The Dell Validated Design for Energy Edge consists of the following components:
- Dell PowerEdge servers with VMware Hypervisor (ESXi)
- Substation automation and visualization with ZEE600 from ABB
- Cybersecurity with Forescout
- Dell Edge Gateways
- IEDs and industrial controllers
The architecture covered in this DVD for Energy Edge with ABB and Forescout addresses substation automation use cases by integrating the data handling, automation, and visualization offered by ABB ZEE600 along with the cybersecurity monitoring and detection from Forescout. In this DVD, a substation, with downstream connections to IEDs (intelligent electronic devices) and upstream connections to a regional control center, is used to represent typical digital components of electrical distribution. This document describes the integration of Dell hardware, the VMware virtualized platform, and several independent software vendor (ISV) applications to validate the design and provide size and scaling guidance.
Some of the use cases this document addresses in detail are:
- Data aggregation
- Substation automation and SCADA
- Protocol gateway
The following figure shows the integrated architecture used in this validated design. It shows how the ISV applications connect to the devices found in a substation, how data flows through the system, and how the components work together to meet operational needs in a seamless and secure way.
The following is a high-level description of the Dell Validated Design for Energy Edge:
- VMware vSphere and vSAN supported virtual machines for ABB ZEE600 and Forescout eyeInspect Sensor applications (Passive and Active) on Dell PowerEdge XR12 servers
- VMware vSphere and vSAN supported virtual machines for Forescout Command Center on Dell PowerEdge R660/R670 servers
- Dell Edge Gateways 3200 and 5200 running ABB ZEE600 Runtime HMI clients
Subsequent chapters describe each of the components in detail and discuss considerations and best practices.