PI Interface For OPC DA 2.6. User Guide

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.
User Guide
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PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

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Version: 2.6.5.x
Published: 26 April 2016
Contents
Introduction to PI Interface for OPC DA....................................................................... 1

Hardware configurations for PI Interface for OPC DA...................................................................................... 1
Operational overview for PI Interface for OPC DA........................................................................................... 2
Related manuals for PI Interface for OPC DA................................................................................................... 3
Related tools for PI Interface for OPC DA........................................................................................................ 4
Features supported by PI Interface for OPC DA............................................................................................... 4
PI Interface for OPC DA installation............................................................................. 7

Installation prerequisites................................................................................................................................. 7
Installation directory and file locations............................................................................................................ 7
Install PI Interface for OPC DA.........................................................................................................................8
Configuration overview for PI Interface for OPC DA...................................................... 9

Configuration checklist for PI Interface for OPC DA.........................................................................................9
Interface startup configuration...................................................................................................................... 10
Create and configure the interface instance................................................................................................... 11
Server connection management................................................................................................................ 12
Security configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA........................................................................................ 12
Security best practices for PI Interface for OPC DA.................................................................................... 12
Create trusts.............................................................................................................................................. 13
Configure the Windows service.................................................................................................................. 15
DCOM configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA....................................................................................... 16
PI point configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA......................................................................................... 19
Export OPC items to PI point configurator................................................................................................. 20
Create PI points manually.......................................................................................................................... 20
Configure point attributes......................................................................................................................... 20
Scan class settings and update rates..........................................................................................................29
Input points for PI Interface for OPC DA..................................................................................................... 31
Output point configurations.......................................................................................................................35
Data type compatibility..............................................................................................................................37
Failover configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA.........................................................................................46
UniInt failover modes for PI Interface for OPC DA...................................................................................... 47
OPC server-level failover........................................................................................................................... 48
Buffering for PI Interfaces.............................................................................................................................. 53
Buffering services...................................................................................................................................... 53
Buffering and collectives............................................................................................................................54
Buffering configuration............................................................................................................................. 54
Enable buffering........................................................................................................................................ 55
Plug-ins (post-processing DLLs).................................................................................................................... 55
PI Interface for OPC DA operation............................................................................. 57

Verify interface startup.................................................................................................................................. 57
OPC server data collection.............................................................................................................................57
PI ICU reference for PI Interface for OPC DA............................................................... 59

OPC server settings....................................................................................................................................... 59
Advanced Options settings........................................................................................................................... 60
Data Handling settings.................................................................................................................................. 61
PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide iii

Contents
DCOM Security settings................................................................................................................................ 63

Failover settings............................................................................................................................................ 64
Plug-In settings............................................................................................................................................. 66
Miscellaneous settings.................................................................................................................................. 66
Debug settings.............................................................................................................................................. 66
Time stamp options in PI ICU.........................................................................................................................67
Command-line parameters for PI Interface for OPC DA............................................... 69

Alphabetical list of parameters......................................................................................................................69
Parameters by function................................................................................................................................. 84
PI Interface for OPC DA troubleshooting.................................................................... 87

Open PI OPC Client Tool................................................................................................................................87
OPC server issues.......................................................................................................................................... 87
Item browsing............................................................................................................................................87
OPC server time stamp options..................................................................................................................87
Unreliable values....................................................................................................................................... 88
Access path............................................................................................................................................... 88
Problems with data returned by OPC server.............................................................................................. 88
Troubleshooting OPC server operation......................................................................................................89
OPC refreshes........................................................................................................................................... 90
Error and informational messages for PI Interface for OPC DA...................................................................... 91
Logging..................................................................................................................................................... 92
Messages.................................................................................................................................................. 92
System errors and PI System errors......................................................................................................... 100
UniInt failover-specific messages............................................................................................................. 100
Technical support and other resources..................................................................... 105
iv PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Introduction to PI Interface for OPC DA
PI Interface for OPC DA is an OSIsoft client application that communicates between an OPC
server and PI Data Archive. PI Interface for OPC DA collects real-time data from the OPC server
and writes values to PI points. Optionally, the interface can write data from PI points in PI Data
Archive to the OPC server.
PI Interface for OPC DA is built on the OSIsoft UniInt framework, which includes a standard set
of common features. For example, the interface can be configured to run as an automatic
service, use disconnected startup, and use buffering to prevent data loss. UniInt framework
features are documented in the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Manual, which is a
companion guide to the PI Interface for OPC DA User Guide.
OPC is dependent on Microsoft COM and DCOM services, and the interface must run on
Windows platforms. PI Interface for OPC DA supports versions 1.0a, 2.0, and 2.05 of the OPC
Data Access standard.
Note:
The OPC DA standard is designed for real-time data. For OPC XML-DA specification data,
use PI Interface for OPC DA XML. To collect or synchronize historical OPC data using the
OPC HDA standard, use PI Interface for OPC HDA. To collect alarm and event OPC data
using the OPC AE standard, use PI Interface for OPC Alarms and Events.
Hardware configurations for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA can be configured to run on the OPC server machine, the PI Data
Archive server machine, or on a separate machine. Each configuration requires a different set
of settings to run the interface. To ensure that the interface does not compete with PI Data
Archive for system resources, install the interface on a dedicated computer.
The following configuration is simple and permits data buffering on the interface node:
The following configuration places the OPC server on its own computer:
PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 1

Operational overview for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA starts by using a Windows batch (.bat) file that invokes the interface
executable. The .bat file contains command-line parameters for the interface settings.
For normal startup, PI Interface for OPC DA performs the following operations:
1. Connects to PI Data Archive (unless disconnected startup is configured)

2. Gets PI points from PI Data Archive
3. Connects to OPC server
4. Creates OPC groups
5. Adds items to groups
6. Activates groups (unless groups are created as active)
7. Begins data collection
Once data collection starts, the interface performs the following operations:
• Services scheduled input points and process each scan class in turn
• Services output points as events arrive
• Services triggered input points as events arrive
• Checks the PI point database for points that are added, edited, and deleted
• Reloads new or changed points
The interface checks for point updates every 2 minutes. The interface processes 25 point
updates at a time. If more than 25 points are added, edited, or deleted at one time, the interface
processes the first 25 points, waits 30 seconds (default) or one-fourth of the time specified by
the UniInt updateinterval parameter, whichever is lower, processes the next 25 points, and
so on. After all points have been processed, the interface resumes checking for updates at the
update interval.
2 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Related manuals for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA is based on the UniInt framework. UniInt interfaces use and interact
with many other components of the PI System. For related information, refer to the following
documents:
• PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide

Describes configuration, operation, and troubleshooting for UniInt-based interfaces.
• DCOM Security and Configuration Guide

Describes security configuration for OPC-related PI System products.
• PI OPC Client User's Guide

Includes information on using the PI OPC Client tool.
• PI Server System Management Guide

Documentation for managing PI Data Archive installations, interfaces, PI points, and digital
state sets.
• Configuring PI Server Security

Includes information about PI Data Archive security.
• High Availability Administrator Guide

Describes how to configure high availability and manage PI Data Archive and interface
installations when using PI collectives.
• PI SDK and PI API Online Help Files

Documentation for the PI SDK and PI API libraries used by interfaces. The embedded help
(.chm) files are located in the %PIHOME%\PIPC\Help\ directory. PIHOME is an environment
variable that contains the PI API installation path.
• PI API Installation Instructions User Guide

Details about installing supporting components, including buffering to prevent data loss if
the connection to PI Data Archive is lost.
• PI Buffering Manager Help Files

Explains how to configure buffering using PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3 or later, including how to
upgrade from API Buffer Server (bufserv) if needed. The embedded help files are located at
PIPC/HELP/BufferManager.chm.
• PI Interface Configuration Utility User Guide

Describes how to configure interfaces using PI ICU.
• Interface logging
For more information about reading message logs, see the OSIsoft Knowledge Base article
How to read new UniInt 4.5.0.x and later Interface message logs (http://
techsupport.osisoft.com/techsupport/nontemplates/KB/article.aspx?id=KB00401).

• Interface release notes

Release-specific information about functional updates, bug fixes, and new features. Release
notes are provided both for the UniInt framework and for each interface.
• Data Access Custom Interface Standard v2.05a

The OPC Foundation documentation for v2.05a of OPC DA.
• Handling non-English characters or strings on the PI Server

See the How does the PI Server handle non-English characters or strings (https://
techsupport.osisoft.com/Troubleshooting/KB/KB00454).
Related tools for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA does not have its own graphical user interface (GUI). The following
tools perform multiple functions related to setting up, configuring, running, and
troubleshooting the interface and the OPC server:
• PI OPC Client Tool

Connects to OPC servers and displays the data in connected OPC servers, including groups
and items.
• OPC to CSV tool

Provides access to OPC item properties and enables you to apply OPC server-specific or
site-specific knowledge to revise or create PI point attributes before PI points are created or
edited. Exports OPC items to a comma-separated values file that can be loaded into the PI
Tag Configurator add-in for Excel.
• OPC Enum tool

Discovers OPC servers.
• opcscan.exe
• opcrefresh.exe
• opcresponse.exe
Used for translating time stamps from refresh logs for the OPC server and run from the
command line.
• PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU)

Used to create and configure instances of each interface. Once created, each instance is
available from the drop-down menu in PI ICU.
Features supported by PI Interface for OPC DA

PI OPC DA interface part number: PI-IN-OS-OPC-NTI
Supported Operating Systems

Platform 32-bit application 64-bit application
Windows 2012 Server R2 32-bit Yes No
OS

Platform 32-bit application 64-bit application

Windows 2012 Server R2 64-bit Yes (emulation mode) No
OS
Windows Vista 32-bit OS Yes No
Windows Vista 64-bit OS Yes (emulation mode) No
Windows 2008 32-bit OS Yes No
Windows 2008 R2 64-bit OS Yes (emulation mode) No
Windows 7 32-bit OS Yes No
Windows 7 64-bit OS Yes (emulation mode) No
Windows 8 Yes (emulation mode) No
Server 2012 Yes (emulation mode) No
Note:
OSIsoft recommends that security updates from Microsoft are regularly installed. OSIsoft
recommends using the newest versions of Windows for latest security features. For more
information about security, see Security best practices for PI Interface for OPC DA.
No 64-bit builds of the PI OPC DA interface are available.
Feature Support
OPC Data Access Standard 1.0a / 2.0 / 2.05
Auto creates PI points APS Connector
Point Builder utility Yes
ICU control Yes
PI point types Int16 Int32 Float16 Float32 Float64 Digital String
Timestamp
Sub-second time stamps Yes
Sub-second scan classes Yes
Automatically incorporates PI point attribute Yes
changes
Exception reporting Interface: PI exceptions
OPC server: Deadband
Outputs from PI Data Archive Yes

Inputs to PI Data Archive Scan-based unsolicited event tags
Outputs to data source Yes
* Read-only interface available Yes
Supports questionable bit Yes

Supports multi-character pointsource PI point Yes
attribute
Maximum point count Unlimited
Uses PI SDK Yes
PINet string support N/A
Source of time stamps Interface or OPC server (configurable)
History recovery No

Feature Support
Disconnected startup Yes
SetDeviceStatus Yes
Failover options OPC server-level failover and UniInt Phase 2
Interface-level failover
Vendor software required on PI interface node No
Vendor software required on data source Yes
Vendor hardware required No
Additional PI software included with interface Yes
Device point types VT_I2
VT_I4
VT_R4
VT_R8
VT_BSTR
VT_DATE
Serial-based interface No

PI Interface for OPC DA installation
To install PI Interface for OPC DA, you must meet all the installation prerequisites and then run
the executable (.exe) file.
Once the interface software is installed, configure interface settings using PI ICU.
Topics in this section

• Installation prerequisites
• Installation directory and file locations
• Install PI Interface for OPC DA
Installation prerequisites
Before installing and configuring the interface, ensure that the following system prerequisites
are met:
• Supported operating system and vendor hardware and software.
For more information, see Features supported by PI Interface for OPC DA.
• Connection to a running PI Data Archive node.
Use PI System Management Tools (PI SMT) to view PI Data Archive status.
• Connection to a running OPC server that is populated with points.
Use PI OPC Client Tool to view the OPC server connection and contents.
• Correct time zone setting for the interface node.
• You are installing the interface using an administrator account.
For more information about security requirements for the interface, see Security
configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA.
Installation directory and file locations

The PI Interface for OPC DA installation directory contains all the files required to configure
and run the interface. By default, the PI Interface for OPC DA is installed in the following
location: \%PIHOME%\Interfaces\OPCInt\.
The %PIHOME% root directory is an environmental variable under which OSIsoft products are
installed, and is defined by the PIHOME entry in the pipc.ini configuration file in the
%windir% directory. To override the default locations, edit the pipc.ini configuration file.
Note:
Restrict the Windows accounts that can create or write files in the %PIHOME% folder and
subfolders. For more information about account security and restricting directory and
file access, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Manual.
The OPCEnum tool, which discovers OPC servers, is installed in the \%windir%\system32
directory, except on 64-bit systems, where it is installed in %windir%\sysWOW64. The OPC

PI Interface for OPC DA installation
libraries, provided by the OPC Foundation and installed with the interface, are installed in the
same directory as OPCEnum.
Install PI Interface for OPC DA

Install the software for the interface on the interface node.
Before you start

Installation prerequisites
Procedure
1. On the interface node, run the PI Interface for OPC DA setup program.
2. Test the connection to PI Data Archive from the interface node.
◦ For PI API connections, open a command prompt, navigate to the %PIPC%\bin directory,
and issue the apisnap PISERVERNODE command.
◦ For PI SDK connections, from the Windows Start menu, click All Programs > PI System >
About PI-SDK, and then click File > Connections to connect.
After you finish

Configure the interface using PI ICU.

Configuration overview for PI Interface for OPC DA
Once the interface software is installed, you must configure the following items:
• Startup parameters
• Security
• Windows service
• PI points
• Buffering
Additional configuration options include failover, disconnected startup, and interface
performance and status points. For details about configuration for common UniInt interface
features, refer to the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
Copies of the interface software, called interface instances, can be made on one or more
interface nodes. Each interface instance requires its own startup (.bat) file. The .bat file
contains parameters, sometimes called flags, which are configured to create the startup and
runtime settings of the interface.
Use PI ICU to configure interface settings to ensure a correctly-formatted .bat file. Once the
first interface instance is configured, you can use a copy of the configured .bat file and replace
instance-specific parameters for each interface instance. The .bat files are located in the
installation directory for the interface, which also includes a template batch file
(opcint.bat_new) that you can use for reference and testing.
The .bat file parameters can also be run from the command line for testing and
troubleshooting. For a complete list of parameters, open a command window, navigate to the
interface installation directory, and issue the following command: opcint -help.
Configuration checklist for PI Interface for OPC DA

Once the interface software is installed, use PI ICU to configure the interface instance. A
standard configuration would include the following steps. For more information about
standard UniInt interface configurations, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide. For
more information on using PI ICU, see the PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) User Guide.
Procedure
1. Create the interface instance on the interface node.
2. Configure security.
a. Configure the Windows service.
b. Restrict access for service accounts.
c. Create and configure a PI identity, PI trust, and mappings for the interface (application
name: OPCpE), the buffering subsystem, and the PI ICU applications.
d. Configure DCOM settings.
3. Configure interface startup batch (.bat) file parameters with the minimal settings:

◦ Point source
Use OPC or an unused point source of your choice.
◦ Scan classes
Set as desired. Scan class 1 is reserved for advise points.
◦ Interface ID
Use 1 or any unused numeric ID.
4. Configure the connection to an OPC server. From the OPC Server tab in the OPCInt tab in PI
ICU, click the List Available Servers button, then select the server. If the server is on another
machine, specify that machine or IP address in the Server Node field.
5. Use the PI OPC Client tool to verify that the OPC server is connected, running, and populated
with points.
6. Verify interface startup.
7. Define the digital state sets for digital PI points.
8. Build input points and (optional) output points for the interface, and verify that data
appears in PI Data Archive.
For details on point attributes, see PI point configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA.
9. Configure buffering.
Stop the interface, then configure and start buffering. Restart the interface and confirm that
the service and buffering restart.
10. Configure the following optional features:
◦ Performance and health points

Performance and health points are PI points that track the status and performance of the
interface.
Note:
PI Interface for OPC DA does not support scan class performance points.
◦ Disconnected startup
Disconnected startup allows the interface to start even if PI Data Archive is not available.
◦ UniInt failover
UniInt failover minimizes data loss by enabling a backup interface instance to collect
data if the primary interface instance fails.
Interface startup configuration

PI Interface for OPC DA is normally run as a Windows service. The interface uses a Windows
batch (.bat) file which specifies settings using command-line parameters.
To ensure a correctly-formatted .bat file, use PI ICU. Do not edit the file manually. For a
complete list of UniInt startup parameters, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
This document describes interface-specific parameters.

Create and configure the interface instance

For each OPC server intended to exchange data with the PI System, you must create at least
one instance of the PI OPC interface. For each instance you create, settings are stored in a
separate Windows command file (a .bat file) in the PI OPC interface installation directory.
Tip:
Configure multiple instances of the PI Interface for OPC DA with unique interface ID (id)
and point source (ps) startup parameters to more easily identify where the data written
to PI Data Archive originated, and trace any problems that arise.
Procedure
1. Launch PI ICU and click Interface > New from BAT file.
2. Browse to the interface installation directory (default %PIPC%\Interfaces\OPCInt),
select OPCInt.bat_new, and then click Open.
The Select PI Host Server window opens.
3. Specify the PI Data Archive and click OK.
PI ICU displays the settings of the new instance of the interface.
4. Configure the basic settings as follows:
◦ General tab
▪ Point source
Use OPC or a point source not already in use.
▪ ID
Use 1 or a numeric ID not already in use by another instance of the interface.
▪ Scan Class
Set to desired scan frequency. Scan class 1 is reserved for advise tags. When defining
multiple scan classes, you can spread the server workload using offsets.
◦ OPCInt page
Click the List Available Servers button, then select your OPC server from the drop-down
list of servers. If the server resides on another machine, specify the node name or IP
address in the Server Node field before listing the available servers.
Note:
Certain OPC servers may refuse “remote" connection attempts. If the Server Node
field is blank or set to LocalHost (case insensitive), the interface will treat the server
as though it is local. If anything else is used in the Server Node field, the connection
will be treated as remote.
◦ Security Parameters tab

Most OPC servers do not support OPC security. Verify that your OPC server supports
security before enabling this option. If your OPC server requires clients to use OPC

security, enable OPC security and select NT security or Private OPC security, then enter
the user ID and password.
Note:
OSIsoft recommends using NT security to encrypt user ID and password information.
Private OPC security stores and transmits this information in clear text. For more
information, see Security configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA.
Server connection management

Each instance of the PI Interface for OPC DA connects to a single OPC server. To handle
multiple OPC servers, run multiple instances of the PI OPC interface. Multiple instances of the
interface can be configured to connect to the same OPC server. To enable the interface to
collect data without a connection to PI Data Archive, configure disconnected startup for the
interface.
If the interface cannot connect to the OPC server during startup, it logs the problem and retries
the connection every five seconds until it reconnects. When the OPC server reports that it is
running, the interface connects to it and starts creating groups and adding items. If the PI OPC
interface loses the connection to the OPC server after the initial connection, it tries to re-
establish the connection. To ensure that no data from the OPC server is lost if PI Data Archive
is disconnected, configure buffering on the interface node.
For more information about buffering, see the PI Buffering Manager Help Files.
Security configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA

Sending data across networks and through individual machines within those networks can
pose security risks. Therefore, OSIsoft recommends you configure your interface service
accounts using the most secure methods possible that meet your requirements.
For general information about service account types, restricting access for security accounts
and securing read-write interfaces, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide. For more
information about configuring DCOM security, see the DCOM Security and Configuration Guide.
Security best practices for PI Interface for OPC DA

For more information about security for OPC, see the DCOM Security and Configuration Guide.
For more information about configuring security for PI Data Archive, see PI Server Configuring
PI Server Security.
Interface installation requires an administrator account for the following tasks:
• Installing the interface software
• Creating the interface service account
• Creating, editing, and removing the interface service
• Adding, updating, and removing performance counters
Security considerations service accounts for PI Interfaces based on the UniInt framework are
discussed in the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.

