Monthly Integrator Spotlight

 Cost Savings, News, Real World ThinManager, Virtualization  No Responses »
Mar 262013
 

The Desire for Virtualization Drives ThinManager Centralized Management in Ireland

 

For decades, industrial automation in North America has seen consistent growth in both volume as well as technological development.  In many parts of the world, however, there has been a slower adoption rate of these new innovations in the manufacturing sector.  One such innovation, Virtualization, has forced companies to reexamine their stance on waiting to adopt new technologies.

Enter NeoDyne, located in Cork, Ireland.  Specializing in creating production performance monitoring and process improvement solutions, this fifteen year old system integration firm has plunged into these new technologies head first as they continue to modernize facilities across Ireland.  One of their current deployments is a Manufacturing Information System (MIS) at the main processing facility owned and operated by a global leader in the cheese and whey protein market.

Martin Farrell, the Automation Director at NeoDyne, explained to us how their customer’s desire to virtualize brought them to adopting the ThinManager Platform.  “The IT managers at their main facility had been trying to support all their standalone SCADA systems for the last 20 years.  Very early on in the planning process they decided they wanted a virtualized environment without physical servers sitting on the plant floor.  They were looking to bring all of their applications into a VMware virtualized environment that would deliver their applications to the plant floor.  At that point we advised them to adopt thin clients to replace their standalone PCs.”

It became obvious to the team at NeoDyne that updating the network infrastructure while implementing a Wonderware System Platform based architecture in a virtualized environment was going to require a centralized management solution.  “We had limited experience with Terminal Services and thin clients before this deployment but knew that this was the direction we had to go.  We did research, read a lot of articles and found ThinManager. It has turned out to be a fantastic product that allowed us to tie everything together.  It is an intuitive software platform that makes configuration and management easy,” said Martin.

Once deciding to implement all of these platforms, the first step was to tackle the challenge of integrating them with their planned thin client deployment.  Because the facility had three separate areas for cheese production, ingredients, and utilities, they decided to construct a network architecture using dual redundant I/O servers in each area from Solutions PT.  “The facility is still very much a Unit based production outfit.  Even though it is an automated plant, they still have a model of individual units and each unit requires its own dedicated control room. At the control level, it was a mix and match of everything, but we did put together a very organized structure on what had previously been a disparaged group of PLC platforms from Siemens to Allen-Bradley to Mitsubishi to ABB. ”

Once the architecture was firmly in place, Martin and the team at NeoDyne started applying a multitude of ThinManager Platform features to simplify everything and make the system more efficient.  “We have 2 ThinManager Servers set up in a mirrored configuration so if a thin client for any reason fails to connect to one, it automatically connects to the other. If we go home at the end of the day and one of the servers fails, we know they won’t be in the dark and we have time to get it back online with minimum disruption to the operations.”

Martin then explained some of the other ThinManager Platform features they decided to take advantage of.  “We deployed AppLink to deliver client sessions so the operators only have access to the InTouch Application without having to click around a Terminal Services session via the desktop to get to their SCADA application.  We also use it to launch a particular application so if the session crashes it will automatically reboot the application.”

NeoDyne, like many others, also uses the ThinManager Shadowing feature to provide off-site assistance by being able to remotely log into an operator’s user session and guide them through problems in real time without having to be in the facility.  However, they are also using it to reduce licensing overhead costs for their customer as well.  “Something else we have done in the facility is to allow an operator to go between two control rooms without using additional licenses via the Terminal to Terminal Shadowing feature.  We can have one session that is shadowed between two control rooms and depending on which Control Room he is in, he can take ownership of either application.  These “part time” thin clients that are used infrequently can identify as a shadowed thin client to avoid purchasing additional licenses to maximize cost efficiency.”

Their next goal was to find a way to allow the facility managers and supervisors to view the application without needing to travel through the facility.  ThinManager WinTMC made that a simple task without having to complicate the proposed facility network architecture.  “The main benefit of deploying the WinTMC feature is that it allows the plant managers and supervisors to access the application session on their desktop PCs to monitor plant performance and switch back and forth without needing additional hardware.  Also, as the PCs on the floor die they can replace them with thin clients instead of PCs as part of a continuing maintenance budget.  It gives them flexibility on how and when they buy more hardware.”

Now, more than a year since they began this project, we asked Ciaran Murphy, Automation Systems Lead for NeoDyne, how further deployment of ThinManager has been unfolding at the facility.  “What we have found is that using ThinManager to manage the thin client setup and the actual thin clients themselves down on the plant floor is allowing us to gradually retire more and more of their SCADA clients.  Their existing control systems and standalone SCADA systems are actually still there.  We put in a Manufacturing Information System (MIS) over the top to analyze plant performance.  Now, having seen the benefits of this technology, they will gradually replace their existing Thick clients on the Plant Floor with Thin Clients.  Over the next few years they will continue to replace the rest of the standalone PCs on the floor and just be left with thin clients.”

Now that ThinManager is efficiently driving the facility systems, we wondered what is next for the team at NeoDyne.  Ciaran was more than happy to tell us.  “With the success of this project, we showed other clients what ThinManager could do and are already deploying it into another ongoing project we are involved in with another major dairy here in Ireland who was impressed by the product.  Going forward, all of our future platform solutions for the next 5, 10, 20 years will have ACP ThinManager Platform as a fundamental part of our standard system designs and we will actively propose it.  To us there isn’t even a choice; if the site allows it, we will use ThinManager.”

