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Key Functional Highlights ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps enhancements Support for NI InsightCM connected to KEPServerEX as an aggregator Controls Advisor usability improvement to retrieve App Key for a specific KEPServerEX connection Asset Advisor usability improvement for displaying alerts Compatibility ThingWorx 8.1.0 KEPServerEX 6.2, 6.3 KEPServerEX V6.1 and older as well as different OPC Servers (with Kepware OPC aggregator) Documentation ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Setup and Configuration Guide ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Customization Guide What’s New in ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps 8.1.0 Download Extensions for ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps and Asset Remoting Note: this release announcement applies to the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Extensions 8.1.0. For the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Freemium (Express) 8.1.0 release notes, see this page: ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps 8.1 Freemium is Available for Download!
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Introduction to the platform extensibility structures and options. Includes overview of setting up the eclipse plugin and build process, as well as install considerations and best practices.     For full-sized viewing, click on the YouTube link in the player controls.   Visit the Online Success Guide to access our Expert Session videos at any time as well as additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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This Expert Session consists of the general overview for platform export and import. It discusses the available options for safely exporting and importing entities, data, and extensions. It also provides information on the use of exported entities during the system upgrading and/or moving from QA to production server.  It’s assumed that the audience is familiar with the Composer and its navigation.     For full-sized viewing, click on the YouTube link in the player controls.   Visit the Online Success Guide to access our Expert Session videos at any time as well as additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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The following Expert Session videos are now available for viewing within the ThingWorx Community: ThingWorx Analytics Installation - This Expert Session will walk you through the complete installation of ThingWorx Analytics from the Prerequisites to Confirming the Installation is successful and all steps in between. The first half of the video gives a breakdown of the components and the process of the installation with the second half being an actual Demo of the Installation.     ThingWorx Analytics API Overview - This Expert Session is designed to help beginners get up and running with ThingWorx Analytics. It covers basic concepts like: What are APIs, how to configure the metadata file, and a live Demo that shows you how to interact and use ThingWorx Analytics in real time. This Expert Session would also be useful for experienced users who need a refresher course.   Decision Tree, ThingWorx Analytics Builder - This Expert Session reviews the concept of “Decision Trees” and the functionality that is available in ThingWorx Analytics Builder. First, you will learn how to create and upload a dataset in ThingWorx Analytics Builder.  After that, it shows you how to train a model and score on the model that was just generated. It then goes into detail on how the prediction learner "Decision Tree" operates and classifies inputs.   Use Case Identification - This Expert Session goes over ways to identify and develop a successful use case for ThingWorx Analytics. The example use case presented here is on employee retention in a fictional company with the goal of maximizing employee retention . This presentation will provide you with all the fundamentals you need to develop your own ThingWorx Analytics use cases from the ground up.   ThingWorx Analytics Signals - This Expert Session will provide you with an in depth explanation behind how Signals are calculated in ThingWorx Analytics, what purpose they serve, and why we use them.  Some basic mathematical concepts are discussed so viewers will have a better idea of how ThingWorx Analytics operates behind the scenes.   Related Links For more information, you can visit a new space dedicated to these helpful technical videos.   Additional Expert Sessions will be highlighted here in the ThingWorx Community every few weeks. Visit the Online Success Guide to access additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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Key Functional Highlights ThingWorx 8.1 covers the following areas of the product portfolio: ThingWorx Analytics, ThingWorx Utilities and ThingWorx Foundation which includes Core, Connection Server and Edge capabilities. Highlights of the release include: ThingWorx Foundation Next Generation Composer: Embedded Mashup Builder enables codeless development of web visualization. New ability to manage and push configurations for KEPServerEX Notifications: Create SMS and Email notifications natively in Next Generation Composer Support for localized and dynamic content with tokens Protocol Adapter Toolkit: Encrypted communication