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Reminder to all Ovation Users - Ovation Users' Group website

Greg Schirm — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:15:47 GMT

The Ovation Users' Group website (https://www.ovationusers.com/) is the recommended site for obtaining useful support information including all of the Ovation user manuals, a forum dedicated exclusively to Ovation, and various other resources. Any individual employed by an organization which owns and/or operates an Emerson Ovation system is eligible to be a member of the site.

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process historian in ovation

Dean Schneider — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 14:21:29 GMT

A few days ago the historian started to show errors in the error log and the historian diagnostic tool shows that the partner, drop201, has "no response" and the main drop has the historian connection down message displayed. The error log is showing that is is a RAIMA problem. Killed orphan user is the description. There are 4 error messages. They repeat every 30 minutes.

I am not sure why this has happened. 1 point was added to the historian. The point works. All the other points are trendable and do not seem to have any problems.

Any suggestions or ideas about what has happened and how to fix it?

Thanks,

Dean.

RE: process historian in ovation

Andre Dicaire — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:52:50 GMT

I have no exposure to the Ovation system so I'm afraid I cannot help you with this issue. If you have not done so, a GSC call is recommended.

RE: process historian in ovation

Dean Schneider — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 19:55:21 GMT

This is not delta-v it is an Ovation system. The error log is the ovation error log from the historian drop, drop 160. I attempted to send you a snipit from the error file on drop 160, the historian drop. It did not seem to like the snipit.

RE: process historian in ovation

Dean Schneider — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 19:51:33 GMT

This is not a delta-v system. It is ovation. It is called the Ovation Process Historian. The error log I am referring to is the Ovation error log on the historian drop, drop160. To follow are some lines taken from the error log.

<Err dts="02/10/25 11:42:22" dtl="1739212942" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00001F9800794B, PID [8088], TID [476], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 124 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 11:42:32" dtl="1739212952" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r0000261C005309, PID [9756], TID [7428], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 126 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 11:42:42" dtl="1739212962" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00002A8C006D22, PID [10892], TID [7376], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 125 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 11:42:42" dtl="1739212962" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00000DA000763A, PID [3488], TID [11164], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 130 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:12:22" dtl="1739214742" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r000000CC007E12, PID [204], TID [872], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 124 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:12:32" dtl="1739214752" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r000023C0008A3E, PID [9152], TID [9024], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 126 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:12:42" dtl="1739214762" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00000EA8005941, PID [3752], TID [1112], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 125 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:12:42" dtl="1739214762" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00002B1000741B, PID [11024], TID [2264], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 130 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:42:22" dtl="1739216542" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r000000E400813B, PID [228], TID [936], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 124 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:42:32" dtl="1739216552" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r000027C4007C4B, PID [10180], TID [3188], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 126 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:42:42" dtl="1739216562" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r000027F4006E64, PID [10228], TID [9932], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 125 9 0</Err>
<Err dts="02/10/25 12:42:42" dtl="1739216562" source="drop160" priority="3" identifier="RAIMA">Killed Orphan User: r00002A38005C2F, PID [10808], TID [7712], Cmd: D:\OvHist\bin\OvhFaultAlert.exe FAULT 179 130 9 0</Err>

Does this help you?

Dean.

RE: process historian in ovation

Andre Dicaire — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 18:30:01 GMT

What Historian are you using? DVCH, Advanced Historian, PI Enterprise? The default DVCH historian does not support redundancy, so the referenced to the "partner, Drop201" doesn't make sense to me. DeltaV also does not support redundancy on the Advanced Historian either, which is based on PI. Redundant Historians are supported with an Enterprise Historian, but I believe this is an AVEVA PI feature.

Which Error Log are you referring to? Is this a Windows/Application log or other? Maybe provide a more detailed example of the log content. "RAIMA problem" is not something I've come across on the DeltaV Historians.

If this is relating to DVCH or Advanced Historian, which are both installed from DeltaV media on an App Station, you should log a call with GSC.

RE: How to automatically assign Areas to Alarm and Events?del

Valentin Borsu — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 06:53:59 GMT

Thanks Andre. I will look into this. I appreciate your help.

How to automatically assign Areas to Alarm and Events?del

Valentin Borsu — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 08:48:25 GMT

Hello Folks,

Is there a way to assign new Areas to Stations/Alarm and Events in a faster way than manually on each and every one of them? Is there a script/utility out there that could improve this manual process? I would really appreaciate your help.

Thank you,

Valentin

RE: How to automatically assign Areas to Alarm and Events?del

Andre Dicaire — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:21:08 GMT

Not finding anything like this. Bulk Edit does not appear to support the workstation components. That would have been nice. It may be possible to create a format file but all I'm seeing is the Alarm and Event container is not supported for bulk edit.

