Home
Engineering
Powerful tools for easy or complex engineering tasks.
System Management
The System Management is the central administrative unit for WinCC OA Systems.
Database
Steps of the online DB backup process
Behavior during backup

Version Information
Release Notes, Update information, Certifications and Frequently Asked Questions.
Concepts
Your first step into modern and powerful process visualization.
Deployment
Topics, you need to know, before using WinCC OA.
Security
Go beyond the norm in cybersecurity.
Engineering
Powerful tools for easy or complex engineering tasks.
- Project Administration
  The chapter contains a description of the process monitor as well as the project administration.
- Graphics Editor (GEDI)
  Used for creating and editing panels, provides tools for creating and configuring graphic objects.
- System Management
  The System Management is the central administrative unit for WinCC OA Systems.
  - System management
  - Diagnostics
  - Reports
  - Database
    - Data backup in WinCC OA
    - Supported Database Combinations
      An overview over the possible database combinations within a WinCC OA project.
    - WCCOAtoolCreateDb
    - Estimation of the hard disk space
    - Update an ISO Project to SQLite Project
    - History DB
    - Archive/Export Alerts
    - ASCII Manager
      The ASCII Manager allows you to input and output and thus edit data points and data point types and to configure data points.
    - SQLite®/ RAIMA Online-Backup
    - Steps of the online DB backup process
    - Archiving and Compression
    - Data Point Groups
      The main purpose of grouping data points is to simplify selection of datapoints and datapoint elements.
    - PowerConfig Editor
    - RDB Archiving
    - RDB Compression
    - RDB Log
    - HDB/RAIMA - RDB Parallel
    - OLE DB Provider
      OLE DB is a Microsoft specification for accessing data on different computers. It is based on Microsoft's COM technology and is the successor to the older and limited ODBC technology.
    - NextGen Archiver (NGA)
      The NextGenArchive (NGA) for is a archiving solution which extends flexibility while keeping the possibilities and strengths of the current methods. This chapter provides an overview of the NGA feature.
    - SQLite®
  - Driver
  - Driver IEC
  - Driver OPC
  - Driver S7
  - SmartSCADA
  - Permission
  - Communication
  - Settings
- Wizard Framework
  Used for easy creation of wizards in a uniform layout style. The key elements "Navigation Bar" and "Bottom Bar" can be customized to fit the needs of the custom wizard.
- XML Panel Format
  The XML (Extensible Markup Language) panel format allows creating WinCC OA panels.
- Simple Symbols, basics
  The "Simple Symbols" functionality is used to simply assign corresponding symbols to data point types and increase the working comfort when working with different symbols.
- ScriptWizard
  Simple wizard for creating graphical user interfaces for users without prior programming knowledge.
- Panel topology/Group alert facility
  Tree structure for process panels with integrated group alert system
- Object-Oriented Panel References
  Reusable objects built with the GEDI tools. Insert them within an existing panel to provide a graphical element.
- Multilingual Projects
  WinCC OA is designed to provide both Native Language Support and Multi Language Support.
- Translator
  The WinCC OA Translator functionality supports you in creating and maintaining multilingual projects. It offers a convenient interface for translation of reusable terms.
- Layout management
  Layouts change the size and position of objects according to parameters previously defined in the GEDI.
- Generic Dialog Framework
  The Generic Dialog Framework is an easy way to generate your own dialogs by adjusting a set of prefabricated panels.
- Simple Configuration
  Simple configuration windows and panels support you in combining events (such as a mouse click) with different actions such as setting data point values, showing panels or changing attributes.
Data Management
Classify, structure and archive your data.
Business Logic / Control
Endless possibilities in data processing for your projects.
Data Visualization
User interfaces, Trends and Reports for every purpose and device.
Southbound Interfaces
The process connection to the actual machines/sensors.
Northbound Interfaces
Your portal to the cloud or supervising systems.
Web Connectivity / Network Interfaces
Data exchange, APIs and web technologies
User Management
All about authorization, authentication and login-customization.
Availability
How to get your system uptime to the maximum.
Reporting
Create state of the art project reports without limits.
Addons
Useful tools and enhancements for special demands.
Reference Tables
Detailed and extensive content for special project adaptation.
Videos & Tutorials
Explore the capabilities of WinCC OA with our carefully selected collection of video tutorials and guides.
WinCC OA Documentation
Basic information about terms and functions within the documentation.
Disclaimer
A brief clarification of liability exclusions or legal notices.

Behavior during backup

If a backup is started, the Data Manager carries out the following actions:

It generates the input file for WCCOAtoolMedia
NOTE: For SQLite the corresponding tool is called WCCOAtoolMediaSQLite.

This file is located in the <proj_path>/data directory and is called "input".
The Data Manager sets the status to "1" (backup is running), writes the buffer (cache) to disk and closes the database.
The DataBG is stopped.
Note: This step (stopping the DataBG) is only relevant for RAIMA projects.
All the current connects of managers are aborted if they require configs for initialization (this relates to drivers).
All the current queries of historical values are aborted and answered with the message "Online backup of the database (#113)".
The row "BACKUP" is written to the status line.
WCCOAtoolMedia starts.

The following messages are answered with the error message "Error in the DM (#33):

Table: System Messages


Message	Description
DP_MSG_SIMPLE_REQUEST	Retrieval of _archive config, dpGet()
DP_MSG_ASYNCH_REQUEST	Request for historical values, dpGetAsynch()
DP_MSG_PERIOD_REQUEST	Request for historical values, dpGetPeriod()
DP_MSG_ALERT_TIME_REQU	Request alarm time
DP_MSG_ALERT_PERIOD_REQU	Request historical alarms, alertGetPeriod()
DP_MSG_FILTER_REQUEST	SQL queries, dpQuery()
DP_MSG_CONNECT, DP_MSG_CONNECT_RET, DP_MSG_CONNECT_NOSOURCE	dpConnect() to _archive configs

All other messages are placed in the message buffer. Beforehand, hotlinks are checked as to whether they relate to the DP Backup.Command and if they do, they are processed beforehand. For this reason, the Backup.Command DP should not be set together with a different DP as in this case, the order of archival of the last values will be changed.

This means that WinCC OA can also be operated in backup mode without data being lost. As in the emergency mode, queries that require an open database are answered with an error. All other messages are saved, however, and are processed after the backup mode has been left.

As no database accesses are possible in the time during which the Data Manager is in backup mode, no _archive configs can be displayed. Any alerts generated and acknowledged in this time, new, modified or deleted data points, data point types and configs will be processed after this time.