Is there a recommended migration path for getting data from a FactoryTalk Historian into the Ignition Historian module?
The FactoryTalk historian is just rebranded OSI PI, right? Can it use the PI JDBC?
What is the use case? How much data are you looking to migrate? Depending on size, exporting it as CSV or something might be the simplest way to get it out of PI.
EDIT: If you do try to export CSV, you'll have a much better experience using PI Datalink than trying to export via SMT.
Yes, sort of. It's their proprietary version of OSI PI, but has all that same functionality.
There's a couple years of data in the historian, but I'm not sure how much they are going to want to migrate. If all of it, that's going to be a very large CSV, although I agree that method would be simpler.
I do not recommend using PI Datalink or PI SMT to export bulk tag data, I have had both crash on me numerous times when trying to do this
It's much easier to do bulk exports directly into a txt file using the piconfig
command line tool, if you have access to your pi archive server.
I have the linked script saved to a text file called getTagData.txt
(by default the script puts the export at C:\temp\values.txt
, change to suit your needs), located in the same folder where the pi adminstration tools are installed (for me they are at D:\Program Files\PI\adm
, in your pi archive server they might be somewhere else) whenever i need to do a bulk export i open the file, make a new entries right before the @exit
command containing the tags I wish to do a bulk export on, then using the command line, i run the command piconfig < getTagData.txt
, the tag history export will then show up wherever you defined in in the getTagData.txt
file.
After that you can write an ignition script that opens the file and loads the data into the historian.I recommend using system.tag.storeTagHistory | Ignition User Manual funtion
Very helpful. Thank you!
Does this work for much much older versions of OSI PI? Like pre-AVEVA age versions? Was having some issues a few months ago with a version that was still heavily tied to Rockwell
I'm not sure exactly when the functionality was introduced, but we've been using the tool prior to OSI being purchased by AVEVA
PI DataLink should be able to handle 100s of thousands of values, but I agree piconfig
is a good option, especially if you have enough data to move that would require scripting this migration into multiple files.
piconfig
has been around since at least PI 3, probably much longer. Way before AVEVA, definitely. It pre-dated my time at OSI/AVEVA by at least a decade, I'd say.
What about when trying to access old data from archives in files? It sounds like we have some data going back to 2007 that they would like to migrate and we have those files.
You will have to register the archive files on your PI Server (or on a backup). The archive files themselves only contain the data, and not enough point metadata to read them directly. Not to mention the proprietary file format.
How many tags and what kind of data density are we talking about? If it's a lot, I'd recommend starting with whatever is most important to move for your operations, like maybe 6 months of data, then go back to retrieve the rest. It may take months to move the data, depending on size.
RSView32 used dBase files for data logging if I recall, but before Rockwell switched to using their rebranded Pi, I think there was a product named RSSQL. I never used it, and I'm not sure if there's an intermediate product between RSSQL and Pi. There's also the built-in data logger that's not really considered FactoryTalk Historian, but could be what they're using also.
Thanks! I was assuming PI archives containing data back to 2007
That's my assumption too, but I've caught myself assuming incorrectly many times when some legacy system was in place that the customer calls one thing, but in reality isn't what they have.
Thanks, I am also assuming PI archives, but I have yet to confirm. I wasn't doing work with their Historian at that time.