The following are the system requirements for FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04.

FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface must be installed on a separate computer, dedicated to the Batch Interface only. This is because the configuration of the interface is performed with the interface running in the recovery mode first, which significantly consumes the computer's processor resources.

The table lists the requirements for FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04.

Rockwell Automation Test Environment

Rockwell Automation tests software products under a standard configuration of operating systems and antivirus software. For additional information, see the Knowledgebase Document ID: PN24 - Rockwell Software Products and Antivirus Software.

Security requirements

To help meet secure system design requirements, review these publications:

• Configure System Security Features User Manual (publication SECURE-UM001)
• System Security Design Guidelines Reference Manual (publication SECURE-RM001)
• Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) Design and Implementation Guide (publication ENET-TD001)

FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04 has the following enhanced features:

• The batch framework now uses AF SDK to communicate with the Data Archive.
• Virtual Service Accounts are created on installation.
• The interface no longer infinitely queries SQL data under specific circumstances.
• Improved Batch Management processing when writing Event Frames to AF.
• The interface now properly creates Aliases for tag templates under AF.
• History recovery is fixed to prevent infinite loop scenarios when querying SQL data. In addition, fixed time as double to string time conversions. There was a millisecond precision error converting the time stored as doubles to a time string.
• Attribute values referencing other event frames are captured regardless of the order event frames are created.
• Constraint issues during a "Delayed Start" will no longer happen.
• UniRecord data sources are now included in UniRecord imports and exports.
• Restore DESCRIPT handling in phase step logic.
• Cache start and end times can no longer be permanently altered by arbitration events.
• Debug messages should now be correctly logged based on the configuration file.
• Non-PISDK communication/network errors do not attempt to retry the connection and no longer disrupt program flow.
• Running the interface a second time in recovery mode resets the Event Frame's Attributes value timestamps. The Event Frame attributes are processed differently during updates.
• When removing an interface from PI Event Frames Interface Manager, it will also remove any associated services.
• Event Frames are now merged properly within the cache time.
• When adding an interface to PI Event Frames Interface Manager, the instance ID will be initialized as the same value as the interface ID.
• Batch Interface events are sorted based on timestamputc. If two events have the same timestamputc, property events are processed last.
• The Auto-generated Attribute names ("Event_1", "Event_2", etc.) are in proper sequential order like 1,2,3, etc.
• Property templates are now assigned to the correct batch when there are multiple Procedures/Batches with the exact same name.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager will now handle any differences in specifying module database, Module Paths, and Event Frames Element Paths correctly.
• The interface will no longer have a delay in processing a batch when the local time is greater than GMT.
• MONITORTAGWINDOW now defaults to 0, meaning that monitor tag counts don't get trimmed to the most recent <MONITORTAGWINDOW> days of activity and roll over at INT_MAX unless MONITORTAGWINDOW is deliberately set.
• Interface ID has been added to the message logs in order to uniquely identify log messages.
• UNDEFINED Recipe Events with the same timestamputc are pushed to the end of the processing order to prevent issues regarding missing attributes.
• All generated UniRecords will have the placeholder [TIMESTAMP] have the format "YYYY-MM-DD" for a SQL source and "YYYY/MM/DD" for non-SQL sources like EVT files.
• Unit procedure-level event frames using different units will no longer be merged.
• Monitor tags now accurately reflect the number of batches and their child events.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager properly creates a new default virtual user service without errors.
• Interface configuration for RST and RET reads UnitedStates format standard.
• The unit procedure batch id attribute is controlled by the unit procedure recipe template batchid.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager does not allow older interfaces to edit health tags.
• All batch interfaces remove passwords from the INI file regardless of parameter capitalization.
• The merging issue causing unit procedure and operation not to close has been fixed.
• Empty UniRecord dump files are no longer generated.
• History recovery using RST gets the correct file based on the last line of the EVT file and it recovers only the relevant EVT files.
• Batch event frames no longer merge event frames when merging is disabled and unique IDs don't match.
• All RST and RET within the configuration will be parsed in US format.
• A check that verifies that a Procedure Event Frame and a Unit Procedure Event Frame are both generated by the same interface instance before linking them together.
• The Event log source will be created during the interface installation step.
• FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface installer works as expected, allowing for multiple batch interfaces to be installed on the same computer. The customer needs to uninstall the existing FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface before upgrading to the latest version.
• All health tags that are listed in the FTBInt user guide are created.
• Alarm and Event data is now queried by using the Ord Identity column instead of a mix of dates and the Ord Identity column. Other than the initial interface start-up and history recovery, this updated method does not rely on the date to query the Alarm and Event data.
• Upgrading from FTBInt 4.0 x to 4.1 x no longer creates duplicate entries in Programs and Features.
• Interfaces now utilize the Event Viewer instead of the SDK message logs
• Linking is now always available to be configured in BiConfig.
• BifConfig now stores RST and RET as UTC. Note that they can be edited in a local-friendly time string and read into the interface correctly. When written by the configuration program, they will write the times out as UTC and a local time string as a comment.
• Change to the PI interface for Batch message logging. We will not be using PI Message logging for the interface in version 5.0.0 x or later. All message logging for the Batch interfaces will be in the Windows Event Viewer. Documentation on the use and functionality of message logging for batch interfaces is in the user guide.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager now updates the server information icon correctly.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager will display different options based on the installed interface version.
• Interface status tags that are automatically created by the interface can now be individually enabled/disabled.
• PI data server collectives and PI buffering to multiple PI data servers are now supported.
• Batch Interfaces now support an AF Interface Statistics element that stores the values of the PI tags recorded during interface execution. The location of the newly created element can be configured using the Batch Interface Configuration Manager and passed through the ini file.
• Writing batches to a PI Batch database is no longer supported. This version of the interface only creates Event Frames in AF.
• Added new logging level 3 (DB) to include UniRecord diagnostics messages in the message log.
• Extra emphasis on ensuring AF check-in is performed before disconnecting, as well as the addition of the AFAutoCheckin feature.
• UniRecord exports now include all UniRecord fields.
• Event sorting is faster and memory consumption is better managed during event queuing.
• The interface will not allow Batch events with a zero-start time.
• PI Event Frames Interface Manager will now store SCAN values as low as one second without complaint.
• The interface creates a virtual service account to run the service in new installations. The Virtual Service Accounts are named inline with the interface: NT Service/<Interface Instance Name>.
• Updated PI Event Frames Interface Manager to only allow TagPath properties to be set on Asset Templates and Property Templates. Fixed the issue where the TAGPATH value was not being saved properly.
• All attributes are now created on the correct event frame.
• Fixes minor failover issues and includes a health tag that can be used to monitor failover status.
• Float tag values are now evaluated correctly.
• Message logging includes exceptional data.
• Very long log messages are successfully logged.
• Interface stability improvements.
• The interface no longer stops responding due to the locale thread lock issue.
• The setup kit creates the event source name under application logs to match the Interface application name, which is used by the logging framework.
• Procedure-level recipe events are processed correctly and have no missing end times.

