About This Section
In this section, you will learn about these topics:
FactoryTalk Diagnostics
Diagnostics List
Diagnostics Viewer
Diagnostics Setup
o Configuring the FactoryTalk View Diagnostics List o Configuring the Local Log
o ODBC Database as a message source
Read About FactoryTalk Diagnostics
The idea behind FactoryTalk Diagnostics is to answer the question, "Why did that happen?" FactoryTalk Diagnostics collects and provides access to a global store of time-and-date stamped messages that can help answer that question.
The FactoryTalk Diagnostics service includes a Diagnostics Setup editor, a Diagnostics Viewer, and a Local Log on each computer where the FactoryTalk Services Platform is installed. Other custom logging destinations are also available. For example, the FactoryTalk AssetCentre software product provides customized FactoryTalk Audit Logs.
Use the Diagnostics Setup editor to set up options for logging destinations and to filter the types of messages you want to log on the local computer.
Use the Diagnostics Viewer to review diagnostics messages. You can view both local messages and messages retrieved and merged from logs on multiple computers.
FactoryTalk View SE, FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, and other FactoryTalk software products are all sending messages to one Local Log and to one FactoryTalk Audit Log on one computer. When you set options for a particular logging destination, the options you choose affect the log on this computer that any number of FactoryTalk products may be using. Likewise, when you configure message routing options, the filtering options you choose affect the types of messages routed from all FactoryTalk products that send messages.
Each FactoryTalk product and service categorizes the messages that it generates using a matrix of Severity options (Error, Warning, Information, and Audit) together with Audience options (Operator, Engineer, Developer, and Secure). For example, a product might generate a series of security messages classified as Operator-Audit and Operator-Information, and also generate a series of communication messages classified as Operator-Warning, Engineer-Warning, and Developer-Error.
Diagnostics information can be displayed in the Diagnostics List or in the FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer.
The Diagnostics List is intended to show messages as they occur. Messages displayed in the Diagnostics List are not time stamped. The Diagnostics Viewer provides a way to retrieve messages after they
occurred. New messages do not appear in the Diagnostics Viewer. A refresh can be done to reload the messages. Messages that appear in the Diagnostic Viewer are time stamped so you know when they occurred.
Diagnostics List
The Diagnostics List can be displayed in a FactoryTalk View Studio window, FactoryTalk View SE Client, and FactoryTalk View Administration Console window. You have used the FactoryTalk View Diagnostics List in earlier sections of this lab. You can clear messages from the Diagnostics List by selecting a row or multiple rows and clicking the Clear button or by clicking the Clear All button. Removing a message from the Diagnostics List does not delete the message from the Diagnostics log. Removing a message from one Diagnostics List does not remove it from another Diagnostics List. I.e., removing a message from the View Studio window does not remove it from the View Client window. When the application (View Studio, View Client, or View Administration Console) starts new messages begin to get logged to the list. Old messages will be removed from the list as new ones come in and the message limit has been reached.
When the application is closed, the list is cleared.
Diagnostics Viewer
The FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer allows you to view both local messages and messages retrieved and merged from multiple products running on multiple computers logging to multiple destinations.
Open the Diagnostics Viewer
1. In FactoryTalk View Studio, from the menu, select the Tools > Diagnostics Viewer… menu item Or
select the Start > Diagnostics Viewer menu item.
2. The FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer will open.
When the Diagnostics Viewer window is open, new messages do not appear automatically. To refresh the view and reload messages, press the F5 key or click the Refresh button.
3. Mouse over the toolbar and look at the menus to see the operations you can perform with the Diagnostics Viewer.
Filter Diagnostics List
1. Select the View > Options… menu item.
2. On the General tab of the Properties dialog, make sure message source is set to Local Log.
\
3. Click the tab on the Properties dialog. Move the Properties dialog so that you can see the items in the Diagnostic Viewer. Follow steps a – e.
