KEPServerEX 5.6.122.0

Administration

Added a new ProgID Redirect feature that allows users to map another server's OPC registration to KEPServerEX. This feature may be accessed through the Administration menu by clicking Settings > ProgID Redirect.

Configuration

• Initial release of Media Level Redundancy (MLR), which increases reliability by providing two basic types of redundancy: communications path redundancy and device redundancy. MLR operating modes include "Switch On Failure," "Primary Only," and "Secondary Only."

• Replaced the tab view on the left pane with individual View Menu items for selecting the edit mode. Added a drop-down menu to the toolbar for quicker selection (and to provide visual feedback on which view is active).

• Removed the Diagnostics sub-menu from the View menu, and then moved items from the Diagnostics sub-menu to the View menu.

• Added a device detail view to the server's right pane. When a channel is selected, the right pane will now display a list of devices that are assigned to that channel.

• Provided the ability to enforce a scan rate floor or fixed scan rate when polling underlying data sources. This feature can override the rates requested by client applications.

• Added communication serialization to the Channel Wizard Summary dialog.

Event Log

Improved the Event Log's performance by increasing the number of records sent per packet.

Install

• Added support for Hyper-V.

• Added an option for Bundle Selection. Users can pre-select drivers by market vertical (such as Building Automation) before reaching the installation's Features list. The default option is "None", which does not preselect drivers. This change is only visible in new installations, and will not be displayed to users that upgrade.

• Updated VB.NET OPC client sample applications to work in VS2005, 2008, and 2010.

• Added the "SupportAgreement.rtf" agreement and updated the "LicenseAgreement.rtf" (EULA).

Server Runtime

• Added a new OPC Diagnostic message to indicate that the client-supplied shutdown notification sink is being called. The new filter "ShutdownRequest" was added to the Filter dialog beneath "IConnectionPoint (Server)" to enable this event. It is displayed in the OPC Diagnostics View as "Calling registered shutdown sink". The detail shows the return value from the call as "Client returned = <HRESULT>".

• Altered the shutdown sequence to ensure that the OPC Diagnostics generated during Runtime shutdown will be delivered to the Configuration before it disconnects.

• Fixed a server initialization issue that could result in a non-responsive service on system startup (which may cause a lockup).

Updates

• Fixed an anomaly in which the device properties Tag Import File and Display Descriptions could be enabled for models that do not support Automatic Tag Generation (such as in MicroLogix).

• Added a check for a delete pending on each tag before the tag is issued for device communication.

• Added Serial Gateway support with unconnected messaging, which provides access to ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FlexLogix, and SoftLogix devices via the ControlLogix serial port.

• Added support for EtherNet/IP Gateway, which provides access to EtherNet/IP-enabled MicroLogix, SLC, and PLC-5 devices via the ControlLogix Ethernet Communications module.

• Fixed a write issue with LBCD arrays where the driver was writing to every fourth Dword instead of every fourth byte.

• Fixed discrepancies between L5K and L5X import. Added handling to respect ExternalAccess for AOI Parameters and Data Type members.

• Resolved an issue where the driver was not correctly handling the connection routing path to a remote device which could cause the driver to fail Automatic Tag Generation and report an invalid device ID.

• Limited Serial Gateway node id to DF1 limit of 254.

LBCD Arrays

Fixed a write issue with LBCD arrays where the driver was writing to every fourth Dword instead of every fourth byte.

Error Handling

Enhanced error handling when receiving unexpected responses, and special detection of a K-Sequence response to a DirectNet inquiry. On receiving a K-Sequence response to a DirectNet inquiry, an error message will be logged, all tags will be failed, and the driver will continue to silently retry for good communications.

ATG

Fixed Automatic Tag Generation to pull tag descriptions from the CSV file's comment field.

Updates

• Removed the pop-up displayed during Automatic Tag Generation (ATG) for arrays with more than 1000 elements.

• Updated the driver to check each device's version as applicable (instead of assuming that all devices under a channel are using the same Firmware version).

• Fixed an issue with legacy tag processing where the entire queue would fail if the last tag failed to get symbols.

• Improved DNR handling with legacy tag processing.

