WinCC/CAS V7.0 SP1 Installation and Configuration Guide

SIMATIC WinCC/Central Archive Server (WinCC/CAS) is the Siemens option that consolidates long-term process data, alarm logs, and batch archives from one or more WinCC servers into a single, high-availability archive. It is the recommended path for plant-wide historian rollouts, multi-server SCADA clusters, and for sharing archive data across an Ethernet-segmented control network. This reference covers the full CAS V7.0 SP1 deployment sequence, the optional add-ons that must be installed in the correct order, the OS Project Editor requirements on the CAS computer, and the known OPC UA issue introduced by V7.x updates.

System Architecture and Topology

A standard CAS topology couples one or more WinCC servers (project sources) to a centralized archive computer that exposes historical data to operators, clients, and external consumers. The minimum useful deployment is the three-tier configuration shown below:

Key architectural rules:

• The CAS computer is a consumer only of runtime archive data; it never runs a runtime project of its own.
• Every WinCC server in the topology must run a WinCC version that matches the CAS build, and must carry a valid CAS license.
• Clients use the standard WinCC client; they do not need a CAS license, but the CAS configuration must expose the archives they need.
• Communication between the WinCC server, CAS, and clients uses MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) for reliable, asynchronous transfer.
• Long-term data is held in the SQL Server 2005 database on the CAS machine; the original segmenting databases on the WinCC servers are not bypassed, but CAS becomes the canonical long-term store.

Prerequisites

Confirm the following before mounting the CAS DVD. Skipping any of these conditions is the single largest cause of failed installations.

Pre-Installation Component Checklist

The CAS computer requires a fixed set of Windows features and supporting software before the WinCC/CAS option can be installed. Use the following table as a punch list; the install will fail or leave the system in a degraded state if any item is missing.

Step-by-Step CAS Installation Sequence

1. Install Windows Server 2003 SP2. Set a static IP, configure the computer name, and join the target domain/workgroup. Apply all current Windows updates except for .NET versions known to conflict with WinCC (see the WinCC V7.0 release notes for the supported .NET baseline).
2. Enable MS Message Queuing. Open Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs → Add/Remove Windows Components, check Message Queuing, accept defaults including Common and Triggers subcomponents. After install, validate the service:

sc query MSMQ
sc query MSMQTriggers

Both must report STATE : 4 RUNNING. If the MSMQTriggers service is not started automatically, set its start type to Manual — the WinCC archive service will trigger it on demand.

3. Install SQL Server 2005. Use the SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise edition that ships on the WinCC DVD (or a separately licensed copy). Required configuration:

• Authentication mode: Mixed Mode (Windows and SQL Server).
• Collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS (default; do not change).
• Service account: Local System or a dedicated domain account with Log on as a service.
• Enable Named Pipes and TCP/IP in SQL Server Configuration Manager.

4. Install WinCC V7.0 (Server). Choose WinCC Server install type. Do not select WinCC Client. After install, reboot.
5. Install Basic Process Control Option. Authorize with the license key, then verify the option is listed in WinCC Explorer under Options → Basic Process Control.
6. Install Smart Tools. This package provides the CCSmartTools utilities used to maintain and inspect CAS archive segments. Without it, the CAS Configuration tool will not start.
7. Install Internet Information Services. Add the Web Service Extensions role, then enable Active Server Pages and Server-Side Includes from the IIS MMC snap-in. The CAS web service is hosted on the default port 80 unless explicitly changed.
8. Install Microsoft Office Web Components V10.0. Required for the CAS web client pages. After install, register the DLL manually if it was not done automatically:

9. Install WinCC/CAS V7.0. Mount the CAS DVD, launch Setup.exe, choose Install Central Archive Server. The installer will write the CAS configuration, create the CCArchiveServer Windows service, and register the CAS node in WinCC Explorer.
10. Apply Service Pack 1 for WinCC/CAS V7.0. Download from SIOS entry 34895868. Run the SP1 setup, reboot, then verify the build in Help → About → Module Version; the CAS component should report > 7.0.1.0.
11. Install subsequent updates (optional but recommended). For sites that need a V7.0 SP3 baseline, the matching update is SIMATIC WinCC/CAS Update V7.0 SP3, article S79220-B3612-PFAQ. Read the OPC UA caveat in the troubleshooting section of this guide before applying.
12. Open the CAS configuration. Launch WinCC Explorer on the CAS computer, right-click Central Archive Server, and select Configuration. The CAS wizard opens with empty Source Server and Archive Database tabs.

OS Project Editor Configuration on the CAS Computer

If any of the WinCC source servers use the OS Project Editor to generate PCS 7-style screen layouts, the same editor must be run on the CAS computer. This is a common source of confusion: the CAS computer hosts a WinCC install but it does not host a runtime project, so engineers sometimes skip the OS Project Editor. Doing so produces a "no picture available" error the first time a client opens an archive-connected picture.

