Historian Release Notes

Table 1. What's New in Historian
Description Tracking ID

Configuration Hub Enhancements

You can now manage Proficy Authentication, iFIX, and Historian using a single Configuration Hub session/container:
  • Proficy Authentication: You can create UAA users and groups. For instructions, refer to setting up authentication.
  • iFIX: You can manage connections, create a model, and work with the database. For more information, refer to iFIX Web Configuration.
  • Historian: In addition to managing systems and collectors, you can now create and manage tags, create a Historian model, configure each collector instance, and access the information on licensing, server statistics, list of collectors, tags, clients, and model for each system.
In addition, you can configure multiple plugins in a single Configuration Hub session/container.
 F57677

Historian Model Support

Using Configuration Hub, you can now create a Historian model, which contains object types, variables, templates, and object instances. In addition, you can include contained types in an object type, allowing you to reuse the variables in an object type.

For more information, refer to About a Historian Model.

 F57850

Counter Delta Queries

Historian offers the following counter delta queries to determine the delta of tag values over a time period:
  • DELTAPOS
  • DELTANEG
  • DELTA
These queries simplify analysis of counter data because they return the delta over a time period rather than the exact value at the end of the period. They also handle counter resets.

For more information, refer to Counter Delta Queries.

 F59548

New Collectors

The following collectors have been introduced:
  • The HAB collector: It collects data from Habitat, which is a SCADA application that contains real-time data. The collector interacts with the Habitat Sampler application to fetch data from the Habitat database records and stores the data in a Historian server.
    This collector offers the following features:
    • Automatic tag sync between Habitat and Historian
    • Fetching data of both alarms and tags
    • No dependency on an external database
    • High availability
    • Easy data maintenance

    Using Configuration Hub, you can create an instance of this collector. You must then configure the collector manually for tags and alarms using the corresponding .xml files. For more information, refer to Overview of the HAB Collector.

  • The Python collector: It executes Python scripts and stores the resulting values in Historian tags. You can retrieve data from the Historian archive, perform the calculations written in Python script, and store the resulting values in new Historian tags. Also, you can run multiple Python scripts simultaneously. For more information, refer to Overview of the Python Collector.
 F59172, F57673

High Availability of Web-based Clients Using a Cluster

In addition to Historian servers, you can now add web servers of Web-based Clients to a cluster. If the primary server goes down, a standby server is used to fetch data, thus achieving high availability of connection between the Historian server and the following applications:
  • Configuration Hub
  • Trend Client
  • The Web Admin console
  • REST APIs

For more information, refer to Set Up High Availability of Web-based Clients.

 F59741

Extract Data Using ODBC

Using the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tools, in addition to Proficy Historian and PI Historian servers, you can now extract data from an ODBC data source.

You can, however, extract only tag data; you cannot extract alarms and events data.

For more information, refer to Overview of the Historian ETL Tools.

 F57675

Data Visualization Using Power BI Desktop

Using the OLE DB provider, you can now import Historian data into Microsoft Power BI Desktop. You can then analyze the data, create reports, and share them with others.

For more information, refer to Import Historian Data into Power BI Desktop.

 F57677

Certificate-Based Encryption for Historian Traffic

Historian supports encryption based on Internet Protocol Security to secure traffic between various Historian components and collectors without the need to use VPN or other security protocols.

For instructions, refer to Configure Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC).

 F57674

Performance Enhancements in Collectors

The performance of the Historian collectors has been enhanced significantly; collecting and storing data is much faster now.

 F58304

UAA Service Renamed

The User Account and Authentication (UAA) service is now renamed Proficy Authentication.
Authentication and Authorization Using Proficy Authentication

You can now achieve authentication and authorization of non-web-based clients of Historian using Proficy Authentication.

