PCo and GE Proficy Historian connectivity

[Former Member]

Hello All,

I have upgraded one of my Proficy Historian servers to 4.5 and want to start using PCo and not UDS. I have PCo 2.1.4.2 installed.

When trying to configure the source system, I choose Proficy Historian Agent, but can't connect to my Historian server. Both PCo and Proficy are sitting in the same box, I just get the Cannot Connect message clicking on the "Test Connection" button.

Any help or comment would be appreciated.

Regards,

Guillermo Meza

[Former Member]

Hi All, I am back to this topic as this is something I have not been able to make it work, and my work around which was installing PCo in a Win2003 server is about to not work anymore as all Win2003 servers need to be retired ....

I am not sure but is it possible that it is not working because of Proficy is a 64bit version as well as the Historian SDK ?

Any help/comment would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Guillermo

[former_member196557]

Guillermo,

You can install PCo on Windows 2008R2 server and it will run in 32bit address space in the OS.  However, you will need to install the Historian 32-bit SDK in order for it to work with PCo, regardless of whether it is installed on a 32bit or 64bit Windows OS.

If you continue to have issues I recommend you open a support ticket on this issue.

Regards, Steve

[Former Member]

Steve, thanks. I will be installing Historian SDK 32bits tonight and will let you and all know how it comes.

Guillermo

[Former Member]

More info on this.  Historian is giving me a succesfull connection message for the user but PCo is still giving a "Specified cast is not valid" error.

-Guillermo

[jcgood25]

Guillermo - do you have any updates for the community? 

I recently came to know that another customer was having similar connectivity challenges with Proficy Historian 4.5.

[Former Member]

I am having the same issue.  I have GE Historian version 4.5.149.0 with PCo version 2.200.894.206 on the same Windows 2008 R2 (64-bit) VM.

I created a historian Source System pointing to the same server because they are both on the same machine and when I click 'Test Connection', I get...

I tried both with a blank username and password, a single space ( ) character for each, and a pair of double quotes ("") for each.

Next I created an Agent Instance.

When I try to browse the Subscription Items, I get...

I can start the Agent Instance, but it errors during start.

In the event viewers Application logs I have the following 4 errors...

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Test

Date:          6/28/2012 1:06:47 PM

Event ID:      0

Task Category: None

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      Removed

Description:

Error connecting to Proficy Historian server. : Specified cast is not valid.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Test" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>0</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-28T18:06:47.000000000Z" />

    <EventRecordID>8631</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>Application</Channel>

    <Computer>Removed</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data>Error connecting to Proficy Historian server. : Specified cast is not valid.</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Test

Date:          6/28/2012 1:06:47 PM

Event ID:      0

Task Category: None

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      Removed

Description:

Establish Connection Error : Specified cast is not valid.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Test" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>0</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-28T18:06:47.000000000Z" />

    <EventRecordID>8632</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>Application</Channel>

    <Computer>Removed</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data>Establish Connection Error : Specified cast is not valid.</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Test

Date:          6/28/2012 1:06:47 PM

Event ID:      0

Task Category: None

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      Removed

Description:

Manufacturing Fault: REASON = Specified cast is not valid.

; SEVERITY = Fatal

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Test" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>0</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-28T18:06:47.000000000Z" />

    <EventRecordID>8633</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>Application</Channel>

    <Computer>Removed</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data>Manufacturing Fault: REASON = Specified cast is not valid.

; SEVERITY = Fatal</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Test
Date:          6/28/2012 1:06:47 PM
Event ID:      0
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Removed
Description:
failed to create ConnectivityAgentProxy : Specified cast is not valid.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Test" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-28T18:06:47.000000000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>8634</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>Removed</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>failed to create ConnectivityAgentProxy : Specified cast is not valid.
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

And the following infomrational message...

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Test

Date:          6/28/2012 1:33:56 PM

Event ID:      0

Task Category: None

Level:         Information

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      Removed

Description:

Service started successfully.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Test" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>

    <Level>4</Level>

    <Task>0</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-28T18:33:56.000000000Z" />

    <EventRecordID>8643</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>Application</Channel>

    <Computer>Removed</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data>Service started successfully.</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Also, I created all of the above steps but pointing at an existing Historian 3.1 instance on a different server with the exact same problems.

[Former Member]

Jeremy & Jeremy,

This is what I end up doing as a workaround for this issue.

I installed PCo in a Win2003 server and from there connect to my Historian 4.5 which is on a Win2008 machine. No issues at all in connecting to MII and/or Historian 4.5.

There are a few variables that I need to consider in order to know the real issue, and I think most of them are related to security or having the propper access as a full administrator to the Win2008 server machine where i was originally installing the PCo software.

First, and since the server is located in a remote facility, I was installing the PCo from an RDP session. Second, I am not sure my account has the propper rights for that box. I will have a local admin do the software installation sometime next week using the actual console and see if that makes the difference.

I will let you know and hope what I wrote above helps you at least as a temporary workaround.

-Guillermo

[Former Member]

I appreciate your efforts for a workaround, but it is not a long term option to setup a seperate 2003 VM just to host PCo.  Any progress on the 2008R2 solution?