OPC Mirror Troubleshooting Tips

If the OPC Mirror system does not operate properly after installation, review the following troubleshooting tips for a corrective action:

If you use IP address instead of the computer name when connecting to a DeltaV machine, the OPC Mirror subsystem items will not be added to that DeltaV system. If OPC Mirror runs on a non-DeltaV machine and connects to a remote DeltaV machine using the name localhost, the DCOM registry entry is:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{C3B72AB1-6B33-11d0-9007-0020AFB6CF9F}\RemoteServerName

This means the connection cannot be an IP address. It must be the DeltaV computer name. To change this DCOM registry, you can run OPCRegister /client, and enter the remote DeltaV machine's name. The OPCRegister executable file is located in the C:\DeltaV\bin folder. You should only run this program on a non-DeltaV machine.

An OPC server may limit how many items it allows from the clients. The DeltaV OPC server is one of them. If some items in a pipe are not added because of this limit, OPC MirrorClient will log an event in Windows.

OPC Mirror must be installed to a folder to at least one level below the root level of the Windows Program folder. That is, do not install to C:\Program Files. Instead, install to C:\Program Files\FRS.

The user that OPC Mirror service is configured to run as must have read and write access to the OPC Mirror database file (FrsOpcMr.mdb). Without this access, OPC Mirror can not load the configuration. FrsOpcMr.mdb is located under the OPC Mirror installation directory.

Before running OPC Mirror applications, make sure all OPC servers are accessible from the workstation. Use OPCWatchit.exe (a simple testing client) to verify that all the DeltaV OPC servers are accessible.

To test the server: start OPCWatchit; connect to an item that changes; clear the Sync check box at the upper-left corner in the OPCWatchit dialog box; and, see if the value in OPCWatchit changes.

There is a special installation procedure for DeltaV OPC server on the client machine to enable remote connection. Refer to the DeltaV OPC Remote document for details and troubleshooting tips for running OPCWatchit and other remote applications. Both OPCWatchit and the document are included with the OPC Mirror installation. OPCWatchit is used to set up a remote client machine.

If you get the error, Run-time error `50003': Unexpected error, make sure ComCtl32.ocx and ComDlg32.ocx under Windows' System32 are up to date. To update the files, run Regsvr32 ComCtl32.ocx and Regsvr32 ComDlg32.ocx and reboot the machine. OPC Mirror installs and registers these OCXs. Remove the old OCXs and then uninstall and reinstall OPC Mirror.

When you try to connect one DeltaV system to another DeltaV system, both systems must have one of the following:

Make sure that the network card for the client/server connection is the first in the network binding. To verify this, perform the following steps on both the client and server machines:

  1. Double-click Network in the Control Panel.
  2. Click the Bindings tab.
  3. In the Show Bindings field, select all protocols from the drop-down box.
  4. Click the above mentioned network adapter in each category and move it up to the first place.
  5. Reboot after the prompt.
  6. Repeat these steps on the client or server machine.

When you open a pipe, you may get the message: "Unable to browse server_on_: Unable to create OPC Server object. Please use the 'New Mapping' menu choice on the Pipe menu to configure your mappings." To correct this issue, run Regsvr32 OPCDaAuto.dll.

When you open a pipe, you may get the message: "Unable to browse server_on_: Unable to connect to OPC Server. Please use the 'New Mapping' menu choice on the Pipe menu to configure your mappings." To correct this issue, make sure that you are able to connect to that OPC server from any OPC client.

When you open a pipe, you may get the message: "Unable to browse server_on_: Unable to browse tree. Please use the 'New Mapping' menu choice on the Pipe menu to configure your mappings." This indicates that the OPC server does not support browsing.

When you run MirrorDiagnostics, the application status bar shows the progress. If it displays the message "MirrorClient Starting...", then the OPC Mirror client is still initializing, and you have to wait. If it displays the message "Connecting MirrorClient...", diagnostics is trying to connect to the OPC Mirror client. If diagnostics remains displaying "Connecting MirrorClient...", the OPC Mirror client may not be registered properly. If this occurs, stop the OPC Mirror client, and register it by running MirrorServiceInstall. Then, start over again.

Look at the Application Event Log when troubleshooting problems. OPC Mirror logs major events in the Application Event Log. Run Windows Event Viewer to view these events.