High Availability PI System

The High Availability (HA) PI System introduces the first of a series of unified releases to meet the demands of organizations that depend on the availability of operational data more than ever before and introduces a significant boost in protecting data by providing fault tolerant software that delivers interface failover, buffering, PI Server replication, and SDK services.

The PI System is fundamental to the operational strategy of global leaders in manufacturing, energy, utilities and other process industries, where access and visibility into mission critical data is paramount to the success of many initiatives including compliance, energy management and performance improvement.

Even in a simple configuration, there are unavoidable conditions that can trigger data loss or render data inaccessible. While the PI System can prevent data loss during planned maintenance, lack of access to data during a maintenance period may be unacceptable for the end user who depends on timely access to that data. Unplanned downtime represents another potential source of data loss. Cables become exposed, network issues occasional surface and other situations may arise that can bring down a system momentarily or until such time as a failure is detected and repaired. With HA, there is greater assurance that data will always be gathered, stored and available to everyone across the organization. Existing OSIsoft customers can upgrade from PI to PI HA using point-and-click tools that leverage existing operational investments and infrastructure.

The primary technical advances include:

• PI Server replication - Redundant PI Servers including a primary and one or more secondary servers, together referred to as a “collective.” The PI server configuration tables will be replicated across the collective.
• Interfaces - All interfaces will write time-series data directly to members of the collective, buffering data temporarily for those unable to receive it for a period of time and assuring that time-series data stored in each archive is an exact duplicate of the others.
• Fail-over - Changes to the PI interface design to accommodate HA include the ability to have a pair of PI interface nodes connected to a PI Server or to the collective. If the primary interface node fails to deliver data to the PI Servers, it will fail-over to the secondary PI interface to run in “hot” standby mode. PI interfaces can now be started without a connection to the PI server.

The following Server software is included:

• PI Server (v3.4.375.38)
• PI SDK (v1.3.4.333)
• PI Collective Manager
• PI System Management Tools (SMT) (v3.2.0.0)
• PI Analysis Framework
• PI AutoPointSync (APS)
• PI Interface Configuration Utility (ICU)

HA-compliant client products include:

• PI ACE
• PI ActiveView
• PI AlarmView
• PI BatchView
• PI DataLink
• PI ProcessBook
• RtWebParts
• RtReports

Simple. Scalable. Flexible.

Customers trust OSIsoft because they view the PI System as the industry standard in safeguarding and collecting data, making it available when they need it, and in the way they want to see it. HA brings peace of mind for your site, and for your enterprise by providing fault-tolerant software that delivers interface failover, buffering, PI Server Replication, and SDK Services. PI data will always be gathered and available to everyone across your organization—from operations personnel to CxO-level decision makers. With HA, the end user sees one system, and overall system load can be distributed for scalability. The platform is flexible, with easy setup to accommodate any environment, and leveraging existing operational investments and infrastructure.

What does this mean?

For Operations management, the maintenance and support of the PI System will be easier. Having a server down is a critical event, but it will no longer require crisis management. Data will not be lost, and users will not suffer because they are unable to access the data they need to make operational or business decisions. Troubleshooting and repair can be done right, assuring the problem is properly diagnosed and remedied with a long-term solution. For IT management, the OSIsoft HA PI System delivers significant value with minimal cost. Most important, data managers have the confidence that critical operational data can be included in disaster-recovery plans.

OSIsoft is committed to providing the most advanced and secure way to manage real-time information. OSIsoft’s High Availability PI System brings a new level of certainty to the data being available—exactly when and how you need it.

The High Availability PI Architecture