HistorianWork with Data Archives
Configure Data Archives
About Data Archives
- Machinename_Config.ihc the single .IHC file contains information about the archiver, tag configuration, and collector configuration.
- Machinename_ArchiveXXX.iha archive data files where x is a number indicating the place of the file in a time-based sequence.
Archive Creation
- Open the Data Stores page and then select Edit. The Archive Configuration page appears.
- Select Configuration.
- In the Archive Duration field, select the Days option from the drop-down list.
- Enter the number of days for which you want to create archives.
- Select Update.
- Open the Data Stores page, and then select Edit. The Archive Configuration page appears.
- Select Configuration.
- In the Archive Duration field, select the Hours option from the drop-down list.
- Enter the number of hours for which you want to create archives.
- Select Update.
The Archive Configuration Screen
To access the Archive Configuration page, select Edit on the Data Stores page.
The Archive Configuration page lets you read and modify the parameters of archives and data stores. In this page, you can see the list of all archives of the selected data store.
To examine a particular archive, select the archive and then select Edit. The details of the archive are displayed in the Archive Details section.
- Action Buttons
- Statistics Section
- Archives Section
- Archive Details Section
Points To Remember
- You may need to add an archive when the current archive is almost full and you have not enabled automatic creation of archives.
- You may need to restore an archive when you start up after an unplanned shutdown or when you need to retrieve data from an old, inactive archive.
- You may need to back up an archive before a planned Historian software product upgrade.
- You may need to manually resynchronize archives when the archives in the mirrored environment are not synchronized.
Action Buttons
Select a button to perform the action indicated by the name. The following table describes these buttons.
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
Add Archive  | Select this button to add a new archive to the data store. |
Remove Archive  | Remove an archive. First select an archive name to select it, and then select Remove. Selecting OK removes the archive file from the list of archives for the system, and places it in the \Archives\Offline directory. This does not delete the archive file from the system. An archive must be closed before it can be removed. |
Close Archive  | Manually close the current archive. An archive must be closed before it can be removed. |
Backup Archive  | Back up a selected archive. Verify the file name and path and then select OK to save the file. |
Restore Archive  | Restores an archive from backup. |
| Update | Apply all parameter changes that you have made in this page. If you want to cancel changes and return to the original values or settings, open a different page and then return to the Archive Configuration page. |
| Edit | Select this to edit the Archive configuration details. |
Statistics Section
Indicates the current status of the collector.- Running indicates that the collector is operating.
- Stopped indicates that it is in pause mode and not collecting data.
- Unknown indicates that status information about the collector is unavailable at present, perhaps as a result of a lost connection between collector and server.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Archive Path | The path name that will be used for any newly created archives. If you change the path, the change takes effect the next time a new archive is created. Note: Do not use a period in the default archive path field. If a period is present in the default archive path, you will not be able to specify a default archive name. |
| Default Backup Path | The location to which the backup file will be saved. |
| Archive Duration (Days/Hours) | Specifies the duration of a newly created archive in days or hours. A new archive will be created after the selected number of days or hours. Note: When the Archive Duration property is changed in a mirrored environment, the changes will take effect only after a time gap of 15 minutes. |
| Data is Read-only After (Hours) | The number of hours, prior to now, for which data can be stored in a read/write archive. After the time expires, that portion of the archive file is automatically made read-only. Incoming data values with timestamps prior to this time are rejected. A single archive file, therefore, may contain a read-only section, another read-write section containing recently written data, and unused free space. Note: A read-only archive file cannot be moved using Windows Explorer. To move a read-only archive file, select the file and select the Remove button on the Details section of the Archive Maintenance page. The Archiver then releases its locks, which permits you to move the file at will. |
| Base Archive Name | A prefix that is automatically added to the file name of all created archives. To change the prefix, enter a new text string and select Update. |
| Free Space Required (MB) | Indicates the remaining disk space required after a new archive is created. If the available space is less than the requirement, a new archive is not created. The default is 5000 MB. The Free Space Required field does not apply to alarms and events archives. The alarms and events archiver will continue writing to the alarms and events archive until the drive is full. If this occurs, the alarms and events archiver will buffer incoming alarms and events data until the drive has free space. An error will also be written to the Historian message log. |
| Automatically Create Archives (Enable/Disable) | Select the appropriate button to enable or disable this function. When enabled, the server automatically starts a new archive in the default path directory whenever the current archive fills up. If disabled, no new data will be written to the archives once the default size has been reached. Note: To create multiple archives at the same time, Automatically Create Archives must be Disabled. |
| Overwrite Old Archives (Enable/Disable) | Select the appropriate button to enable or disable this function. When enabled, the system replaces the oldest archived data with new data when the default size has been reached.