 

ABOUT NEODYNE:  NeoDyne Plant Information Management solutions enable end user Lean Manufacturing, Process Performance Improvement, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, and Cost Improvement business transformation initiatives. The NeoDyne solution is specifically tailored for milk / food processing and combines features to manage and provide traceability for food batch manufacturing in continuous/batch processes. Plant automation and Quality/LIMS and ERP systems are joined into one unified solution.

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

MailBag Friday (#37)

 Education, General, News, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Mar 222013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

I have multiple servers running Rockwell RSView, ThinManager, and Domain Controller all under ESXi VMware.   I would like to connect a printer and print out tickets at one of my thin client stations.  I have heard that I can connect the printer to the USB port and I have heard that I have to use a networked printer.  The thin clients are supplied by Arista and they suggested that I contact you for the answer.  I would prefer local USB printing as it is easier to troubleshoot.  Is it possible to do in my current network environment?

 

The only way to print directly from the thin client is via a parallel port on the device using the Local Print Module.  If you use the local print module, you will have to specify the printer driver name as defined in Windows in the properties page for the printer.

You may install a USB printer onto your terminal server as a “Network  Printer” which will allow access to everyone.

Additionally, if these options don’t work you could use a USB to Ethernet converter to share the printer across the network and physically move your printer closer to the thin client.

Please see the enclosed 2 articles for details on printing from thin clients:

http://www.thinmanager.com/kb/index.php/Printer_Installation

http://www.thinmanager.com/kb/index.php/Printing_from_Thin_Clients

-TM

_________________                       

 

 

I am currently running ThinManager 6.0 and have been having issues with a thin client mouse that is very sensitive and moves very fast with the slightest touch.  It is a USB mouse on a virtually indestructible keyboard.  Can you tell me how to correct this and how to slow down the mouse travel?

 

It could be that it is a very accurate mouse by design.

There are some registry settings that can be changed to affect the mouse rate acceleration; a setting of 0 would totally disable mouse acceleration:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978664.aspx

-TM  

________________                  

 

 

We are looking to purchase ACP ThinManger and deploy it in our facility but are currently using a PXE server for our PCs.  Is there a way to use 2 PXE servers on the same LAN, or would we have to build a new LAN for ThinManager ?

 

PXE Boot Requests broadcast across a single subnet. To use the ThinManager PXE Server and an existing PXE Server at the same time, you would need to setup multiple subnets.

-TM

_____________             

 

I want to use the ThinManager MultiMonitor feature via a single video output thin client using USB to VGA adaptors and saw that this was possible via an article in your KnowledgeBase.  What wasn’t 100% clear through the KB article was whether we could attach the USB-VGA adapters through a USB hub – has this been tested at all?

 

This has been tested and will work.  However, we recommend you use a POWERED USB Hub to use multiple adapters.

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

TMUG 2013 Developers Roundtable Transcript

 Education, News, Real World ThinManager, Release  2 Responses »
Mar 152013
 

 This year at the TMUG Conference, end users got the opportunity to ask Tim Caine (Chief Technology Officer) and Randy Cannady (Director of Engineering) about some of the new features in the works for the ThinManager Platform 7 release later this year, offer suggestions to improve functionality from an end user perspective , and discuss future features and options.  Questions were also fielded online from various ThinManager users around the world.  The following is a list of those questions and the responses provided at the Developers Roundtable.

 

 

1) Employees oftentimes lose their badges and must obtain new ones.  When this occurs, the Plant Engineer would like the right to change their badge number.  This requires a long process of contacting “the keepers of the servers” to make the change.  The request is to provide a function via the TermMon ActiveX Control to programmatically change the badge numbers of non-administrative Term Secure users and to automatically log the date/time when that user’s badge number has changed.

Answer-          “This is part of a series of suggestions that all have to do with updating TermSecure users via various different means.  Currently, this fix can’t be implemented because there is no active directory integration.  Once we have that, maybe this requirement would change a little bit, but I would think we could allow that to happen through the ActiveX control in some manner. “

 

 

2) What I see lacking in ThinManager is the ability to assign privileges for the various functions within ThinManager for various groups of terminals, display devices, servers, etc.  Our facilities are segmented into different areas with different individuals responsible for those areas.  Ideally, we would like to create an organizational tree within TM that mirrors our facilities/responsibilities and use Active Directory groups to manage access to ThinManager functions for the various parts of the organizational tree.  Just like a directory tree, you should be able to select inheritance, etc.

Answer-          Yes, we’ve been tossing around the idea of making it more discrete in terms of your security settings within the tree.  Right now, when you run ThinManager it inherits the Windows user you are currently logged in your PC as it applies security to what you can do in ThinManager.  But if you can modify one terminal you can modify every terminal.  If you can modify one display client, you can modify them all.  There is no way to make that more fine grained and we have been talking about various ways of doing this but it is an implementation problem with the database, not a problem with the idea.  We have to figure out how to get around that.

