PI Notifications User Guide

Version 1.1
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Published: 9/8/2009
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1
What is PI Notifications? .................................................................................................... 1
How PI Notifications Works ................................................................................................ 1
Components of PI Notifications .......................................................................................... 2
Basic PI Notifications Terminology..................................................................................... 3
PI Notifications and PI Clients ............................................................................................ 4
High Availability .................................................................................................................. 4
Security .............................................................................................................................. 5
Documentation Overview ................................................................................................... 5
What's New in PI Notifications 1.1? ................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2 Installation .................................................................................................................... 7

System Prerequisites ......................................................................................................... 7
Installation Components ..................................................................................................... 7
System Requirements ........................................................................................................ 8
Common Installation Scenarios ......................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3 Tutorial ........................................................................................................................ 17

Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values ..................................................17
Configure an Escalation ................................................................................................... 29
Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions ............................................................ 32
Customize Notification Message Content ........................................................................ 44

Chapter 4 PI System Explorer Overview ................................................................................... 47

Launch PI System Explorer .............................................................................................. 47
Navigate the PI System Explorer ..................................................................................... 48
Check in, Apply, or Undo Changes .................................................................................. 50
Refresh the Current Database ......................................................................................... 51

Chapter 5 Build and Start Notification Rules ............................................................................ 53

Elements and Notification Rules ...................................................................................... 53
Create an Element ........................................................................................................... 53
Create a Notification Rule ................................................................................................ 54
Configure Notification Rule Triggers ................................................................................ 55
Standard Notification Content .......................................................................................... 67
Configure Custom Notification Content ............................................................................ 67
Organize Notification Rules .............................................................................................. 78
Start a Notification Rule.................................................................................................... 81
Stop a Notification Rule .................................................................................................... 81

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Table of Contents

Reset a Notification Rule .................................................................................................. 81

Notification Templates ...................................................................................................... 81
View or Edit Notification Rule Security ............................................................................. 85
Deploy a Notification Rule ................................................................................................ 85

Chapter 6 Subscribe Contacts to a Notification Rule .............................................................. 89

What is a Notification Contact? ........................................................................................ 89
Create a Custom Contact ................................................................................................. 92
Add a Delivery Endpoint to a Contact .............................................................................. 92
Search for Contacts.......................................................................................................... 93
Configure Delivery Channels ........................................................................................... 95
Create a Custom Delivery Endpoint ................................................................................. 98
View and Edit Contact or Notification Contact Security ...................................................99
Subscribe to a Notification Rule ..................................................................................... 100
Customize Acknowledgements for a Notification Rule ..................................................101
Customize Subscriptions to a Notification Rule ............................................................. 101
Unsubscribe from a Notification Rule ............................................................................. 103

Chapter 7 View Notification Rule Events ................................................................................ 105

View My Notifications with MyPI .................................................................................... 105
View Sorted Notification Instances ................................................................................. 106
Use the Notification History Viewer ................................................................................ 108
Acknowledge and Comment .......................................................................................... 109

Chapter 8 Use PI Notifications Desktop Alert ......................................................................... 111

Monitor Notifications from Your Desktop........................................................................ 111
Start PI Notifications Desktop Alert ................................................................................ 111
Use Desktop Alert .......................................................................................................... 111
Configure Desktop Alert ................................................................................................. 112
Receive a Desktop Alert ................................................................................................. 114

Chapter 9 PI Notifications for Administrators ........................................................................ 115

Manage Notification and Contact Security ..................................................................... 115
Configure Active Directory Contacts .............................................................................. 118
Register Additional Delivery Endpoints .......................................................................... 118
Manage PI Notifications Service .................................................................................... 119
Configure System-Wide Parameters.............................................................................. 125

Chapter 10 Troubleshoot PI Notifications ............................................................................... 133

Installation ...................................................................................................................... 133
Run Notification Rules .................................................................................................... 134
Create or Edit a Notification Rule ................................................................................... 139
Subscribe to Notification Rules ...................................................................................... 140
Acknowledge and Comment on Notification Rule Events ..............................................141
View Notification Rule Events ........................................................................................ 144
Security .......................................................................................................................... 144
Tools ............................................................................................................................... 145

iv
 Appendix A Migrate to PI Notifications ................................................................................... 149

Appendix B Technical Support and Resources ..................................................................... 151

Index ............................................................................................................................................ 155

PI Notifications User Guide v

Chapter 1

Introduction

What is PI Notifications?
PI Notifications is a core component of the PI System for building and maintaining real-time
PI System notifications. Important PI Notifications features include:
• Simplicity: PI Notifications provides a simple, consistent, and intuitive set of tools for
using notification features across the PI System.
• Enterprise: All the notifications are shared, managed, and maintained enterprise-wide.
You can integrate PI Notifications services within your existing IT infrastructure.
• Availability: PI Notifications provides system redundancy, and persistence.
• Integration: PI Notifications integrates with and leverages the PI Server, PI AF, and
other PI System services. The Notifications platform also provides a software
development kit upon which users can build custom applications.
• Archiving: Every notification action is archived. Such actions include start and end
times, notification times, acknowledgements, entry of comments and escalations.
• Unification: PI Notifications unifies all the existing PI System alarm tools, products and
packages, expanding the notification feature set significantly.
• Acknowledgment: Notifications are acknowledgeable, meaning there will be a written
record that a subscriber acted on the event.
• MyPI: Your notifications of interest are saved explicitly and keyed on your Windows
authentication. When you log into a Windows machine, these notifications will
automatically be available to you in one convenient place.
• Extensible Delivery: You can develop custom delivery channels to connect PI
Notifications events to your existing IT infrastructure.
• Escalation: You can set up escalation structures so the right people get the right
information in the right order.
• Customizable Content: You can customize the specific notification-related data to be
included in notifications.

How PI Notifications Works

PI Notifications is an alerting platform based upon the PI System AF 2.1 architecture. The AF
architecture allows applications to store asset information while running independently of an
individual PI Server.

PI Notifications User Guide 1

Introduction

PI Notifications allows a user to define a set of criteria that upon which the PI Notifications
Service can trigger a notification to a configurable set of subscribers. In the simplest case, the
conditions can simply compare a tag value to a constant. More complex conditions, such as
complex equations, are also allowed (the full list of configuration options is described below).
PI Notifications Service records all triggered conditions in the PI Server for historical
purposes. If a contact has been defined then they will be notified using a delivery mechanism
such as email. The message itself can be customized to contain information about the event
that can help the receiver take action further action on this event. Multiple contacts can be
defined for a notification, as well as a progression of people or groups (for example, if person
A does not respond within a certain period of time then contact person B). Finally, the
receiver(s) has the option of acknowledging the notification. A historical record is kept for all
acknowledgments.
The PI Notifications Service supports high availability and does not have to run on the same
machine as the PI Server, AF server, or the client applications. The service is described in
detail in PI Notifications Service (page 119).

Components of PI Notifications
PI Notifications includes these main components:
• PI System Explorer Add-ins: PI Notifications delivers three components for the PI
System Explorer. This guide and the online help contained in the PI System Explorer
describe details about these add-ins:
ο MyPI: This add-in provides a convenient interface to view all of the notifications for
which you are subscribed.
ο Notifications: This add-in allows you to configure and subscribe to a notification and
to view its events (either historically, or as they arrive).
ο Contacts: This add-in allows you to configure notification groups, escalation teams,
and advanced delivery options that you use to subscribe to the notifications you
build.
• PI Notifications Service: This is a Windows service that runs notification rules and
processes their events in real time. You can run multiple instances of this service on
multiple machines (one per machine) to provide redundancies and meet different security
needs.
• PI Notifications Desktop Alert: This desktop tray application automatically monitors all
your notifications when you log on to a machine. It produces a momentary pop-up
message box when you receive a notification. You can click on the message box to view
more detail in MyPI.
• PI Notifications Acknowledgment Page: This ASP.Net Web page allows you to
acknowledge a notification event. When you receive an email notification, it contains
several links that allow you to acknowledge a notification directly.

2
 Basic PI Notifications Terminology

Basic PI Notifications Terminology

Acknowledgment: An acknowledgment is a response to a notification. An acknowledgment
can be applied to either:
• a notification rule sent to a specific subscriber, or
• a notification instance.
Contacts: A contact contains the configuration for a person, group of people, or application
that can subscribe to a notification. Types of contacts:
• Delivery endpoint: A single entity to which a notification is delivered, such as an
individual email address or Web service call.
• Group: A collection of delivery endpoints to which notification is sent simultaneously.
For a group contact to be acknowledged, the number of acknowledgements must equal or
exceed a minimum that is set when the group contact is configured.
• Escalation team: A collection of delivery endpoints that can be sent a notification
message sequentially. When a contact acknowledges the notification event, the escalation
stops.
Content: Every notification rule includes pre-defined information about the alert which can
make the notification more meaningful for further action.
Custom content: Custom content is any user-defined information that can be added to the
standard content found in every notification message. For example, this information can
include documents, Web links, and so on.
Delivery channel: A delivery channel is the conduit through which notification messages are
sent to the subscriber. For example, email is a delivery channel.
Element: An AF element in a model. Elements can represent physical entities or assets such
as mixers, hoppers, tanks, and meters; logical entities, such as flows; or other models.
Element template: An element template specifies the attributes of a set of similar elements.
For example, if you have a set of pumps with similar structure, you create an element
template for the pumps and use the template to construct an element to represent each pump.
Model: A model is the complete set of information necessary for performing an analysis on
an interval of time in the life of a process. A typical model might cover one section of the
plant or process and include several analyses. In AF, a model consists of one or more
elements.
Notification rule: A notification rule specifies the conditions under which a notification is
generated, the contacts to which notification is sent, and the content of the notification.
Notification instance: A notification instance is a period of time that begins when the
conditions of a notification rule are true. The notification instance ends when the conditions
are no longer true, when the notification rule is overridden by a notification with higher
priority, or when the notification rule is manually reset.
Notification rule template or notification template: A notification rule template specifies
the trigger, content, and contacts for an element template. For example, if you have a set of
pumps with a similar structure, you might want to monitor their conditions with a similar set

PI Notifications User Guide 3

Introduction

of rules. To automatically create notification rules for all the pumps, you create a notification
rule template that references the element template for the pumps.
Subscription: A subscription is how a contact signs up for a notification. Additionally, it
contains the content that is delivered to the contact.
Target: For notification rules, the target is the element to which the rule applies. For
notification rule templates, the target is the element template that is associated with the
notification rule template.
Time rule: A time rule is a setting that specifies how often the trigger conditions of a
notification are checked.
Time true: The length of time a condition must be true to trigger a notification. A Time True
setting can be triggered in one of two ways:
• Natural: The condition is evaluated solely when the time rule triggers.
• Clock: The condition is evaluated at the specified intervals, independent of time rule
triggering.
Trigger: A trigger for a notification rule consists of a target element, a time rule, and the
collection of conditions that cause notification to be sent. The conditions can be nested,
ANDed, or ORed. You can configure a condition using the simple comparison rule, the PI
SQC rule, or the Performance Equation.

