Release Notes - Historian 7.1

Important: You do not have the latest version of Historian! You are missing out on the newest capabilities and enhanced security. For information on all the latest features, see the Historian product page. For more information on upgrades, contact your GE Digital sales agent or e-mail GE Digital Sales Support. For the most up-to-date documentation, go here.

Historian Release Notes - 7.1

What's New in Historian 7.1

New Feature Description
Historian Help documentation A new web based Online Help as well as a new standalone Help is now available. However, it is not mandatory to install standalone help. By default, the Online Context sensitive Help is available.

The Look & Feel of the Online Help and the standalone Help Homepages are slightly different, however, the Help content is the same in both the Help systems. Click the topic you want on the respective Homepages to find the content organized within the topics.

- You can access the Online Help at https://docs.predix.io/en-US/historian. When you install Historian Server\ Historian Administrator\ Excel Add-in, a shortcut is installed on the Desktop that points to the Historian Online Help. You need the Internet connection to be connected to the Online help.
Note: You can also download Help topics as PDF files from the Online Help.
- The Historian standalone Help must be installed via Historian installer. You can access the Help using a Desktop shortcut icon. Any help requests raised on Historian Administrator (Thick Client), Excel Add-in open context specific help locally.
Note: - Historian standalone Help systems for Historian Administrator and Excel Add-in clients are hosted using NodeJS and Historian standalone Help system for Web Admin and Trend Client are hosted using Tomcat.
Warning: If you uninstall Node.js, the Help will not work.

The Historian standalone Help is accessible from Historian Administrator, Historian Excel Add-in, Historian Web Admin and Historian Web Trend Client.

Note that you cannot download a pdf from the standalone Help.
Important: Installing new help system will not make all the client applications (Historian Administrator, Excel Add-in, Web Admin, Trend Client) automatically use the new Help. You must install all the client applications that are compatible with the new help system to see the new help system in action.

- Installing Historian standalone Help occupies around 185 MB (Help + NodeJS) as per Add or Remove Program.

Archive File De-fragmentation Tools Using this feature you can de-fragment the existing archive files using a command line based tool. This re-organizes the data nodes of a tag bringing the data nodes together so that bigger reads can be performed improving the read performance. De-fragmentation can be done on all versions of archives, and the resulting archive will be the latest version.
Data Recovery in OPC HDA Collector Manual Recalculation is now enabled for OPC HDA collector allowing users to recover the data for given period of time.
Integration with complex Active Directory arrangements The Active Directory setup supports authentication and authorization of users as members of groups from trusted or sub-domains (including assigning appropriate Historian access rights in line with Historian security roles/groups access). Customers having complex nested domain arrangements in their active directory configurations will now get integration support with Historian.
Improved Search functionality -Single/Multi-character wildcard support Wildcard search capability in Historian Web Admin and Historian Web Trend Client. Use of single- / multi-character wildcard to support partial name match in Web Trend client tag search. Introduced Advanced search capability in Historian Trend Client. Extended search criteria with Spare Tag fields (Spare 1 to 5) which is available with Inline and Advanced search. This is applicable in both Historian Web Admin and Historian Trend Client.
Enhanced installation of OPC collectors (OPC DA, OPC AE, OPC HDA) Improved usability of installation of OPC collectors specifically when there are more OPC servers installed in the machine. This is applicable to OPC DA, OPC AE, OPC HDA collectors User can Select / deselect All the OPC Servers during installation and also use the scrollbar to move in the area.
Support long tag names and descriptions (254 characters) in iFix iFix Collector configured tag names and description fields longer than 199 characters are configurable and connect and store data without failure. Every touch point of tag name and description should be verified to support 254 characters (screens, storage, collectors, search tools).

About Installing this Release

For information on the installation pre-requisites and step-by-step installation procedures, refer to the Getting Started or the PDF document in the Additional Documentation folder in the Install Launcher.

Installer Changes

The installation of Historian components, prior to Historian 7.0 was done through an installation tool called Install Shield, FLEXARA SOFTWARE . However, starting Historian 7.0, installation is done using WIX (an open source from Microsoft). Subsequently, in every service pack release of Historian 7.0, installation is done using WIX installer tool.

