VMware and Ft AssetCentre over WIFI

[dcooper33]

I think I may be the only controls guy out there nutty enough to attempt this! (At least according to the RA Tech Support guys I've baffled today )

Suffice it to say that connecting to our controls network over WIFI is an unavoidable necessity at this time.

The set-up:

Large controls VLAN that all of our PLC's reside on (10.44.2 xx)
Larger corporate network, spread across several plants, that our FTAC server resides on.
Through a managed switch and gateway on the controls VLAN, the FTAC server is allowed on the controls network. This is the only corporate IP that has access.
The support PCs connect to controls net via wireless router, and to FTAC via gateway. No problems.

Now the new wrinkle: We have new support PCs that run Win 7 64bit, plus dozens of PV+'s running 5.10 fw, so a 32bit VM is necessary, at least for FTVIEW studio.

So on the VM, Iwas able to iinstall all of my requisite RA software, including FTAC client with no issues. I am using the vmnet8 (NAT) adaptor and the host OS is connected to WIFI network.

From the VM, I can ping and remote into the server. I can go online with PLCs. I have remote server configured as network directory host. But I can't open FTAC client. After 5-10 mins I get an error msg saying "Failure Initializing Application Eventing Subsystem"

Also if I open the FT Admin Console on the VM, then I can receive the current configuration from the server, but if changes are made on another PC, then those changes will not appear in the VM console until Admin Console is restarted. If I make a change to the config FROM the VM then those changes will appear on the network immediately, but again, they will not show up in the VM console until it is restarted!

I have RA and Vmware support both looking into this, and both sides are baffled (and vaguely insinuate the other software's responsibility )

RA finally said that they always run a physical LAN connection bridged to the VM, and don't mess with wireless. I can understand why, but that isn't helpful to me obviously.

It's extra frustrating because I know SOME comms are open between the VM and the server, just not enough... I am suspecting it is some kind of port conflict issue, but I'm not savvy enough to dig very deep on it. My plant IT guys weren't much help in this case either.

So, if you're still reading, thanks :grin: If needed, I can draw up a quick network map if it will help anybody. Bear in mind, though, that FTAC client is working wirelessly with over a dozen other PCs on the same network (All Win XP boxes, not in a VM) .

Thanks,
Dustin

 

[The Plc Kid]

Wireless should not matter as long as the signal is strong enough not to drop out every few seconds.

I would not use NAT on the VM. Always use briged. I can give you 2 pages of reasoning behind this but for the short term just trust me and use briged.

If you can ping the server from the VM them FTAC should work. If you can ping the FTAC server I would say you have AV or a firewall rule stopping all or some of the client traffic.

Change to briged and disable firewall and av software.

Also note you can setup FTAC so that only specific MAC addresses can connect ( specific laptops ) so check to make sure this is not your issue also.

 

[dcooper33]

Wireless should not matter as long as the signal is strong enough not to drop out every few seconds.

I would not use NAT on the VM. Always use briged. I can give you 2 pages of reasoning behind this but for the short term just trust me and use briged.

If you can ping the server from the VM them FTAC should work. If you can ping the FTAC server I would say you have AV or a firewall rule stopping all or some of the client traffic.

Change to briged and disable firewall and av software.

Also note you can setup FTAC so that only specific MAC addresses can connect ( specific laptops ) so check to make sure this is not your issue also.

Thanks for the feedback.

Unfortunately, I can't get bridged to work. I have vmnet5 bridge directly to the wireless card, but it doesn't assign an IP to the VM. I'm guessing this is a router setting, needs the MAC address of my VM, maybe? We have a corporate IT support contract, so if changes need to be made to our wireless routers, then that would be a nightmare.

As far as the MAC address on the FTAC, I don't think that's the issue. In the admin console, the CPU name of my VM was added to the network computer group during the installation successfully. Are you talking about a different setting in AssetCentre?

 

[The Plc Kid]

Use VMnet0 for best results on bridged mode. Choose your NIC from the dropdown list and don't use the automatic option.

Chose between stic Ip or DHCP from within the virtual adaptor in your OS not in the VM Ware workstation config.

If your DHCP servers have MAC ID filtering turned on then your virtual NIC would have to be added to get a DHCP address or / also MAC ID filtering could be turned on in your WAP's also.

I doubt they are using MAC ID filtering though as it's difficult to manage and maintain and the security features of it only exist in the minds of the ignorant. Anyone with even a low skill level could spoof a MAC ID and gain access to your wireless network easily as far as connection is concerned.

Try Vmnet0 in briged choosing your named adaptor and make sure all firewall and AV software is fully turned off then try your connectivity again.

Also go into network adaptor config on the Host OS and disable the physical nic. Use the physical wireless nic to connect to WIFI and let the VM use that in briged mode. In the VM it will look like a standard NIC. If you have another NIC configured in VM Ware then delete it.

 

[dcooper33]

Kid,

Thanks for the tips. I will try your suggestions at this point just for my own education.

I finally just abandoned the AssetCentre in VM notion and moved on with my life. All of my other software works fine in the VM using NAT, and connects to the network without issue. I'm just running FTAC on the host and using the FTAC Working Folder as a share to the VM.
It's a simple enough solution that all my guys understand and can live with. Most of their work can just be done on the Win7 host and they only have to tread the murky VM waters when they need to work on some of our legacy hardware.

Thanks again for the networking knowledge. Hopefully some of it will sink in

 

[The Plc Kid]

Well I know there is something wrong because I use asset centre as well and have all the clients in VM's.

We don't run anything on the host OS. Many of my machine use Moka 5 also so there is no host OS and I have FT asset centre client running in VM's on ESXI also.

So it does work if that offers any comfort.

 

[The Plc Kid]

And yes we connect to it over WIFI in many instances also.