Note:
In some cases, the interface service account privileges can be restricted to limit file,
folder, and registry key access. Virtual service accounts, managed service accounts, non-
administrator domain service accounts, and non-administrator local service accounts are
the best options for limiting service account permissions.
For more information about managing PI Data Archive security and trusts, see the PI Server
System Management Guide.
Authentication and authorization

In order for the interface to connect to PI Data Archive , the interface service account must be
authenticated and authorized for communications. This requires configuring security for the
applications that connect to PI Data Archive. For more information about authentication and
authorization for interfaces, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
Note:
When configuring PI users and PI groups for the interface, avoid using the piadmin
super-user or the piadmins group. These built-in users and groups have high-level
privileges that can pose security risks.
PI point security and whitelist files

PI point security can be configured for user access to the point attributes using the
ptsecurity attribute, and user access to the point data using the datasecurity attribute.
For output points, the zero and span attributes can be used to specify the minimum and
maximum values allowed by the output point.
For all interfaces that can write to the data source, OSIsoft recommends configuring a file of
allowed output points from PI Data Archive to the data source. Create a whitelist of output
points to specify authorized point updates to the data source. When using a whitelist, the
interface verifies an output point against the list before updating the data source. The whitelist
file is a comma-separated values (.csv) file that contains a list of valid output points and any
attributes necessary to specify the output points and their intended location within the data
source. Use an empty whitelist file if you do not need outputs to the data source. Enable use of
the whitelist using the /whitelist=path/filename startup parameter.
For more information about configuring the whitelist file and the startup file parameter to
enable the whitelist file, see Whitelist file configurations or the PI Universal Interface (UniInt)
User Guide.
DCOM security
OPC server and client applications are based on Mocrosoft's COM/DCOM communication
model. For an overview, see DCOM configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA.
For more information about DCOM security for PI OPC products, see the DCOM Security and
Configuration Guide.
Create trusts
When creating trusts, you have many options. Following is a simple and secure approach,
creating a trust for the following applications:

• PI Interface for OPC DA

• PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU)
• Buffering
Note:
OSIsoft discourages using highly-privileged identities, users, or groups in PI trusts for
interfaces. Avoid using the piadmin super-user and piadmins group. The recommended
best practice for PI Data Archive security is to create an identity, user, or group that has
only the access rights which are necessary for the interface, PI ICU, or buffering to
operate.
To create each of these trusts using PI System Management Tools, connect to the PI Data
Archive server and perform the following steps:
Procedure
1. Click Security and choose Mappings & Trusts.
2. On the Trusts tab, right-click and choose New Trust.
The Add Trust wizard opens.
3. Specify a meaningful name and description for the trust.
4. Configure settings as follows:
Trust Type Application Name Network Path PI User
PI Interface for PI API application OPCpE Name of the Identity with
OPC DA interface node or access rights to
IP address plus the PI points for
netmask the interface.
255.255.255.255 Enabled by the
datasecurity
attribute.
PI ICU PI API application PI-ICU.exe Name of the Dedicated PI
interface node or identity with the
IP address plus precise
netmask permissions
255.255.255.255 required
(database read
access, read
ptsecurity and
read-write
permission for
OPC points)
Buffering PI API application Bufserv: APIBE Name of the Buffering service
interface node or identity with
PIBufss:
IP address, plus necessary access
Pibufss.exe
netmask rights for the PI
255.255.255.255 points for all
interfaces on the
interface node.

Configure the Windows service

To ensure that PI Interface for OPC DA restarts when the interface node is restarted, configure
it as a Windows service.
Note:
As a security defense, OSIsoft recommends running the interface service under an
account with minimum privileges, such as a Windows built-in service virtual account, the
built-in Network Service account, or a non-administrative account that you create. For
more information about security, see Security best practices for PI Interface for OPC DA.
Use PI ICU to install the interface as a service.
Procedure
1. Launch PI ICU and click the Service tab.
2. Set the fields as described in the following table.
Field Description
Service name Descriptive name for the interface service.
ID Numeric ID of the interface instance. Must be unique for each instance.
Display name The service name displayed in the Windows Services control panel.
The default display name is the service name with a PI- prefix. You can override the
default. To ensure that OSIsoft-related services are sorted together in the Services
control panel, retain the PI- prefix.
Log on as The Windows user account associated with the service.

The user must have DCOM permissions configured on the OPC server. Set password
expiration to Never.
Password Password, if any, for the preceding user.

Dependencies Any services that the interface depends on.
The only dependency is the TCP/IP service, which is pre-configured. If buffering is
enabled, you are prompted to create a dependency on the buffering service.
Startup type Specifies whether the interface service starts automatically when the interface node
is restarted. Generally, interface services are set to start automatically.
3. To create the service, click Create.

4. To start the service, click the button.
Manage the PI Interface for OPC DA service

After you install the interface as a Windows service, use the procedures in this section to
manage the service.
Procedure
• To verify that the service is running, run services.msc from the Windows Start menu.
• To start and stop the service, use PI ICU.

• To remove the service using PI ICU, stop it and click Remove.

• To start the service interactively, use PI ICU and click Interface > Start Interactive.
Interactive startup is usually done only for debugging.
DCOM configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA

Classic OPC server and client applications are based on Microsoft’s COM/DCOM
communication model. The type of communication depends on the network configuration:
• COM (Component Object Model)

Provides a set of interfaces that enable software components to communicate on a single
computer.
• DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model)
Extends COM to enable software components to communicate between network nodes.
DCOM enables a process on one computer to request another computer to execute
programs on its behalf, so permissions must be granted carefully to maintain security.
Note:
DCOM permissions must be granted to the accounts under which the OPC server and PI
Interface for OPC DA run, even if you are using the same node for both the OPC server
and the OPC client.
For details, see the DCOM Security and Configuration Guide.

• DCOM security levels
• DCOM clients and servers
• Windows domains and users
• DCOM user accounts
• Firewalls and security
DCOM security levels

Access to a COM server is governed by Windows security and controlled by access control lists
(ACLs), which grant specific users or groups permission to use that server. In addition, system-
level policies and settings determine how users are authenticated and how permissions are
granted.
DCOM security is implemented on several levels:
• System-level ACLs, settings and policies define the minimum level of security for all DCOM
components (the Edit Limits ACLs in dcomcnfg).
• Default ACLs and security levels are used if a DCOM component does not explicitly set a
security level (the Edit Defaults ACLs in dcomcnfg).

• Custom ACLs and security levels can be specified for individual DCOM servers using the
Windows dcomcnfg utility.
• Custom security can be implemented in code by the DCOM server
(CoInitializeSecurity).
DCOM clients and servers

OPC servers are DCOM servers, and OPC clients are DCOM clients, but the roles are not fixed.
PI Interface for OPC DA retrieves data from the OPC server using asynchronous callbacks.
During a callback, PI Interface for OPC DA acts as a DCOM server, while the OPC server acts as a
DCOM client. For this reason, DCOM security on the interface node must be configured to allow
access by the account associated with the OPC server.
Windows domains and users

A Windows domain is a network of computers with a common security database. If the PI
Interface for OPC DA node and the OPC server are members of the same domain (including
domains with bi-directional trusts), domain users can be used in DCOM access control lists. If
the interface and server reside in different domains, you must configure identical local
accounts on both machines and use those accounts in ACLs. These accounts must have the
same user name and password, and password expiration for these accounts must be disabled.
If the interface and the OPC server are on the same computer, any account that is recognized
by that computer can be used, including the SYSTEM built-in account. Some OPC servers
implement custom security. In this case, the account must be granted access to the OPC server,
apart from any DCOM permissions.
Computers in Windows workgroup configuration have default policies that interfere with OPC
server/client communications, requiring you to disable simple file sharing.
DCOM user accounts

If the OPC server vendor has prescribed DCOM settings, do not change them unless it is not
possible to communicate with the server using those settings. DCOM settings do not retain a
history of the changes that were made. To ensure that settings can be reverted back their
original settings (if needed), you should record the current settings before making any
changes. Adjust the client settings to accommodate the server, rather than the other way
around.
Access to DCOM servers is controlled by ACLs that specify user accounts and their associated
permissions. When the client calls the server, the user account associated with the client
process is authenticated, then the ACL is evaluated to determine if that account has permission
to use the server.
For interactive clients such as PI OPC Client or PI Interface for OPC DA to run interactively, the
effective user is the account that was used to log on to the computer. An interactive process
can be run under a different account by using the RunAs command.
For client programs running as Windows services, the user is the account specified in the
Logon tab in the Services control panel.

For the OPC server, the user is the account specified in the Identity tab in the DCOM
configuration for the server. Windows provides several options for the identity used by a
DCOM server:
• Interactive user
The account that is logged on to the console of the computer where the server is running.
This setting is problematic for OPC communications: if no one is logged on to the console or
the user logged on does not have DCOM permissions, the client cannot connect to the OPC
server.
• Launching user
The server process runs under the same account as the calling client. Do not use this setting
if multiple clients running under different accounts need to access the same OPC server,
because a new instance of the OPC server is launched for each user. Note that the user ID of
the calling client might not have permission to connect to the server, because many servers
implement their own user authentication aside from DCOM permissions.
• This user
Recommended, unless the OPC server vendor specifies a different setting. Include the
specified user in the default DCOM ACLs on the interface node. If the OPC server runs as a
Windows service, use the same account as the logon account for the service.
• System account (services only)

Use only if the interface runs on the same computer as the OPC server.
Firewalls and security

DCOM relies on dynamically-assigned TCP ports. When an OPC client connects to an OPC
server, it connects to port 135 (the RPC port mapper), which assigns one TCP port and one
UDP port to the component. Communication between client and server is directed to those
ports. Because of these limitations, it is difficult to configure DCOM to work through a
conventional firewall .
Third-party vendors offer products that address these limitations. OPC tunnelers use a
specialized OPC client that mirrors data to a specialized OPC server through an encrypted
channel. OPC-aware firewalls enable secure communication with OPC servers with minimal
configuration.
If third-party solutions are not desirable, secure OPC through configuration as follows:
• If the OPC server vendor supports it, install PI Interface for OPC DA on the machine running
the OPC server. The local COM connection permits you to disregard firewall issues between
client and server.
• If a separate interface node is required, locate the interface on the OPC server’s subnet. It is
much easier to open a single firewall exception to port 5450 on the PI Data Archive server
than to configure DCOM to work through a conventional firewall.
• Configure DCOM permissions on a “least privilege” basis, by including only specific service
accounts in DCOM ACLs.
• Use the built-in Windows firewall that is included in the Windows version you are using.

PI point configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA

The PI point is a time-stamped record of a single set of measurements (for example, tank
temperature). Configure PI points to allow PI Interface for OPC DA to transmit the data from
OPC server to PI Data Archive.
Note:
To populate PI Data Archive with the points that are defined in your OPC server, use PI
OPC Client Tool or OPCtoCSV to export OPC items to an Excel file (.csv), then use the PI
SMT Tag Configurator feature to load the tags into the PI Data Archive. For details, see
Export OPC items to PI point configurator.
If outputs to the OPC server are not needed, configure the interface instance to disable outputs
from the PI Data Archive. If outputs are needed, configure an output point whitelist for the
interface instance.
Note:
Disabling outputs or configuring an output point whitelist defends against accidental or
malicious changes to the control system. For more information, see Security best
practices for PI Interface for OPC DA.
PI points for PI Interface for OPC DA require the following minimum point attributes to be
configured:
• Point name (tag)
• Point source (pointsource)
• Data type (pointtype)
• Interface instance (location1)
• PI point type: advised, event, or polled (location3)
• Scan class (location4)
• OPC ItemID (instrumenttag)
Depending on the type of point you are creating, additional attribute configurations might be
required.

• Export OPC items to PI point configurator
• Create PI points manually
• Configure point attributes
• Scan class settings and update rates
• Input points for PI Interface for OPC DA
• Output point configurations
• Data type compatibility

Export OPC items to PI point configurator

To populate PI Data Archive with the points that are defined in your OPC server, use PI OPC
Client tool or OPCtoCSV (installed in %PIPC%\PI OPC Tools\PI_OPCtoCSV) to export OPC
items to an Excel file (.csv), then use the Tag Configurator in PI System Management Tools (PI
SMT) to load the points into PI Data archive.
Note:
To permit PI Tag Configurator to create PI points, you must define a trust or configure
permissions that enable Microsoft Excel to write to PI Data Archive.
To export OPC points and create the corresponding PI points, perform the following steps:
Procedure
1. Start PI OPC Client tool and connect to your OPC server.
2. To select the OPC items you want to export, create a group (click ) and add the desired
items to it.
3. Choose File > Save As and specify the name and location of the export file.
4. Click Save.
PI OPC Client tool creates a .csv file containing the OPC items you selected.
5. In PI SMT, start Microsoft Excel by choosing Tools > Tag Configurator.
6. In Microsoft Excel, open the .csv file that contains the exported OPC items.
7. Examine the generated entries to ensure that the desired points are listed. If any entries
have Unknown in the PointType column, specify the desired data type for the point.
8. To generate the PI points, choose PI SMT > Export Tags. The Export PI Tags window opens.
9. Choose the target PI Data Archive node and click OK.
10. Examine the list of results to verify that the PI points are created.
Create PI points manually

To build individual PI points manually, use Point Builder in PI System Management Tools
(SMT). To start Point Builder, choose Points > Point Builder
Configure point attributes

Configure input and optional output PI points for PI Interface for OPC DA using the following
minimum attributes.
Procedure
1. Ensure the following PI point attributes are configured:
◦ pointsource
Identifies all points that belong to this instance of the PI OPC interface. Specify the same
Point source entered on the PI ICU General tab .

◦ location1
Specifies the OPC interface instance ID, which is displayed on the PI ICU General tab.
◦ location2
To enable handling for OPC servers that do not return certain numeric types in their
native format, set location2 to 1. Numeric data is returned as a string.
◦ location3
Point type. Options are:0 (polled), 1 (advise), or 2 (output).
◦ location4
Specifies the scan class.
◦ location5
Optional deadband value for advise points.
◦ exdesc
Specifies event points, Long ItemID, Dzero for scaled points, or ItemID to get the time
stamp for an output value.
◦ instrumenttag
OPC ItemID that corresponds to the PI point you are defining. Case-sensitive. To display
OPC server items, use PI OPC Client Tool.
◦ datasecurity
For every PI point that the interface instance services, the access control list in the
datasecurity attribute must grant read access to the PI identity in the PI trust that
authenticates the interface instance. If the interface is used without a buffering
application, write access also must be granted. If the interface is used with a buffering
application, the buffering application requires write access but the interface does not.
Note:
When buffering is configured, the datasecurity attribute must permit write access
for the buffering application's PI trust or mapping. The datasecurity write
permission for the interface's PI trust is required only when buffering is not
configured.
◦ ptsecurity
The access control list in the ptsecurity attribute of every PI point that the interface
instance services must grant read access to the PI identity in the PI trust that
authenticates the interface instance.
Point attributes for PI Interface for OPC DA

Some PI point attribute configurations are specific to PI Interface for OPC DA points, while
others are common to all points. For additional information about PI point configurations, see
the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide, and the PI Server System Management Guide.

Tag
The Tag attribute (or tag name) is the name for a point . There is a one-to-one correspondence
between the name of a point and the point itself. Because of this relationship, PI System
documentation uses the terms "tag" and "point" interchangeably.
Follow these rules for naming PI points:
• The name must be unique in the PI Data Archive.

• The first character must be alphanumeric, the underscore (_), or the percent sign (%).
• Control characters such as linefeeds or tabs are illegal.
• The following characters also are illegal: * ’ ? ; { } [ ] | \ ` '‘"“
Length
Depending on the version of the PI API and the PI Data Archive, this interface supports Tag
attributes whose length is at most 255 or 1023 characters. The following table indicates the
maximum length of this attribute for all the different combinations of PI API and PI Data
Archive versions.
PI API PI Data Archive Maximum Length
6.0.2 or later 4.370.x or later 4.370.x or later 1023
6.0.2 or later Earlier than 3.4.370.x 255
Earlier than 1.6.0.2 4.370.x or later 255
Earlier than 1.6.0.2 Earlier than 3.4.370.x 255
If the PI Data Archive version is earlier than 3.4.370.x or the PI API version is earlier than
1.6.0.2, and you want to use a maximum Tag length of 1023, you need to enable the PI SDK. See
*** SDK options*** for information.
PointSource
The PointSource attribute contains a unique, single or multi-character string that is used to
identify the PI point as a point that belongs to a particular interface.
Data type attribute

The data type (pointtype) attribute specifies what type of data is stored in the PI point.
Typically, OPC item data types do not need to match PI point data types exactly, but the data
types must be compatible. For example, integer values from a device can be sent to floating-
point or digital PI points. Similarly, a floating-point value from the device can be sent to integer
or digital PI points, although the values might be truncated.
PI Interface for OPC DA supports all PI point types except BLOB.
Note:
Some OPC servers lack support for the full range of PI point types. To determine which PI
point types are supported by your OPC server, refer to the vendor-supplied
documentation.

If the point type defined in PI Data Archive does not match the required data type defined in
the OPC server, the interface attempts to translate the data. To determine whether the point
can be read as the required type, use PI OPC Client Tool to try to read the point directly from
the OPC server. For more information on data type compatibility, see Data type compatibility.
Location1
Location1 indicates to which copy of the interface the point belongs. The value of this attribute
must match the /id command-line parameter.
Data type handling attribute (location2)

The location2 attribute configures handling of data types for PI Interface for OPC DA.
Valid settings for location2 are as follows:
Value Description
0 Normal processing; no special handling is used.
1 Read and write value as a string.
For digital points, the strings read from the OPC server must match the strings in
the digital state set used by the PI point. For integer and real points, the interface
requests a string value, and translates it to a number.
2 Read value as a Boolean. Boolean values are either zero and nonzero.
For numeric points, any value but 0 (False) is set to -1 (True). Use this option to
correctly convert an OPC server Boolean value into the PI System digital state,
which prevents the PI point from receiving Bad quality values for a Boolean value
that is True.
3 Read value as a four-byte integer.

This setting accommodates servers that cannot send the value as a two-byte integer,
which is how digital points are normally read.
4 Stores the quality of the item rather than the value.

5 Request real points as VT_R8 items (eight-byte real).
By default, the interface requests real points as VT_R4 items (four-byte real). For
float32 points (including all PI2 Real points), values that cannot fit in a 32-bit
floating-point number lose precision. This setting is included to support servers that
do not translate VT_R8 data to VT_R4 data and to permit the use of float32 points
where the benefit of greater precision is not worth the overhead of using float64
points.
6 Read time stamps from the OPC server as strings and transform them into seconds.
The PI point can be an int or a float. The format of the time stamp string is specified
in the interface batch file using the tf parameter.
7 Read time stamps from the OPC server as VT_DATE variables.

These values can be translated into time stamp strings or passed to PI Data Archive
as a number of seconds, suitable for use in computations. If the value is translated
into a string, the format of the time stamp string is specified in the interface batch
file using the tf parameter.

Value Description
8 Directs the OPC server to send the canonical data type.
The interface tries to transform the value into the proper data type for the PI point.
Use with caution, because the transformation can fail if the source data type is not
compatible with the PI point data type, or if the value cannot be represented using
the PI point data type.
>= 1024 When a post-processing DLL is used with PI Interface for OPC DA, directs the data to
be processed by the DLL.
Adding any of the above settings (1-8) to 1024 enables those options to be used
during processing. For more information, see the TimeArray Plug-in User Manual.
Processing type attribute (location3)

The location3 attribute specifies whether this PI point is a polled, advise, event, or output
point.
Location3 Description
0 Polled or event
1 Advise
2 Output
3 Polled watchdog used with server-level failover
4 Advise watchdog used with server-level failover
For an advise point, PI Interface for OPC DA registers for updates with the OPC server, and the
OPC server sends new values to the interface. The update rate from the server does not exceed
the update rate for the group.
Scan class attribute (location4)

The location4 attribute configures the scan class for the PI point. The scan class determines
the frequency at which input tags are scanned for new values.
For trigger-based points, set location4 to zero. For all other points, the location4 attribute
must be a positive number. For output tags, location4 configures the output class. When
necessary for load balancing, the interface distributes tags in scan class 1 across multiple OPC
groups. Scan classes other than scan class 1 are assigned to separate groups for load balancing.
You can assign multiple groups to the same scan classes for PI Interface for OPC DA. For each
scan class (with the exception of scan class 1), you can assign at most one polled group, one
advise group, and one output group. The limits are as follows:
Tag Maximum Number of Groups
Polled 200
Advise 600
Event 199
Output No maximum

The OPC standard does not guarantee that it can scan data at the rate that you specify for a
scan class. If the OPC server does not support the requested scan frequency, the frequency
assigned to the class is logged in the pipc.log file. If the interface workload is heavy, scans
can occur late or be skipped. For more information on skipped scans, see the PI Universal
Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
For more information about setting the scan class, scan offset, and update rate, see Scan class
settings and update rates.
OPC deadband (location5)

Under the OPC standard, deadband processing is optional for servers. If the OPC server does
not support deadband processing, the PI point is updated for all value changes to the point,
depending on the exception attributes specified for the PI point.
Use a deadband to reduce the amount of network traffic from the OPC server to PI Interface for
OPC DA. If the change between the last value read and the new value is less than the deadband,
the OPC server does not send the value to the interface. For advise points, the location5
attribute specifies a deadband value for analog OPC items.
Note:
Before attempting to configure advise points, be sure that your OPC server supports
deadband processing.
OPC server deadband processing is not the same as exception deadband processing that takes
place between the interface and PI Data Archive.
To configure the OPC server deadband, specify a percentage of the exception deadband range,
multiplied by 100. OPC server deadband only applies to dwEUType analog items, which use
the EU Low and EU High properties to calculate the range for the item. These OPC item
properties correspond to the zero and span attributes in the PI point definition. For more
information about OPC server deadband, refer to the OPC DA 2.05 specification.
For example, if the OPC server item is defined as analog with an EU Low of -10 and an EU High
of 10, and location5 is set to 2500 (25%), data is sent to the interface only when the
difference between the new value and the old value is at least 5 (25% of 20 = 5). Exception
deadband processing continues to be applied to the values received by the interface. The OPC
deadband attribute (location5) setting only affects the values sent by the OPC server.
OPC ItemID attribute (instrumenttag)

The instrumenttag attribute maps the PI point to an OPC item. This field must exactly match
the item name as defined on the OPC server, including any punctuation, spaces, and case.
To verify an ItemID, use the PI OPC Client tool. If the OPC server supports browsing, choose
List Server’s Tags to see a list of defined ItemID values. To display the full ItemID required for
instrumenttag field, double-click the ItemID in the list
The maximum length of the instrumenttag attribute depends on the versions of PI Data
Archive and PI API in use. If PI API is version 1.6.0.2 or later and PI Data Archive is 3.4.370.x or
later, the maximum length is 1023. For all earlier versions, the maximum is 32. If you are
running earlier versions and require more than 32 characters to specify the ItemID, you must
enable the PI SDK or use the extended descriptor (exdesc attribute) to specify the OPC ItemID.

