For example, say I have a local copy of a project that is hosted on a Multiuser Server called RestoreExample. One day while I’m working on the project, I delete a data block called dbImportant thinking its something that the project doesn’t need, and then I check that deletion back into the server.

Restoring the Data Block

Later that day, I realize that dbImportant was necessary for some features of the project and that nothing will work right without it. Now, I have to somehow get dbImportant back into the server copy of the project.

If you open the TIA Portal Project Server V16 – Administration program and log into your multiuser server, you can access the history of your project and all of the changes that it has gone through.

In this History window, you can see information on all the revisions of the Server project from each time someone checked in a change to the server. From here you can see when the change was made, who made the change, and any comments they might have made.

If you click on the “Show Details” button in the upper right-hand side of the window you can see a list of all the changes that were checked in for that revision. As you can see in Revision 13, the details window shows that dbImportant was deleted in that revision.

Now if I click on Revision 12 and press the “Rollback to the selected revision” button, a new revision of the server will automatically be created with the comment “Rollback to Revision 12."

If you look at the details for the newly created Revision 14, you can see the block dbImportant was re-created.

Now, if I go back to my local copy of the project, you can see that a change has been made to the server and that I need to refresh my local copy to get everything up to date.

After refreshing, dbImportant has been added back into my local session with all of its contents still intact.

By default, the Multiuser Server only stores the 10 most recent versions of the project so if the revision that you wish to restore is an older revision that you’re out of luck, but if you anticipate needing to access old revisions of your project you can edit the number of revisions stored using the TIA Portal Project Server V16 – Configuration Tool to set the number of saved revisions to 1, 10, 100, 1000 or unlimited.

Also, if you want to keep a single revision of the project for an extended period of time you can press the “Export selected revision” button to save that revision somewhere on your computer to use as a reference later.

While Multiuser’s revision history is by no means a replacement for a more robust version control program, it can be very helpful for short-term version control in cases where it would be too cumbersome to be constantly updating a repo for every small change that is made to a project.

Learn more about Siemens Multiuser Tips and Tricks and DMC's Siemens expertise. Contact us with any questions. 

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What?

Multi-User Server (MUS) Commissioning Mode is a TIA Portal tool used to ease the commissioning process when multiple engineers are making online changes and downloading concurrently.

Why?

The main advantage of using Commissioning Mode is the ability to ensure consistency between the server project and the PLC while multiple users are downloading to the PLC. This feature will also alleviate the headache of having to coordinate download efforts and ensure a consistent program between many local sessions or even single-user sessions.

One common theme of using MUS while commissioning is the potential to see offline/online differences with the PLC when they aren’t really there. Timestamp differences are not handled automatically, so if someone performs a download to the PLC that comes with a timestamp, other engineers (even after refreshing from the server copy) will see differences between their project and the project downloaded to the PLC.

Without Commissioning Mode

After downloading to the PLC from the Session B project, it shows offline/online consistency, but Session A now shows conflicts. This typically happens when the order of Download/Check-in/Refresh is not done in the correct order and is usually a result of a timestamp difference between the projects. When downloading from Session A at this point, Session B (even when up to date with the server copy) will still show online/offline differences.

If you complete a comparison in Project A for what’s different, it will show consistency between the online and offline projects. This can be attributed to timestamp differences that pop up depending on the order of operations mentioned above.

Commissioning Mode Enabled

To incorporate changes made when commissioning mode is turned on, simply download the changes to the server. This will also check the changes into the server copy to ensure consistency. This process will also make time stamps consistent across projects, eliminating mystery offline/online discrepancies.

When Commissioning mode is active, downloading the program will show the need to refresh the server in other local sessions.

How?

You can turn on Commissioning Mode with a single click in MUS Administration, provided you meet certain conditions. Siemens lists these conditions as:

• All local session changes checked in and updated (current with server copy)
• No selections (flags) are made in the local sessions
• The PLC is downloaded with the most recent version of the server project

When you have met these conditions, and you click the Multiuser Commissioning, you’ll see the operating mode change to ‘Commissioning Mode.’ Siemens recommends leaving the ‘Check for different data…’ option checked (which it is by default) and should only be deactivated if using an S7-300/400 CPU.

Caveats?

This feature is available for TIA Portal V15.1 and will not be available for older versions of Portal. Multiuser server features go back a few versions, but this is new as of 15.1.

Learn more about our Siemens Expertise and TIA Portal Development Services. Contact us with any project inquiries.

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How Did We Do This Before?

• Before downloading to the PLC, upload the latest code from the PLC.
  • Main issues: uploading can pull your blocks out of your folder structure. More importantly, if someone forgets to upload, someone’s code can be overwritten.
• Work off a single shared project.
  • Main issues: it can be very difficult to develop quickly and efficiently if everyone needs to work off the same project file.

Using Multiuser Commissioning

How do I turn it on?

Open the Multiuser Server Administration application from your desktop. You will then select the specific project needed.

To learn more about the whole process of setting up a multiuser project, read this blog for more information or this blog for more information the Multiuser server local host set up. 

Note: this button in the project will not turn on multiuser commissioning. However, it leads nicely into the next section. 

How do I know that it’s on?

Remember the Multiuser Commissioning button from before? You’ll see the multiuser commissioning symbol highlighted orange when multiuser commissioning is enabled, as shown below. 

What is the back-end download process?

1. The local session makes changes to the server project.
2. The server will compile.
   • If the compile fails, the server project will open.
3. If the compilation is successful, the server project will download it to the device.
4. If the download is successful, the server project is saved.
5. If changes are saved to the server, your local copy will be refreshed with the latest program from the server project. 

What does this mean?

After downloading, your server copy will always match your actual device copy.

What are the major benefits?

• Works well when multiple people are working on the same PLC, as all tags and blocks will be synchronized without uploading from PLC
• Improves consistency across the project
• Decreases commissioning time
• Improves accessibility for new engineers
• No more uploading!
• No more single projects!

Should I use it?

Definitely!

Overall, we’ve used multiuser commissioning to vastly improve our onsite commissioning process. Its quick setup and shared codebase have taken many of the pain points out of multi-person commissioning. 

Learn more about our PLC Programming Services and our Siemens Expertise. 

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