1.
FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition
Basic Configuration Lab
Before You Begin
About this Lab
In this lab, you will use a simulated application scenario as a basis for configuring a series of
connections and transactions intended to become familiar with the configuration and primary
archive functions supported by FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition (SE).
In this lab series, you will:
• Add FactoryTalk tags to the Historian data collection server
• Examine the Historian archive to validate proper storage
Duration
2 Hours
Prerequisites
The following prerequisite knowledge is recommended in order to complete this lab:
• None
Materials
This lab requires the following items:
☐ Software:
☐ FactoryTalk Historian SE Server w/ FTLD Interface
☐ Studio5000 Logix Designer
☐ FactoryTalk Live Data source (Logix Echo, Logix Emulate, or Logix controller)
☐ MS Excel 2013 w/ DataLink Legacy Add-in installed
☐ Files:
☐ Bread_Line_1.ACD
☐ ExComp.XLSX
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FactoryTalk Historian SE Basic Configuration
CRITICAL PRE-LAB SETUP PROCEDURE
This lab is based on the execution of a Logix project running a simulated production line. The
image contains a Logix project intended to be the FactoryTalk Live Data source.
1. From the Lab Files folder on the Desktop, open the ‘Bread_Line_1.ACD” project and
download it to the Emulator controller in Slot 2. (Echo IP address 10.0.0.9)
2. Put the controller into (Remote) Run mode.
3. Next, we will need to define our FactoryTalk Live Data application path. Open the
FactoryTalk Administration Console. Select Network when prompted as FactoryTalk
Transaction Manager can only use the Network FactoryTalk Directory.
4. Expand the RA Foods → Processing → DataServer → Communication Setup in the
tree and point the ‘BL1’ shortcut to the Logix Emulate/Echo controller in slot 2.
IMPORTANT
Please do NOT rename the shortcut. It will be referenced in exercises later, so any change
may effect the outcome of the labs.
5. When finished, click Apply, Yes and OK to accept the new path.
6. Close the FactoryTalk Administration Console.
Setup Complete.
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Lab 1: Defining FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition
Data Points
Objectives
After completing this lab, you should be able to:
• Create a FactoryTalk Historian Server connection
• Add individual data points from the FactoryTalk Administration Console
• Add multiple data points using discovery rules in the FactoryTalk Administration
Console
• Verify data collection and archives using the System Management Tools
• Modify data collection attributes for individual data points
• Remove/delete data points from active data collection
Background
These skills will familiarize you with the basic steps involved in configuring FactoryTalk Historian
Site Edition data collection.
Although data can be collected from many sources, this lab focuses on the tight integration
between FactoryTalk Live Data sources and FactoryTalk Historian. Data point selection and
definition becomes a streamlined process fully configurable through the FactoryTalk
Administration Console user interface.
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FactoryTalk Historian SE Basic Configuration
Adding a Data Collection Interface
Before we add our FactoryTalk Historian Server to the FactoryTalk Directory, it is a good
idea to check and make sure it is up and running and accessible.
1. We can use the PI-SDK Utility to verify this. From the Desktop, launch the PISDKUtility.
Note: May be slow to open so – please be patient!
2. Click Connections and Check the FTH-SERVER box.
NOTE:
The PI-SDK Utility by default assumes that there is a FactoryTalk Historian Server on the same
computer (image) that it is installed on.
3. Verify that the Connected User indicates the Rockwell user account as a member of the
FTHAdministrators and FTHEngineers PI groups.
4. Close the PISDKUtility.
The above results indicate that the FactoryTalk Historian Server is accessible.
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5. If not already running, start the FactoryTalk Administration Console from the Desktop
and choose the Network directory.
6. Under the System folder, expand the Connections tree.
7. Right-click on Historical Data and select New Historian Server Connection…
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8. Click the and verify the green checkmark and Server found message
appears.
9. Click Finish.
You have added a FactoryTalk Historian Server called “Production Historian” to your
FactoryTalk Directory.
10. Expand the new Production Historian heading and double click the “FTLD1” data
collection interface.
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This interface contains the data collection
parameters for a default local interface
node on our FTH-SERVER. Each
FactoryTalk Historian Server Connection
may receive data from one or more local or
remote interface nodes. If we needed to
collect data from a remote interface
(running on a different server computer),
we could simply choose to add another
interface with the appropriate server name
and settings.
