LIVE DATA INTERFACE USER GUIDE Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013 Supersedes Publication HSELD-UM023A-EN-E–May 2012
Contacting Rockwell Customer Support Telephone — 1.440.646.3434 Online Support — http://www.rockwellautomation.com/support/overview.page Copyright Notice © 2013 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. This document and any accompanying Rockwell Software products are copyrighted by Rockwell Automation, Inc. Any reproduction and/or distribution without prior written consent from Rockwell Automation, Inc. is strictly prohibited. Please refer to the license agreement for details.
Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Installation ...................................................................................................... 7 Features ............................................................................................................ 8 Related Documentation .............................................................................. 8 Chapter 2 Principles of Operation Processing Loops ............................................................................
Table of Contents SourceTag ................................................................................................27 Compression Testing ............................................................................ 27 Exception Reporting ............................................................................. 28 Output Points .........................................................................................29 Trigger Method 1 (Recommended) .............................................
Table of Contents Technical Support and Resources Before You Call or Write for Help ......................................................... 53 Find the Version and Build Numbers .................................................... 53 View Computer Platform Information .................................................
Table of Contents 6 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 1 Introduction The FactoryTalk Historian system uses the PI system as a back end to store tag data. The FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface (FTLD) allows FactoryTalk Historian to connect with Rockwell data sources. The FTLD interface provides buffering capability before the data is permanently stored in the Historian archive. The FTLD Interface is integrated with the FactoryTalk Live Data service provided by FactoryTalk Services Platform.
Chapter 1 Introduction Features The features of the FTLD Interface include: Item Description PI SDK The PI SDK and the PI API are bundled together and must be installed on each PI Interface node. The FTLD Interface does not specifically make PI SDK calls. It uses the PI API calls to support longer instrument tag fields and multiple-character point sources. The PI SDK cannot be used if the interface will be set up to use Disconnected Startup because it is based on API calls only.
Introduction Chapter 1 Both documents are available from Start > Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Historian SE > Help. • FactoryTalk Help, which is available from Start > Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Tools > FactoryTalk Help. NOTE Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013 To access other documents on FactoryTalk Historian SE, go to the Common Files > Rockwell > Help folder in your Program Files directory.
Chapter 1 Introduction 10 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 2 Principles of Operation The FactoryTalk Live Data (FTLD) Interface is a FactoryTalk Live Data client that enables process data to be passed between a FactoryTalk Live Data server (for example, RSLinx Enterprise) and a FactoryTalk Historian server. Each instance of the FTLD Interface can provide data to a single FactoryTalk Historian SE server or collective. Multiple instances of the interface may be configured, if required, if API buffering is used.
Chapter 2 Principles of Operation Processing Loops At startup, the FTLD Interface tries to establish a connection to both the FactoryTalk Live Data server and the FactoryTalk Historian server. Once the startup is complete, the Interface enters the processing loop, which includes: • Servicing scheduled input points. Each Scan Class is processed in turn. • Servicing output points as events arrive. • Servicing triggered input points as events arrive.
Principles of Operation Chapter 2 Therefore, it is more efficient to stop and then start the interface if a large number of tags are edited. FactoryTalk Diagnostics The FTLD Interface sends messages about its operation to FactoryTalk Diagnostics. FactoryTalk Diagnostics provides the following information about the FTLD Interface: • Informational messages on the interface startup and shutdown. • The scan rate of each scan class. • The count of points loaded by the interface.
Chapter 2 Principles of Operation 14 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 3 Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface To configure a FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface (FTLD), we recommend that you use FactoryTalk Administration Console. However, you must use the Interface Configuration Utility (ICU) to configure an FTLD Interface in the following cases: • If you are configuring redundant FTLD Interfaces. For more information, refer to the Rockwell Automation KB 59932 (https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detai l/a_id/59932) article.
Chapter 3 Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface NOTE NOTE Configuring the FTLD Interface Using the FactoryTalk Administration Console To open the Interface Configuration Utility (ICU) online help, go to Start > All Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Historian SE > Interface Configuration Utility, and select Help > Contents and Index from the main menu.
Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface Chapter 3 To configure an FTLD Interface with the ICU: 1. Go to Start > All Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Historian SE > Interface Configuration Utility. The Interface Configuration Utility dialog box appears. 2. On the Interface menu, click New Windows Interface Instance from BAT File. The Open Interface Configuration File dialog box appears. 3.
