Configure AVEVA Unified Supply Chain

Manage profiles

A profile is a named set of the following configuration options:

• SQL server connection

• Local database

• DataLayer and CrudeSync server connections

• Calculation Hubs

• Shared memory server connection

• Staging server connection

Create profiles to save your preferred configuration options and quickly switch between them, without having to enter the same information multiple times. For example, you could have a main profile for your day-to-day work, and another profile, with a different database, for testing and experimentation purposes.

Manage profiles from the Profiles tab of the File menu. Click File to the left of the Home ribbon tab in the Model Explorer to open the File menu.

The profiles you have defined are listed under Profile Management. The profile marked as (Startup) is the one used when starting AVEVA Unified Supply Chain. To change the startup profile, select another profile and click Use on Startup. Restart AVEVA Unified Supply Chain to use the new startup profile.

Tip: If you have configured more than one profile, the name of the active profile is shown in the title bar of the Model Explorer, next to the application name. For example, if your active profile is called Production Models, the title bar shows AVEVA™ Unified Supply Chain - Production Models.

When you edit a profile or create a new one, the Profile Wizard opens. The wizard opens automatically when you start AVEVA Unified Supply Chain if no profiles exist.

When you delete one or more profiles, if the associated local databases are not referenced by any other profiles then you get the option of deleting them.

Note that you cannot delete the startup profile. You must set another profile as startup first.

Tip: Press Enter to advance to the next step of the wizard, or Esc to cancel and exit the wizard.

Create or edit a profile

1. Enter a profile name

   

   Enter a name for the new profile. If editing an existing profile, you can modify its name.

   Select Use CONNECT if you want to use your CONNECT account to connect to the server resources used to download and share supply chain models and reference data. Contact your AVEVA Unified Supply Chain administrator if you are unsure about this option.

2. Configure the local database

   

   In this step of the wizard you configure the SQL Server database used by AVEVA Unified Supply Chain to store its data. The database can be hosted locally on the computer to which AVEVA Unified Supply Chain is connected, or on another server on your local network. Consult your IT administrators to determine the preferred method of using database servers in your local IT environment.

   In the Connection pane you configure the connection to the database server. Whenever you change a setting in this pane, AVEVA Unified Supply Chain attempts to connect and displays the result.

   In the Server field enter the server name and instance of the database engine used by AVEVA Unified Supply Chain. This should be of the form server name \ database instance (for example, .\sql2016, mycomputer\sqlexpress or networkserver\sql2016).

   The SQL Provider to use is set to Auto by default. This option lets AVEVA Unified Supply Chain select the most efficient provider. You should not have to change this option unless instructed to do so.

   The Authentication can be Integrated, using your Microsoft Windows credential, or you can click the plus icon to add a different user name and password. Click the downward arrow icon in the Authentication field to show a list of the credentials you have defined and switch between them.

   Note: A warning icon appears if you enter non-ASCII characters as part of a password. In some cases, such characters can later cause errors when synchronizing data.

   In the Database pane you select which database to use.

   • To create a new database, click the Create new option button and enter the name of the new database. Select from file to import the contents of an SCM (Supply Chain Model) file into the new database. SCM files contain all the data of a model and are created via the Export Model ribbon button in the Model Explorer. Click the ellipsis button () to choose the SCM file. If you do not choose an SCM file, the database is created empty.

     You cannot create a new database with the same name as the one currently in use. You can however overwrite another existing database by creating a new one with the same name. A warning is displayed in this case.

   • To use an existing database, click the Select existing option button and choose the database from the list.

     Warning: If you are editing an existing profile and switch to a different database, you could create an incompatibility with the DataLayer server, which is configured in the following step. This would prevent you from synchronizing your local data with the server. If you need to work with different local databases, for example for testing purposes, create a separate profile for each.
     If you still select a different database, make sure you also select a compatible DataLayer server in the following step.

3. Configure the server connection

   

   In the DataLayer pane you configure the connection to the DataLayer server used for synchronization by AVEVA Unified Supply Chain.

   Select Connect to DataLayer server to enable the connection. Enter the server address in the Server URL field. The Authentication can be Integrated, using your Microsoft Windows credential, or you can click the plus icon to add a different user name and password. Click the downward arrow icon in the Authentication field to show a list of the credentials you have defined and switch between them. You do not need to configure a DataLayer server if you have created a database from an SCM file in the previous step.

   Click the Test button to check whether the connection is successful with the current settings.

   In the CrudeSync pane you configure the connection to the CrudeSync server. The fields to configure are the same as for the DataLayer server.

   Note: If you have selected Use CONNECT in the first step of the wizard, the two Authentication options are automatically set to CONNECT and cannot be modified.

