Installing the Historian and logging OPC DA data (V19.0 and earlier)

This article will take you step by step in installing the Canary Historian and setting up a log session for collecting data.

 

Sample Architecture

 

Best Practices

 

It is always recommended to install the Canary Sender Service as local to the data source as possible.  Additionally, whenever possible, collect data directly from an MQTT broker or OPC Server decoupled from a SCADA System or DCS. 

The Canary Sender Service will communicate via WCF and use Store and Forward technology between the Sender and the Canary Receiver Service.  The Receiver Service is always local to the Canary Historian.  The Sender automatically buffers data as it is logged in local memory while the Receiver and Historian complete the task of committing the records to disk.  Should the Receiver or Historian not be available to the Sender Service, the data will automatically be written to local disk and stored in the following folder – C:\ProgramData\Canary Labs\Sender\Buffer. 

Upon re-connection to the Receiver Service or Historian, the cached data will automatically back fill to the Historian, without any admin interaction.  Should the machine the Sender Service is installed on and buffering to be restarted, the cached data will persist.

 

System Specifications

 

The Canary Historian must be installed on a Windows server running at least Windows 7 or a VM running Server 2012 or newer.  It is recommended that the server have the following resources as a minimum:

• 4 Core 2.20 GHz Processor
• 16 GB Memory
• 500 GB HD

Depending on the number of tags you wish to store, how often those tag values update, and the client demands on the server, you may need to scale these resources.  Typically, we suggest these benchmarks based on TVQ update frequency:

 

System	10K Updates/Sec	50K Updates/Sec	300K Updates/Sec	1M+ Updates/Sec
Processor	4 Core 2.2+ GHz	4 Core 2.4+ GHz	8 Core 2.4+ GHz	10 Core 2.4+ GHz
Memory	8 GB	8 GB	16 GB	32 GB
Storage*	1 TB	4 TB	10 TB	20+ TB

 

*Storage capacity will change based on data types stored, desired historical availability, and other varying factors. 

 

Canary Terminology

 

Canary System - The three main components of the Canary System are Data Collection, Data Storage, and Data Analytics.

 

Sender - A service that collects, compresses, and encrypts data locally before sending it to the Canary Receiver. 

Receiver - A service that moves the data received from the Sender to the Historian for permanent storage. Receiver can communicate with multiple Senders and allows for logging redundancy. 

Store and Forward (SaF) - The ability of the Sender to buffer data locally when the Receiver or Historian is unavailable, preventing data loss. 

DataSets - A group of logically associated tags stored within the Canary Historian

Tag - A single stream of time-series data, also referred to as points, channels, or items. 

Historical Database File (HDB) - Within each DataSet, the Historian writes tag properties and TVQs to an HDB file. HDB files are segmented by a time-period, typically daily.  

TVQ - For each tag value change, Canary records a Timestamp, a Value, and Quality. Other historical databases and SCADA platforms may refer to these as VTQs, VQTs, or Value-Timestamp Pairs.

 

Step 1: Installing

 

 

 

 

From this menu you can choose where to install the application and where to store the historical data that you will be collecting. We recommend installing the Canary logger portion directly on the OPC server and sending the data to the Historian machine. This would be done in two separate installs.

 

 

From this menu you can choose which features to install. This particular installer contains the Canary Admin, Historian, Mirror, ODBC server, and the Logger. Depending on your setup , you may not need all of the components listed. 

 

 

 

Step 2:

 

Open the start menu and look for the Canary Labs folder.

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Licensing

 

Once the Canary Admin is open, click on the licenses tile. 

 

 

If you have internet access on the local machine you can "ADD LICENSE THROUGH INTERNET". Fill in the appropriate information:

• Name
• Company
• Serial number
• Email
• Quantity (1)

Put a check in the box next to Historian then click GET LICENSE.

If you do not have internet access on the local machine you will need to "ADD LICENSE MANUALLY".

Using a device with internet access, browse to https://www.canarylabs.com/en/support/license. Fill in the appropriate information. You will need the License Code from the Licenses Tile in the Canary Admin in order to complete the process. This will generate a "Key" which you can copy and paste into the License Key field and click ACCEPT KEY.

*Note: Each time you successfully retrieve a license the License Code updates. 

 

Step 4: Creating a Data Set

Go back to the Home screen and click on the Historian tile. Click on the Configuration tab at the bottom.

 

 

Select NEW to create a new data set.

 

 

Type in the desired name and click CREATE.

 

Step 5: Creating a Logging Session

 

Open the Logger Administrator (also located in the Canary folder) and select File>New Log Session.

 

 

 

Step 6: Configuring a Log Session

 

 

 

1. Name - Give your session a name. It may be intuitive to name the session the same as the data set to which the data will be logged to.
2. Historian Computer - If you are logging to the local machine this field can be left blank. If you are logging to a remote machine you can type in the name of that machine or its IP address.
3. Group Name - Groups can be used to organize the tags in the log session. They can be added to the session by right-clicking on the "Group 1" tab or selecting Edit>Add Group.
4. Computer - This is the machine on which the OPC server resides. If the OPC server is local this field can be left blank. Otherwise, type in the machine name or IP address.
5. OPC Server - Once the "Computer" field is completed you can browse for an OPC server on that machine by clicking on the ellipsis button. This will bring up a menu to select your OPC server.

 

 

7. Once you select your OPC server you can then "Browse OPC Server..." by right-clicking in the dark gray area at the bottom of the screen or selecting Edit>Browse OPC Server.

 

 

8. Click on the Name Prefix drop-down menu to select the data set you want to write data to.

 

9. Use the tree diagram on the left menu to browse for tags. Select the tags you want to log and click APPLY to add tags or OK to add tags and close the menu.

 

 

10. Click APPLY, SAVE, START.

 

11. You are logging data! Open up the historian tile in the Canary Admin to verify that you are receiving updates.