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Problem Statement: When installing the v5.0 Service Pack 1, the Smart Agent installer might think the version of IP.21 is v4.x instead of v5.0. For this reason, the InfoPlus.21 component of the Service Pack isn't available to be selected for installation on that machine. The attached screen capture details this behavior.
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Solution: The version information comes from the file: [drive]:\Program Files\AspenTech\setup\uninstall\IP21BASE.INI
In this file, there's a section titled, [Features Installed]
This section details the various version information of the installed components. For example, it will contain entries similar to this:
IP21BASE=5.0.1.0
INFOPLUS.21=5.0.1.0
INFOPLUS-X=5.0.1.0
IP21 ADMIN=5.0.1.0
IP21 DEFED=5.0.1.0
On some machines, the INFOPLUS-X version is specified as 4.1.2.0 (for example), even though everything else is listed as 5.0.0.0. This is likely caused during a v5.0 upgrade, and forgetting to select the IP-X subcomponents during the InfoPlus.21 upgrade process.
In order to resolve this, either use the v5.0 Installation CD and run the upgrade option for the InfoPlus-X subcomponent of InfoPlus.21, then run the Service Pack installation again - OR - manually change the IP21BASE.INI file to specify the version as 5.0.0.0 prior to installing the service pack.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: What are the parameters that can be passed through the ConfigLine via setcimrpc.cfg OR daAddServer().
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Solution: Here is a list of all the parameters that can be passed through the configline via setcimrpc.cfg.
Configuration Line Syntax
Syntax for configuration file lines is as follows:
hostname group_number [options]
where hostname is the name of machine and group_number is the group number for the desired database. The [options] argument is a list of optional parameters described in the following section.
Optional Parameters
The optional parameters should be separated by a space and can be placed in any order. If parameters are not given, the default values are used. The following is a list of optional parameters:
ALIAS=alias_name The alias_name is a string, up to 128 characters in length, that specifies an alternate name for the database node. The alias_name is not case sensitive and is converted to uppercase when read. The alias_name can be used in some functions to access node information.
/FATAL If the connection to this node fails then INISETC() drops all connections and returns 0. If the parameter is not specified, then a failed connection is ignored by INISETC() unless all node connections fail.
/I=ss The retry interval in seconds (default is 60 seconds). This parameter is the minimum time allowed between reconnection attempts.
/NEWLOG Creates a new log file and erase the old log file when the client program is executed. On VAX/VMS systems, /NEWLOG creates a new version unless a version number is specified in the log filename.
/NOERR
/NOLOG
/NOMSG The /NOERR, /NOLOG, and /NOMSG switches set logging levels for the client program. Only one switch is needed per line. The /NOLOG switch turns off all logging to a log file. The /NOERR switch turns off all logging of error messages to a log file. The /NOMSG switch turns off all logging of status messages to a log file. Only two types of messages, error messages and status messages, are logged. If a SETCIMRPC_LOG environment variable logical is not defined, then no logging is performed. Log messages have the following format: client_pid_number date_time_stamp nodeid log_message where client_pid_number is the process identifier for the client program, date_time_stamp is the date and time of message, nodeid is the node identifier number for the connection, and log_message is the error or status message.
/P=pp Specifies a server protocol number, where pp is a number in the range of 33,554,432 through 1,073,741,823. This parameter should only be specified for servers that do not use the default protocol number of 300,363.
/R=xx The maximum number of retries for a reconnect before ceasing any reconnect attempts, where xx is the maximum number of retries (default is 3). After the maximum number of retries have been attempted, INISETC() must be called to reconnect and clear the retry count.
/S=ss (applies to UNIX servers only) The maximum server idle time in seconds (default is 5 minutes). If no requests are made to a connected server before the idle time is reached, the server will exit.
/STDERR Sends error messages to standard error. This parameter causes communication errors to be sent to standard error.
/T=ss The maximum timeout value for any RPC call to wait for a reply, where ss is the number of seconds to wait (default is 60 seconds).
Examples of Configuration Lines
The following are examples of configuration lines:
abox 123 /T=60 /R=3 /I=60 /STDERR
bbox 321 /P=777777778 /NEWLOG /FATAL
cbox 204 /ALIAS=BOX204 /STDERR /S=900
Keywords: setcimrpc
configline
api
References: None
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Problem Statement: After Upgrading Aspen InfoPlus.21 from V2006.5 or earlier to V7.1 or later, some customers have noticed that external tasks PTLI and LABD are no longer listed in the Aspen Infoplus.21 Manager.
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Solution: This happens because these tasks are related to the product Aspen Human Interface (AHI), and this product is no longer distributed. So that is the reason for the tasks to not appear in the Aspen Infoplus.21 Manager
Keywords: PTLI
LABD
Aspen Human Interface
References: None
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Problem Statement: During a scheduled Aspen InfoPlus.21 Server maintenance, troubleshooting, or due unexpected circumstances a server re-boot might be required. The Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager has an option that allows users to configure whether the database should start at boot time or not, called STARTUP @ BOOT:
What happens during a scenario where the Server is shutdown, and the user does not want Aspen InfoPlus.21 to start at boot but this option is checked?
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Solution: Once the machine is shutdown, the following procedure can be followed in order to avoid an unnecessary Aspen Infoplus.21 database startup at boot time:
1. Right after the machine is starting up, and before the Window start up screen, press the F8 key to access the ?Windows Advanced Options Menu?
2. Select the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option.
3. After logging in, Windows will start up only with a Command Prompt window available.
4. Type regedit and press enter to access the Registry Editor
5. Locate the AUTO_START key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\<version>\group200
6. Right-click on the AUTO_START Key and select Modify. Set to FALSE.
7. The STARTUP @ BOOT option is now disabled
8. Restart server
NOTE: Modifying the Windows registry can potentially lead to undesired results. This action should only be performed by system administrators and advanced users.
Keywords: Start at Boot
InfoPlus.21 Manager
Registry
References: None
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Problem Statement: Why do I get the message
Windows could not start the Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service on Local Computer.
Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.
when trying to start the Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service?
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Solution: Upon opening the Services program on a local machine and trying to start the Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service, an error message titled Services may pop up reading:
Windows could not start the Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service on Local Computer.
Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.
The event log may show the following error: The Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service depends on the following service: MSMQ. This service might not be installed.
If this is the case, installing the Message Queuing service (MSMQ) will allow the Aspen Enterprise Integration Framework service to run as intended.
Keywords: Enterprise Integration Framework
Error 1075
MSMQ
References: None
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Problem Statement: The most important definition record, DefinitionDef, does not appear when one looks for it via the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. How can one correct this situation?
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Solution: The most likely cause for the disappearance of DefinitionDef is that it has been renamed. Within the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database the records are referenced by their unique numeric IDs. This makes it possible to rename records (since the IDs do not change).
Navigate to the 'Definition Records' branch in the Administrator. Expand that branch so that the various definition records are visible. Right-click on a definition record (it does not matter which one) and select 'Properties'. On the first tab that appears (General) there are currently two sections: 'Record' and 'Defined By'. 'Record' has the name and record ID of the currently selected record but 'Defined By' lists the definition record which defines that record and the defining record's record ID. In normal situations it will list DefinitionDef and 1. It will still list the record ID of 1 but it will show something else in place of DefinitionDef. Navigate to that new record name and rename it back to DefinitionDef. That will remedy the situation.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: How large a number can be written to an Aspen InfoPlus.21 integer field?
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Solution: The answer depends on whether the integer field is signed or unsigned and the number of bits allocated to the field.
Signed integer fields may be up to 32 bits in length while unsigned fields may have up to 31 bits.
The smallest number that may be written to a signed integer field is -( 2**(n-1) ), and the largest number that can be written is 2**(n - 1) - 1 where n is the number of bits allocated to the field. For example, a signed 16-bit integer field can hold numbers ranging from -(2**15) to 2**15 - 1 or -32768 to 32767.
Unsigned integer fields can hold numbers ranging from 0 to 2**n - 1, where n is the number of bits allocated to the field. For example, the largest number a 16-bit unsigned integer field can hold is 2**16 - 1 = 65535.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: Customer reported a connectivity problem to a previously working OPC server.
Running the TestAPI program to collect data from an individual record shows errors like:
CIMIO_USR_GET_CONNECT, Error connectint to device
CIMIO_MSG_RECV_CHK, Error checking connections
CIMIO_SOCK_CHK_RECV_FAIL, Error peeking at socket
System Error, erronno=2 no such file or directory
CIMIO_SOCK_RD_BROKEN_PIPE, Connection was terminated by peer
WNT Error=10054 An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
Checking the contents of the CIMIO_MSG.LOG file one can see the expected message indicating that a connection was established to the OPC sever, followed by multiple connection attempts to the OPC server every few seconds, like:
26-MAR-2008 11:37:30:353, Logged by OPCSERVER on node WORLD:
--------------- CIMIO/OPC READY---------------
26-MAR-2008 11:37:30:353, Logged by OPCSERVER on node WORLD:
AsyncDlgp (PID 2220) - Connecting to server yyy on node Localhost
26-MAR-2008 11:37:39:353, Logged by OPCSERVER on node WORLD:
AsyncDlgp (PID 2220) - Connecting to server yyy on node Localhost
26-MAR-2008 11:37:48:353, Logged by OPCSERVER on node WORLD:
AsyncDlgp (PID 2220) - Connecting to server yyy on node Localhost
26-MAR-2008 11:37:57:353, Logged by OPCSERVER on node WORLD:
AsyncDlgp (PID 2220) - Connecting to server yyy on node Localhost
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Solution: The multiple connection attempts in the CIMIO_MSG.LOG file indicate that the OPC service is not able to establish a connection to the OPC server or that the OPC server is dropping the connection.
Stopping and restarting the OPC server resolved the problem.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: With the installation of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Server v7.3.0.3 patch, users will notice that new fixed area fields and a new history repeat area field were added to the Aspen standard tag records defined by Ip_AnalogDef and Ip_DiscreteDef. They are commonly referred to as the Best Fit (BF) fields and by default are NOT active.
They were added to help provide faster data retrieval for Aspen Process Explorer and/or Aspen IP.21 Process Browser (formerly known as Web.21), but only when a user has requested the Best Fit option, and only when the timespan is greater than 100 hours. They become especially useful with the High Performance Trends option in Aspen IP.21 Process Browser.
The Aspen InfoPlus.21 Developer's Manual contains an introduction and explanation of the fields involved but here are a couple of items that help explain the background processing.
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Solution: As mentioned above, by default the Best Fit operation for all tags is turned off. It can be activated by setting IP_#_Of_BF_Values to non-zero, an entry in IP_BF_Repository and finally setting IP_BF_Archiving to ON. Note, the same patch added a new history repeat area called TSK_DHIS_AGGR. Users can choose to use this repository for BF processing, or any other repository.
When activated, BF processing will check every single new value to the tag but it is hard-coded to write to the BF History Repeat Area every 30 minutes.
The BF repeat area is a regular History Repeat area that could be selected via Aspen SQLplus. However the trending package (Aspen Process Explorer or Aspen IP.21 Process Browser Trends) will only attempt to use it if Best Fit option was chosen AND the timespan is greater than 100 hours. It would be possible to force the trending package to always use the BF repeat area by creation of a new ATMapDef record but that is not the way Aspentech would recommend.
Please note that turning on BF processing will cause extra database resources to be used and therefore it is recommended that it is only activated for records which will be trended via Best Fit over a long period.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: What is AspenTech's guidance for use of Virtual Environments for V7.1 Aspen Manufacturing Suite (AMS) products?
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Solution: AspenTech supports the use of all aspenONE V7.1 Manufacturing applications in VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. AspenTech Customer Support and Development Engineering will provide support and defect fixes (when appropriate) for all AspenTech Production Management and Execution (PM&E) and Advanced Process Control (APC) applications for V7.1 used on VMware and MS Hyper-V. In addition, AspenTech supports the use of Aspen Process Explorer with Microsoft's App-V application virtualization technology.
For V7.1, VMware versions supported are Server 2.0 and Workstation 6.5. Microsoft virtualization technologies supported are Virtual PC 2007 SP1, Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, and Hyper-V 6.0.6001.18016. The App-V version supported for Process Explorer is App-V 4.5. Please see the AspenTech document aspenONE V7 Information on Coexistence, Operating System Support, and Virtualization for more detail.
While AspenTech supports the use of the AspenTech Manufacturing Suite applications in these virtual environments, this support is dependent on the virtual environments themselves being implemented using the best practices recommended by Microsoft and VMware. Likewise, the combination of hardware and virtualization configuration must be in a manner supported by the virtualization supplier.
Virtual environments, by their very nature, require additional resources such as memory and CPU overhead, over and above those required by normal operating systems and physical hardware. Likewise, networking, storage requirements, and other i/o considerations can vary depending on hardware type and usage. Therefore, AspenTech recommends that users should be very thorough in their planning for the use of an aspenONE application in a virtual environment.
VMware Best Practices Resources
For technical papers providing more detail on these topics refer to:
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/server_pubs.html
and
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/ws_pubs.html
Microsoft Best Practices Resources
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/dd565807.aspx
Microsoft App-V Application Virtualization Resources
Microsoft internal Web site Microsoft TechNet.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/appvirtualization/default.aspx
Customers may, after reviewing the virtualization suppliers best practice guidance, and still not being able to determine if they may experience significant performance degradation, contact AspenTech customer support for more guidance.
Keywords: Virtual Machine
VMware
Hyper-V
Virtualization
App-V
Operating System Support
References: None
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Problem Statement: After upgrading Aspen InfoPlus.21 from v6.0 or earlier, to v2004 or higher, starting InfoPlus.21 fails to start the API Server tasks
TSK_ORIG_SERVER
TSK_ADMIN_SERVER
TSK_APEX_SERVER
TSK_EXCEL_SERVER
TSK_DEFAULT_SERVER
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Solution: To troubleshoot this problem, open a DOS command window on the InfoPlus.21 Server. Change to the folder defined by the SETCIMCODE environment variable using the command:
cd %SETCIMCODE%
Enter the following from the command prompt: Infoplus21_api_server -v1 -d10
If you receive the message shown below?
Check your system for the file named histconfiguser.dll. It is likely that this file will exist in two places on the machine:
C:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code
and
C:\Program Files\Common Files\AspenTech Shared
Delete the histconfiguser.dll file from the C:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code folder and then start the tasks using the InfoPlus.21 Manager.
