Activation server problem

Hi guys,

I've got a site with an FTView SE network distributed SCADA system running. It has 8 or 10 licenses for servers, clients, historians, and whatnot. I have stored all of these activations on the FT Directory machine, which is very imaginatively called "ftdirectory". All of this is set up across multiple VLAN's on a domain, and it all works perfectly. On every single SCADA-related PC, I just add ftdirectory as an activation path, and though they are on different VLAN's it works just fine.

Now the site has purchased Logix 5000, and asked me to set it up on their maintenance guy's laptop. I've installed it, hosted the activations on ftdirectory, and added ftdirectory as an activation path on his laptop. His laptop actually lives on the same VLAN as the ftdirectory, and it can ping it, remote desktop into it, and so on. Network discovery is turned on, and when I go to add the activation path, I can actually click the browse button and select ftdirectory from the list of PC's on the network, so everything can definitely see everything else.

But it doesn't work. I get a little red circle with an exclamation mark beside the ftdirectory path, and no activations show up.

Any ideas? It's always just been as simple as "type in ftdirectory and press OK" before, so I'm kind of stumped now that it doesn't work straight up! The new laptop runs windows 8.1, whereas all of the other machines are Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Data Center. I'm also slightly concerned because whereas all of the SCADA PC's were set up by me, the way I wanted them, with no interference from IT, this laptop is managed by IT (yes, I'm aware that I just moments ago in another thread made a point about how bad a time you're going to have if you let IT manage a PLC programming laptop, but I didn't get a say in this).

Does the PC in question have 2x NIC's connected at the same time?
Say wireless & cable?
I have had similar issue, so in habit of disabling non-internet connection whilst activating & returning.

Do you have admin rights and can you run the rockwell firewall configuration utility?

If not, you will have to add the required ports manually. I don't have them at hand, but they are something like 27000 through 27009.

May I recommend saying to the IT person, "I need to let Rockwell Activation through the firewall." ... "What do you mean which ports? you're the IT guy, you tell me!"

IT people love jokes.

lostcontrol said:

Does the PC in question have 2x NIC's connected at the same time?
Say wireless & cable?
I have had similar issue, so in habit of disabling non-internet connection whilst activating & returning.

Click to expand...

actually, that might be the case. It's a laptop, but when it's plugged into the docking station it has both a wireless and wired connection to the same network...I'll give that a shot.

I have run the firewall configuration utility, and I have asked the IT guys to double check that those ports are clear on all of their network firewalls (you're spot on with your port numbers by the way). I'm pretty sure that they should be fine, as I got them to unlock all of the Rockwell-related TCP/UDP ports when we first implemented their SCADA system. But they're going to double check for me anyway.

FYI there's a KB article (29402) that lists all of the ports used by RA equipment.

Well, as it turns out, the dual network connections wasn't the problem, but testing it out indirectly helped me find it. I logged into the guy's PC and got him to take it off the docking station, so he only had wifi connected. No dice. I got him to connect it back onto the docking station, figuring I'd then disable wifi and try again - but when he connected to the dock, a message popped up in the taskbar saying that the FT Activation Server on FTDirectory needed to be upgraded to at least v3.61 (it was currently running 3.60).

So, one new FactoryTalk Services Platform later, and everyone is happy!

A few things.

1. Hover over the exclamation point - I bet you need to install a newer version of FTSP (services platform). The FTD needs to be at the highest. If you are using Studio v28 anywhere that has a higher FTSP so make sure to update on the FTD as well.

2. Having a central activation server is good, and the FTD is an acceptable place for it. But, for your HMI server licenses and Historian licenses those should be local to the machines and not borrowed.

We ran into an issue one time where there were 4x HMI servers. 2x 250 display and 2x 100 display, and all activations were central. When the 100x HMI server booted up it puled a 250 display license because it just grabbed what was available.

We keep programming licenses / View Client licenses etc all on a central activation server but keep HMI server licenses and Historian / Vantagepoint licenses local.

xC0MMAND0x said:

A few things.

1. Hover over the exclamation point - I bet you need to install a newer version of FTSP (services platform). The FTD needs to be at the highest. If you are using Studio v28 anywhere that has a higher FTSP so make sure to update on the FTD as well.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what it was, see my post above. Where were you five days ago?

xC0MMAND0x said:

2. Having a central activation server is good, and the FTD is an acceptable place for it. But, for your HMI server licenses and Historian licenses those should be local to the machines and not borrowed.

We ran into an issue one time where there were 4x HMI servers. 2x 250 display and 2x 100 display, and all activations were central. When the 100x HMI server booted up it puled a 250 display license because it just grabbed what was available.

Click to expand...

This system has been running with all server, client and historian licenses on a remote virtual server for a few years now with no issues. Though having said that, we only have two HMI server licenses; both 100 display versions for a primary and secondary redundant pair, so we wouldn't come across the issue you described. But good to file away in case they ever add a new HMI server! Have you had any other issues with server/client/historian licenses hosted remotely? I just like it because the VM that the licenses are stored on is backed up daily by IT, so short of a miniature armageddon-type event, I'm never going to lose my activations. If ever one of the operators do something creative with a screwdriver or a hose and wipe out one of the clients on the factory floor, I just have to replace the PC and I'm not going to have to deal with RA tech support to get my activation back. But if there are issues I could encounter with it, I'm definitely interested in knowing them!