About Managing Collector Instances Using the RemoteCollectorConfigurator Utility

After you install Historian, you must install the collectors. These collectors are used to collect data from various sources and send it to Historian. For a list of collectors and their usage, refer to About Historian Data Collectors.

After you install collectors and Remote Management Agent, the following artefacts will be available:
  • Executable files: These files are required to add a collector instance.
  • Instances of the following collectors:
    • The iFIX collector
    • The iFIX Alarms & Events collector
    • The OPC Classic Data Access collector for CIMPLICITY
    • The OPC Classic Alarms and Events collector for CIMPLICITY
    These instances will be created only if iFIX and/or CIMPLICITY are installed on the same machine as the collectors.
  • The Remote Collector Management agent: Provides the ability to manage collectors remotely.

You can then add a collector instance. This section describes how to add, modify, or delete a collector instance using the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility. It is a System-API-based tool, which connects to the destination Historian server, and allows you to add, modify, and delete a collector instance without the need to install Web-based Clients. You can also perform these tasks using Configuration Hub.

You can use the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility in one of the following ways:

  • Using Command Prompt: In this method, you will enter a single command at a command prompt to run the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility and provide values to all the required parameters.
  • Using the interactive UI of the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility: In this method, you will run the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility, and use the on-screen instructions to manually provide values to all the required parameters. Interactive UI mode does not apply when Strict Authentication is enabled for Historian. Use the RemoteCollectorConfigurator.exe from the command-line in such cases. See the following example.
In both these methods, you can either enter the installation parameters and their values manually or provide a JSON file that contains them. The RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility can also create sample JSON files, which you can use to create or modify collector instances. In addition, you can run the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility without connecting to Historian or a data archiver. This section describes how to use each of these methods.
Tip: You can access the Help for the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility by running the following command: 
RemoteCollectorConfigurator.exe --help

Example: RemoteCollectorConfigurator.exe from the Command line

RemoteCollectorConfigurator.exe "HistorianServerName" "Userid" "Password" InterfaceCreateViaCmd "{\"CollectorDestination\":\"Historian\",\"CollectorSystemName\":\"HistorianServerName\",\"DestinationHistorian\":\"Historianservername\",\"DestinationHistorianUserName\":\"userid\",\"DestinationHistorianPassword\":\"Gei321itc\",\"DataPathDirectory\":\"<datadrive>:\\Proficy\",\"InterfaceName\": \"collector_name\",\"Type\":\"2\",\"mode\":\"1\"}"

Or:

<installation drive>:\Program Files\GE Digital\NonWebCollectorInstantiationTool>RemoteCollectorConfigurator.exe "<<Historian Server>>" "<<Userid>>" "<<Userpassword>>" InterfaceCreateViaFile "Inputjsonfile.json"