This is caused by the old version of the file still residing in the code folder, so the new version in the AspenTech Shared folder isn't used. Removing the file from the code folder forces the new file to be used.
Keywords: InfoPlus.21 Manager
References: None
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Problem Statement: I am unable to find relevant services and registry entries in Windows Registry after installing Aspen InfoPlus.21 on a new server. Furthermore, there are no task listed in Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager. The following error message is encountered when attempting to execute AddGroup.exe to configure group from the command prompt.
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Solution: The problem is due to the machine having Altiris eXpress Metering Agent from Altiris Inc installed. Perform as follow to resolve the issue.
1. Uninstall Altiris eXpress Metering Agent in Add or RemovePrograms.
2. Launch Windows Explorer.
3. For Windows 32-bit operating system, browse to C:\Windows\System32.
For Windows 64-bit operating system, browse to C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
4. Delete or rename the DLL file called aminit.dll.
Keywords: incompatible software
References: None
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Problem Statement: At system startup/reboot some customers get the following error message in the system event log :
The InfoPlus.21 Task Service for group200 service hung on starting.
And in the application log file :
Application log
5/23/98 12:18:13 PM CimTskSrvgroup200 Error None 4368 IP21 NOVA CimStartService call for ip21serv failed with error code 5.
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Solution: The problem is caused by IP.21 services trying to start up before other NT services are finished. In the end, IP.21 usually starts, but the message in the event log is what concerns most users. There are two ways to prevent this conflict, and subsequent error messages.
You can make the startup of services conditional to other services being started.
The way to do this is :
Run regedt32
from HKLM go to the following key: \system\currentcontrolset\services\cimtsksrvgroup200 (whatever is their group number is) Add the following value:
Value Name: DependOnService
Data Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Data: ip21serv
There are two services associated with IP.21 in the services list. One is the IP.21 browser (entered in the registry as IP21serv) and IP.21 task service for the group. To do this, go into the Control Panel | Services and set IP.21 browser service startup to manual and leave the task service for the group to automatic. This setting will cause IP.21 to start automatically at boot.
Keywords: hanging
task service
References: None
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Problem Statement: When starting Aspen InfoPlus.21, TSK_DBCLOCK stops with an error TSK_DBCLOCK is not running anymore. When examining TSK_DBCLOCK.OUT, the last line reads Corrupt cache bucket.
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Solution: This means that the cache.dat file associated with one or more of your repositories is corrupt. To resolve this error message, delete all the cache.dat files associated with each of your repositories. This will guarantee that the corrupted cache.dat file also gets deleted. After these files are deleted, Aspen InfoPlus.21 should be able to start up without any error messages.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: Aspen InfoPlus.21 history data is not seen in Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator or Aspen Process Explorer but Aspen SQLplus can query it.
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Solution: Delete the cache.dat file. This will cause a 'force synchronization' of Aspen InfoPlus.21 history archive files and the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database upon restart of InfoPlus.21.
Additional information can be found about the cache.dat file and its purpose inSolution 122760.
If you are moving (or upgrading) an Aspen InfoPlus.21 system from one computer to another then please refer toSolution 111195 for additional information about the effects of cache.dat.
Keywords: DBCLOCK
2006.5
synchronization
history archives
repositories
data gaps
upgrade
References: None
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Problem Statement: By default, the Find InfoPlus.21 Record in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator searches the entire database for a specific record. Sometimes, a specific tag may be desired within a specific folder of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. This
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Solution: will describe how to search for tags within certain folders.Solution
The only way to use the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator to find tags by folder is to navigate through the Root Folder node. Alternatively, a user can search through a list of all folders by navigating to FolderDef in the Definition records. If a user wants to query certain search criteria within certain folders, then they may use the Aspen Tag Browser to highlight the specific folder from the desired node and run the search, as shown below:
Keywords: Folder
Query
Administrator
Tag Browser
References: None
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Problem Statement: Unable to start the AFW Security Client Service service on Local Computer due to the following error:
Error 1075: The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.
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Solution: The screen shot below shows the dependencies for the AFW Security Client Service. If one of these services are missing or marked for deletion the AFW Security Client Service cannot be started.
If the World Wide Web Publishing service does not appear IIS may need to be installed.
Keywords: 1075;
AFW Security Client Service;
Dependency;
References: None
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Problem Statement: How can I remove the Aspen.Infoplus21_DA server registration to prevent unnecessary or unwanted OPC connections to Aspen InfoPlus.21?
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Solution: You can unregister the Aspen.Infoplus21_DA server to prevent unnecessary or unwanted OPC connections to Aspen Infoplus.21. There are two components that must be unregistered to complete this action. [ IP21DAServer.dll, IP21DA_Server.exe ]
· Open a command window with Administrator privileges, run as administrator
· Execute the following commands to unregister the Aspen.Infoplus21_DA server.
Note: The actual file paths may very depending on the install location and if it's 32bit or 64bit installation.
· Un register the Aspen.Infoplus21_DA server components:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code\Opc.ConfigTool.exe” -ua “C:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code\IP21DAServer.dll”
“C:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code\IP21DA_Server.exe” /unregserver
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: This Knowledge Base article answers the following question: Are there any known issues with AspenTech software products running on AMD processor based servers versus Intel processor based servers?
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Solution: There are no official test data to show whether or not there are any issues with Aspen software running on AMD processor based servers versus Intel processor based servers. All development and testing within the AspenTech development environment is done on Intel processor based servers so officially, no non-Intel based hardware is supported.
AspenTech suggests that, before installing and configuring any Aspen software products on a (production) server with an AMD processor, you perform the installation and testing on a development or test server to see if there are any problems.
On a side note, we know of several European customers who run Aspen software on AMD processor based servers and have not reported any issues that could be attributed specifically to the use of non-Intel based hardware. However, please note that officially such installations are not supported.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: Whenever a user upgrades their Aspen InfoPlus.21 system, whether on the same PC or another, part of that upgrade process is to run the Upgrade Database Wizard from the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager. In simplified terms, a database upgrade means to take the snapshot from an older system and make it ready and usable for the new version that was installed. This includes two 'major' steps.
One is to identify and use any changes to any standard definition record that AspenTech may have performed since the older version. For example when new fields were added to the standard IoGetDef records in V7.1 it was the database upgrade process that added the new fields to Aspen Cim-IO Get Transfer records when upgrading to V7.1 or later.
The second major step is to add new records to the snapshot that would be used by any new products that were installed with the newer version.
How does this happen ?
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Solution: The first thing to understand is that during an installation the database records that can to be added or modified are located in the ....\Aspentech\InfoPlus.21\db21\etc directory as a series of RLD (Recload) files.
In the same directory a file called RLDLIST.INP is installed which contains a list of the installed RLD files.
For each RLD filename in RLDLIST.INP, there is a corresponding Aspen InfoPlus.21 record name.
A list of all installed RLDs is stored in the registry under HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\nn.n\Default\RegisteredRecloadFiles Where nn.n is the internal version number
Finally attached to each of these registry entries is a switch to indicate Recommended or Not Recommended.
The Database UpgradeWizard, for both Typical and ?Custom|Build Snapshot? will now:
1. Create a list of RLDs using information in the registry (LIST1).
2. Create a list of RLDs using information in RLDLIST.INP (LIST2).
3. For each entry in LIST1, check if it exists in the source database using information stored in LIST2. The record name referred to in rldlist.inp is used as an indicator that if the record name is present in the source database, then the RLD file should probably be loaded.
4. If the entry does exist in the source database, add the entry to LIST3 (this would be the list of RLDs to load)
5.
a) If the entry is not in source database, check if NOT recommended. If not recommended, then DROP
b) However, if recommended, check if dependent RLD?s are present in ETC folder. If any dependent RLD is missing, DROP.
c) Otherwise, add to LIST3.
LIST3 would then be used as list of RLD files to load during the Database Upgrade Procedure.
The above ensures that if for example the new version has a new feature that requires new records, then those records will get loaded if the RLD is listed in the registry AND defined as recommended AND exists in the ETC folder, then it gets loaded when upgrading from a previous version.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: Beginning with version 2006.5, AspenTech has licensed Aspen InfoPlus.21 based on point count. Often, to demonstrate Aspen InfoPlus.21 has been successfully installed, users will load the AspenTech Chemical (ATC) demo database and leave the tags in their production databases. This technical tip describes how to delete the more than 300 demo tags from a production database so they will not count against your licensed number of points.
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Solution: Follow this procedure to delete the AspenTech Chemical (ATC) demo database from a production system
1. Use the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator to make a backup copy of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 snapshot.
2. Copy the file demotags.txt attached to thisSolution to the AspenTech InfoPlus.21 Group200 folder (usually disk:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\group200\ or disk:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\group200 ).
3. Open the Aspen SQLplus query writer and execute the query DeleteATCTags attached to thisSolution.
Keywords: Demo snapshot
Demo
ATC
ATC records
ATC tags
Delete
References: None
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Problem Statement: How does one recover from the following error generated by loaddb during an IP.21 startup?
X_initsetc: history/21 open error -2100
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Solution: If the aforementioned error is found in the loaddb.out or loaddb.err file during a startup of IP.21, please take the following course of action to start IP.21 successfully.
Let IP.21 go through the startup sequence to the point where it crashes on loaddb.
IP.21 will prompt the user to skip loaddb only for this startup sequence, skip loaddb for all startup sequences, or to continue with the startup. Choose skip loaddb only for this startup sequence.
At this point only tsk_win_init and dbclock should be running. Highlight loaddb in the defined tasks list, then start loaddb manually.
Go through each remaining task in the defined task list and manually start the tasks which are not marked to be skipped on startup.
A few customers have worked around this error by rebooting the IP.21 server. If the instructions listed above don't allow IP.21 to start, then reboot the IP.21 server.
What does the error mean? The error is returned if either of the following is true:
It cannot find the file $h21/dat/shm.id. This is a file created by h21init. It contains information that allows other programs to attached to a shared memory segment used by the historian.
It found the file but cannot attached to the shared memory segment anyway.
If neither rebooting or manually starting loaddb resolves the error, then please call the AspenTech support hotline for further assistance.
Keywords: X_initsetc: history/21 open error -2100
References: None
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Problem Statement: Even though the user has the right to modify data in IP.21, when trying to do so from Microsoft Access, the user may see the message Recordset is not Updatable when attempting the operation.
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Solution: This message is generated when trying to update a table without specifying a unique field (such as the Name field for InfoPlus.21 records) in the target table. When creating the link, you choose the SQLplus ODBC entry, which then leads to a view of the tables in IP.21 Once you choose a specific table, the next dialog asks the user to uniquely identify the table by a particular column. If you ignore this prompt, you can still see the data in a read-only view, but you will be prohibited from doing updates to the data.
Keywords: data
access
denied
read
only
record
set
References: None
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Problem Statement: Sometimes, after an upgrade, the shortcuts on the desktop point to the correct directory, but do not have the correct symbol drawn on it or have no symbol drawn on it.
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Solution: Navigate to the actual executable, right click and choose to create a desktop shortcut that replaces the current one. This should have the correct image on it and also navigate to the correct application.
Keywords: desktop shortcut
icons
References: None
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Problem Statement: This
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Solution: outlines the improvements that were made to InfoPlus.21 Tag and Data Replication feature starting from V7.2.Solution
Aspen InfoPlus.21 (IP.21) V7.2 includes an improved InfoPlus.21 Tag and Data Replication feature. The IP.21 replication functionality introduced in V2006.5 has been substantially re-designed in V7.2 for increased performance and reliability. The replication functionality now uses Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)-based communication transport technology designed for the replication application.
Starting with V7.2, configuration of the replication feature is done via IP.21 database records instead of a configuration file. These new publisher and subscriber records include support for historizing replication performance statistics for improved monitoring and troubleshooting.
Fields available for troubleshooting purposes in these new records include the following:
? IP_DELTA_TIME - Deviation from normal delta time is an indication of higher CPU utilization for either the publisher or the subscriber, or network issues.
IP_UPDATE_RATE - This is an indication of how fast IP21 is feeding the replication task. For a publisher, this field has a direct relationship with the subscribers IP_UPDATE_RATE. In general, they should be both in the same magnitude.
IP_#_ERRORS - This number indicates certain errors have been encountered during the processing cycle. Typically, the replication feature log file should have more detail information about the errors. Since this number is historized, users can inspect the log files to locate the error messages with corresponding timestamp.
Publisher record on subscriber system:
Example diagnostic trend comparing update rates of subscribing system vs. publishing system:
1 day Update Rates: Subscriber (pub1, red) vs. Publisher (sub1, green)
Keywords: V7.2 Overview
Replication
RepPublisherDef Fields
InfoPlus.21
References: None
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Problem Statement: When monitoring the Aspen InfoPlus.21system via Windows Task Manager you might see that a process executing infoplus21_api_server.exe is using a large percentage of the CPU (approximately 75% or higher). If you note the PID number of the process in Windows Task Manager and then look in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager you should be able to determine which of the tasks is using the large percentage of the CPU. By double clicking on each task in the Running Tasks window, the right side of the display is populated with the information about each task. The last entry shows what that external task's PID number.
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Solution: There are six external tasks that execute infoplus21_api_server.exe and each one is designated by a different command line parameters.
External Task
Command line parameters
TSK_ORIG_SERVER
-v1
TSK_ADMIN_SERVER
-v2
TSK_APEX_SERVER
-v3
TSK_EXCEL_SERVER
-v4
TSK_DEFAULT_SERVER
-v5
TSK_BATCH_SERVER
-v6
Each of these external tasks perform a different function which are outlined in KB 110771.
The first thing to do after you have determined which external task is using the large amount of CPU is to restart the external task.
If the same external task again uses a large amount of CPU then by following the instructions below you can capture information about what the specific external task is performing.
On the Aspen InfoPlus.21 server machine:
1. Open Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager and stop the external task that is using a large amount of CPU.
2. Open a DOS-prompt. (Start | Run and type cmd).
3. cd %SETCIMCODE% to relocate you to the location of the folder that contains the executable infoplus21_api_server.exe. Note: For version 7.1 and above the Aspen products do not use environment variables so you will need to do cd <drive>:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code or <drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code for 64 bit systems.
