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About Canary

What is the Canary Historian?

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

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.

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.

The software platform should be installed and, where when necessary, licensed.

Licensing Canary Historian

1. Go to Solution Manager and navigate to 'Your License / License Information / Canary Historian'.
2. Request a license by clicking 'Request License'. Fill in the 'Name', 'Company', and 'Email' fields to generate the Serial Number, then click 'Request'.
3. 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'.
4. 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

1. In Solution Manager, create a solution (file .dbsln) and open it in the Solution Designer.
2. 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!.

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

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

1. At Historian / StorageLocations, include Canary as a StorageLocation. 
2. At Historian / HistorianTables, define virtual tables will control writing and retrieving data.
3. Map the tags at Historian / HistorianTags.

→ Read about the Historian Module.

Device Module

Configuring Devices using Canary.

1. Navigate to

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 TagProvider, 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.

• TagProvider is strongly recommended for environments prone to frequent changes.

• It is ideal when detailed control is important, especially for developing prototypes, PoCs, simulations, and static environments.

Configuring by TagProvider

1. In Solution Designer, navigate to 'Unified Namespace / TagProvider Connections'.
2. Use the '+' button on the Data Grid action bar to open the configuration window for a new TagProvider Connection.
3. Please refer to the TagProviders documentation for detailed information.

Configuring by Devices

1. Choose 'Devices / Channels' and select a protocol (Canary) to create a Channel.
2. Under Navigate to  'Devices / Nodes', create a Node linked to the that Channel.
3. Map the tags under at 'Devices / Points'.
4. 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

1. Go to the Historian and select "Tags Historian".
2. 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.

1. At Unified Namespace / TagProvider Connections, create a connection to a Canary Historian.
2. At Unified Namespace / AssetTree, add Canary data in the AssetTree. 
3. 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.

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Under Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.

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Under Access, add the users that will be allowed to access the CanaryAdmin programs.

• Anonymous
• System
• Administrator
• Interactive
• Everyone
• ?Your User?.

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Under Settings, make sure the checkbox for the Persist Last Connection is selected. 

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Receiver Configuration

Open the Receiver Tab.

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Under Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.

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Sender Configuration 

Open the Sender Tab.

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Under Configuration > Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.

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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?.

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Views Configuration

Open the Views Tab.

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Under Configuration > Endpoints, select every checkbox, but do not change the port numbers.

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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?.

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Under Security > Permissions,add the users for the Root path with the ReadWrite AccessType.

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Under Security > Settings,make sure the Security Enabled checkboxis selected.

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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: