Setting the server to Start runtime

You can run the project in any of the following ways:

• Start manually from the main Action.NET window and the project list: Right-click the project and select from the Run Project menu.

• Start manually, when configuring the project, in the Engineering application: go to Run > Startup and click Run Startup.

• Start the project automatically, which is the best option for production environments.

The best way to define an automatic product startup is to use the configuration interface available in the Project Management tools in the Server tab.
Click the Settings button to choose the project and the startup form

Open

The configuration window, shown in the figure below, will be shown

• The option None is used to not create the automatic triggering of the project. It is recommended to start manually during project development or installation, in which case an operator is required during the startup process. Automatic startup is considered to be the most suitable mode for computers already in production activity.

• You should use the Login, and the startup shortcut, when testing the project or on architectures where the application will always run on the same Windows user profile.

• Use the Service (Service) of Windows on production servers when you need different Windows users to log on to the computer, keeping the server runtime components indefinitely running.

• The Action.NET the program supports the activation of the application from a OPC client, to be in full compliance with OPC specifications. We do not recommend its use because, as a principle of good practice, it is not desirable to allow the remote client to control whether the server-side application is running or not;

The following sections describe what these automatic settings are actually doing. If, for some reason, you need to configure startup without using the configuration tools these commands are the ones that should be used.

Using a shortcut on Windows startup

You can configure a Windows server to automatically start a project using a startup shortcut. The startup shortcut only starts the application when a user signs in to Windows and the application stops working when the user logs off Windows.
This procedure is performed automatically by the system when startup mode is selected, as described in Setting the server to Start runtime". This section will explain how to manually configure the shortcuts.
The start of the project is carried out by the TStartup.exe.

Command line parameters:

/project: Path project and name in double quotation marks
/ username: (optional), user name that will be used to start the server, if you do not specify, the GUEST user will be used.
/redundancy: indicates that server redundancy is being used (requires IP1 and IP2)
/ ip1: IP address of the main server Action.NET
/ Port1: TCP port from the main server Action.NET
/ IP2: IP address of the secondary server Action.NET
/ Port2: TCP port from secondary server Action.NET
The modules that will be started are those configured in the project in Run.Startup.

Examples:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1.1\TStartup.exe" /project:"C:\ActionNet Projects\Project1.tproj"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1.1\TStartup.exe" /project:"C:\ActionNet Projects\Project1.tproj" /port1:3101

Redundancy of Servers:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1.1\TStartup.exe" /project:"C:\ActionNet Projects\Project1.tproj" /username:Administrator /redundancy /ip1:192.168.1.1/port1:3101 / ip2:192.168.1.1.2 /port2:3101

Creating the shortcut

Go to Start > All Programs, and right-click the startup folder, and select Open.

1. In the Initialize folder, right-click and select New> Shortcut.

2. In the Create Shortcut window, paste the command above into the field.

3. If you are not using redundancy, delete the redundancy portion of the text.

4. Type or paste the full command line, examples: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1.1.1\TStartup.exe" /project:"C:\ActionNet Projects\Project1.tproj"

5. Click Next.

6. Type a name for the shortcut.

7. Click Finish.

   • When you restart the computer, the project will start automatically.

Using a Windows Service for Startup

You can configure a Windows server to automatically start a project when the computer starts up, using a Service windows. The Windows service starts the application as soon as the computer is turned on and the Windows operating system starts, even if no users have logged on to Windows.
This procedure is performed automatically by the system when selected for Startup, as described "Setting the Server to Start runtime" . This section will explain how to configure it manually.

Use the Windows Service only on production servers that you are not using as engineering stations, and only if you need the ability to differentiate Windows users when logging in while the project is running.
The first steps in the following procedure are necessary for you to configure the Windows Service.

To run the application as a Windows service:

1. Go to Info> Project> Redundancy.

2. Enter or select the information as needed.

1. Next to the server command-line field, click Copy to Clipboard.

   • You will copy the read-only field, displayed based on the fields above it.

2. Open a text file, paste, and continue with steps 5 through 7 in this file.

3. If you are not using redundancy, you must delete the redundancy part of the text.

4. At the beginning of the command line, type or paste the full path into the Action.NET and place quotation marks around the text

   • It should look something like the following:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1\tStartup.exe"

1. Before the text "tproj", type or paste the full path to the project.

   • It should look like this:

/project:C:\Action.NET Projects\<project_name>.tpro

• The full command line should look something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Spin\Action.NET\an-9.1\tStartup.exe" /project:/ project:C:\Action.NET Projects\<project_name>.tproj /username:<username>

1. Leave the text file open for use in step 10.

2. In the DOS prompt, go to < theNET Framework Installation Path > run the following command:

installutil <InstallPath>\<an-version>\TStartupAsService.exe

• Example:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>installutil c:\Program files\Spin\Action.NET\an-2016.1\TStartupAsService.exe

1. Copy and paste the command you created into the text file.

2. . In Windows Registry, configure the parameters at:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TStartup\Image Path"

• Example:

"c:\\Spin\Action.NET\an-2016.1\TStartupAsService.exe" "/project:C:\Action.NET Projects\Project1.tproj""HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TStartup\ImagePath"

1. In Windows Services (under Administrative Tools), set "TStartup Service" to Automatic, so that the selected project will start when the computer starts.

