Help
  • Get started
  • Ask the Community
  • How-To & Best Practices
  • Contact Support
Login / Register
Brand Logo
Help
  • Get started
  • Ask the Community
  • How-To & Best Practices
  • Contact Support
close
  • Community Home
  • Forums
    • By Topic
    • By Topic
      EcoStruxure Building
      • Field Devices Forum
      • SmartConnector Forum
      EcoStruxure Power & Grid
      • Gateways and Energy Servers
      • Metering & Power Quality
      APC UPS, Critical Power, Cooling and Racks
      • APC UPS Data Center & Enterprise Solutions Forum
      • APC UPS for Home and Office Forum
      EcoStruxure IT
      • EcoStruxure IT forum
      • EcoStruxure IT™ Advisor CFD
      Remote Operations
      • EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert Forum
      • Remote Operations Forum
      Industrial Automation
      • Alliance System Integrators Forum
      • AVEVA Plant SCADA Forum
      • CPG Expert Forum DACH
      • EcoStruxure Automation Expert / IEC 61499 Forum
      • Fabrika ve Makina Otomasyonu Çözümleri
      • Harmony Control Customization Forum
      • Industrial Edge Computing Forum
      • Industry Automation and Control Forum
      • Korea Industrial Automation Forum
      • Machine Automation Forum
      • Modicon PAC Forum
      • PLC Club Indonesia
      Schneider Electric Wiser
      • Schneider Electric Wiser Forum
      Power Distribution IEC
      • Eldistribution & Fastighetsautomation
      • Elektrik Tasarım Dağıtım ve Uygulama Çözümleri
      • Paneelbouw & Energie Distributie
      • Power Distribution and Digital
      • Solutions for Motor Management
      • Specifiers Club ZA Forum
      • Електропроектанти България
      Power Distribution NEMA
      • Power Monitoring and Energy Automation NAM
      Power Distribution Software
      • EcoStruxure Power Design Forum
      • LayoutFAST User Group Forum
      Energy & Sustainability Services
      • Green Building Scoring and Certification Forum
      Light and Room Control
      • SpaceLogic C-Bus Forum
      Solutions for your Business
      • Solutions for your Business Forum
      Support
      • Ask the Community
  • Knowledge Center
    • Building Automation Knowledge Base
    • Remote Operations Devices Knowledge Base
    • Geo SCADA Knowledge Base
    • Industrial Automation How-to videos
    • Digital E-books
    • Success Stories Corner
  • Events & Webinars
    • All Events
    • Innovation Talks
    • Innovation Summit
    • Let's Exchange Series
    • Partner Success
    • Process Automation Talks
    • Technology Partners
  • Ideas
    • EcoStruxure Building
      • EcoStruxure Building Advisor Ideas
      Remote Operations
      • EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert Ideas
      • Remote Operations Devices Ideas
      Industrial Automation
      • Modicon Ideas & new features
  • Blogs
    • By Topic
    • By Topic
      EcoStruxure Power & Grid
      • Backstage Access Resources
      EcoStruxure IT
      • EcoStruxure IT™ Advisor CFD
      Remote Operations
      • Remote Operations Blog
      Industrial Automation
      • Industrie du Futur France
      • Industry 4.0 Blog
      Power Distribution NEMA
      • NEMA Power Foundations Blog
      Energy & Sustainability Services
      • Active Energy Management Blog
      Light and Room Control
      • KNX Blog
      Knowledge Center
      • Digital E-books
      • Geo SCADA Knowledge Base
      • Industrial Automation How-to videos
      • Remote Operations Devices Knowledge Base
      • Success Stories Corner
  • companyImpact

Overview of Data Archiving

Geo SCADA Knowledge Base

Access vast amounts of technical know-how and pro tips from our community of Geo SCADA experts.

cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
  • Home
  • Communities
  • Knowledge Center
  • Geo SCADA Knowledge Base
  • Overview of Data Archiving
Invite a Co-worker
Send a co-worker an invite to the Exchange portal.Just enter their email address and we?ll connect them to register. After joining, they will belong to the same company.
You have entered an invalid email address. Please re-enter the email address.
This co-worker has already been invited to the Exchange portal. Please invite another co-worker.
Please enter email address
Send Invite Cancel
Invitation Sent
Your invitation was sent.Thanks for sharing Exchange with your co-worker.
Send New Invite Close
Top Labels
Top Labels
  • Alphabetical
  • database 32
  • Web Server and Client 31
  • Lists, Events & Alarms 21
  • WebX 19
  • Request Form 18
  • ViewX 15
  • Setup 12
  • Application Programming 12
  • Telemetry 7
  • Mimic Graphics 7
  • Downloads 6
  • Support 5
  • IoT 5
  • Drivers and Communications 4
  • security 4
  • SCADA 4
  • Geo SCADA Expert 4
  • DNP 3 3
  • IEC 61131-3 Logic 3
  • Events & Alarms 2
  • Trends and Historian 2
  • Virtual ViewX 2
  • Lists 2
  • Privacy Policy 1
  • OPC-UA 1
  • Architectures 1
  • Templates and Instances 1
  • ClearSCADA 1
  • Releases 1
  • Maps and GIS 1
  • Tools & Resources 1
  • Mobile 1
  • Geo Scada 1
  • Previous
  • 1 of 4
  • Next
Latest Blog Posts
  • Geo SCADA Expert 2022
  • Geo SCADA 2022 Operating System Support
  • Geo SCADA 2022 Upgrade Strategy
  • Geo SCADA 2022 Upgrade Notes
  • Geo SCADA 2022 Known Issues
Related Products
product field
Schneider Electric
EcoStruxure™ Geo SCADA Expert

Invite a Colleague

Found this content useful? Share it with a Colleague!

Invite a Colleague Invite
sbeadle1
Spock sbeadle1 Spock
Spock
‎2021-06-09 12:42 PM
1 Like
0
316
  • Bookmark
  • Subscribe
  • Email to a Friend
  • Printer Friendly Page
  • Report Inappropriate Content
‎2021-06-09 12:42 PM

Overview of Data Archiving

Originally published on Geo SCADA Knowledge Base by sbeadle1 | June 09, 2021 09:42 PM

📖 Home  Back  

What Data is Included in an Archive?



The type and amount of data that is included in an archive is determined by:
  • The configuration of the archive database item

Every archive is represented by a user-created archive item in ViewX. The configuration of each archive item defines which historic data and Event Journal messages are stored for that archive, and where the archived data is stored (see ClearSCADA Help). Typically, archive items are created for each server in the system. Each archive item is then configured to archive the data from all of the items in the database.
  • The archive life settings (made via the Server Configuration Tool)

The amount of data that is included in an archive is dependent on the Keep Online For n Weeks time and Archive After n Weeks period, both of which are defined on the Server Configuration Tool. These time periods are explained in detail later in this article (see Archive Life Settings).

A server will never archive data that it has already archived previously.

Archive Life Settings



Historic data and event messages are kept in the database for a specified number of weeks after which they are deleted. The total amount of time for which historic data and event messages are stored is referred to as the Keep Online For n Weeks time. To avoid losing data, you should ensure that archiving takes place before the end of the Keep Online For n Weeks time. Note that historic data modifications and annotations are not archived and are kept online indefinitely.

The Keep Online For time period is divided into two parts:
  • Writeable

New data can be added to the data that falls within this period. The writeable period starts at the current time and extends backwards a specified number of weeks before the start of the current week. Data received during the writeable period cannot be archived (as it can still be updated with new values).
You can specify the number of weeks for the writeable period in the Archive after n Weeks settings in the Server Configuration Tool. (There are separate Archive After n Weeks settings for historic data and Event Journal data).

  • Read-Only

Data within this period is available for archiving. New data cannot be added to the data that falls within this period. Any data received from outstations etc., during the Read Only period is discarded.
The read only period starts at the end of the writeable period (where the end of the writeable period is the Archive After n Weeks number of weeks, see above) and ends at the end of the Keep Online For time period.

The Keep Online For n Weeks setting defines the total amount of time that the data remains in the database. When this time expires, the data is deleted. The total amount of time is defined as a number of weeks starting from the beginning of the current week.

The Archive After n Weeks setting defines the amount of time that must elapse before the data is available to be archived. This is specified as a number of weeks before the start of the current week. The Archive After n Weeks setting should be set to at least 1 week and must be less than the Keep Online For n Weeks period.

For example, if the data is kept online for 4 weeks and archived after 1 week, then data up to 1 week old can be added to the database, and a total of 4 weeks data is available at any given time. As both periods begin at the start of the current week, there is also additional data for the current week available online (the data from the start of the current week to the current time). So, by the end of the current week, there will be almost 5 weeks of data online. There will be exactly 3 weeks worth of data available to be archived at any given time, however the server will not archive data that it has already archived.
It is possible to set the Archive After n Weeks period to 0, but we do not recommend you do this as it is likely to cause loss of data if there is an archive at the start of the week.


