Monitoring and Tracking SuiteLink

Tech Note 866

Monitoring and Tracking SuiteLink

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Topic#: 002665
Created: June 2012

Introduction
Many Wonderware applications communicate to each other via the SuiteLink protocol. Monitoring the SuiteLink process is useful,
especially if there are issues with communication.

This Tech Note describes how you can monitor SuiteLink performance counters by using Performance Monitor (Perfmon), and it outlines
how you can generate a Counter Log (file) for further analysis. It also shows creating a .CSV file with information about SuiteLink.

Content Links
Use the following links to navigate to your topic of interest:

About SuiteLink

Using SuiteLink Performance Counters

Monitoring SuiteLink Performance

SL Local Applications

SL Local Apps by Connected App

SL Local Apps by Connected Machine and Topic

SL Local Servers by Topic

SLS Users

Generating a Counter Log (File) for the SuiteLink Performance Counters

SuiteLink Flow Control Logging

Flow Control CSV File

Enabling Logging on Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Enabling the Logging on Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows XP SP3

SuiteLink Diagnostic Tips

SuiteLink Warnings/Error Messages

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SuiteLink Notes

Appendix

About SuiteLink
SuiteLink is a Wonderware communications protocol that uses a TCP/IP based communication protocol. SuiteLink is designed specifically
to meet industrial needs, such as data integrity, high throughput, and easier diagnostics. This protocol standard is supported on Microsoft
Windows.

SuiteLink has a unique way of detecting the client overload condition. At the client side, SuiteLink probes the depth of the Windows
message queue of the client process at a particular interval. If the depth of the Windows message queue is above a certain level called
High Water, SuiteLink understands that the client is overloaded and it will not be able to process the data at that rate. At that point, it
will generate a Suspend event and request the server to stop sending the data. Based on the Suspend request, the server will stop
sending the data.

For a particular SuiteLink probe, if the depth of the Windows message queue is below a certain level called Low Water, SuiteLink
understands that the client has come out of the overload condition and it will be able to process the data. It will generate a RESUME
event and request the server to resume sending the data. When the Server processes the RESUME request, the Server will resume
sending the data.

Note: SuiteLink is not a replacement for DDE, FastDDE, or NetDDE. Each connection between a client and a server depends on your
network situation.

Using SuiteLink Performance Counters

Performance Counters are used to provide information about how well the operating system or an application, service, or driver is
performing. Applications use counter data to determine how much system resources to consume.

Note: You can see the SuiteLink counters in Performance Monitor on Windows XP SP3, Windows 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 SP2 32-bit
Operating Systems after running WindowViewer. On Windows 64 bit you have to type the command mmc /32 perfmon.msc in order
to display the SuiteLink counters. The screenshots in this section are taken from a machine with Windows 2008 SP2.

Monitoring SuiteLink Performance

SL Local Applications
Use SL Local Applications to monitor the local running applications that use SuiteLink.

1. Type Perfmon in the Run field. The Reliability and Performance Monitor window appears (Figure 1 below).

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FIgure 1: RelIaBIlItY and PerfOrmance MOnItOr WIndOw

2. Click Performance Monitor (Figure 2 below).

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FIgure 2: PerfOrmance MOnItOr

3. Right-click anywhere in the right panel and click Add Counters. The Add Counters window appears (Figure 3 below).

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FIgure 3: Add COunters WIndOw

4. Go to SL local applications and expand it, then select some or all of the counters under it. Refer to Appendix for the definition
of each counter.

5. Click one or more of the instances below.

6. Click Add (Figure 4 below).

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FIgure 4: Select SL LOcal ApplIcatIOns tO Add

7. Click OK. The counters are added to the Performance Monitor window (Figure 5 below).

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FIgure 5: SL COunters Added tO PerfOrmance MOnItOr

SL Local Apps by Connected App

Use SL Local apps by connected App to monitor the communication between a local running application that uses SuiteLink, and a
specific application running on a specific machine.

For example, if you have a SuiteLink server application and many SuiteLink client applications running on different machines, you can
monitor the communication to each client individually.

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1. Open Performance Monitor to add counters using the previous steps.

