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Knowledge Base Article

KB00884 - PI System daily health check

Product: PI Interface for Performance Monitor / PI AF / PI Interfaces / PI Data Archive / PI System

Management Tools
Version(s): N/A

Introduction
OSIsoft recommends that PI System Administrators check key PI System health indicators daily. By performing daily inspections, the PI System
Administrator gains familiarity with the normal state of the PI System and can more easily identify abnormal messages and performance. Daily
health checks provide the following benefits:
1. Detecting problems sooner
2. Reducing the chance of data loss
3. Maintaining PI System performance
4. Preventing emergency situations
Please refer to the Troubleshooting Checklist in the PI Data Archive System Management Guide and the PI Data Archive Daily Health Check for
additional information on the steps described in this article.

10 Essential Daily Health Checks

The following are ten key areas to check for your PI System health and how to check them. This list is intended to help administrators identify
what is considered normal operation for their PI system.

1. Are the core PI Subsystems and PI Server PI Interfaces running?

OSIsoft: Check Health of Archiving & Archive Files/Troubleshoot Related Problems

In PI System Management Tools 3.x (PI SMT 3), open Operation > PI Services. You will see the core PI Server subsystems listed and their
statuses, either "Running" or "Stopped." In general, all PI subsystems and PI Interfaces should be running except for the PI Shutdown Subsystem
and PI Recalculator Subsystem. If you are not using PI Batch, then the PI Batch Generator can be listed as "Stopped." You may see other
services in this list if you are running other PI applications such as PI ACE, PI Notifications, and other PI Interfaces locally on the PI Server.
In addition, the PI System Tray can be used to check the status of the core PI Server subsystems. The PI System Tray can monitor multiple PI
Servers and checks the availability of the PI AF Server. PI System Tray is installed with PI System Management Tools 2012 and later. To launch
it manually from the Windows Start menu, choose Start > All Programs > PI System > PI System Tray. When running, the PI System Tray icon
will appear on your toolbar.

2. Do I have registered archives and good backups?

OSIsoft: Check Health of Archiving & Archive Files/Troubleshoot Related Problems

In PI SMT 3, open Operation > Archives. This will show all the registered archives for your PI Server. Check that registered archives cover a
continuous timespan over which you expect there to be data. Are there gaps between archives? When and into which archive will the next shift
occur?

To verify backups, open Operation > Backups in PI SMT 3. This will show you the history of your PI Server backups. Have PI Server backups
been running successfully?

OSIsoft: How to Check PI Data Archive Backup History & Confirm Successful Backups
 3. What do the message logs say?

On the PI Server, open Operation > Message Logs in PI SMT 3. Under the PI Message Log tab, check the PI Server's SDK log for unusual
events that may have occurred. In addition, the PI System Tray can be used to view the PI Server message logs. Left-click on the PI System Tray
icon and select View Messages. Choose View PI Server Messages or View AF Server Messages to search for errors.

On client machines, open a command prompt and navigate to the %PIHOME%\adm directory. Use the pigetmsg commands to view the local PI
message logs. On VMS and Unix interface nodes, you can check the pisysmgr:pimesslog.txt and $PIHOME/dat/pimesslogfile, respectively.
For more information on reading message logs and using the pigetmsg command, see KB 3248OSI8.

If you identify an error or reoccurring message that needs to be investigated, a good first step to find what the message means is to search
techsupport.osisoft.com as shown below.

4. Are my clients connected and signed up for updates?

In PI SMT 3, open Operation > PI Network Manager Statistics to see all current connections to the PI Server. For more information on how to
read this table, see KB00600. Examine the number of open connections, check for accumulating stale connections, and look for indications of
connection issues.

In PI SMT 3, open Operation > Update Manager. Do you see a large number of pending events for any consumer? For details on the PI Update
Manager, see KB00818.

5. Can my PI Interfaces connect and is buffering functioning?

In PI SMT, choose Interfaces > Interface List to see a list of PI Interfaces registered with the PI Server. If you registered a PI Interface with a PI
Server via the PI Interface Configuration Utility (PI ICU), the PI Interface will appear in the Interface List unless the PI Interface was later
unregistered using the PI ICU.

To check for a connection with each interface node in this list, go to the interface machines listed in the "Interface Node" column and run
%PIHOME%\bin\apisnap [PI server name or IP address].

If you have I/O rate tags created for a particular PI Interface, you can view them in a PI ProcessBook trend to get an idea of the data throughput to
the PI Server.

On interface nodes running the PI Buffer Subsystem, run %PIHOME%\bin\pibufss -qs to ensure Total Event Writes = Total Event Reads. For
more information on running this command, see KB00831.

6. Are my tags updating?

Check the archived data for a tag that updates frequently. Do the archived data for this tag look normal? You can check Data > Stale and Bad
Points in PI SMT 3 to identify any stale tags or tags with bad data that may be associated with a particular data source. KB00384 provides further
information on monitoring stale tags.

7. Is there healthy snapshot and archive data flow?

OSIsoft: Check Health of Archiving & Archive Files/Troubleshoot Related Problems

Is the snapshot data flow normal? Is the archive data flow normal? Use the PI SMT 3 Operation > Snapshot and Archive Statistics plug-in to
examine the data flow.

You can select either Snapshot or Archive to see the respective statistics. The Value column shows the cummulative value since the PI
Snapshot or PI Archive subsystems were started. The Change column shows the change in the last five seconds. A healthy PI Server should
have low Out of Order events, no events accummulating in the Event Queue, and increasing Snapshot Events and Archived Events.

You can also use the command-line utilities piartool –ss (for Snapshot statistics), piartool -qs (for Queue statistics, see KB00831), and piartool
–as (for Archive statistics) from the PI\adm directory to see the same information.

8. Am I monitoring Performance Counters? (Windows only)

All PI subsystems publish key performance counters to Windows' Performance Monitor (available under Administrative Tools > Performance).
Performance counters can provide helpful information when troubleshooting issues.

Administrators can configure the PI Performance Monitor Interface on the PI Server using the PI ICU and then use the PI SMT 3 IT Points >
Performance Counters plug-in to create tags that record PI subsystem data. These tags can then be viewed in a PI ProcessBook trend or
analyzed in PI DataLink.
 9. What's my PI Collective health?

Are the secondary PI Servers available and synched with the primary PI Server? Is the Collective Status "Good" in PI Collective Manager? All
server members should be in sync and green.

10. Is my MDB in sync with PI AF?

PI Server 2010 comes with the ability to synchronize the Module Database with a PI AF Server database. If you are running PI Server 2010 and
later, check the PI SMT 3 Operation > MDB to AF Synchronization plug-in > General and Details tabs to see if the MDB is synchronized with
your PI AF Server database.
Troubleshooting
If you identify an issue while running through the Daily Health Checks above, we recommend the following as a general guideline:

1. Refer to documentation such as the PI Data Archive System Management Guide

2. Identify warnings or errors in the appropriate message log
3. Isolate the problem to a particular part of the PI System
4. Document steps to reproduce the issue if possible
5. Search techsupport.osisoft.com for related known issues for your software version
6. Test or change only one thing at a time
7. Address the root cause and take preventative steps
If you are not able to identify or resolve the issue on your own, please contact OSIsoft Technical Support.

Article ID: KB00884 Created: 2013-09-11

Article Type: Informational Last Updated: 2016-07-18

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