Chapter 3 Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface 7. If necessary, edit the Scan Frequency and Scan Class values. Item Description Scan Frequency Indicates the frequency at which the interface reads values from the FactoryTalk Live Data server. Associated with the Scan Frequency value. If there is no interface defined, the Scan Class # will be displayed without a time period. Scan Class # 8. Click Apply.
Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface Chapter 3 See "Command-line Parameters (page 39)" for more information. Adding Remote Servers to Connection Manager To add a remote server to the Connection Manager: 1. In the ICU, select Interface > SDK Connections. 2. In the Connection Manager dialog box, select Server > Add Server. The Add Server dialog box appears. 3. In the Network Node text box, type the name of the remote server, and click OK. 4.
Chapter 3 Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface 20 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 4 Point Source The FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface uses FTLD as a point source. A point source is a unique, single- or multi-character string that is used to identify a Historian point as a point that belongs to a particular interface. For example, the string Boiler1 may be used to identify points that belong to the MyInt Interface. To implement this, the Point Source attribute would be set to Boiler1 for every Historian Point that is configured for the MyInt interface.
Chapter 4 Point Source If a Point Source character is not explicitly defined when creating a PI point, the point is assigned a default Point Source character of Lab (PI 3). Therefore, do not use Lab as a Point Source character for an interface to avoid confusion. IMPORTANT 22 Do not use a Point Source character that is already associated with another interface program. However, it is acceptable to use the same Point Source for multiple instances of an interface.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration A FactoryTalk Historian point is the basic building block for controlling data flow to and from the FactoryTalk Historian SE server. A single point is configured for each measurement value that needs to be archived. Point Attributes Historian points (tags) have approximately 50 attributes. These attributes define how data is to be collected and stored for the point.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration Point Source The Point Source is a unique single or multiple character string that is used to identify the PI point as a point that belongs to a particular interface. The Point Source for FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface is FTLD. For additional information, see the /ps command-line parameter description in "Command-line Parameters (page 39)". Point Type Typically, device point types do not need to correspond to Historian point types.
Point Configuration Chapter 5 Location2 Location2 is not used for the FTLD Interface. Location3 Location3 is used to define a data collection mode: Item Description 0 - Polled or Event Data is collected based on the scan rate and saved in the buffer. When the Historian server requests data, the data stored in the buffer is sent to the server. In this method, the values being sent to the Historian server are from a buffer, so they may not represent the exact (current) values in the controllers.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration Advise and Polled Tags Advise tags and Polled tags use Location4 to specify the requested update rate for the group. Output Tags Location4 is ignored for Output tags. NOTE Advise, Polled, and Output data collection methods are explained in "Location3 (page 25)". Location5 If Location5=1 and Location3=0, it will force an asynchronous read from the data server. It should only be used for event-triggered points due to performance concerns.
Point Configuration Chapter 5 ExDesc The ExDesc (Extended Descriptor) is a string attribute. Typically, this attribute is used to implement Trigger Input points. For example: If a PI point has the ExDesc attribute "EVENT='Tag1' Anychange," it means trigger on any change as long as the Tag1 value of the current event is different from the value of the previous event. Length The ExDesc field allows a maximum of 1023 characters.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration Item Compression Minimum (CompMin) Compression Maximum (CompMax) NOTE Exception Reporting Description A point is archived if the elapsed time since the previous time the point was saved is greater than or equal to the minimum time, and the value has changed by more than the deviation. For data points associated with interfaces that send exception reports, set CompMin to 0.
Point Configuration Chapter 5 NOTE Output Points For information on exception reporting, refer to "Exception Reporting and Compression Testing" in the FactoryTalk Historian SE Server Reference Guide, available from Start > Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Historian SE > Help. Output points control the flow of data from the Historian server to any destination that is external to the server, such as the FTLD server. The FTLD Interface uses Location3=2 to indicate an output point.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration interface may not be able to tell with certainty that an output has failed. Trigger Method 2 For Trigger Method 2, a separate trigger point is not configured. To trigger an output, write a new value to the Snapshot of the output point itself. The new value does not need to be different than the previous value to trigger an output, but the time stamp of the new value must be more recent than the previous value.
Point Configuration Chapter 5 • Scan Class 4 has a scan period of 5 seconds, with an offset of 1 second. Polled Tags Polled tags are read once every scan period. To set up a polled tag, set Location1 to match the /ID parameter, Location3=0, and Location4=scanclass#. For example: Advise Tags Tag InstrumentTag Loc1 Loc2 Loc3 Loc4 Loc5 FiveSec.PV OneMin.PV NinetyMin.
