Canary System and Capabilities Whitepaper
January 2019
Overview
Companies need to store and analyze process
data so they can operate more effectively, but
they continually encounter the same three
problems.
• They produce too much data to manage
• The necessary software is restrictively
expensive
• Analytic tools are overly complicated
These three roadblocks keep companies from
moving forward and leave both engineers and
executives frustrated. Canary helps companies
defeat these problems. Their software is
affordable, provides an easy way to store large
amounts of process data, and provides
simplified analytic tools that deliver powerful
results.
Canary Terminology
Canary System
The three main components of the Canary
System are Data Collection, Data Storage, and
Data Analytics
Sender
A service that collects, compresses, and
encrypts data locally before sending it to the
Canary Receiver.
Receiver
A service that moves the data received from the
Sender to the Historian for permanent storage.
Receiver can communicate with multiple
Senders and allows for logging redundancy.
Store and Forward
The ability of the Sender to buffer data locally
when the Receiver or Historian is unavailable,
preventing data loss.
DataSets
A group of logically associated tags stored
within the Canary Historian.
Tag
A single stream of time-series data, also referred
to as points, channels, or items.
Historical Database (HDB) File
Within each DataSet, the Historian writes tag
properties and TVQs to an HDB file. HDB files
are segmented by a time-period, typically daily.
TVQ
For each tag value change, Canary records a
Timestamp, a Value, and Quality. Other
historical databases and SCADA platforms may
refer to these as VTQs, VQTs, or Value-
Timestamp Pairs.
Data Collection
Canary collects data local to the source using
industry standard formats like OPC UA/DA,
MQTT, LoRa, SQL, CSV, or through manual data
entry. Canary also can collect data directly from
SCADA systems or via a .NET or Web API.
Canary Collectors are used to create logging
sessions. Each logging session is configured
based on the data source and allows for tag
naming, dead-banding, data transformation, and
additional configuration.
Once data logging is configured, Canary’s
Sender Service encrypts, compresses, and
caches the data locally. Sender will then push
the data packet across the network to the
storage portion of the Canary system. You can
use multiple logging configurations and Sender
instances across your company without
worrying about rising costs because both are
unlicensed. In addition, each Sender can push
data to additional Canary storage systems
creating redundancy and fast disaster-recovery.
To move data for long-term storage Canary uses
a Store and Forward Service comprised of the
Sender and Canary’s Receiver Service. The
Receiver Service accepts data from multiple
Senders and moves that data into the Canary
 Canary System and Capabilities Whitepaper
Historian database. If Sender and Receiver
loose contact, or if Historian is offline, Sender
will buffer all data locally. Once the Historian’s
availability returns, all buffered data backfills
automatically without any data loss.
Data Storage
Canary has designed its solution to eliminate the
need of a database administrator to manage the
Historian. Once the system has been originally
configured, it needs no ongoing database
management. To help achieve this, Canary uses
a simple but elegant method to segment the
data in two ways. First is the creation of
DataSets, or a group of tags with logically
associated data. Second is the Historical
Database (HDB) file, segmented by a time
period. These two organizational structures
allow for database expansion without effecting
performance or requiring any management of
size or duration.
Generally, a new HDB file is created daily. Once
closed, each HDB goes through loss-less
compression to minimize Historian’s storage
requirements. Canary stores data using lossless
data compression to ensure data written to the
Historian is identical to the data later read from
it. Canary algorithms achieve a data
compression rate beyond sixty percent.
Each HDB file contains tag names, tag
properties, and TVQ units comprised of a
timestamp, a value, and a quality score. Values
can include Booleans, Integers, Floats, Doubles,
or Strings. Canary writes all three TVQ
components together ensuring the value is
always paired with the correct timestamp and
quality. Other databases may store the quality
as a separate tag. Canary stores quality with
both the timestamp and value to ensure it is
never lost or out-of-sync. As an added benefit,
additional tag licensing for quality scores are
avoided.
January 2019
The data storage structures of the Canary
Historian are designed to maximize read speeds
rather than write speeds. Reads are prioritized
because data is only written once but read many
times. To provision read performance beyond
4,000,000 updates per second, HDB files are
organized so TVQs are physically stored with
their associated tag, rather than the traditional
method of storing TVQs in a time block. As a
result, queries made to the Historian on a tag-by-
tag basis are optimized for both high tag count
and high-speed performance. A single historian
can be scaled to store values for two million
individual tags. The Historian performs
continuous write speeds at 2,500,000 updates
per second and achieves updates rates as fast
as ten milliseconds.
To read data from the Historian, Canary uses the
Views Service. Views connects to the Historian
and allows for client interaction via Windows
Communication Foundation (WCF). Access to
the Historian, DataSets, or even individual tags
can be limited with Views security parameters.
Using Windows Active Directory, individuals or
user groups can have inherited or explicit
permissions for data access.
Canary’s Mirror Service will connect through
Views and allow for the mirroring of the
Historian’s DataSets from one Historian to
another. This allows for fast data duplication
from local level-one Historians to a corporate or
level-two Historian. The Historian can be
installed on either a physical machine or a virtual
machine and can be hosted in a cloud
environment with multi-tenant capability.
Since every Canary Historian can scale to two
million tags and handle a variety of data speeds,
system requirements can vary. Factors like
scan class, change rate, data type, client activity
and additional variables can affect system
resources. Below are hardware
recommendations for a typical enterprise
solution consisting of multiple sites each
logging data via OPC and Mirroring data to a
corporate Canary Historian. If faster update
rates are required, increasing storage capacity is
recommended.
 Canary System and Capabilities Whitepaper
January 2019

