Standard parameters

Application name (appname)

Syntax: /appname=Name

For API trusts, this parameter configures the name sent to Data Archive when the interface connects. The interface includes the Name value in message logs.

By default, the interface sends the first four characters of the executable name appended with the letter E. Maximum length is eight characters.

To use eight characters for the Name value, ensure the PIClient.ini file contains the following setting:

[PISERVER]
LONGPROCNAME=1

Debug UniInt (dbuniint)

Syntax: /dbuniint=level-bitmask

Enables debug output for one or more specified functions. This parameter can be added, removed, or modified while the interface is running. Options include:

Enable a single debug option. Set the associated bit value for the parameter.

Enable all debugging options. Set all bit values to: /dbuniint=0xFFFF.

The bitmask is a 32-bit integer, which can be specified as either a hexadecimal number or a decimal number. Hexadecimal values begin with 0x.

Bitmask values for UniInt debug settings include the following options.

Description	Hexadecimal Value	Decimal Value
Initialization	0x0002	2
Exit Handler	0x0008	8
Update Data Archive	0x0010	16
Control Loop	0x0020	32
Point List Loading	0x0040	64
Point Edits	0x0080	128
IO Rate points	0x0100	256
Time Functions	0x0400	1024
Performance Counters	0x0800	2048
Digital State Caching	0x2000	8192
Whitelist	0x4000	16384
Standard Deviation	0x8000	32768

TrimSyntax: /digstatetrimleft leading spaces from digital state tags (digstatetrimleft)

Syntax: /digstatetrimleft

Removes both leading and trailing spaces from digital state tags. If this parameter is not set, then only trailing spaces are deleted.

Disable counters (disablecounters)

Syntax: /disablecounters

Disables Windows performance counters.

Syntax: /ec[=#]

The event counter (ec) parameter associates an I/O rate point in the inIOrates.dat file with this copy of the interface. The value specifies the number of the point in the file.

Valid ec value ranges are:

2 to 34
50 to 200

Interfaces that share an ec value will write to the same I/O rate point, making the data unusable. To avoid this problem, define a unique event counter for each copy of the interface. The default ec value is 1. The default value is associated with the interface in the following cases:

If the # value is not specified
If the ec parameter is omitted from the command line

The event counter can be used by specific interfaces to keep track of input or output operations. In these cases, you can define subsequent instances of the ec parameter. Refer to the interface-specific documentation to see if subsequent instances of the ec parameter have any effect. For interfaces that use subsequent instances of the ec parameter, use the form /ec*=#, where * is any ASCII character sequence. For example, /ecinput=10, /ecoutput=11, and /ec=12 are acceptable for the second, third, and fourth event counter strings.

Scan class (f)

The f parameter defines one or more scan classes. Scan classes specify how often a data source is checked for new data.

Syntax: /f=scan-interval

Specify scan interval and optional offset using the following format: time value,time offset,L

Scan class time and offset time values use the following format: HH:MM:SS.##, where:

HH is hours
MM is minutes
SS is seconds
## is hundredths of seconds (01 to 99)

If you omit HH and MM, the scan period is assumed to be in seconds. For example, /f=00:01:00,00:00:05 is equivalent to /f=60,5.

The L value associates the time unit value with the local computer time-of-day settings. Time-of-day scans use a 24-hour clock and are automatically adjusted for daylight saving time. This is also known as wall clock scheduling. The following example uses a scan frequency of 24 hours (once a day), an offset of eight hours from midnight (8 AM), and enables time-of-day scanning by specifying the L value: /f=24:00:00,08:00:00,L.

The scan class frequency determines how often to scan for data. The offset specifies how long after the frequency's time value to scan for data. To balance the scanning workload, specify an offset for scan classes that have the same interval so that they are not scanned simultaneously.

For each scan class that you want to define, specify the f parameter. Scan classes are numbered by the order in which you define them. Scan class 1 is the first defined f parameter, and scan class 2 is the second f parameter you define.

Examples:

Scan class 1 has a scanning frequency of one minute with an offset of five seconds, and scan class 2 has a scanning frequency of seven seconds with no offset:

/f=00:01:00,00:00:05 /f=00:00:07
Two scan classes, defined using only seconds:

/f=60,5 /f=7
Sub-second scan classes defined as decimal values:

/f=0.5 /f=00:00:00.1

Note: Deleting scan classes or changing their order can adversely affect the operation of existing PI points, which are closely related to scan rates. Scan classes should be adjusted only by PI System administrators who are fully aware of the PI System configuration and the effects of any such changes.