CAUTION: Since this action deletes historical data, exercise caution in using this feature. Be sure that you have a backup of the archive so that you can restore it later. |
| SCADA Buffer Duration (Days) | Indicates the maximum number of days the trend data can be stored. The maximum number of days is 200 days. This field applies only to SCADA buffer data stores. |
| Use Caching (Enabled/Disabled) | When reading data from the archiver, some data is saved in the system memory and retrieved using caching. This results in faster retrieval as the data is already stored in the buffer. Enable the Use Caching option to retrieve data faster. This option is not available for SCADA buffer data stores. |
| Generate Message on Data Update (Enabled/Disabled) | If this option is enabled, an audit log entry will be made any time the value of a previously archived data point in the Historian archive is overwritten. This log entry will contain both the original and new values. To create multiple archives at the same time, Generate Message on Data Update must be Disabled. This option is not available for SCADA buffer data stores. |
| Store OPC Quality (Enabled/Disabled) | Stores the OPC data quality. To create multiple archives at the same time, Store OPC Quality must be Disabled. |
| Stale Period | Specifies the time period after which tags are considered stale for this data store. The value is defined in days. Valid values are:
|
| Stale Period Check | Specifies the frequency with which the staleness of the tag is checked. The value is defined in days. Valid values are 1 day (the default) to 30 days. |
Archives Section
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the archive. |
| Start Time | The time of the oldest sample in the archive. |
| End Time | The time the archive is automatically or manually closed. |
Archive Details Section
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Status | The current operating state of the archive: Active, Current, Empty.
|
| Start Time | The time of the oldest sample in the archive. |
| End Time | The time the archive is automatically or manually closed. |
| Last Backup On | The date and time the last backup was performed on this archive. |
| Backup By | User name (at time of login to Historian Administrator) of the person who performed the last backup of the archive. |
| File Location | The path and name of the archive file. |
| File Size (MB) | The size (in MB) of the archive file. Note: Historian now supports a maximum Archive Size of 256 GB per archive. |
| File Attribute | The attribute to set a closed archive to Read-only or Read/Write. Note: If you plan to create multiple archives at the same time, then you must set File Attribute to Read/Write. |
Calculate Required Archive Size
If you enable the Overwrite Old Archives option and if you want to retrieve time-based information, create an additional archive to overcome the early loss of data due to archive preparedness. For example, if you want to save 12 months of data into 12 archives, create 13 archives.
During archiver startup and every 60 seconds while the server is running, Historian checks to make sure that you have configured enough free disk space to save the archives, buffer files, and log files. If there is insufficient disk space, the Data Archiver shuts down and a message is logged into the log file. For each archive, you need approximately 1MB of archive space for every 1000 tags, for tag information.
[03/03/10 15:28:41.398] Insufficient space available in [d:\Historian\Archives\]
[03/03/10 15:28:41.399] The server requires a minimum of [5000 MB] to continue
[03/03/10 15:28:41.679] USER: DataArchiver TOPIC: ServiceControl MSG: DataArchiver(DataArchiver) Archiver s
[03/03/10 15:28:41.807] DataArchiver Service Stopped.
[03/03/10 15:28:41.809] [d:\Historian\LogFiles\DataArchiver-34.log] Closed.- Number of tags a large number of tags increases the data rate.
- Polling frequency of each tag a high polling frequency increases the data rate.
- Compression settings disabling compression or setting narrow deadband parameters increases the data rate.
- Data types choosing data types that increase the number of bytes per value increases the data rate.
| Number of tags | 5000 |
| Polling rate | 1 value/5 seconds |
| % Pass Compression | 5% (Pass Compression is the number of data values archived relative to the number of values read, expressed as percent.) |
| Bytes/value: | 4 |
| Duration: | 1 month (30 days) |
Calculation
The calculation shows that a file size of 500 MB is adequate for archiving one month of data for this application.