between edge devices and the Connector over HTTPS or WSS. Encrypted communication between the Connector and ThingWorx Core (WSS). Ability to define a mapping of outbound messages from ThingWorx Core using a Codec to an edge-bound message. Authentication of edge devices 3 rd Party Platform Connectivity: Azure IoT Connector v2.0 § Model data from Azure IoT using the Thing Model § Utilize data from Azure IoT as properties in the Thing Model § Utilize services and events through Azure IoT § Utilize Azure file storage ThingWorx for Predix v1.0 § Synchronize data from Predix to ThingWorx § Enable SSO between Predix & ThingWorx C SDK: Framework for custom functionality to be added to C SDK-based applications at runtime License Management: Simple, automated, licensing system for collection, storage, reporting, management and auditing of licensing entitlements. Deprecated the SQUEAL functionality ThingWorx Analytics Categorical and Ordinal Goals: Adds use of unordered text (categorical) and ordered text (ordinal) goals to predictive analytics.  Create and score models with the new goal types. Virtual Sensor: Adds support for time-series predictions when historical data is not available.  Allows machine learning predictions to take the place of physical sensors and simplifies predictions like time to failure and probability of failure. Tighter platform integration: Analytics Server is more tightly integrated with ThingWorx Core, providing native control and access to analytics programming interfaces. New, simplified API: The new Analytics Server 2.0 API pattern is simpler, more modern, and easier to use. Microservices-based Architecture: Conversion to microservices sets the stage for High Availability and improved distributed installations. Native Linux installer: Docker is no longer required to run on Linux-based systems. Analytics Manager: Several enhancements, including: Simulation-driven data framework allows external providers to send data as if they were a physical Thing. Time Series Data Inputs improves the ability to share time series data with external providers. Thing Connect / Disconnect makes it easier to connect specific Things with external providers. Analytics Builder: Ease of use enhancements including: New UI support for time series models. Easier access to / use of Signals and Profiles. Simplified models for Boolean goals. Easier installation, no longer requires UploadThing. ThingWorx Utilities Software Content Management (SCM): Define package dependencies where the deployment of a package requires the presence of one or more other packages. ThingWorx Trial Edition ThingWorx Trial Edition will be available to internal PTC resources at launch and will be made available externally on the Developer Portal shortly after launch. Developer Enablement: Enhancements have been made to the Trial Edition installation tool, providing a native installation process of the ThingWorx platform including: ThingWorx Foundation ThingWorx Utilities ThingWorx Analytics ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity Documentation ThingWorx 8.1 Reference Documents ThingWorx Analytics 8.1 Reference Documents ThingWorx Core 8.1 Release Notes ThingWorx Core Help Center ThingWorx Edge SDKs and WebSocket-based Edge MicroServer Help Center ThingWorx Connection Services Help Center ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity Help Center ThingWorx Utilities Help Center ThingWorx Utilities Installation Guide ThingWorx Analytics Help Center ThingWorx Trial Edition User Guide Additional information ThingWorx eSupport Portal ThingWorx Developer Portal ThingWorx Marketplace Download The following items are available for download from the PTC Software Download site. ThingWorx Platform – Select Release 8.1 ThingWorx Utilities – Select Release 8.1 ThingWorx Analytics – Select Release 8.1
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In this video we are going through a few steps to ensure the installation process went fine.   Updated Link for access to this video:  Validating a ThingWorx Analytics Server 8.1 Installation
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In this video we are walking through the installation steps of ThingWorx Analytics Server 8.1. This cover the Native Linux installation though the steps will be similar for a docker installation on Windows or Linux.   Updated Link for access to this video:  Installing ThingWorx Analytics Server 8.1 - Native Linux
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This video shows the commands to execute to deploy the training and results microservices as docker container. This is based on Docker Toolbox to highlight the specific settings required on Toolbox.   Updated Link for access to this video:  Deploying Training & Result Microservices via Docker Containers for Anomaly Detection
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This Expert Session will walk you through the complete installation of ThingWorx Analytics from the Prerequisites to Confirming the Installation is successful and all steps in between. The first half of the video gives a breakdown of the components and the process of the installation with the second half being an actual Demo of the Installation.   For full-sized viewing, click on the YouTube link in the player controls.   Visit the Online Success Guide to access our Expert Session videos at any time as well as additional information about ThingWorx training and services.