PI Notifications and PI Clients

Notification messages can include pre-configured displays, reports, spreadsheets, and links.
Furthermore, PI Notifications provides native support for configuring RtReports reports and
RtWebParts displays. For details, see Configure Custom Notification Content (page 67).
PI Notifications is built to work seamlessly with PI clients, such as PI ProcessBook, PI
DataLink, RtReports, and RtWebParts. Refer to the respective manuals for detailed
information on how these products support PI Notifications features.
There is a pre-configured dynamic page for RtReports on the Content tab within PI System
Explorer. PI Notifications generates a clickable link to an RtReports report. See Configure an
RtReports Link (page 74) for details.
If you have RtWebParts server 2.0.0.0 or later, you can configure PI Notifications to
automatically insert a link to RtWebParts instant trend which shows inputs to and outputs
from the notifications. This feature is useful for a quick root-cause analysis. For details, see
Configure an RtReports Link (page 74).

High Availability
You can configure an arbitrary number of instances of PI Notifications Service to run the
same set of notifications on separate machines. Any notification rule is run by one of these
service instances while other instances act as the backups. When the primary service stops—
either gracefully or ungracefully—one of the backups takes over and becomes the primary

4
 Security

service. See Set up Redundant Service Instances (page 122) for details on how the High
Availability (HA) feature works and how you configure it.

Security
PI Notifications uses Windows security for communicating internally and with the AF server.
It communicates with the PI Server via the trust login mechanism. The notification rule and
contact objects have Windows security descriptors associated with them. For details, see
Manage Notification and Contact Security (page 115).

Documentation Overview
This user guide is part of a documentation set that is available as two Adobe PDF files:
• PI Notifications User Guide: An introduction to PI Notifications for the end user. This
user guide provides a product overview, installation procedures, and other topics to allow
you to work with and troubleshoot PI Notifications.
• PI AF User Guide (2.1): Provides guidelines, example applications, installation
procedures, and performance notes for AF 2.1. This document includes a theoretical
overview of AF 2.1, its architecture, and step-by-step procedures for using the PI System
Explorer to create and configure elements, templates, reference types, tables, and so on.
The online help for PI Notifications contains information from the PI Notifications User
Guide and PI AF User Guide (2.1). The online help consists of these major sections:
• PI System Data Directory: Provides an overview of the Data Directory architecture,
systems, databases, unit of measure theory, and how code changes are checked in or out
and persisted in the database.
• PI System Notifications: Provides a product overview, installation procedures, and other
topics to allow you to work with and troubleshoot PI Notifications.
• PI System Explorer: Contains the following subsections:
ο PI System Explorer User Guide: Provides an overview and explains the functions
of PI System Explorer.
ο PI Data Directory: Describes how to configure objects comprising AF, such as
elements, library components, transfers, and units of measure.
ο PI Notifications: Provides procedures for building and monitoring notifications.
• AFSDK Library Reference: The AFSDK library is a Microsoft .NET assembly that
provides structured access to OSIsoft data. This document is provided solely as an HTML
Help file.
• ANSDK Library Reference: The ANSDK library is a Microsoft .NET assembly that
provides structured access to PI Notifications functionality. This document is provided
solely as an HTML Help file.

PI Notifications User Guide 5

Introduction

Additional information about AF 2.1, PI System Explorer, and other topics of interest can be
found in respective books available on the OSIsoft Technical Support and Resources Web site
(http://techsupport.osisoft.com/).

What's New in PI Notifications 1.1?

Notification templates make it easy to create notifications from target element templates. By
associating a notification template with an element template, you can:
• Automatically create and, optionally, start a notification each time you create an element
from an element template.
• Automatically update all notifications when you update the template.
• Easily associate existing, manually-generated notifications with a notification template by
creating a notification template for the corresponding element template.
Copy settings from one subscription to another: For notifications with more than one
subscriber, apply the settings from one subscriber to all subscribers to the notification.
Link delivery endpoints to Active Directory (AD) contacts: Provide additional delivery
endpoints such as alternative email addresses.
Throughput: Up to thirty times more notifications can be processed per unit time, putting
less load on the PI Server.
Performance: Notifications startup and history retrieval is up to three times faster.

6
Chapter 2

Installation

System Prerequisites
Installation of an OSIsoft product relies on the presence of operating system components such
as the Microsoft .NET Framework. OSIsoft product install kits check for prerequisite
software during installation. If not found, the installation stops and you are prompted to
install prerequisites.
To determine which Microsoft operating system prerequisites you need, see the OSIsoft Tech
Support Web site Prerequisite Kits pages
(http://techsupport.osisoft.com/Products/Prerequisite+Kits/Prerequisite+Kits+Overview.htm).

Installation Components
The PI Notifications setup kit is distributed as a self-extracting executable. When you run the
installer, you may customize your installation by selecting the features that will be installed
on the target machine. This chapter tells you how to install all PI Notifications features, only
a few features, or a single feature.
The installer contains the following features:
• PI Notifications Client: This feature includes add-ins to PI System Explorer. Within this
host, you configure, subscribe to or unsubscribe from, and view the archived or active
events of notification rules. The client also enables you to receive new events through PI
Notifications Desktop Alert.
• PI Notifications Service: This feature runs a service instance to evaluate notification
rules in real time, send out notification messages, process acknowledgments and/or
escalation, and so on.
• PI Notifications Acknowledgment Page: This page provides a link which is embedded
in the email message; a subscriber can click directly on this link to acknowledge a
notification message or to comment on a notification instance.

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Installation

System Requirements
Before you install any PI Notifications component, it is important to verify that the target
machine meets the system requirements. All components require:
• Any of the following Microsoft operating systems (32-bit or 64-bit):
ο Windows XP SP3 or later
ο Windows Vista
ο Windows 7
ο Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later
ο Windows Server 2008
ο Windows Server 2008 R2
• AF 2.1 Client
• PI SDK
• .NET Framework 3.5
The PI Notifications Service feature requires that a PI Server and an AF Server have already
been installed (on the same machine or a separate machine). If you intend to use email to
deliver notification messages, an SMTP server is required.
The PI Notifications Acknowledgement Page requires Microsoft IIS 5.0 or greater and
ASP.NET 2.0 installed on the same machine. For Microsoft IIS 7.0, the IIS Metabase and IIS
6 configuration compatibility option must be enabled.

Common Installation Scenarios

These examples represent some of the most common installation scenarios:
• Install or Upgrade All PI Notifications Features (page 8)
• Install or Upgrade PI Notifications Client Only (page 11)
• Install or Upgrade PI Notifications Service Only (page 12)
• Install or Upgrade PI Notifications Service and Acknowledgment Page (page 13)
The PI Notifications client can be installed on any computer wherever users will be adding or
editing PI Notifications or other AF applications. In most cases the PI Notifications Service
and Acknowledgment Page are installed solely on the PI Server or AF Server computer.
These scenarios assume that the prerequisite software has been installed and configured.

Install or Upgrade All PI Notifications Features

1. Run the self-extracting executable for PI Notifications. Fill out the dialog boxes with
prompted information and click Next until you reach the Select Features dialog box.
2. On the Select Features dialog box, use the drop-down menus to customize your
installation.

8
 Common Installation Scenarios

a. Select Will be installed on local hard drive next to the features you want to install
from the drop-down menus:
− Client
− Service
− Acknowledgment Web Page

Note: If you select Entire feature will be unavailable for a feature that was installed
with an earlier version of PI Notifications, that feature will be removed.

Note: If you have implemented PI Notifications High Availability (HA) by configuring

multiple instances of PI Notifications Services for an AF Server, you must
upgrade all instances of the services for that AF Server. See Set up
Redundant Service Instances (page 122) for details on how the HA feature
works and how to configure it.

3. Click Next.
4. You are prompted to select an AF server. If you have connected to an AF server in the
past, the default AF server appears in the AF Server box. Click Browse to select another
AF server.

Note: To find the name of the machine where the AF server is installed, contact your
AF Server Administrator.

5. In the Logon Information dialog, select the Log On account that will be used to start the
PI Notifications Service. Select Local System if the AF Server is installed on the same
machine as the PI Notifications Service and only one instance of PI Notifications Service

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Installation

is to be installed. Otherwise, select Domain User. The Domain User account must have
Administrator privileges on the machine that is running the AF Server. Click Next.