• Made performance improvements to tag queuing in the state machine. If any step of the tag read or write transaction fails, the tag will fail and be removed from the queue in order to eliminate the need to keep trying the tag. The number of retries is now applied to the entire tag transaction instead of each individual step.

Updates

• DNP3 Enhancements for Phase-III support of WITS specification include File Control and Activate Configuration

• Added Device Property Page to allow configuring the DNP File Control object group 70 and the DNP Activate Configuration function code 31.

• Implemented new tag addresses to allow clients to manage file transfer and activate configuration functions:

• Converted the Advanced device property page to a grid control.

• On restart, Events received in the response to the initial integrity poll are no longer lost when the response did not complete within the response timeout.

• Added an event message to report when the session has completed startup.

• Added support for device auto-demotion.

• Added an event message to report when an Enable Unsolicited Messaging request fails, and when an item is demoted/promoted. Added the ability to post an informational message when certain IIN bits are set in a response. Improved tag cleanup.

• Added an event message to report when LAN Time Sync write to g50v3 is not supported.

• To correctly open 4x-based projects, modified the XML schema transform file to check for out of range values and/or to assign defaults for the following channel and device properties: Protocol, DestinationIP, ResponseTimeoutMilliseconds, RequestTimeoutMilliseconds, UnsolicitedModeClass1, OperateMode, and EnableFeedbackPollAfterWrite.

• Resolved an issue where items might not clean up properly when a client disconnected from the server if the items were in a bad quality state due to an non-responsive RTU.

◦ 70.<file index>.LocalFileName (on Master station)

◦ 70.<file index>.RemoteFileName (on RTU)

◦ 70.<file index>.Download

◦ 70.<file index>.Upload

◦ ActivateConfig

Updates

• DNP3 Enhancements for Phase-III support of WITS specification include File Control and Activate Configuration

• Added Device Property Page to allow configuring the DNP File Control object group 70 and the DNP Activate Configuration function code 31.

• Implemented new tag addresses to allow clients to manage file transfer and activate configuration functions:

• Converted the Advanced device property page to a grid control.

• Added an event message to report when the session has completed startup.

• Added support for device auto-demotion.

• Added an event message to report when an Enable Unsolicited Messaging request fails, and when an item is demoted/promoted. Added the ability to post an informational message when certain IIN bits are set in a response. Improved tag cleanup.

• To correctly open 4x-based projects, modified the XML schema transform file to check for out of range values and/or to assign defaults for the following channel and device properties: ResponseTimeoutMilliseconds, RequestTimeoutMilliseconds, UnsolicitedModeClass1, OperateMode, EnableFeedbackPollAfterWrite, and TimeSynchronizationStyle.

◦ 70.<file index>.LocalFileName (on Master station)

◦ 70.<file index>.RemoteFileName (on RTU)

◦ 70.<file index>.Download

◦ 70.<file index>.Upload

◦ ActivateConfig

Maximum Devices

Increased the maximum devices per channel from 32 to 255.

Updates

• Fixed an issue where the driver was sending the incorrect date (last two digits of year) when Time Synchronization is enabled for a device.

• Increased the maximum devices per channel from 32 to 255.

Consumer Exchanges

Enhanced the driver to provide a working _Error bit for devices configured with Consumer Exchanges.

Address Ranges

Increased the address ranges allowed for B, CC, CN, CS, F, L, M, SB, SW, TC, TN, TS, V, and Z memory types.

Applicom Model

Added an Applicom model type to support Applicom-centric address syntax for Modbus Ethernet enabled devices. Selecting the Applicom model in the Device Wizard prompts a Sub-Model dialog that includes options for Generic Modbus, TSX Premium, and TSX Quantum.

Omni Custom Packet Tag

Fixed a potential heap corruption issue (when an expandable buffer was being overwritten) by reading an Omni Custom Packet Tag. A maximum size of 250 bytes was assigned for an Omni Custom Packet Tag instead of allowing the tag data type to determine the buffer allocation size.

New!

Added a new driver that connects to agents using the MTConnect Standard over HTTP.

