PI AF architecture

PI AF uses a multi-tiered architecture. A minimal system consists of three tiers:

• A client application or the PI AF SDK

• The PI AF Application Service

• The PI AF SQL database

In terms of physical topology, any configuration of the three tiers is possible, including running all tiers on the same system or running each tier on a separate system.

• Clients can communicate with multiple PI AF servers and multiple Data Archive servers.

• A single PI AF server can service multiple clients.

• A single PI AF SQL database can host multiple PI AF servers.

• High availability features can be configured many ways, including load-balanced PI AF servers, SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups, SQL Server mirroring, SQL Server replication, Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC), or combinations of these methods.