rslinx enterprise release notes
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RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) release notesThe Release Notes for RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) contain information about the following topics:
RSLinx Enterprise upgrade instructions
What's new?
System requirements
Software compatibility
Known anomalies
Anomalies fixed
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) settings
Copyright © 2007 Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. v5.00.00, CPR 9
RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) release notesThe Release Notes for RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) contain information about the following topics:
RSLinx Enterprise upgrade instructions
What's new?
System requirements
Software compatibility
Known anomalies
Anomalies fixed
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) settings
Copyright © 2007 Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. v5.00.00, CPR 9
What's new?Product name changes
The following product name changes are effective with Coordinated Product Release (CPR) 9:
Former product name FactoryTalk name
FactoryTalk® Automation Platform FactoryTalk® Services Platform
RSView FactoryTalk® View
RSView Enterprise FactoryTalk® View
RSView Machine Edition or RSView ME
FactoryTalk® View Machine Edition orFactoryTalk® View ME
RSView Machine Edition Station orRSView ME Station
FactoryTalk® Machine Edition Station orFactoryTalk® ME Station
RSView Studio FactoryTalk® View Studio
RSView Supervisory Edition, Distributed or RSView SE, Distributed
FactoryTalk® View Site Edition orFactoryTalk® View SE
RSView Supervisory Edition, Standalone or RSView SE, Standalone
FactoryTalk® View Site Edition Local orFactoryTalk® View SE Local
RSAssetSecurity FactoryTalk® Security
RSSql FactoryTalk® Transaction Manager
RSOPC Gateway FactoryTalk® Gateway
RSBizWare Batch FactoryTalk® Batch
RSBizWare Scheduler FactoryTalk® Scheduler
RSAdvantage FactoryTalk® ProductionCentre
RSBizWare Batch Historian FactoryTalk® Historian Classic for Batch
RSBizWare Historian FactoryTalk® Historian Classic
RSBizWare PlantMetrics FactoryTalk® Metrics
RSBizWare Integrator FactoryTalk® Integrator
RSBizWare Portal FactoryTalk® Portal
RSMACC Change Management FactoryTalk® AssetCentre
RSMACC Network Health FactoryTalk® AssetCentre
New features for RSLinx Enterprise
The following new features have been added for RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9):
An electronic product activation tool, FactoryTalk® Activation™, is now supported along with EvRSI activation. For more information regarding FactoryTalk Activation, refer to Activate RSLinx Enterprise in the online help.
EvRSI activation will be replaced by FactoryTalk Activation in a future release. If you are using EvRSI activation, please contact your local Rockwell Automation Sales office or Technical Support for information on migrating your activations to FactoryTalk Activation.
For Rockwell Automation Technical Support in the U.S., call (440) 646-3434.
Outside the U.S., see http://www.rockwellautomation.com/locations/.
Support for the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Service Pack 4
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Service Pack 4
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Service Pack 1, Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, R2, Standard Edition
Support for FactoryTalk® Alarms and Events, which allows multiple FactoryTalk products to participate together in a common, consistent view of alarms and events throughout a FactoryTalk application.
RSLinx Enterprise is the alarm server in a FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system for device-based alarm monitoring. In device-based alarm monitoring, pre-built alarm instructions (available in RSLogix 5000 v16 or later) are programmed in a logic project and then downloaded into a Logix5000 controller . The controller detects alarm conditions and notifies the Rockwell Automation Device Server (RSLinx Enterprise).
RSLinx Enterprise extracts the alarm information from the Logix5000 controllers and publishes it to FactoryTalk Alarm and Events services. FactoryTalk Alarm and Events services logs the changes in alarm state and routes the information to the HMI display software, such as FactoryTalk View, for monitoring.
FactoryTalk View Machine Edition (ME) run-time applications (.mer files) created in CPR 9 can be converted to FactoryTalk View Machine Edition design applications (HMI project or .med files). This enables you to edit .med files or to extract information saved during the execution of the .mer file.
Offline tag browsing no longer requires you to associate the device shortcut with a controller. In previous releases, you were required to associate a shortcut with both a controller and an offline tag file to be able to browse the tags in the offline tag file. You can now create a shortcut that is associated only with the offline tag file if all you want to do is browse tags in that file.
The Communication Setup editor has been enhanced to prevent the creation of shortcuts that point to devices that do not provide data (such as communication modules and backplanes).
The Communication Setup editor now provides status messages about shortcuts as you create them as well as a summary of all messages via a shortcut verification report.
For FactoryTalk View Machine Edition, the tabs on the Communications Setup editor are now named Design (Local) and Runtime (Target).
Warnings have been added to FactoryTalk to tell users if making an edit in the development environment will adversely affect the run-time system. If the change is made through a dialog box, this warning icon appears next to the component where the edit can be made.
