OPC-DA connection

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am connecting to a Nematron OPC server (supporting OPC-DA v2.0), which is running WinNT SP6. On this server, I have installed the UDS Admin and OPC-DA UDS.

In the UDS Admin, I seem to have a successful connection (no port conflicts, the "light bulb" indicator is lit, message in Event Viewer says "Connected to datasource").

On the xMII server (Windows Server 2003 SP2, xMII 11.5.3b66), I have created an OPC Data Server which points to the IP address of the OPC server and the same port as configured in the UDS Admin (8085). The connection status appears to be successful (i.e. not red). There are no errors in the SAP log related to the connection.

However, when I create and run a Tag Query on this server, no tags are returned. I have verified that there are tags available on the OPC server using Canary TrendLink.

I have also tried running the OPC UDS as an application rather than as a service, but still could not retrieve any tags.

Any ideas as to why I cannot see any tags through xMII would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Allison

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Allison,

Have you tried to create an alias file? Not that you need one, but just try to see if the Alias mechanism has access.

Also, I'm assuming everything is on box and that you put in the PROGID correctly (no miss-spellings), is this correct?

Last try to query the UDS as a tag list and make the return content type XML, there may be an error that xMII isn't passing through.

Martin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Martin,

To create an alias file, would I just have to set CacheMode=ALIAS in the UDS Admin?

On the OPC server, we have the UDS Framework and OPC UDS. The PROGID seems to be correct because we changed it to a slightly different name and were unable to connect. We found this PROGID in Canary TrendLink.

We have tried to query the UDS as a tag list and returned XML, but we just receive column headers (no errors, no data rows).

Thanks,

Allison

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Allison,

Check the docs for details on how alias works, but CacheMode=Alias would make the UDS instance only return those tags that you built into the actual alias file.

I think what Martin meant was to use the alias building interface to see if you could retrieve a list of tags from the connected system. After you've done Datasource...Connect and see the connected message on the bottom right, then right-click on Root and select 'Add Tags'. If you input a mask that matches a sample set of tags and press the Retreive button you should see them in the list if it is able to namespace browse the server. This provides a good way to confirm connectivity and configuration of the UDS instance itself before involving the data server and template editor side of things, since if you can't see tags in the alias builder you will not see them in the query template editor either.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jeremy,

We followed your instructions in the Configure Aliases interface, but again did not get any tags.

In the alias building interface, we also did an "Import Tags" and successfully imported one tag, but we still do not see any tags when we run a Tag Query in xMII. When we test the query and select "text/xml" as content type, there are no errors in the XML.

There are no errors in the Event Viewer on the OPC server.

However, we are getting the following error in the xMII General Log after we run the query:

ERROR ErrorHandler - An invalid Server was used (IlluminatorService).

com.lighthammer.Illuminator.logging.LHException: An invalid Server was used (IlluminatorService).

at com.lighthammer.Illuminator.security.AuthorizationEngine.checkPermissions(Unknown Source)

at com.lighthammer.Illuminator.security.AuthorizationEngine.validateQuery(Unknown Source)

at com.lighthammer.Illuminator.services.ServiceManager.runQuery(Unknown Source)

at com.lighthammer.Illuminator.servlet.Illuminator.service(Unknown Source)

at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.SERequestDispatcher.forwardServlet(SERequestDispatcher.java:638)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.SERequestDispatcher.forward(SERequestDispatcher.java:236)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.SERequestDispatcher.internalForward(SERequestDispatcher.java:283)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.SEFilterChain.doFilter(SEFilterChain.java:96)

at com.lighthammer.cms.system.CMSFilter.doFilter(Unknown Source)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.SEFilterChain.doFilter(SEFilterChain.java:60)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ApplicationInfo.filterApplRequest(ApplicationInfo.java:2159)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ApplicationInfo.processApplRequest(ApplicationInfo.java:1823)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ServerHostInfo.processApplRequest(ServerHostInfo.java:937)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ServletExec.ProcessRequest(ServletExec.java:1091)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ServletExec.ProcessRequest(ServletExec.java:973)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ServletExecService.processServletRequest(ServletExecService.java:167)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.ServletExecService.Run(ServletExecService.java:204)

at com.newatlanta.servletexec.HttpServerRequest.run(HttpServerRequest.java:487)

Regards,

Allison

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The following is the XML we get when we run the Tag Query (in Tag List mode):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

- <Rowsets DateCreated="2007-09-26T11:20:23" EndDate="2007-09-26T11:20:23" StartDate="2007-09-26T10:20:23" Version="11.5.3">

- <Rowset>

- <Columns>

<Column Description="TagName" MaxRange="0" MinRange="0" Name="TagName" SQLDataType="12" SourceColumn="TagName" />

<Column Description="Description" MaxRange="0" MinRange="0" Name="Description" SQLDataType="12" SourceColumn="Description" />

</Columns>

</Rowset>

</Rowsets>

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Allison,

Until you can see some tags in the Alias builder in the UDS Admin tool it is no point in trying anything on the xMII query side.

