This ReadMe file
describes the resolved issues for Patch 05. Fixes and enhancements for previous
patches are also described.
SCADAlarm
5.0 Patch 05 is a cumulative patch and includes the fixes from all previous patches.
This patch supercedes Patch 04. This patch can be installed on SCADAlarm 5.0,
SCADAlarm 5.0.2, and SCADAlarm 5.0.3. Before installing this patch, be sure
that you have one of these versions already installed. This patch works for
both the full version and the demo version. Note that all conditions of the
original SCADAlarm license also apply to this patch.
After applying Patch 05, your SCADAlarm version will be 5.0.5.458.
You can determine the current version from within SCADAlarm by clicking About
on the Help menu. The version also appears on the Tech Support tab in
the Status window of the SCADAlarm application. Patch 05 includes Patch
04 and Patch 03.
Before installing this patch, it is strongly recommended that you
exit all Wonderware® programs, including executable (.exe) files and
services.
If you are using the full version of SCADAlarm, you will be able
to select your existing modem type or change to the type D modem (IS-101,
etc.), which is supported by SCADAlarm 5.0.2 or greater.
The following defects were fixed for this patch release. Click on
the defect number for a more detailed description of the problem.
L00021460
After a period of time, SCADAlarm stops calling out.
L00022969
Provide a way to disable the PING
feature.
L00021460 After a period of
time, SCADAlarm stops calling out.
Problem:
In the previous versions of SCADAlarm, after the Windows operating system had
been running for about 25 days, communication between SCADAlarm and InTouch
would fail. If you tried to access the SCADAlarm program user interface during
the failure, the user interface would disappear, and the SCADAlarm process
would no longer be listed in Task Manager. Also, an exception at 0x004BEFE8:
Integer Overflow may have occurred.
L00022969
Provide a way to disable the
"ping" feature.
Problem:
By default, SCADAlarm repeatedly "pings" the e-mail server. Since
this can be a security problem for some systems, you can now enable or disable
the pinging feature. To disable the ping feature:
1. Open
the SCADAlrm.ini file in a text editor, such as Notepad.
2. In
the [System Parameters] section, add the following entry:
eMail ping test timeout (mS)=0
Any
other value for this entry is ignored and therefore will not suppress the ping.
Note: If you
disable the pinging, the SCADAlarm node will send SMTP packets without checking
for a connection to the e-mail host. If the e-mail host is not available, and
SCADAlarm attempts to send an e-mail, sustained sending of SMTP packets can
result. This will continue until a connection is restored, only after which the
e-mail notification will be sent.
New
Features
·
Schedule changes can be limited to administrators only by
adding the following to the [System Parameters] section of the
SCADAlrm.ini file:
Schedule change requires admin Flag=1
·
Password support for alphanumeric paging has been added.
You can now have a GSM or TAP password up to 20 characters long. (Note that TAP
1.8 allows only six characters.) Add a key to the [System Parameters]
section in the SCADAlrm.ini file:
Pager System Access Password=pppppp
where pppppp is the password supplied by your
paging service provider. The password is usually published on their web site.
Enhancements/Fixes
·
In Patch 03, the updated VConvert.exe utility and its
associated ReadMe file were inadvertently omitted. They are included in Patch
03b. Now, the statement "All previous patches are included in this
patch" is correct.
·
In the demo version, the simulated telephone object
buttons for numbers 1, 2, and 3 did not function properly when large fonts are
configured for the operating system.
This was an alignment problem that has been fixed. The same was true of
the sample DDE Server.
·
In the demo version, SCADAlarm did not "beep" to
indicate the time to start recording when creating sound files. Now it does.
·
SCADAlarm no longer changes the Acknowledgement setup when
you view the log file by clicking the view button on the System Parameters
window.
·
When configuring an alarm delay, SCADAlarm would allow you
to enter 99999, but the DBDL utility would limit this value to 9999. The
correct value of 32000 is now enforced everywhere.
·
SCADAlarm did not reset the bad phone line tag until after
it retested it at its routine time. Now, SCADAlarm schedules a test 20 seconds
after the completion of a contact. The
failure is also reset immediately upon a successful interactive login or a
successful alpha page.
·
SCADAlarm did not reconnect to remote servers after a
failed connection had been restored within a certain time window. This has been
fixed.
·
There was a 20-character limit for a message tag value
sent out to an alphanumeric pager. The tag value length limit has been
increased to 224 characters. Note that tag values that cause a pager message to
exceed its maximum configured length limit will cause the resulting pager
message to be truncated, and the truncation will be noted in the log.
·
Previously, an e-mail would not be sent from SCADAlarm if
a modem failed or was not attached. Within SCADAlarm there are several safety
checks to NOT try to select an operator if nothing can be done. Now the check
for an e-mail failure is separate from the hardware failure check.
·
If a delayed alarm had not yet timed out, the
"Also-notify" Group would still be called. This has been fixed. Also,
in this case, if Ack-on-clear had been selected, the ACK will now not be
"poked" back to the server.
