Configure Tags

To display the Tag Maintenance screen, click the Tags link in any of the Historian Administrator screens. The Tag Maintenance screen lets you read and modify all tag parameters for the Historian system.

To access information on a specific tag or group of tags, however, you must first search for the tags. You can search for the tags in the Historian Tag Database by clicking the Search Historian Tag Database link. You can also add tags manually or automatically from the collector by clicking the appropriate link in the second line of the display.

Note: There is no limit to length of Historian tag names in the Data Archiver. However, different client applications may have their own limits.

If you add a tag with a tag name greater than 25 characters in length, the characters beyond 25 are not visible in the Tags list on the Historian Administrator Tag Maintenance screen. To see the entire tag name, place the mouse cursor over the tag to see a ToolTip that displays the full tag name.

Dynamic Collector Updates

The dynamic collector update feature ensures that any modifications done to the tag configuration do not affect all the tags in a collector. Only the tags that stop data collection will record zero data and bad quality without restarting the collector. In other words, the tags that do not stop data collection do not record bad data samples to the collection.

Whenever you add tags, delete tags, or modify certain tag properties, the following collectors reload only the modified tag(s) without restarting the collectors.

  • OPC Collector
  • OPCUA Collector (Linux)
  • OPCUA Data Collector
  • iFIX Collector
  • Calculation Collector
  • Simulation Collector
  • Server to Server Collector
  • PI Collector
  • PI Distributor
  • Wonderware Data Collector
  • ODBC Data Collector

By default, the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option is enabled. When this option is enabled, tags can stop and restart collection without restarting the collector. If you disable the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option, any changes you make to the tags do not affect collection until after you restart the collector. To disable or enable the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option, open the Advanced tab of the Collector Maintenance screen. To restart the collector, stop and start the collector service or executable.

Note: Restarting the collector stops and restarts the tag(s) collection and may record bad data samples to the collection.

All the collector configuration changes done within a 30 second time frame are batched up together and applied to the collector. If the modified tags get zero bad markers and available runtime values at the same time, then precedence is given to available runtime values instead of zero bad markers.

Note: To begin collecting modified data faster, update/modify a small set of tags at a time. If you are updating large sets of tags at the same time, disable the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option before you start and restart the collector after you are done to minimize the amount of bad data collected.