Communication problems of 7550 and 8650 energy meters ION Setup

[danielbarrantes]

Currently I do not have communication with 7550 and 8650 energy meters which are connected by ethernet. The curious thing is that the same meter can be interrogated from another site (it is interrogated by 2 different utilities) and also from a SCADA (Ingeteam).

The problem occurs only in the office called "Santa Cruz", so the decision was made to carry out a test by changing the energy meter for a computer with the same IP and the same gateway, which if it was possible to ping (unlike the meter).

Basic services have already been restarted, the server has been rebooted, ports 7700 and 502 have been opened, and the configuration has been reviewed in ION Setup, however, the ping is still not successful.

The Santa Cruz server is old and has windows server 2008.

I attach a screenshot where the ping tests and the server characteristics are observed.

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @danielbarrantes ,

If I am reading your screenshots correctly, the IP addresses of these meters is 192.168.X.X, these are classified as class C IP address which has very specific behaviors on Networks. I am not an IT expert but these would have to be very specific networking configured (Such as Virtual Lans, VLAN for short) to get the different sites to talk to these meters.

Regards,

Charles

[Robert_Lee]

I'd like to point out that Windows 2008 Server R2 has reach EOL on January 14, 2020 so it isn't going to be receiving any further security updates from Microsoft so you might want swap it out.

I would suggest going to that remote location with a more recent laptop and see if plugging into the same network switch allows ION Setup to function (you could also use Wireshark to confirm that network traffic is being properly routed).

I would also perform an IPCONFIG /all from the command line to see what the server IP settings are (in comparison to the device settings).

This looks to be some type of IT issue (network switch(s) doesn't have the port open) or some type of gateway configuration of some kind.

[Yut · Accepted solution]

You may use tracert  192.168.190.100 to see where the packet stop in your network it might at some of the router.

[galcaPsE]

Hi @danielbarrantes,

This is a typical networking issue, some tips:

- You will have the network diagram LAN/WAN to better understand your OT/IT network, for cybersecurity "don't share".

- Verified the physical layer connection, I noticed you do it.

- In the server use command prompt console and type "tracert 192.168.190.XX" it's very useful. Test with "tracert" in the same LAN (192.168.190.XX) 1 meter in OK condition and the other's 2 meter's (IP 100 and 106) with problems.

- You mentioned office "Santa Cruz" and I think used IT gateway for this purpose. In some cases IT deparment i) put new rules on firewall's, ii) change some logical topology on gateway or iii) have a "real physical problem" in other IT gateway which is the route for the LAN "Prime Server".

- It's recommended you have "a picture or baseline" of the protocols in your LAN, wireshark is a powerful tool for this purpose.

- If you solved the problem, install your laptop in the same LAN of Server, them use a tool like "RuggedPing" or "Angry IP Scanner" for discover the LAN 192.168.X.Y. only a few seconds to verify your IP's management.

Regards,