ClearSCADA 2009 R2.4 Release Notes

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ClearSCADA 2009 R2.4 is the fourth service pack release of ClearSCADA 2009 R2. Its main purpose is to resolve a number of known issues with ClearSCADA 2009 R2 to improve performance and reliability.

Product Enhancements and Resolved Issues

Advanced Drivers

• DNP3 and SCADAPack Modbus driver direct channels will now accept an inbound network connection without an outstation set being configured that is linked to the channel.

• The advanced driver library network support has been modified so that it does a graceful shut down of its sockets.

• Fixed advanced drivers sometimes failing to restart scanning the outstation when the channel fails while starting comms or when configuration is being changed.

• A crash that could occur in advanced drivers when they shut down while having two or more pending requests has been fixed. All pending requests are now correctly failed.

• The behaviour of advanced drivers has been corrected to ensure that if a start comms or start heartbeat request fails due to a scanner command timeout, the state of the outstation will be correctly maintained.

• A memory leak and potential crash in DNP3 and SCADAPack Modbus drivers have been fixed that occurred when either Virtual Terminals or Remote Connections are used.

• Secondary data (logged/event) poll management in advanced drivers has been changed so that it gives an even distribution to all outstations which require a secondary poll to be performed.

• Corrected the IEC60870-5 slave so that a point with bad OPC quality will always be transmitted with the invalid quality flag set.

Proteus Driver

• The Proteus FED Driver has been changed so that when it stops outstations comms, it always switches to channel 1.

• The Proteus FED Driver's handling of intermittent and failing comms has been improved.

• Fixed a potential crash in the Proteus driver when downloading changed configuration.

SCADAPack E-Series

• SCADAPack E-Series Point/Pulse action text alarms have now been changed to object alarms.

• Ports in SCADAPack E-Series outstations can now be configured with 115200 baud.

• Fixed an integrity check error that could occur if the SCADAPack E-Series Binary point address is zero and the bit size is modified.

• Prevented a possible integrity check error that could occur when changing SCADAPack E-Series 5000 I/O module address.

SCADAPack Modbus Driver

• The SCADAPack Modbus RealFLO driver has been modified so that it correctly handles Flow Runs which have been created in an instance but are not part of the original template. This would lead to a crash in the server when the

configuration was read.

DNP3 Driver

• Changing the BitCount configuration of a DNP3 Binary Point now results in the correct updating of its value - e.g. reducing the BitCount now results in the point's value being updated, on the next poll, using only that reduced

number of bits (the removed, higher-order bits being masked off).

• Prevented DNP3 Master Driver comms establishment failing due to unsupported disable unsolicited message at slave.

• The DNP3 driver has been modified so that it gracefully handles invalid data link responses during start communication requests.

TMX Driver

• Added support for reporting missed point state alarms (alarm cleared in outstation before read by master) to TMX digital points. This is already available for TMX analogues and counters.

• The TMX driver channel has been modified to ensure that it no longer becomes stuck in the failed state when it fails to assign the port on the first attempt. It has also been corrected so that a successful retry now causes the channel to become healthy.

• Modified the TMX configuration mismatch report so that points which may not be used (digital outputs and log variables) are not reported as missing from the database, when no point has been configured in ClearSCADA. The report now only shows a point as missing from the database when the point is definitely used in the outstation.

• The TMX outstation has been changed to fail pending online requests when an online session ends. If an online session with a TMX outstation ended while there were pending 'online only' requests then the driver would attempt to

re-dial the outstation. However, as there was no online session, the requests could not be performed. So the driver only got as far as allocating a channel to call the outstation. It was then unable to use the channel which
became stuck allocated to the outstation (and therefore unavailable for any other outstations). This could be triggered by stopping an online session while a mimic/list was open showing the outstation or its points and the
mimic/list is closed just before or after the online session is stopped.

Simple Drivers

• The Modbus simple driver will now be able to process command 3 and 4 read responses which contains twice the data of a standard Modbus response.

• Fixed Simatic S7 driver TCP channel to correctly handle failure to connect socket on all Windows versions (this previously didn't work with Windows 7/2008 R2 and possibly others).

• The PLC driver has been changed to handle minor changes to PLC object configuration without redefining the entire scanner.

• Fixed the OPC and PLC drivers so that points recover from CONFIG_ERROR quality if tag reads that were failed now succeeds.