4. Type infoplus21_api_server -v# -d10 >output.txt where # corresponds to the command line parameters value for the external task as shown above. For example, for the TSK_APEX_SERVER task,
infoplus21_api_server -v3 -d10 >output.txt
The information will be 'piped' to file output.txt in the <drive>:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code or <drive>:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code directory.
5. Send the output to AspenTech Support via [email protected].
Keywords: CPU
infoplus21_api_server.exe
References: None
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Problem Statement: At installation, Aspen InfoPlus.21 is missing in the product list, although it is listed in the license file. Other products are listed correctly.
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Solution: This behaviour can occur if you have a NETWORK license, and you choose 'Both' in the 'License Configuration Type' dialog box and then you add the license filename in the 'License Files' dialog box and in the 'License Servers' dialog box point to the SLM server that uses the same license.
If you have a NETWORK license, you should choose the 'License Server' option and only specify the License server in the 'License Configuration Type' dialog box.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: While AspenTech provides batch files named system_cleanup.bat and active_cleanup.bat to purge history system configuration files and active file sets saved by history backup (TSK_HBAK) to conserve disk space, there is no batch file that purges the shifted file sets saved by history backup.
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Solution: Attached to thisSolution is a batch file named shifted_cleanup.txt. Copy this batch procedure to %h21%\etc\ (ip21_disk:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\etc) as shifted_cleanup.bat.
You can use this batch procedure in a manner similar to system_cleanup.bat and active_cleanup.bat. Enter a command similar to:
ip21_disk:\program files\aspentech\infoplus.21\c21\h21\etc\SHIFTED_CLEANUP d:\arc_saves\shifted TSK_DHIS 5
in the field LAST_SHIFT_COMMAND of your history backup record.
NOTE :The risk you run using this batch file is that you can purge saved shifted files before moving them to off-line storage. On a regular basis be sure to verify your off-line storage procedure works before purging saved shifted files.
Keywords: purge shifted backup files
shifted_cleanup.bat
active_cleanup.bat
system_cleanup.bat
References: None
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Problem Statement: Beginning with V7.3.0.2
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Solution: After upgrading from a pre-V7.3.0.2 version of Aspen InfoPlus.21 to a version of 7.3.0.2 or newer, you may notice, when looking in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator, that a new History Repository has appeared. Its name would be TSK_DHIS_AGGR.
You might also notice that the Repository and Filesets are configured to use the standard 'C' drive under ....\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\.. With just 3 filesets.
These were added as a default Repository for use with the Stored Best Fit Functionality that was first added with the v7.3.0.2 patch for Aspen InfoPlus.21 Server.
For more details about Stored Best Fit Functionality please see the v7.3.0.2 patch Release Notes
You can of course choose to either use a different repository and/or a different location and/or more filesets for storing historical data for the Stored Best Fit Functionality
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: When trying to upgrade a snapshot from an older Aspen InfoPlus.21 version to a newer version the upgrade process fails with the following message:
ERROR encountered during the upgrade process. Please check the output file for details.
This message may occur part way though the upgrade process, and it will terminate the upgrade.
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Solution: This problem can occur if you have defined custom records in your original InfoPlus.21 version. Subsequent InfoPlus.21 versions have added new default record definitions, and if the name of your custom record conflicts with the name of one of the new record definitions this will cause the problem.
Check the upgrade.out file, default location C:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\group200. Look for messages such as:
WARNING: 'xxxxxx' does not have the same definition record.
where xxxxxx is the name of your custom record. If this occurs you need to rename your custom record in the current release and then try the upgrade process again.
Keywords: snapshot upgrade
error encountered
upgrade.out
Aspen InfoPlus.21 Upgrade Wizard
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do you join the ATIMUS group? ATIMUS is the AspenTech Information Managment User's Society, and is a forum for user's to share information, post questions, and discuss AspenTech issues.
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Solution: From the AspenTech online Support Center, select User Groups from the left-hand navigation pane. You will then see a list of all the AspenTech User Groups. Select the ATIMUS group, and click on the Membership Application link. Fill out the form and either send it by mail or e-mail.
Keywords: atimus
users
society
References: None
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Problem Statement: Is it possible to save the Aspen InfoPlus.21 group configuration (.IPG file) using either a command line utility or from an Aspen SQLplus query?
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Solution: The only way to save the group configuration information (i.e. create an .IPG file) for an Aspen InfoPlus.21 server is to use the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager.
Keywords: IPG, group configuration, command line, utility, query, SQLplus
References: None
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Problem Statement: Effective v2006.5, when starting Aspen InfoPlus.21, the first task is TSK_DBCLOCK
Sometimes that task may fail with an instruction to look at the ERR and OUT files
However, when you open these files, you may find that these files are totally empty
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Solution: As described in kb article 124960, Tsk_Dbclock now performs many functions.
http://support.aspentech.com/webteamasp/KB.asp?ID=124960
The main two functions are loading the Snapshot, and doing a History verification and validation check.
If a problem is encountered during the snapshot load then an error will be written to the ERR and/or OUT files.
However, history problems usually cause a hard crash of the task, resulting in empty ERR and OUT files.
A common cause of such a history failure is that the files, or the directories of either the Filesets or the Repository, are set to Read-Only. So this would be the first thing to check. If no problem is found then the next step would be to edit the Command Line Parameters for Tsk_Dbclock adding the word VERBOSE (upper case) at the beginning of that line. Then restart the task.
This will force the task to write to the ERR and OUT files. Things forced to be written to these files include a list of history repositories and filesets, as they are being checked. If that list ends abruptly and short, then it is an indication of a problem with one of the filesets. Maybe it is Read-Only, maybe it has been damaged, maybe the directory does not exist, maybe the files are missing, maybe the repair archive wizard will fix the problem etc etc..
NOTE: Although this list may end with (for example) fileset #23 of (say) 100 filesets in that repository. It does not necessarily mean that #24 is the problem. But it would be the starting point, going forward, to check filesets 24 and higher numbered filesets for any kind of corruptions.
If you are still seeing problems trying to start the database then please contact your local customer support, sending them the OUT and ERR files 'after' the VERBOSE flag has been set.
NOTE: This VERBOSE flag is only available with the v2006.5.5 (or later) Aspen InfoPlus.21 patch applied.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: Is there a significant performance impact from adding record level security?
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Solution: Test Results:
The tests were executed logged into the query writer as a database role with write access. A query was executed that updates 60000 records in sequence and calculates the average update rate for 10K, 20K 40K and 60K tags. All updated tags had record permissions of READ assigned to a different role.
The results indicate that TSK_SQL_SERVER update rates were less than 1% slower than the same query run from a query record in the database by TSK_IQ1 with no roles set either at the record or database levels.
Since a database write is done in the API routines by performing a read first we would imagine that read access would be faster than write access but there should be similar overhead for security checks.
So it appears that there should be no significant impact from adding record level security.
Keywords: record level security
security
References: None
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Problem Statement: This Knowledge Base article provides an example of a definition record for storing timestamps in history for the value of a tag.
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Solution: The standard record set in InfoPlus.21 includes definition records for Analog, Discrete and Text values to be stored in history. This is an example of a definition record for storing timestamp values in history.
To implement thisSolution, load the attached RLD files into InfoPlus.21. The new definition record is named IP_TSDef and its map record is named IP_TSMap.
This record includes the same fields as IP_TextDef but the IP_Value_Field uses a Type = Time.
NOTE: This definition record is just a sample record and it is not part of the standard IP.21 record set.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: When running IP.21 replication it may be necessary to rename a tag on the publisher system. How does replication handle this?
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Solution: In a replication environment the IP.21 publisher system will send two kinds of message: record creation messages and data field update messages.
Upon receiving a record creation message, the IP.21 subscriber system will create a new record.
Upon receiving a data field update message, the IP.21 subscriber system will update the specified field in the record specified, by record name, in the data field update message. If no such record name exists, then the IP21 subscriber system sends the IP.21 publishing system a note asking that the publisher send a record creation message for the missing record.
So what happens if the user changes the name of a record on the publisher after replication has been enabled?
For standard tag records such as IP_AnalogDef records the PUBLISH_UPDATES field is set to No for the NAME field. So changing the record name of such a record does not generate a field update message. But if there were then changes to IP_VALUE for the record this would result in the generation of a data field update message containing the new record name. Upon receiving such a message, the subscriber would find that it does not have such a record of that name and send a note back to the publisher asking a record creation message for the missing record; thereby, resulting in a new record being created. This would result in the subscriber having a tag with the original name and history up the the time of the name change. It would also have another tag with the new name with history from that point onwards.
As a result, if you need to change the record name it is recommended that you should stop replication for the tag. Then change the name of the tag on both publisher and subscriber so that they are identical. Then restart replication and the updates should go to the correct tag.
Keywords: Replication
InfoPlus.21
Publisher
Subscriber
Tag name
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do IEC 1131 Data Types Map to InfoPlus.21 Record Types?
IEC 1131 is the standard definition for control languages developed by the International Electrotechnical Committee. The intent of these definitions is to provide a consistent control development environment to any control developer, regardless of the control vendor chosen.
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Solution: See the attached spreadsheet.
Keywords: datatype
iec1131
system
plc
programming language
communication
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do I prevent Microsoft Window debugger from trying to debug Aspen Process Explorer?
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Solution: This Windows debugger dialog box could come up when you have the Visual Studio or Dr Watson debugger installed on your machine and the Just-In-Time debugger is enabled in Visual Studio.
To resolve the problem, you would need to disable the Visual Studio Just In Time debugger by following the steps below:
1. Open the Visual Studio application
2. Click on the Tools menu, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, select the Debugging folder.
4. In the Debugging folder, select the Just-In-Time page.
5. In the Enable Just-In-Time debugging of these types of code box, clear the relevant program types: Managed, Native or Script.
Please note that to disable Just-In-Time debugging, once it has been enabled, you must be running with Administrator privileges. Enabling Just-In-Time sets a registry key, and Administrator privileges are required to change that key.
The path to the key can be found in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetFramework\DbgManagedDebugger and should be set to 1
6. Click OK.
However, to disable the Window Debugger when Dr Watson debugger is installed, you can useSolution ID 102013
Keywords: Visual Studio
Just-In-Time debugging
Dr Watson debugger
Window debugger
InfoPlus.21
References: None
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Problem Statement: When starting the database manually, what external task is responsible for populating the timestamp values for file sets in the repositories?
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Solution: When starting the database manually, as outlined in KB125266, the task that is responsible for populating the timestamp fields for the repositories is TSK_H21T.
In order to resolve this problem, verify that TSK_H21T appears in the Running Tasks list of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager.
Keywords: manual startup
IP.21
repository
history
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do you delete unwanted data from a historical repeat area?
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Solution: It is not possible to delete history occurrences from an InfoPlus.21 history repository. One method for essentially erasing all of a record's history would be to rename the record, then create a new record using the original record name. This procedure would not be selective and would prohibit the viewing of any previous history the record had.
The original record could then be made unusable and deleted.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: How to synchronize IP.21 and CIMIO server times
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Solution: Process data from the DCS is first sent to the CIMIO server. When the data is received by the CIMIO server, the incoming process data is timestamped with the CIMIO server time. Subsequently, when the process data reaches the IP.21 server, IP.21 either uses the CIMIO timestamps or the current IP.21 server time (ie. a new timestamp). This is determined by the settings in IP.21 Administrator-> nodename-> Cim-IO-> IO Device record. Scroll down to see the IO_TIMESTAMP_SRC field. It may be set to CIMIO server or CIMIO client (the IP.21 server). Most of the time, this is set to the CIMIO server. Assuming that it is set to CIMIO server, the timestamps for process data are obtained from the CIMIO server.
When the IP.21 and CIMIO system times are different, and you would like to synzhronize them, we would advise you to change the CIMIO time instead of changing the IP.21 time. This is because changing the IP.21 server time affects the start and end times of the current active fileset. If after changing the IP21 time, the start and end times of more than 1 filesets overlap, the data in these filesets may become corrupted!
Before carrying out any procedures that may affect the IP.21 database, you should backup the following items:
save a latest snapshot of your database
save your task configuration in IP.21 Manager (File-> Save Group Configuration)
save the entire h21 directory to another location/drive/harddisk. The h21 directory (d:\program files\aspentech\infoplus.21\c21\h21) contains all your historical filesets and essential data files. (Please refer toSolution 101273 for more details).
If IP.21 and CIMIO are on different server machines, to carry out the synchronization, perform either 1 or 2 below:
1. The easiest scenario would be if the CIMIO server time (eg. 12:00) is behind the IP.21 server time (eg. 12:15) . In this case, you should:
stop ALL CIMIO and store and forward (S&F) processes
move the CIMIO system time forward to match the IP.21 server time
restart CIMIO and S&F processes
There should now be a gap in IP.21 history as a result of moving the CIMIO time ahead (15 minutes gap). This is unavoidable because the timestamp is from the CIMIO server.
2. If the CIMIO server time (eg. 12:00) is ahead of the IP.21 server time (eg. 11:45) , it gets a little more tedious. If you were to follow the same procedure above, it'll be disastrous because the timestamps of the 'old' data (in the existing IP.21 history) will overlap with the timestamps of the 'new' incoming data. To prevent this from happening, you will need to follow the procedure below:
stop ALL CIMIO and store and forward (S&F) processes
stop IP.21
move the CIMIO system time backward to match the IP21 server time
wait for the CIMIO/IP.21 server time to catch up with the timestamp of the most recent data in IP.21 history. For example, if CIMIO time is ahead of the IP.21 time by exactly 2 hours, then it is necessary to wait for 2 hours
restart CIMIO and S&F processes
restart IP.21
Note that with either approach, there will be a gap in IP.21 history equivalent to the time difference between the CIMIO and IP.21 system times.
If the timestamps of incoming data are obtained from the IP.21 server, then changing the CIMIO system time would not affect IP.21 history in any way.
Keywords: synchronize
server time
system time
References: None
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Problem Statement: Why do I see the message Logical Device Already in Database when dragging a device between the I/O and CIM-IO icons in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator after adding a device using the I/O Device Wizard?
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Solution: You can see this message if you drag the device you created using the I/O device wizard from the I/O icon to the CIM-IO icon, and you pass through other icons or definition records.
To solve the problem, expand the horizontal size of the left pane of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator so there is more white space between the icons and the scooter bar of the left pane, and then drag the device between the I/O and the CIM-IO icons without passing through any other definition records or icons.
