Understand your data

The first phase in the development of OMF applications is to understand your data, which consists of the following parts:

• Identify your assets

• Identify hierarchical relationships between your physical assets and data streams

• Identify the reference model for your data in PI Asset Framework

Identify your assets

Identify physical assets, such as plants, sites, equipment, I/O devices, and so on. Physical assets can have static attributes, which are immutable, or can have values whose changes will not be recorded in Data Archive. For example, a serial number of an I/O device is a static attribute.

Identify data stream measurements (representing collections of values), which should be sent as one transaction. Data for each of the values in the stream is recorded by Data Archive in PI points with an appropriate timestamp.

Identify hierarchical relationships between your physical assets and data streams

Identify the physical assets structure, including the top-most asset, which might consist of a collection of equipment, each of which has a collection of I/O devices. For example, you could consider a vehicle top-level asset with an engine and wheels as children assets.

Identify data stream measurements that can be attached to any of your physical assets. For example, a stream consisting of longitude and latitude values could be attached to your vehicle asset.

Identify the reference model for your data in

A reference model is a logical representation of your physical real-world data. The reference model should be understandable from a technical perspective; it is not necessary for your entire organization to understand it. Be aware of the tools provided with your on-premises PI System.