Before running the Historian, you need to complete the Historian Database Setup.

You can run the Historian as an application with a graphical user interface or as a daemon process. Running the Historian as a daemon process will allow you to run without a display.

NOTE: The first time you run the Historian you must run it as an application to configure the initial settings.

On Windows
You can start the Historian from either the Windows Start Menu or the Command Prompt window.

From the Windows Start Menu:
 

Select Start-->Programs-->Enterprise RTView-->Historian

NOTE: When you start the Historian from the Windows Start menu, it runs from the demos directory. The Historian will try to read initialization (.ini) files and resolve XML sources containing relative paths from that directory. To start the Historian in another directory, you must run Enterprise RTView from a command window. NOTE: It is possible to specify a directory for your initialization files.

In an initialized command window:
 

type run_historian

On UNIX
In an initialized terminal window:
 

type run_historian

To run the Historian as a daemon process, you must run it from a Windows Command Prompt or Unix terminal window and the -daemon parameter must be the first command line argument given.

Several command line options are supported for the Historian, see Appendix C for more information. Java options specified in RTV_JAVAOPTS will be used by the run_historian scripts. NOTE: These options will not be used when the Historian is started from the Windows Start menu.

NOTE: The Historian is instrumented with JMX to allow you to manage and monitor application settings. See Managing the Historian Using JMX for more information.
 

The Historian Console records errors and information. To display a line in the Historian Console for each record being stored in the database, select the Show Data in Console checkbox in Historian Configuration.

Data source specific options are read in from initialization (.ini) files created in the Display Builder. For information on creating initialization files or command line options for your data source, refer to Application Options or Command Line Options under the Data Sources section of this documentation.

Database Options

Historian Database Name - The ODBC Data Source name for the database the Historian will use to store and query information.  Currently this setting is not configurable, the Historian Database Name must be RTVHISTORY.

Database User Name - The user name to pass into the history database when making a connection. This parameter is optional. You cannot edit this field while the Historian is storing data.

Database Password - The password to pass into the history database when making a connection. This parameter is optional. You cannot edit this field while the Historian is storing data.

Use ODBC Driver - If selected, use an ODBC-JDBC bridge to connect to the history database. An ODBC data source must be setup for this database to connect using an ODBC driver. You cannot edit this field while the Historian is storing data.

JDBC Driver Class Name -The fully qualified name of the JDBC driver class to use when connecting to the history database. The path to this driver must be included in the RTV_USERPATH environment variable. You cannot edit this field while the Historian is storing data.

JDBC Database URL - The full database URL to use when connecting to the history database using the specified JDBC driver. Consult your JDBC driver documentation if you do not know the database URL syntax for your driver. You cannot edit this field while the Historian is storing data.

Record Retention Options

Delete Records Periodically - If selected, the Historian will periodically delete records from the numeric table (HISTORY or the table name you specified) and the string table (HISTORY_S or the table name you specified) according to the rate set.

Rate to Delete Records - The length of time (in minutes, hours or days) a record can exist before it marked for deletion. For example if you set the rate to 5 minutes, then the next time you start Enterprise RTView all records older than 5 minutes will be deleted. For the remainder of your work session, Enterprise RTView will search every 2.5 minutes (half the rate) for records that exceed the rate.

Purge Database on Start - If selected, the Historian will clear out the numeric table (HISTORY or the table name you specified) and the string table (HISTORY_S or the table name you specified) before storing new data.

Purge Database - Clears out the numeric table (HISTORY or the table name you specified) and the string table (HISTORY_S or the table name you specified) immediately.

Data Cache Options

Cache Data - If selected, the Historian will cache data according to the options selected in the Cache Duration and Cache Size fields.  If both the Cache Duration and the Cache Size are set, the records will be committed when the first limit is hit.

Cache Duration - The length of time, in seconds,  to cache before committing records to the database.

Cache Size - The number of records to cache before committing them to the database.

Flush Cached Records - Flush all cached records to the database immediately.

Data Configuration Files

Add - Add a data configuration file to the list. Data configuration files are display (.rtv) files that were created in the Display Builder.  When you start storing data, a record will be added to the database each time new information is received for each data attachment in all of the specified data configuration files. NOTE: If a data configuration file is added while the Historian is storing data, it will start storing data for attachments in that file as soon as new information becomes available.

Remove - Remove the selected data configuration file from the list. If the Historian is storing data when a file is removed, it will stop storing data for that file immediately.

Console Options

Show Data in Console - If selected, the Historian Console will print out a line for each record that is being stored in the database.

General Options

Start/Stop Storing Data - Start or stop storing data in the database.

Save Configuration - Save settings to an initialization file (HISTORY.ini), which will be used next time you run the Historian. NOTE: Unless you specify a directory for your initialization files, you must run the Historian from the same directory in which the initialization (.ini) file was saved.

About - Click on to read about Enterprise RTView.

Exit - Exit the Historian, stop storing data in the database and close the Historian window.