Questions Log

C:\Users\Kalis\Desktop\QuestionsLog 2014_10_01 22_04.rtf

Audience Question:
Q: how much time is left to start?
A: We will start on the hour :)
Audience Question:
Q: Will the powerpoint presentation be available after this webinar?
A: yes we will make a power point version of the webinar available upon request. please contact our
sales team: sales@kepware.com
Audience Question:
Q: Hello
A: Hello Everyone!
Audience Question:
Q: the conference will be in Spanish or in English?
A: The conference will be in English.
Audience Question:
Q: When the network port is disabled when installing, I had to reboot the system after enabling the
port before kepware saw the network port. Is this normal? I restarted all the services.
A: you can usually close the Configuration window and open it again in order for KEPServerEX to
become aware of a new network adapter. the Configuration tool solicits a list of adapters when it
starts. If a new network adapter is added or enabled while the config tool is running, KEPServerEX
won't be aware of it. so, you might have been able to close and reopen the config tool isntead of
rebooting.
Audience Question:
Q: Where I can find loaded odf file name? ALso location to specify default odf file, in case someone
restart computer.
A: the loaded project file is always stored in our default project file. the default project file is stored
in Kepware's Program Data directory.
Audience Question:
Q: Is there an Item name where we can monitor the comm status of Device1 say through
Wonderware?
A: yes, we have a dozen or so System Tags at the device-llevel that can be monitored by clients.
Audience Question:
Q: I have some data I need to collect once per week, and other data that I need every 5 minutes. Is
multiple channels the only way to do this in Kepware?
A: no, the single channel can service multiple read intervals.
Audience Question:
Q: How many is to many to read
A: there is no top-level limit
Audience Question:
Q: Would you use two channel / device on a same equipment, to read a large number of data
A: yes, absolutely, but only on select devices. multiple channels to the same physical device is
recommended for ControlLogix and some other high performance PLC equipment. check our Driver
Help files for recommendations.
Audience Question:
Q: What if there are lots of unused tags (+3000) configurated in the same device?
A: The server only polls devices for tag information that a client requests, if the tag is unused by a
client, the server will not poll the device for the tag reference data.
Audience Question:
Q: You are saying ABControlLogix is serialized within one channel, my experience is that this does
not work with low bandwidth. Is this to be expected?
A: Channels/with sub devices are polled one then the next, if you have low bandwith or bad
connections Symbolic protocol in the device properties would improve performance.

Audience Question:
Q: If multiple devices under a channel, does the comm cycle on device1 block comms for device2
until device1 comm is finished?
A: yes, it does. the single thread in the channel will move through tag requests from each device
sequentially.
Audience Question:
Q: what should I do if I have older version of Kep File means .kpe to use in current version?
A: that project file is unfortuantley from an end-of-life (more than 10 years old) version of the
product and it is not compatible with current versions.
Audience Question:
Q: can you use multiple channels for 2 PLCs using media level redundancy?
A: yes, absolutely.
Audience Question:
Q: Are your additional tabs on your device properties screen because of the device type youre
using?
A: yes, every channel and device wizard adjusts for the specific protocol and device model selected
Audience Question:
Q: Can you talk more about the Logix Options for AB Driver: Protocol Mode: Physical vs. Symbolic
differences
A: I can, Physical is much like and physical address, and symbolic is like a name, for example my
name is Rob Sharp, and my address is 400 congress st, when you have true ETH and coms are
stable physical/logical is the way to go, in radio or unstable coms, and if you have a small tag count
> 2500 symbolic is the way to go
Audience Question:
Q: If the Channel comms block on each device, it seems like you'd also want a single channel per
device for high latency comms so that a single slow device doesn't slow down all your other devices?
Why recommend multiple devices per channel for those kinds of connections (radio, cell, etc).
A: often times, comm gateways like radios and cell are connected via a single serial cable to the PC
running KEPServerEX. this owuld force multiple devices below a single channel. other times the
gateways are ethernet-connected by can only maintain a single TCP socket connection at a time.
other times, the gateways cannot keep up with the rate that individual channels issue requests.
Audience Question:
Q: can i re-use it by CSV import/export option?
A: yes, you could potentially export your list of tags from the KPE file and import it into a project
developed with the new product. channel and device objects will not be included in the CSV.
Audience Question:
Q: Does demo mode has some restrinctios? Like plugin restrictions?
A: No. The product is fully featured while in Demo Mode.
Audience Question:
Q: Will the Demo mode stop if you remove the unlicened driver?
A: after removing the unlicensed driver you must stop and restart the KEPServerEX runtime process
to remove demo mode.
Audience Question:
Q: Hi Joanne,
Is it possible to licence KepServerEX by registering to one of the network adapters?
I ask because during a recent project (late last year / earlier this year) the licences kept disappearing
and the server kept reverting back to DMEO mode; it transpired that the RAID controller on the PC
(PERC H310 IIRC) does not work correctly with the Flexera licencing utlility you use, and the licence
is stored on the HDD Sector 0.
A: unfortunately with the software-based licensing tool, we cannot only bind the license to a network
adapter. the only thing that i can think to avoid copy protection with your RAID would be to use
hardware keys instead of software licenses. a network USB hub could be used if it is not possible to
have USB keys inserted directly into the machine running KEPServerEX.