A data collection interface, like the one
shown at the right, provides the
FactoryTalk Live Data connection to the
server and a configuration dialog which
enables the user to start/stop the collection,
launch the data point selection wizard and
define “classes” of collection rates for the
data points.
11. Click the button to start the Live Data Interface service and click OK to close the
Interface Properties window.
Before we can begin selecting the tag data that we wish to collect, we will need to assign
proper licenses to the server. Once purchased, activation licenses can be installed using
the traditional FactoryTalk Activation Manager tool. At that point, available licenses can
be assigned as needed within the Production Historian Server Connection properties within
the FactoryTalk Directory tree.
12. Right-click on Production Historian and select Properties…
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13. Select the Licensing tab.
14. A list of the available licenses and quantities is shown in the left-hand portion of the table.
In the Assign column, enter a ‘1’ for the of the FHSE.50K activation entry.
15. Click Apply.
NOTE: The FTH activations
used in the OnCourse
environment do not
necessarily appear correctly
in this dialog. Know that the
licenses are in fact available
and continue with the lab.
For reference, the activations above can be defined as follows:
• FTBAInt.10 – This is activation for the FactoryTalk Batch Interface (10 Batch Units)
• FHSE.50K – This is the FactoryTalk Historian V3.0 and later license for up to 50,000
tags. Of these tags, up to 10,000 (20%) could be used for 3rd party devices verses
Rockwell Automation devices (tags).
• FHSE.Advanced – This is the V3.0 and later Advanced Server option.
• FHSE.H2H – This is the FactoryTalk Historian To Historian Interface option.
• FHLD.5000 – This is the V2.2 license for up to 5000 Rockwell Automation devices
(tags). Historian 3.0 and later can still recognize and use this license.
16. Click the Point Sources tab.
This tab would be used to allocate a maximum number of points to a specific interface type
or point source. FTLD are standard Rockwell tags, and currently all 50,000 tags are
allocated to Rockwell tags. If intending to use 3rd party tags with their own unique point
source or tags coming from a FactoryTalk Historian ME module via Data Transfer,
allocations of maximum number of such tags would be made here.
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17. Click OK when ready to proceed.
Whenever changes are made to FactoryTalk Historian licensing assignments, you should
stop and restart the Server. However, if you are using a production system already
collecting data, this may not be advisable. After about 20 minutes or so, the changes made
to licenses will eventually be recognized.
18. Since we are not using a production system, stop the FactoryTalk Historian server by
navigating to Start → Rockwell Software → Stop FactoryTalk Historian SE.
19. Wait for all services to stop and the dialog box to automatically close. (Be patient!)
20. When the stop dialog has closed, start FactoryTalk Historian again by navigating to Start
→ Rockwell Software → Start FactoryTalk Historian SE.
21. Wait for all services to start and the dialog to automatically close.
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FactoryTalk Historian SE Basic Configuration
Adding Individual FactoryTalk Historian Data Points
Your plant manager has asked you to collect specific values from the Proof Oven in an effort to
verify the oven temperatures remain within their proper tolerances during the baking process.
Let’s begin by adding a couple data points to the historian using the FactoryTalk Live Data
interface.
1. Right-click on the RA Foods application and select Add Individual Historian Points…
Notice that all options except for Default scan rate are grayed out at this time. The default
scan class is “1”, which represents a 1 second capture rate. There are 10 different scan
classes you could pick from (1-10) in a default configuration (click the down arrow to see
them listed). It is possible to add more scan classes and even edit/delete existing ones.
2. Leave the scan class at “1” and click Browse Tags…
The FactoryTalk Tag Browser should appear. This ability to Browse Tags is coming from
FactoryTalk Linx, the Data Server we are using in our FactoryTalk application. With the
Tag Browser initialized once, future browsing will appear faster.
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3. In the Tag Browser, we see the RA Foods application with the ‘BL1’ shortcut listed under
the Processing area. Under the RA Foods application, navigate to Processing → BL1 →
Online → Program:Proof_Oven.
4. In the pane on the right, scroll down and use Ctrl-click to pick the “SimpleMachineStep”
and “SimpleTempZone1” tags.
5. Click .
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6. Verify the tags appear in the Selected tag(s) list. Note the full tag names will include the
shortcut name (BL1), program name from within the controller (Program:Proof_Oven),
and then the actual name of the tag within the program.
