PI Data Access

OSIsoft’s PI Data Access suite of products is designed to support implementation of custom applications on top of the PI System, as well as integration of PI System data with other applications and business systems such as Microsoft Office or SQL Server, Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs), web portals, and maintenance systems, just to name a few. For more information on PI Data Access, don't forget to visit OSIsoft Virtual Campus (http://vCampus.osisoft.com) the online program that provides developers, systems integrators and systems architects with everything they need to develop solutions on the PI System. OSIsoft vCampus Members receive a kit of PI System products to use as their personal development PI System. They also get to interact with the PI System community through discussion forums and blogs. vCampus members also have access to an online library with a growing collection of technical articles, as well as online training and technical, interactive webinars

Features

The PI Data Access suite of products covers a wide range of use cases in various environments, programming languages, operating systems and infrastructures. Products include:

  • SQL-based data access (PI OLEDB Provider, PI OLEDB Enterprise, PI JDBC Driver): These products expose the PI Server as a relational database and allow data access through SQL queries. They bring PI System into a variety of products that support these standards, and allow development of custom applications (e.g. with ADO.NET).
  • OPC specifications (PI OPC DA/HDA Server): This exposes the PI Server via the OPC Data Access (DA) and OPC Historical Data Access (HDA) specifications, empowering PI data access in OPC-based products such as process optimization packages.
  • Service-oriented architecture (PI Web Services): PI Web Services consists of a web service that accesses PI System data (PI and AF) in response to web service queries. It facilitates web-based visualization, integration with business systems and data access over distributed and secured environments.
  • Programmatic access (PI SDK and AF SDK): The OSIsoft Software Development Kits (SDKs) provide object-oriented, programmatic access to the PI System.
Access PI Data through SQL queries
Example using PI SDK with C#
Access PI Data through SQL queries
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Example using PI SDK with C#
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Benefits

  • Integrate with other systems. Users can access PI System data from OLEDB-, JDBC-, ODBC- and OPC-compliant client applications.
  • Extend the PI System infrastructure. Allows programmers to create custom applications in multiple languages that read and write PI System data.
  • Access the PI Server as a relational database. Provides a view of the PI System as a relational database using familiar SQL queries.
  • Collaborate with the PI System developer community. OSIsoft vCampus includes these data access products as well as online resources to help you develop applications.
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      Example of Product Implementation

Business Challenge

Microsoft and OSIsoft partnered on a project to monitor the North American electric power grid. With the terabytes of data expected to be archived every year, we needed a way to report on all this information.

Implementation

We used PI OLEDB to extract aggregate data from the PI Server on an exception basis into SQL Server. From there, summary reports can be run using SQL Server Reporting Services and Analysis Services.

Customer Result/Benefit

The built-in integration of PI OLEDB with SQL Server allowed for easy data exchange using SQL queries (no code!). The robust functionality in PI OLEDB and SQL Server simplified the task of building and generating reports.