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Key Functional Highlights Production Advisor is now available in the Freemium and Developer Kit downloads. Plant Managers are provided with real-time monitoring of production status and critical KPI’s such as utilization, performance, quality and OEE, by unifying data from disparate lines, assets and sensors. With Production Advisor, Plant Managers have the ability to detect and react instantly to production issues- reaching lower downtime, higher production throughput and better quality from the factory resources. Compatibility ThingWorx 8.0.1 KEPServerEX 6.2 KEPServerEX V6,1 and older as well as different OPC Servers (with Kepware OPC aggregator) Documentation ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Setup and Configuration Guide: https://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173133/en/ThingWorxManufacturingAppsSetup_8-0-1.pdf ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps Customization Guide: https://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/173135/en/ThingWorxManufacturingAppsCust_8-0-1.pdf Get Started Documentation on Portal: https://www.ptc.com/en/thingworx/manufacturing-apps/Dashboard/Get-Started (PTC users should use their normal login credentials and do not need to register on the portal) Download Freemium and Developer Kit (8.0.1) are available for download here: https://www.ptc.com/en/thingworx/manufacturing-apps/Dashboard (PTC users should use their normal login credentials and do not need to register on the portal ThingWorx Platform Extensions (8.1.0, released 1 Nov 2017) are available for download here: https://support.ptc.com/appserver/auth/it/esd/product.jsp?prodFamily=TWA
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Introduction SAP HANA database is among the several options available for ThingWorx as persistence provider, in this blog I'll share the experience and challenges I had while setting up the SAP HANA and then configuring it to run as Persistence Provider for ThingWorx Pre-requisite Eclipse Mars or higher SAP Hana Express Edition 2.0 ThingWorx Hana Persistence Provider Package​ Setting up SAP Hana SAP Hana Express Edition 2.0 is freely available from SAP via the download with a pre-built machine with SUSE Enterprise OS. For this blog I used the SAP Hana Express Edition 2.0 Server only version while downloading the pre-built VM from SAP Download the Server only or Server + Application VM from the SAP's website           2. Unzip and open the hxe.ova (file name will differ if you are downloading the server + application VM) file in one of the hyper-visor, in my case I'll be using VMWare Workstation, but should work just fine with others e.g. Oracle VirtualBox      3. Once opened in a hypervisor SUSE will boot up and you will be prompted for the new password, as VM is configured for force first time password change      4. If you are unsure of the next steps to follow refer to the Getting Started with SAP Hana express edition guide which is selected by default and gets downloaded when the VM is downloaded      5. Another thing to note about the PDF that it contains all the details on the username and password required for initial setup      6. Provide the password for the OS user which is hxeadm, note you can always refer to the PDF file which we downloaded while downloading the VM from SAP's download manager      7. Once the password is changed for the OS user, you will also be prompted to change the master DB user's password as well      8. Make note of these passwords SAP HANA DB Instance After completing the initial steps for setting up the VM and changing the password we can now check the pre-built database installed on the VM which is called as SystemDB. You can check that and same basic settings running on the instance by using the following command in the shell $ HDB info This command will print out the features and components installed on the VM, if you are using Server only VM as I did you shall see something of this printed on the shell. In case it doesn't show up you can start the database and check again of the running services $ HDB start The output will be something like this, note the highlighted part for below output already include couple of additional services that is because i have already created the ThingWorx Database : FYI: If you wish to shut down the database you can use following command: $ HDB Stop With this let's move to the next step to create the new database which will be used by the ThingWorx application. One thing to note that you can run the SAP Hana in multi-tenant or in single tenant mode. With the free edition i.e. the SAP Hana Express Edition multi-tenant is the only available option. This is why we will create the ThingWorx DB and the schema and use that to populate it with the required tables and other DB entities needed to support the persistence provider from ThingWorx webapp Creating and configuring the ThingWorx Database with ThingWorx Schema For