Extended descriptor attribute (exdesc)

The extended descriptor (exdesc) attribute is a multi-purpose field.
If you use the exdesc attribute to specify more than one setting, put a comma between the
definitions.
By default, leading and trailing spaces are stripped from entries in the exdesc attribute. To
preserve leading and trailing spaces, enclose your entry in double quotes.
PI Interface for OPC DA uses the exdesc attribute in the following ways:
• Event-based data collection

To define an event tag, set this attribute to event=tag. When the specified tag has an
exception event, the tags for which it is the trigger are read from the OPC server.
• Dzero for scaled tags

When the device returns values that must be scaled to fit the range of values stored by the
tag, store the device zero in the exdesc attribute. The format for specifying the device zero
is Dzero=nnnnn.nnn. To specify the device span, use the convers attribute.
• Target OPC item for output tag time stamp

To direct the time stamp of an output point to an OPC item, specify the target ItemID in the
exdesc attribute.
The format of the time stamp depends on the data type of the ItemID that is to receive the
time stamp, as follows:
◦ Tim=ItemID
Setting the Tim option causes the time stamp to be written as a string (VT_BSTR),
formatted for the interface instance using the time stamp format (tf) parameter in the
batch file. The time stamp comes from the PI Data Archive server and is not adjusted for
differences in time zone or daylight savings time setting.
◦ Dat=ItemID
Setting the Dat causes the time stamp to be written as a VT_DATE. VT_DATE is an
automation type that does not specify time zone. VT_DATE values are usually treated as
local time.
In error messages related to this time stamp ItemID, the interface reports a generated tag
name of the form TS:pointname, where pointname is the name (tag attribute) of the
output PI point.
• OPC ItemID
Because of limitations to the maximum length of the instrumenttag attribute, you might
need to specify the OPC ItemID in the exdesc attribute.
Use the syntax instr=ItemID, where ItemID exactly matches the ItemID defined on the
OPC server. If the ItemID contains a comma or space, enclose it in double quotes.
If PI API is version 1.6.0.2 or later and PI Data Archive is 3.4.370.x or later, the maximum
length of the instrumenttag attribute is 1023 characters. For all earlier versions, the
maximum is 32. If you are running earlier versions and require more than 32 characters to

specify the ItemID, you must enable the PI SDK or use the exdesc attribute to specify the
OPC ItemID.
Source PI point attribute (sourcetag)

For output points (points that write data to the OPC server), the sourcetag attribute specifies
the name (stored in the tag attribute) of the PI point from which data is read.
For more information, see Output point configurations.
Scaling code attribute (totalcode)

The totalcode attribute contains a code that specifies how the value is to be scaled.
The totalcode attribute is used in conjunction with the squareroot, convers, and exdesc
attributes. For more information, see Transformations and scaling.
Square root attribute (squareroot)

The squareroot attribute specifies that the square or square root of the value is to be used.
For more information, see Transformations and scaling.
Conversion factor attribute (convers)

The convers attribute applies an offset or multiplier to a point value.
For scaled tags, the convers attribute contains the device span. For more information, see
Transformations and scaling.
The OPC item can have deadband values that correspond to the zero and span attributes,
which define the actual span of values that the OPC server sends. PI Interface for OPC DA can
use these OPC deadband values to translate the units used by the device to the units defined
for the PI point. For more information, see OPC deadband (location5).
OPC array index attribute (userint1)

The userint1 attribute maps a PI point value to an element in an OPC array item. Ensure that
all PI points that are mapped to the same OPC array have identical settings for
instrumenttag, exdesc, and all location attributes.
For PI points that are not mapped to an OPC array, set userint1 to 0 (zero).
An OPC array item contains multiple values plus a single time stamp and a quality field. These
items can be identified by using the PI OPC Client tool to read the item and examining the data
type returned by the OPC server. If it is an array item, the type of the value is VT_ARRAY |
VT_other, where VT_other is a data type such as VT_R4 or VT_I2. The values in the array are
sent as one data item and they all have the same data type.
PI Data Archive does not support PI points with an array type, so values must be assigned to a
number of individual PI points. The first value in the array maps to the PI point that has
userint1 set to 1, the second to the tag with userint1 set to 2, and so on.

If these values need to be processed as different data types, use the location2 attribute for
the PI point with userint1=1 and the settings for scaling and transformation for each
individual point to configure how PI Interface for OPC DA handles the individual value.
PI Interface for OPC DA receives the data using the data type specified by the location2 value
for the point with userint1=1, then processes the value according to how the individual point
is configured. Note that some servers cannot provide array data using any data type other than
the canonical, or native, data type (the one displayed in the PI OPC Client tool if you omit data
type). For those servers, you must either use a PI point with the correct data type, or set
location2 to 8 to configure the interface to ask for the canonical data type. For maximum
efficiency, always request the canonical data type.
Event group attribute (userint2)

The userint2 attribute assigns an event group to an event point. For points that are not event
points, set userint2 to 0 (zero).
For more information, see Event points.
Scan
By default, the Scan attribute has a value of 1, which means that scanning is turned on for the
point. Setting the Scan attribute to 0 turns scanning off. If the Scan attribute is 0 when the
interface starts, a message is written to the log and the point is not loaded by the interface.
There is one exception to the previous statement.
If any PI point is removed from the interface while the interface is running (including setting
the Scan attribute to 0), SCAN OFF will be written to the PI point regardless of the value of the
Scan attribute. Two examples of actions that would remove a PI point from an interface are to
change the point source or set the Scan attribute to 0. If an interface-specific attribute is
changed that causes the point to be rejected by the interface, SCAN OFF will be written to the
PI point.
Shutdown
The Shutdown attribute is 1 (true) by default. The default behavior of the PI Shutdown
Subsystem is to write the SHUTDOWN digital state to all PI points when PI is started. The
timestamp that is used for the SHUTDOWN events is retrieved from a file that is updated by
the Snapshot Subsystem. The timestamp is usually updated every 15 minutes, which means
that the timestamp for the SHUTDOWN events will be accurate to within 15 minutes in the
event of a power failure. For additional information on shutdown events, refer to PI Data
Archive manuals.
Note:
The SHUTDOWN events that are written by the PI Shutdown Subsystem are independent of
the SHUTDOWN events that are written by the interface when the /stopstat=Shutdown
command-line parameter is specified.
To configure PI Shutdown Subsystem to write SHUTDOWN events only for PI points that have
their shutdown attribute set to 1, edit the \PI\dat\Shutdown.dat file, as described in the PI
Server System Management Guide (https://techsupport.osisoft.com/Downloads/File/
b481399c-463e-4bcb-a93f-6ef85295263e).

SHUTDOWN events can be disabled from being written to PI points when the PI Data Archive
is restarted by setting the Shutdown attribute to 0 for each point. Alternatively, the default
behavior of the PI Shutdown Subsystem can be changed to write SHUTDOWN events only for
PI points that have their Shutdown attribute set to 0. To change the default behavior, edit the
Shutdown.dat file, as discussed in the PI Data Archive manuals.
Bufserv and PIBufss

It is undesirable to write shutdown events when buffering is being used. Bufserv and PIBufss
are utility programs that provide the capability to store and forward events to a PI Data
Archive, allowing continuous data collection when the PI Data Archive is down for
maintenance, upgrades, backups, and unexpected failures. That is, when the PI Data Archive is
shutdown, Bufserv or PIBufss will continue to collect data for the interface, making it
undesirable to write SHUTDOWN events to the PI points for this interface. Disabling Shutdown
is recommended when sending data to a Highly Available PI Data Archive collective. Refer to
the Bufserv or PIBufss manuals for additional information.
Exception reporting attributes

To minimize the data that is stored and transmitted over the network, you can use exception
reporting to filter out value changes that are not meaningful. Filtering takes place at the
interface node before data is sent to PI Data Archive.
• Maximum exception reporting interval (excmax)

This attribute configures the maximum time period allowed between sending values to PI
Data Archive.
This setting applies to both advise and polled tags. For advise tags, if PI Interface for OPC
DA does not receive a value after the specified number of seconds and does not detect a
dropped connection, it sends the last value received to the PI Data Archive with the time
stamp set to the last time stamp plus excmax time. For polled tags, the interface sends a
value to PI Data Archive if it has not sent one in the last excmax seconds, even if the new
value does not pass excdev tests.
• Minimum exception reporting interval (excmin)

This attribute configures the minimum time period between values sent to PI Data Archive.
• Exception deviation (excdev)

This attribute configures the minimum change from the last value sent to PI Data Archive
required for PI Interface for OPC DA to send a new value.
To turn off exception reporting, set all three attribute values to 0. For more information about
exception reporting see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
Scan class settings and update rates

Scan classes specify how often a data source is checked for new data. The f parameter in
the .bat file defines one or more scan classes.
Syntax: /f=scan-interval
Specify scan interval and optional offset using the following format: time value,time offset,L

Scan class time and offset time values use the following format: HH:MM:SS.##, where:
• HH is hours
• MM is minutes
• SS is seconds
• ## is hundredths of seconds (01 to 99)
If you omit HH and MM, the scan period is assumed to be in seconds. For example, /
f=00:01:00,00:00:05 is equivalent to /f=60,5.
The L value associates the time unit value with the local computer time-of-day settings. Time-
of-day scans use a 24-hour clock and are automatically adjusted for daylight saving time. This
is also known as wall clock scheduling. The following example uses a scan frequency of 24
hours (once a day), an offset of eight hours from midnight (8 AM), and enables time-of-day
scanning by specifying the L value: /f=24:00:00,08:00:00,L
The scan class frequency determines how often to scan for data. The offset specifies how long
after the frequency's time value to scan for data. To balance the scanning workload, specify an
offset for scan classes that have the same interval so that they are not scanned simultaneously.
For each scan class that you want to define, specify the f parameter. Scan classes are
numbered by the order in which you define them. Scan class 1 is the first defined f parameter,
and scan class 2 is the second f parameter you define.
Examples:
• Scan class 1 has a scanning frequency of one minute with an offset of five seconds, and scan
class 2 has a scanning frequency of seven seconds with no offset:
/f=00:01:00,00:00:05 /f=00:00:07
• Two scan classes, defined using only seconds:
/f=60,5 /f=7
• Sub-second scan classes defined as decimal values:
/f=0.5 /f=00:00:00.1
Note:
Deleting scan classes or changing their order can adversely affect the operation of
existing PI points, which are closely related to scan rates. Scan classes should be adjusted
only by PI System administrators who are fully aware of the PI System configuration and
the effects of any such changes.
For more information about scan classes, see the PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) User
Guide.
Scanning offsets
To mitigate the interface and OPC server workload, you can use the offset to stagger scanning.
If an offset is specified, scan time is calculated from midnight on the day that the interface was
started, applying any offset specified. In the first scan class in the above example, if the
interface was started at 05:06:06, the first scan occurs at 05:07:05, the second scan at
05:08:05, and so on. If offset is omitted, scanning is performed at the specified interval,
regardless of clock time.

Offsets determine when the interface asks the OPC server for the current values for polled
classes. They do not control the behavior of the OPC server, and have no effect on advise
classes unless the ga parameter is specified to stagger the activation of groups. In this case, the
offsets are used to time the activation of all groups except for scan class 1, which is reserved
for advise tags.
Update rates
The OPC server reads data from the device according to the update rate for the group in which
the item resides. By default, the update rate is the same as the scan rate.
To override the default using PI ICU, browse to the OPCInt > OPC Server > Advanced Options
page and enter your update rate value for the ur parameter in the Update Rates area.
For polled groups, configuring an update rate that is shorter than the scan period ensures that
the interface is receiving current data. For example, if the scan period is five seconds but the
update rate is two seconds, the data is no more than two seconds old when it is read. However,
note that a faster update rate increases the OPC server workload.
For advise groups, assign identical update and scan rates, except in cases where phase 1 UniInt
failover is configured for the interface. In this case, to ensure that the interface sees new values
for failover heartbeat tags as soon as possible, set the update rate to half the scan period. This
configuration reduces the risk of control needlessly switching back and forth. Dedicate a scan
class with faster update rate to the failover heartbeat points.
Note:
OSIsoft recommends using phase 2 UniInt failover. For more information about
converting from phase 1 to phase 2 UniInt failover, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt)
User Guide.
Input points for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA uses the following three types of input points for collecting data from
OPC DA data sources:
• Advise points
Input is collected and stored in PI points when the OPC server updates item values in the
server cache, based on the scan class configured for the PI point. The interface updates PI
points when advised that a value changed.
• Event points
Input is stored in PI points when the interface is notified of an updated trigger point. The
interface reads the event points, which can be associated with an event group, from the OPC
server.
• Polled points
Input is collected and stored in PI points based on the scan class configured for the point
and the update rate of the OPC server. The interface polls the OPC server at a regular rate.
All three types of points are received asynchronously by the interface.

Advise points
Advise points are sent to PI Interface for OPC DA by the OPC server only when a new value is
read into the OPC server cache.
Scan class 1 is reserved for advise points, and you can create additional scan classes for advise
points as required. Ensure that the scan class rate is fast enough to capture all the changes
from the data source.
The default maximum number of PI points in scan class 1 is 800. Up to 800 points with the
same deadband can reside in the same group. If there are more than 800 points with the same
deadband in scan class 1, the interface creates as many groups as needed. To ensure best
performance, ensure that groups size does not exceed 800 items.
Note:
Your server might perform better with smaller group sizes; a limit of 200 points per
group has proven effective with a number of OPC servers.
To change the default limit for advise-based PI points in a scan class, use PI ICU to set the
Number of Tags in the advise group field on the OPCInt > Data Handling page.
Configure the following PI point attributes to create polled points:
• location3
Set to 1 for advise points.
• location4
Assigns the scan class for a point.
Note:
Do not assign the same scan class to both advise and polled points. Use a separate
class for each point type.
Event points
Event points are read by the PI OPC interface when it receives notification that a trigger point
has a new event. Event PI points are configured with a trigger PI point. When the trigger point
receives a value, the event point is read.
Frequent device reads can impair the performance of the OPC server. By default, the server is
requested to update its cache every second for every event point defined. You can set reads to
different update rates depending on the OPC server version:
• OPC v2.0 servers always read event points from the device, not the cache. To reduce system
resource overhead from cache updates to the OPC server, set the event rate (er) parameter
to a high value, such as eight hours.
• For OPC v1.0a servers, asynchronous reads come from the cache. The internal cache update
interval needs to be fast enough to ensure that data in the cache is not stale.
For any asynchronous read, the OPC server is required to return all of the values together,
which can delay the return of new values to PI Data Archive if the OPC server encounters a
delay in reading the values. To improve performance in this case, group points according to the
device where the data originates.

• location3
Set to 2 for event points.
• location4
Assigns the scan class for a point. Set to 0 for event points.
• userint2
For each OPC event group, configure this attribute as the same integer for each PI point in
the group. Assigning PI points to OPC event groups ensures that the points are read
together.
For example, a plug-in DLL that post-processes data might require the data to be sent in a
single group.
• exdesc
For each OPC event group, configure the exdesc attribute using the same name of the
triggering point. Use the syntax TRIG='trigger_point_name’ event_condition. Use
single quotes. To treat all changes as triggering events, omit event_condition.
See the following table for a list of event descriptions:
Event Condition Description
Anychange Trigger on any change as long as the value of the
current event is different than the value of the
previous event. System digital states also trigger
events. For example, an event will be triggered
on a value change from 0 to "Bad Input," and an
event will be triggered on a value change from
"Bad Input" to 0.
Increment Trigger on any increase in value. System digital
states do not trigger events. For example, an
event will be triggered on a value change from 0
to 1, but an event will not be triggered on a value
change from "Pt Created" to 0. Likewise, an event
will not be triggered on a value change from 0 to
"Bad Input."
Decrement Trigger on any decrease in value. System digital
states do not trigger events. For example, an
event will be triggered on a value change from 1
to 0, but an event will not be triggered on a value
change from "Pt Created" to 0. Likewise, an event
will not be triggered on a value change from 0 to
"Bad Input."
Nonzero Trigger on any non-zero value. Events are not
triggered when a system digital state is written
to the trigger tag. For example, an event is
triggered on a value change from "Pt Created" to
1, but an event is not triggered on a value change
from 1 to "Bad Input."

The PI point that triggers the read is a separate input point than the event points. When a
new event for a trigger point is sent to the PI Snapshot, the PI System notifies the interface,
which then reads the values for all the associated event points from the OPC server.
For v1.0a servers, an asynchronous read is sent to the server’s cache. For v2.0 servers, the
interface performs an asynchronous read from the device.
For more information about configuring input trigger points, see the PI Universal Interface
(UniInt) User Guide.
For efficiency with v1.0a servers, separate event points into groups based on the triggering
event. For OPC v2.0 servers, separate event points according to the data source. The OPC v2.0
standard requires that all asynchronous reads originate from the device rather than from the
server’s cache, so set the cache update rate high and do not group values that come from
different devices.
The following table illustrates PI points configured for separate event points.
Tag ExDesc Instrum Locatio Locatio Locatio Locatio Locatio UserInt1 UserInt2
entTag n1 n2 n3 n4 n5
PM1_Te TRIG=P ItemID1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
mp.PV M1_Trig
ger
PM1_Rat TRIG=P ItemID2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
e.PV M1_Trig
ger
PM2_Te TRIG=P ItemID3 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
mp.PV M2_Trig
ger
In the preceding example, PM1_Trigger and PM2_Trigger are points that are updated either
by this interface instance, another interface, or by manual entry. When PM1_Trigger gets a
new event in the snapshot, the interface sends the OPC server a read command that requests
data for both PM1_Temp.PV and PM1_Rate.PV. Both values are returned in a single call.
Likewise, when PM2_Trigger gets an event in the snapshot, the interface requests a value for
PM2_Temp.PV.
Polled points
Polled PI points are grouped by scan class. If possible, the interface reads groups using the scan
class rate configured for the point. Configure scan class rates using PI ICU.
Note:
The OPC server does not guarantee that scan rates match between the OPC server and
the interface. PI Interface for OPC DA sends a request to the OPC server to use an update
rate that matches the scan class, but the OPC server determines its own update rate for
scanning its data sources. The scan class offset has no effect on the OPC server, unless the
interface is configured for staggered group activation and the OPC server uses the
activation of the group to initiate the scanning cycle.
For more information about polled points, see the OPC Foundation document Data Access
Custom Interface Standard v2.05a.

• location3
Set to 0 for polled points.
• location4
Assigns the scan class for a point.
Note:
Do not assign the same scan class to both advise and polled points. Use a separate
class for each point type.
Output point configurations

Output points send data from PI Data Archive to the OPC server. Note that only good values can
be sent. System digital states are not sent to OPC items.
To configure an output point, edit the point using PI Point Builder and specify the following
settings:
• Set location1 to the id parameter value of the interface instance.
• Set location3 to 2.
• Specify the ItemID (the OPC item to be written) for the instrumenttag attribute.
• Optional: Specify the source point (the PI point that contains the value to be written to the
OPC server) in the sourcetag attribute. Not required if you intend to send the value
directly to the output item without copying the values and time stamps to a PI point.
• Optional: Set location4 to the desired output group. Output points with location4 set to
0 are distributed across output groups for load balancing.
You can trigger an output to the OPC server from the interface using the input point that stores
OPC server data, or from a separate PI point configured to collect output values and the time
stamp for the write. To configure output points, use one of the following methods:
• To use the same PI point as the source and the output point, leave the sourcetag attribute
blank.
Any means of updating the snapshot value of the output point is acceptable. Any new value
is sent to the OPC item.
To trigger the output to the target OPC item, the time stamp must be more recent than the
previous time stamp, regardless of whether the value changes. The value that you enter into
the output point’s snapshot is written to the target item on the OPC server.
• To configure the output point using a separate source point, set the sourcetag attribute to
the name of another PI point that will contain the values that you want written to the OPC
item.
When the source point is successfully updated, the new value is written to the target OPC
item. If the PI OPC interface succeeds in updating the OPC item, it writes the value and time
stamp to the output point. If the interface does not succeed in updating the OPC item, it
writes a digital state that describes the error to the output point. For output points, a
success status indicates that the OPC server item has been updated, but there is no
guarantee that the corresponding data source has been updated. To verify that the data
source has been updated, create a corresponding input point and add logic to ensure that
the values of the input and output points match.

