System Statistics

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System Statistics Screen

The Main tab displays the System Statistics screen. It displays the current system status and performance statistics. It presents an overall view of system health. The screen has three sections:


System Statistics Section

The System Statistics section displays the data described in the following table.

Note: The statistics displayed on this screen are computed independently on various time scales and schedules. As a result, they may update at different times.
Table 1. Historian System Statistics Fields
Field Description
Receive Rate (a time-based chart in events/minute) Displays how busy the server is at a given instance and the rate at which the server is receiving data from all collectors.
Archive Compression (% compression) Displays the current effect of archive data compression. If the value is zero, it indicates that archive compression is either ineffective or turned off. To increase the effect of data compression, increase the value of archive compression deadbands on individual tags in the Tag Maintenance screen to activate compression.

In computing the effect of archive compression, Historian counts internal system tags as well as data source tags. Therefore, when working with a very small number of tags and with compression disabled on data source tags, this field may indicate a value other than zero. If you use a realistic number of tags, however, system tags will constitute a very small percentage of total tags and will therefore not cause a significant error in computing the effect of archive compression on the total system.

Write Cache Hit Displays the hit ratio of the write cache in percent of total writes. It is a measure of how efficiently the system is collecting data and should typically range from 95 to 99.99%. If the data is changing rapidly over a wide range, however, the hit percentage drops significantly because current values differ from recently cached values. More regular sampling may increase the hit percentage. Out of order data also reduces the hit ratio.
Failed Writes Displays the number of samples that failed to be written. Since failed writes are a measure of system malfunctions or an indication of offline archive problems, the value shown in the display should be zero. If you observe a non-zero value, investigate the cause of the problem and take corrective action.

The Historian also generates a message if a write fails. Note that the message only appears once per tag, for a succession of failed writes associated with that tag. For example, if the number displayed in this field is 20, but they all pertain to one Historian tag, you will only receive one message until that Historian tag is healthy again.

Messages Since Startup Displays a count of system messages generated since the last startup. The system resets the value to zero on restart. The message database, however, may contain more messages than this number indicates.
Alerts Since Startup Displays a count of system warnings or alerts generated since the last startup. A high value here may indicate a problem of some kind. You should review the alerts and determine the probable cause. The count resets to zero on restart. The message database, however, may contain more alerts than this number indicates.
Calculations Appears as Enabled, if the Calculation Collector feature is licensed on the software key.
Server-to-Server Appears as Enabled, if the Server-to-Server Collector feature is licensed on the software key.
Alarms since Startup Displays a count of alarms received by the Historian Data Archive since starting up.
Server Memory Displays how much server memory the Historian Data Archive is consuming.
Free Space (MB) Displays how much disk space (in MB) is left in the current archive.
Consumption Rate (MB/day) How fast you are using up archive disk space. If the value is too high, you can reduce it by slowing the poll rate on selected tags or data points or by increasing the filtering on the data (widening the compression deadband to increase compression).
Est. Days to Full (Days) Displays how much time is left before the archive is full, based on the current consumption rate. At that point, a new archive must be opened (could be automatic). To increase the days to full, you must reduce the Consumption Rate as noted above. To ensure that collection is not interrupted, you should make sure that the Automatically Create Archives option is enabled in the Data Store Maintenance screen (Global Options Tab). You may also want to enable Overwrite Old Archives if you have limited disk capacity. Enabling overwrite, however, means that some old data will be lost when new data overwrites the data in the oldest online archive. Use this feature only when necessary.

The Estimated Days Until Full field is dynamically calculated by the server and becomes more accurate as an archive gets closer to completion. This number is only an estimate and will vary based on a number of factors, including the current compression effectiveness. The System sends messages notifying you at 5, 3, and 1 days until full.

Active Tags Displays number of tags in your configuration.
Licensed Tags How many tags are authorized for this Historian installation by the Software Key and License.
Note: If this field displays 100 tags and the Licensed Users field displays 1 client, you are likely running in demonstration mode and may have incorrectly installed your hardware key.
Active Users Displays the number of users currently accessing the Historian system.
Licensed Users Displays the number of users authorized to access the Historian application by the Software Key and License.

The number of users that are authorized to access Historian is strictly based on the Software Key and License. However, if you have utilized your available Client Access Licenses (CAL) and need an additional one to administer the system in an emergency, you have an option to reserve a CAL.

This reserved CAL allows you to access the server. To do so, provide the reserved CAL to the system administrators and add them to the ih Security Admins group. A system administrator will be able to connect to Historian in an emergency.

This facility is optional and does not provide a guaranteed connection. This only eliminates the emergency situations when a CAL is preventing you from accessing the system and may not work if there are other conditions. For example, if Historian is busy, you will not be able to connect using this feature.