7. Click OK.
8. Review the different information about the tags listed, and then click OK.
9. To verify that tag data is being collected within FactoryTalk Historian SE, start the System
Management Tools (SMT) by navigating to Start → Rockwell Software → System
Management Tools.
10. If not already selected, select the box to connect to the FactoryTalk Historian Server
named FTH-SERVER.
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11. Under the Data heading, select Current Values and click the Search icon to select
one or more tags for viewing their current data.
12. Click the Search button.
Without any filters to limit the search, every tag in your FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition
server will be shown alphabetically based on the tag name. In this server, there are many
more tags than what you initially see, including a collection of system tags. You would
have to scroll down to find them all.
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Fortunately, we can quickly narrow down the list of tags using any combination of filters,
such as data point (tag) names, origin of the data point, engineering units, description, or
even a data point value. In the filter field(s), you would simply specify the text (or partial
text) that you were looking for using asterisks (*) for wildcards.
13. The Point Source for our FactoryTalk tags is the Live Data connector, ‘FTLD’. To limit our
search to these tags, specify ‘FTLD’ in the Point Source field and click Search.
14. Use Ctrl-click to select both tags then click OK.
15. Click the Start Updating button.
You should see the values of the tags occasionally change. Over approximately a 1-minute
time period, the MachineStep increments from 0 to 5 and then resets. When the machine
is in step 2, the SimpleTempZone1 part of the oven is active. Its value rapidly increases
and then drops down to approximately 65 again after that step. Watch your tags’ values for
a few minutes to observe this repeatable behavior.
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16. Using a similar procedure, we can examine “archived values”. Under the Data heading,
click Archive Editor and then the Search icon.
17. The same blank Search dialog will appear. As before, we can specify a Tag Mask and/or
Point Source to filter the search. However, since we just want to repeat the filtered search
we just performed, in the upper-right corner of this dialog box, click Favorites → Last
Search. (Note that you can Save as well as Organize searches in this area as well)
18. Click Select All and then OK.
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19. Note the following as you examine the archived data dialog:
• The drop-down list to the left of the Search icon will let you pick from either of the two
tags you added from the Search dialog. Because of the long tag names, it is
sometimes hard to see which tag you have selected in this field.
• The full tag name is shown at the top, so you can easily identify the tag you have
selected.
• The last two hours of values in the archives with their time stamps should be shown.
The time period is two hours because the default Start Time is *-2h and End Time is
*. The asterisk (*) in FactoryTalk Historian Time refers to “now” or “current time”.
• Since we just recently added this tag to FactoryTalk Historian, the initial entry
indicates Pt Created (Point Created), followed by the values of this tag that are in the
archive along with their timestamps.
• Even though the SimpleMachineStep tag increments from 0 through 5 repeatedly,
not all of the values were stored in the archive. This is a very important feature of
FactoryTalk Historian which permits the system to log only enough data necessary to
“accurately” reproduce the data profile.
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20. Use the drop-down box to pick the “SimpleTempZone1” tag and observe its archived
values ranging from approximately 65 to almost 400.
Once again, even though data is being captured every second, not every tag value is
stored in the FactoryTalk Historian archive, just enough to reproduce the nature of the data
profile.
21. Close the System Management Tools.
End of Lab Section.
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FactoryTalk Historian SE Basic Configuration
Adding Multiple Data Points - Discovery
In the previous exercise, we observed that from the FactoryTalk Administration Console, we can
add individual historian points by browsing from the FactoryTalk Directory. This can be
extremely useful when adding only a few data points, perhaps to an existing system.
But, let’s suppose your plant manager has asked you to collect all of the oven zone
temperatures from each of the plant’s 15 production lines. Adding individual data points could
become very tedious and time-consuming, especially when the data needs to be collected from
more than just a single controller.
Very often, many tags from many data sources need to be archived with FactoryTalk Historian.
The Discover Historian Points option lets users define a set of rules through which
“collections” of data points can be added. In addition, configuration attributes can be applied as
tags are added to streamline and standardize the data collection and archive process. Both
FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition as well as Machine Edition support the “discover”
functionality.
Let’s see how this works.
1. If not already running, start the FactoryTalk Administration Console from the Desktop
and choose the Network directory.
2. Right-click on the RA Foods near the top of the tree and select Discover Historian
Points...
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For this exercise, we only want to discover points that are accessed by the FactoryTalk
Linx Enterprise data server, but we could choose to include other interfaces in the
discovery if desired. Also, note that our search will be conducted over an entire Area
(Processing) within our application, not just a single controller shortcut as we did earlier for
the individual data point creation method.
