Migrating Classic Historical 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.

About Migrating Classic Historical Data

Historian supplies a utility that allows you to migrate your existing Classic Historian data (used in iFIX) into your Historian database. Before migrating your Classic Historian data, plan your migration thoroughly. Refer to Plan Your Migration for more information.

Once you have planned your Classic Historian migration, perform the following :
  1. Add the Historian Toolbar to the iFIX WorkSpace. How?
  2. Configure Classic Historian Migration Options. How?
  3. Migrate existing groups. How?
  4. Migrate your Classic Historian Data. How?

Migrating Classic Historian Data to Your Historian Database

The following procedure describes how to migrate Classic Historian data into your Historian database. For more information and tips on migrating data into an online system (one that is currently collecting new data as well), refer to the Plan Migrations with Online Systems.
Note: When migrating data, Classic Historian nodes must be online with a loaded database so that descriptions and EGU values are retrieved. If the Classic Historian nodes are not online with a loaded database, the migration utility will create tags that may have incorrect descriptions and EGU values.

To migrate Classic Historian data into the Historian:

  1. In Classic Historian, click the Historian Migration Button, shown in the following figure, to open the Historian Migration Utility.
  2. Select Configure Options from the Options menu.
  3. Enter or modify any specific configuration information. 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. Groups are not preserved in Historian. All tags are added to Historian with the collection rate for the group.
  5. Select Migrate Historical Data from the File menu. The Select Historical Data File(s) dialog box appears.
  6. Select one or more historical files and click Open.
    The Migration Utility attempts to migrate all selected historical data files. The title bar displays the current file status (1 of 5, for example). Refer to the Migration Utility main screen for information on the progress of the migration and any encountered errors.
    Note: The Migration Utility screen only displays the most recent lines of the log file. For the full set of logged messages, refer to the log file, typically located in C:\Dynamics\Local\iFIX2IhMigration.Log.

Migrating Classic Historian 10 Character L24 Files

Classic Historian supported both 10 character and 30 character lab data files (L24). The Historian Migration Utility successfully migrates 30 character L24 files, while 10 character L24 files cannot be successfully migrated.
Attention: Do not attempt to migrate 10 character L24 files.

Comparing Classic Historian Data Plots and Historian Plots

If you compare plots of average, minimum, and maximum data in Classic Historian with similar plots in Historian, you may notice the following differences:
  • The sample pens match, but the plot of the average value differs. Classic Historian computes the average during the next period and Historian computes the average over the previous period.
  • Classic Historian also records the minimum/maximum value from raw data values, whereas Historian uses interpolated values to compute the minimum/maximum value.
  • Historian uses interpolated value because Historian works with compressed data. When you work with compressed data, interpolated values let you project what the likely minimum/maximum values were during a given time interval that includes few raw data values due to compression.

Configuring Classic Migration Options

  1. Open the Migration Options dialog box, by selecting Configure Options from the Options menu in the Historian Classic Migration Utility.

    Figure: Classic Historian Migration Options Dialog Box

    The Classic Historian Migration Tool automatically detects the default server and displays the default migration options.
  2. Some of the options that you can configure include:

Historian Server Options

Allows you to set up your server information, limit or expand the application processing time, and input any needed security information. The Historian Server Options include:

Field Description
Historian Server The default server (set during installation). If you do not want to write data to the default server, enter the desired server in this field.
Historian Username and Password If you have created and established Security Groups in your Historian Security Environment, you may need to enter the user name and password here. By default, if you do not supply any information, the current logged in user will be used in security checking. For more information about Historian Security, refer to Implementing Historian Security chapter of the Getting Started manual.
Event rate/sec Allows you to limit the amount of server load caused by the Migration Utility. By reducing the Events/rate per second field in the Migration Options dialog box, you can allocate more time to real time collection. The default rate is 10,000. For more information, refer to Limit Processing Load on Server During Migration.

THISNODE Option

Specifies the Node name to use if you are migrating data collected using THISNODE. The utility automatically defaults to the name of the local iFIX node. If you want to change the Node name, enter a different Node name in this field.

Tag Add Options

Allows you to set the following options:

Field Description
Overwrite Existing Tags Selecting this option allows Historian to replace certain tag properties if the tags already exist in the Historian tag database.
Migrate Current Alarm Whether or not the Migration Utility creates a tag and migrates the Current Alarm of each data sample (B_CUALM). Classic Historian paired the B_CUALM tag inside another tag and counted it as one. If this is enabled, the Historian Classic Migration Utility will separate these tags and add them both to the tag database.
Important: If you wish to migrate alarm and event data from iFIX to Historian, use the iFIX Alarm and Event Migration Tool.

For example:

The Classic Historian Tag:

FIX.TAG1.F_CV

will convert to the Historian Tags:

FIX.TAG1.F_CV,FIX.TAG1.B_CUALM
Note: If you clear the Migrate Current Alarm check box, the Current Alarm tags are not created and the alarm information is not transferred into Historian.
Data Add Options

Overwrite Existing Values

 Whether or not the Classic Migration Utility overwrites existing values that have the same timestamp as the values being migrated in an active Historian database during migration.
Time Options

Treat as DST Timestamp

 Whether the migration should consider Daylight Savings Time (DST) when determining a UTC timestamp for migrated data. The timestamps are converted to UTC time by adjusting the time based on the local computer time zone offset and DST setting. For more information, refer to Managing Daylight Savings Time.

Logfile Options

Allows you to configure the following options:

Field Description
Logfile Location Modify the default location of the iFIX2IhMigration.LOG file.
Log Migrated Samples Create a log file of all raw samples migrated. This will cause all the values, timestamps, and qualities to appear in the log file.
Important: Selecting this option significantly slows the performance of historical data migration.
Overwrite Logfile Set whether or not the log file gets overwritten with each migration. By default, there is one log file (iFIX2IhMigration.LOG) that is overwritten each time you migrate data. Clearing this option causes the Historian Classic Migration Utility to append to the log file each time you migrate data.

Readback Options

Allows you to set the following options:

Field Description
Readback Values Immediately read back samples after they are written. This verifies that the migration was successful. All samples that were written, including bad data quality and shutdown markers, are read back.
Important: Selecting the Readback Values option puts additional load on the archiver and can slow the migration process.

If samples are not found during the readback, the Migration Utility sends a message to the migration log file (\dynamics\local\ifix2ihmigration.log). It does not stop the migration.
Write Values to Server The data writes and tag adds are written to the Archiver.

If you want to perform a readback-only migration, clear this option and select the Readback Values option. This allows you to select a specific Classic historical file and perform a readback to confirm that all samples in the Classic file exist in Historian. If samples are not found during the readback, the Migration Utility sends a message to the migration log file (\dynamics\local\ifix2ihmigration.log). It does not stop the migration.