DNote v8 (15-Feb-21)

Product Release Letter

AVEVA Administration [Link]
Full Release 53381
Windows 10 /Windows 11
Server 2012 R2 / Server 2016 / Server 2019 /Server 2022
This Release Contains
A full release of AVEVA™ Administration, which replaces all previous versions of AVEVA™ Administration
and is required for AVEVA™ Unified Engineering 1.0 (which includes AVEVA™ E3D Design [Link])
The separately licensed products or product components installable from or upgraded by this release are
as follows:
Version
Product Code Product Name
Number
V00FN231/AVEVA AVEVA Administration 2.1.0

Prerequisite for this release (Operating System)

A 64-bit operating system is required for the installation and use of AVEVA™ Administration [Link].
• Windows® 10 (64-bit) (version 21H2 build 19042 or higher)
• Windows® 11 (version 21H2 build 22000 or higher)
• Windows® Server 2012 R2
Required Operating System *1
• Windows® Server 2016 (version 1607)
• Windows® Server 2019 (version 1809 build 17763)
• Windows® Server 2022 (version 21H2 build 20348)

*1 AVEVA does not support the installation of AVEVA E3D 3.1 software and\or Projects on to disk volumes with Short\8.3 file name format disabled.
Please ensure that Short\8.3 file name format is enabled on all relevant volumes before installation. Please refer to Knowledge Base item 5702 for
further details.

Please note that recommended/supported hardware and software configurations are constantly subject to
review; please consult the AVEVA support web pages for the latest recommendations. Please be advised that
Microsoft are withdrawing support for Server 2012 R2 on October 10, 2023. AVEVA advises all users of 2012
R2 to upgrade if possible and that support for customers using 2012 R2 will be limited.

For further information please contact your local AVEVA support office or visit our support site. Details can be found
at [Link]
This document has been prepared and approved by the following:
Job Title Name
Head of Product Graham Hunt
Test Managers Praveena Kothapalli & Durga Rao
VP – 3D Design and Production Peter Wittfjord

File: [Link]
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Prerequisite for this Release (Products)
AVEVA Licensing™System 4.1 or later for Windows 2016/2019 and Windows10 - with an appropriate
License File.

Administration [Link] also supports the AVEVA LaaS commercial model.

Microsoft Office 2010 is required for some functions:

• Optimum operation of the AVEVA Administration GUI requires Arial Unicode MS font, supplied with
Microsoft Office (2000 onwards) and with Microsoft Office Visio.
• Microsoft Office Excel import requires “.NET Programmability Support” enabled when Office is
installed. This can be found under “Advanced customization of applications” and installs the
[Link]; without this, Excel import will not work.
To get the performance benefits given by the AVEVA Cache Service, which is installed with AVEVA
Administration, you need to enable Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ). This is achieved using the
Windows Components feature of Windows Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.

Compatibility
For full up-to-date compatibility details, refer to compatibility matrix that can be found via the AVEVA
support website [Link]
The following AVEVA products are compatible with AVEVA™ Administration [Link]:
• AVEVA™ Unified Engineering 1.0
• AVEVA™ PDMS/ Hull & Outfitting 12.1 SP4 and AVEVA™ PDMS/ Hull & Outfitting 12.1 SP5
Note: Patch 57 or above must be applied. DBSETs are not supported in PDMS and any attempt to use an MDB containing
these will force a return to Monitor. No attempt to manipulate the MDB should be undertaken.

• AVEVA™ E3D Design 2.1 & 3.1 series.

• AVEVA™ Engineering 14.2, 15.4 (See Note),15.5, 15.6, 15.7 series
• AVEVA™ Diagrams all 14 series
• AVEVA™ Plate & Bar Nesting 15.2
• AVEVA™ E3D Structural Design [Link]
• AVEVA™ E3D Insight [Link]
• AVEVA™ GCD Creator 4.1
• AVEVA™ Engage 4.1
• AVEVA™ Applications Service 2.6, [Link] & [Link]
• AVEVA™ Global Server 3.10.0
• AVEVA™ Shared Services 4.0.0

Note (Marine Projects): Folder names containing spaces should be avoided for Marine projects.