Refer to the following table for information on WIX based installation of Historian components:

Historian Release Historian Component Installation through WIX
Historian 7.0
  • Server to Server Collector (32 bit)
  • OSI Pi Collector (32 bit)
Historian 7.0 SP1
  • OPC UA DA Collector (64 bit)
  • OPC HDA Collector (64 bit)
Historian 7.0 SP2
  • Wonderware Collector (64 bit)
  • File Collector (32 bit)
  • Calculation Collector (32 bit)
Historian 7.0 SP3 -None-
Historian 7.0 SP4
  • iFix Collector (32 bit)
Historian 7.0 SP5
  • iFix AE Collector (32 bit)
Historian 7.0 SP6
  • OSI Pi Distributor (32 bit)
  • Server to Server Distributor (32 bit)
  • Cygnet Collector (64 bit)
  • Simulation Collector (32 bit)
  • OPC DA Collector (32 bit)
  • OPC AE Collector (32 bit)
  • WPC Collector (32 bit)
Note:
  • To install the component using WIX, user must first uninstall the legacy component and then install the equivalent WIX based component.
  • With Historian 7.0 SP6, all 32-bit collectors are installed through 32 bit version of WIX installer.
  • Legacy components are those components that are installed using Install Shield.

Installation limitations

  • When you install Historian Server - the Historian Administrator, Historian Web Admin Console, Historian Trend Client Archive Defrag Tool and UAA LDAP Configuration Tool are installed along with it. If you want to install other clients, you must use a client-specific install.
  • You cannot close your current archive with a Historian Mirror Primary Server and Historian Mirror Node installation. This is because closing the current archive introduces archive synchronization risks in a mirrored environment. The restriction is enforced on all Historians, even those not using mirroring.
  • You cannot use size-based archives with a Historian Mirror Primary Server and Historian Mirror Node installation. This is because having archives of different sizes introduces archive synchronization risks in a mirrored environment. The restriction is enforced on all Historians, even those not using mirroring.
  • With new Help System in place (online or standalone) earlier versions of CHM files will not be removed automatically.
  • If Historian needs to be installed in conjunction with iFix or Cimplicity or Plant Applications (PA) or Historian Analysis (PHA) or Proficy Knowledge Center (PKC) products then Historian should be installed after those products are installed.

Resolved Issues

The following issues were resolved in this release:

Case # Description
639282 OSI PI Collector Crashes while browsing tags from OSI PI
475745 Historian Client Manager (x64) Crashed
485062 Can't select tags from multiple pages on web trend tool
487496 OPC HDA Collector Recalculation Question
514891 / 518826 Recalc is not overwriting data / Hist 7.0: Manual Recalculation ( Historian 7.0 SP4)
488021 HIST 7.0 SP4 w/MIRRORING - issue with Sub-Domain users not being able to access the historian
532165 Documented Testing of Migration Tool
518826 Hist 7.0: Manual Recalculation ( Historian 7.0 SP4)
529784 / 572261 iH7.0SP5, Cannot change archive file name on hard disk from System DataStore / Historian Archives - Changes in Base Archive Name Don't Change Filename
497331 Proficy Portal Annotation related questions
578560 / 591573 Historian 7.0 SP6 not able to install OPC DA collector as the installation mask only displays the 1st 8 available installed OPC Servers on the system / Historian 7.0 SP6, Collector installation page can only display up to 8 OPC Servers
525812 Hist 7.0: Tag configuration changes not implemented until collector service restart
575203 Unable to log in to Historian Admin after After Implementing Security
591001 Maximum Number of Read Threads didn't change after I try to do it.
538047 Hist 5.5: Output Status Tags can write back to eg iFix (it can be any tagname) - potential security issue
563550 Throttle Limit Exceeded. Query Not Performed For Tag
579236 Proficy Historian Updating Previously Created Entries In The Database
504696 data loss after archiver restart
515891 Data ARchive file corruption with 27 minutes data loss
565826 Hist 5.5: Import will create 2 tags from 1 trigger tag that has a comma in the name
563550 Throttle Limit Exceeded. Query Not Performed For Tag
567866 Linde previous tag issue when the tagname has a comma in the name
560405 Stange log entries "Unrecognized tag alias result string"
539663 Hist 5.5: It is possible to start a collector as service and at the same time as Application. The collector then will connect/disconnect about every minute.
488427 Hist 5.5: On Apps21 the button "Add Tags From Collector" is not functional. The next window is not appearing
540024 Hist 5.5 - Errors when trying to run VBA code against the SDK
567939 Hist 5.5: Rename a Tag to a Tag with comma in the name and check then the result in ADMIN UI - Show Previous Tagnames.
594473 Historian stopped working
574472 Historian Data Mirroring
608110 Doing the backup of Historian config file does not backup Central Config file.
615105 / 605941 Hist 7.0 error during sp6 collector install / Install of opc collector fails
616296 M5 Key License expired - Historian 5.5 won't start
612425 Possible Memory Leak
00590742/0206245 S2C Errors - Emergency Shutdown
531941, 533193 SARLA TECHNOLOGIES/PANACEA TECH] Opc collector redundancy issue- Samples missing
621106 Hist 7.0: Bulk validation via Archive Info
618597 Ability to skip use of IHC file when using batch script migration
472715 / 488234 Some permanently renamed tags missing in Historian Trend Client
471639 / 622060 Poor performance while migrating alarms from 3.1 to 7.0.
559823 Single (or Mirror) Enterprise setup - the UAA Admin user is losing administrator rights after iH Security groups exist - LDAP setup.
595708 Historian 7.0: Unable to setup up Windows 2016 Server Cluster.
594089 Server to Server collector stopping with invalid cloud credentials but no error in the collector log.
621106 Historian 7.0: Bulk validation via Archive Info.

