Overview

About APM Connect

The APM Connect system provides the means to load data from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) into GE Digital APM.

The system uses data loaders and adapters to establish a data flow between GE Digital APM and EAM systems, Field Service Management systems, and other assets. The APM Connect context file defines the communication path between the IIOT and GE Digital APM.

System Architecture for EAM Adapters

Single Server Configuration (Recommended)

The single server configuration is the simplest way to configure APM Connect. However, it does include an embedded database. The following image depicts this configuration.
Note: Only one EAM system is supported for each APM tenant or database.

External Database Configuration

Many organizations choose to separate their databases. It is possible to install the intermediate repository database on an external server, and to keep the APM Connect System database on a different server. The following image depicts this configuration.

Note: The external configuration will affect performance. The single server configuration results in faster performance.

About Time Zone Data

GE Digital APM stores the date and time of transaction in the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) format. This enables the data to flow through the system in a single time zone format.

To provide information with the timestamp relevant to your operations, the system converts UTC to your time zone by using the time zone information configured in your user definition.

Important: If you change the time zone information configured in your user definition, all the records will reflect the new time zone.

The following sections contain the time zone considerations relevant to specific systems.

Maximo

GE Digital APM stores the timestamp associated with the data extracted from Maximo in UTC and displays the timestamp based on your configured time zone.

SAP

SAP provides a set of baseline time zone codes, which contain most of the standard time zones across the world. SAP also provides the ability for administrators to define their own custom time zone, as needed. Before you use a customized time zone, you must configure the timezone_control table in APM Connect to reflect the customized time zone.

SAP defines two types of time zones:

  • System: This time zone is based on SAP Application Server Operating System and is derived from the context file. You cannot modify this type of time zone.
  • User: This time zone is based on the user who created the SAP record. You can modify and store this type of time zone in the SAP user interface.

GE Digital APM stores the timestamp associated with the data extracted from SAP in UTC and displays the timestamp based on the time zone configured for the user who created the SAP record.

Note: If the data extracted from SAP contains only the date, then GE Digital APM will assign the time 00:00:00 and the SAP system or user time zone to the data. This may lead to date mismatch when you choose to display the data in GE Digital APM. To prevent this, GE Digital APM stores the reference timestamp as a string within the data, which is hidden, by default. If you need this information, you can configure GE Digital APM to display the data.

Access the APM Connect Page

Procedure

In the module navigation menu, select Admin > Operations Manager > Connections., and then select APM Connect.
The APM Connect workspace appears.