There are no known anomalies reported in FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04.

• If the share component PI AF Client of FactoryTalk Live Data interface is updated after FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface v4.01.14 installation, it is allowed to uninstall when you uninstall FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface v4.01.14 through the Control Panel. First identified in FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 4.01.14. [Jira 1019067]

To avoid this problem, do not uninstall the PI AF Client.

• On the Operational Settings tab, the default value of Point source is the Interface instance name that you added on the Interface Selection tab, which makes FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface fail to start. First identified in FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 4.01.14. [Jira 948957]

To resolve this problem, change the default value to FTBOINT.

FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04 has the following changes in functionality since the last release.

Change in operating system supports

Beginning in this release, the product installer prevents installation on all 32-bit versions of Windows operating systems (for example, Windows 10, 32-bit) and any Windows 7 operating system (for example, Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit).

The following are the application notes for FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface version 5.01.04.

Installation and Upgrade

FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface can be installed or upgraded using the file <Installation package>\Setup.exe. For additional information regarding the FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface installation, see FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface Installation and Configuration Guide.

Tip: To upgrade FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface to the latest version, you must uninstall the existing version first.

Licensing

To use the FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface, you must purchase a FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface license activation file, activate the interface using FactoryTalk® Activation Manager, and assign the license activation to your Historian server using the FactoryTalk® Administration Console.

The Batch Interface supports the following activations:

• FactoryTalk Historian Interface Batch 1 unit.
• FactoryTalk Historian Interface Batch 3 unit.
• FactoryTalk Historian Interface Batch 10 unit.
• FactoryTalk Historian Interface Batch 30 unit.
• FactoryTalk Historian Interface Batch 60 unit.

Tip: For more information on activating the interface, refer to the Activate Rockwell Software Products leaflet, available with your FactoryTalk Historian installation package. For more information on licensing for FactoryTalk Historian products, refer to Managing Licenses in the FactoryTalk Historian SE Installation and Configuration Guide.

Distribution Kit Files

Uninstalling FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface

To uninstall FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface, launch the Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, select PI Interface for Rockwell Factory Talk Batch (FTBInt), and then select Uninstall.

Documentation Overview

The FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface installation package contains the following files:

• FactoryTalk Services Platform and FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface installation files.
• The PIFTBOInt_RA.ini configuration file that will be copied to your computer during the installation. You can use it as a reference for configuring your Batch interface.
• Sample FactoryTalk Batch event journal files (EVT) that you may use to test if your Batch interface operates correctly.
• Documentation:
  • FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface Release Notes
  • FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface Installation and Configuration Guide (hbi-in001_-en-e.pdf)
  • FactoryTalk Historian Batch Interface User Guide (hbi-um001_-en-e.pdf)

PI Event Frames Interface Manager stops responding

When installing and configuring the interface as a service, if using the default virtual user to create the service, after switching to User or Group, PI Event Frames Interface Manager will stop responding. To avoid this issue, on the Service Configuration tab, instead of selecting the default Default Virtual user, select User or Group, and then select Create service.

Output file is created but cannot show the content

After configuring the Batch interface, on the Test Configuration tab, if you select Run test, it displays the "Output file is created on: date" message, which means that you configured the interface successfully. However, the details cannot be shown.