• Fixed crash in Crystal Reports, CFX Export, Pager, SNMP Manager and SQL Export drivers if driver is shutdown whilst a request is executing. Only affects 6.70.3890 onwards.

OPC Driver

• Fixed database locking when generating the OPC XML-DA status page.

• The OPC driver has been modified to ensure that it no longer fails if the requested scan rate is too fast for the OPC Server and handles the scan rate correctly.

• Fixed an issue in the Client Configuration window when browsing for OPC servers from within the OPC driver when the OPCEnum service is not installed.

• The OPC driver now disables the items in an OPC group before it updates, adds or removes items on point configuration change. This avoids the case where AddItems/RemoveItems can in turn lead to an asynchronous read

completion being processed before the driver has finished updating its internal lookup tables.

ODBC Driver

• Fixed the ODBC function SQLExtendedFetch to return string lengths correctly when the rowset size is greater than 1.

• A memory leak/crash has been fixed in DriverODBC when using "Use All Results".

DBServer

• Integrity check in server has been improved to ignore the check on disabled fields or aggregates that cannot be enabled or disabled by the user.

• Fixed a false integrity check failure that could occur when an Accumulator object is placed inside a configuration permit.

• Fixed a server exception that occurred when a query contains . and the schema and table were valid but the table was in a different schema.
  
  • Minidumps no longer overwrite each other if they are created in the same second.
  
  
  • Fixed a potential problem where two Main-Standby servers could both win Main-Main arbitration and both get stuck in the main state.
  
  
  • Improved handling of invalid records, either with unsupported variant types, out of range raw historic reason or out of range suppression type. The following changes have been made to the way invalid records are handled:
  
  
  • Invalid records will be ignored when loading from disk, logging an error in the server log file.
  
  
  • Invalid records are stripped out when performing historic optimisation.
  
  
  • Invalid records are stripped out when performing SCXCMD HISSTRIP.
  
  
  • Fixed a server crash that could occur during startup or on mimic save, if that mimic contains PNG images with a certain byte sequence.
  
  
  • Improved the processing of Standby transfer Start/Stop requests to be processed in the correct order. In previous versions, under heavy load conditions, it was possible for a standby server to not request updates from the main.
  
  
  • Fixed the purging of exception dump files when the total size of the dump files exceeds the configured maximum size.
  
  
  • Fixed a server crash and/or integrity check failure that could occur after importing a templates instance containing a schedule.
  
  
  • Fixed a potential server crash that occurred when querying (using SQL) historic with modified data before the time constraint.
  
  
  • The DBServer has been modified to drop links that send invalid requests.
  
  
  • Fixed a server exception that occurred when an array column is passed to the SQL Scalar function ELEMENT.
  
  
  • Fixed a server crash that could occur when converting instances from one template to another
  
  
  • The user context maintained in the server for a link has been modified so that the time zone is not overwritten when a user logs on.
  
  
  • A data table standby transfer inconsistency has been corrected, where on occasion; records that are transferred to the standby would not be flushed to disk. This could result in inconsistencies on changeover or if the standby data table is purged and reloaded.
  
  
  • Fixed a potential server crash that could occur when running an integrity check of logic programs.
  
  
  

  Query Processor

  
  
  
  • Fixed a potential server crash that occurred if a user executes an SQL SELECT query which contained a HAVING clause but no GROUP BY clause and no summary functions in the SELECT list.
  
  
  • The Query Processor has been modified to update, insert and delete records from a data grid table without any problems.
  
  
  • Fixed the formatting of SQL queries with string literals that contain embedded quote characters.
  
  
  • Fixed a bug in query processor that caused queries of the form: SELECT ... FROM ( A UNION B ) JOIN C to be emitted with a random number of brackets around the UNION. This could cause very large strings to be allocated, dramatically increasing DBServer's memory usage.
  
  
  • The processing of UNION queries has been modified to return consistent results when one or more columns from each query are of different types.
  
  
  • QP tables used for DML execution within Logic programs are now released as soon as the execution is complete, to ensure that all memory held open by the query is freed immediately.
  
  
  • Currently, writing the same query back to an embedded list will refresh the query. When using registry tags, this can mean lists can refresh when nothing has changed. This behaviour has been modified to only refresh the list if the query changes.
  
  
  

  Logic

  
  
  
  • Fixed Structured Text program's evaluation of times falling in the hour 'lost' in a transition to Daylight Saving Time (DST).
  
  
  • The order of database module shutdown has been changed so that the Logic module is stopped after all of the drivers have completed shutting down. This is to avoid an outstation status change triggering a logic program while the logic module is in the process of stopping.
  
  
  

  ViewX

  
  
  
  • Removed the white space that appears at the end of the error text displayed when a parameter's name in a mimic contains a space.
  
  
  • Preconfigured alarm comments are now always shown when manually redirecting alarms, even if the alarm cannot be acknowledged by that user.
  
  
  • The Label "Centre" in the Edit View dialog box for a mimic has been changed to "Position".
  
  
  • Ensured that validation of alarm redirection includes a check to make sure that the Low severity is less than or equal to the High severity.
  
  
  • Fixed an issue with navigating using the 'Back' and 'Next' buttons in the 'Configure Pick Action Parameter' screen for a mimic.
  
  
  • A ViewX crash that occurred when a user tries to apply a filter for a query on a table that does not exist has been fixed. The run-mode pop-up menu is no longer available if the query is not valid thereby preventing the user from filtering the invalid list.
  
  
  • Fixed 'Next' button in the wizard dialog for configuring an animation to control the parameter of a custom pick menu action.
  
  
  • Fixed a ViewX crash that occurred when setting the size of a Value Map to -1
  
  
  • Fixed a crash in ViewX when App.Logon is called from mimic script in a pick menu on a custom menu, and the mimic item that is underneath the mouse cursor when the custom menu item is selected has a hover animation.
  
  
  • Ensured Cancel button is hidden when Historic Trend Annotations dialog is opened to view annotations in ViewX.
  
  
  • The 'Locate in Template' option will now select the template object without collapsing the branch of the Database Explorer treeview that contains the originally selected instance object.
  
  
  • Form fields in ViewX will now be enabled when the enable expression includes a reference field that is NULL, or a disabled aggregate.
  
  
  • Corrected the error message displayed when trying to change a user password without permission.
  
  
  • Fixed a ViewX crash that could occur when no license is available or when there is some network problem.
  
  
  • Ensured that newly created objects can be located in OPC Data Explorer using the 'Locate in OPC Data Explorer' menu option.
  
  
  • ViewX has been modified to always display the menu bar when running on a second head.
  
  
  • Fixed the conversion of relative to absolute paths in embedded mimics when saving to a drawing (.drw) file.
  
  
  • Automatic scaling of the Y-axis in trend displays has been corrected which would sometimes cause all the Y-axis tickmarks (and the trace) to disappear from view.
  
  
  • Fixed an issue in ViewX where after a configuration export is performed from ViewX to a windows directory, ViewX locks the Windows directory and does not allow any changes until ViewX is closed or a different folder selected for export from ViewX. (This problem applied to 64 bit only.)
  
  
  • Fixed minor memory leaks in ViewX when entering passwords and logging on users.
  
  
  • ViewX now ignores any windows which were closed via the Maximum Windows dialog when loading the Favourite.
  
  
  • Fixed a ViewX crash when the SQL parser inserts redundant parentheses around non-aliased UNION clauses.
  
  
  • Fixed an issue with trends where a current trace could use 100% CPU if it used a dashed line and the initial data value was a long time in the past.
  
  
  • Fixed a ViewX lock up that could occur when attempting to display a modal dialog if there were lots of rapidly updating complex mimics on display.
  
  
  • Fixed bug in ViewX where logging on with a complicated mimic (~5000 or more animations) on display could cause the alarm banner to lose its alarms.
  
  
  • Prevented ViewX crash by preventing closure of the window used to calculate the position of the new inset mimic (when opening mimic as inset would exceed maximum allowed windows).
  
  
  • A ViewX exception has been fixed that occurred when a method has a 'Save File' argument, but the argument has been omitted (when the pick action is executed).
  
  
  • Saving a mimic to a .drw file now ignores any configured script. Likewise, any script found when loading a .drw file is ignored.
  
  
  • The "Save to Document Store" dialog no longer allows a System node to be chosen as a location for storing the document.
  
  
  • Modified ViewX SVG Import to accept all versions of SVG file and display a warning about the accuracy of the import if the version is not 1.1.
  