Keywords: I/O device wizard
InfoPlus.21 Administrator
IP21 Administrator
References: None
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Problem Statement: Getting pop up message Infoplus.21 cannot acquire the IP.21 Server License... when starting Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator or Aspen Process Explorer.
The system where the Sentinel License Manager license (SLM) server is installed has two (2) network cards.
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Solution: Since the SLM Server has two (2) network cards, the secondary card needs to be disabled while configuring using the SLM Configuration Wizard.
The following steps were performed:
1. Disable the secondary network card.
2. Restart the Sentinel RMS License Manager service.
3. Reconfigure SLM via the SLM Configuration wizard, use the node name in the Severs List
4. Verify that the IP.21 License is being checked out.
5. Run the WLMAdmin tool to confirm there are no license warning messages.
6. Enable the secondary network card.
7. Reboot the SLM Server to make sure.
8. Confirm that Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator or Aspen Process Explorer start with no error messages.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: We need to consolidate data from a number of plant based InfoPlus.21 systems to a central InfoPlus.21 system. What are the steps necessary to set up data replication between two InfoPlus.21 systems running V7.3?
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Solution: Replication allows you to transfer and consolidate values from one or more InfoPlus.21 systems (Publishers) to a central InfoPlus.21 system (Subscriber). There are a number of configuration steps necessary at each machine to achieve this. Below is a list of the steps necessary to set up a basic replication system. Details for each step can be found in the InfoPlus.21 Administration online Help files.
Basic Requirements for all systems
Replication uses Windows Message Queuing (MSMQ), so first check that this is installed and running on each machine.
Replication uses records that are not loaded by default into InfoPlus.21 (for example RepPublisherDef and RepSubscriberDef). If these records are not already loaded, then load the Replication.rld file using the InfoPlus.21 Administrator on each system. On the IP.21 Administrator right mouse click on the node and select Load Records... The rld file can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\etc or equivalent, depending on the operating system used.
Subscriber Requirements
On the central InfoPlus.21 system (Subscriber):
1. Create a RepPublisherDef record and configure IP_HOST_NAME to point to the Publisher system it is to get data from.
2. Add task TSK_SUBR to the InfoPlus.21 Manager and start. Details can be found in the online help in topic Configuring Central Data and Tag Repository.
3. Turn on the RepPublisherDef record's ACTIVE_SW field to ON.
Publisher Requirements
On each plant InfoPlus.21 system (Publisher):
1. Create a RepSubscriberDef record and configure the IP_HOST_NAME with the name of the Subscriber system
2. Add task TSK_PUBR to the InfoPlus.21 Manager and start. Details can be found in the online help in topic Configuring the Publishing InfoPlus.21 Plant Systems.
3. Set the RepSubscriberDef record's ACTIVE_SW field to ON
Enabling Data to be Replicated
Finally enable the data and tag replication to show which data is to be replicated from the Publisher systems.
1. Enable replication at the Database level from the InfoPlus.21 Administrator by selecting the node, right mouse button and open Properties. Select the Replication tab and check the enable box. This is like a master switch as it does not replicate data itself, but allows replication based on Definition level or Record level.
2. Enable replication at Definition level or Individual Record level. Select the appropriate record, right mouse click and open Properties. Select the Replication tab and check the enable box. Replication can be set for multiple records.
3. The PUBLISH_UPDATES field must be YES for any fields that are to be replicated. This can be checked by expanding the Fields for the definition record of the tag to be replicated, select #_OF_FIELDS_IN_REC and scroll to the far right to find the field. See also INCL_IN_TAG_CREATION.
Once these steps have been completed, replication should begin.
In case of problems check the RepSubscriberDef record on the Publisher system and RepPublisherDef record on the Subscriber to check that updates are being transferred and if there are any errors (IP_#_ERRORS). Also check the Output and Error files for tasks TSK_SUBR and TSK_PUBR from the appropriate InfoPlus.21 Manager.
If the connection between the Publisher and Subscriber is lost, replication data will be saved to a queue located at C:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\group200\Replication or equivalent. Data should then be sent when the connection is reestablished.
Note that if applying V7.3 CP4 then all publisher and subscriber systems must be upgraded simultaneously. This is due to a change in the MSMQ message to a variable length.
Keywords: Replication
Publisher
Subscriber
TSK_SUBR
TSK_PUBR
References: None
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Problem Statement: After a reboot, the InfoPlus.21 Administrator only shows I/O in the left hand pane - It doesn't even show InfoPlus.21. This would typically only be on one or a few PCs.
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Solution: This can happen after you have already installed Service Pack 1 and you go back to the V5.0 CD to install or reinstall some software from the Installation kit. This results in a dll conflict between V5.0.0 and V5.0.1 which will usually only show up after a reboot. TheSolution is to re-install Service Pack 1 on the PC that is having problems.
Keywords:
References: None
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Problem Statement: Problems with TSK_CIMQ - getting error at startup. What is this task used for?
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Solution: The TSK_CIMQ task is used for Q records, for statistical processing. So if you are not using these (did not install the Q component from the AMS CD), then check the Skip during startup box for this task.
Keywords: tsk_cimq
cimq
q records
References: None
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Problem Statement: Why are the changes I have made in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database missing after restarting the database?
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Solution: PossibleSolution 1:
Determine which snapshot is being used at Startup and which snapshot is being saved at Shutdown of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 system. Under normal conditions these snapshot files should have the same path and the same file name.
1. In the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator, look at the SAVETaskDef record called TSK_SAVE. The field LAST_SNAPSHOT_LOADED indicates the location and file name of the snapshot from which the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database was loaded. The value for LAST_SNAPSHOT_LOADED would typically be the same as the one indicated by the Command Line Parameters for loaddb in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager.
2. Still inside the record TSK_SAVE, the field FILE_NAME indicates the name of the file that the database snapshot will be written to when Aspen InfoPlus.21 is shutdown normally. Unless a directory path is provided in this field, the 'shutdown' snapshot is stored in the <drive>:\Program Files\Aspentech\InfoPlus.21\db21\group200 directory.
3. If LAST_SNAPSHOT_LOADED and FILE_NAME do not match then this would indicate that the new tags have been saved in the snapshot file indicated by the FILE_NAME field, yet the snapshot that Aspen InfoPlus.21 is currently using is the one indicated by LAST_SNAPSHOT_LOADED.
PossibleSolution 2:
It could be possible that the correct values are in the fields LAST_SNAPSHOT_LOADED and FILE_NAME, but the problem is that the snapshot, defined by FILE_NAME could not be saved due to disk space limitations.
If this was the cause then there will be a message indicating a disk space problem in the .OUT file associated with TSK_SAVE in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager.
Keywords: missing
disappear
TSK_SAVE
SAVETaskDef
DatabaseSaveDef
Save Snapshot
References: None
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Problem Statement: Where is the output from a QueryDef (or CompQueryDef) record?
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Solution: The output goes to the Output_Lines repeat area. However, the default value for #OUTPUT_LINES is 0. So you must first set this value large enough to hold the return data. If the value is not large enough, the return data will be truncated without a warning message. Also, remember to use F5 to refresh after executing the query.
Keywords: querydef
compquerydef
report
sqlplus
References: None
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Problem Statement: The Aspen InfoPlus.21 Adapter can be used to transfer data from or to an existing Aspen InfoPlus.21 database.
When transferring to the database, a user might decide that they did not want to further compress the data.
When using Ip_AnalogDef records for example, this would mean that they would configure the adapter to write to the IP_Value, Ip_Value_Quality and Ip_Value_Time fields, rather than the more typical Ip_Input_Value, Ip_Input_Quality and Ip_Input_Time fields.
As far as the adapter is concerned this procedure will work perfectly.
The problem 'could' be that the data is not getting written into History
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Solution: With early versions of Aspen InfoPlus.21 Database (up to v2004.0), Ip_AnalogDef and Ip_DiscreteDef definition records were purposely designed such that this kind of operation would not cause a history update.
Technically - The Ip_Value and Ip_Value_Time were not 'associated'
With all versions beginning with v2004.1 onwards, those fields were associated. Therefore a procedure such as the one described above (or even using Aspen SQLplus to write to those fields) would cause the data to be written to history as expected.
Now of course, so far we have only talked about the standard Ip_AnalogDef and Ip_DiscreteDef records. The above problems 'may' also be seen with customized records where the association was not built into the definition record.
Having said all that, a user has several options.
1) With a new installation of any version greater than 2004.0, the problem should not be seen with non-custom records
2) If the problem is seen with v2004.1 or greater using standard records, the probably cause is that the user forgot to Upgrade his Snapshot as part of his upgrade from an older version.
Note - Even if the user did forget, the Snapshot Upgrade procedure can still be performed on the current snapshot so as to enforce the association
3) Another way to enforce the association, whether on Standard or Custom definition records, is via a little known utility program called TSASSOC. This can be found in
....\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\DB21\Code
Double clicking on it in Windows Explorer will invoke a Command(DOS) Window with 3 questions..
a) The field name of the Real or Integer field (for Ip_AnalogDef this would be Ip_Value)
b) The field name of the Timestamp field (for Ip_AnalogDef this would be Ip_Value_Time)
c) The name of the Definition record (such as Ip_AnalogDef)
(See example below) :-
InfoPlus.21
-----------
V 9.1.0.1
Copyright 1996-2006 Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
InfoPlus.21 is subject to the following Restricted Rights Legend:
Use, duplication or disclosure by the Government is subject to
restrictions as set forth in (i) FAR 52.227-14, Alt. III, (ii) FAR
52.227-19, (iii) DFARS 252.227-7013 (c)(1)(ii), or (iv) the accom-
panying license agreement as applicable. For purposes of the FAR,
this Software shall be deemed in the unpublished and licensed
with disclosure prohibitions. Contractor/Subcontractor: Aspen
Technology, Inc.. If the Licensee is acquiring the Software under
a United States government contract, the Licensee agrees that it
will include all necessary and applicable restricted rights legends
on the Software and the documentation to protect Aspen Technology's
proprietary rights under the FAR or other similar regulations of
other federal agencies. The Licensee agrees to always include such
legends whenever the Software is, or is deemed to be, a deliverable
under that contract.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: Why does an installation of only the InfoPlus.21 Administrator also include CIM-IO components?
After choosing nothing but the InfoPlus.21 Administrator at install-time, the Start menu in fact shows that CIM-IO core components are also installed.
|
Solution: This is in fact by design, and is done to support the functionality of the I/O Wizard. The I/O Wizard allows the user to remotely configure Aspen CIM-IO servers and add them to the InfoPlus.21 node. When the Administrator is installed by itself, CIM-IO components are still required on the Administrator node to do that remote configuration.
Keywords: None
References: None
|
Problem Statement: The SQLConnectionDef record is missing from the database. Where do I find it?
|
Solution: The SQLConnectionDef record is in the pims.rld file. To reload it, please follow the steps below:
In the InfoPlus.21 Administrator, right click on the database, choose Load Records.
Browse to the pims.rld file located at
..\aspentech\infoplus.21\db21\etc.
Use Available in this system for record id's. You should get a lot of record names already exist messages but that is OK.
Keywords: SQLA
References: None
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Problem Statement: When expanding the I/O Tree from the administrator, some (or all) of the devices may not appear.
|
Solution: This behavior can be caused when there are duplicate logical device entries in the cimio_logical_devices.def file.
Edit this file and delete any duplicate entries.
Keywords: I/O
Administrator
References: None
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Problem Statement: In some situations,such as when using the history file set backup task TSK_HBAK for the first time, one may want to clear the Shifted and/or Changed status for all file sets within a specific Aspen InfoPlus.21 repository.
This would prevent these file sets being copied to the backup Shifted or Changed directories until they are next Shifted or Changed.
How can this be done?
|
Solution: In 2006.5 and later versions of Aspen InfoPlus.21:
1. Right-click on a repository (beneath the Historian container) in the left side of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator
2. Choose 'Backup...'
3. Click the 'Clear' button
NOTE - this is an all or nothing button which clears all the Shifted and Changed statuses for all file sets within the repository.
Note that the changes may not appear in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator right away. It may take multiple refreshes to see the results.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: This knowledge base article explains under what circumstances the following error can appear when attempting to insert data into the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database:
Invalid Key Timestamp
|
Solution: The Invalid Key Timestamp message can be returned for the following reasons.
1. If the key time stamp is older than the oldest allowed time for the history repeat area in the individual data record. The XOLDESTOK utility can be used to reset the oldest allowed time for an individual data record.
2. If the key time stamp is older than allowed by the repository's Past parameter
3. If the key time stamp is newer than allowed by the repository's Future parameter
4. If the key time stamp is undefined
5. If the history source for the key time stamp is in a repeat area and the field originally written is not in the same repeat area. This is most frequently the case when the error is returned with a custom definition record but not with a standard definition record such as IP_AnalogDef.
6. If the Past and Future time parameters for the repository could not be obtained
Keywords: Timestamp;
XOLDESTOK;
AspenSQLPlus;
Insert;
References: None
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Problem Statement: How to turn off Data and Tag Replication for a specific field in the record?
|
Solution: If it becomes necessary to disable replication for a specific field in a definition record. Here are the steps using the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator.
1. Start the Aspen Infoplus.21 Administrator
2. Expand Definition Records
3. Locate the definition record for the record that needs to be changed
4. Expand the definition record
5. Expand Fields
6. Select #_OF_FIELDS_IN_REC
7. Locate the field that needs replication turned off.
8. Scroll over all the way to the right and find the column PUBLISH_UPDATES
9. Set the value for the field to OFF
Keywords: None
References: None
|
Problem Statement: How do you register the IP.21 DA OPC Server on a client to enable it to connect to a remote IP.21 DA OPC Server? If you are trying to connect an OPC client to a remote OPC server the client needs to be able to resolve the name into a CLSID. When the client tries to make a remote connection to the OPCServer it will check to make sure the user has permissions to access and launch the control. Use DCOMCNFG to change the default access and launch permissions on the OPCServer node to include the user or a group that the user belongs to.
OPC clients are able to do this in two different ways:
If your OPC client is able to look in the remote PC's registry for the CLSID then you will not need to go any further. If your OPC client is only able to look in the local registry for the CLSID then this
|
Solution: will help.Solution
Attached you will find a zip file containing two reg files. One for NT and one for Windows 2000. You apply theSolution by downloading the appropriate reg file on the client PC and then double clicking on the file to apply the fix.
