Strange Behavior with Factory Talk Activation Through VMWare

[lriemer]

Hello!

I'm struggling with a puzzling issue that's sporadically preventing our VMs from connecting to the activations we've set up on the Host.

As a bit of background, I found an extremely helpful post (#5) from Ken in the following thread: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=67308

I did my best to set up our machine in the same way. I have a Windows 10 Host with Workstation 12 Pro. I'm running a Windows 7 VM with one Bridged connection set to "Replicate physical network connection state" and one Host-Only connection with a static IP. FactoryTalk Activation Manager is configured to get activations from my Host-Only static IP on the 27000 port.

For the most part, this works great. My activations come through fine, and I can communicate with a PLC over the bridged connection. Here's the catch: As soon as I plug in an ethernet cable to connect to a PLC, FactoryTalk Activation Manager loses connection to the activation server.

I can eliminate this problem by disabling the windows firewall on the Host. I've reproduced this behavior a number of times and toggling the Host firewall off and on directly correlates with whether or not the ethernet connection interferes with the activation server connection.

My supposition is that FactoryTalk Activation Manager may be trying to go through the bridged connection for the activations when a cable is plugged in. It is apparently successful when Windows Firewall does not intervene. I'm not sure how to make the firewall allow this, or force the activations to go through one adapter versus the other.

I would prefer not to disable the firewall on all of our laptops. Has anyone else run into an issue like this, or have any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[dmargineau]

I usually share the Host RA Activations folder (C:/Users/Public/Public Documents/Rockwell Automation/Activations) between the Host and VM and make it always VM available, then place the shared folder path within the VM Activations Manager utility setup; this way the VM networking becomes irrelevant.

 

[Robobob]

Could you elaborate on how you are doing the sharing with the VM. Are you using the shared folders in the VM settings or thru Windows. I have tried several ways, but I keep getting errors when I try to enter the path in the manager. The error is Path contains one or more illegal of misplaced charters. I would like to use your method as the Host only method can be flaky at times.

 

[lriemer]

Thank you for the suggestion on sharing the folder. Unfortunately, I gave it a try and ran into the same issue as Robobob. I shared it through VMWare's shared folder option, and VMWare mapped it to Z:/Activations. When I tried putting that into Activations Manager, it gave me the same illegal character warning and wouldn't search it.

We got lucky and it's working through the host-only network flawlessly now (so far). Inside the windows 10 firewall "Advanced Settings", then "Windows Firewall Properties", I was able to customize each profile to exempt the VMnet1 virtual adapter from the firewall. That seems to have done the trick.

 

[Zed9]

I've struggled with accessing activation's on an internal network (may not directly correlate to your problem though). I typically set my host machine (VM settings) to "bridged-replicate physical network", then, within in the VM operating system, only activate the network adapter you are using for hard line connections.

Also (big deal for my laptop)...switch off or disable any wifi adapters on the laptop (usually an F key on the keyboard). For some reason mine always defaults to the wireless adapter which messes up any hard line connection to the activation server.

Hope this helps.

 

[Robobob]

Zed I usually have two Ethernet adapters one bridged and one host only. Host only for Rockwell activation's and bridged for going online with the PLC. I also setup the bridged connection to my hardwired port on the PC using the Virtual Network Editor on the host. This eliminates issues with the VM trying to find a PLC on the wireless. Hope this helps.