The operator PC at the end of the bottling line lost its disk on Friday. IT rebuilt it with a fresh Windows image, I installed the FactoryTalk View SE V12 client off the same media as the other three, same PC name as before.
Launch the .cli file and the client comes up, sits on the splash for a minute, then tells me it cannot connect to the HMI server, application not found. The other three clients see the application fine. It's a distributed application with the HMI server on our SE server box.
I power cycled the PC twice, reinstalled the client once and pinged the server by name and by IP, both answer.
IT reckon it's the Windows firewall on the new image. I'm wondering about a client licence. Same PC name, same media as the other three, so is a client licence even a thing on V12, or do I go back to IT about the firewall?
Same SE version and patch on the new PC as the server? And what did IT do about the firewall, off or with the FactoryTalk rules? Also, does the client PC show the server's application under Explorer, or nothing at all?
server is 12.00 with the same patch roll-up, I checked. IT turned the firewall off completely for the test, still no luck. Licence is a floating one on the server and there are two free.
Opened the Administration Console on the client PC and there's no application listed under HMI at all. Just Local.
Run the FactoryTalk Directory Configuration Wizard on the client. Local or Network?
Says Local Directory is selected. Screenshot attached. Not sure what that setting even means, I've never had to touch it, the other PCs were set up by the integrator.
That's the cause. A distributed SE application lives in the Network Directory on your server box. A fresh V12 client defaults to the Local Directory, which is the PC's own empty database, so the client looks up the application there, finds nothing and reports cannot connect. Not firewall, not licence.
Fix, on the client PC: Start, Rockwell Software, FactoryTalk Tools, FactoryTalk Directory Configuration Wizard. Tick Network Directory, enter the server's computer name, Next. It asks for a FactoryTalk admin login, use the one you use on the server. Finish, reboot the PC. Then launch the .cli again. If the .cli was made on a working client it'll find the application straight away.
One more thing. After the wizard, open Administration Console once and check the Network tree shows your area and the HMI server. If it does, the client will.
Ran the wizard, picked Network Directory, entered the server name, logged in with the admin account, rebooted. Administration Console shows the application under the area and the client came up with the overview screen.
So the new PC's FactoryTalk Directory was set to Local instead of the network server, and the wizard pointing at the server is what fixed it. V12 client, V12 server, and the directory was the bit in between that nobody had told me about.
What I don't get is how the same PC name and the same .cli file weren't enough. I guess the directory is a separate thing from the client install. Nobody wrote that down here.
Thanks northbay and hannah.
Write it down now, before the next disk goes.