About Security Management for Connected Clients
The Clients section in the Configuration Hub plugin for Historian enables you to view all clients connected to the Historian server that the Configuration Hub is connected to.
What are connected clients, and how does this work?
Connected clients include web-based clients, client tools, ETL, Historian Administrator, OPC UA HDA, and more. When you install clients, the Remote Collector Management Agent (RCM) is also installed, except for client tools and Excel Add-in components. For client tools and the Excel Add-in, you must install Historian Remote Management Agents, and point them to the Historian server your web-based clients are connected to. During installation, you can specify which Historian server these clients should connect to, as shown below.
When you access the Clients section in the Configuration Hub plugin for Historian, you can view details for all clients connected to the same Historian server as the Configuration Hub.
To understand this, let us consider the following example setup:
Machine 1- Historian Server
Machine 2- Client application 1
Machine 3- Client application 2
Machine 4- Client application 3
Machine 5- Client application 4
Machine 6- Web-based clients, including Configuration Hub.
All client applications and Configuration Hub connect to Machine 1, where the Historian Server exists.
Now, when you access the Clients section under the Configuration Hub plugin for Historian from Machine 6, you will be able to view all the client applications details.
The table below lists the details that you can view.
| Details | Description |
|---|---|
| MACHINE NAME | The machine name of the connected client. |
| STATUS | The status of the current connection. |
| LOG IN USERNAME | The username with which the client is connected. |
| IP | The IP address of the connected client. |
| CONNECTED ON | The date and time when the connection was established. |
| LAST ACTIVITY | The time when the last read and write request was made. |
How is the "Clients" section useful, and what else can I do?
You can efficiently manage security configurations for all clients connected to the Historian server. In setups using Proficy Authentication, you can configure clients to connect to the same Proficy Authentication server for user authentication from a single location at the node/machine level, avoiding the need to access multiple machines.
How to know the details of clients that are connected, especially the network message case of any issues?
From the Clients section, enable Debug Mode for each client application, allowing each to create its own ihapi log in the folder where other Historian logs are stored. These logs provide network-related and MTLS-related message details for troubleshooting.
What's Next?
You can access the Clients section, and manage the security configuration for the connected clients.