Monitor Mode

Added the ability to select the behavior when writes are issued to TS and CS addresses (when the PLC is in Run Mode). Before, these writes would fail and an error would be logged. Options also exist to set the PLC to Monitor Mode and to perform the write, or to set the PLC to Monitor Mode, perform the write, and then reset the PLC to Run Mode.

Monitor Mode

Added the ability to select the behavior when writes are issued to TS and CS addresses (when the PLC is in Run Mode). Previously, these writes would fail and an error would be logged. Now, options exist to set the PLC to Monitor Mode and perform the write, or to set the PLC to Monitor Mode, perform the write, and then reset the PLC to Run Mode.

Performance

Improved initial update performance when there is a mix of good and non-good data items from the underlying servers.

Security

Fixed the failure to decrypt persisted password information stored in projects that were created before 5.6.

Updates

• Added more detailed error reporting when MOC connections fail due to an invalid table.

• Made the name of the MOC table user-configurable.

• Added a check to prevent loading an .xml-based project if the Time Zone entry is not valid.

Communication

Fixed a deadlock issue that could cause the channel to stop communicating.

CTI Models

Added the following new models: CP2572, CTI 2572, CTI 2572-A, and CTI 2500 Series. These new CTI models are identical in behavior to the corresponding Simatic505 models.

Documentation

Added Hints for RAMP, RANDOM, SINE, and USER address types.

Dependency

Resolved an issue where the driver would not run if another application was already using the dependency files maintained by SIXNET. The driver will now search the server's application directory first for SIXNET files 'six32com.exe' and 'udrcom32.dll'. If they are not found locally, the driver will fall back to the system directory.

Updates

• Migrate scan floor functionality from SNMP custom device properties to standard server device properties.

• Expanded the "Deactivate tags on NoSuchObject/Instance errors" option to include SNMPv1 "NoSuchName" errors in CSnmpFrame. This device property applies to all polling that uses Get requests, including polls for Network Analyst Tags. Previously, Network Analyst Tags were not affected by this setting.

• Fixed an issue that could make the Runtime unresponsive when loading certain projects.

• Added Inform support for SNMPv2c/v3 Traps/Notifications.

• Added Communication Serialization (virtual network support) to the SNMP Driver. To meet the serialization requirements, the SNMP Driver now serializes tag processing and device discovery.

Trap reception will be disabled when the SNMP channel is a member of a virtual network.

• Removed the dependency between the number of varbinds that a Defined Trap could receive and the "Number of Fields" value used for Event Tags.

• Fixed an issue when reading values from OIDs of SNMP data type UInteger32.

Changes

• Fixed the ASCII/Hex ASCII encoding for the existing Date/Time formats and added new Date/Time formats. The new Date/Time formats include the following:

• Added the Seek String Command. Reworked the Test String and Write String commands to support all the string formats that are supported by the driver.

• The Event Counter is now stored as DWord. The Update Tag can update the tag with the value of the Event Counter for 8, 16, and 32-bit Intel data formats.

• The Write Event Counter command now supports various 32-bit formats for writing the DWord Event Counter.

• Added "Use Current Buffer Position" checkbox controls to the following commands: Test Device ID, Test String, Test Character, Test Check Sum, Test Bit Within Byte, and Compare Buffer.

• Resolved an issue where the driver was failing to send closely-timed Transmit commands while using Ethernet Encapsulation.

• Fixed an obscure issue where a temporary buffer used by the state machine of one channel could be overwritten by the state machine of another channel which resulted in erroneous updates of certain tags. State machines now use independent and thread safe buffers to prevent this problem.

◦ Short Date [YYYY/MM/DD]

◦ Short Date [YY/MM/DD]

◦ Standard [MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS]

◦ Standard [DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS]

◦ Standard [DD/MM/YY HH:MM:SS]

◦ Standard [YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS]

◦ Standard [YY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS]

Communication

Fixed a deadlock issue that could cause the channel to stop communicating.

New!

New serial driver that allows the 8500 Protocol to communicate with Weatherford model 8500 RPOC controllers. Ethernet Encapsulation is supported.

Updates

• Fixed an issue where the driver was accepting array dimensions of zero.

• Fixed an issue with BCD array writes for MPxxxxiec model where '??00' was being appended to the written value.

• Added write support to arrays of the Double data type.