Support on Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11

Historian is now supported on the Microsoft® Windows® Server 2022 (64-bit) and Microsoft® Windows® 11 (64-bit) operating systems.
Table 2. Resolved Issues
Description Tracking ID
Previously, sometimes, the data archiver crashed. This issue has been resolved. DE172361
Previously, you could not store a zero-length string from Wonderware. This issue has been resolved. To store a zero-length string, create a DWORD (32-bit) Registry entry named StoreStringTagNullValue in the following path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GE Digital\iHistorian\Services\WonderwareCollector DE165559
Previously, if you installed Web-based Clients and Configuration Hub on a drive other than C drive, the ConfigHubNGINXService service was paused because of which you could not access Configuration Hub. This issue has been resolved. DE160111
Previously, if an OPC Classic server contained invalid tags, the collector stopped collecting data. This issue has been resolved. DE158103
Previously, if a tag did not contain data, the OPC Classic HDA collector stopped collecting data and returned OPC_S_NODATA even for tags that contained data. This issue has been resolved. Now, tags with no data are skipped. DE173388
Previously, after running a few queries, connection to the OPC Classic HDA server was lost. This issue has been resolved. DE171123, DE165561
Previously, the OPC UA DA collector could not process a tag name containing Swedish letters. This issue has been resolved. DE121597
Previously, the Calculation collector did not work if tag triggers contained Boolean values. This issue has been resolved. DE172214
Previously, the data archiver had memory leak issues. These issues have been resolved. DE170828, DE172361
Previously, the EGU description was not displayed in Historian Administrator. In addition, if you entered a value for Spare 1, when you reopened Historian Administrator, the EGU description was overwritten by the Spare 1 value. This issue has been resolved. DE169147
Previously, even if you disabled future data, when you attempted to collect future data, instead of displaying an error message, a success message was displayed although future data was not stored. This issue has been resolved. DE138535
Previously, if the number of tags was greater than 10,000, you could not browse the tags from the source; a timeout error appeared. This issue has been resolved. DE167409
Previously, if you added a float tag into Historian as a variable string type, and if the collection type for this tag was set to polled in Historian, the OPC Classic DA collector stopped working. This issue has been resolved. DE167591, DE169532
Previously, when you upgraded Historian server or migrated Historian data, the system data store was missing in the server configuration file. This issue has been resolved. DE172137
Previously, there were issues in the OPC UA HDA collector redundancy. These issues have been resolved. DE168191
Previously, if you updated the collection interval and compression values, tag data was not collected. This issue has been resolved. DE170431
Previously, you could not store a zero-length string from Wonderware Historian in Proficy Historian. This issue has been resolved. DE165559
Previously, a duplicate column appeared for alarm comments in ihSQL. This issue has been resolved. DE165558
Previously, if you tried to fetch alarm history from ihSQL, an error occurred. This issue has been resolved. DE168388
Previously, if using an MQTT collector, data samples were lost. This issue has been resolved. DE170315, DE170316
Previously, if you tried to fetch event data from ihSQL, the actor column was blank. This issue has been resolved. DE171154
Previously, the option to recalculate was disabled for iHTagAdmin users. This issue has been resolved by changing the security and user permissions. DE167016
Previously, when using Excel Add-in for Historian, if the name of a worksheet contained an hyphen, an error occurred. This issue has been resolved. DE161975
Previously, the data archiver was unresponsive although it was running. This issue has been resolved. DE152948
Previously, during an OPC Classic DA collector failover, there was data loss for unsolicited tags. This issue has been resolved. DE153275, DE159698
Previously, a failed login attempt to data archiver was not recorded in logs and messages. This issue has been resolved. DE154221
Previously, unsolicited calculation tags with collector compression timeout had bad quality data. This issue has been resolved. DE153913
Previously, even if domain security was enabled, you could not access Rest APIs with as a domain user. This issue has been resolved. DE137900
Previously, during installation, you could set the data drive for an iFIX collector only to a C drive. This issue has been resolved. You can now select any drive. DE169341
Table 3. Known IssuesThe following issues are unresolved in this release.
Description Tracking ID
After you upgrade Historian, the Historian Remote Collector Management Agent does not start automatically.

