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TN Hist231 Understanding Wonderware Historian Storage Locations

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Description

The Wonderware Historian has four different storage locations.  This document will explain the purpose of each.

 

  • Author: Dillon Perera
  • Published: 09/22/2015
  • Applies to: Wonderware InSQL/Historian 9.0 and Higher

 

 

Details

The Wonderware Historian has four storage locations which can be configured from the Wonderware SMC, each with a specific purpose.

HistorianStorage_StorageLocations.PNG

 

Circular Storage:

  • This is the primary storage location for historical data (History Blocks).  This must be a local drive on the Historian, and by default is set to C:\InSQL\Data\Circular in versions 9.0 and older, and C:\Historian\Data\Circular in 10.0 and newer.  
  • Settings such as the Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, and Maximum Age, can be configured to limit the amount of hard drive space used by the Circular folder data.
  • As History Blocks are created they are stored to this folder and will remain in this folder unless automatically deleted or moved due to predefined settings (Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, Maximum Age).  If an Alternate storage location is defined, the history blocks will be moved to the Alternate location instead of being deleted.

 

Alternate Storage:

  • This is the secondary storage location for historical data (History Blocks), and by default is not configured (Path is set to rr:\ which is an invalid drive).  No History Blocks will be stored to this location unless the Circular location reaches the Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, or Maximum Age settings.
  • This can be set to a local hard drive on the Historian server, or can be set to a reliable network drive using UNC notation.
  • Settings such as the Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, and Maximum Age, can be configured to limit the amount of hard drive space used by the Alternate location.  Because this is already the secondary storage location, if any of these parameters are reached History Blocks will be deleted, as opposed to moved, to make room for new data.  The oldest History Blocks will be deleted first.

 

Permanent Storage:

  • This is a special location for data which the user has specified must be kept permanently and not overwritten.  This is useful for special occurrences such as a gold batch, or an accident.
  • The Historian will not store any data to this location automatically.
    • To manually add data you can move History blocks into this folder.
    • To add a subset of data, you can use the xp_DiskCopy procedure in SQL Server to create the History Blocks.
  • ​Though options are shown for Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, Maximum Age, the files in this folder will never actually be deleted.

 

Buffer Storage:

  • This is a special location used for temporary viewing of History Blocks, such as from archived data.  The user would have to manually add History Blocks to this folder.
  • Though options are shown for Deletion Threshold, Maximum Size, Maximum Age, the files in this folder will never actually be deleted.