Copy archive files from the source server to the target server

Determine which archive files to copy to the target Data Archive server.

To decide how many archives to copy to the target Data Archive server, determine if there are any points with snapshot values earlier than the start time of the oldest archive that you copy.

Make sure that you copy a sufficient number of archives so that the oldest snapshot time falls within the time range of the copied archives; otherwise, you may see -11043 errors when the target system is first started.

If you do not have auto-archive creation enabled, it is important that you copy empty archives to the target Data Archive. This is because buffered data from interface computers will be pushed to the target Data Archive when it is eventually brought online. The data from the buffered computers may cause an archive shift.

When copying an archive, make sure that you also copy the corresponding annotation file. Annotation files have the same full path names as the archive files but end with the .ann extension.

Note: Copying a large amount of archive files from the source server to the target server may take a significant amount of time, leaving your Data Archive offline during that time period.

1. If you have not configured auto-archive creation on the source computer, copy the primary archive, the previous archive, and one or two empty archives to the target Data Archive server.

2. If your target drive and directory are different from those on your source computer, perform these steps:

   1. Register the primary archive. Navigate to the PI\adm directory and run pidiag -ar.

      When prompted, enter the full path name of the primary archive file that you copied to the new archive location on the target Data Archive server.

   This creates a new piarstat.dat file in the PI\dat directory with only the primary archive registered.

   1. Start the target Data Archive server.

   2. Register any secondary archives that you copied because they are stored in a different location. Go to the PI\adm directory and run the command piartool -ar.

      You can use wildcard characters to specify archive names to register archives in bulk with the command .\piartool.exe -ar [path]\*.arc