For more information about scan classes, see the PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU) User Guide.

Foxboro Coordinated Universal Time (foxutc)

Syntax: /foxutc

Enabling this option determines the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of the Data Archive node by using the same process as that used in PI Interface for Foxboro. This parameter is not necessary if the PI API version is 1.6.x or later and the Data Archive version is 3.4.370.x or later.

The foxutc parameter is used in situations where the default method of calculating the UTC offset between the interface node and the Data Archive node does not work properly. For PI Interface for Foxboro, the time zone on the interface node is always set to GMT standard time, but the wall clock time is adjusted by one hour during daylight savings time changes, so the UTC time on the interface node also changes by one hour.

This parameter also enables you to calculate time zone differences of less than one hour.

Host name (host)

Syntax: /host=host[:port]

Required: Specifies the host name of the Data Archive.

The host can specify IP address, host name, or fully-qualified domain name. The port specifies the TCP/IP port on which Data Archive listens for requests. Default for port is 5450.

The following examples are all valid host parameter values:

/host=marvin
/host=marvin:5450
/host=206.79.198.30
/host=206.79.198.30:5450

When failover is enabled, the host parameter has additional meaning. The value of the host parameter depends on the Data Archive configuration, where:

If the redundant interfaces are configured to send data to a Data Archive node that is not part of a collective, the value of host must be identical on both interface computers.
If the redundant interfaces are configured to send data to a Data Archive collective, the value of host must be set on the different interface nodes to different members of the collective. This parameter ensures that outputs continue to be sent to the data source if one of the Data Archive nodes becomes unavailable for any reason.

Interface ID (id)

Syntax: /id=id#

The id parameter specifies the integer ID of the interface instance. The maximum length of the id# value is interface-specific.

I/O source time (iosourcetime)

Syntax: /iosourcetime

Enable the iosourcetime parameter for output points. At startup, the interfaces sends the time stamp of the source point’s snapshot value to the interface-specific code that handles the actual output.

Maximum stop time (maxstoptime)

Syntax: /maxstoptime

Specifies the maximum amount of time that the interface can use to perform cleanup tasks when shutting down. If shutdown exceeds the specified time, the interface exits without performing remaining tasks. Default is two minutes.

No outputs (nooutputs)

Syntax: /nooutputs

Disable outputs to the data source in a read-write version of an interface. The interface cannot write data from Data Archive to the data source, but it can read data from the data source into Data Archive .

Note: If the interface is available in both read-write and read-only versions, use the read-only version instead of disabling outputs.

Percent up (percentup)

Syntax: /percentup

For interfaces that connect to multiple devices (data source), specifies the percentage of connections that is required to be valid for the interface to report a device status of "0 | Good".

If the number of valid connections drops below the specified percentage, the interface sets the device performance counter to indicate failure. By default, 100 percent of connections must be valid.

Performance summary logging (perf)

Syntax: /perf=interval

Specifies how often, in hours, performance summaries are logged.

If the percentage of scans performed on time drops below 95%, the interface logs performance summaries for each scan class. By default, summaries are reported every eight hours.

This setting can be changed using PI ICU, from the Debug tab. If the data source uses an unsolicited reporting mechanism for all input data to the interface, performance summaries are meaningless. In this case, you can disable performance summaries by setting the interval value to 0.

PIPC Message Log (pipc)

Syntax: /pipc

When enabled, the interface sends error and informational messages to the pipc.log file in addition to the PI Message Log.

PI SDK (pisdk)

Syntax: /pisdk=#

Enables PI SDK connections for the interface. By default, PI SDK connections to Data Archive are disabled unless the interface enables them. This parameter is ignored if the interface is running with PI API version 1.6.x or later, and connecting to Data Archive version 3.4.370.x or later.

Enable PI SDK: /pisdk=1

Disable PI SDK: /pisdk=0

PI SDK connection timeout (pisdkcontimeout)

Syntax: /pisdkcontimeout=timeout

Specifies the time, in seconds, for how long to wait for a connection to Data Archive before timing out. Overrides any connection timeout configured using PI Connection Manager.