 And up to this point, this would be a condition when you had multiple ThinServers.  If this requirement existed now each person would have their own ThinServer and be responsible for administering their own ThinServer. This looks like more of a request to say we want to have one ThinServer but have two separate groups be able to use it so each can edit their own things so the way you would accomplish this now is each person would install their own version of ThinServer and ThinManager, and this is kind of combining that together.  It is something we’ve have talked about numerous times, and there was a way to accomplish it by having separate ThinServers but it has been requested in the past and I think this, along with some of the Active Directory integration, that this would be a logical thing to try to accomplish.  It might not be in the next version, but in a version after that it could be an extension of the Active Directory functionality we are going to have in ThinManager 7.0.

 

3) I know you currently have no plans for a Windows 8 WinTMC application.  However, is it on your road map as an option?  Also, what about other Tablet OS besides Apple?  And have you considered a generic Browser based client ability?

Answer-          “We are planning on releasing it for the Android Platform as a client base, not actually ThinManager, though we would consider it if there was enough interest.  When Windows comes out with the new Non RT Surface Tablets you will be able to use them.  But if you want to use a Windows 8 Tablet you’ll have to get the “non RT” version.  As far as having a local browser on the terminal we have discussed it but one of the problems is the expectation of a browser.  Can it run Active X?  Can it run Flash?  All of these plugins people use now in a browser have become an expectation, which might not be realistic.  We can, however, implement a Microsoft Active X with RDP but only with Internet Explorer.”

 

4) Can I run ThinManager on a virtual machine?

Answer -         “Yes.  Also, there is a Virtual Client ability (Virtual Terminal) under VMware or HyperV you can set up a virtual machine with the smallest hard drive you can give it and the most minimal settings and PXE Boot so if you are doing testing you can run a virtual terminal on a tablet or laptop and it will behave exactly like a terminal on the floor.”

 

 

5) I would like to know if there is a way to use the MultiMonitor feature of the latest MS RDP version on Thin Manager terminals. We have applications that run over two screens that we are unable to run in two distinct RDP sessions.

Answer-          “Currently we can span two monitors in a single session or two different sessions on two monitors.  When you span a single session across two monitors and you maximize the application it goes across both monitors.  The way Microsoft implemented this is when maximizing an application in a dual monitor configuration it maximizes on one monitor, allowing two maximized applications on two monitors.  We have discussed adding the Microsoft support for multiple monitors to our RDP client.  There are two components to this, and both will require manually resizing one or the other.  Depending on the application, when you restart the session, it might or might not have to be manually resized.”

 

6) Can we rotate the large, wide screen monitor to take advantage of a 90 degree rotation 1050×1680 resolution that would nicely tile two panels vertically using all of the screen real-estate?

Answer-          “There is definitely something we can do there to create a setting allowing the user to choose between landscape or portrait mode in a single display mode.  However, it will create an issue when you combine that with MultiMonitor and that gets a lot more difficult to allow for multiple configurations.”

 

 

7) Touchscreen technology and LCD technology changes so rapidly – how I can always be sure that the touchscreens I’m buying will be compatible through ACP ThinManager?

Answer-          “The one way to always be certain is to send it to us and we will test it.  Part of the challenge we face is that touchscreen manufacturers are not very good about specifying what controller is in their unit.  The manufacturer of the actual product isn’t nearly as important as the touch controller that is in it.   Most manufacturers don’t make their own controllers, so finding out which controller is actually being used in the unit is the difficult part.  That is why we have hardware partners, because we know what is being used in every model they produce and certify as ThinManager Ready.”

 

 

8] Can you add a feature to easily copy/duplicate a display client, so we can create new/similar display clients for troubleshooting purposes?

Answer-          “We have discussed adding convenience features like this.  We have generally stayed away from things like Drag and Drop because of the inherent risk via operator error.  However, we can add a feature to copy settings and allow for it to be populated elsewhere.”

 

 

9) Can you add TermMon access groups to ThinManager tree to make them easier to see and manage?

Answer-          “We certainly could.  The 7.0 version of ThinManager will have a different user interface that looks completely different so you will have many more options for what you can see in the tree.  You are going to be able to add or remove nodes from the tree to personalize your view depending on what is important for you to see.”

 

 

10) Can you include the ability to add descriptions to cameras (like with thin clients) and allow terminal/camera descriptions to be visible in tool tip when hovering over in tree?

Answer-          “Recently we added descriptions to terminals and we can add them to any piece of the tree.  And I like the tool tip idea.  After all, what good is a description if you can’t get to it easily.  We could also add it to Terminal Servers.”

 

 

11) Can you add to iTMC functionality by adding support to terminal shadow display clients and the ability to use the integrated iPad camera as barcode scanner (the scanned barcode would wedge to app with focus)?

Answer-          “We are already working on adding iTMC support to terminal shadow display clients.  As far as using the iPad camera for iTMC applications, we have had that request a few times just to be able to see what someone else is seeing at a different location from another terminal or in the control room and it is something we are looking at.  The scanner would be difficult because it would have to be integrated as a keyboard wedge, but we are looking into different ways to integrate barcode scanners.”

 

 

12) Can you include “Idle Time” and “Log On Time” to User Sessions in the ThinManager tabs?

Answer-          “I haven’t looked at this in four or five years, but I remember not being able to add this feature.  It may be available now, but my first impression is that I would have added this if I could have.  We will check to see if it is something we can integrate into the newer ThinManager versions.”