Collector and Sender Machine
• Dual Core 2.0 GHz Processor
• 8 GB of RAM
• Windows 7 64 bit or greater
• .NET 4.5 or greater
• 500 GB HDD @7200 RPM
In total, the below chart of ten thousand tags
would require 0.962 gigabytes of disk storage
per day and consume three hundred and fifty
gigabytes annually. A two-terabyte drive would
then store approximately five years and eight
months of historical data.

Site Historian (10,000 updates/sec) Tag Scan Change Disk

Type
Count Class Rate Space
• Quad Core 2.4 GHz Processor
0.002
• 16 GB of RAM 3000 Boolean 15000ms 5%
GB/day
• Windows 7 64 bit or greater 0.04
3000 Integer 5000ms 20%
• .NET 4.5 or greater GB/day
0.68
• 2 TB HDD @7200 RPM 3500 Float 1000ms 40%
GB/day
0.24
500 Double 1000ms 60%
Corporate Historian (50,000 updates/sec) GB/day
• Six Core 2.4 GHz Processor
• 32 GB of RAM Most industries have much slower data polling
• Windows Server 2012 or greater and even lower change rates. As an example,
• .NET 4.5 or greater Canary has found upstream oil and gas
operation to use far less storage. Based on real
• 10 TB HDD @7200 RPM
data from one million well production tags,
Canary’s compression brings total system
Storage requirements can greatly vary. Since storage to an average of seven gigabytes per
Canary Historian writes changes based on day, or roughly two terabytes annually.
exception, a tag’s change rate affects storage.
Equally important are the data types being
recorded. A Boolean has a significantly lighter
payload than a double with fifteen decimal Data Analytics
precision. For instance, compare a Boolean
Canary features four analytic tools, Asset Model,
value which rarely changes and is a single byte
Events, Axiom, and Excel Add-in. Each of these
to an eight-byte Float that is more likely to
change. The result is nearly fifty times more are included with a Historian installation at no
data. additional charge. Axiom and Excel Add-in are
licensed for a single concurrent user; additional
Tag Scan Change Disk licenses can be purchased as needed.
Type
Count Class Rate Space
0.01
Most organizations want to analyze their data by
1000 Boolean 1000ms 5% asset type. Canary makes it easy to do this
GB/day
0.48 using their Asset Model. By creating templates,
1000 Double 1000ms 60%
GB/day tags are grouped into assets, and can then be
browsed by their asset structure. Multiple asset
Finally, the number of years a company desires models can be created, and assets can function
to store data will adjust requirements. as subsets of other assets. An additional
Therefore, when estimating data storage benefit of Asset Model is the automatic
requirements, it is important to assume discovery of new tags and assets as they come
significant variations in the types of data, the online. Several Canary Collectors can
scan classes of that data, and the change rate.
automatically recognize and add more tags to
Based on real-world examples, Canary believes
Historian on a scheduled basis. As these new
the below configuration of ten thousand tags
provides a high estimate of storage tags are discovered, the Asset Model
requirements. automatically groups them into assets based on
 Canary System and Capabilities Whitepaper
template rules. For large enterprise systems
this greatly reduces the amount of manual work
typically required to manage assets.
Once identified, assets can be monitored using
Canary’s Events tool. Designed to find and store
unique operational events and related data, the
Events Service monitors critical processes as
they occur. Events can be used to track startups
and shutdowns, phases, batches, operator
shifts, down-times, and processes that go
beyond acceptable limits. Information captured
is specific to the duration of the event and
provides calculated metrics and key
performance indicators throughout the event’s
duration. All Canary Events are logged in an SQL
database and can be accessed by Canary
analytic tools as well as third-party applications.
Engineers, operators, and executives use Axiom
to visualize events, assets, and tag values.
Since it’s built using HTML, Axiom works from
smartphones, touch screens, laptops, or any
modern web browser. Axiom is easy to
understand and requires less than thirty minutes
of training for most users. Axiom offers many
different visualization tools including feature
rich trend charts and HMI dashboards.
Using the trending tool, users can individually
build their own trend charts, displaying many
tags on a single screen. Once added, tags can
be banded together, have scaling adjusted, and
display high and low limit alerts. A list of OPC
aggregates can be applied to each tag, allowing
