The following procedure outlines how to install the Rockwell FactoryTalk Services Platform on Windows Server 2012 R2.

1. Ensure you have the .Net Framework installed. If not, you may receive the following error:
   Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is not installed.
   To install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, open an elevated Powershell prompt and enter the following command:
   PS C:\Windows\System32> Install-WindowsFeature -Name Net-Framework-Core -IncludeAllSubFeature

2. Install FactoryTalk Services Platform

3. Launch the installer and select Install FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition
   

4. Select Install FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition
   

5. Select Install FactoryTalk Services
   

6. Select Install FactoryTalk Services
   

7. Select Next
   

8. Select Next
   

9. Read the Software License Agrement, if you agree to it, Select Accept all
   

10. Select Install
    

11. Select Finish
    

12. Select Yes to reboot server
    

FactoryTalk Viewpoint is a great way to extend FactoryTalk View SE and ME HMI applications to browser based clients. Said another way, FactoryTalk View SE and ME applications can now be viewed and controlled through a web browser on a wide array of devices. These can include: mobile devices (phones and tablets), traditional PCs and even thin clients. Rockwell supports Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari browsers.

New with the release of FactoryTalk ViewPoint 8.1, rendering of graphics now uses HTML5; prior versions relied on Microsoft's Silverlight technology. Silverlight limited the supported client platforms that could be used with Viewpoint. New with Viewpoint 8.1, HTML5 brings the full View SE and View ME client experience to some of the most common platforms including iOS devices (iPhones and iPads), Android devices (phones and tablets), and Windows devices (PCs and Phones). Currently Mac OS X and Firefox are not listed as supported clients.

Prior versions of Viewpoint, relying on Silverlight, presented a challenge because it was mainly supported on Windows based PCs and required the plug-in to be installed. Not all users have Windows based PCs or the ability/privileges to install the SIlverlight plug-in. Using HTML5 greatly increases the accessibility of FactoryTalk View SE and ME applications both on and off the plant floor.

Migrating legacy applications written VBA or VB 6.0 to modern operating systems can frequently cause a headache.

Symptoms

I ran into one such instance with a FactoryTalk View SE Application that used VBA to connect to a SQL database. Data Access Objects (DAO) and ODBCDirect was used to create the ODBC connection and iterate over a Batch Client Cursor record set. The old application was running on Windows Server 2003 and I was porting it to Windows Server 2012 R2.

The following code was used:

    Set ODBCWorkSpace = CreateWorkspace("NewODBCWorkspace", "SQLUser","passw0rd!",dbUseODBC)
    ODBCWorkSpace.DefaultCursorDriver = dbUseClientBatchCursor

    strDBConn = "ODBC;Database = dbName;UID=SQLUser;PWD=passw0rd!;DSN=ODBCDSN"
    Set RecipeConn = ODBCWorkSpace.OpenConnection("", dbDriverNoPrompt, False, strDBConn)
    ODBCWorkSpace.DefaultCursorDriver = dbUseClientBatchCursor

    strSQL = "select * from Table"

    Set rstQuery = RecipeConn.OpenRecordset(strSQL, dbOpenDynamic, 0, dbOptimisticBatch)

When running it I received the following error:

This was due to not having Data Access Objects installed on the 2012 R2 server.

The next errors are below, they were caused by not having the appropriate DLL for the Batch Client cursor.

Resolution

1. Download Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0 (Vs6sp6.exe)
   Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0
2. Run Vs6sp6.exe and extract the files
3. Open msrdo20.cab, it contains the following files: MSRDO20.DLL, MSRDO20.INF, and RDOCURS.DLL. Extract all three files and copy them to the C:\Windows\Sys64WOW\ directory.
4. Open an elevated command prompt, navigate to C:\Windows\Sys64WOW, and register MSRDO20.DLL. The RDOCURS.DLL does not need to be registered.

    C:\Windows\System32> cd C:\Windows\Sys64WOW
    C:\Windows\Sys64WOW> regsvr32 MSRDO20.DLL