Remote I/O now supports the bit array data type.
The default address of the ControlLogix backplane is no longer zero. See Device properties for more information.
Support has been added for the following modules:
1756-EN2T/A EtherNet Bridge Module
1756-EN2F/A EtherNet Bridge Module
1756-CN2
1756-CN2R
1756-L64
1768-EWEB
MicroLogix 1100
1734-AENTX
Support has been added for Powermonitor 1000 and Powermonitor 3000 controllers. RSLinx Enterprise will treat Powermonitor controllers as if they were SLCs. Note that tag browsing is not supported for Powermonitor controllers.
Support has been added to enable reading from and/or writing to GuardPLC controllers using integer, Boolean, and floating point data types.
All Rockwell Software products in this release, including RSLinx Enterprise, have been tested using the latest anti-virus software. For more detailed information, refer to Rockwell Knowledgebase technical note A160252633.
File integrity checking has been added. When a PanelView Plus CE terminal is powered up, before an application is started, the application file (.mer) and the log files that exist on the terminal are checked for possible corruption. If the integrity check fails, the user has the option to continue or to cancel the loading of the application. Running the application with corrupted files may result in unpredictable and potentially hazardous operations. Integrity checking can be disabled by selecting File Integrity Check in the Terminal Settings dialog.
When performing a tag browse, RSLinx Enterprise can display the input and output parameters of RSLogix5000 Add-On Instructions (AOI), which were introduced in RSLogix5000 v16. Note, however, that RSLinx Enterprise cannot display AOI InOut parameters. RSLinx Enterprise can read and write AOI input and output parameters, but it cannot read or write AOI InOut parameters.
Related topics
Anomalies fixed
System requirementsTo effectively use RSLinx Enterprise, your personal computer must meet the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
Hardware requirements
To install RSLinx Enterprise software, you will need the following hardware:
an Intel Pentium II processor, including hyper-threading models and dual-core processors (300 MHz or faster recommended) with a minimum of 128 Megabytes (MB) of RAM (256 MB recommended with Windows XP, and a minimum of 35 MB of hard disk space)
Software requirements
To run RSLinx Enterprise, you will require Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (or later), and one of the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Service Pack 4 with Windows installer 3.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Service Pack 4
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Service Pack 1, Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, R2, Standard Edition
NOTE: For the latest software platform qualification information, refer to Knowledgebase article 42682, CPR 9 Software Supported Platform Matrix.
For requirements specific to running RSLinx Enterprise within FactoryTalk View Studio, refer to the Hardware and software requirements topic in the FactoryTalk View Site Edition (SE) Release Notes help file, or the System requirements help topic in the FactoryTalk View Machine Edition (ME) Release Notes help file.
Firmware requirements
To use the ControlNet communication feature with RSLinx Enterprise, the minimum requirements are:
PKTCS firmware version 4.08. The PKTCS cards support I/O and messaging. PCIC(S) firmware version 3.7. PCIC(S) cards having firmware version 3.3 or
later can be flash-upgraded to version 3.7.
To use the DeviceNet communication feature with RSLinx Enterprise, the minimum requirements are:
PCID(S) firmware version 3.016. The PCIDS cards support I/O only.
Related topics
New features
Software compatibilityRSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) is a component of Rockwell Automation's latest Coordinated Product Release (CPR 9). RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9) has been tested with, and is compatible with, Rockwell Automation's CPR 9 release of the following products:
FactoryTalk Services Platform (v2.10.00) RSView32 (v7.40.00)
FactoryTalk View Site Edition (SE) (v5.00.00)
RSLinx Classic (v2.52.00)
FactoryTalk Gateway (v3.00.00)
FactoryTalk Batch (v9.00.00)
FactoryTalk Transaction Manager (v9.00.00)
Related topics
RSLinx Enterprise Release Notes
System requirements
Anomalies fixedThe following anomalies have been fixed in RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9):
Offline tag browsing has been enhanced to allow almost instantaneous browsing when switching from one folder to another.
The current list of controller tags is listed properly after downloading a new Logix 5000 project. Note that the project name will not update in the browse list.
Tags are listed properly after adding new programs or Add-On Instructions (AOI) to a running controller.
Remote I/O screen performance (time to load objects and time for those objects to communicate) after upgrading to FactoryTalk View Machine Edition from 1400e has significantly improved.
The DH+ driver has been updated to prevent intermittent communication problems.
If the connection to a ControlLogix controller is disconnected and one item is on scan, the CPU usage for RSLinxNG.exe no longer cycles from 100% usage to 5% usage until the cable is reconnected.
The @IsPresent diagnostic item now accurately reflects when RSLinx Enterprise can or cannot talk to the controller.
