Section 1 – Software, Hardware and Network Considerations 2-5

Level 3 Server
A Level 3 server can handle a load of up to 130,000 tags. For example, 70,000 analogs, 50,000
discretes, 9,000 strings, and 1000 non-I/O Server (manual) tags. The minimum requirements are:
z P4 2.7 GHz Xeon Quad
z 8 GB RAM
z 1 GB network interface card (NIC)
z Any of the following operating systems:
z Windows 2000 Server SP4
z Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4
z Windows 2003 Standard Edition
z Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
z Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition software, SP3a or late
z 270 MB of free disk space to install the Historian
ArchestrA System Management Console Requirements
If you will be installing the Historian configuration tools (ArchestrA System Management Console)
on a remote computer, the following requirements apply:
z Any of the following operating systems:
z Windows XP Professional SP2
z Windows 2000 Professional SP4
z Windows 2000 Server SP4
z Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4
z Windows 2003 Standard Edition
z Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
z Microsoft Management Console 2.0 or later
z Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
z 20 MB of free disk space install the Historian
z MDAC 2.7

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General Hardware Recommendations for Data Storage

The following are general recommendations for the hardware used for storage:
z SCSI drives configured using hardware RAID is optimum. The disk space required is a
function of data rate and the desired history duration.
z The Historian was designed to run on a computer configured with NTFS, and NTFS is the
only officially supported file system for a production environment. Although the Historian
will run if you are using the FAT file system, data corruption may occur if the system
crashes while files are still open.
z You should enable file compression for the historical data storage locations: Circular,
Alternate, Buffer, and Permanent. File compression for the default directories is
automatically set during the installation process.
File compression is only available for the NTFS file system.

Planning for Disk Space Requirements

There are four factors to consider when estimating the amount of disk space required to run the
Historian:
z Disk space required to install the required software components and files needed to run
the Historian system.
z Disk space required to store the Historian database files.
z Disk space required to store the Historian historical data files.
z If a remote IDAS is used, the disk space required on the local IDAS computer to store
cached data if the network connection to the Historian fails.

Disk Requirements for Database Files

The Historian installation program adds two databases to the Microsoft SQL Server: Runtime and
Holding.
z Runtime Database: used to store all the Historian configuration data and event data.
The information in the Runtime database is stored to disk as a database file named
Run90dat.Mdf. Its associated log file is Run90log.Ldf.
The configuration data in the database file remains relatively static and usually never
causes the file size to go above 20 MB.
However, if you choose to set up events, records of event detections and the results of any
data summaries or snapshots will increase the size of the Runtime database file (because
the tables are filling). Also, entries will be created in the log file for event-related
transactions.
If the database files are set to auto-size, the Runtime database file will expand to
accommodate event-related data until the amount of hard disk space is exhausted.
z Holding Database: used to temporarily store tag definitions being imported from
InTouch®. The information in the Holding database is stored to a database file named
Holding90Dat.Mdf. Its associated log file is Holding90Log.Ldf.

Note: Historical plant data is not stored in the database files. This type of data is stored in special
files called History Blocks.

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 Section 1 – Software, Hardware and Network Considerations 2-7

The minimum disk space for the database files are configured as follows:

File Required Disk Space

Runtime database file 30 MB
Runtime log file 10 MB
Holding database file 30 MB
Holding log file 10 MB
Total Space Used (Minimum) 80 MB

The Runtime and Holding databases are (by default) set to automatically expand at a 10% rate.
You cannot change these default settings during the installation. The databases can be resized
later using Microsoft SQL Server utilities. For more information on sizing databases, see your
Microsoft SQL Server documentation for guidelines.

Note: When upgrading Historian, you will need space to save a copy of the old Runtime database
while a new one is created. Therefore, in order to upgrade, the total need for database space is
twice the size of your old database, plus the database size for the new install.

