General Notes - viewLinc 5.1

Important Notices

If you add an AP10 access point with firmware version 5.0 (the current shipping version), you must update the firmware of all AP10s at the site to version 5.0 as well. If all AP10s do not have the same firmware, it could result in radio interference and negatively affect the proper operation of the viewLinc system.
Microsoft deprecated Basic Authentication in its Microsoft 365 email services and plans to retire it in 2025. If you are currently using Microsoft 365 for viewLinc email notifications, viewLinc will be unable to receive alarm acknowledgments, or send alarm notifications via email after this change.
If you use the M365 service for email notifications in viewLinc, make sure you use the M365 email setting added to viewLinc in version 5.1 SU9. Using Basic non-encrypted settings with a provider that constantly requires higher encryption over time runs the risk of the feature not working. Refer to the following instructions in the viewLinc User Guide for using OAuth2 authentication with MS365 to ensure that your email authentication can occur:
- Configuring Azure to set up OAuth authentication
- Configuring viewLinc to set up OAuth authentication
viewLinc will automatically unlink a channel from a location if the units for the channel change. When this happens, viewLinc generates an event, but not a Device Configuration alarm.
Systems running viewLinc 5.1.3 to 5.1.6 with DL series data loggers may experience significant growth in the size of the database files. It is recommended to upgrade to SU7 or newer to address this issue.

3G cellular networks are being terminated in the US starting in February 2022 (dates vary for other countries). This will affect customers that use 3G cellular modems for SMS notifications in viewLinc.

A new 4G modem, Multitech MultiConnect Cell 100 Series, has been approved for use with viewLinc in North America and Europe. Contact Vaisala for more information on available 4G modems.

Upgrade Notes

CAUTION Always back up application data before upgrading.

viewLinc uses a certificate and security key to establish a secure connection between network PCs and the viewLinc Enterprise Server. Vaisala recommends using a trusted certificate, either from your company's domain certificate authority or a 3rd party. If your system uses a self-signed security certificate you may see a certificate error. To prevent a certificate error message from appearing, set each user's browser to trust the certificate. Replacing the self-signed certificate with a trusted certificate automatically prevents certificate errors from appearing.
To ensure data timestamp accuracy, verify that the viewLinc Enterprise Server time is set accurately before installing the viewLinc software.
If communication is interrupted during an upgrade, restart the Enterprise Server (ES) machine after all device hosts are upgraded. If communication does not resume after ES restart, manually enter the ES IP address in the “server_name” entry in the [remote_host] section of the device host config file (Public Documents\Vaisala\Vaisala viewLinc\config\viewLinc.cfg), then restart the viewLinc Device Host Service.
Views created in earlier versions are visible to all users on upgrade.
If you used SetPoeRelay batch files to initiate commands in viewLinc 4.3.x or earlier, copy the batch file to the new installation directory path (C:\Program Files\Vaisala\Vaisala viewLinc\...) and update the path inside the batch file to reflect the new path. Update all command notification templates that reference the batch file location.
On upgrade, any Location that has been assigned group permissions will not be upgraded correctly. Moving the group permission to the parent zone before upgrade will allow this to upgrade correctly.
The configuration alarm formerly named, "Battery Anomaly"/"Suspicious Behaviour", is now "Data sample inconsistency".
For a complete list of all feature changes, see viewLinc User Guide, “What’s New for Upgrade Users”.

System

viewLinc Aware functionality cannot be enabled from the viewLinc UI; to start/stop viewLinc Aware, use Windows Services.
There is an issue affecting viewLinc between versions 5.0 and 5.1.2, when device hosts are used. The Host and CA certificates have expired in these versions. This affects connectivity between the Enterprise server and Device Hosts and will interrupt data collection and alarming. Contact Helpdesk for updated certificates. (Versions 5.1.3 and newer are unaffected).
Twilio voice or SMS web services require that TCP traffic be allowed to access viewLinc Enterprise Server (via incoming TCP port 12500).
Events triggered by changes to the Windows OS clock cannot be disabled.
It is recommended to stop all viewLinc services before carrying out Windows Updates.
Attachments sent by email may arrive as .dat files, depending on the email server type. To open a .dat file, first save the file as .pdf.
Custom email/SMS messages created in a specific language are only available to users with the same language preference set in their user profile.
Alarm and notification delays are limited to 23 hours and 59 minutes.
Duplicate "viewLinc Restarted" email and SMS notifications are received when services are restarted from within viewLinc.
Security certificates:
- If the Vaisala OPC UA server finds an invalid CA, it terminates. This issue is caused by multiple certificates being installed in the Trusted Roots.
- Vaisala OPC UA Server needs the viewLinc certificate installed in the localMachine store, NOT the current user.
If multiple instances of viewLinc or other systems are accessing a Modbus device, viewLinc may not be able to collect data from the Modbus device.
viewLinc 5.1 Service Updates (SU) have different domain name format requirements.
- In viewLinc 5.1 SU7, long domain names and the UPN format are supported.
- In viewLinc 5.1 SU5, only the NETBIOS format is supported.
- In viewLinc 5.1 SU4 and earlier, long domain names and the NETBIOS format are supported.
Note that in all releases it is also possible to use locally configured users on the host machine. In this case, the domain would be the machine name.