2. Go to SL local apps by connected App and expand it.

3. Select some, or all, of the counters under it. Refer to the Appendix for the definition of each counter.

4. Select one or more of the instances.

5. Click Add (Figure 6 below).

FIgure 6: Add Selected COunters

Note: In this example, there are two instances of TESTPROT: One to the View application on the GCS12 machine and one
to the View application on GCSSRV01.

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6. Click OK. The counters are added to the Performance Monitor window.

SL Local Apps by Connected Machine

Use SL Local apps by connected Machine to monitor the communication between a local running application that uses SuiteLink and a
specific machine that has some running SuiteLink applications.

SL Local Clients by Topic

Use SL Local clients by Topic to monitor the communication between a local SuiteLink client application and each topic of the SuiteLink
server application.

For example, if View is running on the local machine, and is connected to some items from a DAServer, like DASABCIP, you can monitor
the communication to each topic individually.

1. Open Performance Monitor to add counters using the previous steps.

2. Go to SL local clients by Topic and expand it.

3. Select some, or all, of the counters under it. Refer to Appendix for the definition of each counter.

4. Select one or more of the instances.

5. Click Add (Figure 7 below).

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FIgure 7: AddIng TOpIc COunters

Note: There are three instances for View, one for each topic in DASABCIP.

6. Click OK. The counters are added to the Performance Monitor window.

SL Local Servers by Topic

Using SL Local servers by Topic to monitor the communication between a local SuiteLink server application and one or more of its
SuiteLink client applications per topic.

1. Open Performance Monitor to add counters using the previous steps.

2. Go to SL local server by Topic and expand it.

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3. Select some, or all, of the counters under it. Refer to the Appendix for the definition of each counter.

4. Select one or more of the instances.

5. Click Add (Figure 8 below).

FIgure 8: SL LOcal Servers BY TOpIc

6. Click OK. The counters are added to the Performance Monitor window.

SLS Users
SuiteLink applications appear under SLS Users with their full path. One of the important SLS Users counters is Open Connections.

Use it to monitor all the connections of a SuiteLink application.

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1. Open Performance Monitor to add counters using the previous steps.

2. Go to SL Users and expand it.

3. Select some, or all, of the counters under it. Refer to the Appendix for the definition of each counter.

4. Select one or more of the instances.

5. Click Add (Figure 9 below).

FIgure 9: Add SLS Users COunters

6. Click OK. The counters are added to the Performance Monitor window.

Generating a Counter Log (File) for the SuiteLink Performance Counters

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You can create a Log file for later analysis for any of the counters used in the previous sections. Creating a Log file helps with
troubleshooting.

1. In the Reliability and Performance Monitor window, expand Data Collector Sets.

2. Right-click User Defined, then click New Data Collector Set (Figure 10 below).

FIgure 10: Create a New Data COllectOr Set

3. In the Create New Data Collector Set window, type a name for the set and click Create manually (Figure 11 below).

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FIgure 11: Create SuIteLInk COunter LOg

4. Click Next.

5. Click the Performance counter checkbox (Figure 12 below).

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FIgure 12: Create Data LOgs/PerfOrmance COunter

6. Click Next.

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FIgure 13: Add PerfOrmance COunters

7. Click Add. The following window appears (Figure 14 below).

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FIgure 14: Select COunters frOm the LOcal COmputer

8. Add some of the SL counters shown in the previous examples (Figure 15 below).

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FIgure 15: AddIng SL COunters

9. Click OK. The counters appear in the Performance counters panel (Figure 16 below).

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FIgure 16: PerfOrmance COunters fOr the Data COllectOr Set

10. Click Next.

11. Type the directory where you would like to save the Log files (Figure 17 below).

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FIgure 17: LOg FIle Path

12. Click Next.

13. Click Start this data collector set now, then click Finish (Figure 18 below).

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FIgure 18: Start the Data COllectOr Set

Note: On Windows 2003, the Performance Logs and Alerts service should Log on as a Local System account (Figure 19 below).

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FIgure 19: PerfOrmance LOgs and Alerts PrOpertIes WIndOw

SuiteLink Flow Control Logging

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For InTouch 10.5, you can use SuiteLink Flow Control Logging to troubleshoot communication issues.

