PI Interface for OPC DA Overview

PI Interface for OPC DA is designed specifically to transmit data between OPC Servers and the PI System. OPC is a standard established by the OPC Foundation task force to allow applications to access process data from the plant floor in a consistent manner.

The PI Interface for OPC DA may reside on a PI home node or an interface node (recommend an interface node to enable buffering). Each OPC DA interface connects with one and only one OPC server.

Types of failover the PI Interface for OPC DA supports

• UniInt Interface Level Failover
  • Phase 1 (2.3.2.0 and later)
  • Phase 2 (2.3.10.0 and later)
• Microsoft Cluster Interface Level Failover (Not Recommended)
• Server Level Failover

Tools for PI Interface for OPC DA

• PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU)
  Designed to help install and set up the parameters of the OPC interface.
• PI OPC DA Interface APS Connector
  This allows PI Auto Point Synchronization(PI APS) to synchronize PI OPC DA Interface points with their OPC Server equivalents. The set of attributes which may be synchronized depends on the OPC server being used.
• PIOPCTool
  A utility that facilitates installing and verifing the connection between the OPC server and OPC Interface. This utility is installed with the interface installation.
• PI_OPCClient
  A utility that uses an OPC COM custom interface to communicate with OPC servers. It can be used to help configure and use the OSIsoft OPC DA Interface with the OSIsoft OPC Server or to check communications with any third-party OPC server. This utility is installed with the interface installation.
• OPC Tag Configurator
  An application that aids in the creation of PI points and PI aliases from the existing OPC Server tags. This utility is available from the OSIsoft Download Center using the following as search criteria. Product: "PI OPC Interface", Type: "All Supporting Files", and Version: "Current Version".