Keywords:
References: None
|
Problem Statement: PIMS V7.1 encountering installation errors with .Net 3.0 and 3.5 SP1 on a Vista PC.
If you are facing this error in installation:
|
Solution: The Windows Vista needs to be updated to Vista Service Pack 2, before installation of .Net Framework 3.0 and .Net 3.5 SP1 can be successful. This will in turn allow PIMS installation to proceed.
Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a4dd31d5-f907-4406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&displaylang=en
Keywords: Windows Vista, Service Pack 2, .Net Framework 3.0 , .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, PIMS V7.1, Installation of PIMS
References: None
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Problem Statement: The modeler wants to compute a property of a stream in terms of a different property of another stream. I other words, the modeler wants to set property QQQ of XXX as follows:
(QQQ of XXX) = (A * different property PPP of YYY) + B
where PPP is a recursed property. A and B are constants that can be either positive or negative. Material XXX is linked in some way to material YYY, usually XXX is a product, with yield y, from feeding YYY to a process unit (UNT).
A practical example of this is where you want to predict %benzene (QQQ) in reformate (XXX) from %benzene precursors (PPP) in the reformer feed (YYY). (This particular example is covered by an alternative technique in
|
Solution: 103910.)
Another potential example is predicting the reduction in SPG of gas oil product depending on the feed sulphur to a gas oil desulphuriser.
Solution
In an existing Delta-Base submodel table SUNT, set up the following structure: -
ROWNAME TEXT BAS* SFT* YYY* SSS TTT XXX
*
WBALYYY +1 (existing feed row)
WBALXXX -y1 -y2 (existing product yield )
*
EBALSSS -y1 -y2 +1
EQQQTTT -999 -1
*
RBALXXX -y1 -y2 +1
RPPPXXX -1 +999
BAS, SFT & YYY are the existing Base, Delta Shift, and Feed vectors columns respectively in table SUNT
Add following to Table PCALC
QQQ
SSSYYY A
Add following to Table PCALCB
QQQ
SSSYYY B
Add to Table PGUESS
PPP
XXX 999
Explanation
SSS and TTT are dummy vectors used in equation row EQQQTTT, to make
Activity of TTT = Activity of SSS * (QQQ of SSS) (1)
The activity of SSS is set by EBALSSS row to be sum of the yields (y1 +y2) of XXX produced by activity of BAS and SFT vectors:
Activity of SSS = (y1 +y2) (2)
The QQQ of SSS is set by T.PCALC & T. PCALCB to be
(QQQ of SSS) = (A * QQQ of YYY + B) (3)
Substituting Equations (2) and (3) into (1):
Activity of TTT = (A * QQQ of YYY + B) * (y1 + y2) (4)
XXX is a pool collector column used to calculate recursed properties of material XXX. PIMS automatically calculates the recursed property PPP of XXX as
(PPP of XXX)
= Sum (pool component activity * pool component property) / activity of pool collector column (5)
The RBALXXX row sets the activity of XXX, the pool collector column as (y1+y2). In property balance row RPPPXXX, the coefficient of 1 means the PPP of TTT is fixed to 1.
Thus substituting in Equation (5):
PPP of XXX = (Activity of TTT * 1) / (y1 +y2) (6)
Using Equation (4) to substitute for the activity of TTT in Equation (6):
PPP of XXX = ((y1+y2) * (A * QQQ of YYY + B)) / (y1+y2)
= (A * QQQ of YYY + B) (7)
Finally, as we are using recursion (the basis of Equation (5)), we must make a first guess for the optimised value of the PPP of XXX in table PGUESS.
Some of our users have used Table ROWS to set up similar structure. We encourage caution when adding structure to Table ROWS. PIMS does not make any error or warning checks on table ROWS as PIMS is programmed to accept the contents of that table as correct. Also, it is easy to forget structure that was added in table ROWS when they do model maintenance some years after it was put in.
Keywords: property
recursion
transfer
different properties
different materials
References: None
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Problem Statement: The Aspen Infoplus.21 Administrator may not show recent data in the history repeat area for any data records. This is normally seen per user no matter what PC you are logged into.
|
Solution: From the Aspen Infoplus.21 Administrator, click on the History lookup icon or View/History lookup and make sure Use Current is checked.
Keywords: History repeat area
Recent data
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do I incorporate a user-defined second order property correlation into PIMS model?
|
Solution: Assume below is a formula used to calculate a second order property TVL, to implement it, the user can use the Property Calculation Formula under the model tree.
TVL = 114.6-4.1*RVS+0.2*t10+0.17*T5S
For complex correlations, consider using UBML.
There is a maximum of 20 Property Calculation Formulas allowed and the total number of required input properties can not exceed 100.
Keywords: properties
user-defined properties
property calculator
property calculation formula
property correlation
References: None
|
Problem Statement: What are the recommended version compatibility options for Aspen InfoPlus21 server and its client tools?
or
Are newer versions of Aspen InfoPlus.21 clients (i.e. V8.0) compatible with earlier versions?
|
Solution: AspenTech always recommends that Aspen InfoPlus.21 server and InfoPlus.21 clients to be installed with the same version.
For example, if the InfoPlus.21 server is of version V8.0, then the InfoPlus.21 clients, like Process Explorer, Excel add-ins, SQLplus and Aspen Calc, all should be in the same version i.e. V8.0.
However, considering migration difficulties (where at times it is not possible to upgrade InfoPlus.21 server and clients at the same time), it is possible to pair a higher version of InfoPlus.21 server with lower version of client e.g. InfoPlus.21 server V8.0 paired with the V7.3 client. But the reverse is not recommended (i.e. InfoPlus.21 server V7.3 and V8.0 client). Secondly, there should not be different versions of the aspenONE products on a same local machine.
Lastly, users are recommended to use clients that are still current on support. Users are also recommended to lookup the release notes to identify new features or known issues.
Keywords: Version compatibility for IP21
IP21 server
IP21 client tools
References: None
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Problem Statement: In some cases, when opening the InfoPlus.21 Manager after an install or upgrade, no tasks appear in the Defined Tasks list. This situation may also be recognized if the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Task Service does not exist in the Control Panel | Services.
|
Solution: There are a few reasons why this may happen.
Situation 1: Upgrade or Multiple Install Attempts
If Defined Task List previously contained entries, it is possible that the registry entry from which the list is populated has been cleared. The specific registry key is as follows.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Aspentech\InfoPlus.21\<version #>\<Group #>\RegisteredTasks
If this registry entry has been cleared, there are two available options.
1. If you have a backed up group configuration file (the file extension is .ipg), open the InfoPlus.21 Manager, go to File | Restore Group Configuration and load this group configuration file.
2. If you do not have a backup of the group configuration file, it is possible to load a generic one (see Generic Group Configuration.ipg, attached).
NOTE: The generic .ipg file contains no Cim-IO client tasks or any other user-added tasks. All such additional tasks must be manually added to the defined task list.
Additional Note: Environment variables associated with InfoPlus.21 are no longer required beginning in V7.1. See the V7.1 release notes for additional details. If environment variables will still be used (for example if they have been restored or recreated) please scan them for version-specific information and modify it to reflect the current version. For example, the environment variable called INFOPLUS21_VERSION might be set to 10.0 for version 2006.5 of InfoPlus.21 or 11.1 for V7.1. Make sure that the value in the environment variable is correct and that it matches the appropriate <version #> specified in the registry entry above.
Situation 2: New Install
AddGroup is a post-install process that creates the database and defined tasks. It is possible that AddGroup.exe did not run to completion or encountered errors during the installation. The most common reason for such a failure is that AddGroup.exe attempts to create the IP21GUESTUSER account with a null password. If the local policy on the machine does not allow for user account creation without a password, this process will fail to run.
To resolve this:
1) Bring up a command prompt (Start | Run | cmd) and change directory to \Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\code (cd %SETCIMCODE%).
2) From the %SETCIMCODE% directory, run the following command--substituting the username and password with that of an administrator account on the system:
addgroup <username> <password>
3) Check the InfoPlus.21 Manager. The defined task list should be populated. At this time, the database can be started.
NOTE: When addgroup.exe runs properly during the post-install process, the account under which the Aspen Infoplus.21 Task Service runs will be set to the administrative account specified during the install. However, when the addgroup.exe is run manually, it creates the service--setting the logon account as 'localsystem'. This service must run under an account with administrative privileges on the local machine. The logon account for the service should be changed manually after performing the above steps.
Keywords: group
addgroup
removegroup
security
empty
References: None
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Problem Statement: This knowledge base article describes why the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator Title Bar may show a different version than what is installed. For example, if you have just upgraded to v2006 the Title Bar may still show v2004.2.
|
Solution: This indicates that not all files were upgraded successfully. If this is the only problem noticed after the upgrade then first:
1. Uninstall the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator
2. Reboot
3. Re-install the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator
If reinstalling the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator does not resolve the problem then ensure that the following file is the correct version:
Program Files\AspenTech\IP21Admin\bin\atobjectbrowser.exe
AtObjectBrowser.exe can be replaced with a file of the correct version taken from another installation where the problem does not occur.
Keywords: Version
mismatch
References: None
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Problem Statement: The Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager is not able to shutdown using the STOP InfoPlus.21 button.
Possible indicators of this occurring would be:
The display could be showing 'Waiting for all external tasks to stop' in the bottom left hand corner and yet nothing is happening.
An information box is displayed stating: 'Aspen InfoPlus.21 is already trying to stop.'
An information box is displayed stating: 'Cannot shutdown database, check other programs like DBMT, EngCon, and SQLplus.'
|
Solution: For the first two indicators above follow these steps:
1. An alternative way to stop the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database is using the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. Within this tool, you would right click on the name of the database and select Stop Database. If this option is not displayed or does not have any affect then proceed to the next step.
2. Stop the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Task Service via the Windows Services applet. Then go back to the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager and try the STOP InfoPlus.21 button again. If the system still will not shutdown then proceed to the next step.
3. Use the Window Task Manager to view the Aspen processes that are currently executing. If you see any of the following: dbclock.exe, h21archive.exe, or infoplus21_api_server.exe then this would indicate that indeed your Aspen InfoPlus.21 system is still executing. Proceed to step 4 below.
For the last indicator above follow this step:
Use the Window Task Manager to view the Aspen processes that are currently executing. If you see any of the following: engcon.exe, sqlplus_server.exe or sqlplsv.exe then this would indicate that someone at your site is using either EngCon or Aspen SQLplus and should be alerted to shut the application down for a re-start or the processes will need to be ended via the Windows Task Manager. Note: DBMT is associated with older versions of SETCIM and should not be located or in use for Aspen InfoPlus.21.
4. If you have made it to the step, then the only action available to take is to re-boot the computer. Before doing this, you should
a) Verify that you have a valid set of snapshot backup files usually located in the folder defined by the environment variable %SETCIM_GROUP_NAME%. If you do not feel that you have a valid snapshot then copy the current one that is being loaded into the system when loaddb (in versions prior to v2006.5) or TSK_DBCLOCK (in versions v2006.5 and on) starts up.
b) Un-check the flag in the Aspen Infoplus.21 Manager for STARTUP@BOOT.
c) Re-boot the computer.
d) Start the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager and execute the tasks in the list located in the upper left hand window one at a time in the order they are listed up to and including either loaddb or TSK_DBCLOCK (depending on your version). Check the .err and .out files for each task after completion. If you are successful in getting all the tasks to execute successfully then you are safe to start the Aspen InfoPlus.21 system using the START InfoPlus.21 button. If errors occur for the tasks then contact the AspenTech Support help line for assistance in determining the problem.
e) First you will need to use the STOP InfoPlus.21 using the button provided.
f) Next check the STARTUP@BOOT box.
g) Then click the START InfoPlus.21 button.
If errors occur on any of the remaining tasks, then contact the Aspentech Support help line for assistance.
Keywords: Shutdown
Startup
Won't stop
References: None
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Problem Statement: InfoPlus.21 uses timestamps for historizing data, so changing the system time of an Infoplus.21 server can potentially cause a host of time-related problem. One direct impact would be the corruption of a history fileset, or snapshot, and the effect on scheduled activations.
This article focus on how InfoPlus.21 administrators can protect their InfoPlus.21 database specifically on a Windows 2000 server.
|
Solution: We can enhance protection three ways:
The first and simplest way is simply hide the System clock. Users have a tendency of using the system tray clock to check the calendar schedule or time. In Windows 2000, you can hide the clock by right-clicking on the time display in the bottom right corner, and uncheck show clock.
Most of the time, the account used for InfoPlus.21 installation would be a domain administrator or local administrator group. So by removing the right to change the system time for the administrators group, you can reduce the chance of an unplanned change. Changes to the system time can then be applied by another local administrator account created specifically for this purpose.
Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Settings
Select Local Policies -> Change the System Time
Note that by default,\ this privilege has been assigned to administrator and power user groups. Remove those groups and just add a local administrator account specifically for this function.
InfoPlus.21 has been enhanced to periodically check for significant, unusual changes in the NT system time. InfoPlus.21 will lock the database if the NT system time has changed too much. (The default threshold is one year.) InfoPlus.21 will resume after the user has confirmed that the current NT system time is correct.
To change the default threshold, you must create a new DWORD value called MaxTimeChange in
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\3.0\groupXXX\RegisteredTasks\TSK _DBCLOCK.
Keywords: system time
registry
local security setting
References: None
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Problem Statement: A very big difference between v2006 and v2006.5 of Aspen InfoPlus.21 is the way in which several of the tasks involved with the initial configuration and startup of the Aspen InfoPlus.21 database were consolidated into the one task called TSK_DBCLOCK
Our article 124960 fully describes which tasks were consolidated, the order in which TSK_DBCLOCK performs internally, as well as a list of switches that can be used with this task. Knowing this information should assist any needed troubleshooting.
This new article is designed to assist the user troubleshoot any problems that may occur during startup of TSK_DBCLOCK as well as the option to turn on logging in a more detailed manner.
|
Solution: The first thing to point out is that for versions prior to v2006.5, all informational messages for TSK_DBCLOCK were written to the associated OUT file. Beginning with v2006.5, informational messages are also written to the ERR file. In fact 'usually' any fatal error message is more likely to be in the ERR file, but it would still be strongly recommended to look at the OUT file in parallel
Also beginning with v2006.5, each attempt to start any task causes messages to be appended to the OUT or ERR files rather than new files being generated each time. This can be very useful for troubleshooting purposes, but it can also cause large files to be generated. These files are stored in the
..\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\db21\Group200 directory,
with names such as TSK_DBCLOCK.OUT and TSK_DBCLOCK.ERR. These files may optionally be deleted when the task is not running. They will get recreated the next time the task attempts to start.