Audience Question:
Q: If you need to write data to the device from a .NET application, will KepwareEX support this, or do
we need to purchase LinkMaster?
A: we have a client developed toolkit for .NET called ClientAce. you can use its class libraries within
your application in order to read and write data to OPC servers, including KEPServerEX.
Audience Question:
Q: That hardware dongle is pricey isnt it?
A: expense is relative of course, but the cost of the dongle is usually around $150 in addition to the
cost of the license
Audience Question:
Q: Where would one find a list of system tags for KepserverEX?
A: you can review our Server Help file for a list of all system, statistics, and internal tags.
Audience Question:
Q: In this case it is a must to have a transparent serial to ethernet converters?
A: TCP socket mode is not a must but it is recomned and provided by Digi, Moxa, Lantronix.
Audience Question:
Q: Is the quickclient open source?
A: no it is not, but we do have free sample OPC client code on our website. just navigate to
kepware.com and search for "examples"
Audience Question:
Q: Does ClientAce Opc ,net toolkit support C#?
A: CA does support C#
Audience Question:
Q: Would Like to know whether Kpware can connect ot yokogwawa Centum VP contoller?
A: we typically connect to the OPC DA server component of the Centum VP. we may be able to
connect to underlying automation devices that are part of the Centum system, but you would lose
the rich context provided by the OPC DA server.
Audience Question:
Q: Would be nice if KEPServer worked on non-windows :)
A: we are working on it! we are developed a java-based UA server variant of KEPServer. expect
marketing to talk about this in the next few months.
Audience Question:
Q: do you have a driver that would work with a Digi Portserver 8 - Legacy device (Terminal Server)?
A: we have a user-configurable driver (UCON) that can be used to transmit and receive & parse ASCII
and hex-based protocols. these can be encapsulated in ethernet or transferred over serial.
depending on the complexity of the protocol used by the portserver, UCON might be a fit.
Audience Question:
Q: If you have old licensed drivers and purchase and install a license for 1 new driver, does that
allow you to install the latest KepServer version and pull the older licenses forward to be current with
the latest KepServer?
A: no it does not. if you have a v4 license and wish to use v5, you will need to purchase v5 licenses.
we had an upgrade path available for six years but have recently discontinued it.
Audience Question:
Q: As far as I know, the sample OPC client code is not compatible with Windows7, is there a way to
fix this?
A: it is compatible. shoot me an email about the trouble you're running into and we can take a look:
sam.elsner@kepware.com
Audience Question:
Q: Why the write duty mode is limited to 10 !
A: ten writes for every one read. in other words, by default we interleave one read command for
every ten write commands.
Audience Question:
Q: Define Ethernet Encapsulation and how does it work in a LAN