Alarms

When a user pauses alarming on a Location, all existing alarms in that Location are auto-acknowledged and turned off.

Data Loggers

During a data logger swap, device alarm settings are automatically copied to the new data logger.
When swapping data loggers, it is important to allow the new data logger to come to equilibrium before placing it on the port to ensure that data recorded from outside of the environment is not included on reports.
To prevent Location threshold alarming after a swap, either clear the data logger before swapping it back into viewLinc, or wait for the automatic backfill to complete (wait 5-10mins for DL data loggers; force 4 beacons for HMT140; wait up to 12+hours for RFLs) before linking the channel to the Location.
RFL Data Loggers:
- When swapping a probe on an RFL connected to viewLinc, make sure the new probe has the same number of channels, channel types.
- Before a probe swap, make sure viewLinc is communicating with the RFL data logger and all backfills are complete (do not power off the RFL).
- Changing a single-probe RFL data logger to dual-probe (T/RH to T+T): To avoid new probe data being applied to an incorrect Location, first unlink both of the temperature and RH channels from their linked Locations, then remove the probes. Connect the new temperature only probe(s) following the instructions provided with the probe, and then link them to the correct Location(s).
DL Data Loggers:
- Before removing a probe on a DL data logger, deactivate the data logger to prevent a configuration alarm.
HMT140 Series Data Loggers:
- If you use NIC-teaming redundancy products, HMT140 data loggers require a dedicated Network Interface Card (NIC) and IP address to avoid communication interruptions.
- HMT140 data loggers can have a device-specific password. If there are multiple HMT140 loggers with different device-specific passwords connected to viewLinc, bulk change actions to all connected HMT140 loggers simultaneously are not possible.
- Backfill from offline HMT140 series data loggers may be unpredictable. Irretrievable loss of data samples may occur if the offline time period exceeds the memory capacity of the device (e.g., 30 days with 15 minute samples or 10 days with 5 minute samples). To avoid this issue, do not allow these devices to be disconnected for time periods that exceed the memory capacity.

300-Series Transmitters

The Firmware version must be 5.04 or later.
Upgrade to Firmware version 5.10 where it is possible (please contact Vaisala Technical Support if you require assistance).
300-series transmitters without LOGGER-1 modules do not support the historical data backup retrieval and data restoration process.
If 300-series transmitters are configured with a sample interval greater than the viewLinc scan period, brief configuration alarms may occur.

Reports

Manually generated and scheduled reports are processed in a queue displayed in the Reports Progress window, in the Progress column. Since non-admin users can only see the progress of their own reports, the Progress column may update periodically to indicate a change in the queue sequence of the report, in relation to all other reports in the queue. This could be a significant period of time depending on the size and quantity of reports already in the queue.
To resolve issues exporting to Excel, remove double quotes (“) entered in a device’s Unit field (use device-specific software to modify the Unit field).
When downloading reports using an IE browser, non-ASCII file names may not display correctly.
System report has no default content. The report cannot be saved until some content is selected.
To prevent a previously generated interval statistics table and/or graph from appearing on a Location History report, save the report without the Show graph option selected.

POS

The viewLinc POS Terminal Service is available, but POS terminal hardware is no longer available from Vaisala. POS terminal functionality is replaced with viewLinc Remote Display (http://<viewLincIPaddress>/display).
POS terminals show alarms when alarms are detected, even if an alarm activation delay is set.

UI functionality

The Events Location filter does not identify all Location-related events generated when editing the Locations Manager tree. To filter these events, use the text filter.
A Chrome browser is recommended for remote display terminals.
The European number format (decimal separator) may display incorrectly in some parts of the UI.
In Views Manager, avoid creating views when a search filter is active.
In Views Manager, trends that show historical data cannot be saved.

Mobile UI functionality

Mobile UI updates are performed on a timer basis and not via server push messages.
Mobile UI does not reflect changes in the Locations tree structure. Refresh the Locations panel to view the latest changes.
When the mobile keyboard is visible, orientation changes may cause rendering problems.
The Trend window opens directly if opened from a previously created bookmark.
The option, "Pause device alarming", only applies when selecting individual Locations.