Procedure:

1. On the CAS computer, copy the source server's project to a local path (do not attempt to open the live project across the network).
2. Open the project in WinCC Explorer on the CAS machine in Configure mode.
3. Launch OS Project Editor from the Tools menu.
4. Re-run the same layout pass that was applied on the source server so the area names, hierarchy levels, and WinCC pictures referenced by CAS views are present in the local copy.
5. Close WinCC Explorer. The CAS computer does not need the project to be loaded — the OS Project Editor simply needs the same picture tree to resolve CAS-View references.

Configuring CAS Source Servers and Archive Targets

Open Central Archive Server → Configuration. Three tabs drive the runtime behavior:

For each source server, specify the queue name as .\Private$\WinCC\<ServerName>_CAS. The corresponding queue must exist on the WinCC server's MSMQ — WinCC creates it automatically the first time the WinCC server's Archive Connector service starts.

Archive Data Access from a Remote Project

1. On the client PC, open WinCC Explorer in the project that will consume the remote archive.
2. Open Tag Logging, right-click Archives, and choose Archive Connector → Add.
3. Select the CAS type. Browse to the CAS server name, enter the CAS view name defined earlier, and select the time range.
4. Repeat the same procedure in Alarm Logging for alarm archives.
5. On the runtime client, open a WinCC Online Trend Control or Alarm Control and select the CAS-sourced archive as the data source.

Note that the consuming project does not need its own WinCC/CAS license — only the CAS computer holds the license. The client simply acts as a viewer for the centralized archives.

Service Pack and Update Strategy

Siemens distributes CAS updates through SIOS rather than through the base WinCC SP DVD. Use the following mapping when planning patch levels:

Troubleshooting: OPC UA Server Failure After a V7.x Update

After installing a WinCC V7.x update on a CAS computer, the built-in OPC UA Server may no longer accept incoming connections. The symptom is a failed UA TCP handshake on port 4840 with the error logged in the OPC UA server trace:

or

The root cause is a mismatched OPC UA stack between the WinCC base and the update. Siemens documents this in the FAQ attached to S79220-B3612-PFAQ. The fix path is:

1. Open WinCC Explorer → Tools → WinCC OPC UA Server.
2. Open the server configuration file (typically C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation\WinCC\opc\UAServer\Opc.Ua.ServerConfig.xml).
3. Verify the <SecurityPolicies> block lists both None and Basic128Rsa15 (or Basic256 if the client demands it). After a bad update the file can be reset to a single restrictive policy.
4. Restart the WinCC OPC UA Server service:

net stop "WinCC OPC UA Server"
net start "WinCC OPC UA Server"

5. Validate the channel with a UA client (e.g. UA Expert) pointing to opc.tcp://<CASSERVER>:4840. A successful GetEndpoints call confirms the server is reachable.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Verification and Acceptance Test

Run the following checks before signing off the CAS deployment. Each step has a measurable pass criterion.

1. Service health — confirm CCArchiveServer, WinCC OPC UA Server, MSMQ, and MSSQLSERVER all return STATE : 4 RUNNING via sc query.
2. License — open WinCC Explorer on the CAS computer, select Help → About → License. The CAS option must show as licensed, not in trial/demo mode.
3. Queue connectivity — on a WinCC source server, run dir \\<CAS>\Private$\WinCC; the source's CAS queue must be visible.
4. End-to-end archive — force a value change on a configured tag on the WinCC server, wait one replication cycle (default 60 s), then read the same tag from a client trend control connected to the CAS view. The value must appear within 90 s.
5. OPC UA round-trip — use UA Expert or any OPC UA client, browse the CAS OPC UA endpoint at opc.tcp://<CAS>:4840, and read three configured tags. The values must equal the values shown in WinCC Explorer's Tag Logging.
6. Alarm archive — trigger a high-priority alarm on the source server, verify the alarm appears in the CAS-connected alarm control within two polling cycles.
7. Restart resilience — reboot the CAS computer. After it returns, the CCArchiveServer service must start, re-establish queues, and resume archive replication without operator action.

Operational Notes

• The CAS database will grow continuously. Plan a disk monitoring job that alerts at 70 percent utilization; SQL Server 2005 segment swap-out does not free space until the segment is closed and archived by the CAS maintenance job.
• Time synchronization across all nodes is critical. Use a single NTP source; a 2 s skew between WinCC server and CAS can cause tags to be misordered on long-term trend views.
• Do not run antivirus on-access scanning against the CAS archive path or the MSMQ storage folder. The MSMQ transactional files are written continuously and AV scanning is a known cause of "queue full" errors.
• If the plant uses PCS 7, keep the OS Project Editor version on the CAS computer aligned with the source server; the OS Project Editor is version-sensitive and will produce broken picture references if it lags the server by a major revision.
• Maintain a documented fallback. The WinCC servers retain their own segmenting databases even when CAS is in use, so a CAS outage does not stop runtime — it only blocks long-term archive reads from clients.