VERY long Equipment Update times

perhaps some file read/write issue?

Does the update stay or hang longer on some partical part??

I think simular problem occored for me for some years ago, But then it was a pagefile that was broken, and I had to restore that specific page from a backup.

I think it hits some templates that were made just recently and slows down, which would make sense as this problem popped up recently. I spent some time looking over the newer templates but can't seem to find an error. 

A broken page file could cause this? Hmm. 

Hi Nick,

Did the new templates replace existing templates for any of your already instanced equipment?

Between when it was fine and now, did the new templates, or existing templates have ".Items" renamed?

Hey Bradley,

Some templates had a few elements changed, name and PLC address. 

Others were new templates from scratch. I know what was created around when it all started, but, there's alot to go through. I'm not quite sure how to find the problem, or, why incremental just seems to be ignored? I guess I dont know enough about the inner workings of Citect to understand when it needs a full equipment update. Im guessing a botched template is enough to trigger it?

Hi Nick,

When items are renamed, currently, a Delete and Add operation are issued for every element(tag) that is impacted. So if you have a lot of renames you will see performance difference. A change in a template, will obviously impact the tags of every instance that is created from it.

You need an equipment update whenever you rename, add, delete equipment, move them around the hierarchy, or change parameter values of your instances. The function is basically dealing with the impact to all the variables,trends,alarms etc caused by a change to the equipment instance, or its template.

The 2 vs 8 hrs you mentioned above is quite interesting. That would suggest there is an environment impact as well. (e.g. virus scanner).

It sounds like you need go deeper with support to see what is going on.

Hi Nick,

When items are renamed, currently, a Delete and Add operation are issued for every element(tag) that is impacted. So if you have a lot of renames you will see performance difference. A change in a template, will obviously impact the tags of every instance that is created from it.

You need an equipment update whenever you rename, add, delete equipment, move them around the hierarchy, or change parameter values of your instances. The function is basically dealing with the impact to all the variables,trends,alarms etc caused by a change to the equipment instance, or its template.

The 2 vs 8 hrs you mentioned above is quite interesting. That would suggest there is an environment impact as well. (e.g. virus scanner).

It sounds like you need go deeper with support to see what is going on.

Hey Bradley,

Makes total sense on having to add/delete and every affected instance. The thing is, once CItect updates the equipment, and we don't touch anything but maybe add a new template or change an element or two, it shouldn't need to start completely over from scratch. Just the incremental. 

We're still in development alongside our PLC team, so, daily little tweaks here and there. 

I've emailed support and got a generic response. I hope to hear back tomorrow. Our distributor is looking into it as well. But, I am catching some heat from higher ups and customers as this is slowing us down immensely. Although it did the update just now in 4 hours so something got better. 

There isn't a virus scanner other than windows defender and I'll maybe shut that off. I hadn't considared that. I know windows defender can get picky and flag the wrong things as a virus. This is a throw away virtual machine. The problem does seem to follow the project. I deployed it on Citect 2020r2 with similar results.