ThingWorx Navigate Deployment
The ThingWorx Navigate product family combines a ThingWorx Platform server with one or more resource servers to provide simplified, role-based applications. Within this product family, the ThingWorx Navigate View PLM App Extension offers several applications for viewing PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) data from Windchill. The applications are simpler to use than Windchill alone and are expected to be adopted by a larger number of users with less training required.
Components
• ThingWorx Navigate View PLM App Extension - The ThingWorx Navigate View PLM App Extension uses a resource server (Windchill) for PLM information and an optional external identity provider (IdP) for authentication. The identity provider can also be Windchill to consolidate user maintenance.
• Windchill Product Family
◦ Windchill - PTC's Product Lifecycle Management application.
◦ Windchill Directory Server - A directory server that is a required piece of the Windchill deployment.
◦ Creo CAD Worker: An optional service for Windchill, which produces Creo View content from recently added CAD content. The ability to utilize viewables is included in most of the Navigate View PLM App mashups.
Deployment Considerations
The ThingWorx Navigate View PLM App Extension uses the ThingWorx platform as a server. It can be deployed in the following ways:
• Monolithic deployment — Combines the Windchill application, the ThingWorx platform, and the Navigate extension on one host. Databases for the applications may still be on separate hosts. This deployment is recommended for non-production environments.
• Distributed deployment — Uses separate hosts for the ThingWorx platform (ThingWorx Navigate server) and the Windchill application, allowing horizontal scaling of Windchill. Communication between the applications uses either a certificate-based SSL connection or a trusted non-SSL connection (non-production). This is the recommended deployment for production systems.
References
Reference Architectures
ThingWorx Navigate Production Deployment
The diagram above depicts a straightforward deployment of ThingWorx Navigate, which includes the following features:
• The user accesses Windchill content through ThingWorx Navigate. In this design, Windchill is not accessible outside the firewall.
• Windchill has access to additional tools it may need — Windchill Directory Server (required) and a Creo View CAD worker (optional).
List of Components | Number of Components |
|---|---|
ThingWorx Foundation Server (with Navigate Extension) | 1 |
ThingWorx PostgreSQL Database | 1 |
Windchill CAD Worker | 1 |
Windchill Database | 1 |
Windchill Directory Server | 1 (installed on Windchill Server) |
Windchill Server | 1 |
ThingWorx Navigate High-Availability Deployment
At initial release, the ThingWorx Navigate application is not yet supported when ThingWorx 9.0 is in a clustered deployment. This section of the document will be added when an updated version of ThingWorx Navigate that supports this feature is available.