4. Click on Apply from the Properties dialog.
5. Observe the list was updated but no messages appear in the list. Follow steps a-e to change the Audience from Developer to Operator.
b. Click the
b. Click the Modify… button
c. Select Equals
7. Observer the list was updated to only show messages that were created with the audience set to operator.
8. Select the Audience = ‘Operator’ select records where condition and click the Remove button.
9. Create a message filter by following steps a-e.
10. Click on OK from the Properties dialog.
11. Observe the list was updated to only show messages that contained the string CIP.
12. Close the Diagnostics Viewer without saving.
Lets take a look at the diagnostics setup to see why you didn’t see any developer messages.
b. Click the
Add Where Condition… button
c. Select Contains
d. Type ‘CIP’
e. Select the OK button a. Select the Message
Diagnostics Setup
Open the Diagnostics Setup
1. Run the Diagnostics Setup from within the FactoryTalk View Studio. From the Tools menu, select the Diagnostics Setup… menu item
2. The FactoryTalk Diagnostics Configuration dialog will open 3. Expand the Destination Setup
4. Click on each item and look at the settings.
Configuring the FactoryTalk View Diagnostics List
Earlier in the lab you used the Diagnostics List in FactoryTalk View Studio and Client to look at
diagnostic messages. Look at the Destination Setup and the Message Routing configuration to see what messages got routed to the FactoryTalk View Diagnostics List.
1. Expand the Destination Setup, select the FT View Diagnostics List item. Notice that there aren’t any configuration settings. The destination is the Diagnostics List which is managed by FactoryTalk View.
2. Select the Message Routing setup and then select the FT View Diagnostics List
Error, Warning, and Info appeared in the FactoryTalk View Diagnostics List.
Configuring the Local Log
You just used the Diagnostics Viewer to look at the local log. Look at the configuration.
1. Select the Destination Setup > Local Log item
The local log is a file that exists on this computer. There are options for overwriting events, log size, and an option to clear the log.
2. Select the Message Routing setup and then select the Local Log
Messages that were intended for Developer audience were not logged to the Local Log so that is why we did not see any.
3. Change the Message Routing for the Local Log to include all message types for the developer audience. Check all the options in the Developer row.
4. Click the Apply button. Minimize the Diagnostics Configuration window.
5. Go to the running client; click the clear all button in the Diagnostics List at the bottom.
6. Click on the CIP button in the navigation display. Then click on the CIP – Process
Steps display.
7. Type ’7000’ in the Step 1: Adding Water input field and select the enter key.
8. Notice 3 messages in the diagnostics list got updated. You will need to scroll up/down in the client Diagnostics List to view the messages
9. From FactoryTalk View Studio, Select the Tools > Diagnostics Viewer menu item.
10. Select the last 2 messages in the list to look at the details. Notice that they are developer messages one is of type audit and the other is of type information.
ODBC Database as a Message Source
Depending on the products you have installed and the configuration options you have set, FactoryTalk Diagnostics can also route these messages to other centralized logging destinations, such as an ODBC database or FactoryTalk Audit Log.
Use the ODBC Database Destination Setup window to send messages to an ODBC data source. To send messages from multiple computers, configure the destination on each computer where the FactoryTalk Diagnostics service is installed.
The ODBC Database destination supports these ODBC-compliant databases:
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Access
Oracle
Sybase SQL Server
Some types of information cannot be logged to an ODBC database destination. This includes:
any additional database fields not included in the ODBC table format, that a FactoryTalk product might use. Even if you create the additional fields manually, nothing will be logged to them. The additional information logged by a FactoryTalk product will, however, appear in the Local Log on the computer where the product is installed.
any messages where the audience type is set to Secure, or the severity type set to Audit. Secure messages can only be logged by the FactoryTalk AssetCentre software product to the
FactoryTalk Audit Log.
Configure the ODBC Database Setup
1. Go to the Diagnostics Configuration
You are going to configure the destination setup. You will use a System DSN called ODBC_InstantFizz that has been configured to point to a MS Access database called ODBC_InstantFizz.
2. Select the Destination Setup > ODBC Database item.
3. Click the … button next to the data source name. When the Select Data Source dialog opens, click the System Data Source tab. Click the ODBC_InstantFizz data source name.
Browse
Select the System Data Source tab
Select the
ODBC_InstantFizz Data Source Name
4. Click the OK button.
5. Type ‘FTDiagnostics’ for the target table and click the Create Table button.
6. Click the OK button when you get the message that “The table FTDiagnostics was successfully created.”
7. Change the Log message to database every setting to be 30 seconds.
8. Select the Message Routing setup and then select the ODBC Database. Check all the options in the Developer row.
Type
‘FTDiagnostic s’
Click the Create table button