When looking at TSK_DBCLOCK.ERR you may see the message :-
Failed to read DBCLOCK configuration file for IP21 subscription shared memory - IP21 subscription API is not enabled, see dbclock.config
This message is associated with the new v2006.5 feature called 'replication'. If you are not using 'replication' then you should ignore this (unfortunately slightly annoying) message which would just be a WARNING message in this case.
One of the most common causes of problems starting TSK_DBCLOCK is something wrong with the History Repositories or filesets.
Effective Patch #5 -Solution 124278 a new switch became available for TSK_DBCLOCK called VERBOSE. This causes a lot more informational messages to be written to the DBCLOCK OUT and ERR files. Please refer back to kb article 124960 for more details on this switch.
If problems are still encountered then please contact your local AspenTech Support Centre and send them your OUT and ERR files for TSK_DBCLOCK.
Keywords:
References: None
|
Problem Statement: After upgrading Aspen InfoPlus.21 to version 2006.5, a user experiences many unexpected messages within the Aspen Audit & Compliance Manager.
These messages indicate that fields within DeiskHistoryDef records have been changed.
Such fields might be one or more of..
FS_STATUS_FLAG
FS_PERCENTAGE_USED
FS_END_TIME
CUR_FS_THESHOLD
CUR_FILESET_TIME
These are caused by a Defect that was in the v2006.5.0 version of the executable that Upgrades the Database.
This is the Upgrade.exe.
Note : If the user installs v2006.5 from the DVDs and immediately installs Aspen InfoPlus.21 Patch #5 BEFORE Upgrading the Snapshot they will not see the problem.
However : Applying the Patch alone will NOT fix the problem once it has occurred.
|
Solution: Once the problem has been encountered, there are only two ways to resolve it :-
1)
a) Apply the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Patch #5
b) Rerun the Upgrade program ensuring that the Input is the old 'pre-2006.5' snapshot
OR..
2)
a) Download the attached file and place it in the following directory on the Aspen InfoPlus.21 machine
Drive:\........\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\Db21\Code
b) Open Dos (Cmd) window and change directories until you reach the directory mentioned above
c) At the prompt, click on Enter after typing
Changeauditattribute.exe<fixdiskhistauditprop.inp
This should be run with the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Database up and running.
Nothing more such as restarts needs to be performed.
Keywords: None
References: None
|
Problem Statement: I am using Table INDEX to define the relationship between RVP and RVI. The RVP is reported when RVI is reported in Parameter Reporting of Submodel Summary Report. But RVP is not reported for other streams. Why is this inconsistent?
|
Solution: In this case, RVI is index property of RVP and these properties are entered in table INDEX. If the stream has index property such as RVI, PIMS will report RVI and calculate RVP from INDEX in the FullSolution Report. Though if the value of RVI is out of range that is defined in table INDEX, PIMS will not report RVP. So you need to make sure that the range of RVI covers the value of the stream.
Keywords: INDEX
BLNPROP
References: None
|
Problem Statement: How can I report on the average quality of finished product blends for a group, such as gasolines, distillates, fuel oils, etc., without affecting product sales economics?
|
Solution: Please refer to the standard PIMS weight-based sample model, entitled sample. This is available with your PIMS installation.
In T. GROUPS you will see that all gasoline products have been collected into the GSO group.
In T. BLNSPEC, you will see that a maximum aromatics spec is imposed on the GSO group. Add to the GSO specifications so that there is now a GSO specification for all specifications that are common to all grades of gasoline. Make the X-row of GSO = maximum value used in any gasoline grade, and make the N-row = minimum of any gasoline grade. (i.e. the GSO spec is never ever limiting, for if it were, the GSO specs would alter the optimumSolution. All we want is to report the average value)
You cannot put a GSO spec on any spec which is:
not universal to ALL gasolines (e.g. TEL in the Sample model).
only represented as a P-row for a grade (e.g. SPG in the sample model).
PIMS generates automatically blend recursion structure to compute the weighted average GSO gasoline group quality.
GSO does not appear in the Product Sales section of the FullSolution report. In the Spec Blend section of the FullSolution report, each gasoline blend has same spec qualities repeated on 2 lines - one for the blend itself (with marginal value, if any) and one for the GSO group (no marginal value as is never limiting) At the end of the list of spec. blends, a GSO group blend report appears giving the average quality of the gasoline pool.
This does not affect product sales, is easy to do, and avoids building a submodel.
If you want to average a pool quality which is not currently a spec point for ALL grades in that pool, then you will have to add a dummy spec to those grades that don't have the spec. Also you must ensure all blend components in the pool also carry that quality.
You can extend this to any product group defined in T.GROUPS whose grade specs appear in T. BLNSPEC.
Keywords: None
References: None
|
Problem Statement: Cascaded pools are those where a pool is a component of another pool, which is a component of another pool, and so on.
This structure usually has a negative effect on the convergence of the model and the appearance of local optima because of the complicated property error distribution structure that arises, therefore a good model practice is to minimize the layers of cascaded pools. The negative effects are increased if each source pool can go to many destination pools.
A more detailed description of this structure can be found in
|
Solution: 125435.
How can you identify the cascaded pools and which pools have too many components and/or too many destinations?
Solution
Note: the report template and this description were modified from the first publication based on feedback from customers.
The attached Report Writer template reports the cascaded pool layers and indicates which pools have more than 10 components and/or destinations. This information can be used to analyze in more detail those pools and see if they can be simplified (reduce the number of cascaded layers and the number of destinations). Attached is also a sample database that can be used to generate this report. Note that this database was not used to generate the reports shown below in the screenshots.
For the report to work, it needs the Results.mdb database table PrUpdatedPDist. To have Aspen PIMS populate this table, you need to activate the following setting:
Model Settings | General | Output Database | Create MpsBcd Database Tables
When you run the report, Report Writer will show the Global Filter selection box: here you can choose the Results.mdb, the period, etc. For M/XPIMS models, you need to select a local model from the box Nodes (models), and a period from box Period to get the report generated correctly.
Note: This results table only lists streams as destinations (pools and blends), it does not list the TAGs for example in an EQQQTAG row (for a delta base structure).
Report Description
The report will have a summary page listing how many pools are cascaded at each layer, which pools have more than 10 components and which ones have more than 10 destinations.
The example below shows the following information:
The Case, Period and Local Model for which the report was generated.
The number of first layer (i.e. not cascaded) pools is 48, i.e. none of their components is a pool (1st Layer Pools (Not cascaded)).
There are 15 pools for which one or more of their components are recursed pools (2nd Layer Cascaded Pools).
There are 6 pools for which one or more of their components are 2nd layer recursed pools (3rd Layer Cascaded Pools).
There are 59 pools for which one or more of their components are 3rd layer recursed pools (4th Layer Cascaded Pools).
The report has some logic to identify whether there are error distribution recycles. For example: AAA->BBB->CCC->AAA, i.e. pool AAA is a component of BBB, which is a component of CCC, which is a component of AAA. It is recommended to review this structure and see whether it is intended and whether it can be simplified. That is identified next to the layer from which this behavior starts: There are error distribution 'recycles', i.e. a pool goes through one or more cascaded layers to a component of itself.
The pools with more than ten components and the number of components are listed. Review whether you can reduce the number of components.
The pools with more than ten destinations and the number of destinations are listed. Review whether you can reduce the number of destinations.
In the pages Pool_1, Pool_2, etc., it will list the Source pools that are cascaded at that many layers.
For example pool CSL is a component of CFC, which is a component of FXC which is a component of pool CFD, i.e. four layers, therefore pool CFD is listed in sheet Pool_4.
Keywords: Cascaded pools
Recursion
Error distribution coefficient
References: None
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Problem Statement: Can you change the location of the Event.dat?
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Solution: To change the location of event.dat follow these steps;
1. Open the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. Expand 'Historian' under your database name.
2. Right click on the Repository you are using, choose Properties, then select the tab Repository.
3. Change the Pending path to new location. (This will be the location of a shared folder.)
4. This should be a shared location and have read/write access. Press OK to proceed.
5. Use the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager to stop the database.
6. Find the cache.dat file located in original repository ( C:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\arcs ) and copy this to the new location in step 3.
7. Restart Aspen InfoPlus.21.
Keywords: InfoPlus.21
Event.dat
location
References: None
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Problem Statement: The best practice when creating records is to use the appropriate definition record so that all data records defined by it have the desired out of the box functionality. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, users may occasionally have a need to make changes to a definition record that is usable and that already has data records defined against it.
The usual procedure to correct this situation would be to remove the references to the data records, make them unusable, and then delete all the data records. Next, one would would need to remove the references to the definition record and make it unusable and then edit it appropriately. Finally, one would need to make the definition record usable and then recreate the data records. This procedure is quite involved and labor intensive.
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Solution: Beginning with the 6.0 release of InfoPlus.21 a new feature called the 'Replace Definition Record Wizard' has been added. It is described in the 6.0 and 6.0.1 InfoPlus.21 release notes; a link to the latter is included below. The wizard is described beginning on page 4 (when following the document's printed page numbering) and page 8 (when using the Adobe Acrobat Reader page numbers).
Here is an excerpt:
The Replace Definition Record wizard facilitates the replacement of an old, obsolete definition record by a newer, more suitable, definition record. The Replace Definition Record wizard creates a database snapshot in which all records previously defined by an obsolete definition record are defined by a new definition record.
Solution 112538 - InfoPlus.21 v6.0.1 Release Notes
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: One of the features of the h21arcadmin utility is the ability to change, either or both of, the start and end times of a history fileset. This would typically be necessary if somehow you have overlapping times between one fileset and another. The usage of this utility, to change the start or end time, is described in our knowledgebase
|
Solution: # 103662.
However we now have a much more user friendly wizard to do the same thing that can be accessed in Windows Explorer by double clicking on the SetArchiveDates executable in the ....c21\h21\bin directory.
The main point of this article is to address a question that may be raised as to what happens to the data in the fileset outside the new start and end times, but more specifically, why is it that sometimes you will see a larger gap in historical data around the time of the boundary between filesets.
This knowledgebaseSolution attempts to explain the phenomenon of a 'sometimes seen' gap in historical data corresponding to the time where the start or end time of a fileset was modified, even though the end time of one fileset, and the start time of the next fileset, do not show any such gap.Solution
To understand the reason for the problem, you need to first know that history for a single point is collected into history records in the archives. Each history record may hold a number of history occurrences for one point.
When you reset an end time on an archive, you may loose more data than you think.Whichever of the methods above that you use, when the utility comes across a history record that has data beyond the archive's endtime, it invalidates the entire history record. This means all the data in the record is invalid, whether it is from before or after the endtime.
So, how big is one history record, and therefore how big can the gap be? The history records can be anywhere from 256 bytes to 64 Kbytes in length. There are a few words used at the beginning for header information. The record size is determined by how much data is coming into the point and how much space is left in the archive. A fast scanning point with a mostly empty archive will get a 64 Kbyte record. A slow scanning point will typically get a smaller record. When the archive is almost full, every tag gets a smaller record. For a IP_AnalogDef record, you can fit about 15 occurrences in a 256 byte record. A 64 Kbyte record will hold hundreds of occurrences.
As you can see it is impossible to estimate just how big the gap in data will be, due to the invalidation of a complete history record, but you can hopefully see why there could in fact be a gap.
Having said all that, please remember that the missing data is only invalidated not deleted. Therefore revering the process to expand the start/end timestamps and possibly modifying the start/end times on the adjacent filesets, would allow you to see the missing data again!
Keywords: h21arcadmin
h21arcck
gap
fileset
References: None
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Problem Statement: This Knowledge Base article provides steps to troubleshoot the issue where all tags are updating more frequently than expected.
|
Solution: If tags in Aspen InfoPlus.21(IP21) are updating more frequently than expected then there is likely more that one update to the record. Here is a list of items to check:
Multiple entries for the record in IO_Value_Record&FLD in a Cim-IO transfer record. From the InfoPlus.21 Administrator R-Click on the tag record name and select Show
Keywords: cimio
cim-io
get
References: s. If there are unexpected entries listed then the duplicate entries should be removed from the Cim-IO transfer records.
Scheduling the activation of a Cim-IO transfer record and using Store & Forward. From the InfoPlus.21 Administrator R-Click on the Cim-IO transfer record name and select Show References. If there are unexpected entries listed then the entries should be removed from scheduling records.
An Aspen Calc calculation is writing to the record. From Aspen Calc R-Click on the server name and select Tag Report. Review the report for the tags that are receiving multiple updates. If the tags are found in the report then remove the calculations from scheduling or edit the calculation.
An Aspen SQLPlus query is updating the record. Stop and TSK_IQx processes that are running in the InfoPlus.21 Manager. If the multiple tag updates stop then review any queries, QueryDef, or CompQueryDef that may be updating the tags.
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Problem Statement: Beginning with v2006.5, the .ERR file associated with TSK_DBCLOCK now may contain informational and fatal error messages - Previously everything was written to the .OUT file
When looking at TSK_DBCLOCK.ERR you may see the message :-
Failed to read DBCLOCK configuration file for IP21 subscription shared memory - IP21 subscription API is not enabled, see dbclock.config
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Solution: This message is associated with the new v2006.5 feature called 'replication'. If you are not using 'replication' then you should ignore this (unfortunately slightly annoying) message which would just be a WARNING message in this case.
For more information about Replication please see the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Release Notes v2006.5 as well as the online 'Help' files that are available from the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator and from the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager
For more information about messages in the OUT or ERR files for TSK_DBCLOCK, please see article 125267
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: This knowledge base article provides basic information on how to set up Database and Record level Security.
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Solution: Aspen InfoPlus.21 Database Security Considerations:
There is no defined security after installing Aspen InfoPlus.21, which means that any user can access, read and modify database records.
Database security is enabled once a Role is added to the Permissions tab in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator and given privileges. After that, users will not be able to access the database unless they are members of a specified Role with assigned privileges.
At lease one role (Administrator) must have the ChangeDBSecurity privilege. Otherwise all users will have limited or no access to the database.