Disk Requirements for Historical Data Files

The Historian stores historical plant data to the hard disk in special files called history blocks.
When you install the Historian, you will be required to specify a storage location (directory) in
which these files will be dynamically created and subsequently filled. You must have at least 200
MB of free disk space for these files in order to install the Historian.
Once you have your Historian system up and running, when the free space on the drive containing
the storage directory drops below a minimum threshold, the oldest data will start to be overwritten.
It is very important that you have allocated enough disk space for storing your plant data for the
desired length of time.
The amount of data that you will be able to store to disk before running out of space is dependent
upon the number of tag values that you are storing and how often they are stored. That is, the
more tags you have, the fewer values you can store per tag before you will need to archive the
oldest data. The higher the specified storage rate per tag, the faster you will run out of space.
Analog, Discrete, and Fixed-length String Requirements: Each value that is stored uses
Storage Size + 3 bytes of disk space, plus approximately 15% overhead. Use the following formula
to estimate the disk usage:
Estimated disk usage per day = (1.15*(Storage Size + 3)*number of tags) * (60/storage rate in
seconds) * 60 minutes * 24 hours / (NTFS compression ratio)
For example, the disk usage per day for 2000 4-byte analog tags (that is, Storage Size = 4 bytes)
that are stored at 2-second intervals would be (1.15*(4+3)*2000)*(60/2)*60*24/2, which is
approximately 332 MB per day.
The disk usage per day for 10,000 discrete tags (that is, Storage Size = 1 byte) that are changing,
on average, every 60 seconds would be (1.15*(1+3)*10000)*(60/60)*60*24/2, which is
approximately 32 MB per day.
The disk usage per day for 2000 100-byte string tags (that is, Storage Size = 8 bytes) that are
changing, on average, every 60 seconds would be (1.15*(100+3)*200)*(60/60)*60*24/2, which is
approximately 16 MB per day.

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Variable-length String Storage Requirements

For strings of variable length that are 128 characters or more, the number of bytes required for
storage will be the actual number of characters being sent from the data source + 5 bytes, plus
15% overhead. Therefore, the average disk usage per day for a variable-length string that is
receiving an average of 'N' characters per sample could be calculated using the following formula:
Estimated average disk usage per day = (1.15 *(N+5)*number of tags) * (60/average storage
rate in seconds) * 60 minutes * 24 hours / (NTFS compression ratio)
For example, the disk usage per day for 100 131-byte string tags that are changing, on average,
every 60 seconds and the average incoming value is 60 characters in length would be
(1.15*(60+5)*100)*(60/60)*60*24/2, which is approximately 513 MB per day.

Memory Requirements
For a complete Historian system, the following components put a demand on memory.
z Internal Historian systems: Includes I/O Servers, data acquisition, and data storage.
z Microsoft SQL Server
z The Operating System
z Client access (data retrieval): Includes caching.
When determining the amount of memory to purchase, remember that it is likely the cheapest (and
easiest) thing that you can do to improve performance. The difference in performance is noticed by
the end-users running client applications who are ultimately your customer for the Historian data.
More memory will reduce the amount the server has to use virtual memory - lowering the load on
the disk subsystem.
Processes required by the server will become faster because they are memory-dependent.
Even if the Performance Monitor indicates that Pages/sec counter is NOT high (you have an
excess of memory), additional memory can be used as additional disk cache, speeding up disk
access and therefore file service.

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The following figure provides a general outline of memory requirements used in different tag-load
scenarios.
The tag traces correspond to the server setup scenarios found under Server Requirements
starting on page 2-3 (5,000 Tags = Level 1 Server, etc.):

MB RAM

History Blocks Online

X Axis = MB of RAM.
Y Axis = # of History Blocks Online.
For example, a system with 25,000 tags (Level 3 Server) would use approximately 400MB of RAM
when 375 History Blocks (duration of 8 hours = 93.75 Days) are on line.
For further detailed recommendations on memory consumption and disk sizing requirements, see
the Historian online help file section System Sizing Examples.