The pointsource attribute of the output point must match the point source (ps) value of
the interface instance, but the source point can be associated with any point source. The
data type of the source point must be compatible with that of the output point.
Whitelist file configurations

For enhanced security, create a whitelist of output points and enable the whitelist startup
parameter for the interface. When this feature is enabled, the interface verifies that an output
point is in the whitelist before writing to an OPC data source.
The whitelist file is a comma-separated values (.csv) file that contains a list of approved
output PI points and the attributes that associate the PI point with a writeable value in an OPC
device.
For this interface, include the following required attributes in the whitelist file to secure the
output points:
• tag
• instrumenttag
• location3
• userint1
The whitelist feature also supports range checking of output values. Include the zero and span
attributes to specify a secure range of values to send to the OPC data source. These attributes
specify the minimum (zero) and maximum (sum of zero and span) allowed for the output
value.
For additional information on creating and configuring and enabling an output point whitelist
file, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
Interface outputs to OPC servers

When the interface writes a value to the OPC server, the interface waits for an
acknowledgement (ACK) from the server, and monitors acknowledgements of writes.
To speed up processing of outputs, you can control output processing in the following ways:
• Configure multiple output groups
• Specify the number of outstanding writes a group is permitted
• Specify the amount of data to be sent in each write
To assign an output point to an output group, set its location4 attribute to the group number.
For load balancing, output points with location4 set to 0 are distributed across output
groups, including groups to which output points are explicitly assigned.
The OPC server is not required to accept more than one write at a time from any group, but
many servers permit multiple writes to be sent without waiting for the first one to be
acknowledged.
Even if the server accepts only one write at a time, defining multiple output groups can
improve throughput. If you specify more outstanding writes than the OPC server can accept, PI
Interface for OPC DA reduces its setting to the OPC server maximum.

You can specify how long to wait for the OPC server to acknowledge a write. If no
acknowledgement is received in the specified period, the interface cancels the write and
reissues it.
If your OPC server does not acknowledge writes, you can create an alert using the Device
Status health point. Configure the alert to detect a desired number of queued writes. When the
specified level is reached, the alert sets an alarm state and drops a specified number of values,
oldest or newest.
Data type compatibility

The data type of a PI point must be compatible with the data type of the corresponding OPC
item. For example, if a string value from the OPC server is to be put into an Int32 PI point, the
string must contain a number. If a 64-bit floating-point value is to be put into an Int16 point, its
value must not overflow the target data type.
PI Interface for OPC DA specifies the desired data type when requesting information from the
OPC server, and the OPC server is responsible for delivering the requested data type if it can.
PI Interface for OPC DA normally requests values using the following default data types:
PI System data type (pointtype) OPC data type
Digital Two-byte Integer (VT_I2)
Int16 Two-byte Integer (VT_I2)
Int32 Four-byte Integer (VT_I4)
Float32 Four-byte Float (VT_R4)
Float64 Eight-byte Float (VT_R8)
String String (VT_BSTR)
If your OPC server does not permit clients to specify a data type, set location2 to 8 for all
your OPC-based PI points to configure the interface to request the canonical, or native, data
type from the OPC server.
Note:
PI Interface for OPC DA might receive data for which no reasonable conversion is
possible. Where possible, always specify the OPC data type that matches the PI point.
OPC numeric strings

Some OPC servers return certain numeric data types only as strings. To interpret string-
formatted Int16, Int32, Float32, and Float64 values, set location2 to 1. PI Interface for OPC
DA requests the data as a string (VT_BSTR) and interprets the data as a number.
Digital PI points contain integer values that correspond to specific strings in the digital state
table in the point's digital set property. Some devices read and write the string value rather
than the integer value. To read and write digital points as string values, set location2 to 1.
Make sure that the strings used by the OPC server are identical to the strings in the digital set,
including punctuation and spaces. For optimal performance, read digital points as numbers
whenever possible.

Boolean values
Some OPC servers send Boolean values as 0 and -1 when read as integers. This approach
creates a problem when reading that data into a digital PI point, because "-1" is not the value
that must be stored. To handle the data from such servers, the interface uses the absolute value
of any integer or real values read for digital points. Because digital point values are actually
offsets into the digital set for the point, and a negative offset has no functional meaning, this
issue does not cause problems for properly-written servers.
PI Interface for OPC DA can also request the item as a Boolean (VT_BOOL). This approach only
works for items that have two possible states, because any non-zero value is interpreted as 1.
To have items read and written as though they were Boolean values, set location2 to 2.
Four-byte integers
If your OPC server does not support the two-byte integer (VT_I2) data type, you can configure
PI Interface for OPC DA to request the data as a four-byte integer (VT_I4) by setting
location2 to 3.
Float64 values
To handle eight-byte floating-point numbers (VT_R8), set the location2 of the target point to
5. PI Data Archive stores the value as a four-byte floating-point number, with possible loss of
precision. If the number is too large to fit in the point, a status of BAD INPUT is stored.

• Time stamp adjustments
• Transformations and scaling
• Data quality information
• Reading OPC quality into a digital PI point
• OPC array item PI points
• OPC arrays as event points
Time stamp adjustments

PI Interface for OPC DA does not adjust the time stamps it receives, regardless of the time zone
settings or ts parameter specified in the batch file. Any scaling or transformation is performed
after the string has been translated into seconds, which enables a wide range of values to be
handled.
There are two different types of time stamps:
• Windows type time stamp

This time stamp type accompanies item values and is defined as a UTC time.
• VT_DATE or other variant type (VT_*)

This is an item value type that can represent a date, time, or combination of the two. Item
that contain a VT_DATE value are interpreted as local time with no daylight savings
adjustments. Item values that contain a VT_BSTR (string) representation of a date or time
have no specification for the presumed time zone; the OPC server has the option of local
time or UTC.

Time stamp to seconds

To store a time stamp string (VT_BSTR) as seconds, set location2 to 6.
If the PI point is an integer, PI Interface for OPC DA attempts to translate the time stamp into
whole seconds. Because Int16 points can only hold numbers up to 32767, use Int32 points for
time spans longer than nine hours.
If the PI point has a floating-point data type, the time stamp is translated into seconds and
stored as a floating-point number.
Time stamps as VT_DATE data types

The OPC standard allows the VT_DATE data type, which is an internal representation of a time
stamp. PI Interface for OPC DA translates between VT_DATE and integer, float, or string points.
The interface does not adjust the time stamps received, regardless of the time zone settings.
To configure PI Interface for OPC DA to use the VT_DATE data type for reading the value from
the OPC server or for writing the value to output points, set location2 to 7.
For string points, the time stamp format of the string must be specified using the tf command-
line parameter.
Time stamp strings

To configure the format of the time stamp sent by the OPC server using PI ICU, go to the
OPCInt > Data Handling page and specify the format in the Format of Timestamp Strings field
using the following tokens:
Time stamp token Description
cc Two-digit century
yy Two-digit year
mn Two-digit month
mon Three-character month (Jan Feb Mar, etc.)
dd Two-digit day
hh Two-digit hour from 0 to 23
hr Two-digit hour from 0 to 12
mm Two-digit minute
ss Two-digit second
000 Three-digit milliseconds
XM AM or PM
The position of the tokens and delimiters must specify the format of the time stamp string
precisely. Examples:
Format String Result
ccyy/mn/dd hh:mm:ss.000 1998/11/29 15:32:19.391
dd mon, ccyy hr:mm:ss XM 29 Nov, 1998 03:32:19 PM
mn-dd-ccyy hh:mm:ss 11-29-1998 15:32:19
hh:mm:ss.000 15:32:19.482

Only one format string can be specified for each instance of PI Interface for OPC DA. If more
than one format of time stamp needs to be processed, configure additional instances of the
interface with the required time stamp format string.
If you omit elements of the format strings, the defaults are as follows ("current" values are
UTC)::
Omitted format string element Default
Day Current day
Month Current month
Year Current year
Century Current century
Note:
If you specify only hours, minutes and seconds, the date defaults to January 1, 1970. To
ensure accurate time stamps, be sure to specify all the elements of the time stamp format.
If the OPC server returns a zero value for the day, month or year element, the interface
applies the defaults described above, regardless of the format string you specify.
Transformations and scaling

You can configure PI points so that PI Interface for OPC DA performs transformations and
scaling. Transformation and scaling are applied before the value is compared to the exception
parameters for the point, so that the exception parameters are applied to the value that is to be
sent to PI Data Archive rather than the raw value.
Scaling
To configure scaling for an OPC-based PI point, set the totalcode and squareroot attributes
of the point. The convers attribute specifies the span of the device, and the exdesc specifies
the device zero (Dzero). Using these values, the interface can translate a value from the scale of
the device to the scale of the PI point. Scaling is only supported for numeric points.
For simple square/square root scaling, set totalcode and convers to zero. To configure how
the value is stored, set squareroot as follows:
• To square a value before sending it to PI Data Archive, set squareroot to 1. For output
values, the square root is calculated before it is written to the device.
• To send the square root to PI Data Archive and the square to the device, set squareroot to
2.
Transformation
To transform the value to another scale of measurement, to apply an offset or conversion
factor, or to perform bit masking, configure the settings as shown in the following table. If
squareroot is set to 1 or 2, the square root or square of the value is calculated first, then the
formula is applied.

Conver TotalCo SquareRo Dzero Operation Input points Operation Output points
s de ot
0 0 1 No (Value)2 (Value)0.5
effect
2 No (Value)0.5 (Value)2
effect
Non- 1 0 Define [ (Value – Dzero) / Convers ] [ (Value – Zero) / Span] *
zero d * Span + Zero Convers + Dzero
1 Define [ ((Value)2 – Dzero) / [ ((Value)0.5 – Zero) / Span] *
d Convers ] * Span + Zero Convers + Dzero
2 Define [ ((Value)0.5 – Dzero) / [ ((Value)2 – Zero) / Span] *
d Convers ] * Span + Zero Convers + Dzero
2 0 No Value * Convers Value / Convers
effect
1 No (Value)2 * Convers (Value)0.5 / Convers
effect
2 No (Value)0.5 * Convers (Value)2 / Convers
effect
3 0 Define (Value / Convers) – Dzero (Value + Dzero) * Convers
d
1 Define ((Value)2 / Convers) – Dzero ((Value)0.5 + Dzero) * Convers
d
2 Define ((Value)0.5 / Convers) – ((Value)2 + Dzero) * Convers
d Dzero
4 0 Define (Value – Dzero) / Convers (Value * Convers) + Dzero
d
1 Define ((Value)2 – Dzero)/ Convers ((Value)0.5 * Convers) + Dzero
d
2 Define ((Value)0.5 – Dzero)/ ((Value)2 * Convers) + Dzero
d Convers
5 0 No Value + Convers Value – Convers
effect
1 No (Value)2 + Convers (Value)0.5 – Convers
effect
2 No (Value)0.5 + Convers (Value)2 – Convers
effect
6 No effect No Value AND Convers Value AND Convers
effect
7 No effect No Value OR Convers Value OR Convers
effect
8 No effect No Value = Value XOR Convers Value = Value XOR Convers
effect

Data quality information

The OPC Data Access standard specifies a set of quality flags. PI Interface for OPC DA translates
the quality flags to the closest approximation in the default System digital state set. The low
eight bits of the quality flags are arranged into three fields, quality (QQ), sub-status (SSSS) and
limit status (LL), arranged as follows: QQSSSSLL.
Handling data of questionable quality

PI Interface for OPC DA stores either the quality or the value in a PI point, whereas the OPC
server returns value and quality in separate fields. If a value is good, it is stored in the point. If
a value is bad, a digital state that describes the quality is stored. For questionable-quality data,
you can configure the interface to treat the values as good and store them, or treat them as bad
and store a digital state. You cannot configure the interface to store a bad-quality value.
To configure handling of questionable-quality data using PI ICU, go to the OPCInt > OPC Server
page and enable the desired option, as shown in the following figure.
Storing both values and quality information

To record both the values reported and the quality information returned with the values, store
the quality in a separate PI point. To configure a point to store the quality for the associated
ItemID , set location2 to 4. Because OPC qualities are unsigned 16-bit integers, the PI
Interface for OPC DA requires an Int32 tag to store them. The qualities are stored in PI Data
Archive without any change, and their status is always GOOD. For details about OPC quality
values, download the OPC Data Access specification from http://www.opcfoundation.org or
consult the PI OPCClient User’s Guide.
Quality states
Quality data is composed of three sub-fields. The following tables list the values that are
returned.
Good quality
Quality OPC Definition PI System Status
11SSSSLL Non-specific Good
Except: Local Override _SUBStituted*
110110LL
* These values will be marked as questionable, unless you use the following switches to ignore
questionable values.

• If you use /SG=S, then "Local Override" is treated as good. However, it also suppresses bad
and questionable values.
• /SQ=I writes questionable values but suppresses the questionable flag, so that they appear
in PI as if they were good.
Not used by OPC
10SSSSLL Invalid Bad Input
Questionable quality
010110 LL Sub-Normal Bad_Quality
010101LL Engineering Units Exceeded
LL=01 Low Limited Under LCL
LL=10 High Limited Over UCL
Otherwise Inp OutRange
010100LL Sensor Not Accurate
LL=01 Low Limited Under Range
LL=10 High Limited Over Range
Otherwise Out of calibration (if not under or Invalid Data
over range)
010011LL Invalid Bad Input
010010LL Invalid Bad Input
010001LL Last Usable Value No_Sample
010000LL Non-specific Doubtful
Bad quality (PI version 3.3 and higher)

000111LL Out of Service Out of Service
000110LL Comm Failure Comm Fail
000101LL Last Known Value Scan Timeout
000100LL Sensor Failure Equip Fail
000011LL Device Failure Unit Down
000010LL Not Connect Not Connect
000001LL Configuration Error Configure
000000LL Non-specific Bad
To replace the default PI System digital states with custom states using PI ICU, go to the
OPCInt > Data Handling page and set the Alternate Digital State for Questionable/Bad
Qualities field. To override the default states, you must specify the full set of replacements, and
the numeric values must be contiguous.

The following table lists the digital states and PI statuses that you can override.
Custom digital states
Order After Marker State Default PI status
1 Bad_Quality
2 Under LCL
3 Over UCL
4 Inp OutRange
5 Under Range
6 Over Range
7 Invalid Data
8 Bad Input
9 No_Sample
10 Doubtful
11 Out of Service
12 Comm Fail
13 Scan Timeout
14 Equip Fail
15 Unit Down
16 Not Connect
17 Configure
18 Bad
Reading OPC quality into a digital PI point

To store OPC quality in a digital PI point, use transformations and scaling to translate quality to
a digital state set of Bad Value, Questionable Value, Invalid Value, or Good Value.
To define such a PI point, set location2 to 4 to read the quality of the item rather than its
value, then define a mathematical transformation that translates the quality values to an
integer from 0 to 3. Divide the quality number by a conversion factor that produces the proper
number.
OPC quality is returned in ranges of values, as follows:
Range Description
Less than 0x40 Bad Value
Greater than or equal to 0x40 and less than 0x80 Questionable Value
Greater than or equal to 0x80 and less than 0xc0 Not used by OPC
Greater than or equal to 0xc0 Good Value
Because each range has the same size (decimal 64), you can use a simple conversion to obtain
the corresponding digital state, as follows:

Convers TotalCode SquareRoot Dzero Operation

Not 0 3 0 Defined Input points:
Value = (Value / convers) – Dzero
Output points:
Value = (Value + Dzero) * convers
Define the point attributes as follows:

Attribute Setting
convers 64
totalcode 3
squareroot 0
exdesc "Dzero=0"
OPC array item PI points

OPC servers can contain arrays of data, which are composed of multiple values of the same
data type plus a single quality and time stamp. Because PI Data Archive does not support array
data types, you must configure one PI point for each array element that you want to store, or
use the TimeArray plug-in. For details, see the TimeArray plug-in user guide.
To define a PI point to contain an element from an OPC array, specify the ItemID of the array
item in the instrumenttag attribute and set userint1 to the index number of the element in
the array. You must define a PI point for the first array element (userint1 = 1), even if you do
not require its data. However, you do not need to define points for all array elements, only for
the first array element and any individual elements of interest.
If an array tag from the OPC server is read into multiple PI points, each PI point receives the
value of the array element indexed by the userint1 setting and the same time stamp and
quality, because an array contains multiple values but only one time stamp and quality. To
read an OPC array tag into a single PI point, you must use the TimeArray plug-in, which stores
an array of values into a single PI point as successive data values, incrementing the time stamp
that came with the array by a configured interval for each value. For details, refer to the
TimeArray plug-in manual.
All PI points configured for an OPC array must have identical settings for pointsource,
location1, and location4 (and userint2, if they are event points). For advise points, set
location3 to 1. For polled points, set location3 to 0.
When configuring PI points to read OPC arrays, note the following:
• You must define a point that reads the first array element.
• Assign the points to the same scan class.
• To optimize CPU usage, do not use the same scan class to read more than one OPC array.
• If you need to read the same OPC array element into more than one point, you must assign
the points to different scan classes.

OPC arrays as event points

Multiple scan classes can have the same scan period, and event classes are a logical grouping of
PI points. For efficiency, put event arrays into their own scan classes with any other points that
need to be read with the array.
Configuring arrays that are read as event tags is complex: because only the first array item
(with userint1 = 1) causes a read, you must create a dummy trigger PI point to use with the
rest of the array items. That PI point must have a pointsource that is either unused or used
for manual entry points (lab data usually is entered manually, so L is often used as the
pointsource for manual entry PI points).
In the following example, the trigger PI point is called TriggerTag and the dummy trigger PI
point is called DummyTrigger.
Tag ExDesc Instrum Locatio Locatio Locatio Locatio Locatio UserInt1 UserInt2
entTag n1 n2 n3 n4 n5
Array00 TRIG=Tr Data.Arr 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
01.PV iggerTag ay
Array00 TRIG=D Data.Arr 1 0 0 0 0 2 1
02.PV ummyTr ay
igger
Array00 TRIG=D Data.Arr 1 0 0 0 0 3 1
03.PV ummyTr ay
igger
Because all the tags in an array must belong to the same group, even if the OPC server is v2.0
and some part of the array data comes from a different device than the rest of the array data,
all the array tags must be configured to be in the same event group.
Failover configuration for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA provides two methods for configuring failover, to ensure that data
collection continues if either the interface or the OPC server fails:
• UniInt failover
If one instance of PI Interface for OPC DA fails, another instance can take over data
collection.
Note:
UniInt failover is a feature common to UniInt-based interfaces. For more information
about configuring UniInt failover, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.
• OPC server-level failover

If PI Interface for OPC DA stops receiving data from the currently-connected OPC server, it
can switch to another OPC server and resume data collection.
If you are configuring both types of failover, configure failover in the following order:
1. Configure and verify UniInt failover.
2. Disable UniInt failover.

3. Configure and verify OPC server-level failover.

4. Reenable UniInt failover.
Windows Cluster failover is no longer recommended.

• UniInt failover modes for PI Interface for OPC DA
• OPC server-level failover
UniInt failover modes for PI Interface for OPC DA

The failover mode specifies how the backup PI Interface for OPC DA instance handles
connecting to an OPC server, creating groups, and adding points when failover occurs.
The faster the backup interface instance can take over data collection, the less data is lost.
However, the ongoing activities required to maximize the readiness of the backup interface
instance increase OPC server load and system resources. To determine which mode to use,
consider how long failover takes and how much workload your system can handle. Be
prepared to experiment, and consult your OPC server documentation and vendor as needed.
PI Interface for OPC DA provides five levels of failover, from cold to hot. Higher (“hotter”)
levels ensure that more data is preserved in the event of failover, but impose increasing
workload on the system. The highest level, hot failover, is lossless unless both the primary and
backup interface instance nodes fail together.
Hot failover
Hot failover is the most resource-intensive mode. Both the primary and backup interface
instances are collecting data, possibly from the same OPC server. No data is lost during
failover, but the OPC server carries a double workload, or, if two servers are used, the back-end
system must support both OPC servers.
Warm failover
There are three options for warm failover:
• No groups on backup interface instance (Option 1)

The backup instance connects to the OPC server every 30 seconds and checks its status, but
does not create groups or add items. Because the interface pre-loads point information
from PI Data Archive, this option is faster than cold failover, but when the backup becomes
the primary instance, it must create groups, add items to them, activate them, and then
advise them. Because of the time required, data can be lost during failover. This option is for
OPC servers that cannot support groups when they are not the active OPC server.
• Inactive groups on backup interface instance (Option 2)

The backup instance connects to the OPC server, creates inactive groups, and adds items to
the groups, but does not activate the groups. For most OPC servers, this approach reduces
workload, because the server does not need to maintain the current values for inactive
groups. When the interface instance becomes primary, it activates the groups and then
advises them. This approach is faster than option 1.

