Troubleshooting a Virtual ViewX Server Installation

This topic provides suggestions to help troubleshoot an installation in which a Virtual ViewX server is not communicating as expected. If an issue still persists after following these guidelines, contact Schneider Electric Support for further help. Be aware that existing warranty and support arrangements determine the level of help that you receive should you need to contact Schneider Electric.

If you recently upgraded

An upgrade of Geo SCADA Expert:

Check the Release Notes for the new version of Geo SCADA Expert to see if they include advice about upgrading Virtual ViewX.

An upgrade of a Windows Server operating system:

If the machine on which the Virtual ViewX server is installed has been upgraded from a previous version of a supported Windows Server operating system, an additional step might be required to prepare the server. This is required if the following message appears when you try to use Virtual ViewX:

Error 5, Access is denied

This issue occurs because the discretionary access control list (DACL) for the Secondary Logon service is not set correctly when you upgrade from Windows Server 2003 or from Windows Server 2008. This issue prevents a standard user from starting this service and from running an application as a different user.

To solve the problem, please execute the following command from a Command Prompt window, ensuring that the command is copied correctly (including the double straight quotation marks):

net stop seclogon

sc sdset seclogon "D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWRPDTLOCRRC;;;IU)(A;;CCLCSWDTLOCRRC;;;SU)(A;;CCLCSWRPDTLOCRRC;;;AU)S:(AU;FA;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;WD)"

Setup for Performance

If you intend running more than 5 Virtual ViewX clients from a Virtual ViewX server, we recommend that you change some of the settings on the Virtual ViewX Manager from the defaults (see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager).

Further adjustments are required if you intend running more than 10 Virtual ViewX clients from a Virtual ViewX server, and either that server or a Geo SCADA Expert server to which it connects is running Geo SCADA Expert 2019. With such a setup, you have to ensure that the client port range is large enough to accommodate at least one advise connection per Virtual ViewX (see Change the Range of Ports for the Client’s Incoming Data in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Client Administration).

Setup for Security

We recommend that you ensure that:

• The address parameters are restricted from the client browser (via the Applications tab on the Virtual ViewX Manager)

• Anonymous access to Virtual ViewX is disabled (via the Authentication tab on the Virtual ViewX Manager).

For further information about either of the above, see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager.

Unexpected Session Terminations

Virtual ViewX uses a 'Disconnected Remote Desktop Session', which means that Virtual ViewX can be terminated if a Registry or Group Policy setting is incorrect. Virtual ViewX manages its sessions, therefore the Windows setting should not be used to apply a time limit.

The registry setting is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal ServicesMaxDisconnectionTime - this key should not be present.

The Group Policy Setting is:

Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Session Host | Session Time Limits | Set time limit for disconnected sessions - this state should be 'Not Configured'.

Windows 10 Operating System Support

This section only applies if the Virtual ViewX server is installed on a machine that is running Windows 10, rather than a server machine that is running on server class hardware (see Operating Systems).

Virtual ViewX uses the Remote Desktop technology within Windows to help create its displays. There are some limitations in the Windows 10 support of Remote Desktop. These change the behavior of Virtual ViewX when you use a Windows 10 operating system PC as the Virtual ViewX Server.

On Windows 10, the Virtual ViewX setup uses the console user as the 'host' for the server. This is implied by the blank account settings on the Sessions tab of the Virtual ViewX Manager (see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager).

When a user logs in to Virtual ViewX, it is important that a user is logged into the PC console - either by the screen or keyboard locally, or remotely via a remote desktop connection. If no user is logged in, then the Virtual ViewX session may return an error or may display only limited screen content.

Should you wish to create a user manually to remove this restriction, please create a new user, set a password and enter credentials into the Run under this account section of the Sessions tab in the Virtual ViewX Manager (see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager).

When such an account is set up, you can use one or more Virtual ViewX sessions without the console user being logged in.

Logon Issues

To use a Virtual ViewX client, users have to log on using a valid Geo SCADA Expert User Account. (The Guest User and Super User accounts are not supported by Virtual ViewX.)

Read this section if you see 'Error 1327' appearing after logon.

The Virtual ViewX server uses two Windows accounts. Use the Administrative Tools | Computer Management application in Windows® to check these. In the application, open the folder Local Users and Groups | Users. Check that the two users VVXLocalUser and VirtualUI have the following settings configured:

• User must change password at next logon should be clear

• Account is disabled should be clear

• Password never expires should be set.

For each of these users, change their passwords to a suitable long and complex password. Do this by right-clicking on the entries within the Users list.

Check that the VVXLocalUser is a member of the Users group. Check that the VirtualUI user is a member of the Remote Desktop Users group.

Then use the Virtual ViewX Manager application in Geo SCADA Expert to set up these passwords in Virtual ViewX. Do this on the Sessions tab for the VirtualUI user (check the domain), and do this on the Applications tab for the VVXLocalUser user. With the latter users, double-click the Virtual ViewX entry in the table and then select the Credentials tab from the form that gets displayed.

Ports used by the Virtual ViewX Server

Virtual ViewX server installed on a computer that is running a supported Windows Server operating system:

The Virtual ViewX server uses a port internally, set up using the General tab of the Virtual ViewX Manager. We recommend that you choose a Bind to IP setting of 127.0.0.1 to restrict access to the local PC (see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager).

Please check this setting if you experience issues with the Virtual ViewX server - the port must be set to 6580. This port is dynamically routed to an Internet Information Server port using SSL port 453 by default. You can configure this externally facing port using the IIS Manager application (see Modify your Virtual ViewX Server Installation).

Should you wish users to bypass IIS and use the internal Virtual ViewX port directly, you may simply disable the IIS ports and reconfigure the Bind to IP setting and port number using the Virtual ViewX Manager application.

Virtual ViewX server installed on a computer that is running Windows 10:

Virtual ViewX uses a port set up using General tab of the Virtual ViewX Manager (see Working with the Virtual ViewX Manager). You may choose a Bind to IP setting to allow that address to be used by Virtual ViewX clients.

How do I Enable Virtual ViewX Logging?

For information about the Virtual ViewX log files that are created for each instance of Virtual ViewX, see ViewX and Virtual ViewX Logging in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Client Administration.

In addition to the above logging, you can also enable logging for the VirtualUI service on the Virtual ViewX server. Please only enable this logging if requested to do so by Schneider Electric Support. To enable logging for the VirtualUI service:

1. Stop the VirtualUI service.

2. Create the following '.ini' files and paste them into the 'bin64' folder on the Virtual ViewX server machine:

   • VirtualUI.ini

     With the following configuration:

     [DEBUG]
     Enabled=True
     LogDir=C:\log\VirtualUI
     Level=0
     DefaultLevel=0

   • Thinfinity.VUILib.ini

     With the following configuration:

     [DEBUG]
     Enabled=True
     LogDir=C:\log\VirtualUI
     Level=0
     DefaultLevel=0

3. Edit the .ini files and specify a different output directory for each file.

4. Make sure that the output directories exist on the machine.

5. Start the VirtualUI service.

6. Reproduce the issue that you were experiencing.

7. Stop the VirtualUI service.

8. Send the .sil files that have been generated to the Schneider Electric Support team.

There is an additional log feature you can enable using the Virtual ViewX Manager application. Find its setting in the Folders tab. Select Enable Logging and enter a suitable log folder name.