3. Ensure that the Linx Enterprise source is checked, but de-select the other three sources.
4. Click the Edit Discovery Rules button.
5. The Discovery Rule Editor dialog will appear with no rule definition files created by default.
Click the button.
6. Click New to create a new Rule file.
7. Enter Rule File Name ‘Tags to Discover’ and click OK.
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8. Select the Active checkbox for this Rule file and click the Open button to make this rule
file the current file.
9. Within this Rule file, we can define one or more rules to search for data points. Note the
path and actual .XML file name being created and click New to define the first rule this file
will use to Discover Historian Points.
For this first rule, we are going to select tags that contain certain characters in their tag
names. The characters we are going to identify are either “StorageDint” or “Shift_Timer”.
In other words, we want to define a rule that “selects tags in any controllers where the tag
name in the controller contains ‘StorageDint’ or ‘Shift_Timer’”.
10. In the From section of the dialog, we already know that all of our tags will be coming from
the FactoryTalk Linx data server, so there is no change required there. However, we want
to expand the search to include all ControlLogix, CompactLogix and any Emulator
controllers. Select the “ * ” wildcard symbol from the LogixControllers drop down list.
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11. In the Where section of the dialog, change the ‘starts with’ drop down to ‘contains’ and
enter the text ‘StorageDint’ in the text field.
12. That was easy! Next, click the button at the right to add a second condition and
select the “or” option.
13. Modify the second condition as we did before. Select ‘contains’ and enter the text
‘Shift_Timer’ in the text field.
14. Your dialog should appear as follows. (do NOT click OK yet!).
At this point, any new tags that we discover will be automatically created with a default
configuration based on the set of collection attributes and archive parameters shown
below.
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The Default Configuration attributes may be most appropriate when discovery conditions
will likely result in a collection of varying tag data types.
15. Click OK and verify that the new rule has been created.
Before we execute the tag discovery, let’s take a look at our plant manager’s request once
again – the one in which we have been asked to collect temperatures for many ovens.
This larger data storage request could alternatively represent any collection of tags which
all contain similar data, such as OEE factors, tank level setpoints, regulated temperatures,
pressures or flows. In this situation, we would expect that all of the tags that we were
interested in would have similar attributes, such as data type, units, minimum, maximum,
range, and collection rates. However, these attributes may not necessarily align with the
default collection settings, so a new configuration would be helpful.
Let’s see how this can be done by defining another discovery rule.
16. Click New to create a new Rule.
17. Define the new Discovery Rule as follows:
Description: ‘Temperatures’
Controller device: ‘*’
Where: Name contains ‘Temp’
18. Since we know that all of the temperature ranges will deviate from the standard default
attribute ranges, we will take advantage of the custom configuration file. From the Using
this configuration drop down list, select <New Configuration…>.
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19. In the Tag Attribute definition dialog, enter the File Name as ‘Temperature Attributes’.
20. Set the Scan class to Polled for updates every ‘10 Seconds’. This will simply guarantee
that the server requests data at a consistent time interval.
IMPORTANT
Selecting the most appropriate data request options within the Scan Classes can affect
controller and Historian server performance, buffering, and initial data point capture. Additional
details on Scan class data collection parameters can be found in the on-screen Help.
21. On the General tab, enter the Descriptor as ‘Temp discovered tags’.
22. Enter the Eng Units as ‘degF’.
23. On the Archive tab, we will just make one change for now. Set the Span value to ‘400’
and click OK.
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24. Verify that the new Temperature Attributes configuration file is selected for this rule and
click OK.
25. The Discovery Rule Editor dialog box should appear as follows. Click Save then Close.
(the button will appear after you click Save)
26. In the Discover Historian Points dialog box, click to start the discovery process.
A dialog like the following will appear during the Discovery process.
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When Discovery has completed, you should get a dialog similar to the one shown below
indicating the discovered points found that have names containing either ‘Shift_Timer’ or
‘StorageDint’ (from our first rule) and ‘Temp’ (from our second rule).
In this example, some of the tags are controller-scoped and others are program-scoped,
but they all originated from the same controller using the “BL1” shortcut. It should once
again be noted that the discovery method will search any shortcuts/controllers that are
defined in the FactoryTalk Directory to locate data points. This discovery process could be
a huge time saver compared with finding points to add one-at-a-time using the “Add
Individual Historian Points” or some other method.