To adjust the PI SDK connection timeout, use PI Connection Manager. Only configure this setting if the interface uses PI SDK and you must configure a connection timeout that is different than the setting configured with PI Connection Manager.

PI SDK data access timeout (pisdktimeout)

Syntax: /pisdktimeout=timeout

Specifies the time, in seconds, for the PI SDK data access timeout.

Configure this setting only if the interface uses PI SDK and you need to override the timeout that is configured using PI Connection Manager.

Point source (ps)

Syntax: /ps=point-source

Required: Specifies the point source for the interface instance.

The point source is used by the interface to determine which points to load at startup and during operation. This point source value is not case-sensitive.

Note: If the PI API version is earlier than 1.6.x, or the Data Archive version is earlier than 3.4.370.x, the point-source value must be a single character, or PI SDK must be used to load points.

The following point sources are reserved. Do not configure them for interface instances.

Point Source	Reserved By
T	PI Totalizer Subsystem
G and @	PI Alarm Subsystem (PI Alarm)
R	PI Interface for Random (Random interface)
9	PI Interface for RampSoak (RampSoak interface)
C	PI performance equations subsystem

Service events timeout (svceventsto)

Syntax: /svceventsto=timeout

Specifies the service events timeout for how many milliseconds the interface spends servicing events from the event queue before switching to perform its other tasks.

Default is 500 milliseconds. Maximum is 3000 milliseconds (3 seconds).

If you specify /svceventtsto=0, UniInt interfaces will service 36 events before switching to other tasks. Used when servicing outputs and triggered inputs to ensure that the servicing of events does not exceed the Service Events Timeout time limit.

Suppress initial outputs (sio)

Syntax: /sio

The sio parameter is enabled to suppress initial outputs. Suppresses the default interface startup behavior. Outputs will be written only when they are explicitly triggered.

By default, when a UniInt interface is started, it determines the current snapshot value of each output point and writes this value to each output point. In addition, when an output point is edited, the interface writes the current snapshot value to the point by default.

Disable exception reporting (sn)

Syntax: /sn

Specifying the sn parameter disables exception reporting, which is enabled by default. Do not use for normal interface operation.

Startup delay (startup_delay)

Syntax: /startup_delay[=delay]

Specifies the time, in seconds, for how long the interface waits after logging the Starting message before proceeding. Startup delays for interfaces are not enabled by default. If you enable this parameter, default delay value is 30 seconds.

Stop state (stopstat)

Syntax: /stopstat[=digitalstate]

Writes the digital state defined in the system digital state set to PI points when the interface is stopped. By default, no digital states are written to PI points when the interface shuts down.

If you omit the digitalstate value, the interface writes Intf Shut to the PI points.

In a UniInt failover configuration, the digital state is not written to points when an interface instance is stopped, because the other interface instance takes over writing data to the point. For more information about the Data Archive system digital state set, see PI Data Archive System Management Guide.

Unique redundant interface ID (uht_id)

Syntax: /uht_id=ID#

Specifies a unique ID for interfaces that are run in a redundant mode without using the UniInt failover mechanism.

Some UniInt interfaces implement their own version of failover. This setting enables you to configure health points to monitor a copy of such an interface. The interface loads only health points that contain the specified ID# value in the location3 attribute.

UniInt point trace (uitrace)

Syntax: /uitrace=tagname

Enables tracing for the PI point specified in tagname.

Note: Trace output can bloat log files. Limit usage of this parameter.

This parameter can be added, removed, or modified while this interface is running.

Update interval (updateinterval)

Syntax: /updateinterval=interval

Specifies time, in seconds, for how often the interface checks for changes to the PI point database, such as point additions, deletions, or attribute modifications.

Default is 120 seconds. Must specify a value between 1 and 300.

To disable checking, set interval to 0. When checking is disabled, changes are not detected until you stop and restart the interface. If the PI point database is very stable, disabling the checking for point updates can slightly reduce the chances of missing scans when communication between Data Archive and the interface is interrupted.

Whitelist (whitelist)

Syntax: /whitelist=path\filename

Specifies a list of permitted output tags and their attributes, which the interface uses to write output data to the data source.

PI Universal Interface UniInt Framework

Standard parameters

Table of Contents

Standard parameters

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