this you'll be required to download from the PTC Software download page the package for the ThingWorx with SAP Hana Persistence provider package which contains the DB creation scripts. You can now choose to create the schema in two ways i.e.      a. Creating and Configuring the Database using PTC provided Bash Scripts      b. Manually Creating and configuring the SAP Hana Database Both of these details are covered in the Getting Started with SAP Hana and ThingWorx Guide For this blog I created everything manually that is by connecting via the client which i have installed as plugin in my existing Eclipse Mars. If you are running different version of Eclipse check this link If you are also using the Eclipse Mars you can use this link in Eclipse > Help > Install New Software > https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/mars/ Once installed make sure to restart the eclipse and open the SAP Hana Administration Console perspective, which should come up something like this: Since I have already installed and created some connections to the DB they are visible on the left side of the Eclipse. Creating Connection to the SAP Hana Database      1. Navigate to the Systems tab on the left in the SAP Hana Administration Console perspective in Eclipse      2. Click on the Add Systems icon located right on the Systems tab, like so      3. Provide some basic connection details like           a. Host Name: IP or machine name of the VM running the SAP Hana Express edition           b. Instance Number: 90           c. Mode: If you are using free express edition as I have used for this blog you will be required to select Multiple containers. As soon you will see that we will create ThingWorx as tenant DB alongside the System DB           d. Select System Database since for now we have not yet created a database called ThingWorx. Click next.      4. On the next page provide the username/password, i will be logging in as SYSTEM user since I have not yet created any other user and I'll use the master DB password which I'd set when      configuring the VM for the first time.      5. Click Finish to complete and test the connection Creating ThingWorx User and ThingWorx Database Successful connection creation will show the connection with green icon under the Systems tab which will allow you to then explore the connection for different objects existing under the SYSTEM database. To begin using the SQL statements select the connection and click on the SQL tab as highlighted in the screenshot below: With this you have now successfully created the connection and also have a SQL client to execute SQL tasks As mentioned previously you have two options to setup the schema and the data model for the ThingWorx Database, these are      1. Using the shell script to create and configure the ThingWorx Database and it's schema together with the required User and the data model. For this you will need following:           a. thingworxHanaDatabaseSetup.sh           b. thingworxHanaSchemaSetup.sh Note: These two shell scripts will call the SQL procedures provided in the install folder ThingWorx-Platform-Hana-X-X-X.zip you have downloaded from the PTC Software Download ThingWorx-Platform-Hana-X-X-X.zip package incorrectly provides sample platform-settings.json with PostgresPersistenceProviderPackage configuration for ThingWorx Installation. So make sure that user executing those scripts should have all the required files in place, preferably in same folder as the script files and should have sufficient access rights to execute the scripts      2. The other option is to do everything manually i.e. create Database and it's schema, it's user and the data model via the SQL scripts provided in the install folder Both of these options are covered quite in detail in the installation guide so I'd recommend referring to that for step by step process. For creating a SQL connection using the newly created TWADMIN user follow the steps described in the section Creating Connection to the SAP Hana Database above. Here's how the configuration for connecting to the ThingWorx DB will look like With this we are now connected to an empty THINGWORX database under which TWADMIN schema will be created using the SQL scripts provided in the install directory of ThingWorx-Platform-Hana-X-X-X.zip package. Note that it's important that below listed scripts are executed in following order      1. thingworx-model-schema.sql      2. thingworx-data-schema.sql      3. thingworx-property-schema.sql      4. thingworx-data-proc.sql Checking the port for ThingWorx Database created in SAP Hana This can be checked by executing the following command directly from the SQL Client in the Eclipse. You may need to execute this command using SYSTEM user account, if any permission objections are raised in the client select * from "SYS_DATABASES".m_services This will return the result of all the databases and services with their port, check the SQL Port for the ThingWorx database : Configuring