Issue
Attempts to access a meter in ION Designer may result in the message "The node is locked by".

Product Line
Power Monitoring Expert 8.2
Power Monitoring Expert 9.0
Power Monitoring Expert 2020
Power Monitoring Expert 2021
Power Monitoring Expert 2022
Power Monitoring Expert 2023
Power Monitoring Expert 2024

Environment
Designer

Cause
The nodes are locked so that not more than one user can write to the meter concurrently. When users access Designer via Remote Desktop and incorrectly end their session the sessions can stay alive and the affected nodes remain locked. This may even be true even through server reboots.
If someone leaves their terminal services session without logging off (leaving the session open) then the node remains locked.

Resolution
Restarting the application server should sever the connection and allow the node to be freed up. Otherwise, the remote connection must be terminated by force:

1. Open Task Manager.
2. Navigate to the Users Tab.
3. Right-click on the user connected to the server.
4. Select disconnect.