Migrating Advanced Historian Data

Important: You do not have the latest version of Historian! You are missing out on the newest capabilities and enhanced security. For information on all the latest features, see the Historian product page. For more information on upgrades, contact your GE Digital sales agent or e-mail GE Digital Sales Support. For the most up-to-date documentation, go here.

Migrating Advance Historian Data

The Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility allows you to migrate Advanced Historian data into Historian.
Plan your Advance Historian data migration thoroughly. Refer to Plan Your Migration for more information and establish your migration options.
  1. Add the Historian Toolbar to the iFIX v2.5 or later WorkSpace. How?
  2. Explore the Advanced Migration Utility Options. How?
  3. Use the Classic Historian Migration Utility to migrate historical tag groups. How?
    Important: If you plan to run the Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility on a non-SCADA node, migrate the groups after running the utility. If you try to migrate the groups first, you will not have correct EGU information for the iFIX/Advanced Historian historical tags.
  4. Migrate Advanced Historian Local Data. How?
  5. Migrate Advanced Historian Remote Data. How?

Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility

You can open the Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility by selecting Migration Tool for Advanced Historian from the Historian directory in the Start menu. Some of the options you can configure include:

Advance Historian Connection Information

The Advanced Historian Connection Information section displays information for the Advanced Historian machine you are migrating your historical files from.

Field Description
Computer Name The name of the machine you want to migrate the Advanced Historian data from.
Username and Password The username and password, if you had Advanced Historian security configured for archives.

Historian Information

The Historian Information section displays the information for the Historian Server that you want to migrate your historical data to.

Field Description
Computer Name The Historian Server to migrate Advanced Historian tags and data to.
Username and Password If you have created and established Security Groups in your Historian Security Environment, you may need to enter the username and password here. By default, if you do not supply any information, the current logged in user will be checked. For more information on setting up Historian Security, refer to Implementing Historian Security.

Migration Option

The Migration Options section allows you to select all or specific tagmasks and set the time range for migration

Field Description
Tagname Mask Specify certain tags for migration only (NODE1:* for instance) or select all tags (*).
Starting Date Select a starting date for migrating data.
Ending Date Set an ending date for migrating data.
Note: The Migration Utility migrates data up to but not including the specified Ending Date. Carefully select your Ending Date to ensure that you include all required data in the migration.
Configure New Tags As Required Specify whether the Migration Utility automatically creates tags upon migration, or migrates data only for tags that already exist in the Historian tag database. This allows you to manually create the tags you want to migrate in Historian first, then run the migration only for those tags.
Use Tag Configuration from iFIX Maintains tag specific configuration for iFIX tags. If you do not select this option, Historian uses its tag configuration default settings when migrating iFIX tags.

For example, if you have an EGU set to 25-55 in an iFIX tag and you clear this option, the tag migrates with an EGU of 0-100.
Allow Updates to Existing Data Allows Historian to replace data if data already exists for the tag at that timestamp.
End of Collection Marker Write a bad data quality data point for each tag when the migration concludes. Select this option if you do not want your trend applications to display a continuous plot of the last good sample for that Historian tag.

Migration Status

Displays the current status of the migration progress. The Migration Status window provides real time migration status including the currently migrating tag and the tag range (2 of 1000) status. Migration Status window also allows you to start the migration process and abort it once it has started.

Migration History

Displays a log of what times and tag masks were migrated and the status (success/failure) of that migration. The information displayed in the Migration History window is also available in the log file, typically located in the C:\Historian Data\LogFiles folder.

Migrating Your Groups

Migrate your groups using the Classic Historian Migration Tool. This allows you to maintain any configured collection rates and deadbands.
Important: If you plan to run the Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility on a non-SCADA node, migrate the groups after running the utility. If you try to migrate the groups first, you will not have correct EGU information for the iFIX/Advanced Historian historical tags.
  1. Open the Classic Migration Utility from the Historian Toolbar.
  2. Select Configure Options from the Options menu.
  3. Select or clear the Overwrite Existing Tags option. This is the only option that applies to group migration. For more information, refer to the Configuring Classic Migration Options section.
  4. Select Migrate Collection Groups from the File menu. The Utility prompts you to specify if you would like to migrate all groups.
    The Historian Classic Migration Utility connects to the specified server and migrates the groups.
    Note: When migrating groups, Qualifier and Phase parameters are not migrated. If a group is not active, it is still migrated to the Historian with a collection rate.

Migrating Existing Advance Historian Data

When migrating Advanced Historian data, you can only run the migration from a node that either has the Advanced Historian Server or the Advanced Historian client installed. Also, ensure that Automatically Create Archives is enabled in the Historian Administrator.