Once long ago, before bulk edit supported history, I was able to manually create a bulk edit format FHX to configure the History parameters on a module. Hmm. So, I tried this for the Alarm areas, and it works. Totally not supported. Basically, I looked at the format of a Bulk Edit Import FHX that is created in the Bulk edit folder. I exported a supported node type (CIOC) with CIOC.FMT and then imported it. The import creates the LastImport FHX, which shows the syntax of the import, where the main item is flagged with merge=T. I compared this to a full export of the CIOC, and then used a Full export of the Workstation to create a matching syntax. Saved this as an FHX and then imported it as a Standard FHX (not user defined).

The Plant area assignments are defined in the OPERATOR_SUBSYSTEM phrase. The entire FHX looks like this:
SCHEMA
{
MAJOR_VERSION=14
MINOR_VERSION=3
MAINTENANCE_VERSION=1
BUILD_VERSION=7332
BUILD_ID="xr"
VERSION_STR="14.3.1.7332.xr"
}

OPERATOR_NODE NAME="WKSNAME"merge=T
{
DESCRIPTION="Large Screen Station "
OPERATOR_SUBSYSTEM
{
ENABLED=T
GLOBAL_ALARM_ACK_GROUP=1
RESTRICT_WRITES_TO_AREAS=F
AREA { NAME="AREA_A" }
AREA { NAME="HARDWARE" }
AREA { NAME="BATCH" }
AREA { NAME="DEVICES" }
}
}

I'm thinking one would be able to map this out into a FMT file. I couldn't find how to create that FMT from the bulk edit tools, which would really be the way to go.

Note that this file cannot create a workstation nor can it delete any defined areas in your configuratoin. It can only add AREAs to the named workstation.

Note II: the Area must exist in the database for this import to add it to the workstation's Alarm and Event container.

I copied the Schema header from a valid Bulk Edit LastImport.fhx to get the right syntax version information of my system, which is v14.3.1.

So where can we go from here? Well, an Excel spreadsheet could be created, and a script written to create this FHX file, with multiple rows that define the desired Plant Areas for each workstation. List your plat areas across the top and the Stations down the left and fill in the matrix of what areas go to what stations. Then, run the script and build the above phrase for each station. result would look like:

SCHEMA
{
MAJOR_VERSION=14
MINOR_VERSION=3
MAINTENANCE_VERSION=1
BUILD_VERSION=7332
BUILD_ID="xr"
VERSION_STR="14.3.1.7332.xr"
}
OPERATOR_NODE NAME="WKSNAME1"merge=T
{
OPERATOR_SUBSYSTEM
{
AREA { NAME="AREA_A" }
AREA { NAME="HARDWARE" }
AREA { NAME="NEWAREA" }
AREA { NAME="DEVICES" }
}
}
OPERATOR_NODE NAME="WKSNAME2"merge=T
{
OPERATOR_SUBSYSTEM
{
AREA { NAME="AREA_A" }
AREA { NAME="HARDWARE" }
AREA { NAME="BATCH" }
AREA { NAME="NEWAREA" }
AREA { NAME="DEVICES" }
}
}
OPERATOR_NODE NAME="WKSNAME3"merge=T
{
OPERATOR_SUBSYSTEM
{
AREA { NAME="AREA_A" }
AREA { NAME="HARDWARE" }
AREA { NAME="BATCH" }
AREA { NAME="DEVICES" }
}
}

This would leave you with an Excel sheet to manage the assigned areas of all defined workstations. That gives you visibility of the system as a whole and an easy way to assign a new Plant area to as many workstations as you need.

added enhancements:
- Add a column to select which workstations to update so the created FHX only contains those nodes.
- add a function to parse an FHX file and populate the spreadsheet, both the row of existing Plant Area Names and the workstations where they are currently defined.
- add a function that parses an FHX file and identifies any discrepancies between the database and this file. This would show if areas are assigned that you don't want and areas you want that are not yet assigned.

Bulk Edit might not work for this as each station can have a varying number of areas. The format file requires a fixed number of columns and isn't intended to handle a different number of items per row. It would work to add one Area to multiple workstations. I don't know if that would be all that useful. Maybe someone has a FMT file already they could share. There can be up to 250 plant areas. If you made the format for 250 columns, would it handle blank cells? I don't know.

If your handy with Excel VBA scripts, this would not be hard to accomplish. If I have time, I think I'll try to create these scripts and see how use full it is. A similar sheet would be useful to manage User Span of control, but I have no idea (yet) how that would look like...

Sounds like a pretty decent UDEP request, no?

RE: Block for greater than or equal to

Kenneth Yashim — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:15:49 GMT

Ovationm 3.8 has HIGHLOWMON function with High setpoint & Low Setpoint

Block for greater than or equal to

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:36:19 GMT

I would like to know the name of block which shall act as a function of Greater than or equal to (>=). For example, Set point is 50. if IN1 = 50 then output = 1. if IN1 = 51 then output = 1. Software is Ovation 3.3

Ovation Network Protocols/Ports

Dominick Tardogno — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 16:05:16 GMT

Greetings!

I am a researcher working to develop a Wireshark dissector chain to perform security analysis in an Ovation network.

I need information regarding proprietary packet formats, fields therein, default ports, and generally any technical details regarding network traffic in this environment.

