Download PI Interface for OPC DA

Chapter 5.
Configuring PI Tags
The PI tag (also called a “point”) is a time-stamped record of a single set of measurements
(for example, tank temperature). If you misconfigure tags, the OPC interface cannot correctly
transmit the data from the OPC server to the PI Server. The following sections tell you how
to configure tags correctly.
Note: To populate the PI Server with the tags that are defined in your OPC server, use
PI OPCClient or OPCtoCSV to export OPC items to an Excel file (.csv), then use
PI System Management Tool’s Tag Configurator feature to load the tags into the
PI Server. For details, see Creating Tags.
Tag Attributes
To define PI OPC tags, you configure, at a minimum, the following attributes
Tag name
Point source
Data type
Interface instance
Tag type
Scan class
Instrument tag
Depending on the type of tag you are creating, a few other setting might be required. The
following sections describe basic tag settings in more detail.
Tag Name
When assigning names to PI tags, follow these rules:
The tag name must be unique.
The first character must be alphanumeric, underscore (_), or percent sign (%).
Control characters such as linefeeds or tabs are illegal, as are the following characters:
*’?;{}[]|\`‘“
PI Interface for OPC DA
23