Deployment considerations

Depending on your needs and goals, you have various options for deploying PI AF server, ranging from a simple deployment that uses one computer to a complex mirrored collective that uses multiple computers. Carefully consider which deployment option is best for your needs and resource constraints before installation.

The main components in a PI Server are PI AF, and Data Archive. The Microsoft SQL Server is not actually a part of the PI Server, but is a dependency. We recommend that you use these guidelines to deploy PI AF within a PI Server:

• If the Data Archive host computer is heavily loaded, move SQL Server to a different computer.

• It is acceptable to use a shared SQL Server that contains databases for other non-AVEVA applications. Often these are already running on a cluster.

• Hardware sizing should be based upon workload, not PI AF object count, since they do not correlate. RAM is the most important hardware sizing consideration for implementing PI AF, mainly due to the fact that the SQL Server tends to utilize a considerable amount of system resources. This consideration applies for deployments where PI AF server and the SQL server are on the same computer.

• As I/O workload increases, it is important to consider the disk subsystem to handle the IO count as well as the storage requirements. Specifications to consider include: number of disk spindles, solid-state drives, and so on. For very large PI AF systems, where you are planning on more than 10,000 assets and moderate-to-high workloads and point counts (more than 25,000 PI points), use drive arrays that can sustain at least 3000 random read I/O Per Second (IOPS).

• Adding SQL Server RAM improves SQL Server read and write performance and is the variable that most affects performance of PI AF. In particular, if you use a very large PI AF system, specify that the SQL Server RAM to be 60-65 percent of the database size.