Supported features for PI Interface for Ping

The following table describes features that this interface supports. Some features are described in more detail after the table.

• Platforms

  The interface is designed to run on the above mentioned Microsoft Windows operating systems and their associated service packs. Please contact OSIsoft Technical Support for more information.

• Read-only Interface available

  A read-only version of this interface is NOT available.

• Support for reading/writing to PI Questionable Flag and Annotation

  Next to the timestamp, value, and status, the RDBMSPI interface can write/read also to/from PI questionable flag and annotation.

• Uses PI SDK

  The PI SDK and the PI API are bundled together and must be installed on each PI Interface node. This Interface does not specifically make PI SDK calls.

• Source of Timestamps

  The clock on the computer running the PI Server provides the source of timestamps for the values sent by Ping. The Interface writes a timestamp that reflects the time at which it begins to measure ping responses. That is, all points that belong to the same scan class will have the same timestamp.

• Disconnected Startup

  The Ping interface is built with a version of UniInt that supports disconnected start-up. Disconnected start-up is the ability to start the interface without a connection to the PI server. This functionality is enabled by adding -cachemode to the list of start-up parameters or by enabling disconnected startup using the ICU. Refer to the UniInt Interface User Manual for more details on UniInt Disconnect startup.

• UniInt-based

  UniInt stands for Universal Interface. UniInt is not a separate product or file; it is an OSIsoft‑developed template used by developers and is integrated into many interfaces, including this interface. The purpose of UniInt is to keep a consistent feature set and behavior across as many of OSIsoft's interfaces as possible. It also allows for the very rapid development of new interfaces. In any UniInt-based interface, the interface uses some of the UniInt-supplied configuration parameters and some interface-specific parameters. UniInt is constantly being upgraded with new options and features. The PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide is a supplement to this manual.

• SetDeviceStatus

  For a Health Tag whose Extended Descriptor attribute contains [UI_DEVSTAT], the Interface writes the following values:

  "1 | Starting"	Interface has started.
  "Good"	The Interface has started successfully and is ready to measure ping response times; or, for all the points in the current scan class, the Interface has successfully measured the ping response time.
  "3 | n device(s) in error | "	For at least one of the points in the current scan class, the Interface has recorded an I/O Timeout value.
  "4 | Intf Shutdown | "	The interface was shut down.

  Note: Refer to the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) User Guide for more information on how to configure health points.

• Failover

  The Ping interface utilizes UniInt's Phase 2 Failover provides support for cold or hot failover configurations; the Ping Interface does not support warm failover configurations. The Phase 2 hot failover results in a no data loss solution for bi-directional data transfer between the PI Server and the Data Source given a single point of failure in the system architecture similar to Phase 1. However, in cold failover configurations, you can expect a small period of data loss during a single point of failure transition. This failover solution requires that two copies of the interface be installed on different interface nodes collecting data simultaneously from a single data source. Phase 2 Failover requires each interface have access to a shared data file. Failover operation is automatic and operates with no user interaction. Each interface participating in failover has the ability to monitor and determine liveliness and failover status. To assist in administering system operations, the ability to manually trigger failover to a desired interface is also supported by the failover scheme. The failover scheme is described in detail in the UniInt Interface User Manual, which is a supplement to this manual.