Try enabling Debug in your UDS admin settings and then monitoring the associated log file which should be in C:\Program Files\SAP\xMII\UDS\Logs while you connect and attempt to browse tags with the mask/retrieve function.

Regards,

Jeremy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jeremy,

We set Debug=True in the OPC UDS, then tried to browse tags in the alias builder interface, but we cannot seem to find the log file on the OPC server.

There is no C:\Program Files\SAP folder on the OPC server. We only have a C:\Program Files\Lighthammer\UDS Admin folder, which does not have any log subfolders.

Regards,

Allison

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Allison,

Unfortunately Jeremy was mistaken on which UDSs you are talking about. You should have the 2.5 UDSs, not the 4.0 (as Jeremy assumed) If this is the case then Look online for a <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/debugview.mspx">Debug Viewer</a> then set the debug flag on the UDS to true. I would then look at the log and try to figure out what the issue is, if it doesn't help you, then <i>I</i> would open a <b>CSS message</b>. <i>Hint</i>

Martin.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Martin,

We downloaded the Debug Viewer program and tried to browse tags in the alias bulider, but we did not see any errors (or anything that looked suspicious) in the Debug Viewer.

Shall I send the log file to an email address or post it in the forum? It is fairly long...

Thanks,

Allison

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Here is the output from the Debug Viewer.

ITagDataSource::InInit() - OPCServer = {Nematron.OPCServer}

ITagDataSource::InInit() - ReadDescriptions = ITagDataSource::InInit() - LookupItemID =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - [NamespaceBrowsing = ; PathDelimiter = {.}; BrowseMask = {*}]

ITagDataSource::InInit() - BrowseMode =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - CacheMode =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - ReadMode =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - ReadSource =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - DemandLoadMetadata =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - ReadDelay =

ITagDataSource::InInit() - AcceptibleDataLevel =

Connecting to OPCServer {Nematron.OPCServer}

OPC Server Connect Success HRESULT = 0x00000000

OPCGroupCreate()

IOPCServer Revised Update Rate

IOPCServer::AddGroup() success

OPC Namespace Type =

OPCBrowseBranch()

[OPCUDS] Vendor = Nematron Corp.

OPCBrowseBranch() SUCCESS HRESULT = 0x00000000

ITagDataSource::FindGroups() Mask = % rowCount = 500

ISupportCurrent::FindTags - Modifying GroupName Path [FROM = {}; TO = {}]

ITagDataSource::FindTags() Group = , Mask = %, RowCount = 250

ITagDataSource::OnShutdown()

[OPCUDS] Vendor = Nematron Corp.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Open a CSS message.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks, I will do that.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I have submitted a CSS message, but wanted to add one more piece of information I just noticed in xMII.

I just ran a TagQuery and saw the following warning in the General Log:

WARN MessageCatalog *** MISSING RESOURCE: Unable to localize No tags requested

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Thanks,

Allison

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The TagQuery I mentioned in the previous post was in Current mode.

[jcgood25 · Accepted solution]

Did you by any chance run a test query from the Template Editor with no tags mapped over to the right? The error shouldn't be anything to worry about, and it could have happened from doing a new..TagQuery, selecting your OPC data server along with Current Mode and pressing Test.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

That is indeed what happened. Glad to know the error is nothing to be concerned about.

Thanks,

Allison

[salvatore_castro · Accepted solution]

Allison,

From the Nematronics web site guide on thier software the OPC server name should be: Nematron.OPCServer.1 and not Nematron.OPCServer

-Sam

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Sam,

We started out using Nematron.OPCServer as the OPC Server name in the UDS admin, but we ended up changing it to Nematron.OPCServer.1 and still could not see any tags.

I see that Nematron.OPCServer is in the log file that I copied and pasted into the forum last week though, so I will double-check that our final UDS configuration had Nematron.OPCServer.1 in it and will let you know.

Thanks,

Allison

[Former Member]

Allison - I heard a "rumor" at the SAP Adaptive Manufacturing conference that the 4.0 UDS's will be available soon...

Martin - any truth to this?

[Former Member]

... Maybe ...

I think the political issues are finally resolved, so we should see them get some forward momentum again.

<Don't quote me> but people here are still trying to get it out before the end of the year.

Martin.