6. If this is not the first time the PI Notifications Service feature is installed for the
particular AF server, the Supporting Information dialog displays the configured
information for the particular AF Server. Otherwise, the dialog prompts you to:
a. Server Name: Specify a PI Server to store the notification history and email
configuration information for email notifications.
b. Email Delivery Channel Settings: Supply the following information so that PI
Notifications can send email:
− SMTP Server: For notifications to be sent via email, provide the name of the
SMTP server. Be sure to allow the machine with the PI Notifications Service
feature the ability to relay the emails through the SMTP server.
− Backup SMTP Server: If you have a backup SMTP server, provide the name of
the backup SMTP server.
− From Email: Designates the default email address used as the sender of the
email notifications.
c. Optionally, add the fully qualified name of an RtWebParts server.

Note: The RtWebParts server must be version 2.0 or later. Supplying an

RtWebParts server name allows the notifications to automatically create links
to instant RtWebParts trends that can be included in your email.

7. Click Next.
8. Select the Web site where the virtual directory should created for the PI Notifications
Acknowledgment Web Page feature. The Web site must use ASP.NET 2.0. Click Next.

10
 Common Installation Scenarios

9. Click Next, customizing as you see fit, until the installation is complete. Click Finish.
10. After you complete the installation, you need to configure PI Notifications security. For
details, see Manage Notifications and Contacts Security (page 115).

Install or Upgrade PI Notifications on a Client Computer Only

Installing the PI Notifications client allows you to use all PI Notifications functionality
without the administrative tasks involved with running a service.
To install only the PI Notifications client:
1. Run the self-extracting executable for PI Notifications. Fill out the dialog boxes with
prompted information and click Next until you reach the Select Features dialog box.
2. On the Select Features dialog, use the drop-down menus to customize your installation.

a. Select Will be installed on local hard drive from the Client drop-down menu.
b. Select Entire feature will be unavailable from the Service and Acknowledgment
Web Page drop-down menus.

Note: If you select Entire feature will be unavailable for a feature that was installed
with an earlier version of PI Notifications, that feature will be removed.

3. Click Next.
4. Click Next, customizing as you see fit, until the installation is complete. Click Finish.
5. After you complete the installation, you need to configure PI Notifications security. For
details, see Manage Notifications and Contacts Security (page 115).

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Installation

Install or Upgrade PI Notifications Service Only

For ease of administration and maintenance, you can install and run the PI Notifications
Service on a dedicated machine.
To install or upgrade only the PI Notifications Service:
1. Run the self-extracting executable for PI Notifications. Fill out the dialog boxes with
prompted information and click Next until you reach the Select Features dialog box.
2. On the Select Features dialog, use the drop-down menus to customize your installation.

a. Select Will be installed on local hard drive from the Service drop-down menu.
b. Select Entire feature will be unavailable from the Client and Acknowledgment
Web Page drop-down menus.

Note: If you select Entire feature will be unavailable for a feature that was installed
with an earlier version of PI Notifications, that feature will be removed.

Note: If you have implemented PI Notifications High Availability (HA) by configuring

multiple instances of PI Notifications Services for an AF Server, you must
upgrade all instances of the services for that AF Server. See Set up
Redundant Service Instances (page 122) for details on how the HA feature
works and how to configure it.

3. Click Next.
4. When prompted to select an AF server, use the default AF server or click Browse to
select another AF server.

12
 Common Installation Scenarios

Note: To find the name of the machine where the AF server is installed, contact your
AF Server Administrator.

5. In the Logon Information dialog, select the Log On account to use to start the PI
Notifications Service. Select Local System if the AF Server is installed on the same
machine as the PI Notifications Service and only one instance of PI Notifications Service
is to be installed. Otherwise, select Domain User. The Domain User account must have
Administrator privileges on the machine that is running the AF Server. Click Next.
6. If this is not the first time the PI Notifications Service feature is installed for the
particular AF server, the Supporting Information dialog displays the configured
information for the particular AF Server. Otherwise, it will prompt you to:
a. Server Name: Specify a PI Server to store the notification history and email
configuration information for email notifications.
b. Email Delivery Channel Settings: Supply the following information so that PI
Notifications can send email:
− SMTP Server: For notifications to be sent via email, provide the name of the
SMTP server. Be sure to allow the machine with the PI Notifications Service
feature the ability to relay the emails through the SMTP server.
− Backup SMTP Server: If you have a backup SMTP server, provide the name of
the backup SMTP server.
− From Email: Designates the default email address used as the sender of the
email notifications.
c. Optionally, add the fully qualified name of an RtWebParts server.

Note: The RtWebParts server must be version 2.0 or later. Supplying an

RtWebParts server name allows the notifications to automatically create links
to instant RtWebParts trends that can be included in your email.

7. Click Next, customizing as you see fit, until the installation is complete. Click Finish.
8. After you complete the installation, you need to configure PI Notifications security. For
details, see Manage Notifications and Contacts Security (page 115).

Install or Upgrade PI Notifications Service and Acknowledgment Page

If the machine you are installing the PI Notifications Service also hosts a Web site, you may
consider installing both the PI Notifications Service and the Acknowledgment Web page on
the same machine.
1. Run the self-extracting executable for PI Notifications. Fill out the dialog boxes with
prompted information and click Next until you reach the Select Features dialog box.
2. On the Select Features dialog, use the drop-down menus to customize your installation.
a. Select Will be installed on local hard drive from the Service and
Acknowledgment Web Page drop-down menus.
b. Select Entire feature will be unavailable from the Client drop-down menu.

PI Notifications User Guide 13

Installation

Note: If you select Entire feature will be unavailable for a feature that was installed
with an earlier version of PI Notifications, that feature will be removed.

Note: If you have implemented PI Notifications High Availability (HA) by configuring

multiple instances of PI Notifications Services for an AF Server, you must
upgrade all instances of the services for that AF Server. See Set up
Redundant Service Instances (page 122) for details on how the HA feature
works and how to configure it.

3. Click Next.
4. You will be prompted to select an AF server. If you have connected to an AF server in
the past, the default AF server appears in the AF Server box. Click Browse to select
another AF server.

Note: To find the name of the machine where the AF server is installed, contact your
AF Server Administrator.

5. In the Logon Information dialog, select the Log On account that will be used to start the
PI Notifications Service. Select Local System if the AF Server is installed on the same
machine as the PI Notifications Service and only one instance of PI Notifications Service
is to be installed. Otherwise, select Domain User. The Domain User account must have
Administrator privileges on the machine that is running the AF Server. Click Next.
6. If this is not the first time the PI Notifications Service feature is installed for the
particular AF server, the Supporting Information dialog displays the configured
information for the particular AF Server. Otherwise, it will prompt you to:
a. Server Name: Specify a PI Server to store the notification history and email
configuration information for email notifications.
b. Email Delivery Channel Settings: Supply the following information so that PI
Notifications can send email:
− SMTP Server: For notifications to be sent via email, provide the name of the
SMTP server. Be sure to allow the machine with the PI Notifications Service
feature the ability to relay the emails through the SMTP server.
− Backup SMTP Server: If you have a backup SMTP server, provide the name of
the backup SMTP server.
− From Email: Designates the default email address used as the sender of the
email notifications.
c. Optionally, add the fully qualified name of an RtWebParts server.

Note: The RtWebParts server must be version 2.0 or later. Supplying an

RtWebParts server name allows the notifications to automatically create links
to instant RtWebParts trends that can be included in your email.

7. Click Next.
8. Select the Web site where the virtual directory should created for the PI Notifications
Acknowledgment Web Page feature. The Web site must use ASP.NET 2.0. Click Next.

14
 Common Installation Scenarios

9. Optionally, change the Virtual Directory name. Click Next.

10. Click Next, customizing as you see fit, until the installation is complete. Click Finish.
11. After you complete the installation, you need to configure PI Notifications security. For
details, see Manage Notifications and Contacts Security (page 115).

PI Notifications User Guide 15

Chapter 3

Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to familiarize you with some PI Notifications features. Each exercise
assumes that:
• PI Server, AF server, AF client, and PI Notifications have been installed and are
accessible.
• A working connection to a PI Server has been established.
• The PI Notifications Service has been started. Use the procedure in View PI Notifications
Service Summary (page 122).
• The PI System Management Tools (PI SMT) utility has been installed on the computer on
which you are running PI Notifications.
Use the Basic Steps sections to begin each exercise. If you have trouble, use the Step-by-
Step Solution at the end of each exercise.

Note: These exercises use fictitious email contacts. If these email contacts do not exist
at your site, you might not be able to acknowledge notifications. In this case you
see a Send Error in the notification history.

Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

In this example, you want to be notified by email each time the value of a PI point exceeds a
certain value. The notification gives you the opportunity to contact the process engineer to
discuss an action plan.
The PI point to be monitored is CDT158, a test point that is installed with the PI Server. You
want to measure the value of the point at one-minute intervals. If the value of CDT158
exceeds 200, you want to send email notification to a fictitious contact: Bob Smith.
(Alternatively, you can substitute an email to which you have access and use that for testing.)

Basic Steps

The basic steps of the exercise are as follows:

1. Create an AF database named MyNotificationsDB.
For information on AF databases, see the AF 2.1 User's Guide. For the step-by-step
procedure, see Set up an AF Database (page 19).

