Tracing Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

From time to time, you may perceive that your system suffers from unexpected behavior that you would like to eliminate. However, you have no idea what could be wrong. In the task of diagnostic and troubleshooting the applications, you may take advantage of the following tools:

TraceWorX64

TraceWorX64 provides online diagnostics and tuning of applications running in the GENESIS64 system. It is designed for system integrators, OEMS, and customers who want tools for doing their own troubleshooting and diagnostics. Trace files provides valuable information that you can present when you contact ICONICS Technical Support. Nevertheless, it is not recommended to have TraceWorX64 turned on constantly because it may put additional load on your system resources.

 

TraceWorX64 tracks the runtime activity for each GENESIS64 application and logs the runtime data to a log file based on user configured trace levels. The log file provides a thorough, color-coded report detailing all activity for the application, including the time, the date, the severity level, and the description of the event or problem. In general, you may start any GENESIS64 application either via Start Menu or through ICONICS Workbench. As Workbench is meant to be the starting point for your applications, we will consider it having already been launched.

TraceWorX Configuration and Log Viewer

Log Content

 

GenEvent Server

While TraceWorX64 is quite a complex troubleshooting tool that you may turn on, independently customize trace levels, and maintain your logs, you can take advantage of another simple tool to track standard application events in GENESIS64 suite.

 

Almost all GENESIS64 components post messages to the internal Event Server called GenEvent Server. This server is an OPC AE server that your clients can subscribe to, which allows you to view informational messages. These messages contain basic status information about applications, operator changes, etc. The most common way to view them is by means of the AlarmWorX64 Viewer.

  1. Into a GraphWorX64 display, insert AlarmWorX64 Viewer.

  2. Subscribe this control to the Event Logger server.

GenEvent Server Selection in Data Browser

 

NOTE: In order to find more information on how to create subscriptions and customize AlarmWorX64 Viewer see corresponding application notes in AlarmWorX64 section.

  1. View the ICONICS application events in GraphWorX64 runtime.

Genesis Events in AlarmWorX64 Viewer

 

NOTE: If you exit runtime, all event messages will permanently disappear from the AlarmWorX64 Viewer. You will not be able to retrieve them unless you had stored them by means of AlarmWorX64 Logger.

 

Event Viewer

 

For your convenience ICONICS implemented the option to show all GenEvent messages in Microsoft Event Viewer so that you can easily store and review them together with other application event messages. All these application event messages are stored in Application section of Windows Log.

  1. In the classic Workbench, select the FrameWorX Server provider in the Project Explorer.

  2. Expand the FrameWorX server tree control, and double-click GenEvents.

GenEvent Configuration Tab

  1. Mark all applications you want to post events to Event Viewer.

  2. Click Save Changes and then open the Event Viewer to review the logging of events. (You can launch the Event Viewer from the Windows Control Panel's Administrative Tools.)

Event Viewer Application

 

NOTE: All ICONICS application messages come from ICONICS Event source and can be identified as such among other Application events.

 

See also:

TraceWorX

Configuring TraceWorX64