xMII - IP21 interface

[Former Member]

Hi All,

I am trying to connect a IP21 Plant Historian with xMII.I am using the IP21 data connector, but i am not sure the connection is getting established. Also i am using the ASpen Tech SQl PLus driver and not the Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge.Are there any special parameters that i need to change in the data server configuration.

Thanks and Regards,

Ram

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Is there any specific error you are getting back( check the logs)?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Udayan, I checked the logs and it says Error Loading JDBC driver easysoft.sql.jobdriver. This is because i am not using the easysoft jdbc driver but the aspentech SQL Plus driver. I dont have the server url for SQL PLus.

These are the steps i followed:

1. Install the Aspen Tech SQL Plus driver in the xMII machine.

2. Created a system DSN for connecting to the IP21 datasource using the Driver and the test connection was succesful.

3.I am configuring the data services in xMII creating a copy o f the IP21 connector and filing the necessary parameters. But i dont know how to tell xMII to look at the System DSN to connect to the IP21 throught the SQL Plus driver.

Alternately, i tried using the IP21 OLEDB connector and the connection was established.But when i try to use the query templates, Tag Querty details tab, it does not retrieve any tags.

I checked the logs and it says Error Occured while processing data stream Read Timed out.

Any help in this reagrd is appreciated.

Thanks,

Ram

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

You should not be using the EasySoft interface (that was for old versions of Lighthammer Illuminator). You should use the IP21 OLEDB connector, which uses Aspen Tech's SQL Plus interface to interact with IP21.

Please log a support request so that the tech support people can walk you through setup and troubleshooting.

Best regards,

Rick

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Ram,

You should use the IP21OLEDB type connection, not the Easysoft version (which is a legacy connector type). In order for the OleDB setup to work you will need to download and install the OleDB UDS from Service Marketplace and install this piece on a machine (doesn't have to necessarily be the xMII server, but can be) that has the IP21 ODBC driver installed. The UDS help documentation should give you enough direction to follow for IP21 connectivity, including ODBC parameter checks.

Once the OleDB UDS is installed and running, then point the Data Server's IP and Port properties to the UDS accordingly. If you've setup the ODBC driver and the UDS on the actual xMII webserver, then localhost should be fine and a default port like 8085 typically works well. If you get data stream read timed out errors, this typically means that the Data Server settings are not configured according to the ones 'listening' in the OleDB UDS entry properties. Once again, use the help docs for the UDS to provide you with insight.

Regards,

Jeremy Good

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey Jeremy,

I tried to find the OLEDB UDS on the market place but it seems it isin't there. Even though I do get a list of the other UDS' to download.

I found a SAP Note 983870 which talks about OLEDB UDS 4.0.2.5. The note has a download link which takes you to a 'Maintain Download Basket ' view and there one just gets the history of downloaded files.

Do you think it is an authorization issue (my user rights on the market place) or has the OLEDB UDS been removed for some reason?

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

There is nothing wrong with your access. I just checked with QA and apparently it has been temporarily taken off marketplace, for some version testing and will be back sometime soon.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Jeremy and Rick for your answers.When can we expect it to come back?is there any other way of getting it?

Regards,

Ram

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Service Marketplace is the only valid way to get the install, and I believe that you are not the only one currently waiting for it to get put back up there. Please send me a mail and I'll try to update you if I hear any news on the testing process.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

While waiting for the UDS OLEDB Connector, i connected to IP21 through the

ODBC_Database Connector.Are there any issues using this connector.

Appreciate the inputs,

Thanks and Regards,

Ram

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Aside from the fact that the SystemDSN and underlying ODBC drivers must live directly on the xMII server (on-box), whereas the OleDB UDS allows you to install the service and port listener whereever the API or driver lives (off-box or on-box), we have seen problematic issues with the JDBC-ODBC bridge provided by Sun.

This may have improved over the neverending releases 1.3.x, 1.4.x, etc. but historically we have chosen not to use it because of this behavior and the typical 'on-box' requirement.

As a short term solution, using it should be no problem, and when the OleDB is made available on Service Marketplace the data server can be reconfigured to use this and with the name being the same all query template should continue to work as before.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your inputs Jeremy.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jeremy,

Thinking on your lines,when we change the connector from ODBC to OLEDB connector, should we not change lall the query templates as well because the datasource would change from a SQL to TAG?

