Troubleshooting Tips

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.

Troubleshooting Failed Logins

The following is a table of error messages, possible causes, and recommended corrective actions for failed logins sometimes experienced with the Historian Administrator.

Table 1.
Error Message Suggested Action
User does not have authority to read messages. The user is NOT a member of iH Readers nor a member of the iH Security Admins security groups. To access the Main Page, the user must have read access.
[07/18/2001 03:00:46.071 PM] USER: DOMAIN1\administrator TOPIC: Security MSG: DOMAIN1\administrator(administrator) unsuccessfully connected at 07/18/2001 03:00:46.071 PM. Not able to establish session to the server from a remote web client. Page cannot be displayed. Error in Internet Explorer. Check network connection or IIS on the server.
[07/17/2001 07:56:06.950 PM] USER: DataArchiver TOPIC: Security MSG: DataArchiver(DataArchiver) Exceeded number of licensed users at 07/17/2001 07:56:06.950 PM (NumUsers=0 MaxUsers=0) Outdated or failed HASP key is attached. Obtain new key from technical support.
[07/17/2001 07:58:18.980 PM] USER: \baduser TOPIC: Security MSG: \baduser(baduser) unsuccessfully connected at 07/17/2001 07:58:18.980 PM. Bad password for user account. Enter correct password.
[07/17/2001 07:58:48.712 PM] USER: \administrator TOPIC: Security MSG: \administrator(administrator) unsuccessfully connected at 07/17/2001 07:58:48.712 PM. DataArchiver service is not running. Results in a Failed to connect to server error. Make sure data archiver service is running and that the user did not enter a bad password.
[07/17/2001 07:23:44.397 PM] USER: DataArchiver TOPIC: Security MSG: DataArchiver(DataArchiver) Exceeded number of licensed tags at 07/17/2001 07:23:44.397 PM (NumTags=1021 MaxTags=0) Must Shutdown Number of configured tags exceeds number of tags allowed by the key. Delete enough tags to meet the license limit or obtain a license for more tags from technical support.
[07/17/2001 07:35:32.134 PM] USER: DataArchiver TOPIC: Security MSG: DataArchiver(DataArchiver) Licensed expired. Must shutdown 07/17/2001 07:35:32.134 PM. To troubleshoot, refer to the DataArchiver.log file. License on key has expired (archiver will not start). Obtain a new license from technical support.

Troubleshoot Data Collector Configuration

Troubleshooting Data Collector configuration and/or performance requires a thorough understanding of how Historian works and how the various parameters affect system operation. Armed with this knowledge, you can usually localize a problem to one or more functions or parameter settings and take effective corrective action.

Historian offers several tools to help find the cause of an operating problem.

LOG files
The system creates a new log file each time an archiver or collector is started. You can open these files in Notepad or another text editor. The -nn suffix in the file name indicates the place of each log file in the time sequence.
  • The data collector log files, located in the LogFiles folder within the Historian program folder, are a historical journal of every event affecting operation of the collector.
  • The DataArchiver-nn.LOG files are sequential files for the archiver only.
  • The iFIX Collector-nn.LOG files contain performance information on iFIX Collector functioning.
SHW file

The Data Collector .SHW file shows configuration data for collectors and is also located in the LogFiles directory under Historian. Verify that the parameter and configuration settings match what you configured. You can open this file in Notepad or another text editor.

Collector Maintenance Performance Tab Screen performance indicators

These performance and status indicators can be a major aid in identifying, localizing, and diagnosing a problem with a collector.

Collector Maintenance screens

The Collector Maintenance screens can provide useful information about settings and selections of various options and parameter values. Examine each field and verify that it is appropriate for the current application.

iHistorianSDKerrors.log

When performing any troubleshooting of the File Collector Administrator or SDK program you should examine the iHistorianSDKerrors.log file, which is located in the LogFiles folder in your Historian program folder.

Troubleshoot Tags

Tag Configuration

To diagnose a problem in tag configuration, examine the .LOG and .SHW files in the Historian/Logfiles directory. Since these files are a journal record of all system events and parameter modifications important to a system administrator, they can be helpful in identifying and localizing the source of a system malfunction or data error.

You may also find the Windows Event Viewer helpful in troubleshooting. For more information on the Windows Event Viewer, refer to Review System Alerts and Messages.