PID values now display correctly on WinCE terminals. This was an issue only with FactoryTalk Machine Edition Station running on WinCE terminals with a PanelView Plus connected to MicroLogix via Serial-DF1.
RSLinx Enterprise resumes Ethernet communication with a ControlLogix redundant system within two seconds after a switchover.
A PanelView Plus 600 terminal now appears correctly on both AB_ETH and ETH_IP drivers using RSLinx Classic 2.50.
Remote I/O configuration and configuration edits are now saved to the application as well as to the local configuration.
The problem regarding a 1 being written to all 32 bits of a Boolean array rather than just a single bit in FactoryTalk View Machine Edition applications has been resolved. This problem occurred when using CIP I/O tags in conjunction with HMI tags.
Related topics
Known anomalies
Known anomaliesThe following is a list of known issues in RSLinx Enterprise v5.00.00 (CPR 9).
The ControlLogix LINT datatype is not supported for data acquisition by RSLinx Enterprise in this release. Do not put this datatype on scan.
RSLinx Enterprise cannot read Safety-class string tags from the GuardLogix controller. If you need to read these tags, you must copy the data to non-Safety-class tags.
RSLinx Enterprise cannot correctly determine the mode of the Logix 5000 emulator. Disregard the output produced by the @Mode predefined item for the emulator.
RSLinx Enterprise does not recognize or honor protected tags in the 1785-L46C15. Attempts to write to any protected tags will succeed.
When upgrading RSLinx Enterprise from CPR 7 to CPR 9, a message may display indicating that RSLinx Enterprise failed to unregister. You can ignore this message.
Attempts to read or write input or outputs on the MicroLogix 1000 Series A controller will result in data read as bad quality. This can be resolved by replacing the Series A controller with a Series E controller.
Tag browsing
The tag browsing feature is not supported in GuardPLC controllers. Attempts to rename a tag using RSLogix 5000 while that tag is on scan will fail
and the new tag will not appear when subsequently browsing for tags. You must stop and restart RSLinx Enterprise to see the new tag in a browse.
RSLinx Enterprise cannot browse for tags in Powermonitor 1000 and 3000 devices. If you attempt to browse for tags in these devices, RSLinx Enterprise will be unresponsive for 20 minutes while multiple attempts are made to perform the tag browse. Please do not attempt to browse for tags in these devices.
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events
If RSLinx Enterprise is uninstalled then reinstalled, controller-generated alarms will not be displayed. You must reboot after RSLinx Enterprise has been reinstalled.
If a shortcut is renamed or deleted, the previous FactoryTalk Alarms and Events subscription to that shortcut remains until the RSLinx Enterprise service is restarted. You must restart the RSLinx Enterprise service after you rename or delete a shortcut to prevent the generation of duplicate alarms.
Do not use special characters in the device shortcut name for the RSLinx Enterprise server when using FactoryTalk Alarms and Events to monitor device-based alarms. Device Shortcuts are defined in the Communications Setup editor for the RSLinx Enterprise server. Using shortcut names containing special characters (for example, asterisks, pipes) results in unexpected behavior in the FactoryTalk Alarm and Event system.
If an analog alarm uses a DINT as the input value, the value will be reported incorrectly in custom messages for very large DINTs (both positive and negative). This is due to the DINT-to-REAL data conversion process. If the DINT value exceeds 24 significant bits, the controller will round it to the nearest REAL value using 24 significant bits. This applies only to the input value and not associated tag values.
If an alarm changes state ("out of alarm" to "in alarm") while RSLinx Enterprise is disconnected from the network, the last transition message logged to the database is duplicated. The data for both of the messages is correct.
Networks, drivers, and devices
The 1756-DH485 module is not supported in this release of RSLinx Enterprise. If you use RSLinx Enterprise to configure the Serial DF1 driver and specify the
baud rate to be 110, 300, or 115200, the PanelView 400/600 terminal will not be displayed on the communications tree in the Communications Setup editor.
If your network includes a PanelView 400/600 terminal that you want to browse, please select an alternate baud rate when configuring the Serial DF1 driver.
Occasionally, an attempt to download a large .mer file over a DF1 connection to a PanelView terminal will fail. Please retry downloading the file. Also note that when communicating with PanelView Plus units, be sure to set the error-checking mode to CRC.
When a 1761-NET-ENI-connected device (for example, an SLC or MicroLogix controller) is added to an Ethernet driver, the NET-ENI appears during a network browse instead of the device connected to it. To browse online tags of a NET-ENI-connected device, perform the following steps:
1. Create a shortcut.
2. Right-click on the Ethernet driver, and select Add device.
3. Delete the NET-ENI device (but note the IP address, you will need to enter this in a later step).
4. From the NET-ENI devices category, select the appropriate device. (Note: If connecting to a SLC 5/05, call it an SLC 5/04 instead.)