A SuiteLink client can enable logging to a CSV file. The logging configuration data is stored in the registry, and the information is read
one time when the SuiteLink client process starts. The folder where the log file should be generated is specified as well as how large the
log file is allowed to become in megabytes.

Registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wonderware\SuiteLink\<Module Name>
Key

String
QueueProbeLogFolder
Value

Module
Yes – Module Only – No Global Setting.
Support

Default None

Minimum None

Maximum None

Constraints Folder must exist. Do not end folder specification with a backslash.

If this entry exists in the registration database for the specified module, then a log file will
Purpose be created in the folder when SuiteLink is connected to the module, and that log file will
begin filling with text indicating the status of the flow control handler for that client.

Registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wonderware\SuiteLink\<Module Name>
Key

DWORD
QueueProbeLogSizeMax
Value

Module
Yes – Module Only – No Global Setting.
Support

Default 512MB

Minimum 0

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Maximum 2^32

Constraints None

Control how large the queue probe log file will become. Once the maximum log file size has
been reached, no further messages will be logged to the file.
Purpose
Note that because one last log file message might be pending, the log file maximum size
might be exceeded by a few bytes.

The messages indicating that the SuiteLink client has suspended or resumed by default do not appear in the SMC logger for every
occurrence. You can configure the number of times SuiteLink must be consecutively suspended before a message appears in the Registry.

If you think that the SuiteLink suspends very briefly, but nothing appears in the SMC logger, you can set this number lower and lower.
Setting the number to 1 logs every Suspend event.

Registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wonderware\SuiteLink\FlowControl
Key

DWORD
MaxHighWaterCountToLogMessage
Value

Module
Yes
Support

Default 10

Minimum 0

Maximum 2^32

Constraints None

A consecutive MaxHighWaterCountToLogMessages number of SuiteLink Suspend events will

cause a message to be sent to the SMC logger, which will indicate that SuiteLink has
become suspended. A subsequent message will be posted once SuiteLink resumes.
Purpose
This value can throttle how much activity is reported to the logger.

A value of 0 or 1 will potentially result in a log file full of SuiteLink suspend and resume
messages.

Flow Control CSV File

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If the proper entries have been made to enable the client-side flow control log file, the CSV file appears when logging begins.

The file's name has the following format:

QPHLog_App_Exe_PID_DDMMYYYY_HHMMSS_MMM.CSV

For example, if the SuiteLink client’s program name was View.Exe and the program started logging on June 02, 2011, the file name is:

QPHLog_View_Exe_2804_02062011_083927_523.CSV

Enabling Logging on Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7

1. Open Regedit (Figure 19 below).

FIgure 20: Run/RegedIt

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node (this key is generated by default).

3. Under the above key, create the following keys:

• Wonderware>SuiteLink>FlowControl
• Wonderware>SuiteLink>view.exe (the module you want to log it)

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FIgure 21: Create RegIstrY KeYs

4. Under FlowControl, create a DWORD value and call it MaxHighWaterCountToLogMessage, and set its value to 1 (Figure 21
below).

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FIgure 22: EdIt DWORD Value

5. Under view.exe, create a String value and call it QueueProbeLogFolder.

6. Set its value to C:\SuiteLink\LogFiles (Figure 22 below). This path is manually created to store the log files.

FIgure 23: Create Value Data Name and Path

7. Open WindowViewer. The .csv files should be created at the path you provided (C:\SuiteLink\LogFiles).

Note: Each time you restart Viewer, a new .CSV file is created at that location.

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FIgure 24: CSV FIles at Pre-COnfIgured LOcatIOn

Each Log file will look as follows:

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FIgure 25: CSV LOg FIle COntents

Some of the parameters that you will see in the file are:

CountToTriggerOverload: The Suspend event is generated only if the count of consecutive HighWater conditions is greater than
this value. Its default value is 1.

CountToResetOverload: The RESUME event is generated only if the count of consecutive LowWater conditions is greater than this
value. Its default value is 1.

Enabling the Logging on Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows XP SP3
For Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows XP SP3, repeat the previous steps above but you will find the Registry key of Wonderware
under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node.

