Factorytalk software install/uninstall issues

Paul351W

Member
Join Date
Mar 2008
Location
Northern Illinois
Posts
154
We got a new guy in our area recently, and I have been working with him to get all the required software packages installed. Due to the number of people, and the equipment we have installed, we are not running all the newest versions of software, Logix v16, ME v5.00. One of our group members has been pushing for newer versions, so to make a long story short, some of the newer software got installed before ME v5.00.

When we went to install ME 5.00, Factorytalk services platform would not install because v2.50 was already on the computer. Since ME was looking for v2.10, we tried to un-install v2.50 so we could install 2.10, then re-install 2.50. This is when things went south. Either the 2.50 un-install or the 2.10 install got hung up, and now I cannot successfully uninstall v2.10.

I've tried un-installing everything Rockwell from the computer and starting over, but something is still there that the un-installer, and Microsoft's windows installer cleanup can't seem to get rid of. Rsvchost.exe seems to be one thing we cannot get rid of no matter what we do.

Rsvchost.exe is not on the computer, yet Windows is trying to run it. Is there some registry cleaning needed to fix this problem? I REALLY wish Rockwell's installers worked better, and that there was better backwards compatibility (IE: having v2.50 installed would satisfy software looking for v2.10)
 
Why do you need to install ME 5.0? The newer versions can create ver. 5.0 runtimes if required.
 
The only thing more difficult and frustrating than installing mixed Rockwell Software "Coordinated Product Release" versions is attempting to clean up afterwards.

I gave up on it and I run all of my RA software inside virtual machines so it can't hose up my host operating system. VMWare Workstation has saved me many dozens of hours this year alone.

If at all possible, accept defeat and reload the host OS on that computer, then put everything onto virtual machines.

Unless you have to work on FactoryTalk View SE 5.0, or you need to manage View ME projects that use specific ActiveX components or KepServer drivers, go ahead and upgrade to Version 6.10 of the FactoryTalk View ME software. You can still create runtimes all the way back to version 3.2.
 
I guess we don't "need" v5.00, its just that we have 6 or 7 people, each with a desktop and laptop, and we are trying to keep the software versions the same on all the computers. When one person switches to v6.10, everyone else will have to as well or we won't be able to open the backup files, correct?

I have mentioned purchasing VM Workstation to my supervisor but no action has happened yet. I've seen people here mention having multiple VM's for different software packages, wouldn't that use a lot of hard drive space? Or is there some way to have multiple versions of the same VM with different software setups on each? I've only played around with VMPlayer so far, and it does not have many fancy features.
 
I had the same hassle getting my boss to buy VMWare Workstation (more of a procurement paperwork thing, not a cost issue). I bought it myself and it's worth every penny.

Workstation lets you create "snapshots" that are incremental images of the virtual machine. I have a snapshot with FTView 5.0, another with 5.10, another with 6.0, and the one I use all the time, with 6.10.

Yes, this all takes up hard drive space and processor horsepower.

But the FactoryTalk "CPR" process is so inflexible, I've found VMWare Workstation to be the only practical way to handle it.
 
The "snapshots" that you mention, are they an entire copy of the VM, or are they partial/incremental backups?

If they are all full copies, I can see that getting very storage intensive, since the C:\Windows directory on my PC is a bit over 12GB just by itself.

Does Workstation allow you to easily use the same VM on multiple computers? It would be handy for us to be able to maintain 1 VM (or 1 for each software configuration) that everyone could use, so whenever new software came in, we only had to set it up once in the VM instead of installing it on a bunch of computers.
 
The VMware "snapshots" are incremental backups; they will not double-up the application's "footprint", however, as Ken stated, any or multiple VMs will be a burden for the host OS/PC which will need a 64-bit operability and at least 8 GB of available RAM .
The VMs could be easily Copied/Pasted between different machines runnig the same revision of the virtualization software; depending of the size of the VM and the quality of the transfer media it might take minutes or hours, however, at least for VMware Workstation, you will need a license for every machine (last I've chacked $186/each- list).
 
For all the time I've wasted over the years fighting with software, $186 seems pretty darn cheap.

I will have to do a bit more research and see if I can get the boss to get moving on this sooner than later.
 
I create and maintain the VMs and the snapshots with VMWare Workstation, and then we just run the free VMWare Player on the other machines.
 
So the other machines with VMPlayer are using the snapshots created by Workstation, or do you actually make seperate VM's for each software set? I'm trying to get a clear mental picture of what your setup is.

I've been using VMPlayer for a few months now, but I wasn't quite sure about the "free for personal use only" clause when I downloaded it so I've been hesitant to pass it on to the rest of my team.
 

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