To migrate Advanced Historian data from an existing Advanced Historian node to your Historian Server:

Note: Before you begin, ensure the client's time is synchronized with the server's time and that there is enough free space on the Historian server to store the migrated data.
  1. From the Start menu, select the Migration Tool for Advanced Historian 7.1 from the Historian directory.
    The Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility dialog box appears.
  2. Enter the name of the Computer from which you are migrating the Advanced Historian data.
  3. If you configured Advanced Historian security, enter the username and password for security.
  4. The Advanced Historian Migration Tool automatically detects and displays the default server in the Historian Connection Information Computer Name field.
    If you want to change the server you migrate data to, enter that server name in the Computer Name field of the Historian Connection Information section.
  5. If necessary, enter a username and password in the Historian Connection Information Username and Password fields.
    If you do not provide a username and password, security defaults to check the currently logged in user.
    Note: You must have Write, Tag Administrator, and Read privileges in order to run the migration. it is recommended that Security Administrators run the migration, for best performance.
  6. If you do not wish to migrate all tags, enter a tagname mask for selected tags.
  7. Select a start and end date from the drop-down calendars.
    For more information on estimating migration time, please refer to the Estimate Migration Time section of this manual.
  8. If you want the Migration Tool to create tags automatically if they do not exist, leave the Configure New Tags as Required option selected.
    For more information on this setting, refer to the Plan Migrations with Online Systems section.
  9. If you do not wish to overwrite existing values with migrated values containing the same timestamp, clear the Allow Updates to Existing Data option.
  10. If you do not want your trend applications to display a continuous plot of the last good sample for that Historian tag, select the End of Collection marker.
    For more information on this setting, refer to Migration Options.
  11. Click the Start Migration button.
  12. Refer to the Migration History window and the log file for information on the success of the tag migration and any errors or problems encountered during migration.
    You can re-run the migration utility for any time period.

Migrating Remote Advanced Historian Data

This section describes how to migrate your Advanced Historian Data from a remote machine.
Ensure that you have installed the required software correctly. Refer to the Recommended Software Installation Order section for more information.

If this procedure is not run as listed, you may experience problems inserting a chart control into the iFIX WorkSpace, running any programs using fixtools.dll or fixhdadll.dll, or running certain Historian features. Several *.dll(s) are replaced by older versions by the Advanced Historian . When Advanced Historian is removed, it replaces the older versions with the originals and Historian works correctly.

  1. Ensure that PI services are running on the remote machine.
    1. Double-click the Services icon in the Control Panel.
      The Services dialog box appears.
    2. Locate the Services beginning with 'PI'. Start all PI services except the PI Shutdown service.
  2. Ensure that all needed archives are listed as registered. a.
    1. Open the MSDOS prompt.
    2. Navigate to the ...Dynamics\AdvancedHistorian\adm directory.
    3. Enter `piartool al' to list the registered archive files.
    4. Register any unregistered archive files that you need to migrate by typing `piartool ar ` + {fully qualified archive name.}
    Example - piartool ar c:\Dynamics\archives\DynamicArchive.001
  3. On the local machine (machine with Historian loaded), run the Migration Utility.
    1. From the Start menu, select the Migration Tool for Historian 7.1 in the Historian directory.
      The Advanced Historian to Historian Migration Utility appears.
    2. Enter the name of the remote computer you are migrating the Advanced Historian data from.
    3. If you configured Advanced Historian security, enter the username and password for security.
    4. The Advanced Historian Migration Tool automatically detects and displays the default server in the Historian Connection Information Computer Name field.
      If you want to change the server to which you will migrate data, enter that server name in the Computer Name field of the Historian Connection Information section.
    5. If you have set up security on your Historian Server, enter a username and password in the Historian Connection Information Username and Password fields. If you do not provide a username and password, security defaults to check the currently logged in user.
      If you are already logged into Windows Server 2003 or Windows Serve 2008 with an account with rights to the Historian Server, you do not need to supply a new username and password.

      You must have Write, Tag Administrator, and Read privileges in order to run the migration. It is recommended that Security Administrators run the migration, for best performance.

    6. If you do not wish to migrate all tags, enter a tagname mask for selected tags.
    7. Select a start and end date from the drop-down calendars.
      It is recommended migrating data in two month time blocks, from the oldest data to the newest. For more information on estimating migration time, please refer to the Estimate Migration Time section of this manual.
    8. If you want the Migration Tool to create tags automatically when they don't exist, leave the Con-figure New Tags as Required option selected.
      For more information on this setting, refer to the Plan Migrations with Online Systems section.
    9. If you do not wish to overwrite any information in existing tags, clear the Allow Updates to Existing Data option.
    10. If you do not want your trend applications to display a continuous plot of the last good sample for that Historian tag, select the End of Collection marker.
      For more information on this setting, refer to Migration Options
    11. Click the Start Migration button.
    12. Refer to the Migration History window and the log file for information on the success of the tag migration and any errors or problems encountered during migration.

Recommended Software Installation Order

Before migrating your remote Advanced Historian Data, ensure that you have installed the required software correctly on your local machine. The following installation order is recommended:
  1. Install iFIX 4.5 or higher.
  2. Reboot your computer.
  3. Install Advanced Historian
    1. Select Custom Installation with ONLY Client install.
    2. Reboot your computer.
  4. Install Historian completely.

Removing Advanced Historian (From Local Machine)

After you have completely migrated your remote Advanced Historian Data, it is recommended that you remove Advanced Historian from your local machine.
  1. Stop all PI services from the Control Panel Services Dialog box.
    1. Double-click the Services Icon in the Control Panel.
      The Services dialog box opens.
    2. Locate the PI Network Manager Service and click the Stop button.
  2. Another dialog box appears asking if you would like all the other services stopped.
    Click Yes.
  3. Locate the bufserv service and stop it.
  4. Completely remove Advanced Historian using the uninstall feature in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.
  5. Reboot your computer.
  6. Delete the \AdvancedHistorian 7.1 directory from the Dynamics base path.
    Note: You may want to stop PI Services again, as detailed in step 1.
  7. Use the AHClean utility located on the GE Automation web site in the Developers Corner.
  8. Run AHClean.exe and click the Clean Registry button.
  9. Reboot your computer.