Move existing points to another instance

If you choose the Create automatically rule for Points Not in PI, the number of points managed by each interface instance can become unbalanced over time. To restore balance, this procedure can be used to move (reassign) existing points from one interface instance to another.

This procedure moves an existing point by changing its attributes, but the effect on PI APS is the same as deleting the point from one interface instance and adding a new point to another interface instance outside of PI APS. Unless PI APS is notified of these changes, corresponding updates are not made to the APSPoints database for each interface instance. Therefore, this procedure includes steps to update the APSPoints databases. See Manage APSPoints Database dialog box for additional discussion of APSPoints management issues, which might be helpful in understanding this procedure.

1. Ensure that none of the PI APS instances that will lose or gain a point in this procedure will synchronize until the procedure is complete.

   Note: The PI APS instances for the interface instances involved must not synchronize while this procedure is being performed. If a synchronization scan occurs, duplicate points can be created in PI Server, or existing points can be synchronized with default per-point synchronization settings instead of your chosen per-point synchronization settings.

   1. Check the PI APS settings for the interface instances that are affected.

   2. For instances that are configured for scheduled synchronization, use the Synchronization Schedule dialog box to change these instances to the non-automatic setting.

   You can restore the original setting after the entire procedure is complete.

2. Reassign points to a different interface instance:

   1. Import all points managed by the overpopulated interface instance into an Excel worksheet.

   2. Edit the worksheet:

      • For points that are not being reassigned, either delete the "x" in the first column or delete the row.

      • For points that are being reassigned, change the columns containing PointSource and/or the interface instance-specific ID attribute to the appropriate values for the interface instance that you want to manage the point.

   3. Export the edited points to PI Server, which actually edits the PI points.

   Interface instances reconfigure immediately when points are edited in PI Server. PI APS does not detect the changes until synchronization occurs for the affected interface instances.

3. If any points were moved from the PI APS instance that manages available points, those points then appear to be available points. To prevent creation of duplicate points for existing points that were moved to other instances, hide any available points that are existing points in other interface instances:

   1. Configure the PI APS instance that manages available points to the Store in Available Points database rule for Points Not in PI.

   2. Synchronize the instance that manages available points.

   3. Use the PI APS Configuration Utility to review the available points. Hide the available points that are existing points in other interface instances.

   4. Restore the original configuration to Create automatically for Points Not in PI.

4. For PI APS instances from which points have been moved, the original per-point synchronization settings for the moved existing points are left behind in the APSPoints database. Remove the settings for these points from the APSPoints database:

   1. In PI APS Configuration Utility, select the instance.

   2. Click Manage Database on the Tools menu.

   3. Click Clean on the Manage APSPoints Database dialog box

5. For instances that received points, PI APS has no per-point synchronization settings for the moved points.

   On the next synchronization of an interface instance that received existing points, PI APS finds the moved points when it obtains the existing points from PI Server. Because the moved points have no per-point synchronization settings, PI APS assigns default per-point synchronization settings to the moved points.

   Note: The default per-point synchronization settings are taken from the Existing PI Points area on the Initial Sync Masks tab of the User-set Defaults for interface dialog box for the interface instance.

   Pay careful attention to the source of the default per-point synchronization settings. The default per-point synchronization settings for the points created by the PI Tag Configurator (or any other tool) come from the Existing PI Points area (not the Available Points area) on the Initial Sync Masks tab of the User-set Defaults for interface dialog box for the interface instance to which the point is assigned (not the interface instance that manages available points). See Initial Sync Masks tab for related information.

   After moving points outside of PI APS, you need to review the default per-point synchronization settings for each interface instance that has new points. Confirm that the settings in the Existing PI Points area are the appropriate default per-point synchronization settings for the new points, because these settings are assigned to the new points during the next synchronization of each interface instance.

   1. Confirm that the settings in the Existing PI Points area are the appropriate default per-point synchronization settings for the new points, because these settings are assigned to the new points during the next synchronization of each interface instance..

   2. Change the PI Point Edits rule to Store in PI Point Edits database.

   3. Run a synchronization scan.

   4. Review the per-point synchronization settings for the moved points and make any necessary changes.

   5. Restore the PI Point Edits rule to its previous setting.

6. If the synchronization schedule configuration setting was changed to non-automatic for any PI APS instance, restore the original setting.