Chapter 5 Point Configuration EVENT='triggertagname' event_condition where triggertagname is enclosed in single quotes and, if specified, the event_condition immediately follows the triggertagname. If the event_condition is not specified then it defaults to Anychange. The update rate for event item groups is also related to the scan class, so the server will be asked to update its cache once every scan period for every event tag defined. This is probably faster or slower than necessary.
Chapter 6 I/O Rates Tag Configuration An I/O Rates tag measures the throughput of an FTLD Interface. In particular, the value of an I/O Rate point represents a 10-minute average of the total number of values per minute that the FTLD Interface sends to the FactoryTalk Historian server. Because values are averaged over a 10-minute interval, the first calculated value is not written to the Historian server earlier than 10 minutes after the interface has started.
Chapter 6 I/O Rates Tag Configuration ICU currently allows for one I/O Rates tag to be configured for each copy of the interface that is in use. Some interfaces allow for multiple I/O Rates tags. The Input IORates Tag section contains the following elements: Item Description Enable IORates for this interface Create Select the check box to enable I/O Rates for the selected interface. Clear the check box to disable I/O Rates for the selected interface.
I/O Rates Tag Configuration Chapter 6 Item Description Tag Status Indicates whether the I/O Rates tag exists in the Historian server. The text box may have the following values: • Created The tag exists on the Historian server. • Not Created The tag does not yet exist on the Historian server. • Deleted The tag has just been deleted from the Historian server. • Unknown The ICU is not able to access the Historian server.
Chapter 6 I/O Rates Tag Configuration 36 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 7 Performance Point Configuration Performance Point tags document how long it takes to complete a scan. Due to the architecture of this interface, the performance point tags are not valid - the server's response is asynchronous, so the time to scan bears no relation to the amount of time it may take to get the data from the server.
Chapter 7 Performance Point Configuration 38 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 8 Startup Command File In Windows, command file names have a .bat extension. The Windows continuation character (^) allows for the use of multiple lines for the startup command. The maximum length of each line is 1024 characters (1 kilobyte). The number of parameters is unlimited, and the maximum length of each parameter is 1024 characters. Command-line parameters should begin with a “/” character. For example, /ps=M.
Chapter 8 Startup Command File Required parameters: Parameter Description /ps=Source The /ps parameter specifies the point source for the interface. The Source value is not case sensitive. The length of the Source value is limited to 100 characters by the PI-UniInt. The value can contain any character except ‘*’ and ‘?’. The point source that is assigned with the /ps parameter corresponds to the Point Source attribute of the individual Historian point.
Startup Command File Chapter 8 Parameter Description /f=SS or /f=SS,SS or /f=HH:MM:SS or /f=HH:MM:SS,hh:mm:ss Required for reading scan-based inputs. The /f parameter defines the time period between scans in terms of hours (HH), minutes (MM), and seconds (SS). The scans can be scheduled to occur at discrete moments in time with an optional time offset specified in terms of hours (hh), minutes (mm), and seconds (ss).
Chapter 8 Startup Command File Parameter Description /sio Default = send initial outputs. The /sio parameter stands for suppress initial outputs. The parameter applies only to interfaces, such as the FTLD, that support outputs. If the /sio parameter is not specified, the FTLD Interface will behave in the following manner: when the FTLD Interface is started, it determines the current Snapshot value of each output tag. Next, the FTLD interface writes this value to each output tag.
Startup Command File Chapter 8 Sample FTLDInt.bat File The following is a sample startup command file that comes with the installation: “FTLDInt.exe”1 /uiDll=FTLDIntCtl.dll /FTDirectory=$Global / FTContext=/ /PS=FTLD /ID=1 /host=localhost:5450 /ec=2 /pisdk=0 / maxstoptime=120 /q /sio /perf=8 /f=1 /f=0.05 /f=0.1 /f=0.25 / f=0.5 /f=2 /f=5 /f=10 /f=60 /f=120 Setting File For more flexibility, the FTLD interface can use an INI format file to configure interface information.
Chapter 8 Startup Command File Item Description PIOrFTLDTimestamp The PIOrFTLDTimestamp key specifies which time stamp will be used to determine when to send data to the FactoryTalk Historian server. PIOrFTLDTimestamp=0 means the FactoryTalk Historian server time stamp is used, and 1 means the FTLD server time stamp is used. This setting is similar to the /TSofPIorFT command-line parameter. See "Command-line Parameters (page 39)" for more information.
