The Systems list

In the INVENTORY/SYSTEMS section you will find a list of any OT systems that you or fellow OTbase users have defined.

A "system" in OTbase is a set of OT devices that operate in concert to achieve one overarching purpose.

The best example of an OT system is a Distributed Control System (DCS). However, machines and production lines in discrete manufacturing can -- and should -- also be defined as systems, even though they don't use classic DCS products.

Modeling your OT systems in OTbase has some major advantages:

1. You will get a comprehensive system documentation in form of the system profile.
2. You can approve and manage configuration releases, and OTbase will tell you if all system components are still conformant with the configuration as approved. In other words, OTbase automatically monitors configuration drift for you.
3. OTbase automatically builds a network topology diagram that shows how system components are networked among each other.

Defining a system

Defining a new system is easy. Simply click on the Add button. Thereafter, the following dialog will pop up:

Enter the basic system details in the General tab:

Name
The name of the OT system

ID
The identifier of the system, as it may be used in existing documentation. Usually the ID is less self-explanatory than the system name.

Process Location
The physical location of the controlled process. This may be different from the location of the OT devices controlling the process. For example, the controlled process might be somewhere out in the field, whereas the OT devices are located in a cabinet inside a building.

Description
A description of what the OT system does. For example: "Candy bar packaging"

System Group
A group that the system is a member of. Available groups are defined by the OTbase system administrator. Usually you will find something like "Final product", "Safety", "Support system" etc.

Product Image
A picture that will be displayed in the header of the system profile. For final product systems you may want to use a product picture for easy identification of the system.

You can also add tags to the system, files, and extended (user defined) fields.

Once that you are finished with data entry, click on Save to save your system details. The new system will then show in the systems list.

Associating devices with a system

So far, your new system doesn't have any components. In order to change this, go to INVENTORY/DEVICES. In the device list, select the devices that you want to associate with the system. Note that you can select more than one device by using Shift-Left Click and Control-Left Click.

When you have selected the devices that belong to your system, click on Edit. In the bulk edit dialog that now opens you can associate all selected devices with a system in a single operation. Select your system in the drop-down menu that appears in the "OT System" field, it lists all systems defined in NETWORK/SYSTEMS. Thereafter, click on Save.

Network topology for a system

If you want to see how system components are networked, select a system and click on the Topology button. This will pop up a new browser window with a topology diagram.

As with other network topology diagrams in OTbase, you can search the diagram, zoom and pan, change the layout, export to Visio etc.

Adding new (planned) devices to an existing system

You can add a non-existing device to an existing system by adding that device to the device list and then follow the steps detailed above. However there are two other ways to add devices which may be more convenient in some situations as they are called from the "Edit System" dialog.

In order to manually specify the new device that you want to add to an existing system, follow these steps:

1. In the dialog shown above, clock on "Add".
2. A new dialog box pops up that allows you to specify the details of the new device. It's the same dialog that you get when adding a device in INVENTORY/DEVICES. The value of the field "OT System" is already set to the system that you are editing.
   
3. When you click on "Save", the new device will be added to the database and also to the system.

In order to clone a device that already is associated with the sytem, follow these steps:

1. From the list of devices in the dialog box (all devices that are associated with the system), select the device that you want to clone with left-click. The entry of this device will be highlighted in orange.
   
2. Click on "Clone".
3. In the new dialog box that pops up, fill in all the required data and click on "Save". The cloned device will be added to the database and also to the system.

In both scenarios, when you add the connectivity data for the new device, the following will be insterted automatically by OTbase:

• next free IP address of the network that you have selected
• next free port of the network switch that you have selected (if any) as the "connected to" counterpart.

You can change (overwrite) these values if you want.