Siemens SIMATIC WinCC flexible

The octoplant system supports the management of SIMATIC WinCC flexible projects and enables the automatic creation of backups as well as HMI cyclical monitoring.

Device Support Level

Image: Integration Siemens SIMATIC WinCC flexible

Key features and functions

Workflow

System compatibility

From version	WinCC flexible
From version	2005	2006	2007	2008 SP3	2008 SP5
octoplant 101	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Other requirements

The WinCC flexible comparator needs a valid database to be installed to carry out the comparison. The general database driver is the MS SQL server.

SQL instances for WinCC flexible versions on the devices that carry out the comparison

WinCC flexible version	MS Data Engine 97	MS Data Engine 2000	MS Data Engine XP	MS Access 97	MS Access 2000	MS SQL Server 7.0	MS SQL Server 2000	MS SQL 2005	MS SQL 2014
2004	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
2005	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
2007	✓	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓
2008		✓	✓					✓
2008 SP5									✓

Limitations

It is possible to execute an upload of HMI recipe data if the data is available through a network share. However, in certain circumstances, depending on your network environment and on the devices in use, it may not be possible to carry out an upload (for example, in the case of limited access rights).

Why does the comparison of my WinCC flexible projects fail, even though an instance of SQL Server is installed?

Explanation

If the name of the instance of SQL Server installed on the affected client computer is different from the octoplant standard name (WINCC or WINCCFLEXEXPRESS), then octoplant cannot access the service.

octoplant expects one of these names because in the majority of cases they are the names given to SQL Server instances included with installations of WinCC or WinCC flexible

Solution

If the actual name of the SQL Server instance is not the standard name, then the actual name has to be provided to octoplant.

In the following example, the name of the instance is MSSQLEXPRESS:

1. Go to the directory <vdClientArchive>\VD$A\Configuration\Compare

2. Open the file AgentStation.ini or create it with a text editor if it does not already exist

3. Add the following contents, depending on whether you want to compare WinCC or WinCC flexible (MSSQLEXPRESS is the name of the SQL instance that we are using in the example):

```
[WinCC]
```

     7030=MSSQLEEXPRESS

```
[WinCCFlexible]
```

     7050=MSSQLEXPRESS

Note

If the above entry is one of the octoplant standard names of WINCC or WINCCFLEXEXPRESS, then octoplant will expect that editor to be installed in addition to the instance of SQL Server.

If it is not installed, the comparison will fail.

This means that if no WinCC editor is installed, then you cannot use WINCC or WINCCFLEXEXPRESS as the name of the SQL instance.

If you need an installation guide of the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, contact us

To FAQ list

Related topics:
Upload and compare Agents

In this tutorial

Last updated: 5. June 2023