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FIgure 26: RegIstrY KeY fOr WIndOws 2003 and XP SYstems

SuiteLink Diagnostic Tips

SuiteLink data can be lost for several reasons:

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High CPU Utilization

In this case the IOServer may not get any CPU time. As a result, the IOServer doesn’t even update itself (it is freezing). This condition is
not related to SuiteLink but rather to the fact that there is no CPU allocated to the IOServer (lower thread priority).

Solution

For this scenario the IOServer should be moved on another machine. This way the node with the IOServer will not be affected by a high
CPU, for example from using TSE.

InTouch is Busy
The CPU may not be high but InTouch is busy (like a loop or a lot of Synch QF)—client overload.

In this case InTouch sends a Suspend and tells the Server to stop sending data. When InTouch is no longer busy it sends a RESUME and
the IOServer starts sending the data. What happens in this case is that the data between the Suspend and RESUME is lost.

Solution

Find out why the InTouch is busy and why it cannot process the data. Check the loop and Synch QF.

The IOServer is Slow

The IOServer is slow (slow device). As a result, several Suspend messages can be posted by the Server. Suspend messages posted by
IOServers do not do anything to the system (do not stop the data from being sent or received). They just pile up in the Message queue,
which can lead to the IOServer not being able to function.

Solution

For this scenario work needs to be done on the IOServer-side (the protocol specific code), as well as the Device to make sure that it is
not so slow. This way fewer Suspend messages will be generated.

SuiteLink Warnings/Error Messages

The following graphics show examples of Suitelink warnings/errors. In this case, InTouch and InControl were used for testing.

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FIgure 27: wwLOgger FIle and WarnIngs/ErrOrs

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FIgure 28: Suspend/Resume Messages

The Suspended and Resumed messages do not constitute failure by themselves.

By design, SuiteLink generates the Suspended and Resumed messages automatically in the background. These messages are only an
indication of problems when data updates become very sluggish and/or missing (out of synch).

By default, Suitelink Suspend events are not logged unless a Suspend event occurs consecutively for 10 or more times without a Resume
event. This means that Suspend events can still occur, even though they may not appear in the logger. You can monitor Suspend events
more closely by looking at the Performance Counters.

Possible Causes
The following events are possible causes for the Suspend event to be generated.

SuiteLink server shutdown: Closing the InTouch or InControl application, reboot, and so on.

Network issue: Sharing network routers with a large number of nodes with dynamic node addressing assignments; duplicate node
IDs, heavy network traffic, etc.

Suitelink overload: Accompanied by Suspended/Resumed SuiteLink Updates messages. Too many items updating too fast
sometimes corrupts SuiteLink files or something similar.

High CPU utilization: This is one of the most common cause for Suspend events to be generated.

SuiteLink Notes
The network transport protocol is TCP/IP using Microsoft's standard WinSock interface.

SuiteLink is designed specifically for high speed industrial applications.

SuiteLink does not support multiple Access Names with the same application/topic names. You can configure one of the Access
Names to use DDE and the other to use SuiteLink.

SuiteLink Suspend condition can occur when the machine's CPU is highly loaded or all the machine resources are being used on
some other processes.

Appendix
This section contains SuiteLink Counter names and their definitions.

Counter Name Definition

High Water mark triggered now The transmit queue is now filled to high limit.

Total items received (advised or requested) since app

Items Recd
startup.

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Total number of times the server accepted a connection

Open Connections from SLSSVC since server startup (includes topics with
invalid names).

The local application has not been responsive to its msg

Overload detected now
queue.

Overload forced now The local application has indicated that it is overloaded.

The local application has disabled reactions to automatic

Overloads are being ignored
overload detection.

The remote node requested that transmitting be

Rem node req’d suspend now
suspended.

Resumes sent Total resume requests sent.

Rx Bytes Total number of bytes received.

Rx Bytes/Sec Bytes received per second.

Rx Items/Sec Items updated per second.

Rx Packets Total number of SL packets received.

Suspends sent Total suspend requests sent.

Tx Bytes Total number of bytes sent.

Tx Bytes/Sec Bytes sent per second.

Tx Packets Total number of SL packets sent.

TxQ Bytes in Queue Total number of bytes currently in the transmit queue.

TxQ High Water marks Total number of times the SL transmit queue has filled.

Transmitting is now suspended until a write callback is

Waiting for write callback
rec’d.

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A. Ibrahim, R. Mahmoud

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