the SAP Hana Persistence Provider Now that we have met all the pre-requisites to connect to the our ThingWorx Database in SAP HANA let's configure the platform-settings.json file under placed under the \\<ThingworxInstallationDirectory>\ThingworxStorage\ Note: The sample platform-settings.json included with the downloaded ThingWorx-Platform-Hana-X-X-X.zip package incorrectly includes the PostgresPersistenceProviderPackage. A Jira is already filed and can be tracked via this knowledge base article ThingWorx-Platform-Hana-X-X-X.zip package incorrectly provides sample platform-settings.json with PostgresPersistenceProviderPackage configuration for ThingWorx Installation As a workaround for now, make sure to replace the PostgresPersistenceProviderPackage with HanaPersistenceProviderPackage, like so { "PersistenceProviderPackageConfigs": { "HanaPersistenceProviderPackage": { "ConnectionInformation": { "driverClass": "com.sap.db.jdbc.Driver", "jdbcUrl": "jdbc:sap://<IPAddressForSAPHana>:39041/?autocommit=false&currentschema=TWADMIN", "dbSchema": "TWADMIN", "username": "TWADMIN", "password": "Thingworx123", "acquireIncrement": 5, "acquireRetryAttempts": 50, "acquireRetryDelay": 10000, "checkoutTimeout": 1000000, "fetchSize": 5000, "idleConnectionTestPeriod": 60, "initialPoolSize": 5, "maxConnectionAge": 0, "maxIdleTime": 0, "maxIdleTimeExcessConnections": 300, "maxPoolSize": 100, "maxStatements": 100, "minPoolSize": 5, "numHelperThreads": 8, "testConnectionOnCheckout": false, "unreturnedConnectionTimeout": 0                }           }      }     } Configuring Tomcat to connect to SAP Hana ThingWorx Database Thingworx SAP Hana persistence provider connects to the SAP Hana database instance using the ngdbc.jar. As mentioned in the Getting Started with SAP Hana and ThingWorx guide this jar is required to placed under the  <TomcatInstallationDirectory>\lib location (for more detail see ThingWorx SAP Hana Guide). You can obtain this jar by installing this SAP Hana Client or SAP Hana plugin installed in Eclipse. Note: Currently there's a known issue around ThingWorx failing to connect to SAP Hana Express Edition v2.0 due to the use of newer version of ngdbc.jar i.e. v2.0 or above. A Jira, already filed for this, can be tracked in this PTC Knowledgebase Article : Tomcat fails to start with error "Failed to create com.thingworx.persistence.hana.HanaPersistenceProviderPackage. Cause was due to 'null'" when installing ThingWorx with SAP Hana Persistence Provider You can download the jar directly from SAP Hana webpage with a valid service account. Since the older version is not available for direct download without service account from the SAP's download page, this jar can be obtained by installing the old Eclipse e.g. Kepler and then install the SAP Hana plugin on top of it which includes the jar version 1.XX in the folder created by the SAP Hana Tools For more detail on installing and configuring Tomcat or setting up the license file refer to the ThingWorx Core Installation guide Verifying the installation Finally, start the Tomcat service and try to access the ThingWorx Composer by typing in the URL e.g. http://localhost:8080/Thingworx You can also verify the connectivity between the ThingWorx and the SAP Hana by navigating to the application.log located under ThingworxStorage\logs and look for INFO [T: localhost-startStop-1] Database initialization complete. This will confirm the database was initialized and connected to successfully Common connectivity issues Issue 1: After deploying and starting up the Tomcat you may see that the ThingWorx webapp is stalling despite logging the message that the database initialization started Cause: This could happen for variety of reasons e.g.      a. Incorrect port was used in the JDBC connection URL in the platform-settings.json      b. ThingWorx database is incorrectly spelled      c. Connection is timing out e.g. due to network issues Solution:      a. For port ensure that correct port is used by executing this command to verify on which port the database service listening      b. Connection retries could be increased in the platform-settings.json file      c. Reconfirm the correct username Issue 2: Application log in ThingWorx Tomcat would log the error that persistence provider is null Cause: Incorrect jar version is used. Solution:      a. Recheck the jar version which has been used under tomcat\lib folder
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Error: Failed to load SQL Modules into database Cluster. This error is usually seen during initializing the database cluster phase (in the setup as shown below). To resolve this issue, follow below steps: Create a PostgreSQL data folder before you start the installation (c:\postgres-data) and give full control for the user. Select the newly created data directory during the setup. After the successful installation, you can follow the remaining procedure for configuring it with ThingWorx from the respective installation document.
