What's new in the deviceWISE 12.3 release

Supported platforms

deviceWISE M2M Enterprise Gateway products 

  • Windows (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008R2)
  • Linux
  • ERPC 

deviceWISE M2M Asset Gateway products

  • Multitech MultiConnect™ OCG-D MTCDP-H4-DK
  • CalAmp LMU-5000
  • Windows
  • Linux

MySQL database updates

Information about enabling MySQL support on VxWorks can be found here. Customers using MySQL on Windows or Linux will need to perform a few additional steps.

When configuring MySQL support the first time on deviceWISE Enterprise Gateway for Windows or Linux, you must stop and then restart deviceWISE in order for the MySQL support to take affect as follows:

  • Restart the operating system that is running deviceWISE Enterprise Gateway. 
    or
  • Restart deviceWISE
    • On Linux (as root):
      From the command line, type /opt/dw/devicewise restart (and press Enter).
    • On Windows:
      From a Windows command prompt, type net stop dwrun (and press Enter), and then type, net start dwrun (and press Enter).

Driver enhancements

  • Modbus driver (version 2.5)
    • Perform data conversion routines on variables that the user specifies in a vendor XML file
    • Support for RTS485 serial connections
  • Siemens S7 native driver (version 2.3)
    • supports asynchronous communication with Siemens devices

New features

  • Integration support between the Management Portal and Salesforce case management.
  • Ability to create and view technical and sales contacts using the M2M Management Portal.
  • The trigger Queue Size parameter that provides an option to queue trigger execution that exceeds the maximum pending limit as an alternative to overflowing them.
  • Ability to supply the local time zone when sending a time stamp for geographically diverse clients in different time zones.This feature is only available for applications using the Oracle database. Oracle has a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE data type that allows you to store the time stamp along with the time zone.
  • Support for FTP active mode in both the deviceWISE FTP server and client.
    • Previously the FTP server and client built into deviceWISE only supported passive (PASV) mode for file transfers.
      This was enhanced to allow for active mode (PORT) transfers so that a wider range of clients and servers can be used.
      If you want to learn more about the FTP protocol, read: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc959.txt.

Known issues for the deviceWISE 12.3 release

Drivers

Modbus

MAP-3493:  Modbus serial connection writes of arrays of Booleans fails

Description:  For Modbus serial connections only, the ability to write an array of bit values to the Coils data area of a Modbus device is not currently supported.

Workaround: Write each Coil element individually.

This limitation on writing multiple elements with one write request is limited to Coils and only for Modbus devices that are connected to the a deviceWISE node, via an RS-232 or RS-485 connection.

Siemens S7 listener

MAP-3140:  Siemens S7 listener gets stuck in stopping state on Enterprise Gateway for Siemens ERPC

Description:  After the Siemens S7 listener receives data and a corresponding trigger is executed, stopping the Siemens S7 listener results in the listener becoming stuck in the Stopping state. This happens during operations when the Siemens S7 listener is using the normal TCP mode (not ISO-n-TCP). After a trigger executes the receipt of an unsolicited message, the S7 listener cannot be stopped.

A firmware upgrade from Siemens is anticipated in order to resolve this behavior.

MAP-3470:  Siemens S7 native driver loses variable registers when more than two devices are started simultaneously

Description:  When three or more deviceWISE devices that access the same Siemens PLC are started simultaneously, the Data Block (DB) registers might enumerate correctly or they might not enumerate at all.

To correct this problem, simply restart the deviceWISE device that exhibits the enumeration problem. To prevent this problem from occurring, stagger the start of the devices so they do not all start concurrently.

Workaround:  A delay between 50 and 100 milliseconds between the start of each device should be adequate to ensure the Data Block registers enumerate correctly for all devices.

Gateway Enterprise for Windows

MAP-3455:  Enterprise Gateway for Windows Restart feature from Node Administration tab does not work as designed

Description:  When using the Workbench in conjunction with an Enterprise Gateway for Windows node, the Restart feature available from Administration > Node Administration tab may not cleanly stop and then restart the node.  When there are many active transports and listeners, deviceWISE does not restart properly.

Workaround: From a Windows command prompt, type net stop dwrun (and press Enter), and then type, net start dwrun (and press Enter).

FTP action

MAP-3634:  FTP action with Transfer Mode set to Active fails on Enterprise Gateway for Siemens ERPC

Description:  When using a trigger FTP action, the Put and Get operations do not work when Transfer Mode set to Active on ERPC.  

