PI Aliases

A system administrator may want to move an old Server ID to a new Data Archive computer so that clients will continue to point to the correct Data Archive without displays and connections having to be edited.

The PI SDK Server ID is a unique machine-dependent identifier that identifies Data Archive. The Server ID is used by PI clients such as PI WebParts, PI BatchView, PI ProcessBook, PI Asset Framework, and PI DataLink. If the same Server ID is assigned to a new machine, clients will continue to point to the correct Data Archive; displays and connections do not need to be edited.

PI aliases use both the Server ID and the Server Name to identify Data Archive to which the alias is pointing; Data Archive first searches for the Server ID in the Known Servers Table (KST), and if the search is unsuccessful, it then searches the KST for the Server Name.

Note: PI SDK cannot distinguish between two machines with the same Server ID. You must make sure that the KST on every client machine contains only the Server ID for the new Data Archive. You must remove the old Data Archive from the KST.

Create a new Server ID for the new machine

If each machine has a unique Server ID, you can create a Data Archive Alias through the PI Connection Manager. You must remove the old Data Archive from the Known Servers Table, else the PI Alias may find the old Data Archive by its Server ID.

High Availability environments

In a High Availability environment, Data Archive Collectives are also identified by an Collective ID. A Collective ID can be either different from or the same as the Server ID of the primary server. If the collective is formed with an existing Data Archive, it is better to have the same Collective ID as the Server ID, since it allows PI ProcessBook displays, PI DataLink worksheets and other existing client applications to work without any modifications.