Software requirements

General Software Requirements for WinCC OA.

General Notes

Important: Please note that third-party components - which are not supplied by ETM - will not be supported from the point in time at which the manufacturer discontinues the support. From this point on, this also applies to all supported previous versions of WinCC OA.
Restriction: Only one WinCC OA project may run on a system! Multiple projects must not be used on the same machine!

Discontinuation Overview

A list of all discontinued features and announcements for future discontinuations can be found within the official WinCC OA portal. Click here!

Operating systems

The following specifications list configurations tested by ETM which are officially supported. Particularly for the new Linux distributions, this is the latest status; recommended updates to new kernel versions or patches as well as service packs for Windows are recommended.

Important: The Windows user of WinCC OA must be a member of the default group "Power Users".

In the following table the entries marked with "✓" indicate that the application may be used in a production environment.

"Client" refers to a remote computer which is designed for the system of a user interface (remote UI).

Restriction: Please consider that only 64bit operating systems are supported!
Table 1. Supported Operating Systems
Operating system Supported edition Client Server
Windows 11 Enterprise - Windows 11 CB Version 23H2 (Build-Version: 22631.4169) ✓ ✓
Windows 10 Enterprise

- Windows 10 CB Version 22H2 (Build-Version: 10.0.19045.4894)

- Windows 10 LTSC 2021 (Build Version: 10.0.19044.4894)

 ✓ ✓
Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2019 (Build-Version: 10.0.17763.6293) ✓ ✓
Windows Server 2022 Windows Server 2022 (Build-Version: 10.0.20348.2700) ✓ ✓
Linux RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 (Build-Version: 9.4) ✓ ✓
Oracle® Linux

Oracle® Linux 9 (Build-Version: 9.4)

Warning:

During testing of WinCC OA some stability issues were found while using the Kernel 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2.x86_64 which lead to non-responding virtual machines within the test environment (VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 3k).

Changing the Kernel to version 5.14.0-162.12.1.el9_1.x86_64 prevented the issue from appearing, and is therefore recommended.

 ✓ ✓
SIMATIC Industrial OS SIMATIC Industrial OS 3.2.2 ✓ ✓
Debian

Debian 11 (Bullseye). Native and Docker / Debian 11 ARM-x64. Native

 ✓ ✓
Android (Mobile UI) 8 or higher ✓ ✗
iOS (Mobile UI) 15.0 or higher ✓ ✗
Docker

Docker-Version 27.2.0

Further information about WinCC OA and Docker can be found within the chapter Docker Support

 ✗ ✓
VMWare VMware Cluster (HA) ESXi - 7.0.3q ✓ ✓
Azure and AWS1 Läuft auf Azure und AWS (2) ✓ ✓

1... Hard & software requirements must be met.

Note: Please note that all Windows OS types are Enterprise versions.

Operating System Specific Configurations

General

Restriction: The SFN (8.3) format for file names is not supported by WinCC OA !

Installing patches

Consider the following notes when installing patches to your WinCC OA version:

  • You have to stop WinCC OA (incl. console, project administration, PMON and log viewer) before installing a patch.

Name resolution

Working name resolution is required for WinCC OA . If the name resolution does not work a process can be momentarily blocked. Assure that the mapping of IP addresses to computer names and the mapping of computer names to IP addresses works properly (this is also valid for computers in the network, where a remote user interface is running). You can do this via an entry in the "hosts" file (contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names) or via a DNS server that allows forward (using a domain name to find an IP address) and reverse (using an IP address to find a domain name) lookups. The "host" file is located in <SystemRoot>\system32\drivers\etc.

Note: Since the release of WinCC OA version 3.8 IPv6 addresses (format: "[::1]") are supported. This may change the output/view of the IP addresses, e.g. "FFFF::127.0.0.1" instead of "127.0.0.1".
Restriction: Identical host names in different domains are not supported with WinCC OA ! The function getHostname() also returns the host name without domain!

Firewall Settings

When using WinCC OA together with a firewall, consider that the use of a firewall restricts the communication. Check that all required ports are open.