At this point, we can choose to add some or all of the discovered points to historian, add
more points individually, or even change the scan class for any of the points we found.
27. Since we discovered many more tags than we really want for this exercise, click on
to de-select all of the tags that were discovered.
28. Select only the following tags from the list: (most are towards the bottom)
• [BL1]…OvenUDT.TempZone1
• [BL1]…OvenUDT.TempZone2
• [BL1]…OvenUDT.TempZone3
• [BL1]…OvenUDT.TempZone4
• [BL1]…SimpleTempZone1
• [BL1]…SimpleTempZone2
• [BL1]…SimpleTempZone3
• [BL1]…SimpleTempZone4
• [BL1]Shift_Timer.ACC
• [BL1]StorageDint1
• [BL1]StorageDint2
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29. Select Confirm Points.
30. You should see Added 10 points to Production Historian (FTLD1) towards the top of
the dialog box that is still open. Click OK.
NOTE: Even though we selected 11 points from the discovery list, only 10 were added.
Recall that we had already added the “SimpleTempZone1” point as an individual tag
earlier.
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31. Let’s verify the new points were added to the FactoryTalk Historian Server. If not already
running, start the System Management Tools (SMT).
32. Select Points → Point Builder and then the Search icon.
33. Specify Point Source ‘ftld’ and then click Search.
34. Go to the bottom of the list and use Ctrl-clicks to select the 10 new tags.
35. Click OK.
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The current point attributes were applied based on the configuration settings used during
the individual entry or discovery process.
36. Highlight one of the “…TempZone” points and verify that the Engineering Units attribute is
set to “degF” and the Span is set to “400”.
By clicking on any single point in the list, we can still individually modify the data collection
attributes.
37. Highlight the Shift_Timer.ACC point.
38. On the General tab in the bottom pane, change the Eng Units to ‘ms’.
39. On the Archive tab, set the Span value to ‘1200000’ (1.2 million).
40. Click the button at the top to save the attribute changes.
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Removing/Deleting Historian Points
While we are still in the PI System Management Tools, this would be a good time to discuss
how to remove points from the FactoryTalk Historian system. The Point Builder tool provides the
simplest method for removing any historian points from the data collection system.
1. (If you closed the SMT, re-launch it once again, go to Points → Point Builder, search for
all of the points from the ‘ftld” point source, select the two “StorageDint” points from the
discovery list and click OK.)
2. Select just the two “StorageDint1” and “StorageDint2” points in the list, right-click and
select Delete PI Point.
A Confirmation dialog appears. This dialog will appear for each individual point we have
chosen to delete. However, we can choose to delete them all without individual pop-ups.
3. Check the Apply To All box in the lower left corner, then click Yes.
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The points will disappear from the list and the Session Record at the bottom of the window
will indicate that the two points have been deleted successfully.
IMPORTANT
Deleting points from the FactoryTalk Historian server does NOT delete any archive data already
stored in the historian database. Archive data (event) removal can be performed within the
SMT through the Data→Archive Editor tool, ideally after point scanning has been turned off.
4. Leave the System Management Tools and the FactoryTalk Administration Console open.
End of Lab Section.
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Lab 2: Implementing Exception and Compression
What you will learn:
• How exception and compression optimize data collection/archival
• How to adjust Exception and Compression testing for a data point
Background
There is no doubt that your plant manager is impressed that you were able to get all of the oven
temperature information archived so quickly and easily. However, some questions have been
raised by your production management leadership about the impact of large scale historical
data collection on the control system as well as storage space.
The FactoryTalk Historian system archives data captured in real-time to a historical data
archive. The system can support the capture and storage of vast amounts of information.
However, there are limitations that must be considered since system compute resources and
storage space are not infinite. The process of archiving massive amounts of information at
relatively high speed to a secure, relational database would be impossible without some
ingenuity. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to archive enough information to simply “reproduce a
historical data trend/profile within a certain level of accuracy”.
So, the question then becomes, how many data points are required to achieve the desired
accuracy? Well, every situation is unique, so the ability to define, adjust, and customize the
amount of data stored and the level of accuracy is critical. With FactoryTalk Historian, both
specifications can be balanced using a two-step process of exception and compression.
Raw Data → Snapshot → Archive
In this exercise, we will explore the data capture and archival process in more detail so that you
can feel confident that the physical storage space required to support large scale data collection
is minimized.
