Resolving "Component Is Not Installed" During XDB Import in Simatic Net Station Configurator

The Simatic Net Station Configurator is the PC-side companion to TIA Portal when engineering an OPC-capable PC station that talks to an S7-1200 (or S7-1500 / S7-300 / S7-400) over PROFINET or Industrial Ethernet. A frequent failure during the round-trip workflow — exporting a PC station as an .xdb file from TIA Portal and importing it into the Station Configurator on the OPC runtime machine — is the dialog message "Component is not installed." This article isolates the root cause (version skew between TIA Portal and the Simatic Net runtime), provides a version compatibility matrix, and documents the verified remediation steps for a TIA Portal V13 SP1 / Simatic Net 2008+SP3 / OPC Server V13 stack.

1. Problem Details

1.1 Software stack reported by the user

1.2 Failure mode

During the import of the .xdb file, the Station Configurator cross-references the components declared by TIA Portal against those installed in the local Simatic Net catalog. When a component exists in the XDB but the corresponding runtime DLL / catalog entry is absent on the target PC, the import dialog returns "Component is not installed." The error is raised at the XDB parser stage; it does not indicate a corrupted file, an invalid path, or a TCP/IP problem.

2. Root Cause

Simatic Net Edition 2008 + SP3 predates TIA Portal V13 and ships a catalog of PC station components (OPC Server, IE General, IE AS, S7DOS, etc.) whose internal version IDs, CLSIDs, and configuration blocks are incompatible with the schema used by TIA Portal V13 SP1. When TIA V13 SP1 generates an XDB, it stamps every component with the V13 catalog version (for example, OPC Server V13.0 and IE General V13.0). The 2008+SP3 Station Configurator cannot resolve these newer component records, so it returns the generic "Component is not installed" error.

The same error is occasionally seen when:

• The Simatic Net installation is corrupted (registry entries under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SIMATIC NET missing for a component).
• A 32-bit XDB was generated but the Station Configurator is 64-bit (or vice versa) — version 13 onwards ships 64-bit Station Configurator only on 64-bit OS.
• The SIMATIC NET Configuration Service is stopped, preventing catalog enumeration.
• Windows UAC blocks the Station Configurator from reading %ProgramFiles%\Siemens\Automation\SIMATIC_NET\opc2\bins\*.dll.

In the reported case, however, the primary cause is the version mismatch. Confirming this requires inspecting the PC Station sub-tree of the SIMATIC NET installation and checking the version of OPC Server and IE General listed in the Station Configurator's Components catalog against the version referenced inside the XDB. The XDB is a structured text file (or, in newer releases, a binary blob) that can be opened in Notepad; search for the strings IE General and OPC Server to confirm the version stamped by TIA Portal.

3. Simatic Net / TIA Portal Compatibility Matrix

The matrix below is derived from Siemens release notes for SIMATIC NET and TIA Portal. It applies to PC station (OPC server) configurations only; PLC-side HMI / S7 routing compatibility follows different rules.

4. Solution: Upgrade Simatic Net on the OPC Station

To resolve the "Component is not installed" error, the Simatic Net runtime on the OPC station must be upgraded to a version that matches the TIA Portal catalog. For TIA Portal V13 SP1, install SIMATIC NET V13 SP1 (or V13 SP2) on the target PC. The procedure below is the field-verified remediation.

4.1 Prerequisites

• Administrative rights on the OPC station.
• Siemens Automation License Manager installed; the existing license for Simatic Net 2008 is not transferable and a new V13 license key must be present on the license server or USB dongle.
• Windows version supported by Simatic Net V13: Windows 7 SP1 (32/64-bit), Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2.
• TIA Portal V13 SP1 installation media or the SIMATIC NET PC Software V13 SP1 DVD / downloaded image (entry ID 39960679 in the Siemens Industry Online Support knowledge base is the master KB for OPC connectivity, but the installer itself is shipped separately).
• Network connectivity between the PC station and the S7-1200 (TCP/IP, port 102 open on Windows Firewall for S7DOS.exe and SIMATIC NET Configuration Service).

