Data Collector Operation and Troubleshooting | Historian 9.1 Documentation

Data Collector File Locations

Historian data collector files are installed in the following default directories:

Executables
- OPC, Simulator, File, Calculation, and Server-to-Collectors
```
c:\Program Files\Proficy\Historian\Server
```
- iFIXCollector
```
C:\Program Files (x86)\GE\iFIX
```
LOG files and SHOW files
```
C:\Historian Data\LogFiles (*.log, *.shw)
```
Buffer files and local tag cache
```
C:\Historian Data\BufferFiles (*.msq, *.cfg)
```

Pause or Resume Data Collection for All Tags

Procedure

To pause or resume data collection using Historian Administrator:
1. Open Historian Administrator.
2. Select the Collectors link.
  The Collector Maintenance page appears.
3. From the list of collectors at the left of the page, select the collector you want to pause or resume.
4. Select the appropriate running status from the Collection Status section in the General section.
  No data buffering occurs while collection is paused.
5. Select Update to activate your change.
To pause or resume data collection using the Web Admin console:
1. Go to the Collectors Configuration page.
2. From the list of collectors at the left of the page, select the collector you want to pause or resume.
3. Select Pause or Resume.
  No data buffering occurs while collection is paused.
To pause or resume data collection by accessing the local collector machine:
1. On the Start menu, select Run.
2. Type services.msc and select OK.
  The Services window opens.
3. Select the Historian (collector type) Collector and select Start or Stop.
4. Select Close.
To pause data collection from the Collector icon:
1. Select the Windows Start button, select Historian 6.0 from the Programs menu, and select the appropriate icon for your collector.
  The process should start and an application icon display should appear in minimized form on the lower toolbar.
2. To stop the collector, maximize the icon from the toolbar, type s, and press Enter.

Pause Data Collection for a Subset of Tags

Procedure

To pause data collection for a subset of tags using Historian Administrator:
1. From Historian Administrator Main page, select the Tags link.
  The Tag Maintenance page appears.
2. Select one or more tags in the Tags section.
  The right-hand column displays current parameters.
3. Locate the Collection field in the Collection section.
4. Select the Disabled option.
5. Select Update.
To pause data collection using the Web Admin console:
1. Go to the Tags page from the Configuration page.
2. Select one or more tags in the Tags section.
  The Tag Editor section displays current parameters.
3. Locate the Collection field in the Collection section.
4. Disable the option.
5. Select Update.
  Data collection stops for those tags. To re-activate collection for those tags, select Enabled for the Collection option and select Update.
  Note: If the collector is configured to allow online changes, making configuration changes such as the above may cause bad data samples to be recorded as the collector internally restarts. Disable online configuration changes and restart the collector manually if you want to avoid this behavior.

Modify User Privileges for Starting a Collector

About this task

To start any collector, a user must have Power User privileges at a minimum. Typically, a user from the Administrator group starts a collector. If running as a service, you can use the local system account. If a user is not a Power User or Administrator, for instance, and you still want to allow that user to start a collector, you can override the user permissions setting in the Windows Registry.

The following example shows how to change the user permissions for a collector (the iFIX collector). While these steps outline the procedure for changing the user permissions for the iFIX collector, note that you must perform these steps individually for each collector that you want to allow the user to start.

To change the permissions in the Windows Registry, you must be an Administrator. After you change the permissions, you can exit the Registry Editor, allow the user to log in again, and then allow that user to restart the collector.

Procedure

On the Start menu, select Run.
Type regedt32 and select OK.
The Registry Editor appears.

Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intellution,Inc.\iHistorian\Services\iFixCollector

Right-select the iFIX Collector folder and select Permissions.
The Permissions for iFIXCollector window appears.
Select the Users group in the top portion of the window.
Select the Allow check box from the Full Control permissions, in the bottom portion of the window.
Select Apply.

