Overview
The platform includes enhancements specifically designed to leverage Canary Historian
, a time-series database that provides high speed performance and friendly configuration tools. This integration includes:
Native Solution Historian: Canary Historian embeds in the platform easily as if it were a native tool. Solutions can use it in conjunction with the existing built-in SQL Historian.
Free 100 Canary Points: The first 100 Canary Historian points are included free of charge. Upgrade options are available for larger systems.
Create Canary Points directly at Designer: No need to use or learn additional tools other than FrameworX Solution Designer.
Simplified License Management: Request license upgrades directly from FrameworX.
Out of Box TrendChart Monitor: Zero configuration is required; an out-of-the-box TrendChart monitor for Canary Historian tags.
Edge Data Collector: Any of the 70+ communication protocols is now a Data Collector for Canary Historian, with Store and Forward support.
Canary Driver and TagProvider: Connection with other Canary Historian instances, either mapping to Local Tags or using dynamic referencing, with tunneling features included.
On this page:
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About Canary
What is the Canary Historian?
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Canary Historian is a time series database built for industrial automation. A It is a high-performance historian designed for large-scale applications that handle large substantial volumes of data writing.
Why use Canary Historian?
You should use Canary as your historian if you need to handle large-scale time series data. It provides scalability and enables efficient management of high-volume write operations. Its design supports extensive dataset analysis within time contexts for effective trend identification, avoiding the constraints of relational schemas. Canary's architecture balances speed, accuracy, and volume, making it an ideal choice for specialized time series data management needs.
When to use Canary
Historian?Canary Historian is strongly recommended in scenarios requiring scalable and efficient time series data management across site or enterprise applications. It is suitable for managing large data volumes when relational databases' limitations challenge data aggregation and trend analysis. Canary Historian meets the speed, accuracy, volume management, and data schema flexibility needs.
How to use Canary Historian?
To use the Canary Historian, follow the configuration procedures described below.
Historian or the built-in SQL Historian?
Solutions can use both systems concurrently. Performance on SQL storage has increased over the years, but it cannot reach the speed and storage capabilities that a database specifically designed for time-series data, like Canary, can deliver. Use Canary for the tags that require high speed and/or long time retention. Keep those in SQL where the retrieval and storage requirements can be managed with SQL storage.
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Trend Charts on Displays, Scripts, and all other modules use data abstraction layers, so there are no changes to the remaining configuration of the solution when you decide to modify the configuration of tags from using one historian to another. |
Installation
Initial configuration
To start using Canary Historian, you must first install the software platform on a computer. Then, you must license Canary, configure it on the platform, and enable it for use in your solution.
RequirementsThe software platform should be installed and, where when necessary, licensed.
Licensing Canary Historian
- Go to Solution Manager and navigate to 'Your License / License Information / Canary Historian'.
- Request a license by clicking 'Request License'. Fill in the 'Name', 'Company', and 'Email' fields to generate the Serial Number, then click 'Request'.
- Open the Canary Admin Tool, proceed to 'Home / Licenses', and select 'Local / Add license through the internet'. Enter the required details ('Name', 'Company', 'Serial Number', 'Email', 'Quantity') and check the 'Canary Historian' option. Click 'GET LICENSE'.
- Upon receiving the License Key, confirm by clicking 'OK'. To verify the license, navigate to 'Solution Manager / Your License' and refresh the information by clicking the 'Refresh' button. The message should change to "Canary Historian is licensed."
Canary Admin Tool configuration
Set up the Sender's EndPoints and access the Receiver's EndPoints in the Canary Admin Tool.
Creating Solution and Enabling Canary Historian
- In Solution Manager, create a solution (file .dbsln) and open it in the Solution Designer.
- Access 'Solution / Settings / Target Platform and License', enable Canary Historian, and select the desired tag range (500, 1500, 5000, 15000, or Unlimited).
Done! The initial configuration is finished!.
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This integration includes support specifically for Windows, as Canary Labs is a Windows-only integration. |
Modules' Connections
Canary Historian can be used in different ways by the various modules.
Historian: Uses Canary as a Storage Location for archiving or retrieving HistorianTags.
Devices: Read and Write to external Canary Historian Server with the Device Module.
TagProvider: Map external Canary Historian Server to dynamic integration of its data and structures.
Displays and Scripts: No custom configuration is required, TrendCharts will use Canary Historian Data Automatically if available.
Historian Module
Configuring Historian using Canary
- At Historian / StorageLocations, include Canary as a StorageLocation.
- At Historian / HistorianTables, define virtual tables will control writing and retrieving data.
- Map the tags at Historian / HistorianTags.
