{"id":7915,"date":"2019-08-11T14:24:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-11T14:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rax-stg-wp-aws.com\/blogs\/integrating-sap-plant-connectivity-with-sap-mii-and-the-socket-system\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T19:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:29:09","slug":"integrating-sap-plant-connectivity-with-sap-mii-and-the-socket-system","status":"publish","type":"blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/blogs\/integrating-sap-plant-connectivity-with-sap-mii-and-the-socket-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Integrating SAP Plant Connectivity with SAP MII and the socket system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This blog describes the SAP\u00a9 Plant Connectivity (PCo) services and management&nbsp;tools that enable you to integrate with SAP Manufacturing Integration and&nbsp;Intelligence (MII) to create the following elements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Connectors<\/li>\n<li>Communication paths between control systems<\/li>\n<li>Control devices<\/li>\n<li>Files<\/li>\n<li>Historians<\/li>\n<li>Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sockets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These days, manufacturing automation software offers fast data exchange between&nbsp;SAP systems and external sources such as programmable logic controller (PLC)&nbsp;controls, plant historian systems, and more. The SAP PCo system is one of the&nbsp;major software applications that SAP introduced to exchange data between SAP Shop&nbsp;Floor and the SAP MII system. SAP PCo delivers the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)&nbsp;and machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to the business.<\/p>\n<p>SAP PCo is the second generation of the SAP Manufacturing connector technology.&nbsp;It replaces the xMII UDS (Universal Data Server) product that was initially&nbsp;developed by Lighthammer Corp. It increases the value of production data and&nbsp;lets you build smarter products with smarter machines. It distributes&nbsp;manufacturing intelligence across your factory and enterprise with robust<br \/>\nstandards-based connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>This post explains the SAP PCo installation and integration with SAP MII and&nbsp;the socket system. It provides step-by-step configuration screenshots of the source&nbsp;and destination systems. It also explores the notification creation process to<br \/>\nlet you monitor production facilities, identify undesirable events (such as&nbsp;rule violations or changes in measurement readings), and report them to a destination system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SAP PCo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This section explores SAP PCo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SAP provides a software component that enables the exchange of data between a&nbsp;SAP system and the industry-specific data sources of different manufacturer&nbsp;process control systems such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Plant historian systems<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;Programmable logic controllers (PLCs)<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;Statistical Process Control Software (SPC) systems<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With PCo, you can receive tags and events from the connected production source&nbsp;systems either automatically or by requesting and forwarding them to the&nbsp;connected SAP systems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Advantages of a PCo system<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can quickly configure PCo systems. No additional development is needed to connect production source systems.<\/li>\n<li>PCo systems communicate with different software systems on the shop floor and connect machines to solutions such as SAP MII, manufacturing execution&nbsp;systems (MES), SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), and more.<\/li>\n<li>You can configure a PCo system for one or more locations and distribute manufacturing intelligence across your factory and enterprise with robust standards-based connectivity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The following diagram shows the SAP PCo architecture:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture1_38.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/help.sap.com\/doc\/saphelp_pco15\/15.0\/en-US\/46\/a00344d44852b7e10000000a155369\/frameset.htm\">Image Source<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Socket to PCo process<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following sections cover installing and configuring the PCo, based on the<br \/>\nfollowing steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Install the latest PCo version.<\/li>\n<li>Install key files with the corresponding hardware key.<\/li>\n<li>In PCo, create a source system, `Socket Agent`.<\/li>\n<li>In PCo, create an agent instance with the socket agent and specify the IP address with the port number.<\/li>\n<li>In PCo, create a destination system, `SAP MII`.<\/li>\n<li>In MII, create a Business Logic Server (BLS) transaction to retrieve data from the source system.<\/li>\n<li>In PCo, configure the MII BLS transaction path in the PCo MII destination.<br \/>\n\t&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Prerequisites<\/strong><br \/>\nBefore starting, consider the following prerequisites:<\/p>\n<p>To find the latest guide, go to the<a href=\"https:\/\/support.sap.com\/en\/index.html\"> SAP support portal<\/a><br \/>\nThen click <strong>Download Software<\/strong>&nbsp;and log on. Finally, click&nbsp;<strong>Support Packages and Patches -&gt; A-Z Index -&gt; P -&gt; SAP Plant Connectivity -&gt; SAP Plant Connectivity 2.3 -&gt; SAP Plant Connectivity 2.3 -&gt; Win32<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Install the SAP PCo system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before you install the SAP PCo system, you must install Microsoft&amp;reg; .NET&nbsp;Framework version 4.5.2 or later.<\/p>\n<p>Reference this <a href=\"https:\/\/help.sap.com\/doc\/9e6b43200e1c4a259ccec6b942ca31a0\/15.1.3\/en-US\/T066_CIG_PCO151_SP03_FINAL.pdf?\">help document<\/a>&nbsp;for planning, software download, installation, and post-installation assistance<br \/>\nas needed.<\/p>\n<p>The PCo Management Console, shown in the following image, is the WinForms application that provides the configuration and management of the PCo source&nbsp;and destination systems, agent instances, and notifications.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture2_25.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 2\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"service.sap.com\/instguides](service.sap.com\/instguides\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a><br \/>\nGo to<br \/>\n<strong>SAP Business Suite Applications -&gt; SAP Manufacturing SAP Plant Connectivity -&gt; SAP Plant Connectivity 15.1<\/strong>.