 

 

13) Can you add the ability to disable a display client instead of the whole terminal server?

Answer-          “That has been requested in the past and we are working on adding some more disable functionality from within the tree, and not only display clients but possibly disabling other items that are in there.   There are many nodes in the tree where we can add this. With the new MultiStation features it is much more likely that you will want to disable a particular station as opposed to the whole client.”

 

 

14) Terminals are most easily viewed in “Terminals” part of tree, but the default for this is a hierarchy of inherited features.  A Terminal “Area Model” would be a really convenient way to organize/view clients based on area or geography within a single facility or across multiple sites.  Is this change possible?

Answer-          “You can organize the tree based on location or department as opposed to inheritance.  And then you can also make an organization flow for part of the list before it drops into inheritance but that is the only thing I can think of under the current configuration.  Perhaps we could add a location or description tag to a terminal and then be able to search or filter the tree based on the tag.”

 

 

15) Can you add the ability to “bulk edit” everything as an alternative to the GUI? Most useful for me would be Users, Terminals, and Access Groups.  Perhaps you could add some sort of an Excel/CSV export/import tool.

Answer-          “We’ve had various requests similar to this.  Our biggest problem with this is that the settings are fairly interconnected and it is pretty hard to manually edit a configuration and end up with a valid configuration and we don’t want the end user to end up with a big mess.”

 

 

16) Can you add the ability to shadow multiple display clients simultaneously and tile view a multiple terminal shadow session?  I often need to reboot multiple terminals, but want to check to make sure the terminals are not in use first.  Currently, I have to individually shadow each terminal, then reboot/restart all/selected terminals.

Answer-          “When we release ThinManager 7.0 later this year, you will be able to “tear off” a Shadowed tab and tie it to the specific thin client in the tree.  So as you move around the tree it will stay on the terminal as you move it around.  If you tear away multiple shadows, we can allow you to put them together and tile them.”

 

 

17) To minimize predefined display clients, I often have one display client and use the override settings to make minor customizations, however I can only have one instance of the display client per terminal. Could multiple instances of a display client be included on the same Terminal?

Answer-          “No.  We have talked about it and we have yet to find a way to make this a simple implementation.  But we will continue to look at it after the ThinManager 7.0 release.”

 

 

18) Can you add the ability to query the ThinManager database to create custom reports?

Answer-          “You can do that.  Right now there is a report tab that takes an html file and either an SQL query or a tickle script to create a custom report to enhance or customize the report tab feature.”

 

 

19) What is the status of support for Windows 8 and Windows 2012 Server?

Answer-          “It works fine with both.  The only hiccup in that is the install program that we are using is InstallShield and the version we are using doesn’t play nice with either so you have to run it in compatibility mode to get it installed but that problem should be fixed in the next Service Pack update (ThinManager 6.0 SP3).”

 

 

20) I understand it may be not possible to enable PXE boot over a wireless connection, but would it be possible to arrange some support for wireless terminals without the need for a local wired connection to a router?

Answer-          “You can PXE Boot over a wireless connection, but the device has to have PXE support via the manufacturer.”

 

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

MailBag Friday (#36)

 Education, General, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Mar 082013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

We recently purchased some industrial grade thin clients that aren’t on your XLi Compatibility List and we were able to successfully boot them via PXE and have them managed by ThinManager.  Is it possible to get XLi certification for them? Is it something we can do here? What kind of test you apply to thin client box in order to make it XLi certified?

 

The XLi certification is a list of units that we know will boot PXE and contain the chips that ThinManager supports. Not everything that works is on the XLi Compatibility List. It is just the list of ones we know work.

 

I would fill out the Request form for that unit to get it in the system. The address to request that a unit gets added is at  http://www.thinmanager.com/complist/request.php

I would also send an email to support@thinmanager.com with the Computer Company. Make, Model, etc., and what you observed about it. This may get it on the list without having a unit in our hands.

-TM

_________________                       

 

 

I had an error 800006df on a terminal server, which I never saw before and cannot find any information on that error code.  Can you guys point me in the right direction?

 

These error codes are generated from DCOM. We are documenting the suspected cause, as well as solution on the Error Codes page of our new Knowledge Base.

 http://www.thinmanager.com/kb/index.php/Error_Codes#800006df

-TM  

________________                  

 

 

I recently purchased a ThinManager license and two TK-3500 thin clients.  I haven’t installed ThinManager yet, but I plugged in the 3550’s to poke around.  I’ve configured these before and I distinctly recall being able to press a key during the “system initialization” screen to bring up a configuration screen to enter IP information.  Regardless of what I press during that screen the device always goes to the PXE boot sequence and then fails as it does not find a boot disk.  I poked around your site to see if I could find a document or manual to see if I was missing something, but was unable to locate anything other than a product sheet which isn’t helpful in this situation.  What should I do?

 

The TK-3550 requires the PXE Server to be enabled in ThinManager.  The below link steps through setting it up and what the different options in the wizard do.

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/01_Intro/Manual60/TM6_Chapter11_PXE%20Server%20Configuration.pdf

Once that is configured the TK-3550 should get it’s its boot file and connect without issue.

