OSI PI Distributor Configuration

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Configuring an OSI PI Distributor

To configure an OSI PI Distributor:
  1. Start the Historian Administrator.
  2. Select the Collectors screen.
  3. Select the OSI PI Distributor you want to configure.
  4. Configure the OSI PI Distributor's General options.
    For more information, refer to The Collector Maintenance Screen
    1. Enter a description for your OSI PI Distributor.
    2. In the Computer Name field, enter the hostname of the computer your distributor is running on, for example, localhost.
    3. If you wish to set limits on memory usage and free disk space, change the values in the Memory Buffer Size and Minimum Free Space fields.
  5. Configure the OSI PI Distributor-specific options:
    1. Click the Configuration tab.
    2. In the PI Server field, enter the name of the machine where the OSI PI server is running. For example, localhost.
    3. In the PI Username field, enter the OSI PI user name. For example, PIAdmin.
    4. Enter the OSI PI password into the OSI PI Password field. The password is required to authenticate the OSI PI Data Archive.
      If no password is configured for the OSI PI user, this field can be left blank. Passwords are case-sensitive.
    5. In the Max Recovery Time (hr) field, enter a new maximum recovery time, in hours.
      Recovery logic is activated when the OSI PI Distributor and Historian re-establish a connection after a connection loss, or when the distributor is restarted. The OSI PI Distributor will attempt to recover all data samples between the current time and the last known write time, up to a maximum number of hours configured for the distributor. New distribution resumes only after the previous data has been recovered.

      The default recovery time available is 4 hours. You can disable recovery mode by setting the Maximum Recovery Time to 0 hours.

  6. Configure the default distribution options.
    1. Click on the Tags tab.
    2. Enter a prefix to add to OSI PI tags in Historian. For example, PI_
    3. Enter a value for the Collection Interval. The default collection interval is 1 second.
  7. Configure the distributor's advanced settings. For more information, refer to The Advanced Tab.
    To delay distribution when the distributor starts up, enter a value into the Delay Collection at Startup (sec) field.

Tag Attributes Available in Browse

You can specify tags for collection in Historian Administrator for the OSI PI Collector or OSI PI Distributor by browsing or by adding tags manually. The following table outlines the tag attributes available when browsing:
Historian Tag Browse Attribute OSI PI Tag Attribute
Browse Source Address Tag
Description Property Descriptor
Engineering Unit Description Engunits
Hi Engineering Units Zero+span
Lo Engineering Units Zero

When entering tags manually, it is important to match the Historian tag data type with the data type of the OSI PI tag. See OSI PI Collector and Distributor Supported Data Types.

Regardless of how you add tags to Historian, you should match the timestamp resolution. If your OSI PI tag is using timestamps with milliseconds, then configure your Historian tag to store timestamps with millisecond resolution as well.

The OSI PI distributor reads data from the Historian tag displayed in the Tag Source Address field, and sends it to the OSI PI tag name displayed in the Spare 1 field. To control the source and destination tags, change the Tag Source Address and Spare 1 fields.

OSI PI Collector and Distributor Supported Data Types

The following table maps OSI PI data types to their Historian data type equivalents:
OSI PI Tag Types Recommended Historian Data Type
INT32 Single Integer, Double Integer
FLOAT16, FLOAT32 Float
FLOAT64 Double Float
PISTRING Variable String
DIGITAL Single Integer

The accompanying digital states are transferred from OSI PI into Historian upon initialization of the collector.

Data Quality Mapping

Data quality mapping from Historian to OSI PI Data Archive is restricted to good/bad. OSI PI's subtypes are not currently mapped by Historian.

Starting and Stopping the OSI PI Distributor Service

The OSI PI Distributor runs as a Windows service and can be controlled through the Services control panel. You must have Administrator rights to access the Services control panel.

To start/stop the OSI PI Distributor service

  1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Administrative Tools control panel to open it.
  3. Double-click the Services control panel to open it
  4. Double-click the Historian PI Distributor service.
  5. To configure the Historian PI Collector service to start when Windows starts, set the Startup Type to Automatic.
    To configure the Historian PI Distributor service to start manually, set the Startup Type to Manual.
  6. To start the service, click the Start button. To stop the service, click the Stop button.
    The other options are available in the Services control panel. For more information, refer to Windows documentation.