Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Historian SE 3.0 H2H Interface User Guide - Manual (Page 151)

FactoryTalk Historian To Historian Interface User Guide 145
Appendix C.
Terminology
To understand this interface manual, you should be familiar with the terminology used in this
document.
Buffering
Buffering refers to an interface node‟s ability to store temporarily the data that interfaces
collect and to forward these data to the appropriate Historian Servers.
N-Way Buffering
If you have Historian Servers that are part of a Historian Collective, PIBufss supports n-way
buffering. N-way buffering refers to the ability of a buffering application to send the same
data to each of the Historian Servers in a Historian Collective. (Bufserv also supports n-way
buffering to multiple Historian Server however it does not guarantee identical archive records
since point compressions specs could be different between Historian Servers. With this in
mind, Rockwell Automation recommends that you run PIBufss instead.)
ICU
ICU refers to the Historian Interface Configuration Utility. The ICU is the primary
application that you use to configure Historian interface programs. You must install the ICU
on the same computer on which an interface runs. A single copy of the ICU manages all of
the interfaces on a particular computer.
You can configure an interface by editing a startup command file. However, Rockwell
Automation discourages this approach. Instead, Rockwell Automation strongly recommends
that you use the ICU for interface management tasks.
ICU Control
An ICU Control is a plug-in to the ICU. Whereas the ICU handles functionality common to
all interfaces, an ICU Control implements interface-specific behavior. Most Historian
Interfaces have an associated ICU Control.
Interface Node
An interface node is a computer on which

the PI API and/or PI SDK are installed, and

Historian Server programs are not installed.
PI API
The PI API is a library of functions that allow applications to communicate and exchange
data with the Historian Server. All Historian Interfaces use the PI API.