Tag Historian Module: Time-Series Data in No Time

The Tag Historian Module turns any SQL database into a high-performance time-series historian, enabling powerful data aggregation with easy storage, table management, and query binding.

There is no need to be a database expert — the Tag Historian Module creates and manages all the tables in the database for you, partitioning data by default while featuring adjustable settings for increased flexibility. Additionally, the Tag Historian Module allows you to easily configure history on any tag, and query data through components bindings and scripting functions.

Transcript:

00:06
Travis Cox: The Tag Historian Module turns any SQL database into a high-performance time series historian. It is simple to set up and requires no database experience. The module adds historical tag providers to Ignition, allows you to easily configure history on any tag, and allows you to query the history on screens. The module is database-agnostic, and it works with any SQL database, whether it's MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres, MariaDB, Oracle, and more. To get it configured, all you got to do is connect to your database and simply go into a tag and enable history.

00:38
Travis Cox: The module leverages the store-and-forward system on the Ignition platform, so you don't lose any data even when you have connection losses. The module creates and manages all the tables in the database for you. There is no need for you to be a database expert. The module even partitions data in the database, and by default, it partitions data every month, but you can adjust that through a setting. The module provides easy ways to query the data. Does that through bindings on components for visualization and through scripting functions. There is no need for you to write any SQL queries of your own.

01:04
Travis Cox: If you wanna visualize data from the Historian, that's where Vision and Perspective modules come into play. In Vision, we have the Easy Chart Component that makes it really easy for you to find your tags, drag it onto the screen, and see the history. In Perspective, we have the Power Chart Component. It gives you the same functionality, but with that you can look at X traces, you can look at ranges of data, you can add annotations to your chart, and more. The module also makes it really easy for you to query data any way that you want through powerful binding functions, both in Vision and Perspective. With those binding functions, you can bring back data in a variety of different ways, including doing aggregation on the data. You can bring that back on time series charts and tables. For example, you can bring back a process value for the last 10 minutes, break it up into one-minute intervals, and show the average.

01:48
Travis Cox: The module provides configurable sample modes for when data will get logged to the database. You can log data when the tag changes. You can log data on a periodic basis. You can also log data on some condition. The module also provides configurable deadbands. There's a discrete and analog mode, and with those, you can configure absolute percentage based deadbands that allow you to figure out the resolution for how much data you want to get logged to database. Ultimately, deadbands allow you to control when values get logged. The smaller deadband, the more data gets logged. The larger the deadband, the less data gets logged.

02:18
Travis Cox: One great feature of the Tag Historian Module is you can perform rolled aggregations, what we call pre-processed partitions, where you can summarize data into blocks that allow for faster query performance, especially when you're querying large time ranges. The module also provides the ability to prune data, so you can delete data older than a certain time period. You can do that in Ignition, or you can even do that, of course, outside of Ignition in your database. The module also provides powerful scripting functions to store and retrieve data any way that you want. The Tag Historian Module keeps data in an open format, allowing for any third party to gain access to that data. We're just storing into a standard SQL database. There's nothing proprietary about it.

02:52
Travis Cox: Try the Tag Historian Module today by downloading the free trial of Ignition.