We are preparing a software release in a pharmaceutical environment, therefore we have to collect clear evidence of the backup and restore procedure for the Historian (Built-in QuestDB) in Ignition 8.3 as part of our validation documentation.
We would like to understand the correct procedure and best practices for the following points:
Historian Backup - What are the recommended steps to correctly back up the Tag Historian data?
Historian Restore
What is the correct procedure to restore Historian data so that historical trends remain fully accessible from Ignition?
Are there specific precautions to take during the restore process?
Storage Location
Is it possible to configure the Historian so that the historical data is stored on a drive different from C: (for example D: or another dedicated storage volume)?
Additional context:
The system is deployed on Windows Server.
Due to regulatory constraints of the pharmaceutical environment, Linux cannot be used.
Yes, we have already evaluated alternative historian backends such as PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB specifically to handle high throughput scenarios.
However, since Ignition 8.3 introduces the embedded QuestDB-based historian, we are currently assessing whether it can be adopted in our architecture. Before making that decision, we need to understand the operational procedures around it.
In particular, because this system will be deployed in a pharmaceutical regulated environment, we must document and validate the following aspects:
• A reliable backup procedure for the historian data
• A verified restore procedure ensuring historical data remains accessible in Ignition trends after restoration
• Any precautions required during backup or restore operations
• Whether the historian storage location can be configured on a dedicated drive (e.g., D:) instead of the system drive
Our goal is to determine whether the embedded historian can meet the operational and validation requirements of a regulated environment.
Any documentation or recommended procedure for QuestDB historian backup and restore in Ignition 8.3 would be very helpful.
I'd definitely recommend PostgreSQL with TimescaleDB here. You can use the standard PostgreSQL backup/restore tools and it checks all your boxes. (Not sure if it's "approved" for pharmaceutical use though).
I have personally done CFR21 projects before with RDB’s. I wholeheartedly concur. Also PSQL/Timescale rules in terms of perfomance and stability. Love it, if i I had my say I’d be using it for any project that needs a db and time series data.
Thank you for the suggestions regarding alternative architectures.
I agree that using an external relational database (e.g. PostgreSQL/Timescale or another RDBMS) is often a solid approach for historian workloads, and it is something we have already evaluated.
However, the core of my question is slightly different.
Since Ignition 8.3 introduces the embedded QuestDB-based historian, we would like to understand whether it is operationally possible to perform a backup and restore of the historian data itself, without relying on full VM snapshots.
In our case the system will run in a regulated pharmaceutical environment, and part of the validation requires documented evidence that historian data can be:
backed up using a defined procedure
restored successfully
accessed again in Ignition trends after the restore
So the key point we are trying to clarify is:
Is there a supported or recommended procedure to back up and restore the embedded QuestDB historian used by Ignition 8.3 (for example at filesystem level), without relying on infrastructure-level snapshots?