farms
- 17. Questions? Paul Dvorak Windpower Engineering & Development pdvorak@wtwhmedia.com Twitter: @Windpower_Eng Heath Pratt UpWind Solutions Heath.pratt@upwindsolutions.com Phone: 541.282.4313 Twitter: @UpwindSolutions
- 18. Thank You q This webinar will be available at www.windpowerengineering.com & email q Tweet with hashtag #WindWebinar q Connect with Windpower Engineering & Development q Discuss this on the EngineeringExchange.com
- 19. Presenter Heath Pra&, Manager of SCADA Services UpWind Solu;ons Inc. E: heath.pra&@upwindsolu;ons.com P: +1 (541) 282-‐4313 Heath has been in the technology field for 20+ years performing work that has ranged from network administra;on to I/T management. Over the last 12 years he has been focused solely on Wind Energy and the reliability of the SCADA systems. He was worked for OEMs, Owners, and now the industry leading ISP, UpWind Solu;ons. Over his tenure in Wind, he has focused to find ways to extend the life of mission cri;cal equipment to reduce the cost of ownership for projects. Having experience with GE, Vestas, Seimens, Clipper, Gamesa, Nordex and several more, he has been able to help improve the day to day reliability of the site infrastructure and cri;cal systems required for both UpWind and their clients.