Dear PI Batch customers,
During our EMEA UC Lisbon Conference in September, the PI Data Archive 2015 BETA became available which includes a preview of Future Data functionality and [more importantly for you] the ability to migrate PI Batch data to PI Event Frames. When PI Server 2015 is released next year, this will be the first of several key product updates to the PI System on our way to supporting our batch customer’s migration to PI Event Frames.
In PI Server 2015 BETA, batch data, including PI Campaigns, PI Batches, PI Unit Batches, and Sub-batches, can be migrated to PI Event Frames. As part of the process, a migration analysis tool will check for errors and confirm that PI Batch data is ready for migration. PI Event Frames Templates used in the migration process are automatically created in PI AF and used during the migration. These PI Event Frames Templates enables easy searching, organization, and expansion of the batch hierarchy for your future batch needs. It is important to note a couple of details about the migration strategy:
1. The PI System Administrator has control over when the batch migration is started. Customers can upgrade to PI Data Archive 2015 BETA and their PI Batch data would still be operational. When customers are ready, they can initiate the migration process using the updated PI SMT tool.
2. The migration functionality is a 1 time migration, NOT a continuous synchronization between PI Batch and PI Event Frames. When the migration starts, the PI Batch DB turns to read only. At this point, batch interfaces will need to start writing to PI Event Frames.
3. PI Data Archive 2015 will not be for all batch customers, especially those with custom batch applications or 3rd party products utilizing PI Batch. Following migration, these custom applications will not work since they would need to be updated first to query PI Event Frames instead of PI Batch.
4. The PI Data Archive 2015 BETA does not currently support migration of PI Batch Subsystem data, but we do plan on supporting this before release next year.
This BETA is an important part of our Batch to EF migration strategy, and WE NEED YOUR HELP in confirming that the migration works for your data and usage. We encourage you to download the PI Data Archive 2015 BETA, install it on a TEST PI System that contains a copy of your production batch data, and analyze/execute a migration and report your findings to our beta support team mailbox at BetaPIServer@osisoft.com:
https://techsupport.osisoft.com/Troubleshooting/Releases/RL01005
We plan on using this customer feedback to improve the migration functionality and confirm that it works as expected so that when PI Data Archive 2015 is released next year, it will perform effectively for all of our batch customers.
We would also like to let you know that we are currently working on adding Event Overlay Trend support to PI Coresight (i.e. functional replacement to PI BatchView) and adding AF/EF support for RtReports. We do not yet have estimated release dates for this functionality but when we do, it will be posted to the Product Roadmap. For more details about the state of Batch in the PI System, please refer to our recent presentation at the EMEA Lisbon UC in September entitled PI Batch Users: Batch Migration to PI Event Frames.
If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me at DCasazza@osisoft.com or Todd Brown at tbrown@osisoft.com.
Please send any feedback of the PI Data Archive 2015 BETA testing to BetaPIServer@osisoft.com and to me at DCasazza@osisoft.com.