- Decrease the polling frequency.
- Increase compression deadband, reducing the pass percentage.
- Reduce the number of tags.
- Add more disk capacity to your computer.
Archive Size Calculator
An Archive Size Calculator tool is available to estimate archive size based on your input and estimates the archive size and collector compression based upon a tag that has already been configured. Log on to http://support.ge-ip.com/devsupport/ to download this and other GE Intelligent Platforms freeware product solutions.
Prepare for Multiple Archive Creation
- In the Archive Details section, set File Attribute to Read/Write.
- In the Configuration Tab:
- set Automatically Create Archives to Disabled.
- set Overwrite Old archives to Enabled.
- set Store OPC Quality to Disabled.
- set Data is Readonly After (Hours) to 1 month.
- set Generate Message on Data Update to Disabled.
Before you begin creating multiple archives on a remote machine, ensure that you have enough hard disk space on that machine. The Allocate Space slider does not display a remote machine's hard disk space; the r;percentage of available disk space will be used message displayed by the Allocate Space slider will be inaccurate if it appears at all.
If you receive the error message Runtime error 330 Invalid Property Value while creating multiple archives on a remote machine, it is probably because you did not have enough hard disk space on that machine. When you select OK on the error message, Historian Administrator may disappear. You must now clean up the remote machine's hard disk space and restart Historian Administrator.
Adding One or More Archives
About this task
Procedure
- In the Archives section, select the icon. The Add New Archive(s) window appears.
Back up Historian Archive Files
Back up your Historian archive files periodically to ensure your data is protected. Historian bundles alarms and events data with tag data in its backup files, and stores them as ZIP files. After an archive has been backed up, it can be stored to a shared network location, stored off-site, or written to physical media.
- Use Microsoft?? Volume Shadow Copy Service to back up archives more than 2 GB in size..
- Ensure that you have enough hard drive space on your default backup location before backing up your archives.
- For Historian 6.0 or later clients, you can only back up time-based archives.
The .IHC file is automatically backed up when, and only when, you back up the "current" archive .IHA file. By default, the .IHC backup path is the same as the archives path. The .IHC uses the following naming convention: ComputerName_Config-Backup.ihc If the default backup path is different than the archives path, the .IHC file is copied to the backup folder with the standard .IHC naming convention ComputerName_Config.ihc.
If you back up an archive more than once, the backup tool will (by default) attempt to use the same name for the backup file and will detect that an archive with the same name already exists. Rename the backup archive file or move the original backup archive file from the target backup directory.
Backing up Archives using Historian
About this task
Procedure
Including Alarm Data in Archive Backups
About this task
| Alarm/Data Archive | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm1 | 09/02/2004 | 09/06/2004 |
| Archive1 | 09/01/2004 | 09/03/2004 |
| Archive2 | 09/03/2004 | 09/04/2004 |
| Archive3 | 09/04/2004 | 09/06/2004 |
Use the following procedure to change alarm timestamp checking.
Procedure
Backing up Archives Using Volume Shadow Copy Service
VSS provides fast volume capture of the state of a disk which is called a snapshot or shadow copy. When the snapshot is taken, disk writes are suspended for a brief period of time, typically on the order of milliseconds. After the snapshot, disk writes can resume, but the original state of the files are maintained by a difference file. The different file allows the state of the original file at the time of the snapshot to be reconstructed. This behavior allows files to be backed up while new data is being written to files.
The Volume Shadow Copy feature is provided by Windows Operating System, and the instructions to use backup and restore vary depending on the backup application that is used in the Windows operating system.
- Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
- Microsoft Windows 10 IoT (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Microsoft Windows 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Refer to How to use command line parameters with the Ntbackup command: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814583
- Refer to How to use command line parameters with the Wbadmin command: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754015(WS.10).aspx
- If you need additional assistance about using Windows Server Backup Wizard, refer to Microsoft's website at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753528.aspx
Restore or Resynchronize Historian Archive Files
If the Archive files in the mirror environment are not synchronized, manually synchronize the archive files from one node to another node by using the Resync Archive option.
