Restoring Cimplicity HMI

G

Thread Starter

GASCO

my cimplicty project HMI has been damaged, after restoring the windows and reinstall toolbox and the cimplicity i have these problems.

1-with respect to the pseudo drives g pseudo drive is restored successfully, but the partition f which contain the directory of site contents not restored. uninstall toolbox and re install it but useless.

2-the other problem that my project not linked life since i already export the tree file and put into and get from SDB. but still i have a problem all the pints at the displayed screen is black values not written. and these alarms are displayed at the alarm viewer
comm. error or device down 192.168.101.11, g1, g2, g3 and g4 which represents my devices
not the computer name entered manually did will affect the *.hmb file configuration and if yes how would i know the original computer name stored in the file.

would you help me as soon as possible
 
GASCO,

Toolbox and CIMPLICITY are applications which use files which are stored on F: drive. They don't install any files on F: drive when they are installed. Installing Toolbox or CIMPLICITY doesn't create F: drive or populate F: drive. That's done by GE or the packager of the equipment according to GE practices.

It sounds like there is no drive image available--which is what you should be using for a restore because it would have all the configuration information and Toolbox and CIMPLICITY project files in the proper directories with the proper paths and references. You wouldn't need to install MS-Windows, Toolbox or CIMPLICITY and then project files--it would all be done automatically. They are really essential for recovering from problems such as it seems you are experiencing.

If you're trying to copy files from another HMI to this one it's going to take a good deal of familiarity with CIMPLICITY and a long time to accomplish--not something which can be done via a forum like this in a short time.

Please have someone knowledgeable come to site to assist--and to create back-ups and drive images for future use. It will be worth it in the long run--and the short term, too!

Best of luck!
 
Dear GASCO, I wish for your sake that there was a complete document that lists all the steps to build or rebuild a GE workstation, but I have never seen one.

If it was only the cimplicity project that got damaged then I do not understand why you felt the need to reload windows, cimplicity and toolbox, but it sounds like it is too late to try and repair the problem, and we may never know what the real problem was.

As you have found out rebuilding this HMI is not a simple project. I can tell you that "F" drive is created by TCI when it starts, and it is a mirror of the "site" folder. If this pseudo drive is not being created then something is not correct with the placement of the "site" folder or with the operation of TCI.

You say you have done "puts" and "gets" and exported "tree" files, but you do not say of what files you have done these puts and gets, and I really do not understand why you are exporting tree files. All of this has to be done in a very particular order. You need all of your original files, .m6b, .hmb, .dcb etc. All of these have to be opened and put to the database to populate the SDB, assuming you have created the new SDB, if this was the machine with the SDB residing on it.

This is a huge amount of work, and I do not think I could begin to explain all the steps. Maybe CSA will jump in, but this will be a huge task. I would suggest getting someone to site who is knowledgeable in performing this task to assist. And its too late for this machine but I would suggest educating yourself with software like Acronis and creating backup images of your working machines.

Please write back and let us know how you proceed.
 
S
DEAR SIR,

Many thanks for your reply.

firstly i would like to inform you that the real problem was completely damaged for my HMI windows and all associated files and applications so i had an HMI without any operating sys. ok. i saw your correlated reply about previous similar post. the following steps has been done successfully.

1- windows new installation

2- install acronis S.W. and restore drive c with a taken copy from running HMI train b

3- toolbox, cimplicty all required applications has been restore from image correctly

4- UDH, PDH and entire network configured successfully and all shared documents on another HMI have been seen successfully.

5- communicate at equal status with the mark 6 r, s, t through *.m6b

the determined inquiry is
1- if i start tci service from dos cmd window then i have drive f?
2- i re build through *.hmb file after put into and get from commands. if these steps write to do or what and if there is any missing steps would u tell me about it?

noticed that i have 4 HMI when opening *.hmb1 and 2 found WITH the same IP is this right?

waiting your reply
 
Dear Gasco,

If TCI has not started then yes you can start it from cmd prompt. But if you have a "G" pseudo drive then I suspect TCI is already running, and it should be a service that is started automatically.

You should have a .hmb file for each machine, example is GT1_SVR, GT2_SVR, CRM1_SVR, REM1_SVR etc. No machines should have duplicate IP addresses.

.hmb files are simply files that determine how each HMI is to operate. You must open each .hmb file at the correct machine. Perform a validate, get, put, and build. The "build" operation is basically a batch operation that builds or updates a bunch of text files that Cimplicity uses. Once the build is complete then you must stop the TCI service, open the cimplicity workbench project and update its configuration. Once complete then start TCI again, wait for the Cimplicity project to start and run, then try opening a screen.

I will probably get myself in trouble here, but if it was me, and I am familiar with Acronis, then. I would image or copy one of your other servers by removing its hard drive. I do this because doing this with the machine running would try to create the pseudo drives of "F" and "G" which you do not want Acronis to do for you, that is the task of TCI. I would then take this image and restore it to a new hard drive for the machine that failed. I would then change the computer name of the restored machine to what it should be, change the IP addresses to what they should be, and rename the Cimplicity project.

Basically if you had GT1_SVR fail, and the GT2_SVR operated just like GT1(same screens, control etc.). Then I would clone the GT2 machine and restore it to be a new GT1 machine. I have done this in the past at other sites that had no backups and it works just fine.
If you do not understand all the steps I am talking about then do not attempt this type of repair.

Again to answer your questions again.

the determined inquiry is

>"1- if i start tci service from dos cmd window then i havedrive f?"

You should, but if "G" is already there then it seems TCI has already started, check services to verify, and try and start it from cmd prompt, it wont hurt anything if its already running.

> 2- i re build through *.hmb file after put into and get
> from commands. if these steps write to do or what and if
> there is any missing steps would u tell me about it?

I will try to answer, but you have to be PERFECTLY clear as to what you have performed and in what order.

> noticed that i have 4 HMI when opening *.hmb1 and 2 found
> WITH the same IP is this right?

NO
 
S
many thanks for your reply and your interest,

so, would i ask u to congratulate me for my successfully restoration process. yes the project now is working properly. screens has a life readings commands executed correctly, everything is ok. except the alarm viewer of the cimplicty screens still not working, and also the alarm and event reports of the TCI EXPLORER which generates the SOE and trip capture.

also i would like to inform u that my project is working properly. notwithstanding haven't drive F (PSEUDO DRIVE), which represent the path of all .dat files as config.dat, IOPORTS.DAT , etc. i think nobody made something like that before.

You know how?
 
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