Help
  • Explore Community
  • Get Started
  • Ask the Community
  • How-To & Best Practices
  • Contact Support
Notifications
Login / Register
Community
Community
Notifications
close
  • Forums
  • Knowledge Center
  • Events & Webinars
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
Help
Help
  • Explore Community
  • Get Started
  • Ask the Community
  • How-To & Best Practices
  • Contact Support
Login / Register
Sustainability
Sustainability

Join our "Ask Me About" community webinar on May 20th at 9 AM CET and 5 PM CET to explore cybersecurity and monitoring for Data Center and edge IT. Learn about market trends, cutting-edge technologies, and best practices from industry experts.
Register and secure your Critical IT infrastructure

What's the difference between a DCF and FWN file for backing up / restoring ION 75/650 Frameworks?

Metering & Power Quality

Schneider Electric support forum about Power Meters (ION, PowerTag, PowerLogic) and Power Quality from design, implementation to troubleshooting and more.

cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
  • Home
  • Schneider Electric Community
  • EcoStruxure Power & Grid
  • Metering & Power Quality
  • What's the difference between a DCF and FWN file for backing up / restoring ION 75/650 Frameworks?
Options
  • Mark Topic as New
  • Mark Topic as Read
  • Float this Topic for Current User
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Printer Friendly Page
Invite a Co-worker
Send a co-worker an invite to the portal.Just enter their email address and we'll connect them to register. After joining, they will belong to the same company.
You have entered an invalid email address. Please re-enter the email address.
This co-worker has already been invited to the Exchange portal. Please invite another co-worker.
Please enter email address
Send Invite Cancel
Invitation Sent
Your invitation was sent.Thanks for sharing Exchange with your co-worker.
Send New Invite Close
Top Experts
User Count
Charles_Murison
Picard Charles_Murison Picard
477
Ramasamy_N
Captain Ramasamy_N Captain
113
Robert_Lee
Admiral Robert_Lee Admiral
92
Mehran_Mehrnia
Captain Mehran_Mehrnia Captain
85
View All

Invite a Colleague

Found this content useful? Share it with a Colleague!

Invite a Colleague Invite
Solved Go to Solution
Back to Metering & Power Quality
Solved
JamesAZZO
Sisko | EcoXpert Master JamesAZZO Sisko | EcoXpert Master
Sisko | EcoXpert Master

Posted: ‎2013-04-16 04:06 AM . Last Modified: ‎2020-04-22 01:53 AM

0 Likes
6
1939
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-16 04:06 AM

What's the difference between a DCF and FWN file for backing up / restoring ION 75/650 Frameworks?

In ION Setup, before updating a firmware, we tried to backup an ION 7550 with a big custom framework by saving the template as a DCF file. Once that complete, we went to upgrade the firmware, choose the backup DCF file, and restore. The problem is - it didn't restore the framework except for some very patchy stuff and basically ruined our 7550 custom framework that we thought was backed up. Now we don't have the original framework anymore, but we have this DCF file, which we're unsure of actually having the custom programming that was in there before.

 

Can anyone provide any advise on how to do this? It's a critical application unfortunately, and we're losing data by the minute! Please help. and I are pretty desperate atm. Assuming or got any advice? Anyone else have experience backing up or restoring ION frameworks using ION Setup?

Labels
  • Labels:
  • ION Setup
Tags (1)
  • Tags:
  • struxureware_power_monitoring
Reply
  • All forum topics
  • Previous Topic
  • Next Topic

Accepted Solutions
Robert_Lee
Admiral Robert_Lee Admiral
Admiral

Posted: ‎2013-04-17 09:05 AM

0 Likes
0
1811
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-17 09:05 AM

Yes, the grouping windows and module placements are stored on the PC (and not on the ION meter).  I believe they're stored in the CONFIG/DIAGRAMS/ND sub-folder and you will see a file for the original meter that should match the name of the meter as defined in Management Console with a .CFG extension (ex. GROUP1.MyION7650.CFG).  You should make a copy of that file using Windows Explorer and rename it to match the device name of the other meter that you pasted the DCF to (the CFG file contains all of the module grouping and placement information while the device itself will have the list of the actual modules).

See Answer In Context

Reply
Replies 6
Robert_Lee
Admiral Robert_Lee Admiral
Admiral

Posted: ‎2013-04-16 08:58 AM

0 Likes
4
1811
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-16 08:58 AM

Hi James,

     Fundamentally the DCF file is a binary format used specifically by ION Setup which was developed a long time ago by myself prior to when the FWN format was developed by the SPM/ION:E team.  ION Designer maintains FWN formats which includes graphical components which are not present in the ION Setup which is why the formats are not similar.

As for you situation, how did you develop the custom framework?  Did you use ION Designer?  If so, did you also save the framework as a FWN?  Did you remember to send your changes to the device (if not, then the custom framework only existed in ION Designer and not the actual meter).  ION Setup can both read the DCF and FWN formats so if you still have the FWN file of the framework, then you could download that.