4.2 Step-by-step remediation

1. Capture the existing PC station configuration. Open the current Station Configurator and export the running configuration to an .xdb (File → Export station). Save it to a network share so it can be re-imported after the upgrade.
2. Stop the SIMATIC NET services before removing the old version: net stop "S7DOS"
net stop "SIMATIC NET Configuration Service"
net stop "SIMATIC NET IE"
net stop "SIMATIC NET OPC"
3. Uninstall Simatic Net 2008+SP3 via Control Panel → Programs and Features. Do not reboot yet.
4. Clean residual registry entries (only if the next install fails). Remove the keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SIMATIC NET and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Siemens\SIMATIC NET if they survive the uninstall. Renaming the directory %ProgramFiles%\Siemens\Automation\SIMATIC NET to .bak is safer than deleting it.
5. Install SIMATIC NET V13 SP1 from the installation media. Select the feature PC station runtime with OPC server. Accept the default installation path. The installer will register the new catalog components and create the SIMATIC NET Configuration Service under the local system account.
6. Transfer the V13 license using the Automation License Manager. The OPC server requires at minimum a "SIMATIC NET PC Software V13" license (order number 6GK1704-1DW13-0AA0 for the base package; additional count licenses 6GK1704-1DW13-0AA1, etc., for the OPC tag count).
7. Reboot the PC station. After reboot, verify that the SIMATIC NET Configuration Service is Running and that the Station Configurator now lists components OPC Server V13 and IE General V13 in the Components catalog.
8. Re-import the TIA Portal XDB: open Station Configurator → Import station… → select the .xdb generated by TIA Portal V13 SP1. The "Component is not installed" error should no longer appear. Confirm by clicking Add component in the catalog; the V13 versions of IE General and OPC Server must be selectable.
9. Re-assign the network interface to the IE General module. The Station Configurator will display the new IE General instance; right-click → Properties → Network connection and bind it to the physical PROFINET interface that faces the S7-1200 (do not use a virtual bridge or Hyper-V vSwitch).
10. Download the PC station via Station Configurator (button: Download to target station). The Configuration Service will push the new project to the runtime; OPC server tags become browsable in any OPC DA client (e.g., the Simatic Net OPC Scout V10) within a few seconds.

5. Verification

After remediation, run the following checks in sequence. Each must succeed for the OPC link to be considered healthy.

1. Catalog sanity check. In Station Configurator, open View → Components catalog and verify that OPC Server V13 and IE General V13 are present and enabled (no red strike-through icon).
2. Diagnostic configuration download. In the Station Configurator, the status bar must read "Connected to PC station x.x.x.x" and "Configuration downloaded". A yellow exclamation icon on the IE General or OPC Server module indicates a partial install — re-run the Simatic Net setup in Repair mode.
3. OPC tag browse. Launch OPC Scout V10 (Start → Siemens Automation → SIMATIC → SIMATIC NET → OPC Scout). Add a new OPC DA 3.0 server, browse to OPC.SimaticNet.1, and confirm the S7-1200 tag (for example, S7:[S7-1200 connection_1]DB1,INT0) is visible with quality good.
4. Live read/write. Add the tag to a watch window, force a value from the S7-1200 side (or use a VAT / watch table in TIA Portal), and confirm the OPC value updates within 1 s. Toggle a write from OPC Scout and confirm the bit in the S7-1200 follows within one PROFINET cycle (default 1 ms, configured in TIA Portal's PROFINET interface properties).
5. Event-log review. Open Windows Event Viewer → Applications and Services → SIMATIC NET Configuration. No red error entries should be present. A common benign warning is "License will expire in N days"; treat this as a maintenance task, not a fault.

6. Workarounds When a Full Simatic Net Upgrade Is Not Possible

If the OPC station is locked to Simatic Net 2008+SP3 for licensing or change-control reasons, two interim options exist. Both carry functional compromises.

6.1 Downgrade the TIA Portal project

Open the PC station in TIA Portal V11 SP2 (or V12 SP1 with the matching compatibility pack) and add IE General and OPC Server at the V11 / V12 catalog version. Export the XDB and import into Simatic Net 2008+SP3. This works for simple S7-1200 read/write scenarios but loses TIA V13 features such as the upgraded security diagnostics and certain optimized block access (Put/Get / GET/PUT-disabled firmware ≥ V4.x on the S7-1200 must be re-evaluated).

6.2 Use the S7-1200 as a passive partner (no OPC, use Modbus/TCP or S7 native)

For pure data-acquisition use cases, a third-party OPC DA server such as OPC Router, KEPServerEX, or TopServer can talk to the S7-1200 directly over the S7 protocol (port 102) without the Simatic Net catalog. This bypasses the XDB workflow entirely. The TIA Portal side only needs to enable Permit access with PUT/GET on the S7-1200's CPU properties. Note that third-party OPC servers do not carry Siemens support contracts and are not endorsed by Siemens for safety-related data.

7. Common Component-Catalog Errors and Their Meaning

8. Engineering Best Practices to Avoid This Class of Error

1. Match engineering and runtime versions at the major number level. A V13 TIA Portal project must be served by a V13 Simatic Net runtime. Mismatches always surface as catalog errors.
2. Track Simatic Net installations across the fleet. The Siemens Industry Online Support entry ID 39960679 describes the canonical PC station to S7-1200 OPC setup; pair it with the local Simatic Net installation log to confirm feature parity.
3. Use a single SIMATIC NET Configuration Service account. When the PC station is a member of an Active Directory domain, do not let the service run as a local account that changes between reboots — DCOM authentication failures then masquerade as catalog errors.
4. Export the XDB after every TIA Portal upgrade. The catalog is regenerated, and any older XDB becomes un-importable until the PC station is upgraded to match.
5. Keep a tagged backup of the OPC Scout project. This makes the upgrade recovery path a single import operation rather than a manual reconfiguration.
6. Document the S7 connection name. The string passed to the OPC DA client (e.g., S7:[S7-1200_1]DB1,INT0) is encoded in the XDB; renaming it in TIA Portal invalidates the XDB and triggers catalog re-resolution.

9. Diagnostic Decision Flowchart

10. Frequently Asked Questions