-TM

_____________             

 

Our plant is currently using Uno-2053-GDA0 modules to interface the VGA and serial signals, over Ethernet, to/from the Advantech touch screens.  Will these modules still work with the new version of Thin Manager?  Will there be any compatibility issues with running the new version of ThinManager on a Windows Server 2008 operating system?

 

The graphic interface is VGA and the touch interface from the Advantech is connected via serial.  Both signals are transmitted over Ethernet to the server.   The Uno-2053 is still supported in ThinManager Platform 6.  There shouldn’t be any compatibility issues via our compatibility matrix found on the ThinManager Knowledge Base:
http://www.thinmanager.com/kb/index.php/Compatibility_Matrix

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

MailBag Friday (#35)

 Education, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Mar 012013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

We are looking to add some eGalax touch monitors to our facility.  Are they compatible with ThinManager via RS232 or USB?

 

ThinManager 6.0 SP2 has a module for eGalax touch screens. The module in this picture is for RS232 Connectivity, with the USB Touch Screen Driver Module providing support via USB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-TM                        

 

 

Do you have a hardware list of Video / CPU/ Network cards supported by the ACP driver provided with PXE Package?

Please see our XLi Compatibility list for a list of thin clients that have been tested by ACP and confirmed working with XLi.

http://www.thinmanager.com/complist/

-TM                     

 

 

We have a bunch of sites that have existing thin clients currently running ThinManager 4. We are looking to upgrade to version 6 Xli in the near future. So I have 2 questions.

  1. Are the following thin clients supported? 
    1. 6824-ACP
    2. 7824-ACP
    3. UNO-2053E
        2.  What is the upgrade path from Thin Manager 4 to Thin Manager 6 Xli?

 

All of those models should work fine with ThinManager 6.0.  


Upgrading is a fairly painless process.  Basically:
- Turn off automatic synchronization if you’re using it.
- Run the ThinManager 6.0 installer.
- Turn automatic synchronization back on.
- Reactivate your master license with the new installation IDs.

-TM              

 

Could you please tell me if ThinManager 6 is supported on Windows Server 2012 or what time frame you have for implementation?

 

ThinManager 6+ is compatible with Windows Server 2012 as long as you run the installer in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode.   With the upcoming release of ThinManager 6.0 SP3 (check back here next week for release date and specifics), installing in compatibility mode will not be an issue.

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

MailBag Friday (#34)

 Education, General, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Feb 152013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

Is it possible to have different automatic logins for applications running on different servers.  It looks to me that the auto login is thin client based.  Is that the case?

 

By default the login is specified at the terminal level. If you need different display clients to use different credentials, you may specify an override:

Right click Terminal > Modify > Next x4 (Display Client Selection) > Select a Display client from the right pane > Override

-TM                        

 

 

Which Windows Operating systems does the latest version of WinTMC run under?  

Will WinTMC run in a Windows Server 2000 or 2003 environment?  We thought about deploying our old SCADA server computers as WinTMC clients, but they’re running Server 2000 and Server 2003.  We tried to install WinTMC on both those computers, but the installation failed and I received the following error message: “not a valid Win32 application.”

 

That error usually comes about when trying to run a 64 bit application on a 32 bit processor/OS.  

WinTMC is a 32 bit application and should work on both Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003 (x32). You can download the most recent version of WinTMC here:

http://downloads.thinmanager.com/Files/WinTMCInstall.zip

-TM                     

 

I need to know if it is necessary to connect my thin clients to a backup power source?  Could I loose my session or data if the thin client I am working from loses power?

 

Power Backups are not normally used with thin clients, just the servers.  The session that an operator is looking at is on the server and not the thin client. If the thin client loses power it will disconnect from the server session. The session will remain in an idle state on the server. When the thin client powers up again it will reconnect to that server session.

-TM              

 

We are currently using ThinManager Platform 6.0 on a server running Windows Server 2012 at our facility and wanted to know if/when ThinManager support for Windows 8 be available?  If so, will installing WinTMC on a Windows 8 workstation work?

 

ThinManager is compatible with both Windows 8 and Server 2012.  

We have successfully tested the most current release (2.2.0.1) of WinTMC on Windows 8.  You may download it here:

http://downloads.thinmanager.com/Files/WinTMCInstall.zip

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

MailBag Friday (#33)

 Education, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Feb 012013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

We just revised our thinclient naming standard to allow for more descriptive names, but notice the name is “trimmed” in the sessions tab view.  This appears to be consistent with the way Microsoft displays in their Remote Desktop Services Manager interface too.  Do you know if it is possible to change something in the registry so that the full client name is displayed, or are these interfaces limited to the apparent 15  character length?

The 15 character limit is a hard limit imposed by Microsoft. ThinManager does not impose this limit when naming a thin client but due to the hard limit, names greater than 15 characters will be truncated.  What you saw in ThinManager was polled directly from the Remote Desktop Session Host Server. If you want your ThinManager names to coincide with your Remote Desktop Services Manager Names, then you would need to truncate them on the ThinManager side.

-TM                        

 

 

I have a P&F Barcode Scanner that connects to a ThinManager Ready thin client. What ThinManager settings are required using ThinManager 4.0?

I want to use the scanner like a keyboard wedge.  The scanner has a serial module that plugs into COM2 on the thin client.  Com2 settings on terminal server match barcode scanner serial settings.  I tried the RDP Serial Redirection Module, but not having any luck.  Any ideas?