A: a series of bytes that constitutes a message protocol are placed inside of TCP or UDP data
transport frames and sent to a particular IP address and port number using IP routing and Ethernet
physical mediums.
Audience Question:
Q: It is necessary to use backplane and slot & for AB Ethernet driver? Seems to work without
assignment in my system.
A: ab ethernet is a different driver from our controllogix ethernet driver. ab ethenret uses only an IP
address for device identification. controllogix ethernet uses backplace routing.
Audience Question:
Q: Can I run multiple drivers over a single ethernet port? Is there a limit to how many different
drivers I can use?
A: this sometimes depends on the protocol used, but in general yes you can, and there are no hardcoded limits in kepserverx that limit the number of channels that can use a single ethernet adapter.
Audience Question:
Q: Can I connect to RSLogix Emultion5000 Through EX?
A: At this time no but do submint a enhancement request to http://info.kepware.com/informationrequest-form
Audience Question:
Q: Will there be a copy of this webnair for future reference or reviewing for mutiple times when
needed?
A: Yes should be up on youtube next week.
Audience Question:
Q: If a one-device/channel scheme is implemented, is there any benefit to auto-demoting on a
communication problem?
A: not usually, unless you know that the machine begins to respond more quikcly after implementing
a short delay in communications.
Audience Question:
Q: Is there an available C# example for the Custom Interface Driver?
A: yes, the C# example is installed with KEPServerEX. it was created a few revisions ago, so if you
are running an older verison it won't be installed. you can download the most recent version and
install it on a machine temporarily in order to obtain the C# example.
Audience Question:
Q: If I have redundant Kepservers, can I copy the default.opf to the other machine to update it's
configuration?
A: Yes you can copy the OPF from one pc to the other, and load them so the two servers are in sync
Audience Question:
Q: I need to "tap" the serial com between 2 devices and bring it into kepware. can you recommend a
device for that purpose?
A: something like this: http://www.stratusengineering.com/EZTap.html we haven't tested, but as
long as it presents a virtual COM port as a way to sniff traffic using its USB cable, UCON should be
able to do it (as long as the sniffed protocol is parseable by UCON)
Audience Question:
Q: i experience sometimes that redundant tags are created when auto create tagdatabase from my
AB contrologix 5000 - why is that happening as these dual tags are degrading performance
A: this occurs for two reasons: you have selected for duplicate tags to be created (on our database
creation tab), or you have clients utilized controllogix tags in the server when you auto generate. we
cannot delete tags that are used by clients, so we must duplicate them.
Audience Question:
Q: How to achieve block of write request (with best performance, no respect of write order)
A: we do not block writes. the only way to "block" a write is to write arrays of data.
Audience Question:
Q: I have had issues where PLC scan time increased drastically, and HMI with TCP/IP had pushbutton
lag... all after launching OPF file. What are BEST PRACTICES for not overburdening PC COMM?
A: in general, don't read tags that you don't need to. of the tags you need to read, only read them

twice as fast as the data is actually changing.