Note (Engineering): There are significant changes between AVEVA Engineering 14 and 15 series. This
means it may not be appropriate to simply point AVEVA Engineering 15 software at projects that have ENGI
databases created with AVEVA Engineering 14.2 or earlier. If this is done, it is possible that database

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 Product Release Letter
corruption could occur. This would show up in DICE reports as Fatal Errors. Repair will require a
Reconfigure process, which could be significant and encompass all project databases.

Where a customer is considering using project data created with AVEVA Engineering 14 series to run with
the AVEVA Engineering 15 series, we recommend that you read the AVEVA Engineering release notes.

Actions to ensure documentation for upgrade processes are improved are currently being taken, however
currently, particularly for AVEVA Engineering, it is strongly recommended to contact AVEVA Support prior
to considering a project or database upgrade to use AVEVA Engineering 15 for the latest advice and
guidance.
As a reminder, the DBUPGRADE process does not transform database content, it sets a flag on the
database that stops earlier software versions being used. If a customer uses DBUPGRADE on a database or
whole project, it is not possible to Undo that transaction, so it is strongly recommended a full back-up is in
place should customers want to return the database or project for use with previous software versions.

Pre-requisite for entering Administration with Licensing as a Service(LaaS)

To enter Administration using Licensing as a Service (LaaS) through Connect, for versions of Administration
[Link] and higher, there is a pre-requisite to have Microsoft Evergreen Standalone (x64) installed. This is
available at [Link]

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Security Recommendations
Customers should undertake best practise and due diligence in the configuration of their IT infrastructure
(networks, servers and client machines) to provide robust security, disaster recovery and adequate anti-
virus.
AVEVA recommends customers carefully consider the privileges assigned to files required by our products.
This is to reduce potential attack vectors for both internal and external malicious actors targeting both
AVEVA applications and customer project data.

AVEVA product installs

Installation of AVEVA applications requires local administration rights on the target machine. Both for the
applications themselves and in some cases installation of third-party product dependencies, like .NET or
Oracle for example.
Customers must determine both how products will be deployed and who will be empowered to perform
the installation of products, dependencies, and any subsequent updates to either of these.

Data and databases and code stored for use in AVEVA products in windows files.
Diligent Windows File Access Controls should be incorporated to folders and files used by AVEVA
Applications. This is to minimize inappropriate or unnecessary access. Broadly there are two classifications
of files required by AVEVA applications:

1. Application files-

Files used to configure the environment or application. Typically, read-only access is enough for
most users of these files. In scenarios where custom PML or definition of a project environment are
required write access will be required.

AVEVA recommends customers restrict write access to environmental files (evars). Tampering with
these files can lead to uncontrolled / malicious code being accessed by the applications. Only
trusted individuals / roles requiring the ability to modify environments should be given access -
such as project administrators. By default, these files are installed in the following locations:

C:\Program Files\AVEVA\<product>\[Link]
C:\Program Files\AVEVA\<product>\[Link]
C:\Users\Public\Documents\AVEVA\Projects\custom_evars.bat

These files are responsible for defining the paths to executables that the AVEVA products may use.

Paths defined in the above files represent a potential attack vector where malicious or unexpected
code can be injected. As such Windows Access Controls should be used to restrict who has write
access to these folders and the contents within.

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2. Database files-

These are the typical AVEVA project folders.

All users require read and write access to project Data, including users configured with read-only
access at a project level. This is due to the need to have write access to create and close slots in the
communication database to open projects.

AVEVA recommends that customers follow best practices for data backup and disaster recovery for
all projects.

Developing secure .NET customization DLLs

AVEVA recommends that all .NET customisation DLLs are created with proactive defence against the
common desktop application security flaws. Microsoft ([Link]
us/dotnet/standard/security/secure-coding-guidelines) and OWASP ([Link]
desktop-app-security-top-10/) provide extensive guidelines to developers. In addition to this, AVEVA
recommends:
• Customisation DLLs should be scanned for malware prior to being published and included in
endpoint protection scans.
• Customisation DLLs should be signed to provide integrity and source authentication
([Link]
• Use static analysers to detect security flaws such as code injection, sensitive data exposure and
insufficient user-input validation ([Link]
community/Source_Code_Analysis_Tools)
• Monitor third-party dependencies for known vulnerabilities and upgrade promptly
([Link]

Supersedure
This release supersedes all previous releases of Administration.