• Active groups on backup interface instance (Option 3)

The backup interface instance connects to the OPC server, creates groups, adds items, and
activate the groups, but does not advise the groups. The OPC server must maintain its cache
of current values for all the items, but does not send the values to the backup interface
instance.
If both interface instances are connected to the same OPC server, and the server maintains
one central cache for data, this approach might impose very little load on the server,
because the cache must be updated for the primary interface instance.
For an OPC server that does not use a centralized cache or a configuration in which the
interface instances connect to different OPC servers, this approach can impose a
considerable load on an OPC server or the data source system. When the backup interface
instance becomes primary, all it needs to do to start collecting data is to advise the groups,
making this the fastest warm failover option.
Cold failover
Cold failover is required if an OPC server can support only one client, or if you are using
redundant OPC servers and the backup OPC server cannot accept connections. The backup
instance does not connect with the OPC server until it becomes primary. At that time, it must
create groups, add items to groups, and advise the groups. This delay almost always causes
some data loss, but imposes no load at all on the OPC server or data source system.
Note:
PI Interface for OPC DA supports using OPC watchdog points to control failover.
Watchdog points enable the interface to detect when its OPC server is unable to
adequately serve data and failover to the other interface if the other interface is better
able to collect data. This approach is intended for OPC servers that are data aggregators,
collecting data from multiple PLCs. If one point on each PLC is designated as a watchdog
point, the interface can be instructed to failover if less than a specified number of those
points are readable. This approach enables the benefits of redundancy to be applied at
the data collection level. For more on how to configure OPC watchdog points, see Server
status and OPC watchdog points.
OPC server-level failover

To ensure that data continues to flow from the OPC server to PI Interface for OPC DA, the
interface can be configured to switch to another OPC server under the following conditions:
• Loss of connectivity to current OPC server

• The OPC server state changes to a value other than "RUNNING"
• Specified OPC server items indicate that the OPC server is unavailable, either by a specific
value or by the quality
OPC servers can be fully redundant (multiple servers active at the same time) or configured for
failover, where one server at a time is active. Note that OPC servers vary widely in their
approach to tracking and reporting status, so consult your OPC server documentation to
determine what options are supported.
The following diagram illustrates a basic OPC server-level failover configuration.


• Configure OPC server failover
• Failover on OPC server state change
• Server status and OPC watchdog points
• Failover timing
Configure OPC server failover

Configure PI Interface for OPC DA to fail over to another OPC server in the event it loses
connection to the original OPC server.
Procedure
1. In PI ICU, go to the OPCInt Failover > Server Level page and enter the node and name of the
other OPC server.
This basic configuration triggers failover only when PI Interface for OPC DA loses
connectivity to the OPC server.
2. Optionally, create a string PI point to track the active OPC server. Assign the PI point to an
unused point source.
In PI ICU, go to the OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page and enter the PI point name in the
Current Active Server Tag field. To display the value of the point, launch PI SMT and use the
Data > Current Values feature.
When failover occurs, the value of this point changes to the name of the currently connected
OPC server. The archive of these changes enables you to view failover history.
3. To verify that failover occurs when connectivity is lost:

a. Start both OPC servers, then start the interface.

b. Use PI SMT or the pigetmsg utility to check the PI SDK log on the PI Data Archive node
for messages that verify successful startup.
c. Stop the currently active OPC server and check the SDK log to confirm that the interface
has switched to the other OPC server.
d. To switch back to the first OPC server, restart it, stop the second server, and check the
SDK log or the value of the PI active server point, if defined, to verify that the PI OPC
interface has switched back to the first OPC server.
Failover on OPC server state change

You can configure failover for cases where the OPC server leaves RUNNING state.
Navigate to the OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page, and check Failover if Server Leaves
RUNNING State.
To configure a waiting period, set the Wait For RUNNING State field to the desired number of
seconds. If the OPC server has not entered the RUNNING state before the specified period
expires, PI Interface for OPC DA attempts to connect to the other server. If the other server has
not entered the RUNNING state before the specified period expires, the interface retries the first
server, alternating between the two until one is detected to be running again.
Server status and OPC watchdog points

To enable the interface to track the availability of OPC servers, use PI ICU to configure
watchdog PI points that are mapped to OPC items that reliably reflect the state of the OPC
server.
The OPC items must contain a positive integer if the OPC server is running or 0 if the OPC
server is unavailable, and OPC watchdog points must have an integer data type.
When choosing the OPC items that you map to the OPC watchdog points, consider which ones
are most reliable and representative of the state of the OPC server. For example, in a
manufacturing context, an item that counts number of units manufactured might make sense.
To ensure that the primary and backup OPC servers report status consistently, choose an OPC
item based on the data source itself (as opposed to an item that originates in the OPC server).
To ensure that the values in OPC watchdog points are valid (0 or positive integer), use scaling
and transformation for PI points as required.
To reduce system workload, configure the OPC watchdog points as advise points if the OPC
server supports advise points. If not, assign them to a scan class with a short scan period.
If more than one instance of the interface is running, either on the same or different nodes, you
must create separate OPC watchdog points for each instance of the interface. When the
instance ID is not used, each instance scans only those PI points with pointsource attributes
that matches the interface instance ps parameter. When the instance ID is used, the
pointsource attribute must match the interface ps parameter and the location1 attribute
must match the interface id parameter.

Configure a single watchdog PI point

If you can determine the availability of the OPC server based on a single OPC item, create a
single watchdog PI point. When the value of the OPC item is 0, PI Interface for OPC DA attempts
to connect to the other server. If it cannot connect successfully to the other server within the
specified connection timeout period, it attempts to reconnect to the first OPC server again.
To create and configure an OPC watchdog point:
Procedure
1. Create a PI point. Map the point to an OPC item that you consider a reliable indicator of
server status.
The OPC item to which the point is mapped must be defined identically in both the primary
and backup OPC servers, while possibly having different values on the two servers.
2. Indicate the watchdog point for the primary and backup OPC servers: Using PI ICU, go to the
OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page and configure the Primary Server Watchdog Tag and
Backup Server Watchdog Tag fields.
3. Verify that the OPC item triggers failover:
a. Start the OPC servers and verify that the watchdog item is non-zero on at least one of the
servers. Start the interface.
b. Manually set the OPC item to 0 on the currently-connected server.
c. Examine the PI SDK log or check the Active Server point to determine whether the
interface failed over to the other OPC server.
Configure multiple watchdog PI points

If you must assess several OPC items to determine availability (such as when the OPC server
can report on the availability of the back end data sources), configure multiple OPC watchdog
PI points. The sum of the values of the OPC watchdog points determines whether the server is
considered active. The interface initially assigns each watchdog point a value of 1 and
recalculates the total whenever it receives a new value for one of the points. If the sum goes
below the specified minimum, failover is triggered.
Procedure
1. Create PI points and map them to the OPC items that you consider reliable indicators of OPC
server status. For each point, set location3 to 3 for polled points or 4 for advise points.
2. Using PI ICU, go to the OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page and set the Multiple Watchdog
Tags Trigger Sum field to the minimum acceptable total of the values of the watchdog
points.
3. Verify that failover is triggered if the total of the values drops below the specified minimum:
a. Start the OPC servers and the interface.
b. Manually set the values of the OPC items.
c. Examine the PI SDK log or check the Active Server point to determine whether the
interface failed over to the backup OPC server.

OPC item quality

If you have multiple watchdog PI points, you can configure failover to occur when a specified
number of watchdog points are read with BAD quality. To configure this setting, go to the
OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page and enter the desired maximum in the Maximum
number of Watchdog Tags which can have Bad Quality or Any Error without triggering
Failover field.
Configure server-specific OPC watchdog points for efficient failover

OPC servers track their own states (isolated mode). To enable PI Interface for OPC DA to
determine the state of an OPC server before attempting to failover to it, configure both OPC
servers to track each other’s state as well (server-specific mode). This configuration enables
the OPC server to determine the state of both servers without the overhead of creating a
second connection.
Note:
The method by which an OPC server tracks its state is highly vendor-dependent and
implementations vary. For details, consult your OPC server documentation.
Use PI ICU to configure OPC watchdog points.
Procedure
1. In both OPC servers, create identical items that track the status of each server.
If an OPC server is active, the OPC item must contain a positive value. If an OPC server is
unable to serve data, the item value must be zero. Implement any logic required to ensure
that both servers correctly detect and maintain the status of the other server and that, in
both OPC servers, the values are identical.
2. Configure the OPC servers so that, during normal operation, one server sends data to PI
Interface for OPC DA and the other waits until the primary server fails.
Status for the primary server must be positive, and for the backup server, status can be
zero. If failover occurs, the primary server status must be set to zero and the backup server
status to a positive value.
3. In PI Data Archive, create a watchdog PI point for each OPC server, mapped to the OPC
items that track server status.
4. Using PI ICU, go to the OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page and set the Primary Server
Watchdog Tag and Backup Server Watchdog Tag fields to the names of the watchdog PI
points you created in the previous step.
In the interface batch startup file, these settings are specified by the wd1 and wd2
parameters.
Results
If both watchdog points are zero, data collection stops until one watchdog point becomes
positive. If both watchdog points are positive, the interface remains connected to the server
that is currently serving data to it.

Failover timing
When failover is triggered, PI Interface for OPC DA must quickly recognize that the current
OPC server is no longer available and determine whether the backup OPC server is available.
To configure failover efficiency in the PI ICU, you can adjust the following settings on the
OPCInt > Failover > Server Level page:
• Switch to Backup Delay (/FT=#)

Specifies in seconds how long the OPC interface tries to reconnect to the current server,
before failing over to the other server and, if less than 30, how often the interface checks the
server state.
• Number of Interfaces on this Node (/NI=#)
Specifies the number of interface instances running on this node. This value is used to
stagger the startup of the interface instances, to avoid the impact caused when multiple
instances connect to the OPC server simultaneously. (To reduce the impact of restarting
multiple instances, you can also use the Startup Delay setting.)
• Wait for Running State (/SW=#)

Specifies how many seconds the interface waits for the server to enter the RUNNING state
before failing over to the other server. By default, the interface waits indefinitely for the
server to enter the RUNNING state. Note that OPC servers vary significantly in the time
required to enter the RUNNING state.
Buffering for PI Interfaces

The interface node uses buffering to prevent data loss when PI Data Archive is not available.
UniInt interfaces can buffer data to store point values when network communication to the PI
Data Archive is unavailable. UniInt disconnected startup requires buffering, and it is highly
recommended for failover. Buffering for interfaces is configured and enabled through PI ICU.
Buffering services
The PI System offers two services to implement buffering at interfaces:
• PI Buffer Subsystem (PIBufss)
• API Buffer Server (Bufserv)
PI Buffer Subsystem is the best option for most environments.
Use API Buffer Server only if one or more of the following conditions is true:
• The version of PI Data Archive receiving the buffered data is earlier than 3.4.375
• Your interfaces run on a non-Windows platform
If any of the above conditions apply to you, see the PI Buffering Manager Help (PIPC/HELP/
BufferManager.chm) documentation for PI Server. Otherwise, use PI Buffer Subsystem.

Buffering and collectives

PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3 and later can buffer data to multiple independent servers, including
those configured as PI Server collectives. For interfaces to use PI Buffer Subsystem with PI
Server collectives, the PI Data Archive servers must be running PI Data Archive version 3.4.375
or later.
Caution:
API Buffer Server does not detect and validate the PI Server collective configuration. As a
result, API Buffer Server requires manual configuration whenever a collective changes.
Also, because API Buffer Server results in compression at the PI Data Archive machine,
archives at different servers in the collective could contain different records.
Buffering configuration
Use PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) to configure interface buffering.
The Tools > Buffering option helps you configure buffering. Depending on your current
configuration, this option does one of the following:
• If this computer is configured to buffer data using PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3 or later, the
Buffering Manager window opens and shows a buffering dashboard. The dashboard shows
information about the status of buffering on this computer.
• If this computer is not currently configured to buffer data, and PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3 or
later is installed, you are prompted to configure PI Buffer Subsystem. If you click Yes, the
Buffering Manager window opens and shows the installation wizard, which helps you
configure PI Buffer Subsystem.
• If this computer is configured to buffer data using API Buffer Server (Bufserv), and PI Buffer
Subsystem 4.3 or later is installed, you are prompted to convert to and configure PI Buffer
Subsystem. If you click Yes at both prompts, the Buffering Manager window opens and
shows the upgrade wizard, which helps you upgrade from API Buffer Server to PI Buffer
Subsystem.
• If PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3 is not yet installed, the Buffering window opens for API Buffering
or the earlier version of PI Buffer Subsystem.
For PI Buffer Subsystem 4.3, when configuring an interface to buffer data to a PI Data Archive
server which has not been added to the buffered server list you must enable buffering. Click
the Enable button in the Buffering Status box on the interface General page. To verify that the
buffering status is On, exit PI ICU, then restart and select the interface.
You can use Buffering Manager to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot buffering using PI
Buffer Subsystem. PI Buffer Subsystem is recommended for applications connecting to PI Data
Archive 3.4.375 or later. Older versions of PI Data Archive require API Buffer Server, as do
some sites with custom solutions. See Buffering Manager help (PIPC/HELP/
BufferManager.chm) for more information.

Enable buffering
Procedure
1. In PI ICU, choose Tools > Buffering. The Buffering window opens.
2. Click Enable buffering with PI Buffer Subsystem.
3. Start the buffering service. Click PI Buffer Subsystem Service, then click .
4. Verify that buffering starts successfully. Check the message log for messages that indicate
that the buffering application is connected to PI Data Archive.
5. Verify that buffering is working as intended. Reboot the interface node and confirm that the
interface service and the buffering application restart.
Plug-ins (post-processing DLLs)

PI Interface for OPC DA can be configured to use plug-ins, which are DLLs that contain libraries
of routines that perform application-specific data processing before the data is sent to PI Data
Archive or the OPC server. The DLLs and their accompanying files and documentation are
included in the PI Interface for OPC DA installation kit and are installed into the Plug-ins sub-
directory under the installation directory. Each plug-in package contains user documentation,
and you can download plug-in user guides from the OSIsoft Download Center.


PI Interface for OPC DA operation
During operation of PI Interface for OPC DA, you can verify interface startup, confirm data is
being collected from the OPC server, and troubleshoot configuration and operational problems.
Verify interface startup

You can use the message log to check for proper startup of the interface.
Procedure
1. Display the message log. Open PI System Management Tools and click Operation > Message
Logs.
2. Start the interface. Open PI ICU, navigate to the interface instance, and then click Interface >
Start Interactive.
PI ICU opens a command window and runs the startup batch (.bat) file. The interface logs
messages as it attempts to initialize and run.
3. Watch log for messages indicating success or errors.
4. To stop the interface, close the command window.
OPC server data collection

Data is read from OPC servers in groups, not as individual items. PI Interface for OPC DA
creates OPC groups for PI System scan classes. (For advise PI points in scan class 1, multiple
groups might be created.) The OPC server caches the most recent data.
By default, PI Interface for OPC DA reads from the cache of an OPC server. When the interface
creates a group, it specifies how often the cache values for the points in that group are to be
updated. The requested update rate is usually the same as the scan rate for the points. The OPC
server might decline the requested rate and return the update rate that it supports for that
group. The update rate to which the OPC server agrees is recorded in the local PI Message Log
file.

PI Interface for OPC DA operation

PI ICU reference for PI Interface for OPC DA
PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) is a graphical user interface for configuring
interfaces. PI ICU ensures that the configuration information stored in the startup batch file
and the PI Module Database is generated and updated correctly, eliminating the need to edit it
manually.
PI ICU requires PI Data Archive 3.3 or later. For more information, see the PI Interface
Configuration Utility (PI ICU) User Manual.

• OPC server settings
• Advanced Options settings
• Data Handling settings
• DCOM Security settings
• Failover settings
• Plug-In settings
• Miscellaneous settings
• Debug settings
• Time stamp options in PI ICU
OPC server settings

OPC Server Node Name
The name or IP address of the OPC server node (/SERVER=node::name). Leave blank or set to
"localhost" (case insensitive) if PI Interface for OPC DA and OPC server are on same node. If
anything else is used for the node name, the interface will treat the OPC server as remote. This
can impact certain OPC servers that may refuse "remote" connection attempts.
OPC Server Name

Registered name of the OPC server on the OPC server node.
Force v1.0a Protocol

By default, the interface tries to connect to the OPC server using the v2.0 OPC Data Access
specification (/vn=2). If the attempt fails, it uses the v1.0a protocol. To force the interface to
use only the v1.0a OPC Data Access specification, enable this option.
Timestamps
Interface Provides Timestamp: The OPC interface provides a time stamp when the data is
received (/ts=N).
OPC server Provides Timestamp: The OPC interface uses the data time stamps provided by the
OPC server and accounts for the offset between the OPC server and the PI Data Archive node (/
ts=Y).

Timestamp for Advise Tags Only: The OPC server provides time stamps only for advise tags,
and the interface accounts for the offset between the OPC server and the PI Data Archive node.
For all other tags, the interface provides a time stamp when the data is received (/ts=A).
OPC Server Provides Timestamp (no offset): The OPC server provides the time stamps for all
data, and the interface will not apply any time offset to these values. Data loss will occur if a
value is received from OPC with timestamp 10 minutes or more past current time of the PI
Data Archive node. (/ts=U).
Questionable Quality
Store Quality Only: If data has other than GOOD quality, store the quality information rather
than the value (/sq=Y).
Store Value Only: The interface treats “questionable” quality as “good” (/sq=I). Bad quality
data is stored as a system digital state.
Advanced Options settings

Time delay before reading OPC Tags (sec)
Specify a delay (in seconds) before reading from or writing to the OPC server. If this parameter
is configured, the interface connects to an OPC server and waits the specified amount of time
before attempting to read data. (/sd=#).
Event Tags Source

For v1.0a OPC servers, specifies whether event tags are read from the OPC server’s cache or
directly from the device. For v2.0 servers, it has no effect, because all event tag reads are from
the device. (/es=CACHE or DEVICE).
Advise Groups on Creation

Some OPC servers do not return an initial value when an advise PI point is created. The
resulting symptom is that, for a value that does not change often, PI Interface for OPC DA does
not write a value to PI Data Archive when the interface starts. To determine whether your OPC
server has this problem, use PI OPCClient tool to create a group, add tags, and then advise the
group. If a value is not immediately returned for your tags, but adding a tag to the scan class
causes a value to be returned, enable this setting. (/af=Y).
Disable Mass Tag Adding

Mass Tag Adding: Default /ma=N. By default, the interface does not add multiple tags to a group
at once. Some OPC servers reject the entire group if one tag is invalid. To enable mass tag
adding, set /ma=Y. Note that enabling mass tag adding can significantly delay interface
startup. To direct the interface to add tags to an OPC group one at a time, enable this option. By
default, mass adds are disabled (unless you configure the interface using PI ICU, which enables
the option). If multiple tags are added to a group at once, some OPC servers reject the entire
group if one tag is invalid. Note that disabling can delay interface startup significantly. (/ma=N).
GlobalLocking Not Valid

If you see OnDataChange: Invalid group ID messages in the local PI Message Log file,
enable this option. If the problem is resolved, the OPC server does not follow the OPC

specifications. In this case, e-mail details (including OPC server vendor and version) to
[email protected]. This flag is only meaningful for version 1.0a OPC DA. (/gl=N).
Ignore Group Status

If you see OnDataChange: Header status: in the local PI Message Log file, the group status
sent by the server is invalid. To ignore the group status, enable this option. This flag is only
meaningful for version 1.0a of OPC DA. (/gs=N).
Ignore Server Status

If the OPC server does not go to OPC_STATUS_RUNNING state when it is ready to send data,
enable this option to direct the interface to attempt to communicate with it anyway (/is=Y).
Ignore OPC Server Access Rights

If you see “Invalid read/write mode requested” messages in the local PI Message Log file,
enable this option. (/ar=N).
Use Honeywell Plantscape Failover Error Codes

Enable checking for error codes that are specific to the Honeywell Plantscape system for
server-level failover. Configures the interface to fail over if it receives an error code of
0xE00483FD or 0xE00483FC on any tag. This is obsolete because Honeywell stopped using
these codes after only one release. (/hwps)
Reconnect to Server Delay (sec)

Specifies how long to wait, in seconds, before attempting to reconnect to the OPC server if the
connection is broken. (/rd=#).
Update Rates
Specifies the requested update rate, if different from the scan period. Select a scan class from
the drop down list, enter the desired rate in the box to the right of the scan class, and click .
The scan class, scan rate, and update rate appear in the box below the period. Only scan classes
that have update rates are listed.
This option is useful when the server must have a recent value for the items but the interface
does not read it very often, for example, if PI Interface for OPC DA polls for the value every 30
minutes, but the value itself must be no more than one minute old. This situation imposes
more load on the OPC server than if the update rate and the scan period are the same, but it
can reduce latency of values for items that need to be read less frequently. (/ur=period).
Data Handling settings

Staggered Group Activation
This option directs PI Interface for OPC DA to inactivate all groups on startup and to stagger
the activation of the groups based upon the offsets specified for the group’s scan period. This
feature does not affect the operation of all OPC servers. It is intended to help level the
workload by spreading out updates for groups that have the same scan period. (/ga).

