Requirements and installation

Requirements

  • The OPC A&E server of WinCC OA supports the version 1.02 of the OPC A&E specification.

  • The OPC A&E client of WinCC OA supports the version 1.10 of the OPC A&E specification.

  • Correctly installed WinCC OA version 3.0 or higher.

  • In order to configure the WinCC OA OPC A&E client automatically, the OPC A&E server has to provide the browsing of items and conditions.

  • The usage requires a valid license!

For information on the supported platforms for the OPC A&E driver see Supported Platforms of the most important Drivers.

Installation

A normal installation of WinCC OA with the version 3.0 or higher is sufficient for using OPC A&E server or client. For further information on the WinCC OA installation see chapter Installation.

The WinCC OA OPC A&E server is registered automatically when WinCC OA is installed. If this is not the case, the server can be registered with the following command:

WCCOAopcsrvAE.exe /RegServer

The ProgID (Program Identification from the registration) of the OPC A&E server is "WinCC OA.OPCAE.1".

DCOM settings for ETM OPC A&E server

ETM generally does not recommend the use of DCOM for the OPC Server communication. Problems might occur with DCOM when using redundant network connections. You can avoid this by using a remote OPC DA Server on the computer on which the OPC DA client runs or by using Dual Port network interface cards. Consider that a short connection lost might occur when changing the Dual Port card.

Following settings should be set in DCOMCNFG of the ETM OPC A&E:

  • Identity: Select "this user" and enter a user who has administrator rights.

  • Authentication level is reduced to None (No).

  • Security

    "Access Permissions" > "Customize" > "Edit": Permit access for each

    "Launch and Activate Permissions" > "Customize" > "Edit": Permit start for each

    "Configuration Permissions" were not changed.

To launch DCOMCNFG, following options are available:

  • Start > Run > dcomcnfg.exe

  • Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Component Services

A reboot is sometimes necessary at a change via DCOMCNFG

Restrictions of OPC A&E in WinCC OA

  • Only conditional and simple events are implemented currently in WinCC OA OPC A&E server.

  • In the WinCC OA OPC A&E client at the moment conditional events and simple events are implemented whereas all simple events are mapped to one data point.

OPC AE Client requirements during configuration

  • Name of the source items -> necessary for the mapping of data point elements

  • Name of the condition -> used as reference to the alert handling in WinCC OA

  • Name of the sub conditions for each condition -> necessary for the configuration of the alert handling

All these information must be available during the configuration!

If new source items, conditions or sub conditions are raised during run-time, the OPC AE client can not use and ignores them.

Additional restrictions

  • The priority is determined via the configured alert classes.

  • The acknowledge behavior will be controlled through the alert classes in WinCC OA.

  • As alert text, the configured text of the alert handling is used.

  • The alert text from the server can be displayed as alert comment.

For more information on these terms see chapter Functionality and concept description.