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2. In PI System Explorer, create email contacts named Bob Smith, Rudy Wells, and JD
Hogg with email addresses [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected],
respectively.
For information on how to create contacts, see What is a Notification Contact? (page 89)
3. Create an AF element called Monitored Tags to monitor the PI point CDT158. Create an
attribute called TAG:CDT158.Value for the value of the point.
For information on how to create elements, see Create an Element (page 53).
4. Build the Notification Rule CDT Warnings to monitor the value of CDT158. This
notification rule should:
ο Be triggered when the value of CDT158 exceeds 200;
ο When triggered, specify an alert state of SuperHIHI and send email to Bob Smith.
For information on how to build notification rules, see the following procedures:
ο Create a Notification Rule (page 54)
ο Configure a Comparison Condition (page 56)
ο Subscribe to a Notification Rule (page 100)
ο Check in all Changes (page 50)
ο Start a Notification Rule (page 81).
ο For information on alert states, see Configure States and Groups (page 126).
5. Test the notification rule.
For information on testing notification rules, see the procedures in View Recent
Notification Instances (page 106) and Acknowledge a Notification Instance (page 109).

Note: To trigger notifications for testing, you can either wait for point values to
change naturally or, if you have write permissions to the PI point CDT158, you
can manually enter a value greater than 200. To enter a value for the PI point,
change the settings on the TAG:CDT158.Value attribute so that you can write
values to it (ReadOnly=False), and then type a value into the Value edit box.

If you have trouble, use the Step-by-Step Solution (page 19).

After you have completed this example, try the following variations:
• Non-PI Data: Same procedure, except that periodic time rule must be used. See
Configure Notification Rule Triggers (page 55).
• To receive an email when the condition is no longer violated: Select Notify on close
in the contact options. See Customize Contact Configuration Options (page 102).
• To notify multiple people: See Group Contact (page 90).
• To provide an escalation chain: See Escalation Team (page 91).

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 Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

Step-by-Step Solution

Set up an AF Database
1. Start PI System Explorer: Click Start > PI System > PI System Explorer.
2. In PI System Explorer, click File > Database.
3. Click the New Database button. Alternatively, right-click anywhere in the list of
databases and select New Database. Name the database MyNotificationsDB and click
OK to save the changes.

Create Email Contacts

1. In the PI System Explorer Navigator pane, click Contacts to display the contacts in the
current database.

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2. Click New in the Contacts browser and select New Contact.

Alternatively, right-click in the Contacts browser and select New Contact.

3. On the Viewer pane on the right, change the Name to Bob Smith and enter
[email protected] for the Email address.

4. Click Apply on the toolbar to save the changes.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to create the other two contacts that you will use in the remaining
exercises. The following table shows all three contacts:
Contact Name Email Address
Bob Smith [email protected]
m
Rudy Wells [email protected]
JD Hogg [email protected]
m

6. Click Check In on the toolbar to save changes to the database.

Note: You may get an error if another user has completed this tutorial with the same
AF Database. If you get this error, click OK. Then, delete the duplicate contact
name from the Contacts pane.

Create the AF Element

1. In PI System Explorer, click Elements in the Navigator panel to display the elements in
the current database.

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 Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

2. Right-click the Elements node in the Browser pane and select New Element.

3. The Choose Element Template dialog box appears. Click OK to accept the defaults.

4. On the Viewer pane, click the General tab. In the Name box, enter MonitoredTags as the
element name.
5. Click the Attributes tab.

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6. Right-click in the center pane and select New Attribute.

Note: Your screen might look different. To display the palette on the right, use the
menu command View > Palette > Show Palette.

7. In the Name box, enter the name TAG:CDT158.Value for the attribute.
8. Set the Data Reference to PI Point.

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 Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

9. Click the Settings button. In the PI Point Data Reference dialog box, enter the tag name
CDT158, leave other parameters as configured, and click OK.

10. Click Check In on the toolbar to save the element in the AF database.

Build the Notification Rule

1. In PI System Explorer, click Notifications in the Navigator panel to display the
notifications in the current database.
2. Click the New button in the Browser pane and select Notification.

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3. Click the Overview tab. In the Name box, enter CDT Warnings.

4. Click the Trigger tab.

5. Click to clear the Notify only on change in status check box.
6. Select a Resend interval of one minute.

Note: These options are described in Configure Notification Rule Triggers (page 55).

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 Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

7. To associate the notification with the AF element that you created earlier, click the Select
a Target button to the right of the Target box.

8. Click the MonitoredTags element on the Database:MyNotificationsDB dialog, and

then click OK.
9. On the Trigger tab, click New Condition > Comparison.

10. Select the TAG:CDT158.Value as the Input.

11. Select the Greater Than operator (>) from the Operator drop-down menu.

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12. Enter 200 in the Compare To box.

13. Click the New State button to the right of the State list.
14. Create a state called SuperHIHI and click OK.
15. Select the SuperHIHI state you just created from the State list.
16. Click OK to close the dialog box and finish defining the condition.

17. Click the Subscriptions tab.

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 Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values

18. Use the Contacts palette to find the contact you created for Bob Smith. Drag-and-drop
Bob Smith from the Contacts palette to the Subscriptions icon and choose email as the
delivery channel to be used for notification. Alternatively, drag the Bob Smith - Email
delivery channel onto the Subscriptions icon.

Note: If this is the first email notification you are creating for this contact, you are
prompted to set options. Click OK on the dialog to accept the defaults.

19. Click Check In to save the notification in the AF database.

20. Click Start on the toolbar to start the notification.

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Test the Notification

To test the notification, you can trigger the notification by writing a value greater than 200 to
the PI point in the AF element, and then view the results in the History tab for the
notification.

Note: To write values to the PI point, you need security permissions to write values to
the CDT158 PI point. If you do not have these permissions, test the notification by
waiting for the notification to trigger naturally.

1. In PI System Explorer, click Elements in the Navigator pane.

2. In the Browser pane, click the MonitoredTags element that you created earlier.
3. In the Viewer pane in the center, click the Attributes tab and then click the
TAG:CDT158.Value attribute.

4. Click the Settings button. On the PI Point Data Reference dialog, clear the Read only
check box at the bottom of the dialog and click OK.

28
 Configure an Escalation

5. Click Notifications in the Navigator pane. Click the History tab of the CDT Warnings
notification and select Recent from the View Notifications list. Click Get Events
and observe that a notification has triggered. For example:

Configure an Escalation
You have a group of people you want sequentially informed using a notification. If the first
person does not respond in two minutes, the second person will be notified. The exercise uses
the PI notification built in the previous example. In addition to Bob Smith, you want to add
Rudy Wells and JD Hogg to the order of notification, in that order.

Basic Steps

The basic steps of the exercise are as follows:

1. In Contacts view, create an escalation team named CDT Escalation. Add the following
email contacts in this order: Bob Smith, Rudy Wells, and JD Hogg. Set the Escalation
Interval to 2 minutes.
For information on how to create an escalation team, see Escalation Team (page 91).
2. In Notifications view, subscribe the CDT Escalation team to the CDT Warnings
notification rule that you created in the first exercise. On the Subscriptions tab, change
Required acknowledgements from Auto to 1.
For information on how to subscribe to a notification rule, see Subscribe to a Notification
Rule (page 100).
If you have trouble, use the Step-by-Step Solution (page 30).

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Tutorial

Step-by-Step Solution

1. In PI System Explorer, click Contacts in the Navigator panel to display the contacts in
the current database.

2. Click Escalation Teams in the Browser pane.

3. Click the New button and select New Escalation Team, or right-click in the Browser
pane and select New Escalation Team.

4. Name the escalation CDT Escalation.

5. Change the Escalation Period to two minutes.

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 Configure an Escalation

6. Drag the contacts you created earlier (Bob Smith, Rudy Wells, and JD Hogg) from the
Contacts palette into the viewer pane.

7. If needed, use and to place the members of the escalation team in correct order.

8. Click JD Hogg - Email to select it, and then click on the toolbar. You see a dialog
with options for JD Hogg:

9. Select the Notify on close check box, and then click OK.
For more information on contact options, see Customize Contact Configuration Options
(page 102).
10. Click the Refresh button on the toolbar so that all panes show the correct name of the
escalation.

11. Click Check In to save the changes.

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Tutorial

12. Click Notifications in the Navigator pane to display the notifications in the current
database.

13. Click on the CDT Warnings notification. If necessary, click Stop on the toolbar to
stop the notification.
14. Click the Subscriptions tab.
15. To remove Bob Smith from the subscription list, click Bob Smith - Email, click Delete
on the toolbar, and then click OK.
16. Drag and drop CDT Escalation from the Contacts palette onto Subscriptions.
17. Click Subscriptions, and then click Contact Options. On the Subscriptions dialog,
change Required acknowledgements from Auto to 1.

18. Click Check In to save changes to the notification.

19. Click Start to restart the notification.

20. To test this notification, follow the procedure in Test the Notification Rule (page 28) to
view the History tab of the CDT Warnings notification. It should display a list of the
persons notified.
You can now use this escalation in your notifications, and after every two minutes of non-
acknowledgment, the notification will go to the next person on the list.

Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

In this example, you want to be notified when the following conditions are met:
1. A device turns off.
2. The level of liquid in a tank is greater than 90% for more than 10 minutes and the
temperature is less than 500 degrees.
3. The level of liquid in a tank is lower than 20% or the temperature is less than 10 degrees.
4. The average temperature for the past hour is greater than or equal to 300 degrees.
This example is similar to Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values (page
17), except that the conditions are more complex.