for aggregated properties to be displayed based
on time interval. All chart data can be exported
directly from the trend charts to CSV.
Additionally, users can create calculated tags
displaying values in real time or historically.
Charts can be saved centrally to the Canary
server in public or private folders.
Trend charts are just one of the many dashboard
elements that Axiom offers. Full multi-screen
HMIs can be created using the built-in drag-and-
drop editor. Other elements include tables,
gauges, symbol graphics, iframes, panels, and
more. And since every item can be scripted
January 2019
using C#, advanced workflows and interactions
can be created. Additionally, Canary’s Asset
Model is fully incorporated into Axiom
dashboards and trend charts allowing for asset
comparison and monitoring.
To streamline workflow, Canary offers the Excel
Add-in. Access data directly from the Historian
with software everyone already uses. Import
lists of tag names, last data values, raw values,
or choose to aggregate data based on time
interval. Access Canary Events, or, run on-the-fly
asset analysis. No matter what data is needed
from Historian, it’s made available within
Microsoft Excel.
For additional data connectivity to the Canary
Historian choose from Canary’s .Net or Web API,
HDA Server, or ODBC connector. The HDA Server
is included with every Historian installation,
however the Web API and ODBC connector are
licensed separately.
Testing and Best Practices
The goal was to test the raw writing speed of the
Historian using the Canary Web API Collector via
the Sender and Receiver Services.
Specifications:
• 1,000,000 tags
• 1,000,000 TVQs per second
• Data rate must be sustainable as a
continuous operation, not as a
“burst”
• Timestamps updating at 100
nanosecond intervals
• Value type - R4 (4-byte floating
point)
• Individual TVQ Totaling 16 bytes
o Timestamp - 8 bytes
o Value - 4 bytes
o Quality - 2 bytes
o Datatype - 2 bytes
 Canary System and Capabilities Whitepaper
Test Number One:
Amazon Machine - r4.2xlarge
• Cores: 8
• Memory: 64GB
• EBS: GP2 SSD drives
Outcome:
• 1,000,000 tags each changed once per
second totaling 1,000,000 TVQs per
second
• CPU utilization – 62%
• Physical Memory utilization – 25%
• Disk I/O utilization – 42% (105 MB per
second of 250 GB)
• Raw data input stream – 57.6 GB per
hour
• Disk storage – 20 GB per hour
Test Number Two
Amazon Machine – c5.18xlarge
• Cores: 72
• Memory: 144GB
• EBS: GP2 SSD drives
Outcome:
• 1,000,000 tags each changed once per
second totaling 1,000,000 TVQs per
second
• CPU utilization – 11%
• Physical Memory utilization – 5%
• Disk I/O utilization – 42% (105 MB per
second of 250 GB)
• Raw data input stream – 57.6 GB per
hour
• Disk storage – 20 GB per hour
Comments:
Both machines successfully updated on a
continuous basis with 1,000,000 TVQs per
second without data loss. By increasing server
resources, cores and memory, the Canary
Historian is able to take advantage of the
additional resources to deliver better overall
performance.
January 2019
Additional testing was completed to benchmark
the Historian’s writing limits. This was tested by
continuously pushing TVQs directly into the
Historian as fast as possible without the use of
the Sender or Receiver Services. Although this
method would not be used in a typical
installation, Canary wished to document the
Historian’s limitations.
On Amazon test machine c5.18xlarge, the
Historian peaked at 18+M TVQs per second and
sustained more than 12M TVQs per second
throughout testing while maintaining CPU usage
at 29%.
Ultimately, the test concluded due to Amazon’s
limit of data transfer between the processing
unit and disk storage constraints. Assuming
faster drive access was made available, the rate
of TVQs per second could greatly increase as
less than one-third of the machine’s processing
capabilities were being used.
This last test provides value in understanding as
sensor counts grow, enterprises expand, and
network speeds increase, the Historian in its
current structure can handle additional scaling.
Conclusion
The Canary System is designed to help
companies find an affordable solution and
simplify their data collection, storage, and
analytics without requiring ongoing database
management. In the past 30 years, Canary has
guided professionals in 52 countries with 18,000
installations of its product.
Canary believes their disruptive pricing model,
ability to scale, and simplistic design approach
will continue to make it a top choice for time-
series databases. Attached is the Canary
pricing model, also available at
www.canarylabs.com/pricing
 2019 Products and Price List

