Hello Hibbo,
thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.
Below I have made some comments on your statements from my point of view.


[quote user="Hibbo"]
1. Do NOT attempt to install CAS on a PC which has been pre-installed with PCS 7 e.g. the SIMATIC PC IL-43. After removing any licences, use the Restore disk to return the machine to a state with no PCS 7 software installed. CAS can now be installed from the PCS 7 Toolset DVD.

--> CAS is just a software package consisting of WinCC and Storage Plus installed via PCS 7 Toolset DVD. An existing WinCC installation cannot be updated to a CAS.As there is no preinstalled IL43 PC available for CAS, you have to use the A1 restore Disk (containing only win2003 operating system) and then install CAS following the install instructions from PCS7 readme.


[quote user="Hibbo"]
2. When configuring Alarm Logging and Tag Logging in the OS Server, do NOT attempt to set the Backup Configuration – Destination Path to anything other than \\<CAS Machine Name>\ArchiveDir. If you do change it, it reverts to the default on a download. When installing CAS, one of the Installation Settings is ‘Shared archive directory’. This location is automatically given the share name: ArchiveDir. If using SIMATIC Batch, remember to set the archive location to \\<CAS Machine Name>\ArchiveDir.

--> That is correct.
StoragePlus only processes archive files or batch/wincc reports from inside the ArchiveDir share.
Note: You do NOT have to make any manual configurations on OS Servers regarding the Backup Path of TagLogging or AlarmLogging. The correct backup path \\<CAS Machine Name>\ArchiveDir is automatically configured by WinCC object manager when you set up the OS Server PC station in Simatic Manager (OS -> properties -> Target OS and standby OS -> Transfer to central archive server)

[quote user="Hibbo"]
3. Archiving on a CAS is not cyclic like OS archiving. If left to continue archiving without performing manual/automatic backups, the hard disk would eventually fill up and the CAS would stop working.

--> That is correct.
CAS is not designed to overwrite any data. It will process as much data as possible and it then will only stop working when misconfigured. This is because customer which use CAS never want that any archive data is lost by chance.

[quote user="Hibbo"]
4. The size an archive reaches before it is closed is defined purely by the setting "Size of the long-term segments in meagabytes". It is NOT possible to time limit an archive so that monthly backups, for example, can be taken. The format of the open and later closed archives is: SPB_MM_DD_YYYY_HH_MM_SS. The documentation states that the minimum size is 50MB, however in practice the system restricted me to a value between 500 and 8400MB.

--> Yes, your observation is correct, but that is part of CAS design.
The restriction to a certain files size is available in order to make backups on CD/DVD. For the use of very small backups with 50MB you have to use HF1 for StoragePlus V1.1 SP1.

[quote user="Hibbo"]
I have contacted A&D Tech support about the following 2 issues but have yet to receive a
resolution:

5. When using View Editor to configure an Alarm Table I found that the Time Period could not be adjusted, it is just greyed out and fixed at 1 hour.

--> That is part of CAS design. The Time period can not be configured. But the greyed value (1 hour) will not be used either. The intended systems behaviour is that StoragePlus just uses the time configured as "time shift" and then returns ALL values up to now.

[quote user="Hibbo"]
6. SIMATIC Batch allows the creation of batches with names containing a backslash "/". In the StoragePlus WebViewer, when clicking “Detail” for such batches " a warning message is received stating that it is an unrecognised file type.

--> this may be bug and should treated at A&D Tech support. In case you have just received a suitable solution, please let the other user know... [:)]