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

Basic Steps

The basic steps are as follows:

1. If necessary, follow the procedures to Set up an AF Database (page 19) and Create Email
Contacts (page 19).
2. Use the procedure in Create the AF Element (page 20) to create an AF element for the
tank.
3. Create four attributes for the tank element. Associate each attribute with a PI point that
has the characteristics shown in the following table:
Attribute Name Properties of PI Point
DeviceOnOff A digital point with two states, On and
Off
Level Numeric value ranging from 0 to 100
Temperature Numeric value ranging from 0 to
1000
Pressure Numeric value ranging from 0 to 100

Your system manager can suggest suitable PI points to use for this exercise.
4. Follow the procedures in Build the Notification Rule (page 23) to create the notification.
5. Create the following conditions for the notification:
a. Configure a comparison condition to monitor when the DeviceOnOff attribute is set
to Off. When the condition is true (DeviceOnOf=Off), the state is Shutdown.
b. Configure an AND condition to monitor when the Level is greater than 90 and the
Temperature is greater than 500 degrees. When the condition is true, the state is
High.
c. Configure an OR condition to monitor when the Level is less than 20 and the
Pressure is less than 10. When this is the case, the state is Low.
d. Configure a condition that uses a Performance Equation to monitor when the average
temperature over the past hour is greater than or equal to 300 degrees. When the
condition is true, the state is OutsideControl. The performance equation is
TagAvg('Temperature','*-1h','')>=300.

For information on how to create complex conditions, see Configure Notification Rule
Triggers (page 55).
If you have trouble, see the Step-by-Step Solution (page 34).

Note: Unlike the examples in previous exercises, this example does not use default PI
points. To test these examples, you must create the PI points.

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Step-by-Step Solution

Create an AF Element with Multiple Attributes

1. Choose PI points to represent the four attributes of the tank. Your PI Server administrator
can suggest suitable PI points for this purpose. Use the following table to choose suitable
PI points with the necessary characteristics:
Attribute Name Properties of PI Point
DeviceOnOff A digital point with two states, On and
Off
Level Numeric value ranging from 0 to 100
Temperature Numeric value ranging from 0 to
1000
Pressure Numeric value ranging from 0 to 100

2. In PI System Explorer, click Elements in the Navigator panel to display the elements in
the current database.
3. Right-click the Elements node in the Browser pane and select New Element.

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

4. The Choose Element Template dialog box appears. Click OK to accept the defaults.

5. On the General tab, in the Name box, enter MonitoredTank.

6. Click the Attributes tab.
7. Right-click in the center pane and select New Attribute. A new attribute appears:

8. In the Name box, enter DeviceOnOff.

9. Set the Data Reference to PI Point.

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Tutorial

10. Click the Settings button. In the PI Point Data Reference dialog box, specify one of the
PI points that you chose in step 2, leave other parameters as configured, and click OK.
11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 to create the following attributes.
ο Level
ο Pressure
ο Temperature

12. Click Check In to save the element in the AF database.

Create the Notification

1. In PI System Explorer click on Notifications in the Navigator panel to display the
notifications in the current database.
2. Click the New button in the Browser pane and select Notification.
3. Click the Overview tab and enter the name Tank Warning for the notification.
4. Click the Trigger tab.
5. Uncheck the Notify only on change in status check box.
6. Select a Resend interval of one minute.

Note: These options are described in Configure Notification Rule Triggers (page 55).

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

7. To associate the notification with the AF element that you created earlier, click the Select
a Target button to the right of the Target box. You see the
Database:MyNotificationsDB dialog.

Select MonitoredTank and click OK.

8. Click Check In to save the element in the AF database.

You are now ready to create the notification conditions.

Add a Comparison Condition

1. Select the notification and click the Trigger tab.
2. Click the New Condition button and select Comparison.

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Tutorial

3. Type DeviceOnOff in the Input box. Select the not equal to operator (<>) from the
Operator drop-down menu. Type Off in the Compare To box. Type 0 (zero) in the
Time True box. Select Clock from the Time True Options drop-down menu. Select
Shutdown from the State drop-down menu. Select Normal from the Priority drop-down
menu.

4. Click OK. Now the trigger condition is set.

Configure an AND Condition

1. Select the notification and click the Trigger tab.
2. Click the New Condition button and select And Conditions from the drop-down list.

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

3. In the And Conditions dialog box, click New Condition > Comparison.

The Comparison dialog box appears.

4. In the Comparison dialog box, type Level in the Input box, select greater than (>) from
the Operator list, and type 90 in the Compare To box. Click OK.
5. You are back at the And Conditions dialog box. The comparison rule you just entered is
now listed in this dialog box. Click New Condition > Comparison.

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Tutorial

6. In this Comparison dialog box, type Temperature in the Input box, select the greater
than operator (>) from the Operator drop-down list, and type 500 in the Compare To
box. Click OK.

The conditions are now listed in the And Conditions dialog box. Click OK.

Configure an OR Condition
1. Select the notification and click the Trigger tab.
2. Click the New Condition button and select Or Conditions from the drop-down list.

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

3. In the Or Conditions dialog box, click New Condition > Comparison.

The Comparison dialog box appears.

4. In the Comparison dialog box, type Level in the Input box, select the less than operator
(<) from the Operator drop-down list, and type 15 in the Compare To box. Click OK.

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Tutorial

5. You are back at the Or Conditions dialog box. The comparison rule you just entered is
now listed in this dialog box. Click New Condition > Comparison.

6. In this Comparison dialog box, type Pressure in the Input box, select the less than
operator (<) from the Operator drop-down list, and type 10 in the Compare To box.
Click OK.

7. The conditions are now listed in the And Conditions dialog box. Select Low from the
State drop-down list. Click OK.

Configure a Performance Equation Comparison Condition

1. Select the notification and click the Trigger tab.

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 Build a Notification Rule with Multiple Conditions

2. Click the New Condition button and select Performance Equation from the drop-down
list.

3. Type an expression in the Expression box: TagAvg('Temperature','-

1h','*')>=300

4. Click the Evaluate button to make sure the expression is in the correct syntax. Click OK.

5. Click Check In on the toolbar to save the notification rule.

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Tutorial

Customize Notification Message Content

Instead of emailing someone the standard content from the notification, we want to add
customized content to the notification message, such as a link to the documentation for a
device.

Basic Steps

The basic steps are as follows:

1. Follow the procedures in Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point Values (page
17) to create the AF database, configure an email contact, create an element, and build
the notification rule.
2. Edit the notification content to add a link to the file of your choice.
For information on how to customize content, see Configure Custom Notification Content
(page 67).
3. Customize the subscriptions to the notification to include the file link.
For information on how to customize subscriptions, see Customize a Subscription to a
Notification Rule (page 101).
If you have trouble, see the Step-by-Step Solution (page 44).

Step-by-Step Solution

Create Custom Content

1. Complete the following procedures in Build a Notification Rule for Monitoring PI Point
Values (page 17):
a. Set up an AF Database (page 19).
b. Create Email Contacts (page 19).
c. Create the AF Element (page 20).
2. Complete steps 1 through 18 in Build the Notification Rule (page 23).
3. Select the notification and click the Content tab.

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 Customize Notification Message Content

4. Click the Add button and select File Link from the drop-down list.

5. Select the file path that you want sent with the notification. Make sure that the path is
accessible from the network. Click OK.
6. The file path now appears on the Content tab.

Subscribe to the Custom Content

1. Click the Subscriptions tab.
2. Find your email address in the Contacts palette to the right and drag it into the
Subscriptions box.
3. Configure your individual contact settings in the dialog that appears after you add
yourself to the Subscriptions list. Click OK.

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4. On the Subscriptions tab, in the Selected Content box, check the check box next to the
File Link content that you created.

5. Click Check In on the toolbar to save the notification rule.

46
Chapter 4

PI System Explorer Overview

Launch PI System Explorer

PI System Explorer is the browser for PI Notifications. Within this browser, you may
configure notification rules and contacts, subscribe to/unsubscribe from notification rules,
and view active or archived notification events.
This chapter discusses PI System Explorer functionalities introduced in and used by PI
Notifications. For details about other uses of the PI System Explorer, including descriptions
of AF add-ins, see the PI System Explorer User Guide.
You can launch PI System Explorer from the Start menu or a desktop shortcut.

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PI System Explorer Overview

Navigate the PI System Explorer

Components of PI System Explorer

PI System Explorer contains these visual components:

• Menu Commands/Toolbars: Use the menu commands and toolbars to open or create a
database, search for contacts, apply or check in changes, set view options, and so on.
• Navigator Panel: Use buttons in this lower-left panel to view groups of PI System
objects. PI Notifications uses three views: MyPI, Notifications, and Contacts. The
selection here dictates what is displayed in the Browser pane and affects some of
Menu/Toolbar items.
• Browser Pane: Use this upper-left pane to select the contacts or notifications you want to
display and work with in the Viewer pane.
• Viewer Pane: This pane, located to the immediate right of the Browser pane, shows the
detailed configuration information for the object selected in the Browser pane. You may
configure or edit a notification rule or a contact when you select a notification rule or a
contact in the Browser pane.
• Palette: Use the pane on the right to access contacts, templates, or data references that
you can associate with contacts or notifications. You have the option of hiding the palette
to save screen space.

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 Navigate the PI System Explorer

• Status Bar: Refer to the status bar at the bottom of the PI System Explorer window to
see current actions in PI System Explorer. For example, if you load a notification, you see
the message Loading Notification.
For more information, see the PI System Explorer User Guide.

Open Notifications View

Select Notifications in the Navigator panel to go to Notifications view. There are three
panes in Notifications view:
• The Browser pane shows a list of notification rules and a toolbar panel. A common task
to accomplish in the Browser pane is to select the notification rule you want to view or
edit in the Viewer pane.
• The Viewer pane shows the details for the selected notification rule in the Browser pane.
In this pane, you can edit the rule, subscribe to or unsubscribe from the notification, and
view its archived events.
• The Palette pane displays the contacts. This pane is visible when you click the
Subscriptions tab in the Viewer pane. You can drag-and-drop contacts from this pane to
subscribe to a notification rule.

