The Historian Administrator

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.

Introduction to the Historian Administrator

The Historian Administrator is a user interface that permits you to monitor, supervise, archive, retrieve, and control data gathering functions from the server, a client, or one or more remote non-web-based nodes. This manual provides descriptive material and specific operating procedures for performing all common tasks.
Note: Changes that you make to parameters on a local or remote Historian Administrator are not automatically updated on other Administrators.

Intended Audience

This guide is intended for people who need to:
  • Retrieve and analyze archived information.
  • Monitor Historian system performance.
  • Set up and maintain configuration and other parameters for tags, collectors, and archives.
  • Perform specific supervisory and security tasks for the Historian system.
  • Maintain and troubleshoot the Historian system.

About The Historian Administrator

The Historian Administrator allows you to:
  • Examine key operating statistics for archives and collectors, and display or search system alerts and messages.
  • Perform archive maintenance, including:
    • Set archive size.
    • Select options and parameters.
    • Display security parameters.
    • Add and restore archives.
    • Routine backup and restoration tasks
  • Perform tag maintenance, including:
    • Add, delete, and copy tags.
    • Search for tags in a data source or in the Historian Database.
    • Start and stop collection on a tag.
    • Configure, display, and edit tag parameters and options.
    • Display trend data for selected tags.
  • Perform data collector maintenance, including:
    • Add or delete collectors.
    • Configure, display, and edit parameters for all types of collectors.
    • Create calculation formulas.
    • Display performance trends for selected collectors.

Historian Non-Web Administrator

The Historian Windows-based Administrator allows you to access Administrator functions by installing the Historian Administrator. Most screens illustrated in this manual are taken from the Historian Non-Web Administrator.

Use the feature list below to assist you in determining which tool is right for your Historian environment.

The non-web-based version has the following features:
  • Communicates with the Historian Server through the Historian API.
  • Offers robust browsing and data collection of large numbers of tags.
  • Provides control and configuration of default, tag, and collector parameters.
  • Ability to install and run the Administrator client on the local server or from any computer that has a TCP/IP connection to the Historian Server.
  • Support for regional settings for time and date.
  • Compatible with Windows XP Professional SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Server, and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.

Installing the Historian Administrator

You must run the Client Tools install before installing the Historian Administrator. In addition, during the Client Tools installation, Historian Administrator is selected by default and is installed along with the Client Tools. If you want to install the Historian Administrator at a later time, deselect the check box before continuing with the Client Tools installation.

You can install a Historian Administrator on any node that connects to the Server through a Historian API.

  1. Run the Historian install.
    The Historian Splash screen appears.

    If this screen does not appear, double-click the InstallLauncher.exe file on the ISO or DVD to display it.

  2. Click the Install Client Tools link.
    The Select Features screen appears.
  3. Click Run.
    The Welcome screen appears.
  4. When the Install Wizard appears, select the Historian Administrator option in addition to any previously installed Historian components, and then click Next.
    The program installs the Historian Administrator and any other components associated with it, including the API. If you prefer, you can install the Historian Administrator at the same time you install other options, by selecting all desired options at once.
    Note: If you intend to run all components (Historian Server, Collectors, and Client tools) on a single computer, choose Install Historian 7.1 on the splash screen and proceed with the installation wizard.

Starting the Historian Non-Web Administrator

To start the Historian Non-Web Administrator, you must be a valid Windows user on the Historian Server. A screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or above is recommended for Historian Non-Web Administrators.
  1. From the Start Menu, select Programs>Historian <version>.
  2. Select Historian Administrator to open the application.
    The system attempts to connect to the default server using the current logged in user and password. The Historian System Statistics screen appears.
    Tip: As an alternative, you can create a shortcut and start Historian Administrator from a desktop icon.
  3. To specify another user name, or to switch servers:
    1. Click on the Main link.
      The Login dialog box appears.
    2. Select a server from the drop-down list or click the Browse button to browse for a server.
    3. Enter your user name, password, and domain, if any, and then click OK.
      The Historian System Statistics screen appears. You can now proceed with all Historian Administrator functions.

Components of the Historian Administrator

The Historian Administrator has five screens:
  • Message Search screen: a display of alerts and messages selected by user-defined search parameters.
  • System Statistics screen: an interactive display of system status indicators, data collector performance indicators, system alerts and messages, with links to Data Store Maintenance, Collector Maintenance, Tag Maintenance, Message Search, and Help screens.
  • Tag Maintenance screen: an interactive display of tag names, parameters, and controls.
  • Collector Maintenance screen: an interactive display of collector names, parameters, and controls.
  • Data Store Maintenance screen: an interactive display of archive names, parameters, alarms, security, and controls.

Historian in Regulated Environments

Many FDA regulated industries are required by the United States government to be compliant with regulations such as the 21CFR Part 11 regulation. If your industry is one of them, you will need software that allows you to build a compliant application or process. The flexibility and versatility of Historian lets you create a compliant process by:
  • Providing limited system access to authorized individuals.
  • Time-stamping annotations when saved, and displaying existing time stamps from the Historian archive.
  • Requiring electronic signatures on annotations if the Electronic Signatures/Records option is enabled in the Historian Server.
  • Enabling human-readable printouts (using the Print command) and computer-readable format (by exporting data to a CSV file that can by imported into Excel or an SQL database) of audits.
The Electronic Signatures and Record options of Historian allow you to keep an auditable trail of most Historian functions. Although this feature is designed primarily for FDA-regulated industries, any application that requires or could benefit from audited trails can make use of its features.

Disabling Guest Accounts for a 21 CFR Part 11-Compliant Environment

If you want to use Historian in a 21 CFR Part 11-compliant environment, make sure that you disable Guest accounts on your computer. This action applies whether or not you use Historian security.

Compliant Parameter Settings

The 21 CFR 11-compliant parameters you can set from the Security tab of the Data Store Maintenance screen are:
Table 1. Parameter Settings
Field Description
Require Point Verification (Enable/Disable) If you select Enable, Historian requires you to enter identifying information whenever you attempt a restricted action.

Whenever you attempt to change the system configuration (for the tag, archive, or collector), a tag value, or other record, you must electronically "sign" the action with a username and password. If the user is authorized to make this change, the identity of the person, the action performed, and the time it was performed, are all recorded in the audit trail.

Note: The audit features are not dependent on this feature being enabled. Historian audits all user actions regardless.
Enabling Electronic Signatures and Electronic Records also requires you to reverify your identity when you use the Excel Add-In, to modify or create a tag, or import data or messages.
Note: This feature is available only if you have purchased the Electronic Signatures and Electronic Records option.
Verification Message When point verification is enabled, a message request for username and password appears whenever you attempt to perform an action specified as requiring point verification.

Example

When you click Update on the Security tab following an attempt to change the status of the Point Verification feature, or when you attempt to perform an action requiring point verification, the dialog box shown in the following figure appears.

Enter your Username, Password, and Domain in the appropriate fields and then click OK to proceed.