When is Data Archived and How do I Start the Archiving Process?



Data is archived whenever a user selects the Archive pick action (available on archive database items) or the Archive method is executed by a Schedule, Logic program etc. Typically, a Schedule is created that executes the Archive method on a regular basis, usually once per week. This ensures that archives are performed automatically. However, periodically, the archive disk(s) will need to be replaced with new blank media (before each archive disk becomes full).

Where Does Archiving Take Place?



On systems that contain more than one server (for example, hot-standby systems), each server can be set up to archive data separately. This provides redundancy and additional copies of the archived data (one per server). The archiving always takes place on the server that is connected to the archive media, irrespective of the server status. So, if a standby server is to archive data, the actual process of archiving will take place on the standby server (it does not need to become 'Main'). Only the instruction to initiate the archiving process is sent across the network from the Main server to the Standby server(s). Similarly, the standby server(s) only send archive status data back to the Main server over the network.
As each server keeps track of the data it has archived, a server will never archive data that it has already archived. When an archive is performed, the server only archives the data that has not yet been archived by that server (archiving is incremental).

You can view information about the data that has been archived by a particular server by using the Archive Volume Manager (right-click on the Server icon in the Windows task bar then select the Archive Volumes option from the context sensitive menu). The Archive Volume Manager displays a list of all the data that has been archived, and the list is organized according to the volumes (disks) on which the data is stored. You can also use it to create replacement volumes.

Types of Archive Media



ClearSCADA can archive data and events to any type of disk supported by Windows, including CDs, DVDs, and hard disks. When archiving to CD or DVD, Third-Party packet writing software is required. Unfortunately, Third Party packet writing applications can be unreliable and can even cause data loss. For this reason, we recommend that you archive data and events to hard disk, DVD-RAM or any other disk based archiving technology as these are more robust and reliable than archiving directly to CD or DVD.

ClearSCADA will archive data and event messages to your chosen archive media whenever a user selects the Archive pick action or the Archive method is called by a Schedule, Logic program etc.

When the archive media (hard disk, DVD-RAM etc.) becomes full, ClearSCADA raises an alarm and cannot complete the current archive task. In this situation, you need to replace the full disk with a blank disk and perform another archive so that the remaining data is archived to the new disk.

Recommendations when using Archiving



We recommend that you always replace each disk before it becomes full. This makes it easier to search for archived data at a later date---if all the data for a particular period is archived on the same disk, it is easier to locate the data you need.

You may wish to backup the archived data, for example, for secure offsite storage. You can do this by using Windows or a Third-Party application to copy the contents of an archive disk to another disk. In a multi-server system such as a Hot-Standby system, each server can independently perform archives, so there are at least two copies of the archived data (one per server). This is dependent on the server configuration, for more information, see ClearSCADA Help.
Note: On multi-server systems, the actual archiving process takes place on the server that is connected to the archive media, irrespective of the server status. This means that standby servers can archive data and remain in standby mode - all they require from the Main server is the instruction to initiate the archiving process. In return, the standby server will send archive status data to the Main server when the archive process is complete.

Most users choose to periodically archive data, for example, once a week. It is also common practice to replace each archive disk at regular intervals, for example, every 6 months.

We always recommend that you :
  • Apply a unique label to the archive media (CD, DVD etc.) before the first archive takes place

  • Make back-ups of all archive media

  • Ensure all removable archive media is stored in a secure location.


Go: Home Back

Author

Biography

sbeadle1

  • Back to Stream
  • Newer Article
  • Older Article
To The Top!

Forums

  • APC UPS Data Center Backup Solutions
  • EcoStruxure IT
  • EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert
  • Metering & Power Quality
  • Schneider Electric Wiser

Knowledge Center

Events & webinars

Ideas

Blogs

Get Started

  • Ask the Community
  • Community Guidelines
  • Community User Guide
  • How-To & Best Practice
  • Experts Leaderboard
  • Contact Support
Brand-Logo
Subscribing is a smart move!
You can subscribe to this forum after you log in or create your free account.
Forum-Icon

Create your free account or log in to subscribe to the forum - and gain access to more than 10,000+ support articles along with insights from experts and peers.

Register today for FREE

Register Now

Already have an account?Login

Terms & Conditions Privacy Notice Change your Cookie Settings © 2023 Schneider Electric, Inc