OSI Software, Inc.

ABB IMS/AEH Advant Station
(ABB Master, ABB Mod 300)
Interface to the PI System

version 5.0 and greater

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San Leandro, CA 94577-0427
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OSI Software, Ltd
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Trademark statement—PI is a registered trademark of OSI Software, Inc. Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, and Microsoft NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Solaris is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems. HPUX is a registered trademark of Hewlett Packard Corp.. IBM AIX RS/6000 is a registered trademark of the IBM Corporation. DUX, DEC VAX and DEC Alpha are registered trademarks of the Digital Equipment Corporation.
abbims.doc

Ó 1997 OSI Software, Inc. All rights reserved
777 Davis Street, Suite 250, San Leandro, CA 94577

Nov 2000 27

OSI Software, Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction 8

Version Overview 9

General note about supported object types, attributes, transfer methods, input and output 11

Documentation 14

Supported features 14

PI Point Configuration 15

Hints for Point Configuration for HP-UX 17

Increasing shared memory size on HP-UX 19

Increasing shared memory size on Windows NT 19

How to retrieve a list of all available objects 19

I/O Rate Counter 21

Performance Point Configuration 22

Interface Files for HP-UX 23

Installation Kit 23

Additional Files after Link 23

Installation on HP-UX 24

Definition of Environment Variables 24

Installation of the PI-API on HP-UX 24

Configuration of the Point Source Table for PI 2 Systems 26

Interface Installation 26

Interface Upgrade 26

Installing/Upgrading from a downloaded file 27

Linking – HP-UX only. 28

Linking the Interface for HP-UX only. 28

Linking the Interface Control Program – HP-UX only 28

HP-UX Ownership of Interface Files 29

Interface Installation on NT 30

General 30

Naming conventions and requirements 30

Microsoft DLLs 30

Interface directories 31

The PIHOME directory tree 31

Interface installation directory 31

Interface documentation directory 31

Setting the interface node clock 31

Security 32

Interface Installation procedure 32

Installing the Interface as an NT Service 32

Configuring the Interface to Start and Stop with PI 33

Buffering on the PI Server Node 34

Interface Administration on NT 36

Upgrading an Interface 36

Moving an Interface to a New Directory 36

Uninstalling an interface 37

Startup 38

Description of the Startup parameters 38

Matching PI Tags with Interface 42

Automating Startup 42

Shutdown on HP-UX 43

Error and Information Messages 44

Log files 44

Interface output file on HP-UX 44

pimesslogfile 44

Messages on NT 45

Translation of error codes 45

Summary of statuses and error codes 46

AdvaInform UserAPI statuses 46

Object access statuses 47

How Interface operates 48

Data Acquisition 48

Input 48

Quality check for selected attributes 49

Output 49

Connection Problems 50

Connection to the PI Server 50

Connection to the DCS 50

Time stamps 50

Sign-up for Updates 51

Hints for PI System Manager 52

Automatic Interface start on HP-UX System Startup via ABB’s Process Supervision 52

Graceful Interface stop on System Shutdown 53

IMS 1.x (HP-UX 9.05) 53

What Happens During System Shutdown? 53

IMS 2.0/AEH 2.1 (HP-UX 10.20) 53

sitestart 55

sitestop 55

Automatic interface start on NT – practical experiences 55

Increasing the number of Interfaces per AEH on Windows NT 56

Interface Control Program- Only on HP-UX 57

Practical experiences: How to achieve better interface performance 58

Use more interface copies 58

Use scan class offsets 58

Use a separate interface copy for a fast scan class 58

Consider the transfer method “On Event” (ABB Master only) 58

Test Environment 59

IMS 1.2 59

IMS 2.0 59

IMS 2.1 60

Appendix A – Attribute lists via getObj 61

Revision History 80

Introduction

The ABB IMS/AEH Advant Station 500 to PI Interface provides the read/write transfer of data between an ABB Master or ABB MOD 300 process control system and the Plant Information (PI) System using the AdvaInform UserAPI. The interface runs on the Advant Station. The following environments are supported:

IMS 1.1 under HP-UX 9.05
IMS 1.2 under HP-UX 9.05
IMS 1.3 under HP-UX 9.05
IMS 2.0 under HP-UX 10.20
AEH 2.0 under HP-UX 10.20
AEH 3.0 under Windows NT 4.0
AEH 2.1 under HP-UX 10.20

(Please note that "2.x" for AEH on HP-UX and "3.x" for AEH on NT is just a naming convention of ABB to already tell between OS platforms by the version number. It's actually the same software generation.)

The PI-ABBIMS interface was originally developed to run on HP-UX. Starting with version 4.0 of the interface, it can also run on an INTEL-NT PC running the ABB Advant Enterprise Historian.
Version 4.x and greater of the interface does not run on HP-UX 9.05 and therefore no longer supports IMS 1.x.

The interface was designed according to the capabilities of the AdvaInform UserAPI contained in IMS Software version 1.2. The interface is also compatible with IMS Software version 1.3. It uses the bciDoRequest call.

If you continue to use IMS Version 1.1, then you can use Version 1.03 of the ABB IMS Advant Station to PI Interface, which only supports the ABB Master DCS. (Version 1.03 also runs with IMS 1.2, but in this case, please take care of the “USEOLDAPI=y” make file option as described in the installation chapter of this manual.)

The AdvaInform UserAPI is now included in the ABB Advant Enterprise Historian Select Package. Previously the AdvaInform UserAPI was included with the ABB Advant Enterprise Historian. The Select package DOES NOT contain the ABB Enterprise Historian but is sufficient to run the interface.