In order to ensure consistency, and for security to work properly, it is recommended to set up Database level security prior to Record level security.
Setting up Database and Record level Security:
FIRST: Define roles in AFW Security Manager
a. Go to Start | Programs | AspenTech | AFW Security Manager. Right click on Roles and select New | Role. Enter a name and a description.
b. Right click on the newly created role and select Properties. Go to the Members tab and click Add to select Groups and/or Users. Add more Roles as needed.
c. Click OK. Go to File | Save and exit the application.
NEXT: Set up Database Level Security.
a. Go to the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. Right click on the database name, select Properties | Permissions. Click on Add and select Users and/or Roles.
b. Select (check) permissions for each role. When selecting permissions, please keep in mind the following:
. It is required that at least one Role (usually an administrative role) has the ChangeDBSecurity permission selected.
. Read, Write, Create, Delete, and Change Security permissions WILL NOT BYPASS Record level security check (if set). In other words, it is still possible to limit which records a particular Role will be able to access by setting up Record level Security.
. Admin, Read All, Write All, Create All, Delete All, and Change All Security permissions WILL BYPASS Record level security check (if set). In other words, Roles with these permissions will be able to access all records regardless of the Record level Security settings.
NEXT: Set up Record Level Security
Important: Record Level Security does not need to be configured if you do not wish to restrict access to individual records in Aspen InfoPlus.21.
a. Right click on the desired record and select Properties | Permissions.
b. Select (check) the Permissions for each role. When setting permissions, please keep in mind the following:
. Read, Write General, Write System, Activate, Delete, Create, and Change Security privileges can be assigned to Roles that do not have the Read All, Write All, Create All, or Delete All Database Permissions.
. Roles that are not added to Record level security and that do not have the Read All, Write All, Create All, or Delete All privileges set at the Database level will be restricted.
. Read access should never be restricted on Definition Records, FieldNameDef/FieldLongNameDef data records or Map records. Restricting Read access to such records could inadvertently result in client applications such as Aspen Process Explorer no longer having access to the database. In general, restricting record level read access should be used with caution.
Keywords: Configure
Level
References: None
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Problem Statement: What are the consequences of moving a tag from one history repository to another?
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Solution: When the history repository for a tag is changed, Aspen InfoPlus.21 begins writing historical data for the tag to the new repository and also reading data for the tag from new repository. Even tough historical recordings for the tag remain in the old repository, Aspen InfoPlus.21 cannot access the older recordings because Aspen InfoPlus.21 does not know to look in the old repository because the tag now points to the new repository.
If you change the repository field back to the former repository, then Aspen InfoPlus.21 will not able to access the historical recordings collected while the repository field pointed to the new repository.
It is possible to copy a file set from the former repository to an empty file set of the new repository only if the starting and ending times of the file set do not overlap the starting and ending times of any of the file sets of the new repository. If that is the case, you can stop Aspen InfoPlus.21, copy a file set from the former repository to an empty location in the new repository, and then restart Aspen InfoPlus.21. Then, you will be able to access historical information for the tag stored in the older file set.
Keywords: Repository
InfoPlus.21
References: None
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Problem Statement: After installing, Aspen InfoPlus.21 will not start... because there are no defined tasks, and further investigation would reveal that the task service is not defined because no group is configured.
There could be a number of causes for this, but one cause could be a userid that addgroup is not able to parse correctly... because it consists of two words, or because there is a character not normally used, such as Ampersand (&). As a consequence, addgroup is unsuccessful when it is run during installation, leaving the group unconfigured, and giving the above symptoms.
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Solution: TheSolution is to run addgroup again, but this time enclose the userid in quotes ().
- Open a DOS window
- CD to %SETCIMCODE% (makes the command simpler since you won't need to include the path)
- issue the command:
addgroup userid with strange characters password
- verify that the group was created: There are defined tasks in the Aspen Info Plus.21 manager (after re-starting it), and IP.21 will start and run.
Keywords: addgroup
ip.21 Manager
no defined tasks
References: None
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Problem Statement: Some customers use custom definition records, which have multiple history repeat areas they want to write to using Aspen Calc, SQLPlus, their own application, or even manual entry. Having all those multiple history repeat areas to deal with, it is sometimes difficult for a user to determine which field in the fixed area of a data record (tag) to write to in order for that value to pass compression and end up in a particular history repeat area.
One way to do this is to find out the name of the history source field for a particular history repeat area.
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Solution: In order to determine the name of a correct history source field for a particular repeat area, open Aspen Definition Editor, double-click on the custom definition record, expand the history repeat area you want to write to, find the history repeat area field you ultimately want to write to, right click on it and select Properties from the context menu, and note the field name appearing in the History Source Field. This is the fixed area field that your calculation, SQLplus code, or manual entry should write to in order for the value to pass compression and end up in the specific (intended) history repeat area.
Key Words:
Aspen Calc
SQLplus
insert into
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: How do you synchronize the time on the IP.21 and CIM-IO server nodes?
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Solution: Use the NET TIME utility. Here is the on-line help:
C:\>net help time
The syntax of this command is:
NET TIME [\\computername | /DOMAIN[:domainname] | /RTSDOMAIN[:domainname]] [/SET]
[\\computername] /QUERYSNTP
[\\computername] /SETSNTP[:ntp server list]
NET TIME synchronizes the computer''s clock with that of another computer or domain, or displays the time for a computer or domain. When used without options on a Windows Server domain, it displays the current date and time at the computer designated as the time server for the domain. This command allows setting the NTP timeserver for computername.
\\computername
Is the name of the computer you want to check or synchronize with.
/DOMAIN[:domainname]
Specifies to synchronize the time from the Primary Domain Controller of domainname.
/RTSDOMAIN[:domainname]
Specifies to synchronize with a Reliable Time Server from domainname.
/SET
Synchronizes the computer''s time with the time on the specified computer or domain.
/QUERYSNTP
Displays the currently configured NTP server for this computer
/SETSNTP[:ntp server list]
Sets the NTP time servers to be used by this computer.
This may be a list of IP addresses or DNS names separated by spaces.
If multiple timeservers are listed, the list must be surrounded by quotes.
NET HELP command | MORE displays Help one screen at a time.
Keywords: DOS
synch
References: None
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Problem Statement: Almost all the fields in the ScheduleActDef definition record in Aspen InfoPlus.21 are self-explanatory except 'SUSPEND_UNTIL_DONE' and 'AFTER_SUSPEND,_GOTO'. This
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Solution: explains what does those two fields in the ScheduleActDef record means.Solution
SUSPENDED_UNTIL_DONE: Name of the record currently activated by this schedule record
AFTER_SUSPEND,_GOTO: Repeat area index of the next record to activate once the current record has completed
Note: ScheduleActDef records are processed by an external task called 'TSK_PLAN' defined in Aspen InfoPlus.21 manager.
If ScheduledActDef record stop processing records please refer theSolution 122091
Keywords: SUSPENDED_UNTIL_DONE
AFTER_SUSPEND,_GOTO
ScheduleActDef
References: None
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Problem Statement: What is the maximum value I can assign to TSK_DBCLOCK's shared-memory size command line parameter in InfoPlus.21 Manager?
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Solution: The maximum value you can assign to TSK_DBCLOCK's shared-memory size parameter is 268435455 which translates to FFFFFFF in hexadecimal.
Keywords: IP.21 Manager
TSK_DBCLOCK
maximum shared-memory size
command line parameters
InfoPlus.21
References: None
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Problem Statement: Health Monitor not working. When launching Health Monitor, Last update time and Current Health Status are blank.
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Solution: TSK_HLTH is running, but Health Monitor not working.
- Make sure that TSK_HTLH record Processed Records value is >0 and the UPDATE_TIME_FIELD is updating according to the MAX_TIME_INTERVAL.
- Make sure that Processed Record HealthMonitorTests Status is ON.
Keywords: TSK_HTLH
Health Monitor Tests
References: None
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Problem Statement: We lost everything on our Aspen Server due to a bad crash/failure that occurred on our main RAID Server, and as a result we had to start over again from scratch. Following the server rebuild and fresh re-install of the asopenONE software the following problem occurred:
The Add New Device context menu that allows users to add a new Cim-IO logical device does not appear when I Right-Click on I/O in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator.
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Solution: ** Install Aspen Local Security **
It turns out that the problem was the direct result of not having the Aspen Local Security installed on the server.
Once the Aspen Local Security was installed then a final retest showed that the I/O Wizard right-click problem was resolved. Although security does not have to be configured specifically for the I/O Wizard, the Aspen Local Security does have to be installed by default for the I/O Wizard to function properly.
If you do want to set up custom security for the I/O Wizardin the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator, then please review the documentation attached to AspenTech KB Article which provides and discusses procedures required to setup the default AFW Security Model Example for modifying security specifically on the I/O Wizard Tool in the IP.21 Admin.
Keywords: Add New Device
Administrator
Aspen Local Security
I/O Wizard
Right Click
References: None
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Problem Statement: I need to load history data records from a file onto a new IP.21 system. How do I recreate the IP.21 TSK_DHIS repository ready to take the data?
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Solution: If you already have repository TSK_DHIS and want to recreate the repository from new:
1. Stop InfoPlus.21 from the IP.21 Manager
2. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\arcs
Note - this is the default location on Windows 2008 and ProgramData is a hidden folder. The location of your filesets may be different.
3. Copy the subfolders e.g. arc1, arc2, arc3 and all their contents to a safe location in case you want to restore them any time in the future
4. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\dat and rename config.dat to config.old
5. Start InfoPlus.21 from the IP.21 Manager
This should recreate the default TSK_DHIS repository with 3 filesets, the first with a recent start date and ??????? for the end date. The other two filesets should be without dates.
Once the basic repository has been created, you now need to create filesets for the historical data. The default is that each fileset contains data from one month, so if you have history going back a year you would add 12 filesets.
6. Go to the IP.21 Administrator, in the tree view on the left find Historian and beneath this TSK_DHIS. Right mouse click and select Add File Sets.. and enter the number of filesets to create as 12 (or whatever number you require). Press OK and it should create new filesets that appear in grey with Status of None.
7. Update the repository properties to allow old data to be archived. In the IP.21 Administrator, in the tree view on the left, find Historian and beneath this TSK_DHIS. Right mouse click and select Properties. Go to the Repository tab and update Time Past to the number of days history you want to allow to be loaded, up to a maximum of 24820 days and press OK.
8. You now have to set the timespan for the repository filesets that you created in step 6. To do this, go to a Windows Command Prompt window and navigate to the C:\Program Files (x86)\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\bin directory (or equivalent on your system). You now need to run the h21arcadmin utility e.g.
h21arcadmin -c -f c:\ProgramData\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\arcs\arc002 -s01 Jun 13 12:00:00 -e01 Jul 13:12:00:00
In the example above, the –c parameter is to create the archive, and the –f gives the filepath for the repository including the fileset number e.g. arc002. The –s is the start time for the fileset, and the –e is for the end time. The important point here is to make sure that the timestamps are contiguous from one fileset to the next, (to the hour, minute and second). So the end time of fileset 2 should match the start time of fileset 1 as shown in the IP.21 Administrator archive fileset list for TSK_DHIS. The end time for fileset 3 should match the start time for fileset 2 and so on.
Repeat the command for each fileset you want to use, updating the fileset number, the start and the stop time. You should leave some free filesets undefined at the end for use by new data that comes in.
9. Once this has been done, stop and then restart your IP.21 system
The system should now be ready to load the data, for example using an SQLplus program. Note that you may need to run the xoldestok utility if the records have a creation data more recent than the oldest history that you are loading.
Keywords: TSK_DHIS
Repository
h21arcadmin
References: None
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Problem Statement: How can you tell if you have all the necessary system DLL files, etc?
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Solution: The following information and free download is available at http://www.dependencywalker.com/
Dependency Walker is a free utility that scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
Dependency Walker is also very useful for troubleshooting system errors related to loading and executing modules. Dependency Walker detects many common application problems such as missing modules, invalid modules, import/export mismatches, circular dependency errors, mismatched machine types of modules, and module initialization failures.
Dependency Walker runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, and XP. It can process any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module, including ones designed for Windows CE. It can be run as graphical application or as a console application. Dependency Walker handles all types of module dependencies, including implicit, explicit (dynamic / runtime), forwarded, delay-loaded, and injected. A detailed help is included.
Dependency Walker is completely free to use. However, you may not profit from the distribution of it, nor may you bundle it with another product.
Keywords: depends.exe
depends.dll
depends.cnt
depends.hlp
dependencywalker
dependency walker
winnt
system32
References: None
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Problem Statement: If you are buffering data to disk, then you might have a historian issue. There are three places to verify this problem:
1. Visit the TSK_H21_ARCCK output file on the InfoPlus.21 manager. If you find something like the following error message then this confirms the archiver problem:
Processing History Set 'TSK_DHIS'
Initialization of History Set 'TSK_DHIS' Complete
Processing History Set 'LAM'
Checking Archive Cache File
Checking Record Headers and Contents
Invalid Timestamp > 2022427.107
Record > 115005440 Contents Invalid - Point Id > 1745947 Verifying Record Linkage with BTree
Verifying Cache Data with Records
Initialization of History Set 'LAM' Complete
Processing History Set 'BrooksideData'
Initialization of History Set 'BrooksideData' Complete
2. Visit the error.log file that is located here: C:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\arcs. Each time that you stop InfoPLus.21 then you should see the following messages in the error log file:
14 Jan 02 17:17:39 - ARCHIVE: normal shutdown complete
14 Jan 02 17:17:39 - ARCHIVE: program shutdown
14 Jan 02 17:17:55 - ARCHIVE: successful program startup
If you don't have a corresponding shutdown message for a start up message then the h21archive.exe is corrupt for that repository.
3. Each time you take the InfoPLus.21 system down, look at the time that the error.log file and the cache.dat file was created. If the file creation times don't match to the time that you stopped the database then the h21archive.exe is corrupt for that repository.
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Solution: Here are the steps to regain control of your archiver:
1. Stop InfoPlus.21.
2. Rename the cache.dat file located in your repository folder.
3. On the fileset you want to shift into, run the following command in C:\Program Files\AspenTech\InfoPlus.21\c21\h21\bin:
h21arcck [-r{repname}] -a{arcnum} [-d] [-o] [-b] NOTE: repname is case senstitive.