Perpetual Licensing
Part Number Description Price Price Type Term
A Canary Historian licensed for up to 100 tags and a single concurrent license for Axiom and the
EH100-P $4,000.00 One-time -
Canary Excel Add-in (perpetual)
A Chirp! Historian licensed for 1,000 Ignition tags including unlimited Axiom clients for Ignition by
CH1000-P $4,000.00 One-time -
Inductive Automation. (perpetual)

EHTAG-P A single Canary Historian tag (perpetual) $1.50 One-time -

CHTAG-P A single Chirp! Historian tag (perpetual) $1.00 One-time -

A Canary Historian with an unrestricted tag count and a single concurrent license for Axiom and the
EHUNLIM-P $89,850.00 One-time -
Canary Excel Add-in (perpetual)
A Chirp! Historian with an unrestricted Ignition tag count including unlimited Axiom clients for Ignition
CHUNLIM-P $49,000.00 One-time -
by Inductive Automation (perpetual)

AXIOM-P An Axiom client licensed for a single concurrent user (perpetual) $995.00 One-time -

TL-P A Trend Link client licensed for a single user (perpetual) $995.00 One-time -

EXCEL-P The Canary Excel Add-in licensed for a single concurrent user (perpetual) $395.00 One-time -

TE-P A Trend Export concurrent user license (perpetual) $2,995.00 One-time -

ODBC-P An ODBC Connector for the Canary Historian (perpetual) $2,995.00 One-time -

VIEWSDK-P SDK for developing connections to read and write data to the Historian Views Service (perpetual) $2,995.00 One-time -

Subscription Licensing
Part Number Description Price Price Type Term
A Canary Historian licensed for 100 tags and a single concurrent license for Axiom and the Canary Excel
EH100-S $135.00 Recurring Monthly
Add-in (subscription)
A Chirp! Historian licensed for 1,000 Ignition tags including unlimited Axiom clients for Ignition by
CH1000-S $135.00 Recurring Monthly
Inductive Automation (subscription)

EHTAG-S A single Canary Historian tag (subscription) $0.05 Recurring Monthly

CHTAG-S A single Chirp! Historian tag (subscription) $0.033 Recurring Monthly

A Canary Historian with an unrestricted tag count and a single concurrent license for Axiom and the
EHUNLIM-S $2,995.00 Recurring Monthly
Canary Excel Add-in (subscription)
A Chirp! Historian with an unrestricted Ignition tag count including unlimited Axiom clients for Ignition
CHUNLIM-S $1,635.00 Recurring Monthly
by Inductive Automation (subscription)