Inactivate Groups on Startup

Inactivate all groups on startup. After the groups are built, they are activated. This option helps
reduce the load on the OPC server during startup. (/gi).
Update Snapshot
If the current snapshot is a system digital state (such as I/O timeout, Shutdown, and so
forth) and the interface reads in a new value that is older than the snapshot, the interface
sends the new value one second after the snapshot time stamp of the system digital state. This
check is omitted if the current snapshot is a good value. This is useful for setpoints that rarely
change. (/us).
Ignore First Value

If the OPC server sends data before it reads its data source, it is likely to transmit zeros or
erroneous values. This parameter directs the interface to ignore the first value that it receives
after startup for each tag. (/if=Y).
Ignore Subsecond Timestamps

If the millisecond portion of the time stamp is not required, it can be truncated, which can
speed up processing on PI Data Archive (/it=Y).
No Timeout
Direct PI Interface for OPC DA never to write I/O timeout errors, even if it loses its
connection with the OPC server. Set this when configuring failover. (/nt=Y).
Disable Callbacks
Reduce the load on the OPC server by disabling call backs for polled groups. By default, polled
groups have call backs enabled, but these call backs are not used by the interface. This option
has no effect on advise groups. (/dc).
Write Status to Tags on Shutdown

This parameter specifies the digital state to be written to all PI points when the interface is
shut down (/opcstopstat=state).
Alternate Digital State for Questionable/Bad Qualities

Assign alternate digital states for questionable and bad qualities. To use this option, create a
contiguous set of digital states in the system digital state set that corresponds to the set of
states listed in the OPC manual, then assign the first digital state of the set to the command line
option. (/as=system digital state). To view system digital states using PI System
Management Tools, go to Points > Digital States.
Format of Timestamp Strings

Sets the format for time stamp strings read from or written to the OPC server. (/tf=format).
For more information, see Time stamp adjustments.

Number of Tags in Advise Group

Configure the maximum number of tags for each advise group created with scan class 1. The
recommended maximum is 800 tags per group, which is the default. Adjust this number
according to the OPC server requirements. (/am=#).
Time Offset
If the OPC server node is set to a time zone other than the local time zone, this option directs
the interface to adjust all the time stamps by the specified amount. To specify the offset, use
the format [-]HH:MM:SS. (/to=offset).
Event Update Rate

Specify the requested update rate for the event class group. All event-based tags belong to the
same group and the default update rate for the group is one second. If the OPC server’s data
cache for event-based tags does not need to be updated every second, you can reduce load on
the OPC server by setting this parameter to a higher value (a lower rate). For v2.0 servers, all
events are read from the device, so this value can be set quite high unless there is some other
reason to update the cache.
Trend Advise
For advise PI points, send the value from the preceding scan if the new value's timestamp is
greater than the number of scan periods (configured by the ta parameter). Enabling this
setting causes advise tags to behave as if the step attribute is enabled.
DCOM Security settings

For more information about configuring DCOM security, see the OSIsoft DCOM Security and
Configuration Guide.
Default Authentication Level

Set the DCOM security authentication level (/da) to one of the following:
• DEFAULT
• NONE
• CONNECT (default)
• CALL
• PKT
• PKT_INTEGRITY
• PKT_PRIVACY
Default Impersonation Level

Set the DCOM security Impersonation level (/di) to one of the following:
• ANONYMOUS
• IDENTIFY (default)

• IMPERSONATE
• DELEGATE
Failover settings
UniInt-Interface Level Failover
The following three options are enabled only if warm failover is enabled on the UniInt >
Failover page:
• Warm_1: Do not create groups on the server (/fm=1)

• Warm_2: Create inactive groups and add PI points (/fm=2)
• Warm_3: Create active groups; do not use advise groups (default)
• Percent of tags accepted by OPC Server as valid

Specify the percentage of points that are required to be accepted by the OPC server as valid.
If less than this percentage is accepted, PI Interface for OPC DA sets its device status to
Connected/No Data, which triggers failover if UniInt failover is configured. (/rp).
• Maximum number of Watchdog Tags which can have Bad Quality or Any Error
without triggering Failover
Specify the maximum number of watchdog PI points that can have an error or bad quality
before failover is triggered failover. You can configure watchdog PI points to control
failover when the interface is unable to read some or all of the items, or when the items
have bad quality. This feature enables you to trigger failover when a data source loses the
connection to one OPC server, but is able to serve data to the other. To configure watchdog
PI points, set location3. For a watchdog point that is in an advise group, set location3 to
4. For a watchdog point that is in a polled group, set location3 to 3. (/uwq).
Cluster Interface Failover

To make selections in this option, first enable it by selecting the Enable Cluster Interface
Failover check box. Note this tab is only available when UniInt Failover is not selected.
Setting Description
This node is the Specify whether this node is primary (/pr=1) or
backup (/pr=2).
Failover Mode Chilly: Do not create groups on the server (/
fm=1).
Cool: Create inactive groups, and add points (/
fm=2).
Warm: Create active groups, do not advise groups
(default) (/fm=3).

Setting Description
Cluster Mode Configure behavior of the backup interface.
Primary Bias: This node is the preferred
primary. (/cm=0).
No Bias: No node is preferred. The active PI OPC
interface stays active until the cluster resource
fails over, either as the result of a failure or
through human intervention. (/cm=1).
Resource Number for APIOnline Identify the apionline instance that goes with this
interface instance. For example, to configure the
interface to depend on an instance named
apionline2, set this field to 2. To configure the
interface to depend on an instance named
apionline (no resource number), set this field to
-1. (/rn=#).
Active Interface Node Tag Specify the string point that contains the name of
the currently active OPC interface node. (/cn).
Health Tag ID This parameter is used to filter UniInt health
points by location3. The parameter must be
unique for each interface – failover member
parameter. If this parameter has an invalid value
or is not set, the default value of 0 is used for the
location3 attribute when creating UniInt health
points. (/uht_id).
Server Level Failover

Setting Description
Backup OPC Server Node Name The name or IP address of the backup OPC server
node (/backup).
Backup OPC Server Name The registered name of the backup OPC server (/
backup).
Number of Interfaces on this Node The number of instances of the interface that are
running on this node (/ni=#).
Switch to Backup Delay (sec) The number of seconds to try to connect before
switching to the backup server (/ft=#).
Wait for RUNNING State (sec) The number of seconds to wait for RUNNING state
before switching to the backup server (/sw=#).
Current Active Server Tag (Optional) String PI point that contains the name
of the currently active server. If set, the interface
writes the name of the OPC server to this point
whenever it connects. Useful for debugging server-
level failover. (/cs=tag).
Primary Server Watchdog Tag Watchdog point for the primary server (/
wd1=tag).
Backup Server Watchdog Tag Watchdog point for the backup server (/wd2=tag).
Multiple Watchdog Tag Trigger Sum The minimum total value of the watchdog points.
Failover is triggered if the sum of the value of
these points drops below the specified value.
(/wd=#).

Setting Description
Maximum number of Watchdog Tags which can Default=0 if only one watchdog point. Cannot
have Bad Quality or Any Error without triggering exceed the number of watchdog points defined.
Failover (/wq=#).
Failover if Server Leaves RUNNING State Triggers failover if the server state changes to
anything other than RUNNING.(/ws=1).
Plug-In settings
• Post-Processing DLL
Enter the DLL name and path to the post-processing DLL, for example, /DLL=”
\Interfaces\OPCInt\plug-ins\exampledll.dll”
• Plug-In Configuration File

Enter the name of the post-processing DLL configuration file. This text box is displayed only
if the post-processing DLL requires a configuration file.
Miscellaneous settings
Caution:
Do not modify these settings unless directed to do so by OSIsoft Technical Support.
• OPC Server Status Tag

Specify a PI point to store the status of the OPC server when the status changes. (/ST)
Debug settings
To enable debugging options using PI ICU, go to the UniInt > Debug tab. In general, enable
debug options for a short period of time, as they can bloat log files and reduce performance.
For options marked "Technical Support only," enable only at the direction of OSIsoft Technical
Support. For details about other command-line parameters, refer to the PI Universal Interface
(UniInt) User Guide.
Option Description Value
Internal Testing Only For OSIsoft internal testing only. /db=1
Log of Startup Logs startup information for /db=2
each PI point, including
instrumenttag and exdesc
Log Write Op’s and Acks for Tag Logs PI Interface for OPC DA /db=4
writes, ACKs from the OPC
server, and writes queued to the
“pending write” queue. Can be
configured to log values sent for
a specific point if the Debug Tag
field is specified.

Option Description Value

Log Timestamps of refresh For use by OSIsoft Technical /db=8
Support only.
Log Information for ExcMax Log information about exception /db=16
reporting
Log Timestamp and Data (All For each data value that the /db=32
Tags) interface receives, logs the time
stamp with the data, the adjusted
time stamp, the PI time, the scan
class, and transaction ID.
Log Timestamp and Data for Tag For use by OSIsoft Technical /db=64
Support only.
/dt=tagname
Logging of Event Tags Logs the name of each PI point /db=256

into the local PI Message Log file
as it receives data for the point.
Logging of Array Tags Logs information about the array /db=512
PI points
Logging of OPC List Pointers For OSIsoft internal testing only. /db=1024
Log TS, Data and Quality for Tag For the point that is specified in /db=4096
the Debug Tag field, logs time
stamps, values, and qualities in
the local PI Message Log. If there
is no point specified, the first
point for which a value is
received is logged. This option is
verbose and can bloat the log file.
Log debugging info for /US Provide debugging information /db=8192
command for the Update Snapshot (/us)
option, if enabled.
Log client, server, and group Log the addresses used by the /db=16384
handles interface and server for each tag
added to the interface. Enable
only under direction of OSIsoft
Technical Support.
Enter any additional parameters that are not available through PI ICU, (for example, /
dbuniint=0x0400). Separate parameters with one or more spaces. If a parameter argument
contains embedded spaces, enclose the argument in double quotes.
Time stamp options in PI ICU

PI Interface for OPC DA can use the time stamps provided by the OPC server or create its own
time stamps at the time that the data is received. Windows type time stamps are defined as
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and items with VT_* variant values are interpreted as local
time without daylight savings time adjustments..
If the OPC server provides time stamps, you can use PI ICU to configure the behavior of the
interface as follows:

Option Description Timestamp Offset Applied

Interface Provides Time (Default) The interface time stamps Difference between PI Data
stamp each value as it is received. Choose Archive node and interface node.
this option if the OPC server cannot
(/ts=N)
provide accurate time stamps or you
do not want to use the time stamps
returned by the OPC server.
OPC Server Provides Time The interface uses the UTC time Difference between PI Data
stamp stamp provided by the OPC server. Archive node and OPC server
node.
(/ts=Y)
Time stamp for Advise Tags For polled reads, some OPC servers For advise data, difference
Only return the time that the value last between PI Data Archive node
changed rather than the time of the and OPC server node. For all
(/TS=A)
read. This option configures the other data, difference between
interface to use the advise time PI Data Archive node and
stamps but provides time stamps for interface node.
the polled values. For more details
about advise and polled points, see
Input points for PI Interface for OPC
DA.
OPC Server Provides The interface uses the UTC None.
Timestamp, no Offset timestamp provided by the OPC
server and does not apply any offset
(/ts=U)
to the time stamps.
Caution:
Use this setting with extreme
caution, as data loss occurs if
the OPC server sends a value
with a timestamp that is 10
minutes or more later than the
current time of PI Data
Archive.
For details about reading and writing time stamps from a PI point when the time stamp is the
value of the point, see Time stamp adjustments.

Command-line parameters for PI Interface for OPC
DA
There are two tables that list the command-line parameters used in the interface startup batch
file to configure settings. One is organized alphabetically and the other is organized by
functionality. These parameters are provided for debugging purposes only, to help you read
the file. To ensure a correctly-formatted file, use PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) to
configure the interface.
Alphabetical list of parameters

Alphabetical List of PI Interface for OPC DA .bat parameters
Parameter and syntax Description
/af=Option Optional. Configures data handing for advise
points. Enable if advise points do not receive a
current value on startup. Do not enable this setting
if you are using Windows cluster failover, because
it causes OPC groups to be advised as soon as they
are created.
Default: N
Options: Y or N
/ag=group_name Optional. Used to configure custom advise group
names.
To name a particular group, use /ag#=name. For
example, /ag1=MyAdvise and /ag2=NextAdvise
will instruct the interface to use the name
“MyAdvise” for the first advise group and the name
“NextAdvise” for the second advise group.
To set a base name for advise groups, use /
ag=name. If a name is not specified for a particular
group using /ag#=name, then that group’s name
will be the base name with the group number
appended to it. For example, if /ag=AdviseGroup
and there is no /ag3 specified, the third advise
group will be called “AdviseGroup3”.
The default base name for advise groups is
“Advise”. If advise group names are not configured,
the advise groups will be named “Advise1”,
“Advise2”, “Advise3”, and so on.
Default: /ag=Advise
/am=# Optional. Specifies the number of points in each

OPC advise group created for scan class 1.
Intended for managing OPC server workload.
Default: 800

Command-line parameters for PI Interface for OPC DA

/ar=Option Optional. Enable/disable use of access rights
property on items added to a group. If the
interface logs the error “Invalid read/write
mode requested”, try disabling access rights by
setting /AR=N
Default: Y
Options: Y or N
/as=system_digital Optional. Assign alternate digital states for
questionable and bad qualities. To use this option,
it is necessary to create a digital state in the
system digital state set that corresponds to the
system_digital option of the command line option.
Then, any digital states that follow the
system_digital argument are used to map digital
states to PI points when data with questionable or
bad qualities are received from the OPC server,
overriding the default digital states. For more
information, see Data quality information.
/at=# How long to wait for write acknowledgement from
OPC server (milliseconds). When this time has
elapsed, the interface cancels the write and
resends it. Minimum: 2000 milliseconds.
Default: 2000 msec (two seconds)
/backup=hostname::OPCservername For server-level failover, specifies the name of the

backup OPC server. If the OPC server is on the local
machine, omit hostname. If your server name has
embedded spaces, enclose the name in double
quotes.
/cachemode Enable disconnected startup.
/cachepath=filepath (Optional) Specifies the directory where point
caching files are created for disconnected startup.
The directory must already exist on the target
machine. By default, the files are created in the
same location as the interface executable. If the
path contains any spaces, enclose the path in
quotes.
Examples:
• /cachepath=D:\PIPC\Interfaces
\CacheFiles
• /cachepath=”D:\Program Files\PIPC
\MyFiles”


/cachesync=# (Optional) Specifies the time slice period in
milliseconds (ms) allocated for synchronizing the
interface point cache file with PI Data Archive. By
default, the interface synchronizes the point cache
if running in the disconnected startup mode. To
disable synchronization of the point cache file,
specify /cachesync=0. The minimum is 50
milliseconds and the maximum 3000 milliseconds
(3s). Values less than the minimum or greater than
the maximum are adjusted accordingly. This value
must be less than the smallest scan class period. If
the value is greater than the smallest scan class
value, input scans are missed while the point cache
file is being synchronized.
Default: 250 milliseconds
/cm=Option (Optional) Configure cluster-related behavior for

interface-level failover running on a cluster. Mode
0 (/cm=0) is preferred-primary mode. Mode 1
(/cm=1) is a non-preferential mode, where
whichever interface instance is active stays active
until the cluster resource fails over.
Default: 0
Options: 0 or 1
/cn=tag_name (Optional) For interface-level failover running on a
cluster, this parameter specifies a string PI point
that receives the node name of the interface
instance that is currently gathering data. This
feature enables you to track the cluster node that
is the active interface node. Ensure that the point
source of the specified point is not in use by any
interface.
/cs=tag_name (Optional) PI point that tracks the currently-active
OPC server for failover. Ensure that the point
source of the specified point is not in use by any
interface.


/da=option (Optional) Configures default authentication level,
part of DCOM security settings for the interface.
This parameter sets the interface-specific
authentication level required to verify the identity
of the OPC server during calls. Valid option values
are as follows:
• DEFAULT
• NONE
• CONNECT (default)
• CALL
• PKT
• PKT_INTEGRITY
• PKT_PRIVACY
Use this setting with the di parameter. If you
set /di and omit /da, CONNECT is used. If neither
da nor di is configured, the interface uses the
default permissions on the client machine.
Default: CONNECT
/bd=# (Optional) Set level of debugging output to be

logged. By default, debug logging is disabled. For
valid settings, see Debug settings.
/dc (Optional) Disable callbacks for polled groups, to
reduce OPC server workload. No effect on advise
groups. By default, callbacks are enabled.
/df=tag_name (Optional) Configure a PI point that contains the
debug level, which allows you to change debug
level while the interface is running. Configure an
Int32 output point for the interface, and set its
value to 0, then configure the point using the df
parameter. After starting the interface, you can
change debug level by setting the point to the
desired level. For valid settings, see Debug
settings.
For instrumenttag, you are required to enter a
value, but the value is ignored and need not be a
valid OPC ItemID.


/di=level (Optional) Sets the interface-specific
impersonation level to be granted to an OPC server
to perform processing tasks on behalf of the
interface. Default Impersonation level is one of the
DCOM security settings for the interface. Valid
authority levels are:
• ANONYMOUS
• IDENTIFY (default)
• IMPERSONATE
• DELEGATE
Use with the da parameter. If you specify the /da
parameter and omit /di, the default IDENTIFY is
used. If neither parameter is set, the interface uses
the computer’s default DCOM security settings.
Default: IDENTIFY
/dll=drive:\path\filename.dll (Optional) Configure a post-processing DLL. The

default path is the PlugIns sub-directory of the
interface installation directory. You cannot
configure more than one plug-in.
/dllconfig=config_file_name (Optional) Specifies the directory path and file
or name of the configuration file for a post-processing
DLL. (Some post-processing DLLs do not require a
/dll_ini=config_file_name
configuration file.)
/dt=tag_name (Optional) Specify the point for which detailed
information is to be logged when using the verbose
debug level. (/DB=64). If you omit this setting, the
interface uses the first point for which it receives a
value.
/ec=# (Optional) Specify a counter number for an I/O

rate point. If you require multiple interface
instances with event counters, specify a different
counter number for each instance. Must
correspond to a PI point in the iorates.dat file.
If you specify /ec and omit the argument, the
default counter is 1. Default: /ec=1


/eg=group_name Optional. Used to configure custom event group
names.
To name a particular group, use /eg#=name. For
example, /eg1=MyEvent and /eg2=NextEvent will
instruct the interface to use the name “MyEvent”
for the first event group and the name “NextEvent”
for the second event group.
To set a base name for event groups, use /
eg=name. If a name is not specified for a particular
group using /eg#=name, then that group’s name
appended to it. For example, if /eg=EventGroup
and there is no /eg3 specified, the third event
group will be called “EventGroup3”.
The default base name for event groups is “Event”.
If event group names are not configured, the event
groups will be named “Event1”, “Event2”, “Event3”,
and so on.
Default: /eg=Event
/er=hh:mm:ss (Optional) Specifies the requested update rate for

the event scan class group. (All event-based points
belong to the same group.) The default update rate
for the group is one second. If the OPC server data
cache for event-based tags does not need to be
updated that frequently, reduce workload by
specifying a lower rate.
For v2.0 OPC servers, all event reads are done
from the device, so set this rate high (/
er=24:00:00) unless you require more frequent
updates to the cache for other reasons.
Default: 00:00:01
/es=option (Optional) For V1.0a OPC server, specifies whether

event tag reads come from the cache (CACHE) or
the device (DEVICE). Device reads can adversely
affect the performance of the OPC server. For
details, refer to Event points.
Default: CACHE
/f=frequency[,offset] Define a scan class, specify how often the data in

the class is scanned. Specify scan frequency and
optional offset using the following format:
HH:MM:SS.##,HH:MM:SS.##. For details, see Scan
class attribute (location4).


/fm=# (Optional) Configure type of interface-level
failover. Valid options are:
• 1: Do not create groups on the server
• 2: Create inactive groups and add tags
• 3: Create active groups, but do not advise
groups
For details, see Failover configuration for PI
Interface for OPC DA.
Default: 3
/ft=# (Optional) Specifies (in seconds) how long the

interface tries to connect to the current server
before failing over to the server specified by the
backup parameter. If the specified value is less
than 30, also sets how often the interface checks
server state. By default (and, at a minimum), the
interface checks server state every 60 seconds.
Default: 60
/ga (Optional) Staggers group activation to reduce

OPC server workload. Use in conjunction with scan
class offsets.
/gi (Optional) To reduce load on the OPC server

during startup, inactivates groups until they are
built.
/gl=Option (Optional) Fix for some early v1.0a servers. If the

log contains the error message OnDataChange:
Invalid group ID, try setting /gl=N.
Default: Y
Options: Y or N
/gs=Option (Optional) Fix for older, non-compliant OPC

servers that do not provide a valid GroupStatus on
asynchronous reads. If the log file contains the
error message OnDataChange: Header status,
try setting /gs=N to tell the interface to ignore the
group status parameters.
Options: Y or N
/host=host:5450 (Required) Specifies the host and port of the PI

Data Archive node to which the interface sends
data. Host is the node name of the host node.
/hs=Option (Obsolete) Request a cache update rate of one half
of the scan rate for the scan class. Use ur instead.
Options: Y or N
/hwps (Optional) Check for Plantscape-specific Item error

codes 0xE00483FD or 0xE00483FC and, if found,
failover to alternate OPC server.