  
  • Fixed memory leaks caused by using Server objects within a script.
  
  
  

  Web Client

  
  
  
  • The web client has been modified so that no empty dialog box will be displayed when attempting to logon with no username following an attempt to log on with a bad user name.
  
  
  • An Alarm List saved as Favourite for a user with a Default Alarm Filter string will now be displayed properly in WebX without giving an error message.
  
  
  • An issue in trend display automatic scaling of y-axis that sometimes caused all the y-axis tick marks (and the trace) to disappear from view in ViewX is also fixed in Web client.
  
  
  • Ensured that the web client correctly handles indirect tags containing colons.
  
  
  • Ensured that case insensitive comparison is used in the web client when checking supported target types for mimic navigation.
  
  
  • Fixed with an issue with embedded mimic scaling in the web client for mimics that contain empty layers.
  
  
  • A new registry setting "DB\WebSSLKeySize" has been added to control the size of default web client keys.
  
  
  • The default RSA key size for the web client changed 1024 bits.
  
  
  • Fixed mimic scripting in the web client not to display error message when a script is interrupted by the user.
  
  
  • Ensured long hyperlinks to Alarm Lists and Ad Hoc trends display correctly in the web client.
  
  
  

  Miscellaneous

  
  
  
  • Newly created objects will now inherit the 'Exclude from Exclusive Control' setting from their parent. Previously, when an "Exclusive Control Only" user created an object in a group where 'ExcludeFromExclCtrl' is enabled, the object could not be edited by the creator because 'ExcludeFromExclCtrl' would be disabled for the newly created object.
  
  
  • The maximum number of files that a ClearSCADA process can open in Windows has been increased from 512 to a potential maximum of 2048.
  
  
  • Fixed the "MethodAvailable" override in DDK objects and aggregates. Previously, the user context was not being passed on to server methods such as "CheckAccess". Instead, the system user would be used, meaning that access
  
  checks were impossible.
  
  • Ensured that changing the location of the Dictionaries in the Server Configuration tool prompts for a server restart.
  
  
  • Fixed the X509 certificate parser to support UTF-8 strings.
  
  
  • An issue where duplicate entries for each table appeared in Table ComboBox on Edit Query dialog, (opened from "Database Configuration->Extra Table Queries" View of Server Configuration tool) has been fixed.
  
  
  • Fixed a validation check in configuring a Severity (creating a new Severity under Database Configuration -->Severities) to have a numeric description (which could be confused with priority).
  
  
  • Corrected the calculation of next interval time for simple schedule offsets, etc.
  
  
  • Ensured that changing a server to be a DMZ standby in the server configuration tool prompts for a restart.
  
  
  • Prevented the Database manager from accepting names containing spaces (or other special characters).
  
  
  • Fixed an issue that caused plain text alarm redirection e-mails to be truncated if they contained an ampersand.
  
  
  • Ensured '%O' trip sequences in alarm redirections are formatted using the user-specified locale.
  
  
  • Corrected validation of MaxZoom argument when setting maximum zoom via the Automation Interface.
  
  
  • Modified the DBClient so that it reads the advise port settings from the correct registry location.
  
  
  • Ensured that private keys (and therefore CSRs) are generated with the correct number of bits.
  
  
  • Fixed the default sorting of built-in lists. Lists were been shown unsorted.
  
  
  • Modified the Crystal Report parameter time zone conversion to use the correct time zone when reports are generated from logic programs.
  
  
  • Fixed an issue with querying a data grid table when the table was empty 'corrupting' the data grid's cache. The data grid would subsequently fail to refresh correctly until the server was restarted.
  
  
  • Modified the .NET API to disable the Nagle algorithm when creating sockets. This prevents buffering delays when sending small requests such as LookupObject.
  
  
  
  

  Previous Versions

  
  
  
  • Click here for Release Notes from ClearSCADA 2009 R2.3.
  
  
  • Click here for Release Notes from ClearSCADA 2009 R2.2.
  
  
  • Click here for Release Notes from ClearSCADA 2009 R2.1.
  
  
  • Click here for Release Notes from ClearSCADA 2009 R2.
  
  
  • For Release Notes from earlier versions of the product, please refer to the Release Notes pages that can be found in the ClearSCADA Releases section of the Control Microsystems Resource Center.
  
  
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