MindSphere Remote Services: Product Structure and Procurement¶
MindSphere Remote Services (MRS) is an optional add-on, that can be deployed to your existing MindSphere tenant, if that tenant is of type "Basic", "Standard" or "Premium".
The add-on "Remote Services" is available from the MindSphere portal and once procured, it will show up in the respective tenant and launchpad.
Remote Services capabilities are packaged according to network-2-network access capabilities (please refer to Remote Services Overview):
- The Remote Services add-on will enable customer-provided remote login apps residing in a Service Network to connect to apps and data residing in Device Networks using pre-defined protocols such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP, common for Windows®), Virtual Network Client (VNC, common for Linux®) or Secure Shell (SSH, common for Linux® or Unix®). Furthermore, the add-on provides all underlying remote access-related functionalities such as user or access management and monitoring or logging functionalities.
- The Engineering Option extends the add-on such, that users may also define custom protocol settings such as ports or port ranges or UDP-based IP protocols. This may enable customer-provided apps residing in a Service Network to access apps and data residing in Device Networks by means of custom protocols such as A/V streams or HTTP(S) or SIP or custom engineering protocols (e.g. Siemens TIA portal).
- The Data & Server Option allows apps residing on Devices in Device Networks to perform a reverse access to apps and data residing in Service Networks or MindSphere. By doing so, Devices may connect to centralized ticketing systems or data stores.
Note: the Engineering Option is no pre-condition for Data & Server Option - so you may use either one or both.
Note: The setup and configuration of this documentation's reference tenant, its users, Sites and Devices can be found in chapter Sample Setup Used in Documentation.
Capabilities of Remote Services are provided via SaaS subscription. Using them requires resources, which can be compared to the energy consumption of a car or electric appliance. Such Remote Services resources help you to scale your MRS-based business application. They are also available via in-app-purchase and are defined as follows:
- Service Asset is a Device registered to MRS, and it may reside either in a primary or secondary Device Network.
- Service Data is all data transfer via MRS including administrative tasks or payload such as files.
- Service Tunnel is the number of parallel active protocols, that are being securely routed between involved networks. For instance, performing remote login to multiple Devices sequentially in a one-by-one fashion demands just one Service Tunnel, whilst a dozen parallel active A/V streams demands twelve active Service Tunnels.
Note: The Remote Services add-on comes with free resources to allow for some initial setups before scaling your MRS-based business application. Prices for capability options as well as resources will be available either from the MindSphere store or your Sales representative.
Once MRS and the required resources are available in a MindSphere tenant, the MRS app can be launched from your MindSphere tenant's launchpad. Please refer to the subsequent chapters for additional information on how to setup users and their access rights or how to setup provided network-2-network connectivity.
Example: Find MRS app in MindSphere store¶
The MindSphere store is accessible via MindSphere Digital Exchange. Please navigate to the MRS app.
The MRS app's overview page in the store.
Adding the MRS app to your shopping cart.
Example: Buyer and Requester rights needed for in-app-purchasing¶
If users want to purchase capability options or MRS-specific cloud resources (e.g. Service Assets or Service Data), then a MindSphere tenant administrator must grant them "Buyer" and "Requester" rights for the tenant in which MRS is being used. This is done via the MindSphere Settings app available in your tenant's launch pad.
For instance, assign these rights to MRS user Service Admin Global.
Click "Save" to confirm your selection.
Additional permissions are granted now - close the message window.
Checking role assignment for user Owner Munich via the user icon in the top left corner of MRS V2 UI.
Example: Purchase "Engineering Option" via In-App-Purchasing¶
If the MRS resource meters (meter icon in top left corner) indicate a shortage of resources, the typical approach for purchasing new capabilities or resources is by using the box icon in the top left corner of the MRS app. On MindSphere tenants still using the former IOT Value Plan that will forward you to the general MindSphere store mechanisms available to all MindSphere apps. In the store MRS-related purchases have to be identified and selected accordingly. As an alternative, you may as well select the MindSphere Upgrade app from your tenant's launch pad.
Select the desired MRS-related upgrade from the MindSphere store's catalogue - here: the capability upgrade Remote Services (Engineering Option).
You might have to add required resources as well, such as the MRS resources of Service Assets.
Add the resources to have your order processed.
However, if MRS is used on MindSphere tenants using new packaging & pricing, the MRS app allows for taking shortcuts by using the blue pie chart icon in the top left corner of the MRS V2 app. This opens the MRS-related resource meters and also allows for accelerated purchasing of upgrades, because it pre-selects MRS-related ones from the store. For doing so, select the blue "shopping cart" icons next to the resource or option you want to purchase.
Purchasing the capability upgrade Remote Services (Engineering Option) via the MindSphere store.
Having the order processed by the MindSphere store.
It takes the store a moment to process the order.
Eventually, the order is confirmed.
Example: Purchase "Service Asset" resources¶
In the following, we outline how MRS user Owner Munich upgrades the number of Service Asset resources via the MindSphere upgrade mechanisms (via box icon).
After the purchase, the MRS resource meters are used to validate the recent purchase (via pie chart icon).
Example: Assign app rights and launch MRS from MindSphere launch pad¶
Once the MRS app was added to a MindSphere tenant, the app can be used via the MindSphere launch pad as any other MindSphere app. However, in order to ensure, that regular MindSphere users also become MRS users, it is essential to assign them with MRS-specific user rights, too.
In the beginning we show, that the user Service Admin Global does not have such MRS rights by default. Then we use the MindSphere settings app to assign rights for both (!) MRS apps V1 and V2 (cf. section on User Interfaces in Concepts used in MRS).
The MindSphere tenant's launchpad does not show MRS V1 or V2 yet. We launch the MindSphere Settings app.
Here we select the "Roles" tile in order to assign MRS-specific roles to user Service Admin Global.
So we edit this user's roles.
A list of already assigned roles pops up.
We scroll the list of assigned roles by pressing "Next".
Here we do that scrolling again by pressing "Next".
The two administrator roles related to MRS V1 an V2 pop up. Select them if they are not assigned yet and press "Save".
Now both MRS V1 and MRS V2 UIs show up in your tenant's launch pad.
Any questions left?
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