Thanks for any help!

RE: Ovation Network Protocols/Ports

Dominick Tardogno — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 13:04:57 GMT

Andre, thanks for the response.
I think my question is misunderstood - my wording was poor.

I understand that 'proprietary' information should not be published here.

My intent was to ask what knowledge or details are publicly available regarding Emerson Ovation 'custom' protocols in an Ovation system.

RE: Ovation Network Protocols/Ports

Andre Dicaire — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 17:00:55 GMT

Hey Dominick, my first impression is "who would ask for proprietary packet formats" about a DCS on a public forum? My one and only reaction is this must be a hacker.

If this is legit, I'd say you need to be more discreet about what you ask for, and make contact directly with Emerson. This forum is by no means secure. No one should be posting Emerson proprietary data here.

RE: Ovation DCS

Yzn_Lafi — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:55:42 GMT

In this case I believe you can try to get the time using SNMP on DBS, you need the MIB file of the NTP server then mirror the time data using SNMP and copy the time to multiple packed points then compare it by building a simple logic sheet and generate the alarm on the difference, I have never did it but on paper is shall work !

Ovation DCS

Priyanka Srivastava — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:53:28 GMT

Hello Everyone,
Is there any provision in Ovation DCS thru which any notification or altert can be configured if system is not in sync with NTP server timing.

RE: Ovation DCS

Priyanka Srivastava — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:33:39 GMT

This window command I am using to monitor the difference between local time and NTP time.
Pls let me know if there is any way to get notification thru altert/alarm whenever DCS system ( database server) gets out of sync from NTP server timing...

RE: ovation 3.6 connection for database fail.

Yzn_Lafi — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:27:46 GMT

Try rest the Ovation system registration agent service, it shall work.

ovation 3.6 connection for database fail.

ivan lishuk — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 05:33:37 GMT

hello

I have installed Ovation 3.6.0

Here is the issue we faced now.

my system is still operating normally but we can not access Developer Studio.

It alert that " Connecting to database failed" Code: 0x80004005

all services running good.

Please help us troubleshoot this issue!

Thank You very much!

RE: Ovation DCS

Yzn_Lafi — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:24:55 GMT

This will show the time difference between NTP and DBS

RE: Ovation DCS

Yzn_Lafi — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 17:24:01 GMT

On DBS open the command prompt and type:
W32tm /stripchart /computer:NTP Ip address

For example, if the NTP server IP address is 192.168.3.100, then :
W32tm /stripchart /computer:192.168.3.100

Engineering Workstation communication issue with OPC and Operator Workstation DROPs We have following DROPs for our UNIT-2 on OVATION DCS 3.6

ivan lishuk — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 05:29:40 GMT

Engineering Workstation communication issue with OPC and Operator Workstation DROPs

We have following DROPs for our UNIT-2 on OVATION DCS 3.5.X

DROP 200 - EWS
DROP 160 - Historian
DROP 180 - OPC
DROP 210 - Operator workstation
DROP 211 - Operator workstation
DROP 212 - Operator workstation

Any graphics or logic changes that are implemented on the DROP 200 - EWS are unable to replicate on DROP 180, 210, 211 & 212. Recently we changed a graphics (spelling mistake) on our DROP 200 - EWS and when we tried to download it on the rest of the DROPS, only changes were made successful on DROP - 160 however on the rest of the DROPs it failed with an alert message popping up as "UNABLE TO COMPLETE THE REQUESTED OPERATION. CODE: 0x80004005. SOURCE: OVATION DEVELOPER STUDIO"

Kindly advise on the reason that why changes are not been able to download on the DROP 180, 210, 211 and 212?
Please advise on the way forward to rectify this problem?

Ovation Users’ Group Conference

Greg Schirm — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 18:29:52 GMT

Ovation users can join/visit the Users’ Group website to learn more.

Identifying Ovation Control System Version from Master Database

James Connor — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 13:53:20 GMT

Hi,

I have a need to identify the Ovation control system version from the tables collected from the system master database.

I see values in the table SCHEMA_REVISION that seem useful, such as MAJOR = 39 & MINOR = 1. Could this be mapped to the control system version somehow?

Or maybe the control system version is located somewhere else in the database?

As an alternative, perhaps there is a simple way to collect a file or setting from an Ovation drop that would have control system version information? I'm looking for something relatively simple and dependable that can be done on a periodic basis.

Any help would be much appreciated.

How acquire information on AutoCAD and SVG support and use in different system versions of Ovation

James Connor — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:37:44 GMT

Hello.

In my work experience of configuring, modeling and data mining Emerson Ovation systems (Windows and Solaris), I have come across a need to acquire specific information on exactly which Ovation system versions support and use the available CAD file formats for logic (which I believe is AutoCAD or SVG formats). If the exact version of AutoCAD or SVG format is known for each Ovation system version that would be even better.

I have searched for this information, but I now turn to the knowledgeable users of this forum.

Any assistance in finding information on which CAD formats go with which Ovation system versions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Patrick