Troubleshooting checklist

To troubleshoot issues, complete the steps in this checklist. If you have not resolved the problem when you finish these steps, contact Customer Portal.

1. Look for error messages. If you know the specific error message, search the Technical Support site for that error. If you do not yet have a specific error message, look at the message logs on the server and client node. For server messages, use the Message Log tool in PI SMT. Filter messages for a severity of Error and greater. See Severity levels.

   You cannot look at a client node message log remotely. Run PI SMT directly on the client node or use pigetmsg. For interface issues, examine the pipc\dat\pipc.log files directly on the interface node. If this is a setup problem, look at the setup logs in the 32-bit pipc\dat directory.

   To get a text description for an error number, use:

   pidiag -e errornumber

   For more information on error messages, see PI System messages. For information about pigetmsg, see the Reference Guide.

2. Determine which computers exhibit the problem:

   • Client computers

   • Server computers

   • Interface computers

     To isolate the computers, run the questionable system against a system that is functioning correctly and review the results.

   • A network problem is likely if all computers exhibit the malfunction.

   • A server problem is indicated if the malfunction occurs on all clients.

   • A hardware or networking problem is likely if the applications that malfunction do not use the PI System. Run telnet to further isolate the problem. If telnet works, then the network is not likely the problem, although it might be a network issue such as DNS or firewall blocking.

3. If this is a client problem, do the following:

   • Check security to ensure the user has the correct privileges.

   • Check the Update Manager to ensure the client is signed up for and receiving updates. Use the pilistupd command utility to check for updates.

4. If this is a server problem, do the following:

   • Verify that all Data Archive processes are running. To see the status of all processes running as services, use the PI Services tool in PI SMT.

     Note: The PI System could take several minutes to start; loading of the Point Database, snapshot, and archives takes most of the time. Utilities such as piartool and piconfig are not fully operational until startup has completed.

   • Even if a process is listed as running, it might be in a state where it is not communicating with PI Network Manager (PINet Manager). Check the following:

     • In the SMT PI Services tool, select the service and check its details under Thread Details for Selection. Look at the Duration column. If the service is Running and Duration is unexpectedly large, the thread might be hung.

     • To get more information, use the SMT Network Manager Statistics tool. See Connection checking.

     • To verify that individual Data Archive processes are communicating, use the utilities listed in Verification that Data Archive processes are running. For information about connections, look at the Network Manager statistics.

     • To check if a subsystem is responsive, use

       piartool -block subsystem -verbose

   • Run the Data Archive server with pistart.bat, rather than as services. The interactive command windows might display additional status messages.

5. If a subsystem crashes, there may be additional information that can be useful to our developers. Configure an application debugger to generate a crash dump file.

6. Use netstat -a to verify whether other processes are communicating on port 5450; if so, PINet Manager communicated successfully at one time.

7. If you have an archive or snapshot problem, use the piartool -as and piartool -ss utilities to gather more information about the data flow. See Verification that Data Archive processes are running.

   • Retrieve a snapshot in all of the following ways; the combined results of these tests helps determine the source of the problem:

     • apisnap from a remote node (uses API + network)

     • apisnap from the home node (uses API)

     • piconfig < pisnap.dif from the home node (uses internal communication)

   • Dump a snapshot with piartool -sd. Run this a few times to determine if the snapshot is changing for the tags you are interested in.

   • To determine if the archive is corrupt, use piartool -aw.

   • If this is a PI Update Manager problem, use the pilistupd utility to see which processes are signed up for events. Use pilistupd –cs to see the list of consumers.

8. Each PI System is distributed with a standard set of points including sinusoid, cdep158, and cdm158.

9. To troubleshoot backups, see Understand Data Archive backups.

10. To troubleshoot PI collectives, use Collective Manager to check the status of all members. Then, use piconfig < pisysdump.dif:

    • isavailable should be 1 for all members

    • lastsynctime indicates the last successful communication

    • role should be 1 for a primary and 2 for a secondary

11. If the problem is with interfaces, try the following:

    • Run an interface with only one point.

    • Run the interface interactively.

    • Run the interface without buffering. When running interactively you will most likely be using a different account, so security can affect your results.

    • Determine if the problem is with all points on all interfaces or just a few points on some interfaces.

    • Verify that authentication is configured for the node or interface.

    • Check the PI Firewall database.

    • Check the individual interface log files, if any; also check the PI Message Log on the interface node. Use the pigetmsg utility, located in the pipc\adm folder, to check messages in this file.

    • If an API interface is not able to connect, try to connect with apisnap.

    • Make sure the SDK can connect using the About PI-SDK utility.

    • Run as the System Administrator. If the issue goes away, then you have a permission issue.

    • If this is the OPC interface, check DCOM settings. The settings are documented in the OPC Interface Manual.