Workaround: Restart the computer.

 DE175062
If you install only Historian without installing iFIX, you may find some iFIX-related files in the C drive. You can ignore/delete them. If, however, you plan to install iFIX later, you must reinstall Historian Client Tools after installing iFIX.
If using Windows server 2022 or Window 11, you cannot connect to the Historian OPC UA HDA server using a remote OPC HDA client. DE174953
If you install iFIX SCADA with the Historian server and Historian collectors on a remote machine using the iFIX integrated installer, then install License Client, and then uninstall Historian, an error message appears after you restart the machine and try to access iFIX. DE174741
If you install iFIX SCADA with Historian Client Tools on a remote machine using the iFIX integrated installer, and then if you uninstall Client Tools, License Client is uninstalled as well. DE174737
In a distributed node that is part of a mirror location, sometimes, you cannot back up an archive file. In addition, you cannot remove an archive file either from the primary node or a distributed node of a mirror location. DE174808
If using a Historian web client or Historian Administrator of an older version with Historian 2022 server, you cannot perform actions on data stores or archives. DE174355
If you are upgrading the Historian server on a passive node, an error message may appear behind the installer screen, stating that the Archives directory is not created.

Workaround: You can ignore this message, or you can make the node active before upgrading the Historian server.
Using Configuration Hub, you cannot define a calculation formula for a tag for a Calculation collector. You can, however, define a calculation formula using Historian Administrator or other Web-based Clients. DE171279
The OPC UA DA collector stops working for unsolicited tags after you disconnect and reconnect to the source. DE135433
For a collector instance whose destination is Azure IoT Hub, you cannot restart the collector using the Save and Restart button in Configuration Hub. You cannot restart the collector using the Windows service either.

Workaround: Use the Restart Collector API to restart the collector.

 DE151454
After you delete a collector instance, the Windows service and the registry entry for the collector are not deleted.

Workaround: Delete the Windows service and the registry entry manually.

 DE151169
If the version of Historian collectors is different from that of Client Tools, ihSQL does not work.

Workaround: Ensure that you have the same version of Client Tools and collectors.

 DE149550
Using Configuration Hub, if you add a system by specifying its host name, and then add the same system by specifying its IP address, or vice versa, no validation error appears. DE146366
When Configuration Manager is down, you cannot browse for tags in a horizontally scalable system. DE141885
If you register the Configuration Hub plugin with a remote Configuration Hub container, the local instance of the connection is not unregistered.
Workaround:
  1. Run the Web_Clients_Configuration_Tool.exe file located in the following folder: C:\Program Files\GE Digital\Historian Config
  2. In the Config Hub Configuration section, in the External Server name box, enter the local host name, and then select Unregister.
 DE150907
If you install Configuration Hub and the Web Admin console on the same machine, and use self-signed certificates for both of them, the login page for Configuration Hub does not appear.
Workaround: Disable the domain security policies:
  1. Access the following URL: chrome://net-internals/#hsts
  2. In the Domain Security Policy section, in the Delete domain security policies field, enter the domain name for Configuration Hub, and then select Delete.
 DE151105
You cannot create multiple instances of the File collector on a single machine. DE151715
Using Configuration Hub, you cannot restart an OPC collector whose destination is Azure IoT Hub.

Workaround: Restart the collector from the Collectors section in Configuration Hub, modify the registry entry for the collector instance and restart manually, or restart the collector machine.