Add the following WinCC OA programs to the firewall exceptions:

Manager Name Executable Name Default Port / Port Range Notes
Process manager WCCILpmon 4999
Data manager WCCILdata 4897
Archive manager WCCOAvalarch 4899 - 4904 WCCOAvalarch -num 0: 4899 WCCOAvalarch -num 1: 4900 WCCOAvalarch -num 2: 4901 WCCOAvalarch -num 3: 4902 WCCOAvalarch -num 4: 4903 WCCOAvalarch -num 5: 4904
Event manager WCCILevent 4998 -
Redu manager WCCILredu 4776 Optional, only for redundant projects
Dist manager WCCILdist 4777 Optional, only for distributed projects
Split manager WCCILsplit 4778 Optional, only for redundant projects
MxProxy manager WCCILproxy 5678 -
HTTP Web Server WCCOACtrl 80,443,8080,8079 Windows: 80,443 Linux 8080,8079
Note: Please note that additional ports for project specific managers may be required, e.g. web server ports, driver ports, etc.

VMWare

To ensure the integrity of WinCC OA systems running on VMWare, consider the following:

  • WinCC OA must be properly shut down before a Virtual Machine is stopped.
  • An "online backup" ("snapshot") of a Virtual Machine is not supported.
  • A snapshot of a virtual machine can not be restored.
  • The clock of the virtual machine must never make an unexpected jump (forward or backward) while WinCC OA is running.
  • Redundant WinCC OA systems shall run on physically redundant hardware and network configurations.

Requirements for connecting peripheral devices

Communication with controllers or peripheral devices may require additional software components. When using OPC, compatibility of connected hardware/software with a specific operating system must be clarified with the manufacturer.

Note: In case an error regarding the OPC Core Components Redistributable component occurs after the WinCC OA installation, please uninstall and manually reinstall the OPC Core Components.

Network

Consider the following requirements for using WinCC OA network features (e.g, a distributed system):

  • Specify the entry "127.0.0.1 localhost" in the hosts file for adding the localhost.
  • All computers of a distributed/redundant system must have the same IPv6 state (active or inactive). A mixed mode is not supported!

Time synchronization

Configure time synchronization for the entire SCADA system. The following options are available:

  • Hardware-based (e.g. GPS or DCF77 radio-controlled clock)
  • NTP (network time protocol)

The time adjustment must be slow enough to handle leaps. Therefore, either a third party software or a time service (e.g. W32Time under Microsoft Windows) can be used.

OpenGL Support

Set the following enviroment variable for machines with no active 3D acceleration support.

Errors will occur during the setup if the entry is not set properly and the installation process is not completed successfully.

The entry can either be specified globally for the system or before every start of the WinCC OA setup, documentation or WebView EWO.

set QT_OPENGL=angle

Windows Specific Settings

Microsoft Windows Security Updates

This product supports a Microsoft Windows operating system. Microsoft is responsible for operating system updates. Therefore, please stay informed about operating system updates directly on the following page:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/

Windows Scaling

We recommended a Windows scale factor of 100%. Any deviating settings, for example different settings on multiple monitors, can lead to significant presentation problems.

Linux Specific Settings

Restrictions - General

Consider the following restrictions when using WinCC OA under Linux:

Feature Restrictions
Drivers Not all drivers are supported. See Supported Platforms for a compatibility list of supported operating systems by drivers.
COM Interface Not supported
Excel Report Not supported
C# API Not supported
Communication Center Serial Interface only
Translator Not supported
SmartSCADA Not supported when using SIMATIC Industrial OS or Debian.
Disaster Recovery System Not supported when using SIMATIC Industrial OS or Debian.
RDB Not supported when using SIMATIC Industrial OS

Desktop Environment

  • Only the window manager GNOME is supported.
  • Please note that when using the Linux desktop environment GNOME the error message "... is not responding" might appear. This happens if content is loaded that takes more than 5 seconds to finish. By pressing the "Wait" button the UI can be normally used after it has finished loading the content.
  • On GNOME desktops, the 2 finger swipe gestures are not supported.

