OPC Diagnostics provide a real-time and historical view of the OPC events occurring between a client and the server. OPC Diagnostics log an event represented as an OPC method call that a client makes to the server or a callback that the server makes to a client. OPC Diagnostics enable Kepware's Technical Support team to see how customers' client applications gather data from the server, which is important when Kepware cannot reproduce technical issues seen on-site. For information on using OPC Diagnostics, refer to the instructions below.
Note: To capture OPC Diagnostics, an OPC client must be connected to the server. Make a simple connection to the server with the OPC Quick Client if another client is not connected. When enabled, OPC Diagnostics will capture every OPC event that has not been filtered out until it captures the specified maximum number of events.
To start, open the server configuration window and click File | Project Properties.
In the OPC DA Settings tab, check "Enable diagnostics capture". Then click Apply | OK.
Next, open the OPC Diagnostics view by clicking View | OPC Diagnostics. The window will open in logging mode by default. To stop capturing diagnostics, press pause.
To preserve OPC Diagnostics to hard disk, right-click on the Administration menu located in the System Tray and select Settings | Event Log. Then, specify the Persistence Mode and click Apply | OK.
To limit the OPC Diagnostics capture to specific events, right-click anywhere in the OPC Diagnostics window and select Filter.
To send the OPC diagnostics to Kepware for troubleshooting purposes, click File | Save As. Then, specify whether to save the capture in the default binary file format (which may be large in size, but can be reopened in the view at a later date) or as a text file (which is much smaller, and can be printed if needed).
Note: When OPC Diagnostics are saved as a text file, it cannot be reopened in the OPC Diagnostics view.
Sample OPC Diagnostics Text File
IConnectionPointContainer::FindConnectionPoint (Server)0000000016: Event started0000000016: InterfacePointer = 0x053054F00000000016: [in] REFIID = IID_IOPCShutdown0000000016: Function succeeded. Result = 0x000000000000000016: [out] ConnectionPoint = IID_IOPCShutdown0000000016: Event complete3/19/2004 17:40:46 IConnectionPoint::Advise (Server)0000000000: Event started0000000000: InterfacePointer = 0x053026880000000000: Establishing client callback.0000000000: Function succeeded. Result = 0x000000000000000000: [out] Cookie = 0x053026880000000000: Event complete3/19/2004 17:41:49 IOPCServer::AddGroup ()0000000016: Event started0000000016: InterfacePointer = 0x05304F200000000016: [in] Name = OPC_Diag_Test