Audience Question:
Q: What's the difference between syncronous or asyncronous write for tags in OPC client?
A: sync writes are processed immediately by the server, taking priority over every other command.
the write is not responded to by the server until the driver has completed the write with the device.
async writes are accepted by the server and queued and processed. they take priority over every
other command save for sync writes. when the driver completes the write with the device, the
server sends a write confirmation message back to the client.
Audience Question:
Q: How do you handle migration from a dev to production machine, when you have ethernet
encapsulation and specify the network adapter? Given that you have one device per channels and
150 devices. Any quick way to change all the network adapter entries?
A: This would be a good use of our save a project to XML, via file save as Project.xml
Audience Question:
Q: Is it possible to modify a tag in runtime ?
A: Yes it is possible to modify a tag as long as a Tag is not actively requesting data for that Tag.
Audience Question:
Q: What is the best scenarion for operation system where the server will be installed? Can Kepware
should be installed on AD or standalone pc machine?
A: as a rule, never install anything on your AD machine except your domain controller. this is true for
all windows apps, including kepserver.
Audience Question:
Q: can we get yout Presentation?
A: We will be posting this to Youtube
Audience Question:
Q: How would kepware work on a Stratus Server?
A: think of a single instance of kepserver running on the stratus server. everything else is
transparent to client applications that connect to KEPServer.
Audience Question:
Q: Can Kepware projects use Source control such as Team Foundation or Sourcesafe?
A: we do not integrate with these tools natively.
Audience Question:
Q: Is there a date for a Linux-compatible Version of KepServerEX?
A: no date yet, but we are shooting for wihtin 12 months
Audience Question:
Q: Could I read tags from other Kepserver installed on other PC?
A: yes
Audience Question:
Q: OPC UA would be another topic that would be interesting
A: check out our kepware youtube page for a UA presentation
Audience Question:
Q: will there be a webinar for the DataLogger plugin?
A: i conducted this webinar two weeks ago. check out our youtube page for a recording.
Audience Question:
Q: .NET Connection?
A: SDKs for .NET can be used to biuld OPC connectivity to apps developed in .NET
Audience Question:
Q: are you goint to do a webinar on connection to a database SQL or oracle?
A: A webinar is already available on our YouTube page.
Audience Question:
Q: I use OPC.Net which claims not to use DCOM, why does Kepware and how do the two packages

work together
A: OPC .NET is just one of the many OPC protocols supported by KEPServerEX. OPC .NET is
implemented as a service wrapper around OPC DA and OPC AE. more information is contained in our
OPC .NET Help File
Audience Question:
Q: Locating previous versions of Kepserver has become a hassel to align with client versions, is their
an outlet on the website for previous versions?
A: yes, you can download all previous versions of the product from the My Kepware portal:
https://my.kepware.com/mykepware/
Audience Question:
Q: Is there any built in feature for notifying when tag quality is not good?
A: this is a feature of all OPC interfaces
Audience Question:
Q: Is there reporting of com stats% good /bad polls?
A: not a percetage, but we expose good reads and failed reads, so you could calculate percentage in
your client or in a derived tag in our advanced tags plugin
Audience Question:
Q: Does Kepware supply a Siemens TCPIP H1 Driver
A: no, we do not. We have a Siemens TCP/IP Ethernet Driver that utilizes PUT and GET commands
within Siemens' ISO-on-TCP protocol
Audience Question:
Q: Need a training date in the west coast!
A: Currently we conduct training at our facility in Portland, ME and can conduct on-site training as
well. If you are interested please contact our Training department at training@kepware.com
Audience Question:
Q: Is there a way to find out a description on what the tags are when they get auto generated?
A: we can only generate data that is provided to us by the controller, and usually the only data that
the controller provides are data type and tag name.
Audience Question:
Q: What about connection from c#?
A: ClientAce provides a .NET API. You can program in C# using this API to develop a client
application with OPC connectivity.
Audience Question:
Q: how can I get the ppt file?
A: A .pdf of the presentation will be available in a few days.
Audience Question:
Q: Would like to see a visual demostration (wireshark, task manager etc) that shows why one
channel per device is best
A: the threading architecture in KEPServerEX is such that a single communication thread is created
per channel object. channel threads run in parallel. one device per channel means parallel
communication to your devices. multiple devices per channel means that the single thread moves
sequentially through each device in the channel.
Audience Question:
Q: how to get the Advanced tag for KEPERVER Enterprise
A: advanced tags is not available for KEPServer Enterprise.
Audience Question:
Q: is it possible to have a try/demo version?
A: yes, our software is free to use in two hour increments. all software can be downloaded from the
my kepware portal: https://my.kepware.com/mykepware/
Audience Question:
Q: We use the WCF/express interface service connection option of KepServerEx and found it very
difficult to get information on the interface and no examples, please can you include some info and
examples with future version as this interface is simple and perfect for our webservice that needs to

fetch OPC data

A: thank you for this feedback. yes, admittedly our documentation for this interface is not the best. it
is not often used, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease as im sure you can understand. send a
note into our tech support team if you have questions. we would like to enhance product
documentation should resources become available.