/id=# (Optional) Specifies the ID of the interface
instance. Maximum nine digits. Optional, but
highly recommended.
/if=Option (Optional) Ignore the first value sent for each
point. For use with OPC servers that send a
response when the interface connects to a point,
regardless of whether they have a valid value.
Default: N
Options: Y or N
/is=Option (Optional) Ignore the state returned by the OPC
server. Some OPC servers do not return
OPC_STATUS_RUNNING when ready. If the
interface hangs on startup and PI OPC Client tool
displays an OPC server state other than RUNNING,
set /is=Y and report the issue to your OPC server
vendor.
Default: N
Options: Y or N
/it=Option (Optional) To truncate the sub-second portion of
the time stamps being passed to PI Data Archive
and only send whole integer seconds, set to Y.
Reduces CPU and disk consumption.
Default: N
Options: Y or N
/ma=Option (Optional) By default, the OPC interface adds items
to groups one at a time, because some OPC servers
reject an entire group if one item is invalid. To add
all the items in a class at the same time, set to Y.
Recommended for efficiency if supported by your
OPC server.
Default: N
Options: Y or N
/maxstoptime=# (Optional) Specifies how many seconds are
allocated for the interface to close its connections
and exit cleanly.
Default: 120 seconds
/ni=# (Optional) Specifies the number of instances of the

interface running on the node. Used in conjunction
with the ft parameter to determine how long to
wait before initiating server-level failover.
/nt=Option (Optional) Write/do not write I/O Timeout to PI

points when the connection to the OPC server is
lost. Set to Y to disable writing.
Default: N
Options: Y or N


/oc=# Maximum number of outstanding outputs per
group. After issuing the specified number of
writes, the interface waits for one or more to be
acknowledged before issuing any additional
writes.
/od=# (Optional) Level at which to start dropping

outputs. When the output queue for a group
contains the specified number of outputs, the
interface drops the oldest or newest output. To
drop the newest output, specify a positive value.
To drop the oldest output, specify a negative value.
Default: 1
/og=# Number of output groups. Each group has its own

queue.
Default: 1
/opcstopstat=system_digital_state (Optional) To indicate that data collection was

stopped when the interface is shut down, writes
digital state to each input tag. If digital state is
omitted, “I/O Timeout” is written. If digital state is
specified, it must be a valid state from the system
digital state set.
Caution:
Do not use the UniInt stopstat parameter
with the OPC interface. The stopstat can
cause invalid values to be stored in PI points.
Default: "I/O Timeout"
/ot=# Maximum number of point values to write at one

time.
Default: 36


/ou=group_name Optional. Used to configure custom output group
names.
To name a particular group, use /ou#=name. For
example, /ou1=MyOutput and /ou2=NextOutput
“MyOutput” for the first output group and the
name “NextOutput” for the second output group.
To set a base name for output groups, use /
ou=name. If a name is not specified for a particular
group using /ou#=name, then that group’s name
appended to it. For example, if /ou=OutputGroup
and there is no /ou3 specified, the third output
group will be called “OutputGroup3”.
The default base name for output groups is
“Write”. If output group names are not configured,
the output groups will be named “Write1”,
“Write2”, “Write3”, and so on.
Default: /ou=Write
/outputsnaptime (Optional). For output tags, use the timestamp

from the original event that triggered the output.
By default, the interface uses the time it receives a
new value as the timestamp for storing the output
after it has completed.
/outputacktime (Optional) For output tag time stamps, use
"acknowledge" time rather than the timestamp
from the event that triggered the output. Uses the
timestamp from the OPC server's
acknowledgement of the write. Overrides
outputsnaptime, if enabled.
/ow=# (Optional) Number of pending outputs at which to
set Device Status to warn that outputs are arriving
faster than the OPC server can process them. If ow
and od are both specified, ow must be less than od.


/pg=group_name Optional. Used to configure custom polled group
names.
To name a particular group, use /pg#=name. For
example, /pg1=MyPolled and /pg2=NextPolled
“MyPolled” for the first polled group and the name
“NextPolled” for the second polled group.
To set a base name for polled groups, use /
pg=name. If a name is not specified for a particular
group using /pg#=name, then that group’s name
appended to it. For example, if /pg=PolledGroup
and there is no /pg3 specified, the third polled
group will be called “PolledGroup3”.
The default base name for polled groups is “Poll”. If
polled group names are not configured, the polled
groups will be named “Poll1”, “Poll2”, “Poll3”, and
so on.
Default: /pg=Poll
/pisdk=# (Optional) Enable (1) or disable (0) the PI SDK. If

required by a PI System interface, the PI SDK is
enabled and cannot be disabled using this setting.
/pisdkcontimeout=# (Optional) Set the number of seconds to wait
before timing out on PI SDK calls.
Default: 15
/pr=# Configure cluster failover for the interface

instance:
• 0: No cluster failover (default)
• 1: Primary interface instance
• 2: Backup interface instance
Default: 0
/ps=point_source (Required) Specifies the point source for the

interface instance. Not case sensitive. The interface
instance uses this setting to determine which PI
points to load and update.
/pw=password (Optional) The password for the user ID specified
with the sec parameter. Case sensitive.
Caution:
Adding the password to the .bat file
exposes the password to anyone who can
read the .bat file, and can pose a security risk.
The access control list for the .bat file
should deny read access to all accounts
expect those that should know the password.
For more information about security, see
Security best practices for PI Interface for
OPC DA.


/rd=# (Optional) Number of seconds to wait before
trying to reconnect to the OPC server.
/rn=# (Optional) Specifies the resource number of the
APIonline service that the interface depends on.
For example, /rn=1 configures the interface to
depend on apionline1. Required if there are
multiple instances of PI Interface for OPC DA
running with different service names on the same
machine. For configuring Windows Cluster
failover.
/rp=# Specifies the minimum percentage of points
required to be accepted by the OPC server as valid.
If less than the specified percentage is accepted,
the interface sets its device status to
Connected/No Data, which triggers UniInt
failover if configured.
Default: 80
/rt=# Polled scan classes only: The maximum number of

scans that can return no data before the group is
assumed to be non-responsive and the interface
sets the Device Status of the interface to warn of
the problem. Minimum is 2 scan periods.
Default: 10
/sd=# (Optional) Specifies how many seconds to wait

after connecting before reading OPC points. By
default, there is no delay after connecting.
Default: 0
/sec (Optional) To enable the NT security option of the

or OPC standard, specify /sec (omit user ID). If you
are using the OPC private security option, specify
/sec=userid
the user ID using this parameter and the password
using the pw parameter. Requires an OPC server
that supports OPC security.
/server=host::name (Required) Configures the target OPC server. If the
OPC server runs on the same machine as the
interface, omit host name and colons. If your
server name has embedded spaces, enclose the
name in double quotes.


/sg=[S] (Optional) Send only GOOD quality data.
Questionable quality data and BAD quality data are
ignored. To ignore substatus for values that have
GOOD status, specify /sg=s.
To treat OPC_QUALITY_LOCAL_OVERRIDE as
SUBSTITUTED, specify /sg. To treat
OPC_QUALITY_LOCAL_OVERRIDE as GOOD,
specify /sg=s.
If the /sq=I or /sq=y parameter is also set,
questionable quality data is sent to PI Data
Archive. BAD quality data is ignored. Quality
information continues to be sent to points that are
configured to store quality instead of values.
/sin=node (Obsolete) Specifies the name of the secondary
interface node for cluster failover.
/sq=Option (Optional) By default, the interface stores and flags
uncertain-quality values. To store quality data
instead of value for data that is not GOOD, specify /
sq=Y. To store questionable data, specify /sq=I.
For BAD quality data, the interface sends a digital
state code to the PI point.
Default: N
Options: Y or I
/st=tag_name (Optional) Configure a digital PI point to store the
state of the OPC server when it changes. Ensure
there is a digital state set with the following states:
1. OPC_STATUS_RUNNING
2. OPC_STATUS_FAILED
3. OPC_STATUS_NOCONFIG
4. OPC_STATUS_SUSPENDED
5. OPC_STATUS_TEST
If the server returns anything other than one of the
preceding states, 0 is stored. Configure a zero state
for this state set that reflects the non-standard
server status.
/startup_delay=# (Optional) Configures a post-startup delay. The

interface waits for the specified period before
beginning operation. Intended for use if you have
configured the interface for auto start and the
network layer needs time to complete startup
before it becomes available. If you specify /
startup_delay and omit the delay, a thirty-
second delay is configured.
Default: 30
/sw=# (Optional) Specifies how long (in seconds) the

interface waits for the OPC server to enter the
OPC_STATUS_RUNNING state. If the specified
period elapses and the OPC server is not running,
the interface fails over to the alternate OPC server.


/ta=#.# (Optional) For advise PI points, send the value
from the preceding scan if the new value's time
stamp is greater than the specified number of scan
periods. Enabling this setting causes advise tags to
behave as if the Step attribute is enabled.
/tf=format (Optional) Specifies the format of time stamp
strings. Used for points with location2 = 6 or 7,
where the ItemID is either a string that contains a
time stamp or a VT_DATE value. Also used for
writing output time stamps using TIM= in the
exdesc attribute field. Valid tokens are: cc, yy, mn,
mon, dd, hh, hr, mm, ss, 000, XM. For details, see
Time stamp adjustments.
/to=HH:MM:SS (Optional) Applies an offset to all time stamps

coming from the server. Provided to deal with
servers and installations that do not follow the
OPC specifications (for example, where the time
zone must be UTC regardless of the location of the
server). The format is the same as the scan period
(f) parameter. For negative offsets, precede the
offset with a minus sign.
/ts=Option (Optional) Specifies whether time stamps come
from the OPC server or are applied by the interface
when the data arrives. By default, the interface
provides time stamps (/ts=N). If the OPC server
can provide valid time stamps, specify /ts=Y. If
the OPC server can provide valid time stamps only
for advised points, specify /ts=A. To only use time
stamps provided by the OPC server and apply no
time offset, specify/ts=U.
Default: N
Options: Y or N or A or U
/ufo_id=# (Required for UniInt interface failover phase 1 or
2) Specifies failover ID. Must be a unique, positive
integer.
/ufo_interval=# (Optional) Specifies in milliseconds how often the
failover heartbeat points are updated and interface
status is checked. Must be the same on both
interface nodes. Minimum: 50 Maximum: 600000
milliseconds (10 minutes)
Default for Phase 1 failover: 1000
Default for Phase 2 failover: 5000
/ufo_otherid=# Failover ID of the other interface instance.

Required for phase 1 or 2 interface-level failover.


/ufo_sync=path/[file_name] (Required for phase 2 interface level failover) Path
and, optionally, name of the shared file containing
the failover state. The path can be a fully qualified
node name and directory, a mapped drive letter, or
a local path if the shared file is on an interface
node. The path must be terminated by a slash or
backslash character. The default filename is:
executablename_pointsource_interfaceID.dat If
there are any spaces in the path or filename, the
entire path and filename must be enclosed in
quotes. If you enclose the path in double quotes,
the final backslash must be a double backslash \\.
/ufo_type=type (Required for phase 2 interface level failover)
Specifies the type of failover configuration: HOT,
WARM, or COLD.
/uht_id=# (Optional) Specifies a unique ID for interface

instances that are run in a redundant mode
without using the UniInt failover mechanism. If the
ID is specified, only health points with the
specified value in location3 are loaded.
/ur=HH:MM:SS.000 (Optional) Specifies the requested update rate for
the group. By default, the update rate requested
for a scan class is the same as the rate. The update
rate is applied to the scan period that it follows.
For example:
• /f=00:00:02 - Update rate two seconds
• /f=00:00:03 /ur=00:00:00.5 - Update rate 0.5
seconds
• /f=00:00:01 - Update rate one second
/us (Optional) If the current snapshot is a system
digital state and the new value is older than the
snapshot, the interface sends the new value to PI
Data Archive one second after the snapshot time
stamp of the system digital state. This check is not
done if the current snapshot is a good value.
/uwq=# (Optional) Directs the interface instance to fail
over if the specified number of watchdog points do
not have GOOD quality and, for v2.0 OPC servers, if
there is an error reading watchdog points.
/vn=Option (Optional) Specifies the OPC server version (v1.0a
or V2.0).
Default: 2
Options: 1 or 2
/wd=# (Optional) For configuring failover using multiple
watchdog points, trigger failover if the sum of the
values of the points drops below the specified
value.


/wd1=wd1tagname (Optional) Configure watchdog points for failover.
and For more information, see Server status and OPC
watchdog points.
/wd2=wd2tagname
/whitelist=path\filename Enables whitelist file for output points. Specifies

the path to the whitelist file. The whitelist file
specifies a list of permitted output points and their
attributes, which the interface uses to write output
data to the data source.
/wq=# (Optional) For configuring failover using multiple
watchdog points. Directs the interface to fail over
if the number of watchdog points with quality
other than GOOD exceeds the specified value (and,
for v2.0 servers, if there is an error reading the
item).
/ws=Option (Optional) For failover, set to 1 to configure the
interface instance to disconnect from the server if
the server leaves the OPC_STATUS_RUNNING state.
By default, the interface stays connected.
Default: 0
Options: 0 or 1
Parameters by function
The parameters are grouped by how they are used, and are specific to PI Interface for OPC DA,
except for the UniInt parameters that are common to all OSIsoft UniInt-based interfaces.
Parameters are not case-sensitive.

Common UniInt Parameters Advanced Parameters Data Handling

/CACHEMODE /AM /AF
/CACHESYNC /AR /AS
/EC /AT /ER
/F /DC /HOST
/ID /ES /IF
/MAXSTOPTIME /GA /IT
/PISDK /GI /NT
/PISDKCONTIMEOUT /GL /OPCSTOPSTAT
/PS /GS /SG
/STARTUP_DELAY /HWPS /SQ
/WHITELIST /IS /TA
/MA /TF
/OC /TO
/OD /UR
/OG /US
/OT
/OUTPUTACKTIME
/OUTPUTSNAPTIME
/OW
/RD
/SD
DCOM Security Plug-ins (Post-processing DLLs) Debugging

/DA /DLL /DB
/DI /DLLCONFIG /DF
/DT

Server-level Failover UniInt Interface-level Failover Interface-level Failover

/BACKUP /UFO_ID /CM
/CS /UFO_INTERVAL /CN
/FT /UFO_OTHERID /FM
/NI /UFO_SYNC /PR
/SW /UFO_TYPE /RN
/WS /UWQ /UHT_ID
/WD /RP
/WD1 /RT
/WD2
/WQ
/WS
OPC Server Miscellaneous

/Server /PW
/TS /SEC
/VN /ST

PI Interface for OPC DA troubleshooting
Refer to the following sections when troubleshooting interface or OPC server problems.
Open PI OPC Client Tool

To connect to and view the contents of your OPC server, use PI OPC Client Tool. You can test
data exchange procedures such as sync read, refresh, advise, and outputs using this tool.
Procedure
1. Open PI OPC Client Tool in one of two ways:
◦ Locate and double-click the OPCClient.exe executable file.
◦ From the Windows Start menu, click All Programs > PI System > PI OPCClient.
OPC server issues

The OPC specification permits a great deal of flexibility in how OPC servers are designed and in
what features they support. These variations in OPC servers can affect users of PI Interface for
OPC DA.

• Item browsing
• OPC server time stamp options
• Unreliable values
• Access path
• Problems with data returned by OPC server
• Troubleshooting OPC server operation
• OPC refreshes
Item browsing
To be able to map PI points to OPC items, you must have access to OPC item names. However,
OPC servers are not required to support item browsing. If browsing is supported, you can use
the PI OPC Client tool to display the points that the OPC server recognizes.
OPC server time stamp options

OPC servers send time stamps in one of two ways:

• Send the time stamp for the last time that the data value and quality were read from the
device. In this case, the time stamp changes even if the value does not.
• Send the time stamp of the last change to the data value or quality. In this case, if the data
remains the same, the time stamp does not change.
You must set the way time stamps are recorded by configuring the time stamp (ts)
parameter using PI ICU.
Unreliable values
Some OPC servers return a value when a client connects to a point, even if the server does not
yet have a valid value for the point. Some servers send an unreliable value with a status of
GOOD, which results in this value being sent to PI Data Archive.
To screen out these unreliable values, use PI ICU to enable the Ignore First Value option on the
Data Handling page (/if=Y).
Access path
In OPC items, the access path suggests how the server can access the data. The OPC standard
states that it is valid for servers to require path information to access a value, but not for them
to require that it be sent in the access path field. According to the standard, the OPC server can
ignore it, but some non-compliant OPC servers require the access path.
For example, RSLinx requires path information in the access path or as part of the ItemID, in
the following format: [accesspath]itemid.
If your OPC server requires an access path, contact your OPC server vendor to determine how
best to configure the server with PI Interface for OPC DA.
Problems with data returned by OPC server

The Unpack2 error messages in the local PI Message Log can indicate invalid data. In some
cases, PI Interface for OPC DA might be sending data to PI Data Archive and also logging
Unpack2 errors for the PI point, because the OPC server sends good values when it can and
error codes when it cannot. Intermittent failures between the OPC server and the data source
result in a combination of errors and values.
The following generic error messages are commonly logged:
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV.pv returns error 80020005: 80020005(Type mismatch)
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV2.pv returns error: The operation failed (80004005)
The following error messages indicate that the data received from the OPC server contained
errors and the OPC server did not return a text explanation of the error:
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV3.pv returns error : Unknown error(800482d2)
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV4.pv returns error E004823E: Unknown error (e004823e).
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV5.pv returns error E241205C: Unknown error (e241205c)
In UnPack2 Tag MyPV6.pv returns error E2412029: Unknown error (e2412029)
To troubleshoot such data-related issues, consider the following causes and solutions:

• If you see Unknown errors, check with the OPC server vendor and have them look up the
error code displayed in the error message. OPC servers can generate vendor-specific error
codes, and only the OPC server vendor can explain what they mean.
• Restarting the OPC server might resolve the issue.
• Type mismatch errors indicate incompatible data types. Check for a mismatch between
the PI Data Archive data type and the OPC item type. Check location2 settings. To avoid
cache issues after data types are changed, restart the interface.
• Verify that the data type of the PI point can accommodate the range of values being sent by
the OPC server. For example, if a PI point is defined as a two-byte integer and the OPC
server sends values that are too large for it to accommodate, the point overflows.
• Make sure the data type of the OPC item and PI point are compatible.
• The data source might be sending corrupt data to the OPC server. Check for network issues
that might corrupt the data packets.
• Check the size of the OPC server group. If the scan class contains more points than
permitted in the OPC server group, Unpack2 errors might result. Consult the OPC server
documentation for group size limits.
• If the point is digital, and the data can be read into a string PI point, and the underlying
control system is Honeywell, the digital state strings in PI Data Archive might need to
exactly match the string reported by the DCS. To determine the digital states, go to
Honeywell Universal Station or GUS to look at each controller block (data source).
Troubleshooting OPC server operation

PI Interface for OPC DA can log OPC server interactions in the opcresponse.log,
opcscan.log, and opcrefresh.log files. To interpret the information in these files, you must
understand the basic interface architecture. PI Interface for OPC DA has two threads of
operation:
• PI thread
Interacts with PI Data Archive.
• COM thread
Interacts with the OPC server.
Polled PI points
For polled PI points, the interface notifies the PI thread when it’s time to scan. The PI thread
starts the data collection process and logs the time, group number, and current flag value in
opcscan.log, then sets the flag. (If the flag in opcscan.log is non-zero, the last call made to
the server did not return before the interface initiated another poll, and data might have been
missed as a result.)
When the COM thread detects that the flag is set, it logs the time, group number and
transaction ID in the opcrefresh.log file and makes a refresh call to the OPC server. When it
receives the synchronous response from the OPC server, it clears the flag.
Now the OPC server can send data at any time, in an asynchronous manner. When the OPC
server sends data to the interface COM thread, the time, group number and transaction ID are
logged in opcresponse.log.

