Using the Web Admin to Add a New Tag Manually

About this task

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
  • iFIX Collector
  • Calculation Collector
  • Simulation Collector
  • Server to Server Collector
  • PI Collector
  • PI Distributor

For a tag to stop and restart the collection without restarting the collector, you must enable the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option on the Advanced tab of the Collector Maintenance screen. By default, the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option is enabled.

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 restart the collector, you must stop and start the collector service or executable. Restarting the collector stops and restarts the tag(s) collection and records bad data samples to the collection.

All the collector configuration changes done within a 30 second time frame are batched up to let you update/modify a small set of tags at a time to collect the modified data faster.

Note: It is recommended that you disable the On-line Tag Configuration Changes option while updating large sets of tags at the same time, and restart the collector after modification.

Follow these steps to add a new tag manually from the Web Administrator:

Procedure

  1. Click the link in the Tag Details screen and select Add Tags Manually.
    The Add Tag dialog box appears.
  2. Select a collector from the drop-down list in the Collector Name field.
    This associates the new tag with a specific collector.
  3. Enter the Source Address and Tag Name in the appropriate fields.
  4. Select the data store in the Data Store field.
  5. Select a Data Type from the drop-down list.
  6. For fixed string data types only, enter a value in the field adjacent to the Data Type field.
  7. Select Seconds, Milliseconds, or Microseconds in the Time Resolution field.
  8. Select the Is Array Tag option, if the tag is an Array Tag.
  9. Click Add to add the tag.
    Important: If you manually add a Server-to-Server tag, ensure that on the Tag Maintenance screen Advanced tab, you set the Time Adjustment field to Adjust for Source Time Difference , after you add the tag. Note that, this field only applies to Server-to-Server tags that use a polled collection type.