Scanning for local or remote nodes

Before the Workbench can connect to a node, it must first scan for available nodes. Scanning allows the Workbench to discover nodes that are either on the local network (LAN) or remotely through the deviceWISE Cloud. The nodes that are found are shown in the Nodes List. This list will be empty the first time the Workbench is started after it is installed. To connect to nodes and access its features, the Workbench must first scan:

  • For local nodes, this is usually done using the node's IP address for nodes that are on the same LAN as the computer running the Workbench.
  • For remote nodes, this is done using the Workbench's TR50 connection to the deviceWISE Cloud, and then the IoT Portal's TR50 connection to the remote node.
  • The Node Scanner window can remain open up while scanning for nodes multiple times or while you do other work in the Workbench.

How the Workbench accesses node resources

Each node stores its configuration settings and application definitions in an internal database on the node itself.

The Workbench uses the Scan function to locate nodes on the network and the Connect function to log in to a node using the credentials provided by the user.

When the configurations setting or application definitions are modified, the changes are written directly to the node's internal database.

The Workbench does not maintain an offline copy of the node configuration or definitions on the computer running the Workbench.

Runtime products provide Backing up and Restoring a node's configuration and item definition Exporting a project or trigger features which are described in their sections.