HMI User Administration and Backup in TIA Portal: Lab Manual from Key Switch to Restored Panel

• Protect objects with authorizations, never with user names.
• The PLC enforces critical rights too: HMI group AND key switch.
• An untested backup is not a backup – restore it to a spare panel.

Users, Groups and Authorizations

WinCC user administration has three layers. An authorization is a right (Operate, Recipe edit, Maintenance, User administration). A group collects authorizations. A user belongs to a group and has a password and a logoff time. Objects on screens are protected by an authorization, so adding a person never needs a screen change.

Lab Flow: From Key Switch to Tested Rights and Backup

Stage 1Key Switch Wiring and PLC Tag

Stage 2Input Mapping into DB_IO

// FC_InputMapping
"DB_IO".S40_KeyMaint := "S40_KeyMaint";

Stage 3Logic: Access Control in the PLC

The panel disables buttons, but the PLC must refuse the command as well, because a second panel, SCADA or an engineering laptop can write the same bits. The same principle protects recipes in the recipe transfer logic and manual operation behind the interlocks.

// DB_User (DB60): GroupNo : Int;  UserName : String[20];  Maint_Enable, Admin_Enable : Bool;
//                UserChanges : DInt;  GroupOld : Int;

// FC_AccessControl – called after FC_InputMapping
"DB_User".Maint_Enable := "DB_User".GroupNo >= 2 AND "DB_IO".S40_KeyMaint;   // HMI right AND physical key
"DB_User".Admin_Enable := "DB_User".GroupNo >= 3;
IF "DB_User".GroupNo <> "DB_User".GroupOld THEN                              // simple audit counter
    "DB_User".UserChanges := "DB_User".UserChanges + 1;
END_IF;
"DB_User".GroupOld := "DB_User".GroupNo;

// Example use in a manual-mode network: the PLC enforces the right, not only the panel
"DB_Manual".Jog_Allowed := "DB_User".Maint_Enable AND NOT "DB_Alarm".Any_Fault;

Stage 4HMI Users, Groups and Tags

1. Open Security settings → Users and groups in the project tree (HMI user administration). Create the authorizations, the three groups and one user per group with a logoff time.
2. In the runtime settings for user administration, set password rules and the number of failed logins before lock-out where your panel version supports them.
3. Drag DB_User into the HMI tag table: DB_User_GroupNo (Int) and DB_User_UserName (String).
4. Create a scheduled task with the event trigger User change, calling GetGroupNumber → DB_User_GroupNo and GetUserName → DB_User_UserName. On logoff the group number becomes 0.
5. Assign authorizations to the objects that need them – this is the list used by the recipe screen and the shift report screen.

Stage 5Link Login, Rights and Status to the Graphics

Button styles and lamps follow HMI buttons, lamps and auto/manual mode; the overall layout follows HMI screen design best practices.

Backup and Restore of the Panel

A panel holds more than the TIA project. Recipe data records, data logs and users changed in runtime exist only on the panel. Downloading the project to a spare panel restores screens and tags but none of those.

1. Create a backup from TIA Portal (Online → Backup of the HMI device), with ProSave, or from the panel's Control Panel to a USB stick or SD card.
2. Label it with machine, date and panel firmware and keep two copies, one off the machine.
3. Restore it to a spare panel once, during commissioning, so the procedure is proven before it is needed.

Stage 6Perform and Test: Animated Login, Rights and Backup

Log in as different users and watch which buttons become operable. The maintenance functions need both the HMI group and the physical key switch, because the PLC checks GroupNo from the panel against the mapped key-switch input. Leave the panel untouched to see the automatic logoff. Finally, replace the panel with and without a backup and see what survives. Use the passwords shown – this is a simulation only.