However, I would overly caution using both ION Setup and ION Designer from the same PC.  ION Designer makes some assumptions and there are certain conditions where downloading templates can cause ION Designer to not update its view of the device's configuration so using ION Setup in conjunction with ION Designer has some pitfalls.

My recommendation is if a user has a good understanding/knowledge of ION and feels comfortable using ION Designer, then to do template development with that software platform.  Once development is completed, you could use ION Setup to "extract" the DCF and download it to another device (alternatively I'd recommend also saving the setup as a FWN as well).

If you want to e-mail me the DCF (robert.lee@ca.schneider-electric.com), I could examine the DCF to see if the custom programming is still present (provided you give me some details of what was custom).

Reply
Yu_Diao
Commander Yu_Diao Commander
Commander

Posted: ‎2013-04-17 12:00 AM

0 Likes
1
1811
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-17 12:00 AM

Robert,

If we transfer the customized framework in the form of DCF file from one meter to another, will

we loss all the grouping and the module placement? I vaguely recall that, all the customized

functions worked fine in the new meter, but, when opened the it in Designer, all the customized

modules just were put all together and made it harder to figure out the original logic behind

them.

Is this what it is supposed to be or just I did this wrong?

Regards,

Reply
Robert_Lee
Admiral Robert_Lee Admiral
Admiral

Posted: ‎2013-04-17 09:05 AM

0 Likes
0
1812
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-17 09:05 AM

Yes, the grouping windows and module placements are stored on the PC (and not on the ION meter).  I believe they're stored in the CONFIG/DIAGRAMS/ND sub-folder and you will see a file for the original meter that should match the name of the meter as defined in Management Console with a .CFG extension (ex. GROUP1.MyION7650.CFG).  You should make a copy of that file using Windows Explorer and rename it to match the device name of the other meter that you pasted the DCF to (the CFG file contains all of the module grouping and placement information while the device itself will have the list of the actual modules).

Reply
Anonymous user
Not applicable

Posted: ‎2013-04-25 02:06 PM

0 Likes
0
1810
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-04-25 02:06 PM

Hi James,

I hope you've got the framework all sorted out, I just wanted to add a little tip/trick here. We invest quite heavily in designing custom meter and VIP frameworks, these frameworks are our IP and once deployed at a customer site we have no way of protecting that IP. So one solution is to zip up the .CFG files into a password protected zip file. This has no effect on the framework functionality but as you've found, when the meter is opened in Designer, the framework mapping (.CFG) file does not exist so the modules are grouped by type which makes navigation/reverse engineering/modification very difficult.

Regards

Al

Reply
sesa126789
sesa126789 Schneider Alumni (Retired)
Schneider Alumni (Retired)

Posted: ‎2013-11-28 04:09 AM

0 Likes
1
1811
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-11-28 04:09 AM

Hi Robert,

     I am looking for if restore to a new meter not same one, can you help to describe it ?

Reply
Robert_Lee
Admiral Robert_Lee Admiral
Admiral

Posted: ‎2013-11-28 09:17 AM

0 Likes
0
1811
  • Mark as New
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Mute
  • Permalink
  • Print
  • Email to a Friend
  • Report Inappropriate Content

Link copied. Please paste this link to share this article on your social media post.

‎2013-11-28 09:17 AM

Hi Eddic,

If you are attempting to copy a template from a different model of device (ex. 7650 to 7550), then I would strongly suggest using ION Designer and saving the template as a FWN.  ION Designer has the capability of storing/pasting information that exists on different but similar devices while ION Setup is a bit more restrictive.  Be aware that certain module classes do not exist on all device platforms so errors may appear and the template may have to be checked/adjusted post-paste due to differences between the devices.

If you are just attempting to replace a device with the exact same model, then both ION Setup and ION Designer can accomplish this by saving the template to a DCF or FWN and then pasting that same file back onto the device.  One thing you should do prior it to make sure if you want to retain your accumulated energy readings (ex. kWh Del), then you will need to record those values prior and manually RegEdit those readings back into the other meter to restore them otherwise the new meter will likely start at zero.

Reply
To The Top!

Forums

  • APC UPS Data Center Backup Solutions
  • EcoStruxure IT
  • EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert
  • Metering & Power Quality
  • Schneider Electric Wiser

Knowledge Center

Events & webinars

Ideas

Blogs

Get Started

  • Ask the Community
  • Community Guidelines
  • Community User Guide
  • How-To & Best Practice
  • Experts Leaderboard
  • Contact Support
Brand-Logo
Subscribing is a smart move!
You can subscribe to this board after you log in or create your free account.
Forum-Icon

Create your free account or log in to subscribe to the board - and gain access to more than 10,000+ support articles along with insights from experts and peers.

Register today for FREE

Register Now

Already have an account? Login

Terms & Conditions Privacy Notice Change your Cookie Settings © 2025 Schneider Electric

This is a heading

With achievable small steps, users progress and continually feel satisfaction in task accomplishment.

Usetiful Onboarding Checklist remembers the progress of every user, allowing them to take bite-sized journeys and continue where they left.

of