OSI PI Backup

OSI PI Backup

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In the event of catastrophic failure, PI Server has provisions for creating files used to restore the PI server configuration and archives. These files are called, backup files. The process of creating backup files for PI is called pibackup.

The backup process is scheduled by the Windows Scheduled task to run periodically such that no data loss - in the event of catastrophe - is limited to the period. OSIsoft recommends that the files be backed-up to a geographically different location than the PI server and onto media that is durable (i.e in a fire-proof safe, not on an earthquake fault).

Contents [hide] 1 QuickStart 1.1 One-time Manual Backup 1.2 Recurring Automated Backups 1.3 Subsystems Involved 2 See Also 2.1 Related Errors

QuickStart

PI Backups can happen as a one-time manual task or they can scheduled to be recurring (automated).

One-time Manual Backup

As with many server-related tasks, the PI Backup procedure is a batch file located at:

C:\PI\adm\pibackup.bat

To execute manually backup the PI server, execute the following:

C:\PI\adm\pibackup.bat c:\backups\pi

Where c:\backups is the location to which you wish the backup files to be created.

Recurring Automated Backups

Use the same pibackup.bat file to schedule daily backups. OSIsoft recommends daily backups; if the frequency of backup is reduced, more data loss occurs in the event of catastrophic failure.

To use this schedule daily backups of the entire server and 7 of the last archives to c:\backups\pi, simply type the following:

C:\PI\adm\pibackup.bat c:\backups\pi 7 -install

The usage is of the form:

pibackup.bat <backup destination folder> <number of archives> -install. Since your backup procedure is running daily, a full-server backup is not required. Typically backing up the last 3 archives is sufficient. The number of archives should depend on the duration of the archives relative to the frequency of backups. If your archives hold 6-hours of data then you ought to backup at least 4 archives per 24-hour period.

Subsystems Involved

The PI Archive Subsystem and the PI Backup Subsystem are used in the Backup Procedure. These subsystems must have write-access to the <backup destination folder>.