TwinCAT Package Manager (TwinCAT 3.1.4026)

The following installation instructions are intended for users installing TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4026. To install TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4024, read the documentation Installation TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4024.

On Windows systems, TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4026 is installed with the help of the TwinCAT Package Manager. On Linux®, the runtime is installed as described in the Beckhoff RT Linux® documentation. On TwinCAT/BSD, the TwinCAT runtime is installed as described in the TwinCAT/BSD documentation.

With the TwinCAT Package Manager setup, you can not only install TwinCAT in three variants as before, but also select and install additional TwinCAT components individually. You can also update and uninstall TwinCAT components individually. To install and use the individual TwinCAT components, first install the TwinCAT Standard workload.

Installation of TwinCAT 3 Build 4026 on existing TwinCAT-4024 systems only with migration On systems with existing TwinCAT 3 Build 4024, you can only install TwinCAT 3 Build 4026 by performing a migration. A guided migration is available via the TwinCAT Package Manager. If desired, you can then install engineering versions < Build 4026 (as before) as Remote Manager. Further information can be found in the chapter Migrating existing TwinCAT software.

To be able to use TwinCAT Package Manager and TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4026, you need the myBeckhoff account.

The TwinCAT Package Manager is based on two components that build on each other:

• TwinCAT Package Manager: The User interface for menu-driven installation (user interface; UI).
• TwinCAT Package Manager Command Line Interface (CLI): The command line program is used by the user interface.

All actions on the user interface lead to calls to the command line program. This means that all functions of the user interface can be mapped in the command line, but the command line can sometimes provide more detailed functions that are not mapped in the user interface.

Basics

The TwinCAT Package Manager downloads packages and their dependencies from one or more so-called "feeds". “Stable”, “Testing” and “Outdated” feeds are available from Beckhoff. However, customers can also provide their own feeds if these contain TwinCAT packages for offline installation, for example. The basis for this are either normal directories ("c:\packagesoffline", possibly provided via a network drive) or NuGet Package Server.

Beckhoff software is provided in the TwinCAT Package Manager in the form of workloads and packages. Workloads represent products and consist of one or more packages that provide the software functions. To ensure the full functionality of a product, we recommend the installation of workloads.

Notes on how the TwinCAT Package Manager works

The TwinCAT Package Manager is based on NuGet technology, the NuGet package format, and NuGet communication. Various TwinCAT-specific properties were implemented using NuGet mechanisms, which are reflected in both the CLI and the UI client. The following properties are relevant to your IT:

• Installing and uninstalling packages requires typical administrator privileges (including privileges to run scripts, install MSIs, etc.). The UI can also be used by users without administrator privileges. It only requests these privileges when necessary (“least privilege principle”).
• The communication with Beckhoff servers is established via HTTPS to the configured feeds. If firewalls perform certificate or deep packet inspection, this can cause problems. In this case, it is recommended that you configure exceptions for the Beckhoff servers being used.
• Beckhoff’s TwinCAT packages are digitally signed to ensure data integrity, even when local copies are created on separate servers, for example. Therefore, encrypted packet transmission is not relevant for this.
• It is possible to use local directories as a feed, but this is slower. In this process, TwinCAT package management must search through all the packages for metadata (name, version, etc.). This information is provided by a NuGet server as separate data, which generally results in better performance.
• Beckhoff package servers use a load-balancing mechanism, which means that no static IP addresses are used.