AXIOM-S An Axiom client licensed for a single concurrent user (subscription) $35.00 Recurring Monthly

TL-S A Trend Link client licensed for a single user (subscription) $35.00 Recurring Monthly

EXCEL-S The Canary Excel Add-in licensed for a single concurrent user (subscription) $15.00 Recurring Monthly

TE-S A Trend Export concurrent user license (subscription) $100.00 Recurring Monthly

ODBC-S An ODBC Connector for the Canary Historian (subscription) $100.00 Recurring Monthly

VIEWSDK-S SDK for developing connections to read and write data to the Historian Views Service (subscription) $100.00 Recurring Monthly

Services
Part Number Description Price Price Type Term

ENGSERV Daily 8 hour rate for remote engineering services or onsite services including travel time $1,895.00 One-time -

PROSERV Daily 8 hour rate for remote professional services or onsite services including travel time $1,495.00 One-time -

TRAVEL Travel and accommodations billed at estimated cost Custom Quote One-time -

CustomerCare includes technical support, software maintenance, remote training, and version 15% of licensed product
CUSTCARE One-time -
upgrades for all licensed Canary products retail
Canary Cloud - United States Server
Part Number Description Price Price Type Term
500 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC500-US $460.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
1000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC1000-US $585.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
2500 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC2500-US $760.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
5000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC5000-US $985.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
10000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC10000-US $1,335.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
15000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC15000-US $1,685.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
20000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC20000-US $2,035.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
30000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC30000-US $2,635.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
40000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC40000-US $3,235.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
50000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC50000-US $3,835.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom

CCAXIOM-US Additional Axiom client licensed for a single concurrent user for the Canary Cloud $20.00 Recurring Monthly

CCEXCEL-US The Canary Excel Add-in licensed for a single concurrent user $15.00 Recurring Monthly

CC8YR-US Data becomes available in the Canary Cloud for 8 years rather than 3 years $50.00 Recurring Monthly

CC1SEC-US Data change rate in the Canary Cloud adjusted from 30 seconds to as fast as 1 second $100.00 Recurring Monthly

CCHS-US Data change rate in the Canary Cloud adjusted from 30 seconds to as fast as 100 milisecond $175.00 Recurring Monthly

CCAVAIL-US Data availability upgraded to 99.999% Custom Quote Recurring Monthly

CCSETUP-US Initial Canary Cloud setup and configuration $1,495.00 One-time -

Canary Cloud - International Server

Part Number Description Price Price Type Term
500 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC500-WW $1,015.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
1000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC1000-WW $1,045.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
2500 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC2500-WW $1,135.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
5000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC5000-WW $1,285.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
10000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC10000-WW $1,585.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
15000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC15000-WW $2,005.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
20000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC20000-WW $2,425.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
30000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC30000-WW $3,145.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
40000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC40000-WW $3,865.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom
50000 tags stored in the Canary Cloud for 3 years with up to a 30 second change rate and 99.9% data
CC50000-WW $4,585.00 Recurring Monthly
availability, includes a single concurrent license for Axiom

CCAXIOM-WW Additional Axiom client licensed for a single concurrent user for the Canary Cloud $20.00 Recurring Monthly

CCEXCEL-WW The Canary Excel Add-in licensed for a single concurrent user $15.00 Recurring Monthly

CC8YR-WW Data becomes available in the Canary Cloud for 8 years rather than 3 years $50.00 Recurring Monthly

CC1SEC-WW Data change rate in the Canary Cloud adjusted from 30 seconds to as fast as 1 second $100.00 Recurring Monthly

CCHS-WW Data change rate in the Canary Cloud adjusted from 30 seconds to as fast as 100 milisecond $175.00 Recurring Monthly

CCAVAIL-WW Data availability upgraded to 99.999% Custom Quote Recurring Monthly

CCSETUP-WW Initial Canary Cloud setup and configuration $1,995.00 One-time -