METHOD TO AUTOMATE HISTORIAN CONFIGURATION USING CONTROLLER BASED TAG META ATTRIBUTE

• US 20170337226A1
• Filed: 05/17/2016
• Published: 11/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bliss, Ronald E., Carrara, Anthony, McCleave, JR., Bruce T., Rapini, David P., Pantaleano, Michael John, Porter, Brian Alan, Sun, Guangwen, Curry, David Robert, Cahalane, Ryan
• Granted Patent: US 10,387,392 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/185 Hierarchical storage management [HSM] systems, e.g. file migration or policies thereof details of archiving G06F16/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

An industrial control program development system allows a user to set metadata attributes for respective data items in the controller that indicate which of the data tags are to be monitored and collected by a separate industrial data historian system. When the industrial controller is deployed on a plant network, the data historian system reads the metadata attributes for the respective data items (e.g., data tags or data logs) defined in the controller and configures itself to collect and store data associated with the subset of data items that have been flagged for data collection. This system mitigates the need to manually configure the data historian with the identities of the data items that are to be monitored and collected for historical or reporting purposes.

Claims

1. A system for collecting and storing industrial data, comprising:

a memory that stores executable components;

a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising;

a network interface component configured to establish data communication with one or more industrial controllers via a network connection;

a data collection component configured to read, from the one or more industrial controllers via the network connection, data values associated with data items defined on the industrial controllers and store the data values in the memory, wherein the data items comprise at least one of data tags or data logs; and

a metadata identification component configured to

read, via the network connection, data item information from an industrial controller of the one or more industrial controllers, wherein the data item information identifies a set of data items defined on the industrial controller,

read, from the industrial controller via the network connection, historize metadata attributes respectively associated with the set of data items,

identify a subset of the data items having an associated historize metadata attribute that is set to a value indicating that data collection is enabled, and

configure, based on the historize metadata attributes, the data collection component to collect and store data from the subset of the data items.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata identification component is further configured to:

read, from the industrial controller via the network connection, other metadata attributes respectively associated with the subset of the data items, and

configure the data collection component to collect and store the data from the subset of data items based on values of the other metadata attributes,

wherein the other metadata attributes comprise at least one of a data collection rate, a data storage location, a maximum data value to be stored in the memory, or a minimum data value to be stored in the memory.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata identification component is further configured to

in response to detecting that a historize metadata attribute associated with one of the subset of the data items has changed to a value indicating that data collection is disabled, reconfigure the data collection component to cease collection and storage of data associated with the one of the subset of the data items.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the metadata identification component is configured to read the data item information and the historize metadata attributes periodically.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata identification component is configured to read the data item information and the historize metadata attributes from a program file stored separately from the industrial controller, wherein the program file defines a control program capable of execution on the industrial controller.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tag browser component configured to display, on a graphical interface display, information relating to the data items defined on the industrial controllers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the information relating to the data items comprises, for each of the data items, at least a name of the data item, a description of the data item, and a value of the historize metadata attribute for the data item.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the graphical interface display is configured to, in response to receipt of selection input received via interaction with a filter control, filter the information relating to the data items according to the value of the historize metadata attribute.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the historize metadata attributes is set via at least one of an industrial controller program development system or via a write command issued by a human-machine interface device.

10. A method for configuring an industrial data historian, comprising:

establishing, by a data historian system comprising at least one processor, data communication with one or more industrial controllers via a network connection;

obtaining, by the data historian system via the network connection, data item information from an industrial controller of the one or more industrial controllers, wherein the data item information identifies a set of data items defined on the industrial controller, and the set of data items comprise at least one of data tags or data logs;

obtaining, from the industrial controller by the data historian system via the network connection, metadata respectively associated with the set of data items;

determining, by the data historian system based on the metadata, a subset of the data items having an associated metadata attribute that is set to a value indicating that data collection is enabled; and

updating, by the data historian system based on the metadata, a configuration of the data historian system to cause the data historian system to collect and store data associated with the subset of the data items.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining, by the data historian system, another metadata attribute associated with at least one data item of the subset of the data items, wherein the other metadata attribute comprises at least one of a data collection rate for the at least one data item, a data storage location for the at least one data item, a maximum data value of the at least one data item to be stored by the data historian system, or a minimum data value of the at least one data item to be stored by the data historian system; and

updating, by the data historian system, the configuration of the data historian system based on the other metadata attribute.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to detecting that a metadata attribute associated with one of the data items has changed;

updating, by the data collection system, the configuration of the data historian system to cause the data historian to begin collection and storage of data associated with the one of the data items in response to determining that the metadata attribute comprises a first value indicating that data collection is enabled, and

updating, by the data collection system, the configuration of the data historian system to cause the data historian to cease collection and storage of data associated with the one of the data items in response to determining that the metadata attribute comprises a second value indicating that data collection is disabled.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the obtaining the data item information and the obtaining the metadata comprises obtaining the data item information and the metadata periodically.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining, by the data historian system, other data item information and other metadata from a program file stored separately from the industrial controller, wherein the program file defines a control program capable of execution on the industrial controller; and

updating, by the data historian system, the configuration of the data historian system based on the other data item information and the other metadata.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

rendering, by the data historian system, a graphical interface display that displays information relating to the data items defined on the one or more industrial controllers.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the rendering comprises rendering, on the graphical interface display for each of the data items, at least a name of the data item, a description of the data item, and a value of the metadata attribute for the data item.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, by the data historian system, a filter command input via interaction with a filter control; and

in response to the receiving, filtering the information relating to the data items according to a value of the metadata attribute.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause a data historian system comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

establishing data communication with one or more industrial controllers via at least one network device;

reading, via the at least one network device, data item information from an industrial controller of the one or more industrial controllers, wherein the data item information identifies a set of data items defined on the industrial controller, and the data items comprise at least one of data tags or data logs;

reading, from the industrial controller via the at least one network device, metadata respectively associated with the set of data items;

identifying, based on the metadata, a subset of the data items having an associated metadata attribute that is set to a value indicating that data collection is enabled; and

configuring, based on the metadata, the data historian system to collect and store data associated with the subset of the data items.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

reading, from the industrial controller via the at least one network device, another metadata attribute associated with at least one data item of the subset of the data items, wherein the other metadata attribute comprises at least one of a data collection rate for the at least one data item, a data storage location for the at least one data item, a maximum data value of the at least one data item to be stored by the data historian system, or a minimum data value of the at least one data item to be stored by the data historian system; and

configuring the data historian system in accordance with the other metadata.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting that a metadata attribute associated with one of the subset of the data items has changed to a value indicating that data collection is disabled; and

in response to the detecting, configuring the data historian system to cease collection and storage of data associated with the one of the subset of the data item.