OT Connect Protocol Adapters

GE Historian

The GE Historian protocol adapter can connect to Proficy Historian 4.0 and later, through the Client Access API. This allows OT Connect to support Proficy Historian without an intervening OPC server. GE Historian protocol adapter requires the Client Access Assembly to be installed on the OT Connect Process Data server.

The Client Access API offers improved security, performance, and reliability. Therefore, it is recommended to use the GE Historian protocol adapter to connect to the Proficy Historian servers.

The GE Historian protocol adapter offers the following Capabilities:
  • LastReading
  • SubscribeReadings
  • GetStartEndReadings
  • GetBeforeEndReadings
Note: Health Indicators, Triggered Policies, and Last Reading are only supported on Proficy Historian through the GE Historian protocol adapter. These capabilities are not available through OPC.

Configure the GE Historian Protocol Adapter

  1. Install Historian Client Tools with the Historian Client Access Assembly component. For information on installing Historian Client Tools, refer to the GE Digital Historian documentation.
    Note:
    • When installing Historian Client Tools, install the Historian Client Access Assembly component only.
    • Historian Data Archiver can be installed on another server.
  2. Configure the OT Source.
Table 1. Connection Details
Host NameHostname or the FQDN of the target server. The host name must exactly match with the name that was provided when installing the target Historian.
User NameWindows user with iH Readers membership on the Process Historian server.
PasswordWindows password.

OSI PI

The OSI PI protocol adapter can connect to PI Server 2010 and later, using the Asset Framework (AF) protocol. This allows OT Connect to support PI without an intervening OPC server. OSI PI protocol adapter requires the PI AF Client to be installed on the OT Connect Process Data server. The AF protocol offers improved security, performance, and reliability. Therefore, it is recommended to use this adapter to connect to the OSI PI servers.

The OSI PI protocol adapter offers the following Capabilities:
  • LastReading
  • SubscribeReadings
  • GetStartEndReadings
  • GetBeforeEndReadings

Configure the OSI PI Protocol Adapter

  1. Install PI AF Client. For information on installing the PI AF client, refer to the OSIsoft documentation.
  2. Configure the OT Source.
Table 2. Connection Details
Host NameHostname or the FQDN of the target server. The host name must exactly match with the name that is configured in the System Explorer.
User NameWindows user configured with a PI mapping.
PasswordWindows password.

OPC DA

The OPC DA protocol adapter can connect to OPC Classic DA 3.0 servers.

Important:
  • The OPC DA protocol adapter does not support remote connections. The OPC DA server must be installed on the OT Connect Process Data server, running under the same user account as the Adapter service.
  • Only OPC 3.0 servers are supported by OT Connect.

Vendors of the Process Historian software may have implemented different elements of the specification. Therefore, it is important to review the Connection Status or OT Source Capability Utility report to understand the Capabilities available from the server that you want to integrate with GE Digital APM.

The most common limitation for OPC DA protocol adapter is properties, such as Description or RawUom not being available for Tag Sync. If these properties are not available, you will get only Tag Name and Data Type.

An OPC DA server can provide the following capabilities:
  • LastReading
  • SubscribeReadings

Protocol Connection

The OPC DA protocol adapter requires the ProgId to be configured.

If the correct ProgId is not provided, the protocol adapter will log an exception report on all available OPC DA ProgIds in the server on startup.