Migrating iFIX Alarms and Events Collector

Migrating iFIX Alarms and Events collector

About this task

The following procedure describes how to migrate iFIX Alarms and Events collector data into your Historian database.

Procedure

Locate and double-click the ifixalmmig.exe file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\GE\iFIX\Local directory.
Set up the alarm source options:
1. From the Options menu, choose Alarm Source. The Alarm Source Options window appears.
2. Configure the ODBC Login information.
3. Enter the table name for the database, and select on Fetch Columns.
  The table's associated columns appear in the SQL Column Name and iFIX Field Name table. For more information, refer to the Database Configuration .
4. Configure Severity Mapping.
Select OK.
Set up the Alarm Destination options:
1. From the Options menu, choose Alarm Destination. The Alarm Destination Options window appears.
2. Configure the Historian Server Options.
3. Configure the Logfile.
4. Configure the Time Options.
Select OK.
From the File menu, choose Migrate Alarms.
Select a start and end time for the alarm migration.

Note: If the ODBC driver does not support the CAST function, It is recommended that you create the DATETIME data type filed in your Alarm ODBC table and update the field by combining The ALM_DATELAST and the ALM_TIMELAST using a concatenation and cast or convert function. If the data source does not include a native time, the start and end times will be disabled, and the entire table will be queried. This may result in an "out of resources" state.
See your Alarm ODBC backend Data Base documentation for more information.
Select OK. The window closes, and migration commences.
Activity is logged to both the page and the log file configured in the Alarm Destination Options window.
Update the datasource name of your migrated alarms to match collected alarms.

iFIX Alarms and Events collector Migration Options Configuration

Configuration of the iFIX Alarms and Events collector Migration tool is contained in two windows. The Alarm Source Options window contains configuration for the iFIX system you wish to migrate alarms and events data from. The Alarm Destination Options window contains configuration for the Historian archive you wish to migrate alarms and events data to.

In general, configuration of the alarm migration options should match the configuration of your iFIX Alarms and Events collector server. By doing this, your migrated and collected alarms are stored in the same format, easing the development of alarm analysis and reporting applications.

Alarm Source Options

The Alarm Source Options window is split into four sections:

ODBC Login Information
Attribute Names
Severity Mapping
Database Configuration

ODBC Login Information

The following configuration fields are shown in the ODBC Login Information section of the Alarm Source Options window. In general, the settings in this section should match the settings used in your iFIX Alarm ODBC Configuration in the iFIX SCU.


Option	Description
Database Type	The type of database your iFIX alarms are stored in. The following options are available: Access Oracle SQL Server Sybase Note: If you are unsure of which database your iFIX alarms are stored in, contact your systems administrator
User Name	The user name required to authenticate with your database.
Password	The password required to authenticate with your database.
Database Identifier	The name of the database your iFIX alarms are stored in. Select the Browse button to bring up the Database IDs Available window. Note: If you are migrating on a machine other than the machine running Alarm ODBC, you may have to configure a DSN in the control panel before entering it in the Database Identifier.

Attribute Names

Use this section only if you have logged alarm user and/or extension fields AND you want to control the name of the fields created in Historian. If you have changed the default names in the iFIX Real Time Alarms and Events Server, edit the configuration in this section to match.

Option	Description
iFIX Field Name	The iFIX Field name of the alarm.
Attribute Name	The mapped attribute name of the alarm.

Severity Mapping

If you have changed the default severity settings in the real-time AE Server, edit the configuration in this section to match.

Option	Description
Low	The severity to assign to low priority alarms.
Medium	The severity to assign to medium priority alarms.
High	The severity to assign to high priority alarms.

Database Configuration

If you have set up custom column names in the iFIX Alarm ODBC configuration, you may need to map the SQL Column Names to iFIX Field Names. If you have kept the default column names in the iFIX Alarm ODBC configuration, you should not have to make any changes in this section.

Option	Description
Table Name	Enter the name of the database table in which iFIX Alarms and Events collector data is stored.
Fetch Columns	Selecting this button will fetch all columns from the table.
SQL Column Name	Identifies the name of the column within the database table.
iFIX Field Name	Identifies which iFIX Field name the SQL Column name maps to.
Clear Column Settings	Select to clear all column settings.
Save Column Settings	Select to save all column settings in the window.

SQL columns and their iFIX meanings are automatically matched up when the columns are fetched. You only need to configure iFIX meanings if you have used a non-default column name. If you want to exclude columns from migration to save space in Historian, set the iFIX meaning to blank. For example, if you logged both Native Time Last and Time Last in Alarm ODBC, you only need to migrate the Native Time Last field. Set the iFIX meaning of Time Last to blank.

If you use the Save Column Settings option, iFIX meanings are saved to C:\Program Files (x86)\GE\iFIX\local\ifixalmmig.ini. When working with a different database table, you can erase the iFIX meanings by deleting the ifix-almmig.ini file or selecting the Clear Column Settings button.

Note: The Alarms and Events database version must match the SQL Server version that it is running on.

Alarm Destination Options

The Alarm Destination Options window has three sections:

Historian Server Options
Logfile Options
Time Options

Historian Server Options

Option	Description
Historian Server	The server name of the Historian server you wish to migrate the iFIX Alarms and Events collector data to.
Historian Username	The username required to authenticate with the Historian server.
Historian Password	The password required to authenticate with the Historian server.

Logfile Options

Option	Description
Logfile Location	Modify the location of the iFIXAlmMigration.Log file.
Overwrite Logfile	Set whether or not the log file gets overwritten with each migration. By default, there is one log file (iFIXAlmMigration.Log) that is appended each time you migrate alarms. Clearing this option causes the iFIX Alarm Migration Utility to overwrite the log file each time you migrate alarms.

Time Options

Option	Description
Treat as DST timestamp	If enabled, the migration utility will treat all timestamps as if they are Daylight Savings Time. Refer to Manage Daylight Savings Time for more information.

Troubleshoot iFIX Alarms and Events collector

Wrong Data Source Name on Migrated alarms

The data source of an alarm starts as the interface name of the alarms and events collector that sent it. If the alarms and events collector is not associated with a data collector, then the data source is converted to match the data collector's interface name. When migrating alarms, however, the original data source name will be retained. This can cause a disconnect between migrated data and newly collected data, and cause problems when analyzing alarms and events data.

To resolve this issue:

Select the File menu, then select Update Alarms.
In the Old Datasource field, enter the original data source name.
In the New Datasource field, enter the new data source name.
Select OK.

Datetime Column Not Found

iFIX prior to v2.6 did not have a datetime column.

No Columns Returned

If no columns are returned after entering a table name and selecting Fetch Columns, you may have incorrectly entered the Alarm ODBC table name. Re-enter the Alarm ODBC table name and select Fetch Columns.