Display Server

Consider that the display server "Wayland" is currently not supported by WinCC OA .

If "Wayland" is the default display server of your distribution, select the "X11" display server manually when logging into your system or completely disable "Wayland" on your system.

Note: To disable "Wayland" e.g. for Oracle® Linux remove the hash (#) symbol from the line "#WaylandEnable=false" inside of the /etc/gdm/custom.conf.

Sound output

To play sound in Control under Linux, install the SDL package.

Oracle Linux-Red Hat Kernel

For how to configure the Red Hat kernel on Oracle Linux, see https://docs.oracle.com/en/learn/oracle-linux-kernels/#check-the-current-default-kernel.

Siemens Industrial Thin Client

Only SIMATIC ITC (Industrial Thin Client) V3 is supported.

Note: Please note that for the usage of the SIMATIC ITC V3 a firmware upgrade to at least version 3.2.3 of the ITC firmware is required.

API development

Development Environment

Operating system Compiler
Windows Visual C++ Compiler 19.2X / vcvars: 14.2
Linux GCC version 10
Note: If an API manager/driver was compiled using VS 2019 at least VS 2019 Runtime must be installed on the target system. Otherwise the error "The system cannot execute the specified program" is shown.

Development Licenses

Due to the direct dependencies between WinCC OA and Qt, an official QT development license is required to develop custom components - custom managers, Ctrl extensions, drivers, EWOs - using the WinCC OA API.

Third-Party Components

Supported Web Browser

The compatibility of WinCC OA has been tested with following web browsers:

Browser Version Limitations
Firefox 91 ESR 64bit -
Chrome Version 103 64bit -
Edge Edge (Chromium) 105 64bit -
Note: Unless explicitly stated, the web browsers can only be used on the officially supported operating systems.

Doxygen

The supported Doxygen version for High Speed Programming is 1.8.15.

SEH Dongle Server

The SEH Dongle Server Pro series has been tested with WinCC OA version 3.19 .

The SEH Dongle Server is compatible with the WinCC OA dongle licenses from Wibu CodeMeter. To use the SEH Dongle Server for WinCC OA , USB dongles and the appropriate licenses must be acquired from ETM sales. The Wibu CodeMeter version 8.10 is supported.

BIRT (Eclipse)

The installation of the "Report Designer Full Eclipse Install" is required for the Reporting feature. For details see chapter BIRT, requirements and installation.

BIRT Designer version 4.8.0 is supported by WinCC OA .

OpenSSL

The following SSL library must be used to ensure full compatibility with WinCC OA :

  • OpenSSL 3.0.15

This library is supplied by the WinCC OA installation.

Vimacc Services

Following version of vimacc services is provided with the setup of WinCC OA: 2.2.10.36

PC-Identifier (S7DOS)

The following PC Identifier version is used for WinCC OA: 9.3.1.

Supported Virus scanner

WinCC OA was tested with the following virus scanners and security suites:

Virus Scanner Tested with Additional Notes
McAfee Endpoint Protection Suite 10.7.0 -
Trend Micro Apex One 14.0.9601 -
Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.3.0 -
Microsoft Defender -
Note: Note that virus scanners may decrease the overall performance of your system.

For additional information on virus scanners and on white listing tools, see the WinCC OA Security Guidelines.

They can be downloaded from winccoa.com

Supported SQLite Version

WinCC OA supports the following SQLite Version: 3.36.0 (included)

Supported Oracle® Versions for RDB

  • The following server versions are supported - see the table below.
  • Only the Standard and Enterprise Editions are supported.
  • Only 64bit versions of the Oracle® client are supported.
  • Oracle® Client installation is also supported under Linux. For a detailed installation manual, see the chapter Oracle Client 19c Installation under Linux.
  • For the function dbOpenRecordset() with the cursor types 1 and 3 use the Oracle-Full Client Patch-Version 19.13 (p33155330_190000_MSWIN-x86-64).
CAUTION:
  • The VC14 support is automatically installed together with the Oracle® client software under Windows!

