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Troubleshooting

Error Problem Possible cause Possible remedy
MindConnect Nano L1-RUN/STOP - MindConnect Element cannot onboard to Insights Hub
- No Internet connection
Network connection problem:
- Either IP address is not valid or configured IP address already exists in the network of MindConnect Nano
- Either disabled or invalid configured Proxy
- Proxy is offline
- Interrupted connection
- IP address is configured via DHCP, but there is no internet connection.
- Firewall blocks MindConnect Elements
- Your company’s router is damaged
- Check your configuration connection: If configured IP and Proxy are valid
- Check physical connection: your company’s router, Ethernet cables etc.
MindConnect Nano L2 - ERROR LED - Although an asset uploaded to Insights Hub Monitor.
- MindConnect Nano cannot onboard to Insights Hub
- No connection to data source
- The address of the data point configuration can be incorrect
- Incorrect asset configuration
- Not accomplished asset configuration (Network Connection)
Invalid ID of MindConnect Nano
Check the connection between MindConnect Nano and data sources (Plant Network ports and cables- S7/OPC UA Server)
- Check the connection between MindConnect Nano and data sources (Plant Network ports and cables- S7/OPC UA server)
- Check data sources configuration.
- Check configuration of each data point.
- Check configuration of your asset
- (Network Configuration).
- Check if MindConnect Nano ID is correct.
MindConnect Nano L2- ERROR LED blinking RED Data loss MindConnect Nano was offline for too long, so it could not send data to Insights Hub and the storage is full. - Check outbound connection
- Check Ethernet cables
- Check Proxy (IP address, User Authentication can be required)
MindConnect Nano L2- ERROR LED RED Firmware update error - Technical problems with a new version of firmware
- Incorrect firmware type
- Certificate problems, Authentication problems etc.
- Make sure that you are using the correct firmware type (MindConnect Nano).
- MindConnect Nano will automatically restart and then firmware update will be carried out after a while.
- If MindConnect Nano does not restart automatically, then restart it manually: by switching on and off the “power button” on MindConnect Nano.
MindConnect Nano L3- MAINT LED ORANGE Onboarding failed - Configuration file on the USB stick is invalid
- Internal error
- Make sure that the data on the USB stick still is valid. (The data, which you exported to the USB stick, is still valid only for 7 days.). If it is expired, use the asset configuration to export a new valid configuration to your USB stick.
- Check asset configuration and reconfigure, if it is required and export a new configuration to USB stick.
MindConnect Nano L3-MAINT LED blinking RED - Problems with USB stick
- Although no LED lights are shown (except PC ON/WD with constant GREEN) and internet connection is OK, MindConnect Nano still cannot be onboarded to Insights Hub
- System Error
- Incorrect formatting of USB stick (no FAT or FAT32)
- USB stick is damaged
- Write error, USB stick is write-protected or its memory is full.
- Configuration file is invalid (damaged, illegible)
- See also below
Problems with USB stick:
- Configuration file in USB stick cannot be read or accepted by MindConnect Nano:
- Problems with configuration file
- Configuration file is located in an incorrect directory.
- Expired configuration file on the USB stick
- The configuration file is invalid or not copied to the USB stick
Unknown
Check format and partition of the USB stick. It must be FAT or FAT32 formatted and may only contain a single partition.
- Try a new USB stick
- Remove and plug an USB stick into MindConnect Nano
- Check the diagnosis file on the USB stick.
- Check the name of the configuration file. It must have MindConnect Nano ID. Do not change the name of the downloaded file.
- Check whether the directory is valid. (Configuration file must be in the root directory of the USB stick.)
- Make sure that the data on the USB stick is still valid. (The data, which you exported to the USB stick, is still valid only for 7 days.) If it is expired, use the asset configuration to export a new valid configuration to your USB stick.
- Switch MindConnect Nano off and on again.
- If the problem persists, contact your Siemens Support/„Expert Center“.

USB commands

You can run diagnostic and maintenance USB commands on your MindConnect Nano.