Chapter 9 Interface Node Clock Make sure that the time and time zone settings on the computer are correct. Check the settings in the Date and Time program of Control Panel. If the locale where the interface node resides observes Daylight Saving Time, check Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time in Time Zone Settings. Make sure that the TZ environment variable is not defined on the computer. To check it, type set in the Command Prompt window.
Chapter 9 Interface Node Clock 46 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 10 Security The trust database must be configured so that the FTLD Interface is allowed to write data to the FactoryTalk Historian server. If the FTLD Interface cannot write data to the FactoryTalk Historian server because it has insufficient privileges, a 10401 error will be reported in the pipc.log file. The file is located in \Server\PIPC\DAT.
Chapter 10 Security 48 Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013
Chapter 11 Starting and Stopping the Interface Once you have installed the FTLD interface as a service, you can start and stop it in two ways: • Using the Interface Configuration Utility (ICU) (page 49). • Using the Administrative Tools program of Control Panel (page 50). The FTLD interface service may terminate immediately after the startup for a variety of reasons. One of typical reasons is that the service is not able to find the command-line parameters in the associated .bat file.
Chapter 11 Starting and Stopping the Interface 4. Wait, until the status on the status bar at the bottom of the dialog box changes to Running. To stop the FTLD interface: on the toolbar. The service status on the 1. In the ICU, click status bar changes to Stopped. You may additionally check the status of the service in the Administrative Tools (page 50) program of Control Panel. Using the Administrative Tools To start the FTLD interface: 1. Click Start > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Services.
Chapter 12 Error and Informational Messages The FTLD Interface is based on the PI-UniInt framework, therefore a few error messages are sent to the PIPC log by PI-UniInt. Other error messages are sent to the FactoryTalk Diagnostics system. When troubleshooting, we recommend that you check both FactoryTalk Diagnostics and the PIPC log. The following is the list of error messages sent to FactoryTalk Diagnostics.
Chapter 12 Error and Informational Messages Severity Message text Warning Warning Warning Warning Warning Failed to convert PIEvent to FTLD variant type of data. Failed to write value to FactoryTalk Live Data item <%s>. Monitor disconnected from FactoryTalk service. Monitor reconnected to FactoryTalk service successfully. The value quality of PI point <%s (PointID: %d)> with FactoryTalk Live Data item <%s> is bad because the FTLD service does not respond in %d ms.
Appendix A Technical Support and Resources Rockwell provides dedicated technical support internationally, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can read complete information about technical support options, and access all of the following resources at the Rockwell Automation Support Web site (http://www.rockwellautomation.com/support/). Before You Call or Write for Help When you contact Rockwell Automation Technical Support, please provide: • Product name, version, and/or build numbers.
Appendix A Technical Support and Resources 2. Under Collectives and Servers, select the name of the server you want to check. 3. Under System Management Tools, select Operation > PI Version. The Version in Memory and Version on Disk columns display information on versions of all the server subsystems. If you do not have System Management Tools installed, open a command prompt, change to the pi\adm directory, and type piversion -v.
Index Find the Version and Build Numbers 53 A Adding Remote Servers to Connection Manager 19 Advise and Polled Tags 26 Advise Tags 31 B Before You Call or Write for Help 53 C Command-line Parameters 39 Compression Testing 27 Configuring FactoryTalk Historian Live Data Interface 15 Configuring I/O Rates Tag with ICU 33 Configuring the FTLD Interface Using the FactoryTalk Administration Console 16 Configuring the FTLD Interface Using the Interface Configuration Utility (ICU) 16 D Defining Remote Servers a
Index Point Attributes 23 Point Configuration 23 Point Source 21, 24 Point Type 24 Polled Tags 31 Principles of Operation 11 Processing Loops 12 R Related Documentation 8 Rockwell Automation Support 58 S Sample FTLDInt.
Index Rockwell Automation Publication HSELD-UM024A-EN-E–September 2013 57
Rockwell Automation Support Rockwell Automation provides technical information on the Web to assist you in using its products. At http://www.rockwellautomation.com/support/, you can find technical manuals, a knowledge base of FAQs, technical and application notes, sample code and links to software service packs, and a MySupport feature that you can customize to make the best use of these tools.