 DE151454
When you change the destination of a collector from Historian to Predix TimeSeries, no success message appears although the destination is changed. In addition, the collector is not started automatically. DE151859
Even after you uninstall collectors and Web-based Clients, the corresponding Windows services and registry entries are not removed. DE151169
When you upgrade iFIX collectors to version 9.0, the custom registry folders are deleted. DE151435
In Configuration Hub, for a stand-alone Historian system, when you select a server, the Diagnostics Manager service does not appear in the Details section. DE151711
If you upgrade Historian from a version earlier than 8.1, by default, storing future data is enabled.
Workaround:
  1. Stop the Historian DataArchiver service.
  2. Open Command Prompt with elevated privileges or administrator privileges.
  3. Navigate to the folder in which the ihDataArchiver_x64.exe file is located. By default, it is C:\Program Files\Proficy\Proficy Historian\x64\Server.
  4. Run the following command: 
    ihDataArchiver_x64 OPTION.<data store name> ihArchiverAllowFutureDataWrites
                    0
 DE149376
If you upgrade Historian server from a single-server installation to a primary mirror installation, and if you then add a distributed machine to the Historian system using Configuration Hub, you may see issues in connecting the distributed machine to the primary machine.

Workaround: Restart all the Historian server services on Primary Mirror server and Distributed/Mirror server machine.

 DE152582
In a horizontally scalable system, if Client Manager is down, Web-Based Clients do not failover to the other Client Managers in the system. And, the following error message appears in Web-Based Clients: Service call to central buffer server fail. DE152830
In a horizontally scalable system, instead of adding a distributed machine, if you add a primary mirror machine or a monolithic (stand-alone) machine, no validation message appears, but causes issues later. DE153191
If you upgrade Historian server to 9.0, the machine is restarted abruptly when the installation is still in progress. The installation will, however, resume after the machine is restarted. DE151125
If you upgrade Historian server from a mirror system to a horizontally scalable system in 9.0, you cannot query data from the distributed machine when the distributed machine is removed from the DefaultMirror location. DE152677
If you install iFIX on a machine that has Historian Web-based Clients, sometimes, the reverse proxy service stops working.

Workaround: Restart the reverse proxy service - GE Operations Hub Httpd Reverse Proxy.

 DE151157
If you reinstall collectors and Web-based Clients, the size of the Historian server and Web-based Clients appears as decreased in the Programs and Features page, although there is no functional impact. DE152484
When you install Client Tools, incorrect installation pages appear, although the installation is successful.

Workaround: Ignore the incorrect installation pages, and proceed with the installation of Client Tools.

 DE153175
If you change the destination of a collector instance, the destination is not updated in the older machine, although the destination is updated in the new machine. DE153176
When you attempt to fetch a list of OPC servers using the Get OPC Server API, an error occurs. This is applicable to the following OPC servers:
  • OPC Data Access
  • OPC Historical Data Access
  • OPC Alarms and Events

Workaround: Add collector instances using the RemoteCollectorConfigurator utility.

 DE147276
Even if you install Web-based Clients using an alias name, you cannot access Configuration Hub using the alias name. DE148939
While connecting to a remote Historian, you cannot add an instance of the File collector unless Client Tools are installed. DE152330
After you install Client Tools in an iFIX system, the Configure Historian Server option is disabled in iFIX 6.5.

Workaround: Reinstall Client Tools, and restart the machine.

 DE149001
In Configuration Hub, for a horizontally scalable system, in the Collectors section, you cannot access an offline collector; a blank error message appears.

Workaround: Ensure that the URI registry entry is the same for all the machines in a horizontally scalable system.

 DE151380
If you upgrade collectors, an error occurs when you access Historian Administrator.

Workaround: Install Client Tools.

 DE151932
If you upgrade collectors, you cannot manage the OPC collectors. An error message appears in the CollectorManager.shw file.

Workaround: Refer to Troubleshooting Remote Collector Management Issues.

 DE151366
While installing Web-based Clients, after the connection to the external UAA is successful, if you change the UAA details, you can proceed to the next step even without testing the connection. Because of this, you will not be able to connect to the UAA server if the UAA details are incorrect (although you can install Web-based Clients).

Workaround: Test the connection to the external UAA again, and only after the connection is successful, proceed to the next step.

 DE155570