When troubleshooting SDK applications, such as the Historian Administrator, the Excel Add-In, or File Collector, examine the iHistorianSDKerrors.log file, located in the LogFiles folder in the Historian program folder.

Stale Tags

If you are not seeing all stale tags in the Historian Web Admin, the ClientManager service may be down. If so, the thread that processes stale tags is suspended until connection is restored.

If the connection to the ClientManager service is lost while processing a batch of 100 tags, that set of tags is skipped and a Tag Property Update error is logged. When the ClientManager service is back up again, the next set of 100 tags is considered for scanning. The skipped tags must wait until the Diagnostic Managers next cycle. Until then, they are not marked as stale or not stale.

Alternately, the DataArchiver or ConfigManager services may be down. If so, all the remaining tags are skipped, and a DataOpenRecordset/Tag Update failure is logged. Even though the thread that processes stale tags is not suspended, all the remaining tags have to wait until the Diagnostic Managers next cycle. Until then, they are not marked as stale or not stale.

Troubleshoot Historian Performance

There are many parameters that affect Historian Server performance and scalability. This topic emphasizes the parameters that help improve performance and scalability.

Buffer Memory Max

Buffer Memory Max allows you to specify the maximum memory buffer size that an archiver queue can take. Use this parameter to control memory allocation to the write queues. If you plan to collect large amounts of data with high update rates, increase the Buffer Memory Max size. Increasing the Buffer Memory Max size provides enough memory for write queues, thus increasing the Historian performance. Refer to Global Options Tab for more information.

Performance Counters

Historian provides a variety of performance counters that can be used to monitor how well the application is performing. Using the following performance counters you can determine the Historian Server performance and scalability:
  • Perftag_GenericWriteQueueSize: displays the total number of messages present in the Generic Write queue.
  • Perftag_FastReadQueueSize: displays the total number of messages present in the Fast Read queue.
  • Perftag_CollectorDataWriteQueueSize: displays the total number of messages present in the Collector Data Write queue.
  • Perftag_EventMonitorQueueSize: displays the total number of events present in the Event Monitor queue.
  • Perftag_DataWriteQueueSize: displays the total number of messages present in the Data Write queue
  • Perftag_ReadQueueSize: displays the total number of messages present in the Read queue
By monitoring the above performance counters, make sure that you manage application performance. Ideally, all write queues should be zero for optimum archiver performance. If you see an increase in back logs in write queues, then you can:
  • Control archive transitions by having larger archive file size.
  • Control update rate.
  • Perform a backup when an archiver is in stable state.
  • Control the caching evaluation period. Refer to Historian Performance Counters for more information.

System File Cache Tuning:

Historian allows you to specify the maximum disk cache memory that an archiver can use. Ideally, Historian consumes 25% of system memory. If your computer has extra memory, then you can increase the disk cache memory to optimize Historian performance.
Note: You should not increase disk cache memory if you do not have the necessary system resources.
Note: DRAFT COMMENT Refer to Disk Caching for more information.- this must be an external link, although Disk Caching IS in the index of the word doc, the section is not present. Not in the flare pdf either.

Troubleshoot the Archive Service

Archiver cannot create a new archive

If an archive is full and you have disabled Overwrite Old Archives in the Global Options tab, Historian can only create a new archive if there is enough disk space available. If you do not have enough disk space to create a new archive, Historian does not generate an alert on the Main screen, but instead adds the following messages to the Data Archiver log file: Could not locate empty archive file, nor create one, nor use old one. Stopped processing data write requests. Free up disk space or enable Overwrite Old Archives to continue archiving your data.

Archive service not starting automatically

On some systems the Archiver does not start automatically after install. Start the Archiver manually through the Services dialog box or restart the computer. The Archiver should start on all future restarts. The Archiver service may also fail to start if it is started by an improperly configured domain account. In order to add a user from the domain as the Archiver service start up account, the machine Historian is installed on must have joined the domain. The user changing the service log on account must also have administrative rights to the Historian machine. This user the service is configured with must be a member of the Domain Administrators group and have administrative rights to the Historian machine. The user also needs to be allowed to log on as a service and act as part of the operating system. This is configured in the local policy editor of the Historian machine.

Investigate failed backups

Refer to the ArchiveBackup-XX.log file to investigate failed backups. The backup can fail if the user does not have valid permissions or if the archive name supplied is not valid. For more information, refer to Knowledge Base article: i014491 at http://iglobalcare.gefanucautomation.com.