1

Hey,

I am not an IT expert, but I understand some basics. Therefore I would like to get some insight and opinions on a project to replace our current network (office only) and expand it to include our factory as well. We will be implementing a new ERP software throughout the office and factory. We have about 18 Injection Molding Machines each with separate robots that will all be connected as well. My goal is to be able to monitor and control all of the processes involved in the factory, and gather data to use down the line for quality and efficiency. The factory is about 40k sq ft, with 20ft ceilings, with temperatures from 65F to 120F in the summer. There is also a good deal of vibration near the machines, the occasional hose/pipe leak, and also a heavy, greasy, dust accumulates throughout if not cleaned.

We have hired a friend of an employee, who is an IT guy, but has never done any industrial networking. As you can guess, I am not 100% confident in his abilities so I decided to post a list of some of the hardware he has chosen to get some feedback. He also has not showed me any plans or drawings for the install…Thanks for any insight!

PowerEdge R620

Intel Xeon E-26XX v2 ProcessorsMicrosoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard - License - 2 processors

SONICWALL NSA 220 TOTALSECURE

6 2164994 SONICWALL-SONICPOINT-NI DUAL-BAND

BELKIN 1000FT FAST CAT6 BULK SOL BLU

CISCO SF 300-48P 10/100 SWITCH

1183545 STARTECH DURARAK 25U 4 POST

4 Spice ups
2

The SonicWall is great for Firewall, but do yourself a favor and look for a different wifi solutions.

Sonicpoints are terrible.

Also, if you already get a new switch, get a 1000, not just 10/100

3
  • IMO Cat6\7\etc… cable isn’t much use since 10Gb/s will only work over short distances (approx. 120ft) otherwise you will be back to 1Gb/s anyway
  • Run fiber between your main trunk switches at distances over 300ft or 90m.
  • From you trunk switches run Cat5\6\7 cable to the devices within the above distances
  • Run fiber with fiber to Ethernet transceivers to single devices over the 300ft limit.
1 Spice up
4

I don’t a full-time sinewave UPS in that list. In a manufacturing environment, with motors starting/stopping and lots of hi-voltage transients, it’s a must.

2 Spice ups
5

Seems like there is a bunch of missing info to really give you a good insight on if this will work or not. Just a few things for preferences. For small business line of switch I would probably go with a Cisco SG500x 48 port 10/100/1000 switch as it allows for better performance and also allows for stacking down the road etc. For the firewall I would probably go with a cisco device like an ASA 5505 or 5515 depending on how large the network will be and depending on needs for VPN access. For wireless I would really recommend having a wireless survey done and maybe suggest going with Meraki devices (if you send them a blueprint of the building and what your usage will be they can draw out recommended coverage and devices needed).

As for the rest not sure the server will be great as there aren’t any specs listed not is there and required specs for your new ERP. I’m guessing you only need one server for the ERP? (Normally ERP systems require multiple servers and you would normally run them in a VM environment but I don’t see the licensing which is why I ask). Dell servers are normally pretty solid but as I mentioned without the details of what it will be used for and what the quoted specs are I couldn’t really tell you if you would be fine with it.

Another question would be about the integration of the factory. Is the factory attached to the same building of the office? If not then are you planning on connecting the networks with a VBPN tunnel? If so then you would need two VPN gateways/firewalls which I don’t see so another thing to consider. If they are in the same building depending on the distances of endpoints you may need to run fiber to an IDF as others have mentioned (the cisco switches have adapters that would connect the switches via fiber.

@Cisco @Cisco_Meraki_1

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Dan,

  1. Run fiber between switches. It eliminates the electrical interference you find in a mechanical area.

  2. run all drops to machines in grounded metal conduit. Doesn’t have to be the whole run, but certainly from the ceiling straight down to the equipment. It helps to reduce the interference from motors. It also helps to protect your cabling. Operators and maintenance technicians that haven’t been around CAT5/6 cabling are less likely to cut and nick it. They also don’t generally understand that splicing doesn’t work well on CAT5/6.

  3. Make sure exposed cabling avoids interference sources such as fluorescent lights and doesn’t share pathways with electrical wires.

As an added bonus: You can also go as far as to put the remote jack in a fiberglass box and run a patch cord the last 3 feet or so to our device using cord grips at the box to protect the jack. This makes it easy to replace just the patch and not the whole jack when(not if) it gets damaged. (Labeling is also more likely to stay intact.)

If you think you are being too cautious about protecting your cable, you might be safe.

