Phase 1: Pre-installation

The first phase of the Data Archive installation process focuses on planning and preparing for a new deployment.

Planning evaluates your deployment needs and lets you know what resources to procure ahead of time, such as determining the number of host computers and disk volumes necessary for your installation. Each Data Archive server requires a host computer to run on, and the number of host computers required depends on whether you want to deploy a single Data Archive server, or a number of servers as a Data Archive collective. Additionally, planning involves ensuring that the operating system on each host computer is compatible with the version of your Data Archive.

Additionally, this phase includes various preparation tasks, such as: generating a license file, downloading the install kit, synchronizing the time settings on each server machine, and opening a port for the Data Archive server.

Note: Print out and keep a copy of the PI Server installation worksheet with you during this process. The fields left blank in this worksheet are meant for you to fill out with information specific to your deployment. These values will be required by the setup kit during the installation later. You will not be able to finish the installation using the setup kit without all of the fields required in your worksheet. The following sections will discuss the fields and required values within your spreadsheet in more detail.

If you are planning on deploying Data Archive as a collective, perform these pre-installation tasks first on the primary server. Then, perform the tasks for each secondary Data Archive server within your collective. For more information about collectives, see the High Availability topic PI Data Archive collective management.