Create an iFIX Collector

Before you begin

  1. Deploy Proficy Historian for AWS.
  2. Install collectors. You can install them on-premises or on an EC2 instance in a VPC (which can be the same one as the Historian server or a different one).
  3. Ensure that the iFIX server is running.

About this task

The iFIX collectors collect data from iFIX and store it in the Historian server.

They use the Easy Data Access (EDA) protocol to retrieve data from a running iFIX system.

Features:
  • You can browse the source for tags and their attributes.
  • Only the polled data collection is supported; unsolicited collection is not supported. The minimum poll interval is 100ms.
  • The supported timestamp resolution is milliseconds or seconds.
  • The collector accepts device timestamps.
  • Floating point, integer, string, and binary data are supported.
  • You can create Python Expression Tags for those collectors that support them.
Supported tag attributes:
  • Tagname
  • Source Address
  • Engineering Unit Description
  • Data Type
  • Hi Engineering Units
  • Lo Engineering Units

Procedure

  1. Run Command Prompt as an administrator.
  2. Run the CloudHistorianConfigurationUtility.exe file. It is provided along with the collectors installer. After you install collectors, it will be available in the C:\Program Files\GE Digital\Historian Cloud Config folder by default.
  3. Enter the number corresponding to creating a collector instance.
    A list of collectors that you can create appears.
  4. Enter the number corresponding to the collector that you want to create.
  5. Enter the following details:
    Field Description
    Interface Name Enter the name that you want to provide for the collector instance. A value is required and must be unique in the DNS.
    NLB DNS

    Enter the Amazon Network Load Balancer (NLB) DNS. A value is required.

    Tip: To find the NLB DNS:
    1. Access the EKS cluster on which you have deployed Proficy Historian for AWS.
    2. Access the EC2 instance.
    3. In the navigation pane, under Load Balancing, select Load Balancers.
    4. Select the load balancer for which you want to find the DNS.
    5. In the Description section, copy the DNS name.
    Username Enter the username to connect to Proficy Historian for AWS. A value is required.
    Password Enter the password to connect to Proficy Historian for AWS. A value is required.
    Tip: For the default user, ihCloudHistAdmin, this is the value you entered in the Password field under UAA Configuration when you created the stack.
    iFIX Server Enter the host name or IP address of the iFIX server. A value is required. The default value is FIX, which indicates the local machine.
    The iFIX collector is created.

What to do next

Start the collector: Add the collector to the iFIX System Configuration (SCU) startup list. The collector then starts automatically whenever you start iFIX. To do so, set the task parameters to NOSERVICE REG=<collector name>, as shown in the following image for a collector with the interface name win2019dj2_iFix_1.
Note: If an error occurs, stating that the collector fails to start and prompting you to delete the collector:
  1. Select No.
  2. In iFIX System Configuration (SCU), set the task parameters as follows:
    • Filename: Enter <installation drive>:\Program Files (x86)\GE Digital\Historian iFix Collector.
    • Command Line: Enter NOSERVICE REG=<collector name>.