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

You can run the Historian as an application with a graphic user interface (GUI), as a daemon process, or in the background as a Windows Service. NOTE: The first time you run the Historian you must run it as an application to configure the initial settings.

Running the Historian as a daemon process will allow you to run without a display. 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. 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.

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

High Availability Historians
It is possible to designate backup Historians to support a failover event. On the Server Group tab of the Historian GUI, you can specify a primary Historian as well as one or more backup Historians. NOTE: Only the primary Historian is capable of writing to the database.

Each Server Group member is assigned a port number and a priority. Using a socket connection on the assigned ports, each member monitors the status of the others in the group. The member with the highest priority is elected as the primary Historian. If the primary Historian fails, is shut down, or loses its connection to the database, the backup Historian with the highest priority becomes the new primary. In the event of a tie in priority ranking, the Historian that was started first becomes the primary. NOTE: Each Historian in the group should be configured with the same set of data configuration files, retention options, data source options, etc.

The High Availability feature is intended to be used with a database system that also supports redundancy (through mirroring, clustering, or other techniques) so that any Historian in the group can update the same virtual database.

Run the Historian: Windows or UNIX

Windows			UNIX
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.	From a Command Prompt window: Select Start-->Programs-->Enterprise RTView--> GMS Command Prompt In the command window type: run_historian		In an initialized terminal window type: run_historian

 

Configuration and Console
The Historian Configuration tab allows you to specify settings for the Historian. Click Save Configuration to save these settings. If you select the Show Data in Console checkbox, the Historian Console will output a line for each record that is stored in the database.

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

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 in 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. NOTE: This name must also match the name of the history database configured in the Display Builder's SQL Application Options tab.

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.

Append Timestamp Type - Specify the type of timestamp. There are three options: None No TIMESTAMP column is stored. SQL Timestamp A single TIMESTAMP column is stored using a standard SQL TIMESTAMP data type. String Timestamps (2) Two TIMESTAMP columns are stored with each record as strings. This is the default.

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 Cache Duration and Cache Size specifications.  If both Cache Duration and Cache Size are set, then the data records will be committed as soon as the first limit is reached.

Cache Duration - Length of time (in seconds) to cache before committing records to the database. If the value is set to 0 the Historian will not commit records in the database immediately, but rather will store them in the cache to be committed later.

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

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

Store Last Values Only - If selected, the Historian will store only the last (most recent) values in the cache for each unique data attachment. By default, the Historian stores all records in the cache each time the Cache Duration or Cache Size limit is reached. This option allows the Historian to store less data than it receives, which can be useful in a configuration where the Historian receives data from the Data Server at a higher rate than necessary for historical storage. For example, suppose the Data Server sends tables from two SQL attachments to the Historian: Query1: select * from table1 Query2: select * from table2 If the Data Server executes those queries every 10 seconds and the Historian has Cache Duration of 60 seconds, then every 60 seconds the Historian's data cache will contain six result tables from Query1 and six result tables from Query2. By default, the Historian will commit all twelve tables to the database. However if Store Last Values is selected, the Historian will commit only the sixth (most recent) table from Query1 and Query2 and discard all other tables in the cache. NOTE: This option is available only if Cache Data is selected and the value of Cache Duration is greater than 0.

Data Configuration Files

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.
Substitutions	To add or edit a substitution on a specified data configuration (.rtv) file, double-click in the corresponding field of the Substitutions column.

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.

 

Server Group
By default, no server group is defined. To define a server group:

1. Select a port number on which this historian will accept
connections from other historians in the group. The default is 3380.

2. Choose a priority for this historian. The default is 1. The online
historian with the highest priority will become the primary historian,
and will update the database.

3. For each other historian in the group, enter the hostname and port
in the 'Member' text field.

4. Save the configuration.