Bi-Modal Cloud Data Collectors

Collectors can send data to an on-premises Historian server as well as cloud destinations such as Google Cloud, Azure IoT Hub, AWS Cloud, and Predix Cloud. Therefore, these collectors are called bid-modal collectors. The following collectors, however, are not bi-modal collectors; they can send data only to an on-premises Historian server:
  • The File collector
  • The HAB collector
  • The iFIX Alarms and Events collector
  • The Calculation collector
  • The Server-to-Server distributor
  • The OSI PI Distributor
  • The OPC Classic Alarms and Events collector
  • The Python collector
When you create a collector instance, you can choose whether you want the collector to send data to an on-premises Historian server or a cloud destination. You can create multiple instances of the same collector, and configure each of them to send data to a different destination.
Note: Bi-modal Collectors support up to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2.

The Predix cloud destination (via a secure web socket) supports APM, Automation, or Brilliant Manufacturing Cloud subscription. The Collector Toolkit is updated as well. Hence, a custom collector created using the toolkit has the same capabilities.

There are a few differences in the working of a bi-modal collector based on whether the destination is Historian or cloud. Following table explains the key differences.

Functionality Destination - Historian Destination - Cloud
HISTORIANNODENAME registry key Contains the destination Historian Server’s name/ IP Address.

Contains the cloud destination settings as well as proxy historian server name or IP if applicable (configServer).

Cloud destination format: 
CloudDestinationAddress|configServer|IdentityIssuer|ClientID|
ClientSecret|ZoneID|Proxy|proxyUser|proxyPassword

Mapping Source Tags

with Destination Tags

(Add Tags)

 You must map tags in Historian Server to Data Source tags using one of the Admin tools (VB Admin/Web Admin). The data gets stored in IHA files and the Tag configurations are stored in IHC files.

As it is not possible to map tags in the Cloud with tags in the Data Source, user must select if mapping should be done through Historian (works as a proxy) or through Offline Configuration File at the time of installation.

If the user selects Historian, then tags will be created in the Cloud which in turn may have been mapped through one of the Admin tools (VB Admin/Web Admin).

If Offline Configuration File is selected, the user must provide an XML configuration file containing tag configurations that need to be created in the Cloud for mapping them with the Source tags.
Other Tag Management Operations such as Delete, Rename, Data cleaning It is possible to do all tag management operations. No tag management operations are allowed. After you update the offline tag configuration file, or after you specify the tags using Historian Administrator, the changes are reflected automatically (without the need to restart the collector).
Data Type support All standard data types are supported. All other data types, excepting arrays, enums and User defined types (UDT), BLOB, are supported.