Troubleshooting Historian

Troubleshooting and Error information commonly found when diagnosing Historian problems

The most common issue we see that comes into our support group is this error message. To the naked eye, this doesn't look like an error message, to a standard user this looks like “ oh no… I forgot my user login”. This also leads to even more confusion when the installer didn't set up security in the first place. Unfortunately, messages like this mean your ihdataarchiver_x64 service is not running. This service is Historian, with out it running, your Historian will not work.

Before looking at any logs or system events, make your way over to the Services window in your Operating System. From here, go to the Historian Data Archiver(x64). Right-click on the service and hit run. Note: If in the Services in the task manager, the service will be labeled iHDataArchiver_x64 as mentioned above.

Luckily, the Historian will produce log files natively that annotate everything thats going on with the system. Usually when the service doesn’t start right away, the logs will hold the answer.
Go to your Driver where the Historian was installed on, usually it will default tot he C: drive.
Go to the Proficy Historian Data folder
Open the LogFiles folder
Inside this folder, look for the highest numbered DataArchiver.log file, this will house the most recent information for your Historian.
Scroll through the log file and find what is causing the error.

Typical Errors you may encounter in your log file.

ERROR MESSAGE	WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?	HOW TO RESOLVE

ERROR MESSAGE	WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?	HOW TO RESOLVE
The licensed tag count was exceeded	You exceeded your license count and until its increased you cannot start your Historian.	The only way to get around this without updating your license is to remove your .ihc and restart the Historian. This will bring your historian back down to a zero tag count. Or upgrade your license and restart the service
Not enough memory to start the Historian	Inside the Historian Admin, the minimum allot space to run the Historian program is configured automatically to 5GBs. This prevents a full system shutdown if the hard drive becomes full	Remove unwanted files, restart servce expand storage (VMs ), restart service Lower minimum space requirement in Historian Admin, restart service
Incorrect License Version	You have a license installed that is not equal to or above the Historian being used	Update the License, restart service Uninstall and reinstall correct version of Historian

Other Errors found in your Historian

ERROR MESSAGE/ PROBLEM	WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?	HOW TO RESOLVE

ERROR MESSAGE/ PROBLEM

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

HOW TO RESOLVE

Cannot browse or add tag after collector was connected to Historian

Collector/ Client tools cannot connect to Historian

After the procedure is performed correctly for connecting a collector to Historian, the Historian wont show the collector. Usually this is because the “Enforce Strict” security setting is selected.

iFIX Collector Running and Historian Running but they don't see each other

Check for Client tools
Check for open ports
Check for typos for the install, found in registry or reinstall client tools to update

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

* This page will be updated when new evidence, errors and procedures are found.