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EXCEPTION
Exception testing is a process in which each new raw data point collected is examined to
determine if it has changed at all since the last value was captured. New values that have
changed more than a specified range are stored in an intermediate stage called a “snapshot”.
Those that have remained within the specified range are discarded, unless the elapsed time
between the last recorded snapshot data points is greater than the maximum specified time
interval. Ultimately, the exception test attempts to eliminate excess data records, called
“markers”, when the data simply doesn’t change significantly over long periods of time.
Exception Specifications
Exception testing is performed at the Interface Node by most interfaces to determine whether
the raw values that they receive are sent to the Snapshot Subsystem. The interface-specific
documentation should be consulted to determine whether or not the interface uses the
exception specifications.
The exception specifications consist of the following attributes:
Attribute Name Point Class Type Default Value Limits
ExcMin Base uint16 0 seconds 0 to 65535
ExcMax Base uint16 600 seconds 0 to 65535
ExcDev Base float32 1 eng unit 0 to Span
ExcDevPercent Base float32 1 % of Span 0 to 100
Raw Data
Exception
Snapshot
COMPRESSION
After leaving the Snapshot, events are evaluated according to the compression specifications to
see if they are significant events. If so, they are sent to the Event Queue. If not, they are
discarded. This process, called compression, is intended to use the rate of change of each data
point collected to evaluate whether or not archiving the point will dramatically alter the general
archive profile.
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FactoryTalk Historian uses a sophisticated compression algorithm to determine which events it
needs to keep in order to provide an accurate data history. The compression method used by
Historian enables much more efficient storage than conventional scanned systems. The data is
also much more detailed than in an archiving system that is just based on averages or periodic
samples.
Compression Specifications
Data compression is applied at the FactoryTalk Historian Server level. The compression
specifications determine whether events (data points) from the Snapshot Subsystem are
archived/stored or discarded. The compression specifications are always ignored for digital
Historian Points.
The compression specifications consist of the following attributes:
Attribute Name Point Class Type Default Value Limits
Compressing Base byte ON (1) OFF (0) or ON (1)
CompMin Base uint16 0 seconds 0 to 65535
CompMax Base uint16 28800 seconds 0 to 65535
CompDev Base float32 2 eng units 0 to Span
CompDevPercent Base float32 2 % of Span 0 to 100
The compressing attribute is essentially a “master switch” for enabling or disabling data
compression. It should be set to ON (1) for most points so that only the values that deviate
significantly from the current trend are archived. When compression is OFF (0), every value that
is sent to the Snapshot Subsystem is saved in the Archive.
Compression should be turned on for all real-time points in the system. Compression even
affects digital points, since a new value is recorded only when the current value changes or
when the compression maximum is exceeded. Sampled data, such as laboratory test data, are
typically non-compressed points.
The compression method is called swinging door compression. Swinging door compression
discards values that fall on a line connecting values that are recorded in the Archive. When a
new value is received by the Snapshot Subsystem, the previous value is recorded only if any of
the values since the last recorded value do not fall within the compression deviation blanket.
The deviation blanket is a parallelogram extending between the last recorded value and the new
value with a width equal to twice the compression deviation specification.
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Just like exception reporting, compression is a filter. The difference is that the exception
specifications determine which events should be sent to Historian, whereas the compression
specifications determine which of the events sent to Historian should go into the Archive.
Exception After
Snapshot Compression
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Using Exception and Compression – Filter Less
In this section, we will explore the effects of adjustments to exception and compression data
point collection attributes. In this first example, we will attempt to take a more conservative
approach to data collection.
1. Open the System Management Tools (SMT).
2. Select Points → Point Builder and then the Search icon.
3. Use the Tag Mask field to search for and display the tag ending in ‘ *MachineStep’.
4. Highlight the point in the upper pane and select the Archive tab.
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When adding FT Live Data points using “Add Individual Historian Points” or “Discover
Historian Points” from the FactoryTalk Administration Console, the default for ExcDev is
.25 engineering units and ExcDevPercent is .25% of Span.
When adding points using “Add Individual Historian Points” or “Discover Historian Points”
from the FactoryTalk Administration Console, the default for CompDev is .5 engineering
units and CompDevPercent is .5% of Span.