   Warning: If you are editing an existing profile and switch to a different DataLayer server, you could create an incompatibility with your local database, which you configured in the previous step. This would prevent you from synchronizing your local data with the server. If you need to work with different DataLayer servers, for example for testing purposes, create a separate profile for each, and use different local databases.
   If you still change the DataLayer server of an existing profile, make sure you have selected a compatible local database, or created a new one, in the previous step.

4. Configure the Calculation Hub

   

   If there is a Calculation Hub configured at your site, you can enter the details in this step, so that you can later select it when optimizing your cases. You can define more than one Calculation Hub.

5. Configure the shared memory server connection

   

   In this step you configure the connection between AVEVA Unified Supply Chain and Microsoft Excel. This is used by the Plan component of the Excel Add-In to share data between Excel and AVEVA Unified Supply Chain.

   Select Run Server to enable Excel integration. In the Server name field, enter a name matching the server name entered in the Excel configuration. The server name is case sensitive.

   If Global shared memory space is selected, the shared memory space is created globally within the operating system and is available to all users. Any user or application can access this memory.

   In the Additional user text box you can enter a list of additional users who can access the shared memory space. This list can have multiple users separated by semi-colons. Enter the user names in the form domain\username (for example, overlook\sking; overlook\jdoe; overlook\asmithee).

6. Configure the staging server connection

   

   In this step you can configure the connection to a staging server, in order to reconcile your refinery schedule with actual measurements. For more information on the scheduling reconciliation environment see Reconciliation Connectivity.

   1. Enter the name of the URL of the staging server in the Server URL field. You don't have to include /send.ashx in the URL, and it is ignored if included.

   2. Configure the Authentication as Integrated, using your Microsoft Windows credential, or click the plus icon to add a different user name and password. Click the downward arrow icon in the Authentication field to show a list of the credentials you have defined and switch between them.

   3. Optionally, click Test to check that the configured connection works.

   4. If necessary, change the Timeout interval. A longer interval may be necessary if you have an unreliable network connection, and want to allow for more time before a connection attempt times out.

      The timeout interval must be greater than zero. The default value is 300 seconds.

      Note: If you have selected Use CONNECT in the first step of the wizard, the Authentication option is automatically set to CONNECT and cannot be modified.

7. Review and finish

   

   Review your settings in the Summary step and click Finish to close the wizard.

   Choose a profile at startup

If you regularly use different profiles, it may be easier for you to be prompted to choose a profile every time you start AVEVA Unified Supply Chain. To do so, select Always choose Profile on Startup in the Profiles page.

Whit this option selected, the Manage Profiles dialog box opens every time you start AVEVA Unified Supply Chain.

From this dialog box you can choose which profile to use, or manage profiles as you would do in the main AVEVA Unified Supply Chain window. If you create a new profile from this dialog box, it is automatically selected as the startup profile.

If the Always choose Profile on Startup option is not selected, you can still open the Manage Profiles dialog at startup in the following ways:

• Hold down Shift while double-clicking the AVEVA Unified Supply Chain desktop icon.

• Start AVEVA Unified Supply Chain from a command or PowerShell prompt with the ManageProfiles argument:

  SpiralSuite.exe ManageProfiles

Alternatively, use the SelectProfile argument and the name of a profile to start AVEVA Unified Supply Chain with that profile, without opening the Manage Profile dialog:

SpiralSuite.exe SelectProfile 'My Profile'

Put the profile name within single or double quotes if it contains one or more spaces.

If you do not want to use the command line, you can add a command line argument to a shortcut. For example, follow these steps to add the ManageProfiles argument to a shortcut:

8. Create a shortcut, for instance on your desktop, to the SpiralSuite.exe file in your installation (usually in C:\Program Files\Spiral Software\Spiral Suite\bin).

9. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.

10. In the Shortcut tab, add the ManageProfiles argument to the Target field.

Clean your database

In the Model Explorer, click Clean Database in the Database Maintenance group of the Tools ribbon tab to clean the local database and remove unused objects and any database entries that are no longer referenced within the supply chain models and have not been correctly deleted. Cleaning the database does not shrink the database file size; to shrink the database you must use the database administration tool provided with the database engine.

Configure telemetry settings

To help improve the reliability and performance of AVEVA Unified Supply Chain, you have the option to enable the sending of telemetry data to AVEVA.

Participation in telemetry is optional, but recommended. The data collected concerns only performance issues and application errors, and is used only to improve AVEVA Unified Supply Chain in future releases. No personal or sensitive information is ever collected.

An icon in the bottom right corner of the Model Explorer shows whether telemetry is enabled.

Click the icon to open the Application Telemetry dialog box, where you can disable or enable telemetry.