Using Virtual Machines to modify iFix screens

I recently managed a project that involved modifying iFix 3.0 screens for a wastewater plant in Chicago.  Since the plant is a distance from our office, and I am running iFix 5.1 on my laptop, I built a mock-up of their iFix system in a Virtual Machine using VMware even though iFix is not officially supported on Virtual Machines.

I first used the built-in Back & Restore Wizard in iFix to backup the entire iFix system at the plant.  Aditionally, I manually backed-up the iFix Pic, Database (Both .pdb and in .csv formats), and the local directories just in case anything went wrong with the Restore process.  After backing up iFix, I backed up their RSLinx configuration file and ABR configuration file, since iFix uses the ABR driver and RSLinx to communicate to the PLC’s at this site.

Back at the office, I downloaded the latest version of VMware from http://www.vmware.com (version 2.0.2) and installed on my laptop.  The installation went well and I am impressed with the web-based interface.  I then created a Virtual Machine and installed a fresh copy of Windows XP for the operating system.  To be safe, I made a backup of my 8GB virtual machine before proceeding. 

To begin my iFix installaion, I first installed RSLinx, which of course involved using EMOVE to transfer a license from a floppy disk to the virtual machine.  I must say that, although still not perfect, VMware has much improved its support for floppy drives.  My Virtual Machine instantly found and installed drivers for my USB floppy drive.

Once RSLinx was installed, I installed iFix 3.0 on my virtual Machine, as well as the ABR driver.  Everything worked well!  I then transferred  the RSLinx and ABR configuration files to my Virtual Machine and ran the iFix Backup & Restore Wizard to restore my project.  Once again, all worked extremely well.  I do find that VMware’s support for USB flash drives (actually all USB devices), to be a little cumbersome, but Microsoft’s Virtual Environment completely lacks this support, so I really can’t complain. 

I then plugged-in my USB iFix Integrator Key and restarted my Virtual Machine and iFix.  I then had a completely functional iFix 3.0 system that I was able to modify to my clients liking.  Because of VMware’s excellent networking support, I was also able to link my iFix system to some Allen-Bradley PLC’s in the office that were loaded with the plant’s code, and then was able to fully test my changes.