Thanks and Regards,

Ram

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

The only component that gets stored into the query template is the actual name of the Data Server, so if you keep the same name when you go from ODBC to OleDB you should be fine. If you are connecting to IP21 as both a SQL and a Tag you will need two different data servers anyhow, but the premise is the same. Keep the name the same and change the pointers in the underlying data server and the application will know no differences.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I have been following this thread with interest. The OleDB UDS is still in testing apparently. Not on the marketplace list yet. But I am having some difficulties with JDBC-ODBC bridge. We have xMii 12.0, jre 1.4 something. the JDBC-ODBC bridge is a dll on the xMii server. So I uploaded it from that location and deployed it and created an IDBC data connector (SQL). This worked on our 11.5 box but I suspect the configuration parameters may be different. Under the JDBCDriver parameter I put sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver

For the server URL jdbc:odbc:IP21ServerName (I tried IP address as well)

I can ping the IP.21 server by name from the xMii box. The SQLPlus ODBC driver is installed on the xMii box. End result - the status of the data service is red.

I am not too familiar with 12.0 so I am not quite sure how to troubleshoot the problem further other than to verify that the SQLPlus ODBC driver is working.

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Harold,

JDBCDriver: sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver (confirm the proper case)

ServerURL: jdbc:odbc:IP21 (where IP21 is the named SystemDSN that the ODBC driver install created - note this must be on the xMII server)

This is one of the limitations of the Sun JDBC ODBC bridge where all components are required to be on the physical box, whereas the OleDB route will bridge the ODBC to xMII through a configurable tcp/ip port and allow the SystemDSN/ODBC Driver and OleDB UDS to reside either on or off the physical box.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yup, did all that. Checked the case.

This is a Win 2003 64bit OS. The 64-bit ODBC manager doesn't see the 32-bit ODBC driver. I ran ODBCAD32.EXE in SYSWOW64 and added a system DSN there but I am wondering if xMii sees it. I tried a 64 bit alpha version of the Aspen tech ODBC driver but it seemed to have other problems. I ended up re-installing the 32 bit version. The regular 32-bit AspenTech client tools work fine on the xMii server (this is a dev server BTW in case you are getting nervous)

The jdbc driver, sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver, indicates a namespace; usually this is associated with a java class, no. So I am pretending to know something when I guess that xMii knows how to load the JcbcOdbc.dll (I had deployed earlier) and that the namespace gets resolved?

I even re-booted the box for good measure.

any word on when the OLEDB UDS will be available on the Market Place for xMii v 12 ?

Thanks Harold

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Harold,

The sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver (.class) is actually part of the Sun J2SDK install (the class file is bundled into the C:\j2sdk1.4.2\jre\lib\rt.jar file on my system). The Sun code is the one bridging down to the windows dll level to talk to the SystemDSN, not xMII directly. What error are you getting in the NW logs when you try to enable the Data Server?

OleDB is still 'In test' and I don't have a target date for you, but I know it is a high priority.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

OK - So in xMii 12.0, I need to go to the System Management menu. Then select JDBC Drivers. select the upload button and browse to the SDK directory on the xMii server and select the rt.jar file and then deploy that.

As I mentioned this is a 64 bit OS so I selected the j2sd,1.4.2_14-x64 folder and navigated to the lib folder and uploaded the rt.jar file and deployed it. no success. I am beginning to suspect the problem is that the ODBC manager defaults to the 64 bit ODBC manager. The aspen ODBC driver is 32 bit. Now I can create a system DSN using the 32bit version of the ODBC manager in syswow64 but the default ODBC manager does not see it and I suspect neither does xMii. So I am going to try 'installing' the Aspen 64 bit driver again and see if by deploying the rt.jar in the jdbc drivers and using the 64 bit version I have success

Thanks

[Former Member]

Harald (and anyone else needing the IP21) - please enter CSS issues with "high priority" and hopefully the updated OLEDB connector can get released. It has been way too long a wait, I agree.

[Former Member]

OK, I uploaded the rt.jar file and deployed it and then installed the 64 bit version of the Aspen ODBC driver and I can now query the IP.21 database. But for long term I still need the OLEDB UDS. So I will bug them

[saptechnicalteam_rcs]

Hi everybody,

I have the same kind of problem.

But I have installed xmii V12 on a solaris 9 (64 bit) box

So, If I summarize the topic :

- SAP recommend to use IP21_OLEDB connector ( that is to say threw an UDS server)

- The OLEDB connector is not yet available for UDS (so we cannot use IP21_OLEDB)

- We must use for the moment a jdbc bridge to odbc available in the J2SDK and install the Aspen ODBC driver

My questions are :

Is there any ASPI ODBC Driver for Solaris 9 64 bit available ?

If no, how can I bypass this problem using an other connector ?

Many thanks

Jean-louis

[saptechnicalteam_rcs]

I have found on the easysoft site [http://www.easysoft.com/products/data_access/index.html]

a JDBC-ODBC bridge with a client and server side.

I wonder if I can install :

- The client side of this bridge on my solaris 9 server where wy xmii V12 NW is installed

- The server side of this bridge on a windows server with the IP21 Aspentech ODBC sqlplus driver installed.

Regards

Jean-Louis