→ Read about the Historian Module.
Device Module
Configuring Devices using Canary.
- Navigate to
Data source connection
After define what data to store, like key tags for your process, data frequency, type (e.g., temperature, pressure, state), expected data volume, and organization. The following step is connecting to the data source for extraction. At this point, the configuration procedure differs according to the source and selected connection method. Check out:
Configuration options
The software platform enables two main options to use a Canary Historian to connect to any data source and collect data from this source to store them: by using the External TagProviders, which allows external data sources in remote systems direct usage without needing to define the tags internally in the solution. Or by using a Device where you need to define tags internally.
External TagProvider is strongly recommended for large, complex, and dynamic solutions — especially those in environments prone to frequent changes requiring continuous optimization.
Devices are excellent for solutions with well-defined requirements that are unlikely to change. It is ideal for developing prototypes, PoCs, simulations, and static or low-complexity environments, especially when detailed control is crucial.
Configuring by External TagProvider
- In Solution Designer, navigate to 'Unified Namespace / External TagProvider'.
- Use the '+' button on the Data Grid action bar to open the configuration window for a new External TagProvider.
- Please refer to the External TagProviders documentation for detailed information.
Configuring by Devices
- Choose 'Devices / Channels' and select a protocol (Canary) to create a Channel.
- Under Navigate to 'Devices / Nodes', create a Node linked to the that Channel.
- Map the tags under at 'Devices / Points'.
- Please refer to the Devices documentation for detailed information.
Final configuration
After establishing the connection to the data source from which data will be collected, such as sensors, PLCs, calculated values, remote systems layers, data hubs, or devices. You must identify which tags represent data you want to track over time. After that, the final configuration is quite simple: you only need to link the tags to historian tables. This process determines which collected data to store, ensuring the retention of only relevant information for analysis and use.
Historian settings
The tag assignment to the historian tables defines explicitly which collected data will be historized and set implicitly how and where data will be stored. Because the archiving behavior is based on the Historian Tables definition, and the tables are associated with Storage Locations, specifying where and how data is physically stored.
Historizing collected data
- Go to the Historian and select "Tags Historian".
- Add Tags to the Historian by typing the Tag name and selecting the appropriate Historian table.
→ Read about the Devices Module, or Read about the specific Canary Labs Communication driver.
TagProvider Module
Configuring TagProvider using Canary.
- At Unified Namespace / TagProvider Connections, create a connection to a Canary Historian.
- At Unified Namespace / AssetTree, add Canary data in the AssetTree.
- Use Canary data in any module using the syntax Asset("<AssetPath>")
→ Read about Unified Namespaces
→ Read about the specific Canary Labs TagProvider
Displays and Scripts
Displays and Scripts, with no additional configuration, will query Canary Historian when using tags that were previously connected with Canary using the Historian Module.
Examples of the automated usage:
In Displays TendCharts. See TrendChart Control.
In Scripts, using the Historian Tables method to query data. See Historian Runtime Attributes.
CanaryLabs Configuration Procedure
Once you have the CanaryLabs Historiansoftware and the Canary Adminapplication installed, you will need to configure some permissions for the connection to work.
Admin Configuration
Open the Admin Tab.
Under Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.
Under Access, add the users that will be allowed to access the CanaryAdmin programs.
- Anonymous
- System
- Administrator
- Interactive
- Everyone
- ?Your User?.
Under Settings, make sure the checkbox for the Persist Last Connection is selected.
Receiver Configuration
Open the Receiver Tab.
Under Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.
Sender Configuration
Open the Sender Tab.
Under Configuration > Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.
Under Configuration > Access, add all the users that will be allowed to write in the Canary Historian. E.g.:
- Anonymous
- System
- Administrator
- Interactive
- Everyone
- ?Your User?.
Views Configuration
Open the Views Tab.
Under Configuration > Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.
Under Configuration > Access, add all the users that will be allowed to write in Canary Historian. E.g.:
- Anonymous
- System
- Administrator
- Interactive
- Everyone
- ?Your User?.
Under Security > Permissions,add the users for the Root path with the ReadWrite AccessType.
Under Security > Settings,make sure the Security Enabled checkboxis selected.
Additional settings
Historian Tables and Storage Locations provide additional support for data management. The Historian Tables enable the organization of data storage, allowing for creating or modifying specific tables, like a "Valves table," for data organization. Storage Locations designate databases or systems for tag data storage, ensuring systematic data preservation. These functionalities support data management, facilitating data analysis and accessibility within historian systems.
In the context of the Canary Historian configuration flow, procedure the following verification steps to make sure that everything is ok:
In this section:
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