Wonderware / AVEVA Historian
Connecting to AVEVA (Wonderware) Historian, the client library dependency, and which of the four connectors to use.
AVEVA Historian — still widely known as Wonderware Historian — is the most commonly encountered historian in Infohub deployments. Infohub provides four connectors across the family, and choosing the right one matters more than it looks.
Which connector#
| Connector | Use for |
|---|---|
| Wonderware Historian | On-premise AVEVA/Wonderware Historian, current client libraries |
| Wonderware Historian 2017 | The same product where 2017-era client libraries are what is installed |
| Wonderware Online | The cloud-hosted service — a different product, not a historian you host |
| Wonderware InTouch | InTouch-specific access |
| Wonderware MES | MES data rather than time series — production orders, batches, downtime records |
These are not interchangeable. The two on-premise historian connectors differ in the client libraries they bind to, which is the source of most connection trouble.
The client library dependency#
The historian connectors depend on AVEVA client libraries being installed on the machine that hosts the connection — the machine running the Flow Bootstrap service that owns the Platform, not the machine running Flow Config.
This is worth stating plainly because it produces a confusing failure pattern: a connection that tests fine from a modeller's workstation (which has the historian client installed) and fails once deployed to a server that does not.
Before configuring:
- Confirm the AVEVA client software is installed on the Platform host.
- Confirm its version is compatible with the historian server version.
- Choose the connector matching the installed client libraries.
Version mismatch does not fail clearly. A client library that is too old for the historian server, or too new, tends to fail with connection or type-load errors that read like credentials or network problems. If a connection refuses to work and the credentials are definitely right, verify the client library version before anything else.
Connection properties#
| Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Server | Historian server name or address |
| Username / Password | Historian credentials; leave blank for integrated security |
| Maximum Concurrent Connections | How hard Infohub will push the historian |
Start with a modest concurrency and raise it only if collection is slow and the historian has headroom. Historians are shared infrastructure, and an Infohub instance that saturates one will make itself unpopular quickly.
Per-measure properties#
The historian connectors expose a rich per-measure set:
| Property | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Tag | The historian tag name |
| Aggregation | Source-side aggregation when retrieving at an interval |
| Forward Overlap / Backward Overlap | Extend the query window beyond the period |
| Scaling Factor | Multiply the incoming value |
| Rollover | Handle a counter that wraps |
| Deadband | Ignore changes below a threshold |
| State Comparator / State | Define what counts as "in state" |
| Filter Tag / Filter Comparator / Filter Value / Filter Default Result | Retrieve only while another tag meets a condition |
| Expression | A custom expression evaluated at retrieval |
Overlap and the filter mechanism are explained in How Infohub Retrieves Data — both are more useful than they first appear, and backward overlap in particular is the answer to most "no values overnight" questions on slow tags.
Retrieval mode and aggregation#
AVEVA Historian supports several retrieval modes, and the connector's aggregation property maps onto them. This is where source-side aggregation is genuinely attractive: the historian is good at it and it reduces the volume Infohub must transfer.
It is also where the two aggregation lists diverge. The connector offers aggregations that have no measure-level equivalent — notably Time in State and Custom Expression. If you need time-in-state semantics for a utilisation calculation, this connector can compute it at retrieval, which is one of the few genuinely good reasons to retrieve at an interval rather than at Tag.
Even so, prefer Tag-interval retrieval as the default and aggregate in Infohub, so you keep the raw values and your aggregation rules stay uniform across every source. See Retrieved Measures.
Integrated security and the service account#
If the connection uses Windows integrated security rather than an explicit username and password, it authenticates as whichever account the process runs under.
In Flow Config that is you. Deployed, it is the Flow Bootstrap service account, which by default is NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and will usually have no historian rights at all.
For integrated security you need to change the Bootstrap service to run as a domain account with historian access. This is one of the main reasons to plan the service account before installing — see Hardware and Software Requirements.
Reaching a historian inside a plant network#
Where the historian is not reachable from the central Infohub server, put the connection on a Platform hosted by a Bootstrap running inside the plant network. Flow-to-Flow traffic then crosses the boundary rather than historian protocol traffic, which is usually far easier to get approved.
Wonderware MES is a different shape#
The MES connector has by far the largest property set of any Infohub connector, because MES data is not time series. It exposes production orders, batches, and downtime records — data with identity and attributes rather than a value per timestamp.
Model it accordingly. MES records usually map onto event schemes with attributes rather than onto measures, because a production order has a start, an end, a product, and an operator, and does not tile the timeline. See Designing an Event Scheme.
Diagnosing#
| Symptom | Check |
|---|---|
| Connection fails from a server but works from a workstation | Client libraries not installed on the Platform host |
| Type-load or obscure connection error | Client library version mismatch with the historian server |
| Authentication fails only when deployed | Integrated security; Bootstrap service account has no historian rights |
| Tag not found | Browse the namespace and compare exactly — case and trailing spaces |
| No values on slow tags overnight | Increase Backward Overlap |
| Retrieval slow, historian administrator complaining | Lower Maximum Concurrent Connections |
| Values scaled wrongly | Scaling Factor set on the measure, or a unit assumption |
| Counter shows large negative spikes | Rollover not configured for a wrapping register |