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17-Peridot
Dobi17-Peridot
17-Peridot
November 5, 2024
Solved

New CAD worker setup issues

  • November 5, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1996 views

Version: Windchill 13.0

 

Use Case: Brand new Windchill upgrade, brand new VMs for new CAD workers with clean installations... that don't work.


Description:

This is perhaps a mix of both a rant and request for assistance. 

We are in process of testing Windchill 13.0.2.1. The rehearsal system is up and running and for the publishing environment I made new VMs to house the worker instances. 

Worker 1

NX instance

2 Creo instances

1 Office
Worker 2

NX instance

2 Creo instances
Worker 3 NX instance

 

For the workers, I went with:

Creo View Adapter version 11.0

Windchill Workgroup Manager 13.0.2.1

Creo 10.0.6.0

NX2306.8101

Office 365. 

 

The VMs all have Windows Server 2022 Datacenter for OS. 

It's not my first time setting up CAD workers so I figured 20-th time is the charm to get it right the first time... especially since my current production setup is running so well (actually true!). 

 

So, I did all the installations first. 

  • FlexNet Server version was important for Creo (CS154266 ) so that happened.
  • WGM 13 comes with Creo 11 Platform Services, Creo 10 comes with Creo 10 Platform services. That's fine because I have the CREO_AGENT_PATH_EXE set (CS292414 )
  • Then set up individual worker daemons for each instance (CS49182 )
  • Updated the hosts files on the server machine and individual worker machines with correct aliases (Office worker doesn't get one and uses just the machine name, FYI).
  • Made sure that everything is case sensitive and correctly entered to avoid "Executable not safe" message. (CS140965 ). That article also accounts for the worker.exe.whitelist.prefixes property changing to worker.exe.allowlist.prefixes after Windchill 12.0 (we migrated from 12.0.2).
  • On the servers, added firewall rules for the ports I'm using and confirmed that I can access all the aliases
  • xxworker.bat files setup with both my startup.bat files (to taskkill, clean .wf folders and set appropriate PTC_Wx_ROOT variables for the appropriate instances) and -DA parameters. 

I go to kick off an NX worker:

Dobi_0-1730777734235.png

Ok. Had those 13031, 13029 errors before. They are generally because of cache separation issues (CS33759 which I addressed already) or NX isn't connect to the WGM. Check all that and it works fine. 

If I launch the ugworker.bat... everything works fine. If I launch from the Worker Agent Administration window, the worker comes up but then those errors come. 

I thought maybe it's a server version thing (CS245930 ). So I installed NX2312 to confirm and sure enough... same error. So no change. 

 

I move on to the Creo setup:

Worker monitor comes on but Creo doesn't. 

Dobi_1-1730778029010.png

Ok, so maybe this is a Creo agent version thing (CS302660 , CS331638 , CS182686 ). 

I tried installing, updating, modifying and forcing version 10 and 11 to exist (CS262269 ) but that didn't work. I also then went to Creo 11 (to match the Platform Services version)... and that gives me the same failure. 

 

The rant: for the love of everything that is holy, why does this not work?? I have the same setup (version differences aside) running and running well... documented on how it's setup... this was a duplicate in terms of setup. 

 

Best answer by Dobi

Turns out versioning is very important on VMs.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS33759 notes at the bottom that there is limited support on Windows Server platforms for File Sync CAD workers. 

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs245930 calls out the "Verified CAD application" tested by PTC.

 

Dobi_0-1730875341654.png

 

In this instance, I had installed WGM 13.0.2.1 and had planned to use NX2306. Neither is verified and I can confirm that the particular combination DOES NOT WORK on Windows Server 2022. 

 

I wasn't able to uninstall WGM13.0.2.1 and instead had to go the piecemeal route.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs63910,

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS26051

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS326285

 

Once WGM13.0.2.0 was installed,  I had to pick a version of Creo (because I have both NX and Creo running on this VM) that was comparable or would have to try repairs (https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs353816). 

Creo 11.0.2 has a slightly newer Creo Platform Services version and if installed AFTER the Workgroup Manager, left me with both working fine without repairing the platform service version (WWGM CEF Patch).

Dobi_1-1730875777692.png

Lesson learned: https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs245930 is critical.

 

1 reply

D
17-Peridot
Dobi17-PeridotAuthorAnswer
17-Peridot
November 6, 2024

Turns out versioning is very important on VMs.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS33759 notes at the bottom that there is limited support on Windows Server platforms for File Sync CAD workers. 

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs245930 calls out the "Verified CAD application" tested by PTC.

 

Dobi_0-1730875341654.png

 

In this instance, I had installed WGM 13.0.2.1 and had planned to use NX2306. Neither is verified and I can confirm that the particular combination DOES NOT WORK on Windows Server 2022. 

 

I wasn't able to uninstall WGM13.0.2.1 and instead had to go the piecemeal route.

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs63910,

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS26051

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS326285

 

Once WGM13.0.2.0 was installed,  I had to pick a version of Creo (because I have both NX and Creo running on this VM) that was comparable or would have to try repairs (https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs353816). 

Creo 11.0.2 has a slightly newer Creo Platform Services version and if installed AFTER the Workgroup Manager, left me with both working fine without repairing the platform service version (WWGM CEF Patch).

Dobi_1-1730875777692.png

Lesson learned: https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/cs245930 is critical.

 

    R
    Ruediger_Scholz13-Aquamarine
    13-Aquamarine
    November 6, 2024

    Hi Dobi,

    out of curiosity: are you using worker daemon service(s), and if so, what's their account?

     

    Regards,

    Ruediger  

    D
    17-Peridot
    Dobi17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    November 6, 2024

    Hi Ruediger, 

     

    I have a dedicated worker daemon set up for each instance. The services look like this across the board (CS49182 )

    C:\ptc\creo_view_adapters_110\x86e_win64\obj\WorkerDaemon.exe -service 60x

     

    Creo runs with Local System account:

    Dobi_0-1730901023781.png

     

    Office and NX (which you and I talked a good amount about at my last job - but unrelated to publishing!) run as my account:

    Dobi_1-1730901200452.png

     

    In the Windchill 13 documentation, it specifically says to use Local System Account. This didn't work for me... perhaps it had to do with the next section there (HTTPS, Certificates) that says to use This account. I did try both and the latter was the winner. 

    Dobi_2-1730901479137.png

    Also, a little while back I learned that while some of my older systems (WC12.0.2.8, CreoView 10.1, NX2306) worked fine with WorkerDaemonSvc.exe , when I made the transition from NX2007 to NX2306 on those systems the workers stopped launching via Worker Agent. I don't immediately have an article reference for what compelled me to go the WorkerDaemonSvc.exe route in the first place so CS49182 holds true at this version mix for me. 

     

    The other confusing bit with the Creo View Adapters 11.0 for Office specifically was Office compatibility documentation: 

    CS74838 --> 11.0.0.0

     

    Dobi_3-1730902199951.png

    It calls out Office 365 there, but in the doc2pv.pvi it explicitly DOESN'T mention Office 365 (but does call out the other 3 supported versions). Given that the WGM/Windows Server version sensitivity was so high, I was expecting this worker to have more trouble than it did. 

    Dobi_4-1730902305112.png

     

    Dobi

     

     

     

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