TN - 1031 Tips for Installing AVEVA System Platform

While you may be tempted to jump right in and install the software on a personal or work machine, you will most likely encounter installation issues due to 3rd party software conflicts and artifacts left by previously installed programs. If you are fortunate enough to get the product installed, OS updates and permissions are typically handled by your organization. These are often regularly updated, this will almost certainly 'break' a working system. It is strongly suggested to set up a virtual machine as there are a number of benefits. 

• Allows you to manage the OS and regulate which updates get installed
• Take snapshots of the system to easily revert unwanted changes
• Quickly create a new system from a Base OS image and install various versions of a product
• Export a machine image for shared development or archival purposes

A free solution called Virtual Box can be used to create a Virtual Machine in just a few minutes so you can test the waters. (If you ever have a need to move a vm created on VIrtual Box to another platform like Hyper-V you can use a utility like StarWind V2V Image creator to make the conversion). Many guides exist covering setting up a VM, such as the one at the following link. If you don't have an OS you can obtain a 90 day trial to Windows 10 LTSC. The following article discusses how to obtain an evaluation version along with some benefits with the LTSC version of Windows 10. Before installing make sure to finish reading this guide and remember to UNBLOCK your downloads as covered in this InSource article. Failing to do this as soon as the download completes will prevent the downloaded software from operating correctly. For more information see the 'System Platform Virtual Implementation Guide' in the product documentation. 

Once the VM has been created, it is highly recommended to disable Automatic Updates until the product is installed and stabilized. Once the product is licensed and configured you can then install updates according to the list of supported updates as outlined in Security Central on the AVEVA site. If Automatic Updates are left on, they should not be set to
automatically install after download. This prevents updates from being applied without your knowledge and will limit issues when troubleshooting.

To quickly obtain a list of the installed updates on you system

From a command prompt run the following command  :

wmic qfe list brief /format:htable > "%USERPROFILE%\hotfix.html"   

This will generate an html table with the installed windows updates at the following path:  

C:\Users\username\hotfix.html

From there you can do a ctrl + f to validate the currently installed updates against an Export from Security Central. If an update is not on the list it means it has not been tested and may cause problems with AVEVA software products.

 The following folders should be excluded by the antivirus software:

32-bit Operating System

• C:\Program Files\ArchestrA\*.*
• C:\Program Files\Common files\ArchestrA\*.*
• C:\Program Files\FactorySuite\*.* (may not exist in newer installations)
• C:\Program Files\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\InSQL\Data\*.*
• C:\Historian\Data\*.*
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ArchestrA\*.*

64-bit Operating System

• C:\Program Files (x86)\ArchestrA\*.*
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Common files\ArchestrA\*.*
• C:\Program Files (x86)\FactorySuite\*.* (may not exist in newer installations)
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\InSQL\Data\*.*
• C:\Historian\Data\*.*
• C:\ProgramData\Archestra \*.*

Other File Directory Exclusions

• C:\Users\*\Appdata\Roaming\ArchestrA\ManagedApp
• C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\inetpub\wwwroot\aaflexLicWebService\*.*
• C:\inetpub\wwwroot\AFWeb\*.*
• C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\Users\All Users\ArchestrA\*.*
• C:\Users\All Users\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\Users\Public\Wonderware\*.*
• C:\Program Files\Wonderware\SuiteVoyager\*.*

Process Exclusion

• view.exe
• wm.exe

Note: If you choose different drives/folders for the program files and data files, be sure that you configure the Antivirus software accordingly. For additional information see the following tech note on the AVEVA site:

TN470 : Wonderware System Platform FAQs for IT Professionals

Starting with System Platform 2012 the installation media includes SQL Server Express.The installer will automatically install
SQL Server Express if required. Should you plan on installing SQL server standard or enterprise this will need to be installed before installing AVEVA products. During the installation process for SQL Server there are many decisions you will have to make. Making an incorrect decision can require reformatting the operating system. To avoid this its best to follow the step-by-step instructions in the tech note(s) titled 'Installing Microsoft SQL Server 'X' for Wonderware Products' (where 'X' is  your version of SQL) on the AVEVA site. For example if installing SQL 2016 see the following tech note:  

TN1024: Installing Microsoft SQL Server 2016 for Wonderware Products

Check the Technology Matrix to validate version compatability, Microsoft Office is an optional prerequisite. If you install Office after installing Historian Client, then the Historian Client add-ins do not appear in the list of available add-ins in Office. Run the Historian Client installation program and repair the installation to get the add-ins loaded. 

Note for Microsoft Office support:
The Excel Workbook and Word Report add-in's only support the 32 bit version of MS Office.  

The 64 bit version is not supported.

This applies to all versions of MS Office (2010 and >,  including Office 365 when installed locally)

You may see a note listed in the Technology Matrix for 2017 discussing the x64 Add-in. This is in reference to the brand-new "InSight Add-in"” (aka “Wonderware Historian On-Premises Connector”)  for use with Excel. This is NOT a direct replacement of the classic "HistClient Workbook".

In your environment you may have shared resources such as mapped drives that you would want available from your installation(s). Setting this configuration now will persist when cloning images for future use and eliminate the need for this step when setting up new systems.

If you've followed the suggestions outlined in this article you have a virtual machine prepped and ready to install various AVEVA product versions compatible with the chosen OS. At this point you can take a snap shot and clone this VM so you can quickly install Wonderare components. When working with a cloned VM BEFORE installing Wonderware components remember to;

1. Update the hostname 

2. Update SQL server  name 

To update the SQL sever name execute the following query (filling in the bold items):

use master;
SELECT @@SERVERNAME
sp_dropserver 'CurrentHostName';
GO
sp_addserver 'DesiredHostName','local';
GO 

Once executed stop and start the SQL SErver (MSSQL SERVER) service to update the change and validate the new server name in SQL using the following query.

use master;
SELECT @@SERVERNAME

*** Do not CLONE a vm with 2017 licenses installed. Doing so will trigger a grace period.

Final check, make sure if downloading a new installer direct to the VM to validate it's unblocked. Once validated run the installation "Run as administrator" (By default, apps on Windows 10 run without administrator permissions, to prevent unauthorized changes to your system). Once the installation completes the configurator will automatically launch. While you have the option to configure every feature available, a solid approach is to simply start by configuring licensing components. Exit the configurator (you can always configure additional features later). Validate license activation is successful and the product launches using the appropriate license. This approach will aid in targeting the root of any licensing related issues. Once the system is licensed and stable, take a snapshot and proceeded with configuring any additional components.

*** If installing any version of 2017 not using license manager 3.5.1 it is strongly recommended to upgrade before activating a license. You can download the 3.5.1 standalone installer from the following link.

The stability of the system is often dictated by the quality of the installation / configuration. It is important to note that this document is not to be taken as complete and comprehensive coverage when installing AVEVA software products. This document is a collection of pragmatic tips based on cases with clients in the field installing AVEVA products. For comprehensive coverage of installation refer to the official AVEVA installation guides. The various product install guides can be found on the root of the Installation Media for each component at the following path:

\InstallFiles\CD-<InsertProductNameHere>\UserDocs\English