5. Enter the IP address of the NET-ENI for the device address, and click OK. The device will be highlighted.
6. Highlight the shortcut created in step 1, and click Apply.
7. Close the Communication Setup editor by clicking OK.
TIP: When adding a NET-ENI-connected device to the Local tab configuration or on subsequent visits to the Communication Setup editor, do not browse the Ethernet driver. During a browse, the device that has been added will change to a NET-ENI, and the link to the online tags will be broken. If this occurs, repeat the steps above.
ControlNet I/O and DeviceNet I/O
To enable tag browsing of a BITSERIES alias, the length must be limited to 32768 bits.
If the configuration specified in RSNetWorx for ControlNet/DeviceNet does not match what is specified for the card's I/O map in FactoryTalk View Machine Edition, results can be unpredictable. Verify that what is specified in RSNetWorx matches what is specified for the card's I/O map.
The Apply button on the Alias Properties dialogs is always enabled even though no changes may be pending.
It is possible to enter a 64-bit initial value for a 32-bit alias without receiving an error message. This value will be replaced by 0 at runtime.
RSLinx Enterprise does not track the amount of data configured for inputs and outputs against what has been allocated on the interface card. Therefore, it is possible to define more I/O than is actually on the card.
If you reduce the bit count of a BITSERIES alias (using the Address String field of the Alias Properties dialog) and that results in the initial value being out of range, an Invalid Address String error message is displayed. An Alias initial value out of range or type mismatch error should be displayed instead.
When you are entering sequential ControlNet connections, the software incorrectly calculates the maximum free status address. To work around this, create a connection at status word 252 prior to reaching the limit condition.
The result of a sort by address selection for bit aliases may be out of order since they will be sorted by start address.
Large configurations may take up to several minutes to load. This is most likely to happen if there is a large number (>500) of initial values of bit arrays.
If you make changes to the Address String field in an Alias Properties dialog and then select a different Alias Data Type, the changes to the Address String field are lost. That is, they are not carried over to Address String field of the new data type's Alias Properties dialog.
In some cases, the Length in Words field on the Address Block Properties dialog can be scrolled past the maximum size allowed. However, an error message will display if you attempt to close the dialog after selecting an invalid length.
Swapping bytes/words is not supported for all alias data types. If a CPR 6 configuration containing byte/word swaps not supported in CPR 7 is loaded into a CPR 7 or CPR 9 configuration, the invalid swap settings will be ignored. That is, no swapping will occur. The following shows the swapping options supported by each alias data type:
Category Data type Valid swap selection
String STRING Swap bytes
String STRING_2 Swap words
String SHORT_STRING Swap bytes
Number SINT None
Number USINT None
Number INT Swap bytes
Number UINT Swap bytes
Number DINT Swap bytes/swap words
Number UDINT Swap bytes/swap words
Number REAL Swap words
Number LREAL Swap words
Number BITSERIES None
Bit BOOL None
Remote I/O
Double-right-clicking a node in the I/O tree may display the context menu for an unselected item.
Shortcuts
Do not give the same name to RSLinx Enterprise shortcuts and RSLinx Classic topics. If a shortcut has the same name as a topic, tags will not be displayed for one of them during a tag browse.
Avoid shortcut names longer than 150 characters. Although the Shortcut Editor supports names up to 255 characters in length, the Tag Browser only supports up to 150 characters.
PLC/SLC shortcut names must be limited to less than 135 characters. If you create a PLC5 or SLC500 shortcut with a name longer than 135 characters, you will not be able to access that PLC/SLC.
If you change an RSLinx Enterprise shortcut from one driver type (e.g., Ethernet) to another (e.g., ControlNet), you may not be able to access data on the newly configured shortcut. To restore data access, reboot the RSLinx Enterprise computer.
Help
Topics in compiled help files (.chm) do not display when the help file is opened from a remote computer or UNC path. This affects most online Help and Release Notes for Rockwell Software products.
If you have installed security update 896358 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later, you may experience the following symptoms:
The features of some of Web applications on the computer no longer work. For example, a topic may not be displayed after you click a link.
When you try use a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to open a Compiled Help Module (.chm) file on a network shared folder, topics in the .chm file do not appear.
Windows Server 2003 SP1 and security updates 896358 and 840315 include changes to the InfoTech protocol. Microsoft introduced these changes to reduce security vulnerabilities in HTML Help.
As a workaround, open the help files from the installation CD or copy them to a folder on your local computer. If you want the help files to be accessible from a network directory (shared folder), you must use the Registry Editor to modify certain registry entries. Microsoft does not recommend you do this but has provided the steps in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 896054.
Related topics
Anomalies fixed