5. Note that this tag currently has default Exception and Compression attributes. They are
unchanged since you added this tag to Historian from the FactoryTalk Administration
Console using Add Individual Historian Points. Verify these attributes are currently set
as follows:
Compressing: On
Exception Deviation: 0.25 Eng. Units
Compression Deviation: 0.5 Eng. Units
6. Next, let’s verify the data collection. From the SMT tree (left pane), select Data → Current
Values.
7. Use the Tag Mask field to search for and display the tag ending in ‘*MachineStep’.
8. Click Start Updating.
9. Verify that the value of this tag is incrementing from 0 to 5 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) over
approximately a one minute period. It should then reset to 0 and start incrementing to 5
repeatedly. Watch at least one complete cycle.
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10. Next, from the SMT tree, go to Data → Archive Editor.
11. Click the button next to the Tagname field to once again search for the tag that ends
in ‘*MachineStep’.
12. Click the Get events button to get the last two hours of data in the archives for this
tag. Note the default Start time of *-2h (two hours ago) and End time of * (now).
13. Scroll down the list of Value/Event Time entries. Are you seeing values for this tag of 0, 1,
2, 3, 4 and 5 over and over again? Or, are you seeing filtered data skipping some of the
values such as in the below example? (skipping of values is what you should be seeing at
this time due to exception and compression).
This behavior represents how this tag's values are archived using default exception and
compression settings. For the purpose of this training, and a more realistic set of data for
this step type of tag, we want to be sure that all changes in this tag's value are archived.
Let’s make this adjustment now.
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14. Go back to Points → Point Builder and change the following attributes for the
SimpleMachineStep point:
Exception Deviation: 0
Compression Deviation: 0
Compressing: Off
15. Click the icon and verify receiving a "Successfully edited point" message.
16. Wait two minutes to be sure the FTLD Interface has enough time to put your changes into
effect.
17. Go back to the Data → Archive Editor.
18. Click the Get events button and scroll to the bottom of your Value/Event Time window.
You should see values being archived without skipping or filtering. Be sure to scroll to
the bottom. Your most recent data should appear as follows (no skipping values):
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Using Exception and Compression – Filter More
Let’s see how this works in the opposite situation. Consider a tag that changes much more
rapidly – perhaps like the pressure within a reactor or tank. In this scenario, you might think that
if we wish to capture the frequent changes in this type of data, we would certainly have to log
more data points. But this is not necessarily true.
Let’s begin by adding (discovering) a new data point named “TankPressure” to our historian
with the premise that we wish to request the value at a much higher rate. The discovery method
will also allow us to also add a new set of custom tag attributes at the same time.
1. Return to the FactoryTalk Administration Console, right-click on the RA Foods near the
top of the tree and select Discover Historian Points...
2. Ensure that the Linx Enterprise source is checked, but de-select the other three sources.
3. Click the Edit Discovery Rules button.
4. The Discovery Rule Editor dialog will appear. Click New to create a new Rule.
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5. Define the new Discovery Rule as follows:
Description: ‘Pressures’
Controller device: ‘*’
Where: Name contains ‘Pressure’
6. Since we know that our pressure attributes will deviate from the standard defaults, we will
once again take advantage of the custom configuration file. From the Using this
configuration drop down list, select <New Configuration…>.
7. In the Tag Attribute definition dialog, enter the File Name as ‘Pressure Attributes’.
8. Set the Scan class to (3) .1 seconds, and Polled. This will simply guarantee that the
server requests data at a faster, more appropriate rate.
9. Enter the Eng Units as ‘PSI ’.
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10. On the Archive tab, we will adjust the Span and initially disable the exception and
compression. Set the attributes as follows:
Span: 400
Exception Deviation: 0
Compression Deviation: 0
Compressing: Off
11. Click OK.
12. Verify that the new Pressure Attributes configuration file is selected for this rule and click
OK.
13. We are only interested in discovering new “pressure” tags, so we do not need to keep the
other rules active. Uncheck the Active boxes next to the first two rules.
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14. Click Save then Close. (the button will appear after you click Save)
15. In the Discover Historian Points dialog box, click to start the discovery process.
16. The result should be a single program-scoped tag named “TankPressure”. Click Confirm
Points.
17. Click OK to close the Discovery dialog and close the FactoryTalk Administration Console.
While FactoryTalk Historian is collecting our TankPressure tag values, visualizing the effects of
our exception and compression adjustments will be much easier with a graphical representation.
For this exercise, a trend has already been created in Excel to display the historian data.
