Platform tunneling overview

Platform tunneling lets you make a Workbench platform connection to a remote JACE platform by “tunneling” through the station running on another NiagaraAX proxy host, typically the Supervisor for the target JACE. Once the tunnel connection is made, you can use all the same platform views, and perform the same platform tasks, as if you had a platform connection directly to the target JACE.

This can be useful in cases where only the Supervisor has an exposed IP address, or if a firewall restricts access to Niagara hosts on a network through only a single port.

Key points to remember include:

Usage applies to a full Workbench client only, and not a “Web Workbench” browser session for platform tunnel access (just as Web Workbench does not provide direct platform access).
Tunneling is not a “daemon level” function. Platform tunneling relies on the Supervisor’s running station, as its web server acts as the “tunnel proxy server”, or tunnel entrance point. Tunneling is actually HTTP, to allow access to the platform daemon running on a JACE—the tunnel endpoint.