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This is a note/reminder in cross-reference to https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS267248&lang=en_US Java 9 is expected to be released by Oracle September 21 2017 and is not currently supported for ThingWorx, refer to ThingWorx System Requirement guides for support details: ThingWorx 8 ThingWorx 7 ThingWorx 6
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Yes, the ThingWorx Manufacturing apps can be imported as ThingWorx extensions into an existing ThingWorx Platform install (v8.0.1). ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps are imported as a ThingWorx extension for all instances other than the Express and Developer Edition licenses. Note: If you ran the Express installer, you cannot import ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps as a ThingWorx extension. Instructions for importing these are included with the download, or are also available here: Not authorized to view the specified document 3992
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There are a few recommended troubleshooting steps to alleviate this: 1. The best practice is to install without an existing Tomcat implementation. Verify whether Tomcat is currently installed on this PC. If so, uninstall Tomcat and run the installer again. 2. Assign a different port for the servlet engine. This can be changed within the server.xml file located here: <Install path>\ThingWorxManufacturingApps\PTC_Servelet_Engine\conf\server.xml 3. If the installer has stopped at approximately 90% complete, and 5 minutes have elapsed, start the ThingWorx Servlet Engine Service manually from this directory in the Windows Explorer: <Install path>\ThingWorxManufacturingApps\PTC_Servlet_Engine\bin\thingworxServerw.exe 4. The Servlet Engine log files can be used for advanced troubleshooting. They are located in this directory by default: <Install path>\ThingWorxManufacturingApps\PTC_Servlet_Engine\logs
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Follow these steps to restart the ThingWorx Server, then to verify that all install services are running: 1. Open the ThingWorx Server Properties configuration application. To locate this application in Windows Server edition operating systems, search for "Configure PTC Servelet Engine"; or the application can be launched from the Windows Explorer. The default install directory is: <ThingWorx install path>\ThingWorxManufacturingApps\PTC_Servlet_Engine\bin\thingworxServerw.exe 2. Use the controls in the General tab to Stop and then Start this service. 3. Now open the Windows Services console (services.msc) and verify these four services are installed and running:      a. ThingWatcherResult      b. ThingWatcherTraining      c. Thingworx Server      d. ThingworxPostqresql_Service-PostgreSQL_Server9.4
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When installing KEPServerEX, you will be presented with a tree of features to install. Open the pull-down menu next to "Full install" and select "Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive." This will ensure all needed drivers and plug-ins are included. When either a Client application has made a request of a Driver, or a Plug-in becomes activated, then a license check is performed. If a feature is not licensed, a two-hour demo countdown period will begin. For more information on this, see: KEPServerEX V6 Demo Timer
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The KEPServerEX installer download is available from the My Kepware web portal: https://my.kepware.com/mykepware/ It will be necessary to create a new My Kepware account if you have not already done so. When you log in to your My Kepware account, you will be at the My Kepware Home page. In the left column, you will see a link to download the latest release. You can access all of the features of KEPServerEX with this installation, including the Thingworx Native Interface. For more information on installation of KEPServerEX, see this guide: https://www.kepware.com/en-us/products/kepserverex/documents/installation-guide.pdf
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The most common cause for this is a shortage of available RAM. It may be necessary to increase the available RAM or install additional cores. Please refer to the minimum install requirements listed here: What are the minimum Hardware and System requirements for installing the ThingWorx Manufacturing Apps?
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