Open Contacts View

Select Contacts in the Navigator panel to go to Contacts view. There are three panes in
Contacts view:
• The Browser pane shows configured contacts, notification contact templates, and a
toolbar panel. A common task to accomplish in the Browser pane is to select the contact
you want to view or edit in the Viewer pane.
• The Viewer pane shows the details for the selected contact or template in the Browser
pane. You can edit the selected contact or contact template properties.
• The Palette pane displays the contacts. This pane is visible when you select a group or an
escalation team. You can drag-and-drop contacts from this pane to subscribe to a
notification rule.

Open MyPI View

Select MyPI in the Navigator panel to go to MyPI view:

• The Browser pane shows all the notification rules that the current login user subscribes
to.
• The Viewer pane shows the history for the selected notification rules in the Browser
pane.
See View My Notifications with MyPI (page 105) for a detailed description of the tasks and
functionalities available through these panes.

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PI System Explorer Overview

Check in, Apply, or Undo Changes

Check In All Changes

To permanently save your changes to the AF server:

• While in Contacts view or Notifications view, click File > Check In.
or

• On the toolbar, click Check In .

Apply All Changes

To save your changes temporarily to the AF server, click Apply Changes .

When you apply changes, you are the only user who may see the changes, regardless of
where you login. You may decide later if you want to save the changes permanently, as
explained in Check In All Changes (page 50), or discard them, as explained in Undo All
Changes (page 50).

Undo All Changes

If you decide to discard your changes that have been temporarily saved, you can:
• Select File > Undo Check In.
or

• Click the Undo Check In button.

Understand Change Icons

Notifications
When you make changes to a notification rule or notification contact, a check mark appears
next it.
The bright red check mark next to the notification icon— —indicates that you have
modified the object, but have not applied the change or checked the object in. Changes that
have been saved but not checked in are indicated by a dark red check mark next to the
notification icon. When a notification rule is check out to someone else, it appears with a
blue check mark next to the notification icon.

Contacts
When a contact is checked out to you, a red check box appears next the contact icon.

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 Refresh the Current Database

When a contact is checked out to someone else, a grey check box appears next the contact
icon.
When a contact is not checked out, there is no check box next to the contact icon.

Refresh the Current Database

You can refresh all the objects in PI System Explorer by clicking Refresh . If you have
made any unsaved changes in PI Notifications, you will receive a message prompting you to
apply changes, discard your changes, or cancel the refresh.

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Chapter 5

Build and Start Notification Rules

This chapter discusses how to create a notification rule, customize notification rule content,
and start/stop a notification rule.

Elements and Notification Rules

An asset is a physical entity such as a mixer, tank, meter, or reactor. You might want to
monitor these assets and to be informed when the condition of the assets changes in specified
ways. For example, you might want to be notified when the pressure or temperature within a
reactor exceed certain limits. In PI Notifications, you represent the reactor as an element and
create a notification rule to monitor reactor conditions.
Elements have attributes for important data associated with the asset. A notification rule
might use these attributes to define the conditions that cause a notification to be sent, called
triggering conditions. In this example, the reactor element might include attributes that
reference PI points for temperature and pressure readings. The notification rule performs
calculations on these readings to determine whether the temperature or pressure conditions
fall outside the specified limits. When you start the notification rule, these calculations are
performed repeatedly as specified by the notification's time rule. When triggering conditions
are met, the notification rule sends content to its subscribers. For example, you might
configure the notification rule to send an email with the temperature and pressure at the time
the triggering conditions are met.
Notification rules can be as simple as this example, or more complex. For example, you can:
• Create elements that represent logical entities, such as flows.
• Create process models that consist of multiple or nested elements.
• Specify nested conditions within nested conditions in a notification rule.
For more information, see AF 2.1 User's Guide.

Create an Element
To create an element:
1. Click Elements in the Navigator panel in PI System Explorer.
2. In Elements view, select File > New. A new element is added to the Notifications pane.
3. In the General tab, enter the name and description for the element.
4. Click the Attributes tab, and enter the attributes for the element.

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5. You can save all the changes either temporarily or permanently:

ο Click Apply Changes to save your changes for the selected notification rule to
your sandbox, where changes are stored temporarily to the server but are not visible
to other users.

ο Click Check In to save all your changes permanently.

Create a Notification Rule

To create a notification rule for an element:
1. Click Notifications in the Navigator panel in PI System Explorer.
2. In Notifications view, select File > New. A new notification is added in the
Notifications pane. Its corresponding Overview tab is displayed in the Viewer pane.
3. In the Overview tab, enter the name and description for the notification.
4. Click the Trigger tab, click the Select a Target button, click an element on the list, and
then click OK.
5. Configure the conditions that trigger the notification rule. See Configure Conditions
(page 56).
6. Subscribe contacts to the notification rule. See Subscribe Contacts to a Notification Rule
(page 89).
7. (Optional) Customize the content that is sent when the notification is triggered. See
Configure Custom Notification Content (page 67).
8. (Optional) Add this notification to a category. Adding categories to a notification rule
helps you organize your notification rules. See Organize Notification Rules (page 78) for
details.
9. You can save all the changes either temporarily or permanently:

ο Click Apply Changes . to save your changes for the selected notification rule to
your sandbox, where changes are stored temporarily to the server but are not visible
to other users.

ο Click Check In to save all your changes permanently.

Note: You work area is considered a sandbox until changes are checked in; applying
changes to a notification requires that changes be manually checked in later.

After you configure more properties in the respective Trigger, Content, and Subscriptions
tabs, those properties will be visible in the Overview tab.

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Configure Notification Rule Triggers

A trigger is a collection of conditions that cause a notification to be sent. A trigger consists of
the following:
• Target: The element to be monitored, for example, an element that represents a reactor.
• Conditions: The rules that determine when you are notified, for example, when reactor
temperature or pressure exceeds specific limits.
• Time Rule: The rule that specifies when conditions are evaluated. For example, you
might want to evaluate conditions whenever the temperature or pressure of a reactor
changes.
To configure a trigger:
1. Specify the details for triggering a notification.
a. Select the Trigger tab in Notifications view.
b. Click the Select a Target button next to the Target box and select the target element
for this notification. See Elements and Notification Rules (page 53) for information
on elements.
c. Click OK.
2. Select the conditions that will prompt a notification rule to fire.
a. Click the Add button under Conditions and select from the options: Comparison,
SQC, Performance Equation, And Conditions, or Or Conditions.
b. Configure each condition. See Configure Conditions (page 56) for information on
configuring each condition type.
3. Select either Natural or Periodic in the Time Rule box.
Natural: Can be used solely if the inputs used in the conditions include at least one PI
Point. The conditions are evaluated whenever any of the PI Points receives a new
snapshot event.
Periodic: This time rule is used to evaluate conditions based on clock scheduling. When
you select Periodic, the ellipsis becomes available for you to configure the time rule.

More on Periodic Time Rule: Use the periodic time rule to generate calendar or
wall-clock periodic cases. AF supports three core intervals: (1) Periodic, (2)
Daily and (3) Monthly.

For the periodic interval, note that the first period begins at the specified offset at the
beginning of each day. The duration of daily and monthly intervals is always
equal to the time between successive intervals. For time intervals that are not
even multiples of 24 hours, a short time span occurs at the end of each day.
This also occurs during shifts in Daylight Savings Time (DST) for periods that
are not a multiple of the DST shift, typically one hour. All times are considered
local to the AF Server.

4. Configure the Options settings. For information, see Configure Notification Rule Options
(page 65).

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To delete a condition, click the condition in the Conditions list and click Delete .

To edit a condition, click the condition in the Conditions list and click Edit .

To move a condition up, click the condition in the Conditions list and click .

To move a condition down , click the condition in the Conditions list and click .

Configure Conditions

Configure a Comparison Condition

Comparison conditions use operators to check input values against a target value that you
specify.
The following operators compare the input value to the target value:
Operator Description
< Less than.
<= Less than or equal to.
= Equal to.
>= Greater than or equal to.
> Greater than.
<> Not equal to.
In Checks if the value is in the
string specified as target.
Not In Checks if the value is not in
the string specified as target.
Includes Checks if the value includes
the string specified as target.
Any Change Checks for any change in the
input value.
Is Good Checks if the value is good.
Is Bad Checks if the value is bad.

Step operators compare the target value to the difference between the current input value and
the previous input value. The following table shows details of the calculations:
Operator Description Calculation
Step Decrease Larger Determines if the input value is (previous value - current
Than decreasing and the change is value)
greater than the target value. > target value
Step Increase Larger Than Determines if the input value is (previous value - current
increasing and the change is value)
greater than the target value. < target value

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Operator Description Calculation

Step Change Larger Than Determines if the change in ABS(previous value - current
the input value was greater value)
than the target value in either > target value
direction.
Step Change Less Than Determines if the change in ABS(previous value - current
the input value was less than value)
the target value in either < target value
direction.

Rate operators compare the target value to the difference between the current and previous
input values, divided by delta time, where delta time is the time that elapsed between the
collection of the two values:
Operator Description Calculation
Rate Decrease Larger Determines if the input value is ((previous value - current
Than decreasing and the rate of value)/delta time)
change is greater than the > target value
target value.
Rate Increase Larger Than Determines if the input value is ((previous value - current
increasing and the rate of value)/delta time)
change is greater than the < target value
target value.
Rate Change Larger Than Determines if the rate of (ABS(previous value - current
change in the input value is value)/delta time)
greater than the target value in > target value
either direction.
Rate Change Less Than Determines if the rate of (ABS(previous value - current
change in the input value is value)/delta time)
less than the target value in < target value
either direction.