If it is a serial device that plugs into a RS-232 port, you need to add the RDP Serial Redirection module, plug the scanner into a COM port on the client, and restart the terminal.  Open the scanner program in the session and point to the correct COM port. The thin client COM port will be mapped so referencing COM 2 will give you the data from the thin client’s COM 2, for example.

-TM                     

 

 

I set-up non-standard DHCP where ThinManager assigns the IP address from a range.  It appears that ThinManager retains the IP address and terminal assignment based on thin client box MAC address, which is exactly what I want.  During my testing, I’ve been swapping thin client boxes on the same ethernet cable to test display clients, drive mapping, etc.  Most of the time, when I do the swap, the box is assigned its IP address quickly, but occasionally, I encounter the following error:

PXE-E51: “No DHCP offers were received

The only way I’ve been able to resolve the error is to backup the ThinManager configuration, restore from an earlier backup, then restore the latest configuration back.  I can’t pinpoint any specific event that occurs before the PXE boot stops working.  All firewalls are disabled, as we’re on a plant floor network that doesn’t connect to theinternet.  I have two Dell servers acting as terminal servers and running ThinManager in a mirrored configuration, and I use SmartSession for nearly all of my display clients.  How can we get around this problem?

You can overcome the error by restarting the ThinServer Service:

Start > run > cmd > net stop ThinServer > net start ThinServer 

 

Note: this will cause a role reversal within ThinManager as the master is determined by the greatest ThinServer uptime. If you want to keep your roles as they are, run the aforementioned commands first on the primary, then on the secondary.

-TM              

 

 

I am currently testing using the WinTMC client on my laptop and keep receiving the following prompt:

Enter Terminal Creation Password

I’ve double checked all the passwords I’ve set on the ThinManager Server but none work.

Any help on this would be great.

Right-click on your server name next to the green thinman icon in ThinManager an select Modify.  Click “next” so that you’re now on the Unknown Terminals page.  If ‘Require Password on Unknown Terminals’ is selected, you can either deselect it or change the password so that you can get that WinTMC terminal connected.

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

Monthly Integrator Spotlight

 News, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Jan 302013
 

Extreme Conditions Call for Extreme Solutions

 

 

Grain elevators are facilities at which grains are received, stored, and then distributed for direct use, process manufacturing, or export. Most facilities, however, are home to other operations such as cleaning, drying, and blending.  For the most part, these processes have stayed the same for the last 150 years.  Of course, better elevators and facilities have been developed and implemented as time has passed, but the basic engineering has stayed the same.  In recent decades though, while those same engineering principles have stayed the same, systems and controls changed and evolved as the expansion of computer technology exploded.

As an integrator responsible for many such facilities, ESCO Automation has spent forty years developing solutions to bridge the gap between standard processes and modern network technology.  We asked Wes Dautremont, Technical Manager at ESCO Automation, about the hazards associated with creating and deploying a system to help drive facilities developed around grain elevators.  “First of all, there are pretty big temperature extremes in the actual floor environment. It goes anywhere from well below freezing to over 120 degrees in the summer months. It is also extremely dusty because of all the grain dust in the air, so it is a bit challenging for a standard PC to live in that type of environment,” said Wes.  “It’s also hazardous because there is a lot of moving equipment, open conveyor belts, and even explosion risks if you get a fire started somewhere.  That’s why we have to use Class I Div 2 rated clients.”

These environmental challenges, however, are only part of the issue with creating and deploying systems for facilities such as this.  Usually, when dealing with a plant upgrade, integrators must contend with replacing and upgrading computer hardware and IT resources.  But at their most recent grain elevator controls upgrade for one of the worlds leading food manufacturers that was not an option.  “We were replacing some equipment from the 40’s and 50’s in there.  It was some real vintage stuff.  The old system didn’t have PLC control or bin gauges.  It was just push buttons and relays, which made it difficult to troubleshoot issues and time consuming to track accurate information.  They had been using paper and pencil to track product, but didn’t have any method to capture controls or equipment issues,” said Wes.

So how do you choose the proper system to replace a system that never existed?  After attending the ThinManager Platform 6.0 Launch Event in the spring of 2012, the team at ESCO knew they had found their answer.  “We went to the 6.0 Launch Event earlier this year and it was a really good event.  I attended the training sessions along with the demo sessions.  The hands on demos were really helpful to see what new features had been added.  We knew we wanted to get more experience working with ThinManager before completing our first deployment.”

Wes then explained how ESCO took their new understanding of the ThinManager Platform and created a responsive HMI system for their client.  “We set ThinManager up in our test lab and spent a while running simulations to compare it with our attempts at setting up Terminal Services through Windows on our own. The ThinManager Platform makes it much more straight-forward and simple when you need to swap out or add a new client in the field.”

Once he had the testing complete, Wes implemented his new system in the facility.  “We installed 2 servers and 6 thin clients.  The 2 servers are set up with Redundant ThinManager and failover configuration so they can take servers down for cleaning and maintenance and still keep the system running.  The plant appreciated the improved robustness of the thin client solution along with the convenience of ThinManager features like client shadowing and ended up replacing 8 more fat clients throughout the plant with thin clients managed by ThinManager. ”

Now that they created and proved the viability of their newly designed system, what’s next for ESCO and ThinManager? “After seeing how much it streamlined the Terminal Services configuration, it has become our go-to recommendation for our customers wanting to pursue a Terminal Services environment,” concluded Wes.  “ThinManager allows any plant to move to Terminal Services architecture without having to become an expert in Microsoft Terminal Services.”