Note: If this field displays 1 client and the Licensed Tags field displays 100 tags, you are likely running in demonstration mode and you may have incorrectly installed your hardware key.
Alarm Rate Displays the rate at which Historian is receiving alarm and event data.
SCADA Tags Displays the number of Proficy CIMPLICITY or Proficy iFIX tags.
Tags Consumed by Arrays Indicates the total number of Array tags consumed by Historian.

Collectors Panel

The Collectors panel shows current statistics on the operation of all connected data collectors in the system. Use the scroll bar to see the full complement of collectors. For more information on a particular data collector, click the name of the Data Collector you want to examine. The Collector Maintenance Screen for that collector then appears. You can also display the Collector Maintenance screen by clicking on the Collector link in the top line of the System Statistics screen.

To automatically refresh the collectors panel statistics, select Auto option in the collectors panel. Selecting Auto option will automatically refresh the collectors panel statistics for every 45 seconds.

You can also use the refresh button to manually refresh the collectors panel statistics. To refresh the statistics, click the Refresh button on the Collectors Panel.

The System Statistics > Collectors panel screen displays data described in the following table.

Table 2. Collectors System Statistics
Field Description
Collector Displays the collector ID, which is used to identify the collector in an Historian system.
Status Displays the current status of collection. "Running" indicates that the collector is operating. "Stopped" indicates that it is in pause mode and not collecting data. "Unknown" indicates that status information about the collector is unavailable at present, perhaps as a result of a lost connection between collector and server.
Computer Displays the name of the computer the collector is running on.
Report Rate Displays the current rate in number of samples/minute at which the server is receiving data from the collector. It is a measure of the collection rate and also of data compression activity. A value equal to the data acquisition rate, when Collector Compression Percent is zero, indicates that every data value received from the data source is being reported to the server. This means that the collector is not performing any data compression. You can lower the report rate, and make the system more efficient, by increasing the data compression at the collector. To do this, widen the collection compression deadbands for selected tags.
Overruns Displays the overruns in relation to the total events collected since startup. This value is calculated by using the following equation: OVERRUN_PCT = OVERRUNS / ( OVERRUNS + TOTAL_EVENTS_COLLECTED ) Overruns are a count of the total number of data events not collected on their scheduled polling cycle. In normal operation, this value should be zero.

You may be able to reduce the number of overruns on the collector by increasing the tag collection intervals (per tag).
Compression % Displays the percentage of how effective compression is at present for the specific collector since collector startup. A value of zero indicates that compression is either turned off or not effective. To increase the value, enable compression on the collector's associated tags and increase the width of the compression dead-band on selected tags.

The collector keeps track of how many samples it collected from the data source (OPC Server for example) and keeps track of how many samples it reported to the Historian data archiver (after collector compression is complete).

A low number or zero means most everything coming from the data source is being sent to the Historian data archiver. The reason for the low number or zero is that too many samples are exceeding compression or you are not using collector compression.

A high number or 100 means you are collecting a lot of samples, but they are not exceeding collector compression and therefore are not being sent to server.

Out of Order Displays how many samples within a series of timestamped data values normally transmitted in sequence have been received out of sequence since collector startup. This field applies to all collectors. Even though events are still stored, a steadily increasing number of out of order events indicates a problem with data transmission that you should investigate.

For instance, a steadily increasing number of out of order events when you are using the OPC Collector means that there is an out of order between OPC Server and the OPC Collector. This may also cause out of order between the OPC Collector and the data archiver but that is not what this statistic indicates.
Redundancy Displays the current redundancy status of the collector. "Active" state indicates that the collector is currently collecting data and "Standby" indicates that this collector is the standby for the primary collector.
Note: This status will be displayed only when the Redundant Collector property of the collector is Enabled.

Alerts Panel

The Alerts panel displays all alerts and warnings received or generated by the system. You can scan through these messages by using the scroll bar at the right of the window. It displays the system timestamps and records of each message in this window. Both of the below are tasks and should be in task type topics.

To stop automatic updating of the display in the Historian Non-Web Administrator, clear the Show Alerts check box. This setting will be reset when you restart the Non-Web Administrator.

To automatically refresh the alerts panel statistics, select Auto option in the Alerts panel. Selecting the Auto option automatically refreshes the last five seconds alerts panel statistics every 25 seconds. You can also click the Refresh button on the alerts panel to manually refresh the alerts panel statistics.

TheSystem Statistics > Alerts panel screen displays data described in the following table.

Table 3. Alerts System Statistics
Field Description
Timestamp The timestamp associated with the message or alert.
Topic The type of alert message. Only the Services and Performance alerts appear here. A total of up to 250 of the most recent messages will be displayed.
Message The content of the message or alert.