Cisco switch IE 2000 and Rockwell Automation Software

[redmercury]

Hello,

I just received two Cisco IE 2000 switches and was just able to complete the Express Setup and now have full access through Device Manager. Is there anyone with experience using Cisco switches in a Rockwell environment? Any configuration advice would be great.

Also, is there a way for me to know when a computer, that is not on the MAC friendly list, connects to a port? It would be great to send that alarm to the physical alarm, that way I can connect that to the PLC and know when it happens.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

as to your second question, you can enable port security with secure MAC addresses on the IE2000, in restrict mode the switch will send an SNMP trap and log a syslog message. How you tie that to a physical alarm...depends on the management software you are using...

 With regard to advice on using Cisco switches in a Rockwell environment, you might want to check the documents and best practices:

http://www.ab.com/linked/networks/architectures2.html

[redmercury]

Well, here's where I'm at. The switch works ok if you just want to manage it through Device Manager and do nothing through Studio 5000. If you want to add it to your project, there I have some problems. I start by adding the EDS file the IE2000 comes with to the database, but when I add it to the project it gives me an incompatibility error. I'm trying to add the switch through a generic profile but I need the Assembly Instance Parameters, they are nowhere to be found. At least I can see the tags generated in the controller, what can you use them for, well who knows, because I can't find any documentation about them. Anybody that's used these switches can gladly chip in with some knowledge. For now it looks that I might have to get Allen-Bradley switches for the future, more expensive but no hassle for adding to a project.

[Holmux]

I am having a battle getting my compactlogix PLC to operate true the IE 2000, everything else I connect to the switch works OK, but communication to my PLC is very slow, if I ping my PLC I loose one out of 5 with timeout and I have had a few dual IP failures as well.

From what I have learned so far, there are a few things I need to disable in the switch, to make it work with AB, but the info I get is bits and pieces you can find in various forums, not a solid description from either AB or Cisco.

Please If anyone have some info regarding this, I am very interested :) 

/Holmux

[redmercury]

I've only used my switches with ControlLogix. What are the few things you need to disable?

[Holmux]

From what I have learned, the Switch works locally OK, the problems starts when I what to connect to the Switch true another switch in the building, for example if I login via VPN. I go true a few switches before I get to the IE 2000, when I go this route I have a very bad connection.

The tuning is in the communication between the switches, I still need to dig deeper into the Cisco setup, but is very pressed on time at the moment, but I will get it solved (hopefully next week)

/Holmux