The following lists various USB commands and the respective JSON format:

Prerequisites

  • A MindConnect device e.g. MindConnect Nano
  • A fat32 formatted USB stick

Procedure

To use a USB command, proceed as follows:

  1. Make sure your USB stick is fat32 formatted.
  2. Create a file named “ConBox_Commands.json” directly on the USB stick.
  3. Open the “ConBox_Commands.json” file in a text editor.
  4. Enter one of the "JSON Code" commands that you want to execute.
  5. Save the changes to the "ConBox_Commands.json".
  6. Plug the USB STick into the MindConnect device.

The following list shows various USB commands:

Copy extended logs to USB stick

The following command will collect all agent logs & system files, put them into ConBox_<UID>_Logs.tar.gz and ConBox_<UID>_SystemFiles.tar.gz files and copy them to the USB stick.

JSON Code:

    {
      "Commands": [
      {
        "Cmd":"CopySystemFilesToUsbStick",
    "TypeOfFiles": "AllSystemFiles"
      },
    {
    "Cmd":"CopyAgentLogsToUsbStick"
    }
      ]
    }

Note

For the MindConnect IoT2040 it can take up to 15 minutes to collect all files.

Copy archived logs to USB stick

Some Logs arrive every day at approx. 0 UTC. The extended logs therefore only contain the data of the current day. To get those logs for past days you need to run this command.

The following command will copy all archived log files to a sub directory on the USB stick and delete the copied log files from the archive folder optionally. The USB stick should be larger than 200 MB. Sub directories on the USB stick will have following structure: ConBox_<BOX ID>/<CurrentTime>Sample:ConBox_J47110815/20180318T191647

JSON Code:

    {
      "Commands": [
      {
        "Cmd":"CopyArchivedLogsToUsbStick",
        "DeleteAfterCopy":"false"
      }
      ]
    }

Note

To store the file locally, disable the log file upload.

Change system time

For the case that the system time should have been changed so that agent runtime is no longer able to connect to Industrial IoT, you can retrieve the backend time to correct the system time. The following command provides the possibility to change the system time manually via ConBox_Commands.json file on the USB stick.

JSON Code:

    {
    "Commands": [
      {
        "Cmd": "SetSystemTime",
        "NewTime": "2017-09-19T12:34:56"
      }
    ]
    }

Note

You have to set to the current UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time.

Change log file upload configuration

You can activate or deactivate the upload of log files via the ConBox_Commands.json file with the ChangeLogFileUploadConfiguration command on a USB stick. This reduces the amount of data that is stored for a environment on the backend side and reduces the mobile data costs for uploading data to Industrial IoT.

If log file upload is disabled, the log files are saved locally. This local space is limited (200 MB). The files are written and after reaching this limit the oldest files are overwritten.

After the log file upload has been reactivated, previously saved MERS log files are uploaded to Industrial IoT (max. 200 MB).

JSON Code:

    {
      "Commands": [
        {
          "Cmd": "ChangeLogFileUploadConfiguration",
          "EnableUpload": "true"
        }
      ]
    }

You can set the following command parameters:

Parameter Description
EnableUpload true: enable log file upload
false: disable log file upload

Note

Changing log upload by USB command will not be synchronized with the asset’s device configuration on Industrial IoT side.

Perform factory reset

For factory reset a ConBox_Commands.json file can be provided by using the USB stick.

The network and BoxMgr settings will be reset to their initial state on MindConnect Nano. All BoxMgr and MERS logging files and temporary files will be then deleted. At the end the MindConnect device will be restarted automatically.

Note

Offboard the asset and device before factory reset execution and perform the factory reset. After the execution, the asset and device should be onboarded again.

The factory reset command will be available on MindConnect Nano version 03.01.00.00 b00x or later.

JSON Code:

    {
      "Commands": [
      {
        "Cmd": "DoFactoryReset",
        "DeviceID": "_MindConnect_ID_"
      }
      ]
    }

Note

The Unique ID has to be replaced with the serial number of the device

You can find more information on how to set a MindConnect Element to factory settings in chapter Manual firmware update of MindConnect Nano and Manual firmware update of MindConnect IoT2040

Restricted device configuration

The RestrictDeviceConfiguration command allows you to enable or disable online device configuration changes via Insights Hub user interface after the MindConnect device has been successfully onboarded.

If you need to adapt the configuration, you have to create a new onboarding file with new e.g. network parameter and insert this data again via USB.

Note

Make sure that all parameters are valid before exporting the configuration file to prevent unwanted changes that can lead to invalid network settings, for example.

