RSLINX "freezes" with InTouch

Hi all,
Old XP's upgraded to Win10 Enterprise LTSC.
Old InTouch 10.0 upgraded to 2020 R2 SP1.

1 PC has RSLINX gateway all the others RSLINX OEM. OPCUA is used only on RSLINX gateway PC. Other than that pretty straightforward/basic system.
This set up was running ok few weeks, then those OEM PC's started to "freeze". RSLINX wont open, unless rebooting the PC.
Tried to start/stop/disable few services, but no luck.
SMC doesnt show any errors/warnings...just that the PC was rebooted.
Win Events are the same..few warnings/errors, but nothing when this freezing occurs. (sent all log files to AVEVA also to Rockwell, no real solutions yet...)
Surely can be a sum of few things...
Any ideas?

Do all the PCs freeze, or just the one running "full" RSLinx? How many others are there? I assume you have OIGateway installed on the licensed RSLinx machine, and the other Intouch PCs are looking at a topic in OIGateway?

So Windows is still semi responsive during these freezes? You can still navigate your Intouch application, but no data is being received / updated, and you can't open RSLinx to see Diagnostics?

If that's the case, have you looked in SMCs diagnostics for the topic? There's normally some indication of the tag status there.

Thanks Saffa for reply! Here is more details.

All the other PCs freezes (not at the same time tho), except the one with "full" RSLinx, (on that PC is PLC software/InTouch development license).

All PCs are looking topic InTouch -> Access Name. i.e If I go to SMC->Operations Integration Supervisory -> OIGateway -> there are no tags there. Can only see when Server is started etc. And Log Viewer gives no warnings/Errors/Info before freezing happens.

Windows do respond, navigation works on Windowviewer. Just that data is not updated. RSLINX will not open when this happens. Even after killing it from task manager.

Cables and all that stuff is checked also. I think there is a “stupid” solution for this, just that Iam stuck where to look/what to try more…

What revisions (by number) of RSLinx are you using? If you migrated the same versions from XP to Win10 I would suggest upgrading to a more current revisions as a first step.

Thanks glennz,
Should be the latest revision/version. All these were asked/checked from Rockwell (licenses etc.). Had to upgrade firmware for 1 of the PLC´s as well...


Wondering if the problem is OPCUA?

I mean when I did this upgrade, I didnt know that OPCUA Server is going to be on the PCs, which is running smoothly (gateway license). So if RSLinx OEM license is not enough for these freezing PCs?

"The latest" version of RSLinx Classic (9355-WABx), according to the Rockwell PCDC, is 4.30.00.

RSLinx Classic provides communication services to Rockwell Automation and third-party clients by emulation of the Interchange API, via its own API, via DDE (when supported by Windows) and via OPC DA 2.05 Server.

RSLinx Classic is not and will never be an OPC UA server or client.

So you must have something else in there.

RA re-used the term "gateway" a few times. There's a software product called FactoryTalk Gateway that does away with the legacy API's and instead provides OPC-DA and OPC-UA access to Rockwell Automation controllers and other FactoryTalk Live Data sources.

I can't give you any useful advice on the InTouch stuff; Wonderware/Schneider/Aveva have also plastered the word "Gateway", not to mention the term "I/O", all over.

I think that OIGateway should be an OPC-DA client, and RSLinx Classic should be an OPC-DA Server, and that any problems between them may be related to the aging support for OPC-DA in Windows.

Thanks for continuing to collect info !

if memory serves me correctly, you have to do incremental upgrades .
we went from version 7 to 2014 and had the same thing happen.
we then went from 7 to 2012 then to the 2014 version and everything worked fine. i cannot remember the reason, but i seen to recall there was something missing when going directly from version 7 to 2014.
hope this helps,
james

I suppose it's important to ask if this was actually an incremental operating system upgrade (XP to Win10) on the same hardware, actually leaving the automation software installed, which was then itself upgraded.

My guess is that the computers were actually replaced with new ones, with the operating systems and automation software installed from scratch.

The more concise detail a poster can provide, the better !

It does seem to me that the issue lies with RSLinx not updating values to OIGateway on the "I/O server", if we can call it that. Since all other intouch machines are looking at this PC, and reporting no issues, then it seems the connection to OIGateway remains intact but no data is sent.

I've only ever used RSLinx as an OPC DA server, many years ago. It was reasonably reliable, and when we did have issues I'm pretty confident it was iFix's half-baked OPC DA client.

I have used Aveva's ABCIP driver a lot more regularly and found that to be very reliable, apart from a few controller firmware compatibility issues. As much as it's probably not the answer you want to hear, my suggestion would be to get rid of RSLinx and the OPC challenges, and use the Aveva native driver. That will come at a cost though... and I doubt Rockwell are big on refunds.

Thanks Ken Roach,
InTouch 2020 R2 can be configured as OPCUA server, that is done. Waiting for confirmation if something is done on RSLinx side. (some configuration etc.) This used to only read data via OPCUA to somewhere…
Yes, new hardware. So from scratch. RSLinx versions were 2.54 or so and now 4.3. Should be ok, at least according to RA combability sheets. I checked those before upgrading anything.
Thanks James Mcquade,
Your memory serves you well. Usually that might be the case, at least program wise. e.g. program written in TIA13 may not migrate to TIA15 without migrating it first via TIA14. This SCADA program did not migrate right away, but I fixed those tiny issues. SMC helped to locate those issues.
Thanks saffa,
This system is configured like this.
InTouch, there is Access Name / Topic (suitelink). Then RSLinx has Topic as well. Old system, old configuration. And once again, this was running ok when XP was the OS. And after OS changed to Win. But for some reason these PCs where is RSLinx OEM driver started to freeze. Most likely after OPCUA configuration. Under investigation who did what and when.

RA was kind enough to give me RSLinx Gateway trial license so I will try that…