4. Start up InfoPlus.21.
5. The event.dat file should now be unbuffering.
Keywords: archiver
history
InfoPlus.21
event.dat
References: None
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Problem Statement: Some people may have noticed that immediately after a fileset shift, history starts buffering to disk, creating an event.dat file, but the h21archive process is still running. After shifting, the queue status may change to Disk, the cache rate may drop, to a low number, and the cached points decline. The cpu resources consumed by the historian task may show an increase as well.
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Solution: This is all normal behavior during a fileset shift. Here are the major steps that happen during a shift:
Flush everything in cache to the current active archive (this will entail lots of disk writes). Close the active archive fileset.
Find a fileset for the new active archive.
Open/Create new files for new active archive, a time consuming operation. Start filling new active archive.
As stated, the cache flushing takes a lot of time. If a customer has 20,000 records, then there will be at least 20,000 writes made to the archive. After this occurs, the cache is 'blank' and when the new archive is opened, the cache hit rate drops because there are no history records currently in cache. As each database record writes to history, a new cache record is created for that database record and the cache hit rate will come back up to 100% as each database record writes a second event to history.
Creating the new archive will also take some time. While all this is happening, new history events are not being processed. This means that the queue WILL backup, and may even go to disk. BUT, the archiver should catch up fairly quickly once it is finished with the shift processing.
About the only thing that can be done to improve this behavior is to make sure fileset shifts take place during a 'quiet' time when there is not much else going on.
There are additional situations which may cause an event.dat file to be created, while the h21archive is still running. For those situations, please refer toSolution #103637. For additional information on the load of a normally running history system, please refer toSolution #106671.
Keywords: event.dat
fileset
shift
References: None
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Problem Statement: Under some circumstances, users might be unable to create new Records using in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator. Although no error message is given, the Name and Record ID fields are grayed out:
What causes this behavior?
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Solution: This behavior occurs when the maximum number of Record ID?s has been reached. Therefore, no new records can be added to the database. To examine and configure this setting, right-click on the database name, select Properties and locate the Record Utilization tab. In the example below, it can be observed that there are no Record ID?s available (the Undefined field = 0):
In order to allow for more InfoPlus.21 records to be crated, a new user-specified number must be entered in the Total field. For more information regarding Aspen InfoPlus.21 and Record ID utilization, please refer to KB 104620 (http://support.aspentech.com/webteamcgi/SolutionDisplay_view.cgi?key=104620), which also discusses the No free record ID after 2000 error seen in SQLPlus.
Keywords: New Record
Record ID
Infoplus.21 Administrator
References: None
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Problem Statement: How many external tasks can be created within Aspen InfoPlus.21 Manager?
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Solution: The InfoPlus.21 Manager will only display 256 tasks, however it is possible to create more than 256 tasks.
Due to the limitation of only 256 tasks it will only ever be possible to visualize the first 256 tasks, and only those first 256 tasks will run.
AspenTech therefore recommends you only create a maximum of 256 tasks.
Keywords: Max External Tasks
External Task
InfoPlus.21 Manager
References: None
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Problem Statement: How to remove database and record level security from an Aspen InfoPlus.21 application?
|
Solution: Often times customers need to remove the security implemented in their Aspen InfoPlus.21 application
Depending on the level of security implemented, Database or Record there are a few steps to follow to accomplish this.
First, did you implement record level security?
If you did:- Do you know which records you applied record level security?
If you do, then in the Aspen IP.21 Administrator tool go to the individual records and remove the roles for these records first.
If you don't know which records you applied record level security, then in Aspen IP.21 Administrator tool add a new role for Everyone in the system and give this new role all privileges, this way you ensure everybody will bypass the record level security and will be able to read and update the database.
If there was no record level security implemented, then in the Aspen IP.21 Administrator tool remove the roles from the Permission tab, AND in the Default Record Permission tab make sure you check all the items in the tab, Read, Write General, Write Restricted, Write System, Delete, Change Security, Create, Activate.
Keywords: InfoPlus.21 database record permission
References: None
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Problem Statement: When trying to load a snapshot from an older, unsupported version into V7.1, the following error is displayed:
Each version of InfoPlus.21 is validated by our Quality Engineers to successfully upgrade snapshots from all previous supported versions. And even though not specifically tested, even versions immediately preceding the supported versions should work fine. However if the snapshot is from a very old version the V7.1 version may not recognize the snapshot, displaying the above error.
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Solution: In that case it is necessary to bridge the upgrade, first upgrading from the original version to an intermediate one, and then to the final version. In the example above, a Version 4.x snapshot was first upgraded to Version 2004.2, then successfully to V7.1.
If you have no intermediate version available, contact Support. We have virtual machines for many versions of InfoPlus.21 and may be able to help you past this problem.
Keywords: Unable to load snapshot into memory.
References: None
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Problem Statement: What is Table UNITS for and how do I use it?
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Solution: In any model, the default units of measure are identified in the model settings under MODEL SETTINGS | General | General tab. However, there may be streams in your model which are not measured in the default basis. For example sulfur product is typically measured in long tons (LTONS), while a typical volume-basis model uses barrels for the default. Since the yield is represented in long tons as well as the sale, it is desirable for PIMS to label the stream as such whenever it is reported. To do this, an entry should be made in the UNITS table that identifies the stream tag (SUL) and the units of measure (LTONS). See the example below. Note that streams reported in units of measure other than the default units, will not be included in the total values for sales or purchases.
*TABLE
UNITS
UNITS OF MEASURE
*
ROWNAMES
TEXT
API
SPG
VTW
***
*
SUL
LTONS
COK
STONS
CKE
MTONS
AHV
0.8927
ANS
26.4
CRB
FOEB
0.1960
***
Table UNITS can also be used for:
1) Providing specific gravity (SPG) or API data for any stream tag. This would be done in columns API or SPG as shown in the example above. Note that if this data is entered here, it can be overridden by a recursed property or entries in Tables ASSAYS or BUY. Entries in Table UNITS will take precedence over entries in Table PCALC.
2) Providing a numeric entry in column VTW defines the factor by which PIMS will convert the stream tag's designated volume units to standard weight units.
For more information about UNITS and reporting, refer toSolution 124301.
Keywords: UNITS
References: None
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Problem Statement: When using an M/XPIMS global model, you have the capability of setting many model settings at both the global and local model levels. This document is describes which of these settings are active for a global model.
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Solution: LP Model Settings - Only the global settings are used
Recursion Model Settings
Local Model Settings: MAXSTEP, RECURSE, VIEW, PDSMALL, Property Specific ATOL & RTOL in Table SCALE, XPENALTY, RPENALTY, VPENALTY, FORCEONE, P2, P3, P2P, NXPASSES, RECINVSP
Global Model Settings: MODE, MANUAL, MAXPASS, MAXPASS1, MAXPASS2, MAXIPASS, FORCEUPD, MAXSTEPD, HOLDUPD, CHKCYCL, DAMP, ATOL, RTOL, DTOL, FCONVDST, PENESC, MAXESC, NPENESC, INCREASE, PRESVMOD, BIGDJ, P2P, M2M, ALPHA, NALPHA, DALPHA, NDALPHA, PGUESS Options, MAXSTEPM, Step Bound Processing on entry to MIP.
General Model Settings
Local Model Settings: POOLCHAR, GALS, VTW, FIXBAL, VOLBASIS, SMALL, SUBREP, BLNREP, ALTBASIS
Global Model Settings: SOURCE, USE CPLEX, RSMALL, FSMALL, FSMALL2, DSMALL, LASTPASS, RANGE, TRANCOL, TRNCLXLS
Keywords: settings
xpims
mpims
recursion
general
LP
References: None
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Problem Statement: The Property Calculation Formula feature was added as part of the PIMS 12 upgrade package. The idea behind this feature is that users can use formulas to represent blending indicies instead of table INDEX.
Several users have reported problems with PIMS not reporting back the reported qualities. This
|
Solution: document is designed to help diagnose possible problems.
Solution
The list of possible causes are:
Need to define starting and ending ranges for the dependant variables. PIMS attempts to estimate these values, but sometimes the values it selects are too restrictive. Setting more appropriate values in the Prop Calc dialog box should solve this problem.
Need to check the Inversion box on the Prop Calc dialog box. You need to check this box if there is an inverse relationship between the index and the dependant quality. That is -- if increasing the dependant qualtity produces a smaller index and vice versa. Note: this only works in PIMS Versions 13.4.4 and higher. For versions before this, PIMS will not back calculate the inverse relationships.
Multiple dependant qualities. The Property Calculator does not support back calculations when there are more than one dependant quality.
If none of these suggestions solves your problem, please let the PIMS support team know and we will try to solve the problem. Please submit a web incident, send an e-mail to [email protected], or call the support hotline.
Keywords: property
calculation
formula
index
inidicies
References: None
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Problem Statement: Are there recommended values for the PagesPerSecondTest test? The 'out of the box' values seem very low.
|
Solution: The Health monitor is measuring total page file usage in pages per second. The limits in the IPHealthDef PagesPerSecondTest record as supplied are simple defaults and are expected to be changed to reflect individual customer configurations and standards.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: For data in a store file to correctly unbuffer into InfoPlus.21, the timestamps in the store file must be newer than the timestamps in the InfoPlus.21 records.
A problem could occur if, while buffering data on the Cim-IO server, a tag value was manually updated in the InfoPlus.21 database. This will cause the tag to have a more recent timestamp in IP.21 than its timestamps in the store file. As a result, all the stored data with timestamps older than the timestamp in InfoPlus.21 will essentially be shifted to a single time - the time at which the IP.21 record was updated during the store process.
For example, consider the following events:
1:00:00 - Connection between InfoPlus.21 and Cim-IO is lost. Store processes start on Cim-IO server and a store file is generated.
1:05:00 - The IP_Input_Value field of tag RT101 is manually updated.
1:10:00- The InfoPlus.21 / CIM-IO connection is resumed. Store file is unbuffered and data is forwarded into IP.21.
In this example, the oldest timestamp in the store file is 1:00:00; however, the most recent timestamp in the IP.21 record for RT101 is 1:05:00. All the data for RT101 between 1:00:00 to 1:05:00 will be forwarded into IP.21 history and assigned a time of 1:05:00, plus one microsecond (see below). Conversely, RT101 data from 1:05:01 to 1:10:00 will be inserted into history correctly, since its store file timestamps are still newer than the IP.21 timestamp.
|
Solution: Why does it work like this?
Data can be written into InfoPlus.21 history through one of two methods.
The first method is to write to a field in the fixed area of an InfoPlus.21 record. In this case, the data is not directly inserted into history. Instead, the value is first examined by the compression algorithm. If the value breaks compression, it will generate a new historical occurrence by shifting onto the top of the history repeat area. This in turn will cause the existing occurrences to also shift by one occurrence. In this case, a requirement is that all data must be received in chronological order. If the calling program violates this rule, then InfoPlus.21 will force the data to be chronological by changing the new timestamp to equal the previous timestamp plus one microsecond (0.000001 seconds).
The second method used to generate new history samples is to invoke the WHIS21DAT() API function. In this case, the data is directly inserted into a historical repeat area.
Cim-IO uses the first mechanism. That is, it simply writes to the fixed area of the target record. As explained above, Cim-IO must send the data in chronological order. This rule also applies to data forwarded from a store file.
Since timestamps are only displayed to the deci-second (0.1 seconds) in InfoPlus.21 and Process Explorer, the data from the store file will appear to have the same timestamp, as the extra microsecond will not be displayed.
Keywords: store and forward
References: None
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Problem Statement: How can I change the External Task for a records defined by QueryDef and CompQueryDef?
|
Solution: The External_Task_Record of QueryDef and CompQueryDef records can be changed once the record is made unusable.
1. From the Aspen InfoPlus.21 Administrator right click on the record and select Make Unusable.
2. In the field External_Task_Record select the desired task from the list.
3. Once the desired task is selected the record can be made usable and activated.
Important: Before a QueryDef or CompQueryDef record can be made unusable the repeat area for #Scheduled_Time should be a null value. This can be done by either deleting the occurrence, or by enter the value ????????? in the repeat area section titled Schedule_Time. Once the external task changes have been completed and the record has been activated the desired value can be re-entered.
Keywords: CompQueryDef
QueryDef
External_Task_Record
TSK_IQ
References: None
|
Problem Statement: What does deleted 1631259 mean in the Aspen InfoPlus.21 file set Summary dialog?
|
Solution: This is an indication that a database record was deleted from the in-memory database that has history occurrences stored in this file set. When the file set Summary dialog is opened by right-clicking on any file set and selecting Summary, the history process that populates this dialog checks the Aspen InfoPlus.21 in-memory database for the record name associated with that particular history pointer id. The history pointer id is the equivalent of the database record id within the history sub-system. The record id is the internal identification mechanism of the InfoPlus.21 database. If it can't find a database record with the correct id it sets this tag in the file set Summary to deleted along with the history pointer id.
The history pointer id equates to the database record id using this formula: database record id = history pointer id/1024 and drop the remainder. In the example above, the history pointer id 1631259 equates to database record id 1593. 1631259/1024=1593.
This indicates that the database record id 1593 (ATCF101) was recently deleted. The picture below shows the file set Summary before deleting ATCF101. Note the 7392 events for this tag.
Below is a picture of the database record Properties for ATCF101 confirming the database record id of 1593. .
The picture below shows the file set Summary after deleting ATCF101, record id 1631259. The # of Events value is still 7392 as before. The history occurrences for this tag in this file set were not deleted and cannot be deleted but there is an indication here that the in-memory database record linked to these history occurrences was deleted.
Keywords: None
References: None
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Problem Statement: Data coming to the tags with multiple get transfer records changes Good, Bad, Good, Bad,....
IP_TREND_QLEVELchanges Good,Bad, Good, Bad,....
IP_TREND_QSTATUSchanges Good, Scan Off, Good, Scan Off,....
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Solution: IO_RECORD_PROCESSING? of one of the transfer records for the tag was off. But, its scheduling record was active.
The processing off transfer record sent Scan Off status to the tag with the value that processing on transfer record got.
This can be fixed by turning off scheduling record for the processing off transfer record by initializing Schedule Time of the schedule record.
Keywords: IO_RECORD_PROCESSING
Good
Bad
IP_TREND_QSTATUS
IP_TREND_QLEVEL
References: None
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