Note on HP-UX: There are limits on the number of points and events per second that can be retrieved from a single IMS station. An IMS station with an RTA card that contains 8 Mbytes of RAM will allow between 4000 – 6000 tags to be retrieved from the control system. The expected throughput for a machine with 64 Mbytes of RAM is approximately 300 calls/sec.

Version Overview

Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 1.x / OSI / Yes / No / No / No / HP-UX 9.05
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 1.1 / ABB / Yes / Yes / No / Yes / HP-UX 9.05
PI-API-HPUX / 1.224 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 9.05
Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 2.x / OSI / Yes / Yes / No / No / HP-UX 9.05
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 1.2 / ABB / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 9.05
PI-API-HPUX / 1.224 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 9.05
Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 3.00 - 3.01 / OSI / Yes / Yes / Yes / No / HP-UX 9.05
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 1.2 and 1.3 / ABB / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 9.05
PI-API-HPUX / 1.224 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 9.05
Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 3.11 or higher / OSI / Yes / Yes / Yes / No / HP-UX 9.05, HP-UX 10.20
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 1.2, 1.3, 2.0 / ABB / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 9.05, HP-UX 10.20
PI-API-HPUX / 1.224 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 9.05
Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 4.13 or higher / OSI / Yes / Yes / Yes / No / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 2.0 / ABB / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4
PI-API-HPUX, PI-API Windows / 1.3.1.3 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4
Product / Version / Supplier / ABB Master / ABB MOD 300 / DoRequest / String Attributes / OS Platform /
PI Interface / 5.0 or higher / OSI / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4
IMS (AdvaInform UserAPI) / 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 (NT) / ABB / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4
PI-API-HPUX, PI-API Windows / 1.3.1.3 or higher / OSI / - / - / - / - / HP-UX 10.20, Intel NT 4


The AdvaInform UserAPI provides functions that can be used to perform data transfer between an ABB IMS Advant Station 500 using an HP-UX operating system or INTEL NT operating system and a connected ABB Master DCS (ASEA Masterpiece) or a MOD 300 DCS.
The PI Interface makes internal use of the PI-API to provide a standard way of interfacing the HP-UX or NT client node to the PI Home node.
The interface accesses the ABB objects directly in the DCS. No local copies of the Process Objects are required on the Advant Station!
The interface supports the following Object types:

Basic Objects read write


Analog Input AI any single numerical or string attribute VALUE
Analog Output AO any single numerical or string attribute VALUE
Digital Input DI any single numerical or string attribute Bit 9 of STATUS
Digital Output DO any single numerical or string attribute Bit 9 of STATUS
Dat objects DAT any single numerical or string attribute not tested
Text objects TEXT any single numerical or string attribute INT_LONG, TEXT_REAL

MOD 300 Process Objects read write

CCF Objects any single numerical or string attribute any numerical attribute
TLL Objects any single numerical or string attribute any numerical attribute
TCL Objects any single numerical or string attribute not tested

Other object types (selection) read write

PIDCON any single numerical or string attribute not supported
PIDCONA any single numerical or string attribute not supported
VALVECON any single numerical or string attribute not supported
MOTCON any single numerical or string attribute not supported
MANSTN any single numerical or string attribute not supported
RATIOSTN any single numerical or string attribute not supported
MULTIDAT any single numerical or string attribute not tested

There are three methods of read transfer:

  On Demand

  On Event

  Cyclic

Output to the DCS is possible based on PI exceptions in “On Demand” interfaces.

General note about supported object types, attributes, transfer methods, input and output

Generally, any attribute of any object type that represents a string or a single numerical value (float or integer) up to a length of 32 bits can be read by the interface. This includes even object types not listed above.

The following data types are supported:

ABB Attribute Data Type / C Data Type / Displayed by getObj as
bciFLOAT / float / FLOAT
bciCHAR / char / CHAR
bciSMALL / char / SMALL
bciUSMALL / unsigned char / USMALL
bciBOOLEAN / char / BOOLEAN
bciSHORT / short int / SHORT
bciLONG / long int / LONG
bciBITSET / long int / BITSET
bciENUM / long int / ENUM
bciUSHORT / unsigned short int / USHORT
bciSHORT_BITSET / short int / SH_BITSET
bciSHORT_ENUM / int / SH_ENUM
bciULONG / unsigned long int / ULONG
bciSTRING / char* / STRING

The following data types are NOT supported:

ABB Attribute Data Type / C Data Type / Displayed by getObj as
bciDOUBLE / double / DOUBLE
bciSTRUCT / struct / STRUCT
bciUNION / union / UNION
bciARRAY / Array [] / ARRAY
bciOPEN_ARRAY / Array [] / OPENARRAY
bciCOMPOSITION / struct / COMPOSITE

You can use ABB’s example program getObj to check if the attribute you want to read is supported. For more information about getObj, consult chapter “Hints for Point Configuration for HP-UX” later in this manual. There is no restriction other than the data type for an attribute to be supported.

There is an additional restriction if you want to read attributes “On Event”. Events for ABB objects have names. For the Basic object types AI, AO, DI, DO and the other object types on ABB Master that were tested (PIDCON, PIDCONA, VALVECON, MOTCON, MANSTN, RATIOSTN), the name is always “EVENT”. For MOD 300 process objects of type CCF and TLL, the event name is just the attribute name, with a preceding “CHG_”. For example, the event name for the attribute “MEASURE” is “CHG_MEASURE”.
If the interface finds either “EVENT” or the “CHG_…” construction in the list of available events for the desired object type/attribute combination, the attribute can be read on event. If the event name follows other rules, then the attribute is currently unsupported for the event transfer method (you can read it “On Demand”, however). Note that DAT and TEXT objects are unable to generate events although the overview retrieved via getObj may state otherwise.