Adding a station to the NiagaraNetwork

The devices (stations) under a station’s NiagaraNetwork can include upstream stations, peer stations and downstream remote controller stations. Using the NiagaraNetwork, the central station (usually a Supervisor station) connects to each station for the purpose of collecting configuration and update data. Any station (regardless of platform type) can be a client or server based on the NiagaraNetwork configurations on either side. Typically, Supervisor stations are the main client of downstream stations, but you could also set up a two-way connection, or even have a controller station be the client to the Supervisor.

Prerequisites: You are working in the client station (usually your Supervisor station) using Workbench. One or more remote stations share the same network.

Expand Config > Drivers and double-click NiagaraNetwork.
The Station Manager opens.
To discover the server stations, click Discover, select the discovered station(s) and click Add.
To manually add a server station, click New.
The New window opens.
Select the station type, the number of stations you want to add, and click OK.
The New window opens.
As a minimum, enter these properties and click OK:
- Name is the name of the server station. Each NiagaraStation under your NiagaraNetwork requires a unique name. If you are not sure of this name, connect to the station. The Station Name is listed under Summary Properties.
- Address is the IP address or host name of the server station.
- Credential Store (Username and Password) are the user credentials required to access the server station.
The Station Manager lists the newly-added station in the Database pane.
To debug the connection, do one or both of the following:
- If the Server Conn column reports Not Connected, right-click the station row in the Station Manager and click Actions > Ping. This pings the client to establish the connection with the server.
- If the Status column reports down, right-click the station row and click Views > AX Property Sheet
The server station’s Property Sheet opens.
If Health reports Fail, expand Health and review the Last Fail Cause.
A Last Ok Time of null indicates that the station has not connected even once. Several errors may be preventing the client station from connecting to the server station:
- Permission denied: connect is a general error. Edit the configuration and/or ensure that the server station is available to fix the problem.
- Station name is same as this station means that you attempted to make an illegal loop-back connection (the same station attempting to connect back to itself).
- certificate_unknown means that the station (client) cannot authenticate the self-signed certificate sent to it from the remote station (server).
  If you trust the certificate, expand Services > PlatformServices, double-click CertManagerService, click the Allowed Hosts tab, select the certificate whose host name is the same as the IP address (or host name) of the server station (its icon should be a white X on a red shield), click Approve and click Yes. The red shield changes to a white check mark on a green shield.
  
  Approving this self-signed certificate should be a temporary measure. Each remote server station/platform should have its own server certificate that has been signed by a certificate authority. This enables server authentication, which is the best security practice for secure device-to-device communication.
If the Last Ok Time is older than the Last Fail Time, something could be wrong or the station connection could be temporarily down.
After correcting a problem, return to the NiagaraNetwork’s Station Manager under your client station and ping the station again.
The Station Manager should report that the station is Connected.
To confirm the connection, right-click the station in the Nav tree, click Views > AX Property Sheet and expand Health and/or Client Connection.
The station’s Property Sheet opens.
Enabled defaults to true. If set to false, Status reports disabled.

Health reports Ok. Notice that the Last Fail Cause reports the error that caused the last failure. You can ignore this error message as long as Health reports Ok.

The State property under Client Connection reports Connected.

Adding a station to the NiagaraNetwork

Related Links