<br \/>\nThe following image shows the structure of the connection flow:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture3_20.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 3\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"service.sap.com\/instguides\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Go to&nbsp;<strong>SAP Business Suite Applications -&gt; SAP Manufacturing SAP Plant Connectivity -&gt; SAP Plant Connectivity 15.1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After you install the .NET Framework, use the following steps to install PCo:<\/p>\n<p>1.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Install the latest PCo version.<\/p>\n<p>2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Install key files with the corresponding hardware key.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Create the source system<\/strong><br \/>\nUse the following steps to create the source system:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set the source system and agent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click <strong>Source System<\/strong>, provide the name, and select the source Agent type&nbsp;(<em>OPC DA<\/em>, <em>HAD<\/em>, <em>OLEDB<\/em>, <em>UA<\/em>`, or <em>IP21<\/em>) as <strong>Socket Agent<\/strong>&nbsp;as shown in the&nbsp;following screenshot:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture4_15.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 4\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Set the socket type<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Choose the socket type, which can be Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) or Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).<\/li>\n<li>Enter the name of the connection and the IP address of the socket.<\/li>\n<li>Enter the port on which the barcode scanner connects.<br \/>\n\t&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;Set the terminator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Enter the terminator to identify the end of the message in the data stream and&nbsp;provide the length of the message in the data stream as shown in the following image:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture5_13.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 5\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>Reliable Connection<\/strong>&nbsp;tab, set the interval and number of retries if,&nbsp;the connection fails, as shown in the following image:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture6_11.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 6\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Create the destination system&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Use the following steps to create the destination system:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set the destination<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the destination, choose the MII destination, enter a name, a description, and&nbsp;click <strong>OK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture7_8.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 7\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Select server and MII version<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Select the server name, port number, version of MII software, and the user&nbsp;credentials that have the MII admin role access as shown in the following screenshot:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture8_8.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 8\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Test the connection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click<strong>&nbsp;Test Connection.<\/strong> If the connection works, the <strong>Connection Successful<\/strong>&nbsp;message&nbsp;displays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Create an agent<\/strong><br \/>\nUse the following steps to create an agent:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Choose the source system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Choose the barcode source system as <strong>source<\/strong>&nbsp;and give the agent name and description.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture9_6.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 9\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Select the Bar&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>Subscription Items<\/strong>&nbsp;tab, select <strong>Browse<\/strong>&nbsp;at the bottom and select&nbsp;<strong>Bar<\/strong>. The <strong>Bar Message<\/strong>&nbsp;field is the input parameter name for <strong>Bar<\/strong>. The&nbsp;scanned barcode value is retrieved into this parameter.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture10_4.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 10\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Set the port and port notification&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In <strong>Query Ports<\/strong>, select `<em>SAP MII<\/em>` and give a new port number. Do not use thisport with any other agents. Check other agent instances before assigning it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture11_4.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 11\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Go to the Query Port tab, select the first two options, `<em>MII<\/em>` and&nbsp;`<em>MII before 12.2<\/em>`, and then verify that the port number is available. The<br \/>\ndefault is `<em>9000<\/em>`. After you create the port, save the agent instance and create&nbsp;a notification for this port.<\/p>\n<p>In destination, click <strong>Add Destination<\/strong>, select the destination MII system,&nbsp;and browse to the target transaction.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture12_2.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 12\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In <strong>Transaction<\/strong>, select the input parameter to receive this barcode message.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture13_3.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 13\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Click <strong>Save<\/strong>&nbsp;and start the agent instance. After you scan a barcode, PCo gets&nbsp;it and sends it to the MII transaction. In the MII transaction, you can process&nbsp;the input data.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Configure the management host settings for BLS transactions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After you create the source and the destination systems, you need to configure&nbsp;the PCo settings for connecting the MII application menu data server.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture14_1.