Known Defects

The following are the known issues in this release:

Defect # Area Description
DE92870 Installation In case, the user is planning to install products like Cimplicity or iFIX, Historian must be installed last.
DE93236 [Doc]Alarm Archiver is not uninstalling completely.

Workaround: Uninstalling Historian Alarms and Events alone will not clear all binaries and services. To uninstall completely, Historian server needs to be uninstalled first, this in turn will uninstall Historian Alarms and Events as well.

DE94396 Installer

Following are the issues that are consolidated as known issues with Installers of various Historian components:

DE91421 : WPC Collector .exe is not upgraded in the windows service after upgrade from 7.0 SP5 to 7.1.

DE91413 : Excel Add-In not retaining default server setting on upgrade

DE91424 : On upgrading Collectors it does not retain Historian server name

DE92530 : Upgrade of Alarm Archiver from 5.5 to 7.1 is uninstalling previously installed excel add-in

DE93236 : Alarm Archiver is not uninstalling properly

DE93253 : Start collector shortcut is not removed from Start / Program Menu after uninstalling OPC DA and OPC collector

DE91414 : Client tools installation asking for OPC prog ids

DE91419 : Collectors getting installed when only client tools are installed

DE91461 : 7.1 excel addin doesn't ask for historian server name while installing, 5.5 excel addin asks

DE91503 : Upgrade dialog box is displayed while performing uninstallation of Client Tools (Proficy historian)

DE92870 : Historian install fails if its installed before CIMPLICITY or iFIX

DE92912 : Alarm and Event service is removed from system after upgrading from SP6 to 7.1

Workaround for the above issue is: Uninstall the component that has the issue from the above list and then install the respective Historian 7.1 component afresh. Make sure appropriate backups (Such as : registry, data files, credentials, custom settings etc.) are taken before uninstalling the component.

DE91020 Tag Rename If the tag is renamed (not permanent rename - Aliasing) the tag name is available for selection in the browse tag list(shown in blue color). If the user tries to select and add the tag, an error message is throwing denoting "Error Adding Tags".
DE93416 Server

In a domain environment, collectors which are running under local system account are not connected to Historian Enterprise OR PH5.5.

User need to run the collector as Specific user account and then start the collector service to connect to Historian Server.

DE93928 Excel Add-In In the Excel Add-In, the search message functionality is not returning expected output when start/end time format is mm/dd/yyyyy HH:mm:ss.
DE93442 Excel Add-In Using Historian Microsoft Excel Add-in plugin, querying for Historian tags data would work consistently across multiple versions of Microsoft Excel only when the with length of the tag is less than or equal to 180 characters. It is possible that with the latest versions of Microsoft Excel (2016) length could be more.
DE94749 Trend Client Due to long length (around 256 characters), the display of all tags is not properly aligned. You may see the same issue in Current value charts.
DE95660 Installer

Historian SDK sample (VB) is shipped with Historian Server Install only and not with the Client Tools Install.

Work around: Use the Historian SDK samples (VB) from Samples\SDK folder.