Greetings.
New end user here. Our integrator has said that automatic windows updates would be detrimental to our Ignition 7.6.6. ( We have a brand new windows 7 machine.) Our old scada became horribly obsolete because we didn’t update the computer and thus never updated the software. We never had it online either. Are windows updates ever a good idea when using Ignition?
Thanks for any help.
It really depends on your system. Do you have any software installed that could be broken by a windows update? do you want the server to restart on its own while it is in service? do you want your server to restart on its own then install 30 minutes worth of updates and you have no control to stop it? see where I am going?
I would definitely perform the updates, but I would prefer to completely control when they get installed.
Agreed. Windows has a nasty habit of wanting to restart after an update. You lose control over the process.
Not saying to never update the system. But I suggest backups. Preferably with something like Acronis that you can automate.
Also, if everything is on the same machine (Ignition, db, other OPC Servers, etc.), I recommend putting the database data and Ignition backups on a physically separate drive. That way, if/when the system drive tanks-- for whatever reason-- you get to keep as much data as possible.
It really depends on your environment. If your machine is able to get an internet connection then you should be using Windows Updates. But you never install them so they download automatically or reboot the server automatically. That is a configuration any decent server admin can assist you with.
Also have a DEV environment that you use to test out the updates, plus never install updates that aren’t needed by your machine. If you don’t have Office installed on this server there is no sense in installing Office Updates on there just because MS says they’re available. Throw up a VM to help test out the updates if that is easier. This will also come in handy when there is an MS update that breaks something, your production environment is still OK.
If you never have your server or clients on a network with an internet connection then things might be different. The issue here is do you have people who connect their machines to this network to work on it or work on clients/machines? If so then there is always that risk that their machine could have an issue that would spread across your production network because it isn’t updated. Something that you would know best and would have to answer really.
I also agree that all the services shouldn’t be on the same server unless you are only have a handful of machines connect and aren’t tracking a lot of data, then 1 machine may be enough. Otherwise take the DB and move it to it’s own machine and keep up with the DB updates. Just because your front end server isn’t having issues doesn’t mean the backend database is doing fine. Make sure you pay attention to both aspects of the application.
Hope this helps.