Effects on online device configuration

There is no indication in the asset configuration user interface that the device configuration has been restricted on MindConnect Nano device. If you try to change restricted device settings online, a message is logged in the diagnostic file on the MindConnect Nano device that this setting could not be applied.

JSON Code:

    {
        "Commands": [
            { "Cmd":"RestrictDeviceConfiguration",
                "networkInterfaces": [
                    {
                        "name": "WebInterface",
                        "DHCP": "true",
                        "IPv4": "true",
                        "SubnetMask": "true",
                        "Gateway": "true",
                        "DNS": "true"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "ProductionInterface",
                        "DHCP": "true",
                        "IPv4": "true",
                        "SubnetMask": "true",
                        "Gateway": "true",
                        "DNS": "true"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }

To prevent changes of network interface settings, the following parameters can be specified in the JSON command:

Parameter Description
name Name of the network interface.
Possible values:
- WebInterface
- ProductionInterface
DHCP - false: DHCP setting can be changed (default)
- false: DHCP setting can be changed (default)
IPv4 - true: IP address can not be changed
- false: IP address can be changed (default)
SubnetMask - true: Subnet mask can not be changed
- false: Subnet mask can be changed (default)
Gateway - true: Gateway address can not be changed
- false: Gateway address can be changed (default)
DNS - true: DNS address can not be changed
- false: DNS address can be changed (default)

Note

  • If you only provide some of the above mentioned parameters, then the omitted parameters will be ignored. This means that either the last restricted device configuration of these parameters will be used, or they will be treated as not set.
  • To enable device configuration changes of specific parameters again, a JSON command containing those parameters with value "false" can be provided via USB stick.
  • To turn it off a new JSON command file needs to be provided with "false" for all parameters.

Check network

Command description To find out, if the MindConnect device is successfully connected to Insights Hub using the current onboarding configuration, a ConBox_Commands.json file containing "CheckNetwork" command on an USB stick can be used. After the network analysis has been performed, the analysis result will be written to the USB stick.

Depending on the current network situation, it might be possible that the execution of all internally executed tests will take some minutes.

Note

This command is available from the version MindConnect Nano firmware V03.04.02.10 b003.

CheckNetwork command

Using following JSON command in a ConBox_Commands.json file, a network analysis will be performed and the result will be written to the USB stick:

    {
      "Commands": [
        {
          "Cmd": "CheckNetwork",
          "NetworkChecks": [
            {
              "CheckCloudConnection": "true"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
Parameter Description
CheckCloudConnection - true: Cloud connection check will be executed
- false: Cloud connection check will not be executed.
NetworkChecks - List of checks that have to be executed.
- Currently CheckCloudConnection check is available only.

Result of CheckCloudConnection file

After the CheckCloudConnection network check has been executed, a result file will be copied to the USB stick.

The name of the result file has the following format:

  • ConBox_<serial number>_<time stamp>_CloudConnectionCheck.log

The result file contains following sections:

  • Test output

    • Contains detailed information about the executed test steps according to the current network configuration of the MindConnect device.
  • Test summary

    • Contains following information.
    • Start and end time of the test.
    • Current IP addresses of web and production interfaces.
    • Result of trying to connect to Insights Hub directly without proxy.
    • Result of trying to connect to Insights Hub via proxy server, if a proxy server had been configured.
    • Information about the current proxy configuration.

Log files

Overview

Log files are generated continuously and automatically uploaded when the "Auto Log Upload" is enabled in the following scenarios:

  • Log files are uploaded every time the device is started.
  • All the log files are uploaded after midnight.
  • Once a log file reaches its maximum file size, it is uploaded as zip file.
  • Using "Upload Logs Now" option to upload log files manually.

Log files are uploaded in tar.gz format with a maximum file size limit of 10MB with following MindConnect Firmware version.

  • MindConnect Nano V03.04.04.03 b001.

Concatenating log file archive parts

Linux

On Linux, the downloaded log file archive parts is concatenated as follows:

cat fileArchiv.tar.gz.parta* > fileArchiv.tar.gz

Windows

On Windows, the downloaded log file archive parts is concatenated as follows:

type fileArchiv.tar.gz.parta* > fileArchiv.tar.gz

For information on USB commands troubleshooting, refer to USB commands.


Last update: February 16, 2024