Tips from the Trenches Rebekah Atkinson Steve Nye, Kathy Kennedy

Overview OSI Resources Troubleshooting – The Big Picture Backups Buffering Archive Sizing Q&A

OSI Resources

Log Files PIPC.Log (client & server) NT only, usually located in \PIPC\Dat PIMessLogFile Unix only, located in $PIHOME/log PI Server Log PI - Healthcheck PIGetMsg (PI3) PISysMgr:PIMessLog.Txt (PI2)

OSI Resources Documentation Interface Manuals (interfaces.osisoft.com) Point attribute section Startup file flags section Troubleshooting section Client Manuals Server Manuals

OSI Resources Support Web Site (support.osisoft.com) Online Call Center Tracking of calls New call entry Searchable knowledge base Bug reports Engineering Plan New Release Announcements Feel Free to call us at Tech Support

OSI Resources Support Web Site (support.osisoft.com) Online Call Center Tracking of calls New call entry Searchable knowledge base Bug reports Engineering Plan New Release Announcements Feel Free to call us at Tech Support

Troubleshooting The Big Picture

Consider Big Picture Ask yourself… Did it ever work? If so, what changed? New software? New hardware? Etc… Use Log Files to help isolate problem No errors in client logs - Server problem Always an error message somewhere! Know your utilities

Know Your Nodes

Connection Troubleshooting

Common Network Issues DNS If DNS is slow, connection may time out Check HOSTS file Multiple NIC cards WAN traffic Know your routers! Port 5450 not initialized

Backups

Archives Nightly & After Shift Pi\dat Directory Nightly & when server is shutdown Site specific files & log files Nightly Recommend Test Recovery

Backups Known problems with PI 3.2 SR1 Script Piartool –be ignored if system is busy One Subsystem would stop while another was starting New Beta Script Verify that the subsystem is responsive Schedule piartool -be to run 30 minutes after backup

Example Script Change Rem Backup files owned by pibasess %BinPath%\pibasess -stop set BaseFiles=pipoints.dat piptattr.dat piptclss.dat pidigst.dat pidignam.dat piusr.dat piusrgrp.dat piusrctx.dat piptunit.dat piptalia.dat for %i in (%BaseFiles%) do ( copy %DatPath%\%i %BackupPath% ) Rem Restart pibasess and wait for it to become responsive Rem Record timestamps before and after to document the time this requires %BinPath%\pibasess -start %BinPath%\pidiag -t "*" %AdmPath%\piartool -block pibasess -verbose %BinPath%\pidiag -t "*"

Buffering

Buffering Basics Why Buffer? Avoid data loss during PI server shutdowns Optimize your PI network transactions Faster throughput Set up a PI-API node Data collection is not affected by the PI server

Configuring Buffering Must configure PICLIENT.INI Turn Buffering ON Define Maximum Buffer Size Size for down time and recovery time (size in KB) Define how frequently it will attempt to reconnect (time in seconds)

Example PICLIENT.INI [APIBUFFER] BUFFERING=1 MAXFILESIZE= RETRYRATE=120

Buffering Issues Remember Configuration required, NT/Unix Have plenty of disk space available Buffering isn’t working? Check BufServ Service Login Make sure /host entry matches Default PI Server in PILOGIN.INI All API programs must be stopped before bufserv can be restarted Use bufutil program

BUFUTIL Example

Archives

Archive Sizing Why Change Sizes? Added a new interface Added more tags to an existing interface Changed exception & compression on many tags Added Performance Equations, Totalizers, Alarm tags, and/or Manual Entry tags

Archive Sizing Rules of Thumb… MB per 1000 tags Smaller than the system RAM Smaller than the backup media

Example Bat File REM Create New Archives REM Specify path and size. d:\pi\adm\piarcreate d:\pi\archives\piarch d:\pi\adm\piarcreate d:\pi\archives\piarch d:\pi\adm\piarcreate d:\pi\archives\piarch REM Register the new archives d:\pi\adm\piartool -ar d:\pi\archives\piarch.004 d:\pi\adm\piartool -ar d:\pi\archives\piarch.005 d:\pi\adm\piartool -ar d:\pi\archives\piarch.006

Conclusion Know Your Resources Consider the Big Picture Develop Your Backup Strategy Buffer Your Data Optimize Your Archive Size

Questions??? Ready for lunch? (if you applaud, we will let you go to lunch)