Advise PI points
For advise PI points, the COM thread receives callbacks only when the data from OPC server
changes value. Therefore, advise points do not generate entries in the opcscan.log or
opcrefresh.log files, and only the data callbacks are logged in the opcresponse.log file.
Advise points can be identified in the opcresponse.log file by group numbers that range
from 200 to 800.
OPC refreshes
Logging refreshes
To log OPC refreshes, enable debug option 8, which causes PI Interface for OPC DA to create
three log files: opcscan.log, opcrefresh.log, and opcresponse.log. If the interface is
running as a service, the files are located in the %windows%/system32 directory (%windows%/
sysWOW64 for 64-bit systems). Otherwise, the files reside in the working directory for the
interface process. The working directory does not need to be the same as the directory
containing the .exe file.
When the interface sets the flag for a scan, it logs the current time, the number of the scan
class, and the current value of the scan flag in the opcscan.log file. The time stamp is in UTC
(Greenwich time zone, daylight savings time is not observed), structured as a FILETIME
structure written as an 64-bit hexadecimal field. The lower and upper halves of the number are
transposed and the actual number is a count of the interval since January 1, 1601, measured in
10E-7 seconds.
After logging the data, the interface sets the scan flag for the group, then the COM thread takes
its turn. When the interface cycles around to perform the poll, it logs the time, the scan class,
and the TransID used in the opcrefresh.log file. For v1.0a server, the TransID logged is the
TransID that was returned from the last poll of the group. For v2.0 servers, it is the actual
TransID returned from the server.
When the interface receives data from the OPC server, it logs the time, the scan class, and the
TransID received in the opcresponse.log file. For advise points, no entries are logged in the
opcrefresh.log and opcscan.log files. Only the opcresponse.log file is updated.
Time stamps in PI Interface for OPC DA logs are stored in their native format, which is hard to
read. To translate the time stamps to a readily readable format, use the following programs,
which are installed into the Tools sub-directory below the interface directory:
• opcscan.exe
• opcrefresh.exe
• opcresponse.exe
To run one of these programs from the command line, specify the input and output file names.
Examples:
> opcscan.exe opcscan.log scan.log
> opcrefresh c:\pipc\Interfaces\OPCInt\opcrefresh.log c:\temp\refresh.log
> tools\opcresponse opcresponse.log response.log

The utilities display the UTC time stamp that came with the data, both raw and translated, the
time stamp translated into local time, both raw and translated, and the PI time sent to PI Data
Archive. For example:
response.log 126054824424850000 2000/06/14 18:54:02.485 126054680424850000
2000/06/14 14:54:02.485 960994309.485001 2 1db8
To check the time stamp returned from the OPC server, consult these log files. The time stamp
is based on 1 January 1600 UTC, so if you see a date around 1600, it indicates that the server is
not sending valid time stamps. To configure the interface to create time stamps when it gets
the data, use PI ICU to enable the Interface Provides Timestamp option on the OPCInt page (or
edit the batch file and specify the /ts=N parameter).
If the interface is running with debugging options 32 or 64 enabled, the log file contains entries
for individual data items that were received by the COM thread. For advise points, the group
number in the opcresponse.log file might not be correct for entries generated by debugging
options 32 or 64, although the shorter entries generated by debugging option 8 correspond to
the correct group number.
By looking at the log files, you can see when the interface decided to poll, when it made the call,
and when the data came in. If the flag in opcscan.log is non- zero, the last call made to the
server did not return by the time the interface started another poll. If you find non-zero flags in
the log file, contact your server vendor and have them contact OSIsoft.
No OPC server response to refresh calls

To determine whether the OPC server is responding to the refresh calls made by the interface,
check the local PI Message Log file for the following message:
The OPC server did not respond to the last refresh call for scan class 2, and
has not has not responded to the previous 100 refresh call(s).
This message indicates that the OPC server failed to respond to a refresh call. This problem
occurs when the OPC server cannot keep up with the update rates or has suspended operation
due to a bug. The message is repeated for each additional 100 refresh calls that receive
responses from the OPC server for each scan class. If these messages appear in your local PI
Message Log, data loss might be occurring. Contact your OPC server vendor immediately, and
consider the following adjustments to reduce load on the OPC server:
• Move points into the Advise scan class 1.
• Reduce the total number of scan classes for the interface.
Error and informational messages for PI Interface for OPC DA

Messages are logged as follows:
• During startup: Messages include the version of the interface, the version of UniInt, the
command line parameters used, and the number of points.
• During point retrieval: Messages are sent to the log if there are problems with the
configuration of the points.
• If debugging is enabled.
For more information about message logs, see the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide.

Logging
PI Interface for OPC DA logs messages about its operation in the local PI Message Log file.
The following information is logged:
• Startup and shutdown status messages
• The scan rate configured for each scan class and the actual update rate provided by the OPC
server
• The number of PI points in each scan class, output points, and advise and event tags
• Misconfigured points
• Points rejected by the OPC server (and other error messages from the OPC server)
• OPC server connection attempts and results, including loss of connectivity
Messages
The log contains messages from PI Interface for OPC DA, the UniInt framework, and the PI API.
This list describes only messages from the interface. If any error message has a PI point
number as well as a point name, use the point number to identify the problem point, because
long point names are truncated to 12 characters.
Informational
Message No ConnectionPoint for OPCShutdown
Shutdown Advise Failed
Meaning The OPC server does not implement the Shutdown
interface or does not implement it properly. Does
not prevent proper operation of the interface.
Message QueryInterface:IID_IconnectionPointCont
ainer failed, using v1.0a protocol
Meaning The OPC server does not support OPC DA v2.0.
Message GetStatus: Server has no current time.

Meaning Indicates a non-OPC-standard server that does not
send the time of day. The OPC specifications state
that the server is supposed to include current time
when it sends its status. The interface guesses time
stamps, but its accuracy is likely to be
questionable.
Message Cleaning up connections

Cleaned up connections
Meaning Indicates that the interface is disconnecting and

exiting.
Message Server sent shutdown notice.

Meaning Interface received a shutdown notification from

the OPC server. The interface periodically tries to
reconnect to the server , until it is shut down or
succeeds in connecting.
Message Got %d and cleared it

ClearWrite: dwTransID mismatch, have
%d, got %d
Stashing transid %d
Sending transid %d
Writing transid %d
Meaning Debug level 4 messages indicating that the server

acknowledged the specified write and the interface
is clear to send another write value. The %d
variable is a placeholder for a decimal integer
value.
Message Can’t find status tag, ignoring

Can’t find queue tag, ignoring
Status tag is not Digital tag, ignoring
Queue tag is not Integer tag, ignoring
Meaning Status/queue point does not exist or its data type

is incorrect.
Message Can’t connect to OPC Server, going into

slow cycle wait
Meaning Interface attempted to connect to OPC server.
Check for other messages that contain details
about the reason for the failed attempt. Interface
periodically tries to reconnect.
Message AddItems failed, server not in RUNNING

state, will try later
Meaning The interface is waiting for the OPC server to enter
RUNNING state. You can use the PI OPCClient tool
to see the state of the server (use the Get Status
button). If the server does not enter the RUNNING
state, investigate the cause.
Errors
Message Out of Memory.
Cannot allocate a list; fails.
Unable to add tag.
Cause The system has run out of resources.

Resolution Use the Windows Task Manager to check the

resources being used: press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open
the Task Manager. If you see high memory usage
for opcint.exe, there might be a bottleneck
between the interface and PI Data Archive. Look
for related messages in the log (see also Running
low on memory, dropping data).
Message CLSIDFromProgID
Cause OPC Server Registry entries are not valid.
Resolution Check your server installation instructions.
Message CoCreateInstanceEx
Cause Indicates a problem with your DCOM
configuration.
Resolution Check your DCOM settings.
Message IOPCServer
Cause The proxy stub files are not registered.
Resolution To register the opcproxy.dll and
opccomn_ps.dll files, you must use an
administrator account. Open a command prompt
window, change to the directory where the DLLs
are installed, and issue the following commands:
>regsvr32 opcproxy.dll
>regsvr32 opccomn_ps.dll
Message AddRef
Cause Indicates that the OPC server does not let the
interface perform the simplest function.
Resolution If you can read and write points using PI OPCClient
but this error is logged, check your DCOM settings,
check what user account the interface is running
under, and try running the interface interactively.
Message Advise returns error: 80040202(Unable

to open the access token of the current
thread)
Cause If you see this error after connecting to the server
successfully, the wrong opcproxy.dll might be
loaded.

Resolution If you have multiple copies of opcproxy.dll on

your interface node (possibly because you have
more than one OPC server on your machine), make
sure that they are the same version. It is safest to
have only one version around on your system (in
the \%windows%\system32 or %windows%
\sysWOW64 directory). Check whether directories
containing older versions are specified in the
system path.
Message AddGroup failed for scanclass %d

AddItem failed for %s
AddItems failed for tag %s
Advise Group failed for %s
Advise returns E_OUTOFMEMORY
Advise returns E_UNEXPECTED
Advise returns error
No ConnectionPoint for scanclass %d
QueryInterface:IID_IdataObject failed
for scanclass %d
QueryInterface:IID_IOPCAsyncIO2 failed
for scanclass %d
Read: (string)
Refresh: (string)
Unable to add to group
Unable to add to OPC group.
Unable to advise event group
Unable to advise group
Unable to advise output group
Unable to create group
Write error %X for tag
Write failed
Cause These are fatal errors returned by the OPC server.

Resolution Try the same operation using PI OPCClient. If

successful, run the interface interactively to see if
the same error occurs. If successful, check your
DCOM configuration to make sure that you have
granted required permissions to the INTERACTIVE
account. c0040004: Indicates that the requested
data type cannot be returned for this item. Use PI
OPCClient to add that Item to a group, omitting
data type. The server will send you values using
the data type that it uses internally for that item.
c0040007: Returned from AddItem, indicates that
the server does not have the specified item. Verify
that the instrumenttag field of the PI point
matches the OPC item name exactly. Using PI
OPCClient, try to add the Item to a group, or if your
OPC server supports browsing, browse to the item
and double-click on it to display its full name.
Message Invalid read/write mode requested for

tag %s
Cause The server is returning invalid information about
read/write access.
Resolution To tell the interface to ignore this information,
specify the /ar=N parameter.
Message RemoveItem failed for tag %s

dev_remove_tag: Unable to unadvise %s
dev_remove_tag: Unable to remove group
%s
Cause The server won’t remove an item from a group or

stop collecting data for a group.
Resolution Not a serious problem unless accompanied by lots
of other messages, but indicates some problem
with the OPC server.
Message Write unable to get values:

Getsnapshotx error %d
Cause The interface was unable to read a value from PI to

write to the OPC server.
Resolution To verify that PI Data Archive is running, use
apisnap (in the API directory). Verify that the
source and target data types and values are
compatible.

Message Event Point has invalid scan class (!=

0)
No Item name – instrumenttag and exdesc
both empty
Nonzero Totalcode requires nonzero
Convers
Point cannot be write and Read On
Change
Point has invalid scan class
Point has invalid scan class (== 0)
ROC Point has invalid scan class (= =
0)
Square root must be 0, 1 or 2
This Totalcode requires Dzero to be
specified.
Total must be 0,1,2,3,4, or 5
Unable to get point type
Unable to get source point type.
Unable to get square root
Unable to get total specs
Cause Indicates that a PI point is improperly configured.

Resolution Check the point configuration, especially the
attribute indicated.
Message GetStatus
Cause The OPC server did not respond to a status query.
It might be down or disconnected.
Resolution Use PI OPCClient to check the status.
Message Interface failed to write some %s

states
Cause When the OPC server shuts down, the interface
sends a shutdown status to each point, if
configured to do so (/opcstopstat). This error
message indicates that the interface was unable to
send some or all of them, owing to lack of
connectivity to PI Data Archive or lack of buffering.
Resolution You may want to manually enter the digital state
for the affected points to indicate that the interface
shutdown.

Message OnDataChange:Invalid group ID < 0

OnDataChange:Invalid advise group ID:
OnDataChange:Invalid group ID > 999
OnDataChange: Header status:
OnDataChange has format not Hglobal
OnDataChange:Invalid group ID for write
completion
Unknown access type for group %s
Cause Indicates that the server is sending meaningless

data.
Resolution To ignore the header status field in incoming data,
set /gs=N. Contact your OPC server vendor. Use PI
OPCClient to create groups and try AsyncReads
and Advises. Check whether incoming data is valid:
the meaningless data might not interfere with data
collection.
Message OnDataChange: Bad Timestamp

Cause The interface received an invalid time stamp with
data from the OPC server.
Resolution Check your OPC server, and use PI OPCClient to
display time stamps.
Message Invalid timestamp for tag: %s, %d and

%.36f
Cause The interface received an invalid time stamp with
data from the OPC server. Indicates an issue in the
OPC server.
Resolution Use PI OPCClient to display the item in question.
Use Refresh or Advise or AsyncRead to see a time
stamp.
Message Putsnap system error %d, %d

Putsnap no longer in system error %d,
%d
Cause System error indicating a problem sending data to

PI Data Archive.
Resolution No action required unless the error persists.
Message Putsnapsx not implemented %d

Getsnapshotx not implemented
Cause Indicates an outdated version of the PI API.

Resolution Update your version of the PI API.
Message Unable to translate string.

Cause Attempt to translate an ASCII string value from a

PI point to Unicode failed.
Resolution Check the value of the point.
Message Unable to initialize server object

Cause Privileges are not granting access.
Resolution Verify that account has sufficient privileges.
Message No OPC Server specified

Cause The server parameter specifies a non-existent
server or the invocation is on multiple lines.
Resolution Verify that the interface batch startup file specifies
valid server parameter and that the invocation is
a single line.
Message Unable to create clock drift timer

Cause Interface cannot create a timer to track drift.
Resolution Check system resources.
Message Running low on memory, dropping data

Memory load within acceptable limits,
resuming data collection
Cause If PI Data Archive cannot accept data as quickly as

the interface can send it, the interface buffers data
in memory. To avoid consuming all available
memory, the interface starts dropping data as the
limits configured by hq and lq are approached.
Resolution Consider giving the PI System more resources,
changing the exception parameters of your points,
or changing the scan period of your points.
Message Failed to open cluster: error ####.

Intf-failover will not be supported.
Failed to open cluster resource: error
####. Intf-failover will not be
supported.
Cause Win32 error code indicating that an attempt to

open the cluster service or resource failed.
Resolution Check the cluster settings.
Critical errors
Message Error from CoInitialize:
Error from CoInitializeSecurity:
Cause COM might not be properly installed on your

system.

Resolution If true, this is a serious problem. First check your

COM setup. You may also need to contact OSIsoft
Technical Support.
Message Cannot get PI Server time.

Cause Cannot connect to PI Data Archive.
Resolution For newly-installed systems, reboot and verify that
you can connect to PI Data Archive. To verify
connectivity, ping the PI Data Archive machine. To
verify that PI Data Archive is running, use
apisnap. For existing installations, contact OSIsoft
Technical Support.
Message OnDataChange: VariantCopy

Cause Indicates that the OPC server sent meaningless
data. Interface rejects the data and writes BADSTAT
to the point. Time stamp is good.
Resolution Check the data with PI OPCClient.
System errors and PI System errors

System error numbers are positive. PI System error numbers are negative. To display
descriptions of system and PI System errors, use the pidiag utility:
\PI\adm\pidiag -e error_number
UniInt failover-specific messages

Informational
Message 16-May-06 10:38:00 OPCInt 1> UniInt failover: Interface in the
“Backup” state.
Meaning Upon interface startup, the initial transition is made to the backup state. In this
state the interface monitors the status of the other interface participating in
failover. When configured for hot failover, data received from the data source is
queued and not sent to PI Data Archive while in this state. The amount of data
queued while in this state is determined by the failover update interval. In any case,
there will be typically no more than two update intervals of data in the queue at
any given time. Some transition chains can cause the queue to hold up to five
failover update intervals worth of data.

“Primary” state and actively sending data to PI. Backup
interface not available.
Meaning In primary state, the interface sends data to PI Data Archive as it is received. This
message also indicates that there is not a backup interface participating in failover.

“Primary” state and actively sending data to PI. Backup
interface available.

Meaning While in this state, the interface sends data to PI Data Archive as it is received. This
message also states that the other copy of the interface appears to be ready to take
over the role of primary.
Error messages (Phase 1 & 2)

Message 16-May-06 17:29:06 OPCInt 1> One of the required Failover
Synchronization points was not loaded. Error = 0: The Active ID
synchronization point was not loaded. The input PI tag was not
loaded.
Cause The Active ID tag is not configured properly.
Resolution Check validity of point attributes. Make sure the location1 attribute is set to the
id parameter of the interface. All failover tags must have the same pointsource
and location1 attributes. Modify point attributes as necessary and restart the
interface.
Message 16-May-06 17:38:06 OPCInt 1> One of the required Failover

Synchronization points was not loaded. Error = 0: The Heartbeat
point for this copy of the interface was not loaded. The input
PI tag was not loaded.
Cause The heartbeat tag is not configured properly.
interface.
Message 17-May-06 09:06:03 OPCint > The UniInt FailOver ID (/UFO_ID)

must be a positive integer.
Cause The ufo_id parameter has not been assigned a positive integer value.
Resolution Change and verify the parameter to a positive integer and restart the interface.
Message 17-May-06 09:06:03 OPCInt 1> The Failover ID parameter (/UFO_ID)

was found but the ID for the redundant copy was not found
Cause The ufo_otherid parameter is not defined or has not been assigned a positive
integer value.
Resolution Change and verify the ufo_otherid parameter to a positive integer and restart the
interface.
Errors (Phase 1)
Message 17-May-06 09:06:03 OPCInt 1> UniInt failover: Interface in an
“Error” state. Could not read failover control points.
Cause The failover control points on the data source are returning an erroneous value to
the interface. This error can be caused by creating a non-initialized control point on
the data source. This message will only be received if the interface is configured to
be synchronized through the data source (Phase 1).
Resolution Check validity of the value of the control points on the data source.

Message 16-May-06 17:29:06 OPCInt 1> Loading Failover Synchronization

tag failed Error Number = 0: Description = [FailOver] or
HeartBeat:n] was found in the exdesc for Tag Active_IN but the
tag was not loaded by the interface. Failover will not be
initialized unless another Active ID tag is successfully loaded
by the interface.
Cause The Active ID or heartbeat tag is not configured properly. This message is received
only if the interface is configured to be synchronized through the data source
(Phase 1).
interface.
Message 17-May-06 09:05:39 OPCInt 1> Error reading Active ID point from
Data source Active_IN (Point 29600) status = -255
Cause The Active ID point value on the data source caused an error when read by the
interface. The value read from the data source must be valid. Upon receiving this
error, the interface enters the “Backup in Error state.”
Resolution Check validity of the value of the Active ID point on the data source.
Message 17-May-06 09:06:03 OPCInt 1> Error reading the value for the
other copy’s Heartbeat point from Data source HB2_IN (Point
29604) status = -255
Cause The heartbeat point value on the data source caused an error when read by the
interface. The value read from the data source must be valid. Upon receiving this
error, the interface enters the “Backup in Error state.”
Resolution Check validity of the value of the heartbeat point on the data source
Error Messages (Phase 2)

Message 27-Jun-08 17:27:17 PI Eight Track 1 1> Error 5: Unable to create
file ‘\\georgiaking\GeorgiaKingStorage\UnIntFailover\
\PIEightTrack_eight_1.dat’ Verify that interface has read/write/
create access on file server machine. Initializing uniint
library failed Stopping Interface
Cause The interface is unable to create a new failover synchronization file at startup. The
creation of the file takes place the first time either copy of the interface is started
and the file does not exist. The error number most commonly seen is error number
5. Error number 5 is an "access denied" error and is probably the result of a
permissions problem.
Resolution Ensure the account that the interface is running under has read and write
permissions for the directory. Set the access control list on the directory to read/
write/create access to the account that runs the interface.
Message Sun Jun 29 17:18:51 2008 PI Eight Track 1 2> WARNING> Failover
Warning: Error = 64 Unable to open Failover Control File ‘\
\georgiaking\GeorgiaKingStorage\Eight\PIEightTrack_eight_1.dat’
The interface will not be able to change state if PI is not
available

Cause The interface is unable to open the failover synchronization file. The interface
failover continues to operate correctly if communication to PI Data Archive is not
interrupted. If communication to PI Data Archive is interrupted while one or both
interfaces cannot access the synchronization file, the interfaces remain in the state
they were in at the time of the second failure: the primary interface remains
primary and the backup interface remains backup.
Resolution Ensure the account that the interface is running under has read and write
permissions for the directory. Set the access control list on the directory to read/
write/create access to the account that runs the interface.


Technical support and other resources
For technical assistance, contact OSIsoft Technical Support at +1 510-297-5828 or through the
OSIsoft Tech Support Contact Us page (https://techsupport.osisoft.com/Contact-Us/). The
website offers additional contact options for customers outside of the United States.
When you contact OSIsoft Technical Support, be prepared to provide this information:
• Product name, version, and build numbers
• Details about your computer platform (CPU type, operating system, and version number)
• Time that the difficulty started
• Log files at that time
• Details of any environment changes prior to the start of the issue
• Summary of the issue, including any relevant log files during the time the issue occurred
To ask questions of others who use OSIsoft software, join the OSIsoft user community,
PI Square (https://pisquare.osisoft.com). Members of the community can request advice and
share ideas about the PI System. The PI Developers Club space within PI Square offers
resources to help you with the programming and integration of OSIsoft products.

Technical support and other resources

PI Interface For OPC DA 2.6. User Guide

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PI Interface for OPC DA 2.

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Introduction to PI Interface for OPC DA....................................................................... 1

PI Interface for OPC DA installation............................................................................. 7

Configuration overview for PI Interface for OPC DA...................................................... 9

PI Interface for OPC DA operation............................................................................. 57

PI ICU reference for PI Interface for OPC DA............................................................... 59

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide iii

DCOM Security settings................................................................................................................................ 63

Command-line parameters for PI Interface for OPC DA............................................... 69

PI Interface for OPC DA troubleshooting.................................................................... 87

Technical support and other resources..................................................................... 105

iv PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Hardware configurations for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 1

Operational overview for PI Interface for OPC DA

1. Connects to PI Data Archive (unless disconnected startup is configured)

2 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Related manuals for PI Interface for OPC DA

• PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide

• DCOM Security and Configuration Guide

• PI OPC Client User's Guide

• PI Server System Management Guide

• Configuring PI Server Security

• High Availability Administrator Guide

• PI SDK and PI API Online Help Files

• PI API Installation Instructions User Guide

• PI Buffering Manager Help Files

• PI Interface Configuration Utility User Guide

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 3

• Interface release notes

• Data Access Custom Interface Standard v2.05a

• Handling non-English characters or strings on the PI Server

Related tools for PI Interface for OPC DA

• PI OPC Client Tool

• OPC to CSV tool

• OPC Enum tool

• PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU)

Features supported by PI Interface for OPC DA

Supported Operating Systems

4 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Platform 32-bit application 64-bit application

Outputs from PI Data Archive Yes

Supports questionable bit Yes

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 5

6 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Topics in this section

Installation directory and file locations

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 7

Install PI Interface for OPC DA

Before you start

After you finish

8 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Configuration checklist for PI Interface for OPC DA

PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide 9

◦ Performance and health points

Interface startup configuration

10 PI Interface for OPC DA 2.6 User Guide

Create and configure the interface instance