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Network Performance Considerations

One of the major factors in how well the Historian will perform is how the network architecture is
set up. In general, the faster the hardware, software and network connections, the better the
performance.
Major architectural factors affecting the performance of the system are:
z Domain issues, authentication issues. What is your network protocol?
z What are you going to name your Historian nodes -- hard to change the name after the
install.
z Operating System choice.
z Processor configuration: single, Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) or Multi-Core
Processor.
z Computer configuration: the number of computers in a distributed (multi-node) Historian
configuration.
z Disk sub-system performance.
z Network bandwidth.
The Historian is a highly configurable package that can be set up in many different ways,
depending on your needs.
The following materials provide an overview of the various architectures available with Historian
and the recommended configurations for each. Generally, it is recommended that you split the
process and IS networks to ensure that the process network does not become overloaded.
z All tags to be stored in the Historian are on "advise" all of the time. This may cause heavy
load conditions on the process network. Prior to installing the Historian, you should
investigate the possible load impact of installing the Historian on your network.
z Install two network adapter cards on a server-type computer running the Windows Server
2000 or Windows Server 2003 operating system. Configure them to segment the IS
network from the process network.
z Install the Historian on the server computer.
The Historian must have access to a local Microsoft SQL Server. During the Historian installation,
you can either choose an existing local Microsoft SQL Server, or install it from the Historian
installation disk.

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Section 2 – System Licensing and Installation Notes

Section Objectives
z Explain Historian Licensing strategy
z Explain installation strategies for the Historian and Microsoft SQL Server.

This section explains Historian Licensing strategy, and explains installation strategies for the
Historian and for Microsoft SQL Server.

Licensing Strategy: License Validation

The Historian includes License Validation and Tag Count Enforcement. The Historian validates
that a Wonderware license file is installed and that the allowed tag count has not been exceeded.
On startup, the system checks to see that a valid Wonderware license file is present on the
Historian computer. If the license file is not present, the Historian and the embedded Microsoft
SQL Server will run but will only store the system tags.
If no license is present, or the tag count is exceeded, the status console displays and logs a
"License Violation" message.

Licensing Strategy: Tag Count Enforcement

The total tag count for a Historian includes configured analog, discrete, and string tags. The
system tags are not included in the count. The tag count is checked when the following operations
are performed:
z Start up the Historian
z Use the ArchestrA System Management Console to manually add new tag definitions to
the database
z Use the ArchestrA System Management Console Tag Import function to import tag
definitions from InTouch
z Use Microsoft SQL Server Query Analyzer to manually add new tags using an INSERT
statement
z Use Application Server to create new tags
The system adds all requested tags to the tag definition table.
If the tag count is exceeded, the Historian disables a sufficient number of tags to bring the count
back into compliance.
Tags are disabled in the reverse order in which they were added; that is, the most recent addition
is disabled first. In other words, the wwTagKey reference is used in the logic to determine which
tags are excluded.

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Installation Notes
A complete Historian system is composed of the following software components:
z Microsoft SQL Server
z Historian program files
z Historian database files
z Historian history blocks
z Historian management tools
z One or more remote IDAS (optional)
z Historian online documentation
It is highly recommended that you have a defined plan for implementing the Historian in your plant
environment before you start the installation process.
This plan should include the type of network architecture for the Historian system, considerations
for how much disk space is required for data storage, and the amount of space required for the
Historian database files and log files.
You must have administrative rights to install the Historian. The installation program detects any
previous versions of the Historian and notifies you of your migration options. You are required to
confirm the upgrade or re-install in order to proceed with the installation.
The Historian installation program allows you to install some of the system components separately.
The following table describes the various Historian components that can be installed:

Option
Complete Historian
Configuration Tools
Historian Data Acquisition
Service (IDAS)
ActiveEvent ActiveX® Control
Description
Installs, modified, or repairs the Historian, Runtime database, IDAS,
ActiveX Controls, Configuration tools, and Online documentation.
Server Management tools include Historian Configuration Editor and
ArchestrA System Management Console. Both of these applications are
MMC snap-ins. These tools can be installed on the same computer as the
Historian, or on a different computer on the network. This option is included
if you have selected to install a complete Historian.
The IDAS to be deployed remotely. This option is included if you have
selected to install a complete Historian.
Used to detect external events and send them to the Historian event
detector engine. Does not display a runtime interface.

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