About Monitoring Data Collector Performance Statistics

You can evaluate data collector performance by observing information displayed or recorded in the following pages or files:

Historian Administrator Main page and Historian Messages page.
For a detailed description of the parameter/option fields and the Alerts and Message Search Windows, refer to Using Historian Administrator manual.
LOG and SHOW files on the data collector local machine.
LOG (.log) files are historical journals of every event affecting operation of the collector. When you troubleshoot a problem in a collector, examining the log files is the best place to begin. The default path for LOG and SHW files is C:\Proficy Historian Data\LogFiles. The highest number is the most recent.
SHOW (.shw) files allow you to examine the current configuration of a data collector. This file also details version and system configuration affecting the specific collector. The default path for LOG and SHW files is C:\Proficy Historian Data\LogFiles.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Historian, then the Archives, LogFiles, and BufferFiles destination paths will remain unchanged.
Historian periodically checks for Archives, Bufferfiles, and Logfiles folder disk space availability. If the available disk space is less than configured, then Historian Data Archiver may shutdown.
Event Viewer on the Historian Server and on the collector local machine.
The Windows Event Viewer logs all system events of interest to an administrator or developer. Each event has an identifying icon, such as Information, Warning, or Error. Select an item to display more detail about the event. Use this information to determine when and why a server fault occurred and when satisfactory operation was restored.
Historian tag using the source address of the Rate Output Address, Status Output Address, or heartbeat Output Address.

Disabling Rebroadcasting for Historian Data Archiver

About this task

The Historian Data Archiver service rebroadcasts collector status reports to all connected clients to ensure they are immediately notified of any changes to their configuration. If you have many collectors (20 or more) pointing to a single Historian archive, you may experience network congestion.

Procedure

Start the Windows Registry Editor.
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intellution, Inc\iHistorian\Services\DataArchiver key
Create a new DWORD called RouteInterfaceStatusMsg and set it to 0 (to enable rebroadcasting, set this value to 1).
Close the Windows Registry Editor.
Restart the Historian Data Archiver service.

Note: If rebroadcasting is disabled in the Historian Data Archiver service, any programs subscribed to collector status changes using Collectors.SubscribeStatus = true will no longer automatically receive collector status messages. To receive collector status messages, periodically read the Collector.Status property instead.

Troubleshooting Tag Configuration

About this task

To troubleshoot the tag configuration:

Procedure

View the Collector SHOW (DataCollector.shw) file in C:\Historian Data\LogFiles\xxxCollector.shw to review the current Data Collector configuration.
View the DataCollector.LOG file in C:\Proficy Historian Data\LogFiles\xxxCollector-01.log to detect operational errors with Tags.
If you are using aggregate data, such as average, minimum, or maximum, use a chart display such as the trend option or the Excel Add-In to sample and then observe how data is stored.
If you are not certain about what is happening, turn off Collector Compression and Archive Compression and observe how raw data values flow into the archive. Be sure to export the tag configuration first so you can return to the original configuration.

Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version of Historian, then the Archives, LogFiles, and BufferFiles destination paths will remain unchanged. By default, C:\Program Files\Proficy\Proficy Historian\Logfiles\.

Reviewing the Active Collector Configuration

About this task

You can view the active collector configuration via the Historian Administration too, and you can also view the local Data collector SHOW (.shw) file.

Procedure

In Historian Administrator Main page, select the Collectors link. The Collector Maintenance page appears.
The Collector Maintenance page appears.
Select a data collector in the left column. The right column fills with current configuration data.
Examine the current configuration settings to verify that they are appropriate.
You can also review the active configuration by examining the local Data Collector SHOW(.SHW) File, as shown below:
Scan the contents of the file and verify that the configuration parameters are correct for the application.
If any of the values are not appropriate:
1. Go back Historian Administrator.
2. Select the Collectors link to display the Collector Maintenance page.
3. Select a collector.
4. Access the various sections and enter new values as appropriate.
5. Select Update.
  The new values are stored in the Data Collector SHW file after 30 seconds.

