Configure connection balancing

This procedure describes how to configure connection balancing for PI System Explorer, and PI Data Link. Other AF SDK clients require different steps for connection balancing. For example, PI Analysis Service does not support configurable connection preferences as it is hardcoded to use Prefer Primary. For assistance with connection balancing, contact technical support on the customer portal.

Note: Connection balancing is available only for AF SDK applications.

1. Check the version of PI AF Client for your client application.

   • If your PI AF Client version is PI AF Client 2018 or later, proceed to the next step.

   • If your PI AF Client version is 2017 R2 or earlier, you must upgrade PI AF Client to version 2018 or later.

2. Specify connection preferences for AF SDK clients and set the connection preference to Any for the client application (PI System Explorer and PI Data Link).

   On every PI Data Archive server participating in connection balancing, you must change the connection preference from the default value Prefer Primary to the value Any. This is necessary to enable the application to connect to any available server in the collective, enhancing the distribution of connections among available servers.The default preference, Prefer Primary, can interfere with the equal distribution of connections among the servers within the collective.

3. Repeat the previous step for all AF SDK client applications that should be balanced.

   Note: Connection preferences are application-specific and set on each AF SDK client application. In contrast, connection priority values are set on an AF SDK client host computer, and apply to all client applications connecting on the AF SDK connection. For applications that do not support configurable connection preferences, such as the PI Analysis Service, connection balancing settings are not applicable.

   Set the connection priority of each server within the collective you want participating in connection balancing to the same numerical value.

   The connection priority values are applied to all AF SDK client applications on the same host computer, assuming you have set the connection preference to Any in the AF SDK application.