·
If an alarm has been configured to be automatically
acknowledged on delivery, and it was delivered successfully on the first try,
the "Also-Notify" group will now be notified.
·
If an administrator logged in and then logged out before
"Acknowledge All" was clicked on the Acknowledgement window, only
administrators would be listed in the Operator selection box for the
acknowledgement. This has been fixed; non-administrators can also acknowledge
alarms.
·
If an operator was at the console, but not logged in, and
had clicked "Acknowledge All" on the Acknowledge window, and
the alarms were acknowledged by another mechanism (auto-ack, telephone, or HMI)
before he or she had finished with the select-an-operator window, SCADAlarm
would log an access violation. Now, only "Global Alarm
Acknowledgment" is logged, without listing any specific alarms, as would
be expected since the acknowledgment source has already been logged.
·
In the operator setup window, if an operator was a member
of a group, a legend appeared that stated she or he was on call, regardless of
the schedule. This now requires group membership, as well as an active means of
contacting her or him.
·
If e-mail is in use, it now defaults to
"enabled" at midnight, unless an explicit entry in the schedule is
found. Previously, it remained in its last state. This change makes it
consistent with the other features that can be scheduled.
·
SCADAlarm now correctly reports Windows NT version 5.1 as
Windows XP on the Tech Support tab of the System Status
window. SCADAlarm now updates the data server information after a server is
deleted.
·
SCADAlarm now gets the full decimal precision for a
numeric value, rather than rounding it off to two places and padding on the
right with zeros. This problem was not noticeable unless you used more than two
decimal places. (Patch 03a)
Important
Note: The sample DDE
Server for the demo is not intended to be used over a network. Therefore, it
has been designed to send only ONE event to a client on a different node.
New
Features
·
The modem list has been updated to include more current
models. For more information, see the Wonderware web site:
http://www.wonderware.com/WonderACT/scadalarm_modem.htm
·
A poke of 0 to reset the Acknowledgment tag is now
optional by server. Some servers operate incorrectly when a 0 is poked to the
.ack field, since the concept of "un-acknowledging" an alarm seems
nonsensical. SCADAlarm does this because some other servers do not reset this
field, so SCADAlarm tries to ensure recognition of the transition to the
Acknowledged state. The check box to do this is located on the Servers
tab of the Alarm/Tag Definition window.
Note: InTouch users should uncheck
this box.
·
A user-configurable timeout (initially, 1000 milliseconds)
has been added for the DDE/SuiteLink test over a network. To configure this
timeout, add the following entry in the [System Parameters] section of the
.ini file. Valid values are 500-3000.
DDE/SuiteLink Network Test Timeout (ms)=1000
·
E-mail now works with a DSL connection and a router. All
of the original security warnings still apply, however; use direct connections
at your own risk. See the SCADAlarm 5 Readme.txt file.
·
Vconvert.exe now supports level adjustment, as well as the
added IS-101 VOX file format. See the included VConvert Readme.txt file for
more details.
Enhancements/Fixes
·
In the Menu Tree Construction screen, the graphics
for # and * were swapped. They are now correct. The keys listed in the Menu and
Key pane, as well as the Configuration Dump, remain correct.
·
When sending a numeric page, SCADAlarm removed the #
character needed by some paging systems as a terminator. This character can now
appear anywhere in a numeric page. Be careful, as this may terminate the page
if "#" is placed within a numeric format. For safety, this character
is always appended to the end of the format.
·
Calls for an alarm are now always sent to the primary
operator before the "Also-call Group" unless that operator is waiting
for a retry.
·
Blind dialing didn't work with bad phone line detection.
The bad phone line test looked for a "No Dialtone" result from the
modem. This will no longer occur with blind dialing. The test now looks for a BUSY indication from the modem.
Therefore, the phone number for the test MUST be correct:
SCADAlarm's own line, to guarantee a BUSY signal,
or a known invalid number that gives the same result. (However, internationally
this may not be the same Call Progress signal.)
·
There was a speech delay in some European modems. The 3Com
Model 5625 Professional Message Modems now have their ring-back timers set to
zero, meaning they will fail to recognize a BUSY signal. A call to a busy line
with one of these will now result in a timeout rather than BUSY, but a
successful call will present the ID and login prompts more quickly, as the
domestic models do. Domestic models, International non-Message Modems, and all
non-3Com modems are NOT affected by this.
Note that bad phone line detection will not work
with these modems, for reasons detailed in the previous item.
·
The Dr. Watson generated by DBDL when importing from
another directory has been fixed.
·
Alphanumeric paging did not work with a 3Com modem and
some paging services. The 3Com modem is
now forced to connect at its port speed, rather than relying on internal
buffering when speeds are mismatched. This may cause 300-baud operation under
Windows 95 to fail.
·
This update addresses the issue where the license was not
found when a user without administrator permissions was logged into Windows NT
or Windows 2000. For the same reason, the path to the data files was not
correctly determined. This has all been fixed.
·
It was possible to generate an access violation by
acknowledging all alarms while the Driver Debug window was open and had
the focus. This has been fixed.
©
2004 Invensys Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.