Create an OPC Classic Historical Data Access (HDA) Collector

Before you begin

  1. Deploy Proficy Historian for Azure Cloud.
  2. Install collectors. You can install them on-premises or on a VNet (which can be different from the one on which Proficy Historian for Azure Cloud is deployed).

About this task

The OPC Classic HDA collector collects historical data from any OPC HDA 1.2 - compliant OPC server. The collector automatically determines the capability of the OPC server to which it is connected and supports the appropriate features based on this information.
Features:
  • You can browse the source for tags and their attributes on an OPC server that supports browsing.
  • Only unsolicited data collection is supported; when changes to the OPC source tags are detected, they are sent to the Historian server. The minimum poll interval is 100ms. The collector duplicates raw samples from the OPC server into the Historian data archive.

    For unsolicited data collection, if collector compression is disabled, all new values produce an exception. And, the deadband percentage is determined by the collector deadband percent. You can only configure the collector deadband percent by enabling compression.

  • The supported timestamp resolution is 1ms.
  • Floating point, integer, binary, and string data are supported.
  • Device timestamps are accepted.
Supported data types:
The OPC Data Type Recommended Data Type in Historian
I1- 16 bit signed integer Single Integer
I4- 32 bit signed integer Double Integer
R8- 64 bit double float Single Float
UI2- 16 bit unsigned single integer Double Float
UI4- 32 bit unsigned double integer Unsigned Integer
UI8- 64 bit unsigned quad integer Unsigned Double Integer
I8- 64 bit quad integer Quad Integer
BSTR Variable Sting
BOOL Boolean
I1- 8 bit single integer Byte
Note: The OPC Classic HDA collector requests data from the OPC Classic HDA server in the native data type. The OPC Classic HDA collector then converts the received value to a Historian data type before sending it to Data Archiver.
Supported tag attributes:
  • Tagname
  • Source Address
  • Engineering Unit Description
  • Data Type
  • Hi Engineering Units
  • Lo Engineering Units

The Engineering Unit Description, Hi Engineering Units and Lo Engineering Units vary based on the OPC server vendor.

Procedure

  1. Run Command Prompt as an administrator.
  2. Run the AzureCloudHistorianConfigurationUtility.exe file. It is provided along with the collectors installer. After you install collectors, it will be available in the C:\Program Files\GE Digital\Historian Cloud Config folder by default.
  3. Enter the number corresponding to creating a collector instance.
  4. Enter the following details:
    Field Description
    Interface Name Enter the name that you want to provide for the collector instance.
    Azure Load Balancer IP

    Enter the Azure Load Balancer IP. A value is required.

    Tip: To find the Azure Load Balancer IP:
    1. Go to the Azure portal.
    2. Go to the Resource Group that was specified during deployment.
    3. Select the cluster_name-IP to access the resource of type Public IP Address.
    4. Select or copy the IP Address.
    Username Enter the username to connect to Proficy Historian for Azure Cloud. A value is required.
    Password Enter the password to connect to Proficy Historian for Azure Cloud. A value is required.
    Tip: For the default user, ihCloudHistAdmin, this is the value you entered in the Password field at the time of deployment.
    OPC HDA server Enter the prog ID of the OPC Classic server. A value is required.
    The OPC UA HDA collector is created.
  5. Start the collector instance (as a Windows service).