  • The directory of the Oracle® client oci\lib\msvc\vc14 must exist and the OS system path variable must also refer to the directory of the oraocci14.dll in the \oci\lib\msvc\vc14:

    Therefore, the OS system path variable must be extended with the full path of the %ORACLE_HOME%\oci\lib\msvc\vc14 directory at the beginning of the system path.

  • Consider that the usage of the Oracle® Client is only supported for operating systems officially supported by Oracle. If a different operating system is used and an Oracle Service-Request is required, the problem must be reproducible on an officially supported operating system.

Server/Client Combinations - Oracle® Support

The official information by Oracle® can be found here.

Client Version Server Version

Oracle Instant Client 19c Version 19.15

Oracle 19c Server
Notice: This table has been last updated in May 2024.

Supported InfluxDB® Version for NGA

  • The InfluxDB version has been updated to version 1.8.10 due to an InfluxDB bug. The error caused temporary files not to be deleted until the database was restarted.
  • This version is available for all 64 bit Linux and Windows platforms supported by WinCC OA.
Note: The Windows version of InfluxDB® is currently not officially supported by InfluxData© but has been tested exhaustively by ETM .

Supported PostgreSQL Version for NGA

The PostgreSQL Version used for NGA is V13.

Supported Microsoft SQL Version for NGA

The Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard Edition is used for NGA.

Qt Version

WinCC OA version 3.19 uses the Qt Version 5.15 LTS

The matching squish version "squish-6.6.2-qt515x-" is used for automatic user interface tests.

Insights Hub Tenant

Insights Hub Version 3.0 is supported by WinCC OA

Office packages and Excel

For the use of MS Excel for reporting tasks ( WinCC OA Excel Report ) or Mass configuration the following Excel versions are supported:

Supported Excel Versions Feature
Excel 2016 32bit Excel Report, Mass configuration
Excel 365 32bit (1912 (Build 12325.20298 Click-to-Run) Excel Report, Mass configuration
Excel 2021 (Retail version 2035) Excel Report, Mass configuration
CAUTION: Only Excel 32bit versions are supported for the WinCC OA Excel Report .
Restriction: The Excel Report does not work with NextGen Archiver (NGA).

Additional Information

Documentation

The WinCC OA documentation is provided as Qt Compressed Help (.qch) and can be opened using the Qt Assistant, which is part of the WinCC OA setup.

Supported Graphic Formats

  • Bitmap (.bmp)
  • Pixmap (.xpm)
  • X BitMap (.xbm)
  • PNM format (.PBM (P1 or P4), .PGM (P2 or P5), and .PPM (P3 or P6)
  • Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
  • Animated GIF (.gif)
  • Portable Network Graphics (.png)
  • Joint Photographic Experts Group (.JPEG)
  • Multiple-image Network Graphics (.MNG)
  • Windows-Metafile (.wmf)
  • Enhanced-Metafile (.emf)
  • ICO
  • SVG (SVG 1.2 Tiny only)
  • The functionality of WMF and especially EMF graphics under Linux is limited since the complete functional range is not available.
  • SVG graphics: ECMA scripts and DOM manipulation are currently not supported. Please check your files accordingly and a W3C Validation Check is recommended.

Recommendations for ESXi Server and ULC UX User Interface Operation

Note the following recommendations for ESXi Server and ULC UX User Interface operation:

  • Minimum memory for graphics: varies depending on graphics resolution and number of connections. Recommended for five ULC UX connections at least 512MB.
  • Low latency is important
  • ULC UX is rendered on the server
  • There are parameters which have an influence on the performance of the ULC UX in the web browser.
    • Bandwidth
    • Latency
    • Dynamic panel content
    • CPU performance of the web server
    • Available memory on the web server

Because the performance and the possible ULC UX connections to one web server are highly dependent on the panels and the scripting inside the panels, we cannot guarantee any specific number of possible connections. This will be highly customer panel dependent and will need to be tested with the panels used in the customer project to determine the possible ULC UX connections.

Note: Note also the general requirements for ULC UX..