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 14\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The settings in the preceding image describe the system details of the PCo&nbsp;installation. You can use the same information in the SAP MII data server&nbsp;to configure connectivity for the PCo through a URL path.<\/p>\n<p>Use the port number used in the PCo Web Services Description Language (WSDL) URL in the PCo connector.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Create a PCo data server in SAP MII<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Use the following steps to create a PCo data server:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update the hosts file<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before creating the PCo connectivity, you must add the PCo system IP address or&nbsp;host name to the SAP MII server host file, <strong>C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Go to <strong>SAP MII Menu -&gt; Data Services -&gt; Create Data Server<\/strong>&nbsp;as shown in the<br \/>\nfollowing screenshot:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture15_0.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 15\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Select the connector type<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Select <strong>Connector Type<\/strong>&nbsp;from the drop-down menu and enter the server name and&nbsp;description fields.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture16_1.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 16\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nFill in the fields as follows:<\/p>\n<p><strong>PCo Mgmt Service URL:<\/strong> https:\/\/IP address:Port\/PcoManagement<\/p>\n<p>Fill in the administrator credentials of the PCo mchine that you used to create&nbsp;the PCo source.<\/p>\n<p><strong>User ID<\/strong>: PCo machine user ID.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Password<\/strong>: Use the same credentials that you used to create the PCo source.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture17_2.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 17\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After you enter the URL path, click <strong>Next.<\/strong>. A new window displays for&nbsp;credentials, which should be the PCo Server Windows credentials.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture18_0.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 18\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Fetch the agents that you created in the PCo Management Console.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture19.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 19\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;Click <strong>Finish<\/strong>&nbsp;and then check the <strong>Enabled&nbsp;<\/strong>check box as shown in the&nbsp;following screenshot:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture20.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 20\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After the connection is successful, fill out the fields, as shown in the following<br \/>\nscreenshot:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture20_0.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 21\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture21.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 21\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>Status<\/strong>&nbsp;tab, the <strong>Status<\/strong>&nbsp;parameter should have a green <strong>Running&nbsp;<\/strong>value.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture22.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 22\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Create SAP PCo notifications<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The notification process enables you to monitor production facilities and to&nbsp;record any sudden, undesirable events and report them to a destination system.&nbsp;However, you can also use this process to record the frequently occurring&nbsp;desirable events such as confirmations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Configure PCO notification with an agent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After you create the agent, right-click the agent in the list and select&nbsp;<strong>Add Notification<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture23.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 23\" \/><\/p>\n<p>.Enter the name and description and click <strong>OK<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture24.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 24\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nSelect the <strong>Subscription Items<\/strong>&nbsp;tab and create a notification based on the&nbsp;trigger condition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26547-body-Picture25.png\" alt=\"sap pco pic 25\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The notification is active as soon as you create it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The SAP PCo system offers a fast data exchange between SAP systems and external&nbsp;sources such as PLC controls, plant historian systems, SPC software, and more.<\/p>\n<p>You can configure it quickly with no additional development needed, and you can&nbsp;easily connect source systems in your production system. PCo can communicate&nbsp;with different software systems on the shop floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Integrating SAP Plant Connectivity with SAP MII and the socket system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7917,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","nid":"26547","content_type":"blog","created_by":"10130","authored_on":"2024-01-29T15:24:24+00:00","field_article_industries":"","tag_category":"Technical","field_blog_author_text":"by Rackspace Technology Staff","seo_description":"Integrate SAP Plant Connectivity (PCo) with SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (MII). Create connectors and communication paths.\r\n","field_featured_image":"","insights_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_technical_images\/26547-insights_image-erp-technical-blog-1-insights.jpg","field_partners":"","rxt_platforms":"SAP, SAP on GCP, SAP ERP","product":"","publisheddate":"2019-08-11T14:24:24","rxt_solutions":"Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)","opengraph_tag":"","x_tag":"","teaser_flag":"Technical Blog","seo_titile":"SAP Plant Connectivity with SAP MII and the Socket System | Rackspace Technology","field_topics":"","field_slug":"integrating-sap-plant-connectivity-with-sap-mii-and-socket-system","footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-7915","blogs","type-blogs","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-technical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blogs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9777,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/7915\/revisions\/9777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}