To configure a Comparison condition, use the Comparison dialog box:

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1. At a minimum, specify the following:

ο Input
ο Operator
ο Target Value (dependent on the selected operator)
ο State
2. Select an Input. Choose an attribute of the target or an element that has a default
attribute..
3. Select a comparison operator.
4. Select an attribute or value to compare the input against.
a. You can click the Search button to find an attribute as your target.
b. You can type a string or numeric in the Compare to box that you would like to
compare the input against. If the string you enter is the same as the name of an
attribute you will be allowed to say if you want to use the string or the attribute value
as your target.
5. Specify a deadband in the Deadband box. A deadband is a buffer around the limit value
which assures the notification will not prematurely exit the alerting state. It only applies
to <, <=, =>, and >.
6. Enter a time in the Time true box.
7. Select a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, or days in the Time true drop-down menu.
8. Set the Time True Options. Time True Options are either Natural or Clock. If
Natural is selected, the comparison will only be evaluated when the time rule triggers. If
Clock is selected, the comparison will be evaluated after the specified amount of time has
passed on the clock, independent of the time rule trigger time.
9. Specify the State Group that the state you want as the output belongs to.

Note: This may affect the non repetition interval, see Configure Notification Rule
Options (page 65) for details.

10. Select the output state for the notification if this condition is true in the State box.
11. Set the priority of this condition in the Priority box. If multiple conditions are found true,
the one with the highest priority will be used as the output of the notification rule.
12. When all the values have been set, click OK.

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Configure an SQC Condition

To configure an SQC condition, use the SQC dialog box.

• Source is the attribute whose values the SQC analysis are used in the SQC condition.
• UCL is the upper control limit. Select an attribute.
• CL is the center line. Select an attribute.
• LCL is the lower control limit. Select an attribute.
• Check Clear on Control Limit Change to clear the notification state, clear the test
buffer, and start the calculation over from scratch if any control limits change.
• The seven pattern tests shown are standard Western Electric Pattern Tests.

Note: Please refer to the PI Real-Time SQC chapter in the PI Server Applications
Manual for more information on these pattern tests.

The pattern tests are listed in the order of the precedence. That is, if Outside Control, One
Side of Center Line, and Trend all fail, Outside Control is the condition reported.
Outside Control x of y [<blank>, above, Within y number of samples, x are
or below] outside of control limits. Options:
Specify above or below to apply test
only above or below the center line.
Outside 2 Sigma x of y [<blank>, above, Within y number of samples, x are
outside the Two Sigma limit. Options:

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or below] Specify above or below to report alarms

for this test only above or below the
center line.
Outside 1 Sigma x of y [<blank>, above, Within y number of samples, x are
or below] outside the One Sigma limit. Options:
Specify above or below to report alarms
for this test only above or below the
center line.
One Side of Center Line x of y [<blank>, above, Within y number of samples, x are on
or below] one side of the center line. Options:
Specify above or below to report alarms
for this test only above or below the
center line.
Stratification x of y Within y number of samples, x are
within the One Sigma limit.
Mixture x of y Within y number of samples, x are not
within the One Sigma limit.
Trend x x consecutive values trend either up or
down.

To configure the pattern tests, select the pattern tests to include in the SQC calculation by
checking the boxes next to the desired pattern tests. The X, Y, and Above or Below
selections will become available for editing.
Y is the sample size necessary and X is the number out of Y required to fail the pattern
test. The recommended numbers are shown by default.
Outside Control, Outside 2 Sigma, Outside 1 Sigma, and One Side of Center Line
each have three options for evaluating the patterns: Both, Above, or Below of the center
line.

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Configure a Performance Equation Condition

To configure a Performance Equation condition, use the Performance Equation dialog
box:

Note: The input name inside single quotes (in this case, sinusoid) is an AFAttribute, and
must exist on the target specified earlier. One can also type in a full PI point path
for input, for example, ‘\\piserver_name\tag_name’. Target still needs to be
specified in trigger, but it is not used to find the input. This may be any element in
your database. Full AFAttribute path may also be used as input.

1. Type in the Performance Equation (PE) expression in the Expression box. As you type,
tool tip will show and help guide you through the syntax. If there is an error, the erring
token will be underlined with a red squiggly line, and if available, detailed information
regarding the cause of the error will be shown.
2. If no error shows and you are satisfied with the expression, click the Evaluate button to
see if the expression evaluates to a value you expect. If satisfied with the result, fill out
Time true. Time true is the length of time the condition needs to be true in order for the
notification to trigger.
3. Set the Time True Options. Time True Options are either Natural or Clock. See the
details describing Time True Options in Configure a Comparison Condition (page 56).
4. In the State Group box, select the state group to which the output state belongs.

Note: The state group may affect the non repetition interval, see Configure
Notification Rule Options (page 65) for details.

5. In the State list box, select the output state for the notification when this condition is true.

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6. Set the priority of this condition in the Priority box. If multiple conditions are found true,
the one with the highest priority will be used as the output of the notification rule.
7. When all the values have been set, click OK.
These Performance Equation functions are not supported in this release of PI Notifications:
• MedianFilt
• Impulse
• Delay
• Arma
• IsDST
All other Performance Equation functions are supported in this version of PI Notifications.

Note: For more information about Performance Equations, see the PI Server
Applications Guide.

Example Performance Equation

Type in TagVal('sinusoid') > 50

Note: The input name inside single quotes (in this case sinusoid) is an AFAttribute, and
must exist on the target specified earlier (unless it is a full path). One can also
type in a full PI point path as in ‘\\piserver_name\tag_name’ or
'\\afserver\database\element|attribute'. Target still needs to be specified in Trigger
but is not used to find the input. If the input is not specified as full path, it will be
interpreted as being relative to the specified target.

Configure And Conditions

AND Conditions are used to define equations where every condition must be true. Use this
option to require that multiple conditions be true for a notification to fire.

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To configure an AND Condition, use the And Conditions dialog box:

1. Click Add in the And Conditions dialog and select Comparison or Performance
Equation.
2. To create the most common And Condition, fill out two dialogs to create two conditions
that must be true.

Note: However, you are not required to add two conditions.

Complete one of the following combinations:

− The Condition dialog twice.
− The Performance Equation dialog twice.
− One each of the Condition dialog and the Performance Equation dialog.
To complete the Condition dialog:
a. Enter an input type in the Input box.
b. Enter an operator in the Operator box.
c. Enter a comparison value in the Compare To box.
d. Enter a deadband into the Deadband box, if applicable.
e. Click OK.
To complete the Performance Equation dialog, enter a Performance Equation
expression into the Expression text box and click OK.

Note: Your newly created expression should now appear in the Rule text box of the
And Conditions dialog.

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3. Complete the And Conditions dialog.

a. Enter a time in the Time true box.
b. Select a unit of seconds, minutes, hours, or days in the Time true list.
c. Set the Time True Options. Time True Options are either Natural or Clock. See
the details describing Time True Options in Configure a Comparison Condition
(page 56).
d. Specify the State Group for the output state.

Note: This may affect the non repetition interval, see Configure Notification Rule
Options (page 65) for more detail.

e. In the State list, select the output state when the notification is true.
f. Set the priority of this condition in the Priority box. If multiple conditions are found
true, the one with the highest priority is used as the output of the notification rule.
g. When all the values have been set, click OK.
4. When all conditions have been set, click OK.

Configure Or Conditions
OR Conditions are used to define equations where any condition must be true. Use this
option to require that one of multiple conditions be true for a notification to fire.
To configure an OR Condition, follow the same process described to Configure AND
conditions (page 62).

Determine Condition Precedence

If multiple conditions are found true, the following rules, in this order, determine the
notification rule that takes precedence.
1. The condition with the highest priority.
2. The condition having the “highest” state, if the state belongs to a group. For example, if
High and HiHi are in the same group and HiHi is higher than High, then HiHi takes
precedence.
3. The condition order.

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Configure Notification Rule Options

On the Trigger tab in Notifications view, you can configure notification rule options. Here
are descriptions of these options.

Notify only on change in status: When enabled (the default), you are notified solely
when the notification rule enters a unique notification state and priority. When disabled,
you are notified every time the notification rule is run and the notification rule is in a
notification state, even if the state has not changed.
Resend Interval: A resend interval can optionally be specified to send out additional
alerts if a violation does not clear within a certain amount of time. This can serve as a
reminder that a problem has not been resolved. The interval specifies how long to wait
between resending.
To specify no resend interval, enter zero in the Resend Interval box.
The figure below shows the pattern of alerts PI Notifications sends if a resend interval is
specified.

Non Repetition Interval: Excessive alerts can be filtered by configuring a non-repetition

interval. A non-repetition interval prevents PI Notifications from sending similar alerts
associated with the same notification within a certain amount of time. The non-repetition
interval does not prevent alerts from a different state group or of a higher importance

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from being sent because of a prior alert. For example, if the value of a trigger point
rapidly increases, the non-repetition interval does not filter a HiHi alert from being sent
because of a recently sent High alert. Similarly, the non-repetition interval would not
prevent a High alert from being sent because of a recently sent Low alert.
To specify no non-repetition interval, enter zero in the Non Repetition Interval box.
If both a resend interval and a non-repetition interval are specified, the resend interval
must be longer.
The figure below illustrates how setting a non-repetition interval affects how PI
Notifications sends alerts.

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 Standard Notification Content
Use content to populate and customize the notification message. Each subscription can
request different data to be delivered with the notification message, and the Content tab lists
all the data that will be collected and may be sent with the notification message.
Standard content is general information about the notification and the underlying trigger,
and it is always sent with a notification message. The standard content for a notification
cannot be removed or edited. It includes:
• Name: The name of the notification which fired.
• Description: The description of the notification which fired.
• Target: The name of the target element that caused this excursion.
• Start Time: The time at which the value first entered the alert state.
• End Time: The time at which the value left the alert state.
• Trigger Time: The time at which this notification event was sent.
• Trigger Value: The value of the attribute or expression at the trigger time.
• Escalation Level: If you are using an escalation queue, the number of people who have
been notified regarding this excursion.
• Priority: The priority associated with the trigger condition.