7

210-ABVQ
1 PowerEdge R620, Intel Xeon E-26XX v2 Processors
591-BBBQ
1 PowerEdge R620 Motherboard, TPM
936-1787
1 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus On Site Service Initial Year
936-9463
1 Non-Mission Critical: 4-Hour 7x24 On-site Service After Problem Diagnosis, 2 Year Extended
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1 ProSupport: 7x24 HW / SW Tech Support and Assistance, 3 Year
939-4668
1 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus On Site Service Extended Year
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1 Dell ProSupport. For tech support, visit http://support.dell.com/ProSupport or call 1-800-945-3355
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1 Non-Mission Critical: 4-Hour 7x24 On-site Service After Problem Diagnosis, Initial Year
900-9997
1 On-Site Installation Declined
926-2979
1 Proactive Maintenance Service Declined
331-4761
1 PowerEdge R620 Shipping - 4/8 Drive Chassis
331-4515
1 Additional Riser with x8 PCIe Slot for x8, 2 PCIe Chassis with 1 Processor
421-5339
1 iDRAC7 Enterprise
430-4418
1 Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card
331-4823
1 Cable for Mini PERC Cards for Chassis with up to 8 Hard Drives
342-3659
1 Chassis with up to 8 Hard Drives and 2 PCIe Slots (Requires Additional Riser)
318-1431
1 Bezel-4/8 Drive Chassis
330-5116
1 Power Saving Dell Active Power Controller
331-4224
1 RAID 1 for H710P/H710/H310 (2 HDDs)
342-3529
1 PERC H710 Integrated RAID Controller, 512MB NV Cache
331-4763
1 Heat Sink for PowerEdge R620 with 130W Processors or Greater
338-BDBF
1 Intel Xeon E5-2667v2 3.3GHz, 25M Cache, 8.0GT/s QPI, Turbo, HT, 8C, 130W, Max Mem 1866MHz
317-8689
1 DIMM Blanks for Systems with 1 Processor
331-4611
1 No Additional Processor
370-AAWL
4 16GB RDIMM, 1866MT/s, Standard Volt, Dual Rank, x4 Data Width
370-AAWM
1 1866MT/s RDIMMs
331-4428
1 Performance Optimized
342-0427
2 146GB 15K RPM SAS 6Gbps 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive
331-4513
1 Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit
318-1391
1 DVD+/-RW, SATA, Internal
331-4765
1 ReadyRails Sliding Rails With Cable Management Arm
331-4605
1 Dual, Hot-plug, Redundant Power Supply (1+1), 750W
310-8509
2 Power Cord, NEMA 5-15P to C13, 15 amp, wall plug, 10 feet / 3 meter
420-6320
1 No Operating System
421-5736
1 No Media Required

342-5813 4 200GB Solid State Drive SATA Value MLC 3Gbps 2.5in Hot-plug Drive-Limited Warranty,CusKit

A7366978 1 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard - License - 2 processors - MOLP: Open Business - Single Language

network.JPG

1 Spice up
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For small business, the sonicwall is a good choice. It’s extremely easy to configure and any decent networking person should be able to make changes as needed.

An important question, from a business continuity standpoint, is how important is continuous communication with the factory devices? Is it passive communication, such as gathering statistics, or is it crucial to the day-to-day function? If it’s the latter, I’d recommend having a spare switch on hand at all times. It doesn’t even have to be business class but just something to bridge the gap if your main goes down so you can swap cables and be back up quickly.

If the server and networking gear can be exposed to the mfr environment (your post implies that) then the closet/room the gear resides in should have a hepa air filter. Depending on budget, you may not be able to go industrial but at least get a good quality consumer unit.

9

So just looking at the attached specs I would say that the server seems under speced for an ERP server (only one CPU min RAM, small storage overall when consider RAID). I also don’t see user CALs etc listed so assuming that you already own server 2012 CALs?

The PDU is not a UPS which means that you would still have issues with brownouts and blackouts (IE there is nothing trimming the power only protecting it from a surge). I would really recommend a good UPS to put in the rack with the server and switches etc.

There’s a lot of unknowns here so only going on what you have provided.

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Good UPS

upgrade the switching to gigabit and use fiber between switching locations.

firewall is ok

server is ok

find a different wireless access point. I prefer cisco but it costs…

11

I like the fortinet more than a sonicwall. it’s super reliable and has asic technology. Have you checked out the 80C?

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Dan,

We would be at $7856 plus shipping on that system…Full Dell Pro Support warranty, 4 hour mission critical, 3 years.

Interested? PM if you are.