MailBag Friday (#32)

 Education, General, Real World ThinManager  No Responses »
Jan 252013
 

Every Friday, we dedicate this space to sharing solutions for some of the most frequently asked questions posed to our ThinManager Technical Support team.  This weekly feature will help educate ThinManager Platform users and provide them with answers to questions they may have about licenses, installation, integration, deployment, upgrades, maintenance, and daily operation.  Great technical support is an essential part of the ThinManager Platform, and we are constantly striving to make your environment as productive and efficient as possible.

 

 

I have a WYSE S10 thin client that I am intending to do some testing with Thin Manager.  I am having trouble configuring the network connection to reach my server running the Thin Manager application.   The Thin Client boots up and obtains an IP address for the client via DHCP.  But, I am not able to connect to my server to select my terminal configuration.

I can configure a specific instance of an RDP connection from the thin client to the server and access the server direct, so I know I can access the server on the network.  Do you have an instruction/guidance document for the network setup for the WYSE S10 client? 

 

Even though that Wyse is not a ThinManager Ready thin client, you can just set set up the PXE server within ThinManager and use it. 

Chapter 11 of the manual discusses the configuration of the PXE server.

http://www.thinmanager.com/technotes/01_Intro/Manual60/TM6_Chapter11_PXE%20Server%20Configuration.pdf

-TM                        

 

 

I am looking to replace my current monitor management solution and read about your MultiMonitor feature.  In our current facility, most of our PCs have up to 4 Monitors and our configuration is such that every time an application is launched it is started at a predefined place on a predefined Monitor in a predefined size.

Is this basic requirement covered by Thin Manager?

 

Our system is flexible. You can use either method, depending on what suits you. PCs only let you do method #2.

 

1) You can have 4 monitors and have each monitor run a separate session that is the size of the monitor. Each application will open filling that screen.  This allows you to use standard size applications but you will need to run and license multiple applications.

 

2) You can have multiple monitors and have them merged into one desktop. This allows you to run a single application.  You would need to configure your application to use the larger desktop and have the windows launch in the different quadrants (0,0 ; 1025,0 ; 769,0 ; 1025, 769 for example)

-TM                     

 

 

I added a Cisco router and switch to a subnet where I have two terminals running Wonderware sessions. Now the terminals display the message “can not contact server <IP address>”.

All other PCs, etc on the same subnet (VLAN) can connect to the servers, I suspect the router may be blocking broadcast (or multicast) information required by the terminals but don’t know how to solve the issue. I entered the router address in the terminal IP configuration but did not make any difference.

Can you please help.

 

Make sure these ports are open…

-TM              

 

 

We are having an issue where users assigned to a Term Secure User Group do not have any Term Secure Access Groups associated with them.  Is there an easy solution to fix this? 

 

To assign an Access Group to a User Group: Right click on the User Group > Modify > Permissions >
Place the Security Group from the left side into the “Member of” section on the right > OK > Finish.

-TM

__________________________________________

 

To review the cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

Where Does Technological Innovation Come From?

 Education, General, News  2 Responses »
Jan 232013
 

Technological innovation comes from many people around the world every single day.  Yet, it is rare to know the names of those who spawn the innovations that eventually reach market and change our lives.  Most people tend to only read headlines instead of history.  If you are one of them, you would think that true technological innovation is generated by a select handful of individuals sitting by themselves in a small garage in California.

There are many examples of a lone innovator scrawling an idea on a napkin or a piece of paper that becomes a billion dollar company, forever altering how we interact with the world. In fact, the current combined net worth of “The Big Four” (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook) is somewhere north of $1.1 TRILLION dollars.  And they were all started with very little money and a single idea.  So how is it that we all know about the humble beginnings of innovators such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg?  Because their stories have been told so many times, they are now the stuff of legend.  Today, parents tell their children they can do the same thing as a tale of optimism, much the same way our parents used to tell us that we if we studied hard we could become the President of the United States.

Looking at these famous innovators brings up a very important question.  Is it the individual and their idea that change the global landscape, or is it the proliferation of that innovation by the company they found which is the real innovation?  To answer that question, we only need to look at the “most important inventor” in the history of America, Thomas Edison.  Between 1868 and 1930, Edison had almost 1,100 submitted patents accepted for a multitude of products.  Most of them never saw the light of day or were merged into other products being developed.  But a few of them, such as the light bulb, irrevocably changed the world.

So how exactly how did Edison invent the light bulb and go down in history as “the father of the Electrical Age?”  He took the idea of Joseph Swan (the inventor of the original incandescent lamp), made a small adjustment based on the work of Nicolas Tesla, and devised a brilliant marketing strategy to sell enough light bulbs that he could afford to buy out Swan and merge their companies together to form what is now General Electric.  Before you start feeling sorry for Swan, keep in mind that he stole the idea from Warren De la Rue, who stole it from Humphry Davy, who originally developed it in 1809 in a tiny laboratory using a battery, two wires, and a simple charcoal strip.