Support for previous versions

With this release, support of earlier versions of Administration and Global is withdrawn.
Only the latest versions of Administration, Global are fully supported. Earlier versions will be supported on
an ad hoc basis, but customers should be prepared to upgrade to the latest versions to resolve any issues
encountered as any fixes will not be backported.

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Install
Please read the installation guide, which is visible on the product installation setup screen when the
[Link] file is started.

Installations using [Link] will install in C:\Program Files\AVEVA\Administration2.1 by default. The

individual .msi files will use the drive with the most, free space by default.

Once you have completed the installation, you will be given the option to install the latest sample AVEVA
Plant projects, by checking a ‘Download the latest Projects’ tick-box.

It is important that any files, including configuration files or sample data, that need to be updated by users
are accessible for read, write etc. so they are not by default installed with the software. This is particularly
important when installing in Program Files due to the introduction of User Account Control (UAC). This
makes it important to ensure that files that need to be written are accessible by users without
Administrator privileges. This applies to folders specified by environment variables such as
AVEVA_DESIGN_WORK and AVEVA_DESIGN_USER. The AVEVA Everything3D™ and with AVEVA
Engineering™ installers have been designed to allow the separate definition of suitable folders, with
different defaults.
NOTES:
• It is not recommended that any combination of AVEVA products be installed in the same folder
because AVEVA does not guarantee runtime compatibility between Separate Products on different
release cycles, and the uninstall of one of them subsequently damaging the other.
• This Administration release supports both E3D 2.1, E3D 3.1 and E3D 4.0 and with the installation of
these products, separate project folders exist:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\AVEVA\Projects\E3D2.1
C:\Users\Public\Documents\AVEVA\Projects\E3D3.1
C:\Users\Public\Documents\AVEVA\Projects\E3D4.0
• When Administration 1.9 is installed the default location for projects is
C:\Users\Public\Documents\AVEVA\Projects\
• Customers can amend the installation folder on install to suit their setup or make changes to
[Link] or custom_evars.bat files post install to reflect these amendments.

- Possible installation message issue

Some machine, usually Windows Server 2016 version 1607 (OS build 14393.4101), may display a
message about a DIGITALLY SIGNED DRIVER.
This error does not break any functionality and the message can be ignored.

- Customers who are required to use Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)
Customers who have FIPS enabled will find that when AVEVA Database Cache Service tries to
install, it will abort. This is due to the Cache service using Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ).
The work-round is to disable FIPS, install and then enable FIPS

- Install of AspNetMVC4
For those customers that make use of APS Net MVC4, a sub-folder exists within which is a set-up
executable. If you require a silent install of this utility, then run the set-up executable file thus:

[Link] –silent

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Important changes

UPDATE access mode databases

Support for UPDATE access databases is about to be withdrawn for all AVEVA products.
All product modules now support multi-write databases, and at this release AVEVA are insisting that all
UPDATE databases are made MULTIWRITE.
At this release UPDATE databases are still tolerated, but Administrators will be presented with a persistent
reminder on each log in to the Administration module prompting them to eliminate UPDATE mode
databases from their projects. The reminder will look like this.

In forthcoming releases, the presence of UPDATE databases in projects, may result in denial of access to all
modules except Admin where UPDATE database will have to be changed to MULTIWRITE to allow full
project access to resume.
The syntax to change the access of databases is as follows: -

CHANGE <DB NAME> ACCESS MULTIWRITE

All databases will ultimately need to be changed to MULTIWRITE mode.

In addition, the Export utility in AVEVA Administration will swap any project UPDATE DB to MULTIWRITE
Implicit
The Import utility will also swap UPDATE DBs to MULTIWRITE Implicit, so any customer with an existing
spreadsheet from an earlier export that they use for new project creation needs to be aware of this.

Foreign UPDATE access databases

In cases where foreign reference databases have an UPDATE mode these need to be changed to
MULTIWRITE in the source project and then the definition of the reference database redefined in the
project which was using it as foreign.

If foreign DBs that have changed mode it will affect PDMS 12.1.sp4 and sp5 and E3D 1.1 and 2.1, forcing
the user session to Monitor.

An example message being:

(43,449) Access mode for database MASTER/STLCATA does not match project definition.