Collector and Archive Compression

It is possible for collected tags with no compression to appear in Historian as if the collector or archive compression options are enabled. If collector compression occurs, you will notice an increase in the percentage of the Compression value from 0% in the Collectors panel of the System Statistics page in Historian Administrator. When archive compression occurs, you will notice the Archive Compression value and status bar change on the System Statistics page.

Collector Compression

For all collectors, except the File collector, you may observe collector compression occurring for your collected data (even though it is not enabled) if bad quality data samples appear in succession. When a succession of bad data quality samples appears, Historian collects only the first sample in the series. No new samples are collected until the data quality changes. Historian does not collect the redundant bad data quality samples, and this is reflected in the Collector Compression percentage statistic.

For a Calculation or Server-to-Server Collector, you may possibly observe collector compression (even though it is not enabled) when calculations fail, producing no results or bad quality data.

Archive Compression

If the Archive Compression value on the System Statistics page indicates that archive compression is occurring, and you did not enable archive compression for the tags, the reason could be because of internal statistics tags with archive compression enabled.

Data Buffering

During normal operation, the Data Collector sends data and messages to the Historian Server using TCP/IP.The Server responds when it has successfully received the data.

Normal variations in response from the server can leave a small number of messages buffered in memory.When the collector loses its connection, or whenever the server cannot keep up with throughput, the data collector establishes a buffer. During such periods, the data collector continues to write data, caching it in the local file and memory buffer instead of writing it to the server. When the collector reestablishes the connection to the server, it forwards the stored data to the server, clearing the buffer as the server successfully receives the data.

If a collector writing to an archive loses its connection and the disk buffer becomes full, real-time collection does not begin immediately upon the re-established connection to the server. No data is collected from the time that the connection to the archive is re-established until approximately the time it takes for the buffer on the collector to clear.

Note: The Data Buffering feature does not apply to File collectors. The File collector does not process incoming files when the connection to the server is down. When the connection is re-established, processing of incoming files resumes.

If there is not enough free space for a collector to create its buffer files on initial startup, the collector shuts down immediately and sends the following message to the Event Viewer:

"[datetime] MessageAdd -MDW_iFIX collector Buffering could not create buffer files. Shutting down."

If there is not enough free space for the collector to create its buffer files on startup, the collector shuts down and sends a message to the Event Viewer. The simplest way to prevent this from happening is to free up disk space to allow the collector to start. If this is not possible, you can edit the Registry to change the buffer size.

Editing the Registry to Change the Buffer Size

Procedure

Select Run from the Start menu.
The Run window appears.
Type Regedit and press Enter.
The Registry Editor appears.
Locate the ComputerName_OPC1 key, where ComputerName is the name of your computer. You can find this key here:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intellution,Inc.\Historian\Services\OPCCollector\ComputerName_OPC1
```
Add a new DWORD value. Enter the name MinimumDiskFreeBufferSize, select the decimal option, and set the value to a small number such as 10 or 20. The value that you enter represents the number of MB of buffer space needed.
Start the collector.
If the Collector does not connect to the Historian Server, check the log file in the logfiles folder on the collector computer. If the log states that Historian "could not create buffer files" then repeat steps 1-5, this time using a smaller number.
Once the Collector connects to the Historian Server, the collector should appear in the Admin UI and you can readjust the buffer file size on the bottom of the collector???s General section.

Setting Up Services Recovery Actions in Windows

About this task

Windows allows you to set up recovery actions to take place if a service fails. If you are running Historian Collectors on Windows, set recovery actions to restart the service for your individual collectors.

To set recovery actions for a specific service:

Procedure

Open the Control Panel.
Double-click the Administrative Tools icon.
Double-click the Services icon in the Administrative Tools window.
The Services window appears.
Right-select the Service you want to set recovery options for.
Select Properties.
The Service Properties window appears.
Select Recovery.
Select the recovery actions you want in the First attempt failure, Second attempt failure and Subsequent attempts failure fields.
For more information on setting Services Recovery Actions, refer to the Microsoft Management Console online Help.