While Edison was a brilliant man, it would be more accurate to say that he innovated a marketing and business strategy as opposed to the phonograph or the light bulb.  So even though history remembers Edison as an innovator of technology, it was his innovation in the realm of business where his true legacy was shaped and continues to influence todays’ corporate innovators by creating a prototype for CEOs to emulate…not technological innovators.

This brings us back to today and the innovative genius of Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Page.  All four had a vision and the ability to see the unlimited potential of a product or service that just needed to be tweaked and properly marketed.  Yet people seem to only want to discuss their legacies as technological innovators rather than brilliant businessmen who understood market positioning based on the needs and wants of other businesses and end users. All you need to do is review their early careers to understand that their vision was not one of technological creation, but rather, one of business creation.

Bill Gates got Microsoft off the ground by inking a deal with IBM to provide an operating system called PC-DOS for $50,000.  Of course, he didn’t invent PC-DOS.  He licensed it from Seattle Computer Products AFTER he inked that deal, changed three lines of code, and rebranded it.  That Operating System later became MS-DOS (and later Windows) and pioneered the home computer revolution of the late 1980’s.  After the release of Windows, rather than being content with Microsoft having cornered the OS market, he had the vision to diversify and expand Microsoft’s influence into other areas including broadcast television (MSNBC), Intellectual Property licensing (TCPA), and home gaming (XBOX) while fending off numerous lawsuits and actions from fallen competitors and government agencies to maintain a superior market position.

Steve Jobs was also more CEO and entrepreneur than inventor.  He founded Apple to sell the Apple 1 PC, which was developed and built by Steve Wozniak.  Upon incorporating, he promptly bought out his third partner (Ronald Wayne) for $800 and never looked back.  Because Wozniak was building the computers by hand, he had to acquire an investor (Mike Markkula) to absorb the high production costs and created partnerships with VisiCalc and Xerox to keep Commodore, Tandy, and IBM from devouring his company before it got off the ground. He then tried his hand at creating a computer himself (Apple Lisa), and after failing miserably, decided to take over development of the Macintosh after Jef Raskin had nearly completed the project.

Yet his greatest contribution to the early growth of Apple was his decision to spend $1.5 million to have film director Ridley Scott create an Apple commercial for Super Bowl XVII, which turned out to be his last master stroke before leaving Apple to flounder while he started a new company, NeXT Inc.  After he left, Apple tried to follow the Microsoft example of diversification by producing failure after failure in the ancillary electronics market (i.e. portable audio, TV appliances).  It was only after Jobs and his vision for a global conglomerate came back on board in 1996 that the string of failures ended thanks to the development of the iMac by Jonathan Ive and Jobs’ ability to negotiate a licensing deal with Microsoft to release Office software for Apple PCs.  After that, Jobs made a number of smart licensing and technology purchases from other innovators that led to the release of products such as Final Cut Pro (formerly Macromedia), GarageBand (formerly Emagic), and iTunes (formerly Sound Jam MP).  Bringing these innovations to market gave Apple the diversification they needed to explode into a viable global brand.

Zuckerberg and Page also followed a similar path that was blazed by Edison and improved upon by Jobs and Gates.  Facebook was a well thought out combination of two very popular sites (Friendster & Hot or Not) mixed with some “borrowed” ideas from a few other classmates, while Google began as an algorithm created as part of a college PhD dissertation showing the mathematical properties of the world wide web as a visual graph.  That algorithm became the transition from original web crawlers to the first generation of true search engines.

Both Zuckerberg and Page found a way to enhance something as it was becoming popular, brought it to market, and positioned it to succeed.  Over the years both men oversaw the growth of their companies through smart business strategies and legal maneuvering, while keeping their eyes open for the best talent and ideas to add to their company to ensure continued development and growth.

To see just how many ideas those four men have collectively created as opposed to how many they acquired and polished, you just need to look at how their companies have continued to innovate and how little of the technological innovation they were actually responsible for.  Since their inception, The Big Four have spent billions of dollars to purchase more than 380 companies.  Each company provided an innovation to be incorporated as part of a larger platform to maintain market dominance, or was dismembered after being acquired so a competing innovation never saw the light of day.  Those numbers merely highlight the fact that the true innovation provided by globally recognized brands, is more often than not, developed by small companies who sell (voluntarily or not) those ideas to companies better positioned to bring them to market.

When will the next wave of innovators come and alter the market?  They are already here.  Companies like Dropbox, Ubuntu, RackSpace, Acquia, and Bluefin are all producing and improving on current technologies and staving off the advances of larger companies.  The only difference now is that Apple and Microsoft are trying to acquire them, or strangle them before becoming a serious threat to their profitability.  Last year Dropbox turned down an $800 million dollar offer from Apple, while Ubuntu has been keeping their patent submissions half a step ahead of Microsoft and is slowly digging into their market share.

So what is the lesson to be learned here?  As long as there are people with innovative ideas and large corporations to buy and proliferate those ideas, there will continue to be technological innovation…even if individuals working out of a tiny garage are no longer the ones to deliver those ideas to the masses.

 

___________________________________________________________________

To use the ThinManager ROI Calculator, visit here.

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit here.

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit here.

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