PI point replication conflict avoidance

PI System Connector can be collecting data for PI points with the same PI point name but from different source Data Archive(s). To avoid name conflict on the destination, PI System Connector provides a configuration entry in the data source configuration allowing a custom prefix to be added to the PI points from different Data Archive(s) so they can be differentiated on the destination Data Archive(s). For more information, see Data source configuration reference and Data source configuration settings. When a prefix is defined for a source Data Archive in the data source configuration, the following attributes for all the PI points from that source Data Archive will be prefixed with the user-defined prefix:

• Tag

• Source Tag

• Point Source

• Digital Set Name

When the prefix for a given Data Archive server is changed, all points on the server that the connector is collecting data for will be renamed on the destination Data Archive(s) to honor the new prefix without having to restart the connector.

Note: If you plan to rename PI points referenced by AF attributes, then the AF Update Plug-in Configurations utility should be run on the replicated destination databases before the renaming. This ensures that the configurations contain the point ID of the destination PI point and data changes display correctly.

We recommend you use this tool since it is highly optimized for plug-in updates. A future version of PI System Connector will do this automatically. For more information, see AF Update Plug-in Configurations utility.