TStartup Parameters

TStartup.exe is the executable which runs the project. There are many different parameters that can be added to the TStartup command line that provide more features to a project as well as more debugging tools.

In order to use TStartup.exe,  you’ll need to create a shortcut for the executable and edit the shortcut properties to add the parameters.

Launching the Application

Creating a TStartup Shortcut

Go to your product’s installation folder (see usual path below), and search for the TStartup.exe application. Right-click on it, select Create Shortcut, and copy the file. Then, paste it in any folder.

Then, right-click on the created shortcut, select the Properties, and change the Target field (command line) as you desire.

Creating a .bat file

A batch file is a script file in DOS and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands that are executed by the command-line interpreter and are stored in a plain text file.

The following steps describe how to launch a customizable TStartup application with a .bat file:

• Create a text file (extension .txt)

• Write the full command line that will launch the application, as seen below

• Add the desired additional parameters (see examples in the next sections)

• Save and close the file

• Right-click on the icon and change its extension name form .tex to .bat. A warning message will popup on the screen. Click on ’Yes’.

• Double-click on the newly created file to launch the TStartup application.

Required Parameters

The most important parameter for launching your application is related to the Project file. It is the only one that is really necessary for the command line.

The syntax for this parameter is presented below.

After that parameter, you can add any of the remaining available parameters.

Advanced Diagnostic Information

The list below contains the available parameters that can be added to a project's startup for additional debugging information.

/debugstart

The logs are created in the folder:

C:\ProgramData\<ProductName>

It’s worth remembering that this folder is used to log system errors. When a critical error occur, this folder will contain important information that can be used to solve the issue.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /debugstart

/AutoRunDiagnostics: (time in minutes)

The logs are created in the folder:

C:\ProgramData\<ProductName>

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/AutoRunDiagnostics:30

/LogDeviceWriteStartup

The logs are created in the folder:

C:\ProgramData\<ProductName>\Device

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/LogDeviceWriteStartup

Redundancy

/redundancy

It has no parameters. It just needs to be included to enable redundancy.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/redundancy

/autoswitch

It has no parameters. If included, the Primary takes over as the Active node if the secondary was acting as the Active.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/redundancy /autoswitch

/timeautoswitch

The number of seconds the Primary will wait before becoming active if the autoswitch option is enabled. This is typically set to 60 seconds.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/redundancy /timeautoswitch:30

/ip1

The Primary Server Name or IP

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /ip1:<IpAddress>

/port1

The Port number of the primary, default is 3101.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /ip1:<IpAddress> /port1:<PortNumber>

/ip2

The Secondary Server Name or IP

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /ip1:<IpAddress> /ip2:<IpAddress>

/port2

The Port number for the secondary, default is 3101.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/ip1:<IpAddress> /ip2:<IpAddress> /port2:<PortNumber>

/connectiontimeout

The Watch-dog timeout in seconds that is found on Info > Redundancy.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /connectiontimeout:5

/connectionretry

The Connection retry attempts. By default is set as 1.

/ProjectIPPath

The path of the project on the remote server.

The ProjectIPPath is used by the system to allow one station to automatically update the project in the redundant pair when doing online project changes and HotStart commands.

Example:

/ProjectIPPath:192.168.0.1;C:\Projects\test.tproj

Note

The TimeAutoSwitch time is connected when you are using the /autoswitch option. In this scenario, when the computer designed as the Primary starts, it will ”auto switch” from standby to active after it starts.

It is important that the switch happens only after the process had time to get all the synchronization from the active computer. Typically, 60 seconds should be enough for that, but you should increase that settings for large projects or slow networks.

Other Useful Parameters

/username

The RuntimeUser that is logged in.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /username:<UserName>

/password

The custom password to log in as the user defined above.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj"/username:<UserName> /password:<Password>

/wa

Flag (True or False) to set if Windows Authentication will be used.

• True:

• False = Remote

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /wa:true

/port1WA

The listening port using Windows Authentication

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /wa:true /port1Wa:<PortNumber>

/NumberOfDevicesAtSameTime

The number of devices online at the same time. By default is set as 3.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /NumberOfDevicesAtSameTime:1

/TimeBetweenModules

The waiting time between modules being started. Time in seconds.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\<CompanyName>\<ProductName>\<ProductVersion>\TStartup.exe" /Project:"C:\ Projects\Project4.tproj" /TimeBetweenModules:30

/nocache

Flag (true or false) to see if project will use data stored in cache or not. For SmartClient Only.

The target of your shortcut will be something like this:

http://<IpAddress>/<ProductVersion>/TSmartClient.application?nocache=true