Install and Configure PI Interface • Transpara

The Visual KPI PI interface is a Web service that communicates with OSIsoft’s PI-SDK to get data from a PI Server. The PI interface must be installed on a machine that includes OSIsoft’s PI-SDK. See Prerequisites and Software Downloads for a link to the PI-SDK.

Use Visual KPI Server Manager to install and configure the PI interface. The interface can be installed on Visual KPI Server or on any machine that is available to Visual KPI Server via HTTP. If the interface is being installed on a machine other than Visual KPI Server, you need to first install Visual KPI Server Manager.

Install a PI Interface

During the interface install, use the Back button to move to a previous page in the installation wizard, or use the Cancel button to cancel the installation process.

Open Visual KPI Server Manager.
Expand the Sites folder. If you have multiple Visual KPI sites defined on your system, they are displayed here. Expand the site in which you want to install interfaces.
Continue expanding the site’s hierarchy until Interfaces is selected.
Right-click Interfaces and select Install New Visual KPI Interface/PI Interface. The Interface Setup Wizard opens.
Click Next to continue. The License Agreement page displays.
Select the I accept the terms of the license agreement option and click Next to continue. The PI Interface Name page displays.
Accept the Visual KPI PI Interface Name, or change it to meet your requirements. The Visual KPI PI Interface Name is used to set the defaults for the Installation Path and Virtual Directory Name during this installation.
Click Next to continue. The Installation Path page displays.
Accept the default installation path, or change it to meet your requirements.
Click Next to continue. The PI Server Settings page displays.
Enter the PI Server Name.
In the Security area, select the Verify connection before proceeding check box if you want the security credentials to be verified before moving through the install.
Select the appropriate security option: PI Trust; PI Login; or Windows Security. If PI Login is selected, then enter the PI User Name, and the PI user’s Password.
Click Next to continue. The Ready to Install page displays.
Click Next to install the interface. The Finish page displays.
Click Finish to close the Setup Wizard. The newly installed interface appears in the Interfaces folder.
Select the newly installed interface in the left pane.

The installation of the PI interface is now complete.

Configure a PI Interface

If you need to change the configuration settings for your PI Interface after it has already been installed, use Visual KPI Server Manager.

PI servers are historian databases and the PI interface recognizes this, so you do not have to change any query configurations for Current, Trend, or Historic values.

Open Visual KPI Server Manager. Expand the Sites folder and the site that includes the interface to be configured.
Under the Interfaces folder, select the PI interface you want to configure. The detail pane displays the interface’s current configuration.

Modify Settings

You can modify any of the configuration settings that are not grayed out.

To make changes to LogName, PIPassword, PIServer, or PIUser, double-click the setting name to select the setting’s value, or click in the setting’s cell, and enter the new value.
To make changes to the LogLevel, select an appropriate level from the list. You can select ErrorsOnly, Moderate or Full. See Configuring the Error Logging Level.
After making changes, click Apply to save changes. Ensure the connection is working correctly.

Verify a Pi Interface Connection

Once you have installed and configured the PI Interface, you should verify the connection is working properly. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to verify the connection.

Open Visual KPI Server Manager. Expand the Sites folder and the site that includes the interface to be verified.
Right-click the PI interface and select Verify Connection. A message displays indicating the connection was successful, or if the connection failed, a message displays indicating the failure:
Click OK in the message.
If there were any errors, make the required changes to the configuration settings and repeat the verification.

Note: Verifying the connection does not ensure proper security has been implemented. To ensure you can access the data within the database, you should Test the PI Interface Connection.

Test a PI Interface Connection

Once you have verified the PI interface connection, you should test the connection to ensure you can access the data within the database. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to test the connection.

Open Visual KPI Server Manager. Expand the Sites folder and the site that includes the interface to be tested.

Right-click the PI interface and select Browse. Your browser opens and displays the PI Interface’s Web Service page.
Click any of the Test links.
In the Lookup field, enter a valid lookup name (example: sinusoid) and click the Invoke button. A new instance of your browser opens.
Look for the “<NewDataSet xmlns=””>” entry. The results of the test are within this entry. If the connection and security settings are valid, a value is returned. Otherwise, an error is displayed as the value.
If there are any errors, make the required changes to the PI Settings and repeat the test.