Workaround:  Set the Transfer Mode parameter to Passive instead of Active until the problem is fixed in a future release.

Modem

MAP-3167:  Simultaneous Cellular connect/disconnect and Modem power on/off can cause reboot of Asset Gateway

Description:  We found a scenario where the Asset Gateway will reboot when simultaneous control actions are executed. When the Modem Power On of Off action and the cellular connect or disconnect action (or Workbench operation) is executed repeatedly and simultaneously, a crash can occur resulting in a reboot.

During normal operation, where the power on or off action rarely occurs, we have not seen this problem.

TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE

MAP-3507:  Select with Update fails to update the TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE column values

Description:  There are two limitations:

  1. Stored procedures with INOUT parameter of type TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE are not supported.  
  2. Select with Update of a TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE parameter will get an SQL exception and is not supported.  The Select with Update fails to update the TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE column values. The select completes successfully, but the update fails on only the TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE type. All other column values are updated successfully.
MAP-3641:  Transport map with Select and Distinct rows cannot have the TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE data type specified in the Order By clause

Description:  When defining a transport map to select rows from a table that contains a TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE column, if you select the Distinct rows only check box and then specify the TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE column to be used in theOrder Bysection, the execution of the transport map will fail.

Transaction server

MAP-685:  deviceWISE messaging transports do not recover properly from Store and Forward (FIFO and non-FIFO)

Description:  When using the WMQ transport and the transport reports the error MQJMS007, it might cause the transport to switch in and out of Store and Forward, even though the transactions are successfully delivered to the WMQ queue.
Check the WMQ queue manager.  If the listener shows the state other thanStarted, then it is likely that you have encountered this issue.  Set the listener toStartedto restore proper functionality.

MAP-2972:  Node sometimes faults with transaction server not being able to connect after package remove

Description:  After an install or removal of a deviceWISE driver package, the node might have a fault where the transaction server cannot connect.

Workaround:  You will need to restart deviceWISE

  • On Linux (as root):
    • From the command line, type /opt/dw/devicewise restart (and press Enter).
  • On Windows:
    • From a Windows command prompt, type net stop dwrun (and press Enter), 
    • and then type, net start dwrun (and press Enter).
  • On VxWorks
    • From the Workbench left pane, click Administration.
    • The Administration window appears with a set of tabs.
    • Click the Node Administration tab.
    • From the the bottom of the tab, click Restart.
    • A Restart window appears.
    • Click Restart deviceWISE.
    •  You will not be able to use the deviceWISE node while processes are being stopped.

Transaction server XSD support

MAP-3141:  XSD: Xpath expression should not be saved in XML if Specify Map and Sequence Keys in header check box is selected

Description:  This issue only affects JMS listeners with the XSD payload.  When there is both an XPath expression and a JMS header property specified on the JMS listener XSD Payload panel, and the header property is missing from the incoming JMS message, the XPath expression is used to determine the listener map id, instead of the default listener map id.

MAP-3694:  XSD: When an attribute is missing in the incoming XML and is optional in the XSD an error is thrown by the listener

Description:  Optional attributes in the XSD are not handled correctly by the listener map if they are not present in the XML. The XML will be rejected as invalid unless the attribute has either a default or fixed value, or is not mapped to a logical variable.

MAP-3695:  XSD: Default or fixed value provided in the XSD will be erroneously used

Description:  If the XSD used to create a listener map contains a required attribute with a default or fixed value, it is considered valid. At runtime, instead of the XML being rejected as invalid, the default or fixed value provided in the XSD will be erroneously used.

Fixed defects in deviceWISE 12.3 release

The following defects were highlighted as known issues in previous releases, and were fixed in this release.

MAP-2868:  Enterprise Windows Restart feature from Node Administration tab not working 

Description:  When using the Workbench in conjunction with an Enterprise Gateway for Windows node, the Restart feature available from Administration > Node Administration tab does not cleanly stop and then restart the node.

Upgrading from previous versions

  • Backup before upgrading!
    You should remember to backup your configuration from the Workbench prior to upgrading to a new version of deviceWISE.
    For more information about upgrading your software, seeUpgrading the deviceWISE node.
  • ModBus driver 
    Corrected an addressing problem whereby all addresses were started at zero instead of one which was in violation of the Modbus standard. This functionality was adjusted. As a result, if you upgrade your deviceWISE node, you will see no changes, but if you edit an old Modbus device definition and re-save it, the addresses will start at one instead of zero.
    For more information about this fix and available workarounds, see Modbus driver.