In these cases, the definition of the foreign database must be reset in Admin using the command CHANGE
FOREIGN <DB NAME> RESET
Project administrators will need to issue the CHANGE FOREIGN <DB NAME> RESET command for all
appropriate projects running under the stated product versions.
E3D 3.1 and beyond ignore these changes of mode and users enter their chosen module as normal.

As part of the transition, AVEVA has changed all UPDATE DBs in its sample projects to MULTIWRITE and the
project [Link] release and beyond reflect these changes.

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There is now need for customers to make or plan changes, the presence of update databases in a project at
this release will result in a persistent reminder/warning message in admin. AVEVA strongly recommend
that customers change all UPDATE databases to MULTIWRITE mode for the following reasons:

(1) AVEVA will remove all code management of UPDATE DBs within its Dabacon product range by the
end 2023 and they will no longer be supported and projects that use UPDATE database will not be
openable in any module apart from Administration where customers will be able to change them
and regain full access.

(2) None of the AVEVA Dabacon cloud-based products support UPDATE mode for DBs owned by any
project provisioned in the AVEVA cloud environment.

CADC_LANG
AVEVA PDMS, Hull & Outfitting and AVEVA E3D products all support the use of Unicode characters.
With the release of AVEVA E3D Design 4.0 support for CADC_LANG will be withdrawn for all AVEVA
products.

New methodology for building PML libraries

In this release and across all products PML indices are scanned and built dynamically each time a user
enters an AVEVA application from the paths defined in the environment and subfolders therein. This
means that [Link] files which were used as a quick reference in previous versions are no longer used or
necessary. Each user session will build its own index from scratch on entry.

Normal syntax for updating PML file changes in-session PML REHASH ALL will still be supported and but will
rebuild the memory retained definition of PML , not the [Link] which no longer exists. As PML can be
updated in files and the index rebuilt in-session as before.

It is also worth noting that the “[Link]” file has also been removed.

This approach to building the PML library is beneficial for cloud-based implementations and will facilitate
the adoption of new Microsoft install technology MSIX at a future release.

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List of Enhancements
Ribbon user interface
New graphical ribbon added to Administration to bring this product in-line with others in the AVEVA suite.
The icons are slightly different from other products as these have been completed in the new style that
soon all products will follow this style.
Please note that the ribbon dialogue has not added any new forms or options to those that were in the
menu system being replaced this is purely a style change to make Administration more accessible.

The following dialogue from the menu system is being dropped however on the grounds that the same
information is available with right click on the database form.

OLD FORMS AND MENUS NEW METHOD FOR SAME QUERY

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List of Fault Corrections
This release addresses defects arising from the following support incidents:
In this release
Case number IMS/Bug Product Description
number /
Module
960263330 2328875/ Admin Replicate project was failing to replicate all db areas/file folders.
2334962 2.1.0
960164321 2004877/ Admin Form only showed the first 10000 databases in the grid, form
2366647 2.1.0 corrected to show all databases.
2418577/ Admin Using the CHANGE FOREIGN <DB NAME> RESET was resulting in DB
2418587 2.1.0 not found error followed by error 538 followed by fatal crash and
removal of foreign db.

Product Quality Statement

The development, maintenance and testing of AVEVA Solutions’ software products is carried out in
accordance with the AVEVA Quality Management System lifecycle processes. Development, System and
Acceptance testing has been completed on the release to verify that it installs correctly in supported
configurations, that any new functionalities have been correctly implemented and identified defects have
been corrected. Any significant exceptions found during Acceptance Testing or after release will be reported
in the Product Release Latest Update Note on AVEVA's support web site [Link].

ISO 9001:2015 has been granted for Software products created and developed by AVEVA Group Limited at
AVEVA Research and Development Centres and released for use on-premise and in the AVEVA Cloud. This
scope includes products that are used for Simulation, Engineering and Design, Planning and Operations,
Asset Performance Management, and Monitoring and Control.

Exceptions – Significant Defects and Recommended Workarounds

AVEVA intends to fix the defects listed below in a fix release or service pack as soon as reasonably possible.

None.

For the original full release, latest list of exceptions and other updates, please see the Product Release
Latest Update Note. For more detail, please visit [Link]

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