18. From the Lab Files folder on the Desktop, open the “ExComp.xlsx” file.
19. Within the Tank Pressure trend, verify that the TankPressure tag value is updating with a
waveform similar to the screenshot below.
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The TankPressure tag appears to consist of a very high frequency oscillation signal
overlayed on a longer wavelength pressure that drifts between the range of 200-225.
Currently, we are capturing this information at a very high speed, but the pressure value
that we are truly interested in profiling is the lower freq wave.
Our goal is to archive data values in the historian to essentially reproduce the overall
wave profile while:
• Minimizing the effects of the “jittery” high frequency noise on the stored data
• Minimizing the total number of stored points in the archive database
Now that we know what we have to start with, let’s try a few adjustments and see how
they affect the resulting waveforms and storage points. We will conduct these
adjustments by enabling functionality in three parts: Exception only, Exception with
Compression, and Compression only.
Part A – Exception Only
20. In the System Management Tools, Select Points → Point Builder and click the Search
button at the top of the dialog.
21. Verify the Point Source is filtered for the ‘ftld’ interface and click at the right
to recognize the newly added point.
22. Highlight the new “TankPressure” point at the bottom of the list and click OK.
23. For our first experiment, we will enable only exception testing. The higher frequency
oscillation appears to range +/- 5 units (PSI). Set the Exception Deviation value to ‘5’
Engineering Units.
24. Click the button at the top to save the attribute changes.
25. Wait about a minute to be sure the FTLD Interface has enough time to put your changes
into effect.
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26. Return to the “ExComp.xlsx” trend and notice the waveform has changed.
At this point, we have eliminated the high frequency oscillation, reduced the number of
data points going into the FactoryTalk Historian snapshot and managed to extract a decent
approximation of the low frequency waveform profile.
Part B – Both Exception and Compression
Now the question becomes, can we also reduce the number of points stored in the final archive
file and still maintain the general profile for this tag?
Here is where simply enabling compression may not have nearly the affect that it could unless
we retained more of the raw data in the preliminary snapshot. Because of this, we will want to
decrease the exception test impact on data removal while we enable the compression attribute.
27. In the Point Builder, make the following changes under the Archive tab:
Compressing: On
Compression Deviation: 10
Exception Deviation: 3
28. Click the button at the top to save the attribute changes.
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29. Wait about a minute to be sure the FTLD Interface has enough time to put your changes
into effect.
30. Return to the “ExComp.xlsx” trend and notice the waveform has once again changed.
With the new exception and compression settings, some of the high frequency oscillation
remains in the snapshot data, but the primary low frequency profile looks a little better than
using just exception testing. Once again, the number of data points going into the
FactoryTalk Historian snapshot is reduced, but from the snapshot data alone (as shown in
the trend above), we have no way of knowing how many data points were ultimately stored
in the archive.
However, if we refresh the trend display, we can get a better picture of the actual archived
data points.
31. Right-click anywhere on the Tank Pressure trend and choose Define Trend…
32. Click .
The trend is now refreshed to show only the points which were stored in the FactoryTalk
Historian archive.
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You will notice that the general TankPressure tag profile is much cleaner with only a few
data points archived. You may also notice that the resulting pattern is somewhat sporadic
or inconsistent. It contains fluctuations in the minimum and maximum values as well as
variable spacing (time) between the peaks and valleys.
Part C – Compression Only
In the previous section, we saw some improvement in the archived profile data, even though we
actually archived fewer data points. However, we may have sacrificed some consistency by
removing only some of the data in the snapshot, and not all of it.
Here is where simply enabling compression may be more effective if we kept more of the raw
data in the preliminary snapshot. Because of this, we will want to decrease the exception test
impact on data removal while we enable the compression attribute.
33. For our last experiment, we will enable only compression testing. In the Point Builder, set
the Exception Deviation value to ‘0’ Engineering units.
34. Click the button at the top to save the attribute changes.
35. Wait about a minute to be sure the FTLD Interface has enough time to put your changes
into effect.
36. Return to the “ExComp.xlsx” trend and notice the waveform has again changed.
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37. Once again, if we refresh the trend display, we can get a better picture of the archived data
points. Right-click anywhere on the Tank Pressure trend and choose Define Trend…
38. Click .
The trend is now refreshed to show only the points which were stored in the FactoryTalk
Historian archive. The resulting profile is fairly similar to the combination (exc+comp)
profile we just saw in Part B, but the intervals between the peaks and valleys are much
more consistent.
End of Lab.
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