Configure ThingWorx Navigate to Connect to Multiple Windchill Systems
You can connect ThingWorx Navigate to more than one Windchill system. ThingWorx Navigate then searches systems, and displays search results to the end user on a single page.
This topic describes how to configure ThingWorx Navigate to connect to multiple Windchill instances, each instance executes a service in ThingWorx Navigate that automatically duplicates necessary connectors, entities, and services.
Prerequisites
Before you set up your multiple Windchill configuration, make sure you meet the following prerequisites:
• Your Windchill servers are set up.
• ThingWorx Navigate is configured with Single Sign-on or Windchill Authentication.
• Each user has the same user name on every Windchill system.
Each Windchill system returns data based on the permissions granted to that user on that specific server. If a user logs in with a different user name, ThingWorx Navigate will not work as expected.
Add Windchill servers
To add another Windchill server, duplicate the existing Resource Provider and the Windchill connector:
1. In ThingWorx Composer, under SYSTEM, click Resources.
2. Search for the resource NavigateSetupUtils, and then open it. The General Information page opens.
3. Click Services. The Services page opens.
4. Search for AddWindchillServerForNavigate, and then click Execute Service. The Execute Service window opens.
5. Under suffix, add a suffix to the duplicate server name, and then click Execute.
6. Check the output for the summary of the duplicated things:
ptc-windchill-integration-connector-proxy_suffix
ptc-windchill-integration-connector_suffix
WindchillDemoPartResourceProvider_suffix
WindchillDocumentResourceProvider_suffix
WindchillDemoEpmDocumentResourceProvider_suffix
WindchillDemoRepresentationResourceProvider_suffix
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If you see errors in the output and the service fails, no new connectors are created, and you won’t be able to configure your system with multiple Windchill servers.
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7. Click Done.
8. To check if the duplicated connector, connector-proxy and resource providers are created, search for the names with the given suffix.
9. If ThingWorx Navigate is configured with Single Sign-on, restart Apache Tomcat, otherwise the connectors cannot be configured.
Now that you added the duplicate connectors, the next step is to configure ThingWorx Navigate with your authentication method for Multiple Windchill connection.
Configure the new connectors and connector-proxy (ptc-windchill-integration-connector_suffix and ptc-windchill-integration-connector-proxy_suffix), based on the configuration of the original connectors and connector-proxy (ptc-windchill-integration-connector and ptc-windchill-integration-connector-proxy), but add the new Windchill server details to:
• The ptc-windchill-integration-connector-proxy_suffix URL and Test Connection URL
• The ptc-windchill-integration-connector_suffix Base URL
Continue to the section for Single Sign-on or Windchill Authentication.
Configure the new server with Single Sign-on
To configure your additional
Windchill server with your Single Sign-on, follow the instructions in “Scenario:
ThingWorx as a Service Provider and
Windchill as a Resource Provider” in
PTC Single Sign-on Architecture and Configuration Overview Guide. This guide provides instructions and several Identity Providers configuration examples.
Your system is now connected to the new Windchill server. Log into ThingWorx Navigate again to access the data from multiple Windchill systems.
Configure the new server with Windchill Authentication
If you are using Windchill Authentication, follow these steps:
1. In ThingWorx Composer, under SECURITY, click Authenticators.
2. Click ptc-identity-provider-authenticator to open it.
3. Click Configuration. The Configuration page opens.
4. Select the check box for MultipleWindchillServers—This connects ThingWorx Navigate to two or more Windchill instances.
5. Stop Apache Tomcat and ThingWorx Integration Runtime.
6. Replace the web.xml file in the Tomcat installation directory:
a. Browse to <Tomcat installation location>\webapps\Thingworx\WEB-INF
b. Make a copy of web.xml, then save it to a different location.
c. Browse to <Navigate installation location>\MultiWindchillConfiguration\idp\, then copy the web.xml file.
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If you downloaded ptc-windchill-extension separately, you can also copy the web.xml file from the ptc-windchill-extension\idp\twx-8.3.x\multi folder.
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d. Paste web.xml to this location:
<Tomcat installation location>\webapps\Thingworx\WEB-INF
7. Start Apache Tomcat and ThingWorx Integration Runtime.
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Make sure that the KeyStore and TrustStore files contain the required certificates for all the Windchill servers. If certificates are missing, you will not be able to connect to additional Windchill servers.
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Your new server is now configured with Windchill Authentication. Log into ThingWorx Navigate again to access the data from multiple Windchill systems.
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For systems with Windchill Authentication configured, a user must log in with the same user role to each Windchill instance.
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Continue to the next section to set the refresh rate for new servers.
Configure the refresh for new servers
If you are adding Windchill servers to an existing setup of ThingWorx Navigate, decide when your users will see results from the new servers. Choose one of these types of refresh for new servers:
• Look for new servers only during login—This is the default. Your users will see search results from the new servers the next time they log in to ThingWorx Navigate.
• Refresh every n seconds—The system checks for new servers every n seconds. Your users see results from the other servers after the refresh, without having to log out first. Follow the steps below to set an automatic refresh rate:
1. Stop Apache Tomcat and ThingWorx Integration Runtime.
2. Open the file <Tomcat installation location>\webapps\Thingworx\WEB-INF\web.xml in a text editor.
3. Find mwaTimePeriod and change the parameter value to +n, with n to look for new servers every n seconds.
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• If you’re using Windchill Authentication, and this parameter is set to a positive value and one of the Windchill servers is down, users may have issues when that server comes back up. In this case, the user should refresh the landing page of ThingWorx Navigate to get a Windchill login prompt for that server.
• Optionally, you can choose the Windchill server the user logs into first by changing the masterIdpServer parameter value to the Windchill URL.
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4. Save and close the file.
5. Start Apache Tomcat and ThingWorx Integration Runtime.
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For this configuration note the following points:
• For systems with Windchill Authentication configured, a user must log in with the same user role to each Windchill instance.
• The Download Drawing Bundle task is not supported.
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