Configure Custom Notification Content

In the Content tab, you can add custom content to a notification rule. A few examples of
custom content that can be added are a list of KPI tag values, the current product out of a
relational data source, a display and link to a Web page. Custom content is a list of
categorized items. Attributes, Web links, and sound files are examples of custom content
categories.
When you subscribe to a notification rule, you can choose which of the selected content to be
sent with the notification message.

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Configure a Constant Value

To add a constant value to the notification:

1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, select Add > Constant Value.

2. Define the constant value in the text box of the Add Value dialog box.

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 Configure Custom Notification Content

3. Click OK.
4. Open Notifications view to see the constant value included in the Content tab.

Configure an Attribute Value

To add an attribute value to the notification:

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1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, select Add > Attribute Value.

2. Click the attribute value type to select an attribute from the tree in the Choose an
Attribute dialog.

3. Click OK.

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4. Open Notifications view to see the attribute value in the Content tab.

Configure a Web Link

To add a Web link to the notification:

1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, and then select Add > Web Link > Other.
2. Use the Add Link Content dialog box to identify the Web link.

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a. (Optional) In the Display Name box, enter a name for the link that displays in the
content.

b. Enter the URL for the Web address in the Link Address box.

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 Configure Custom Notification Content

3. If you want to add parameter and value pairs (Parameter=Value) to your URL, click Add
to open the Add Parameter and Value dialog box.

a. Enter a Parameter Name in the Name box.

b. Enter a value or select a value from the list of Standard Content values in the Value
list.
c. Click OK.

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The parameter and value pair display in the Add Link Content dialog.

4. Open Notifications view to see the Web link on the Content tab.

Configure an RtReports Link

You can include PI Notifications content that generates a clickable link to an RtReports
report.
To add an RtReports Link to the notification:
1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, select Add > Web Link > RtReports.

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 Configure Custom Notification Content

2. Configure the options in the RtReports dialog box.

a. In the Display Name box, enter a name for the link to the RtReports.
b. Enter the name of the server where the RtReports are stored in the RtReports Server
box.
c. To log into the RtReports Server as a different user, click the Connect As button.
d. Select an RtReports template from the list of RtReport Templates.

3. Click OK.
4. Open Notifications view to see the RtReports link on the Content tab.

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Configure an RtWebParts Link

PI Notifications provides an instant RtWebParts trend that allows you to create a link to an
RtWebParts page. In the first case, you get a link to an RtWebParts trend which shows you a
trend of inputs to and the outputs from the notification rule. In the latter case, you can
configure a link to an RtWebParts page and PI Notifications sends you the link.
To add an RtWebParts trend to the notification:
1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, and then select Add > Web Link >
RtWebParts.
2. Use the RtWebParts dialog to name the link, select the link address, and choose the
content you want to include.

a. In the Display Name box, enter a name for the link.

b. Enter the link address for RtWebParts link.
c. Select and add the content you want to include in the RtWebParts link from the list of
Included Content.
3. Open Notifications view to see the RtWebParts link on the Content tab.

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Configure a File

To add a file to the notification:

1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, select Add > File.

2. To configure File content, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the file you want to add.
3. Open Notifications view to see the file you added included on the Content tab.

Configure a File Link

To add a file to the notification:

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1. Right-click anywhere on the Content tab, select Add > File Link.

2. To configure File Link content, use Windows Explorer to navigate to and select the file
that you would like included as a link in the notification.
3. Open Notifications view to see the file you added included on the Content tab.

Note: The file link cannot be a local file path. It must be a Universal File Convention
(UNC) file path of the form \\ComputerName\SharedFolder\File.

Edit or Delete Existing Content

To edit existing custom content, right-click the content and click Edit.
To delete existing custom content, right-click the content and click Delete.

Organize Notification Rules

Folder icons in the Notifications browser indicate that the association with a group of
notification rules is included in the notification properties.
You can optionally group notification rules to promote organization in the Notifications
browser. You can organize notification rules according to category or status.

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Category: A category is a user-defined name that groups notification rules together. For
information on adding a notification rule to a category, see Create a Notification Rule (page
54). For information on adding categories, see Create a Category (page 80).
To organize notification rules by category, click the Folder icon ( ) and select Category
from the drop-down menu.

Status: The status of a notification rule is either inactive, ready, running or error. Inactive
notification rules are not configured to run and do not calculate. Ready notification rules are
enabled and begin calculating as soon as PI Notifications Service is started for this database.
Running notifications are currently calculating on PI Notifications Service. Error
notifications encountered a problem when attempting to start.
To organize notification rules by status, click the Folder icon ( ) and select Status from
the drop-down menu.

Select None from the drop-down menu if you do not want to organize the notification rules.

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To view the notification rules within a folder, expand the folder. Close the folder by clicking
the Minimize button (-) next to the folder.

Create a Category

Use element categories to organize notifications. You can either create categories in the
Library or on the fly as you edit a notification.
To create an element category in the Library:
1. Click Library in the Navigator panel in PI System Explorer.
2. Click the Categories node to open it.
3. Right-click Element Categories and click New Category.
4. On the Element Category Properties dialog, enter a name and description for the
category, and click OK.

5. Click Check In
To create an element category while editing a notification:
1. Click Notifications in the Navigator panel in PI System Explorer.
2. Click the notification to edit.

3. On the Overview tab, click the Folder icon next to the Categories box.
4. Enter a name for the category you want to use or create in the Names text box of the
Category Selection dialog box.

5. Click Add to List. Click OK.

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6. Click Check In

Start a Notification Rule

You may start a single notification rule or start multiple notification rules at the same time.
• To start a single notification rule, select the notification rule you want to start in the
Notifications browser, and click Start .
• To start multiple notification rules, select the notification rules you want to start
Notifications browser (by holding down the CTRL key), and click Start .
Starting a notification rule prompts the PI Notifications Scheduler to start processing the
rule’s trigger(s) in real time, to send notification events to contacts when violations occur, to
archive all the actions associated with this rule, and so on. You can start a notification rule
only if a running instance of the PI Analytics Scheduler is configured to run the database
where the rule is located. If no running instance of the PI Analytics Scheduler is configured to
run the rule’s database, you get message indicating that no running instance will be displayed,
but the rule is enabled to run. The notification rule automatically starts when a service
instance configured to run the rule’s database starts.

Stop a Notification Rule

To stop a notification rule or multiple notification rules, click Stop .

Reset a Notification Rule

If a notification rule is running and has been triggered, you can reset the rule to clear the
notification state. Resetting is useful for testing notification rules before deploying them.
To reset a notification rule:
1. Click Notifications in the Navigator panel.
2. Right-click the notification rule and select Reset Notification.

Note: You must have Write Data access to reset a notification. For more information, see
Manage Notification and Contact Security. (page 115)

Notification Templates
PI Notifications allows you to build many similar notification rules by creating a notification
rule template for an element template.

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For example, if you have a set of pumps with a similar structure, you might want to monitor
their conditions with a similar set of notification rules. You create an element template for the
pumps and use the element template to create elements for each pump. By creating a
notification template and specifying the element template as the target, you can build
notification rules simultaneously for all the pumps.

Startup Options for Notification Templates

To create a notification template, you specify the same kind of information as for a
notification rule: the target element template, the triggering conditions, the time rule, the
subscribers, and optional custom content and categories. In addition, you need to specify how
you want to create individual notifications. You can:
• Automatically create a notification for each element and start it: This option creates
and starts a notification rule for each new element that you create from the target element
template. Notifications for existing elements from the element template must be created
manually.
• Automatically create a notification for each element: This option creates a notification
rule for each new element that you create from the target element template, but you must
start each notification rule manually. See Start a Notification Rule (page 81).
• Do not create a notification automatically: If you choose this option, you must
manually create the notification rule for each element that uses the target element
template. If you create a new element from the element template, you must create the
notification rule manually. See Manually Create a Notification Rule from a Template
(page 84).

Note: For the automatic options, PI Notifications creates the notification rules solely for
new elements that you create from the target element template. Notification rules
for existing elements must be created manually.

Custom Content for Notification Templates

Custom content that you add to a notification template is sent with all notification rules that
are based on that template. Use the procedures in Configure Custom Notification Content
(page 67) to add custom content to a notification template.

Note: You can add custom content to individual notification rules that are based on a
notification template, but you cannot remove custom content that is specified by
the template.

Create an Element Template in the Library

To create an element template:

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1. In PI System Explorer, click Library in the Navigator panel to display the templates in
the current database.
2. If necessary, click the Templates node to expand it.
3. Right-click the Element Templates node and select New Template.
4. On the Overview, Attribute Templates, and Ports tabs, add information that is
appropriate for the element.

5. Click Check In to save the changes.

Create a Notification Template in the Library

To create a notification template for an element template:

1. In PI System Explorer, click Library in the Navigator panel to display the templates in
the current database.
2. If necessary, click the Templates node to expand it.
3. Right-click the Notification Templates node and select New Template.
4. In the Viewer pane, click the notification template to select it.
5. Click the Overview tab, and enter a name for the template.
6. In the Creation and Startup Options group, specify how you want notifications to be
created from this template. See Startup Options for Notification Templates (page 82).
7. Click the Trigger tab, click the Select a Target button, click an element template on the
list, and then click OK.
8. Add conditions for the notifications to be created from this template. See Configure
Conditions (page 56).
9. Subscribe contacts to the notification rules to be created from this template. See
Subscribe Contacts to a Notification Rule (page 89).
10. (Optional) Customize the content that is sent when the notification is triggered. See
Configure Custom Notification Content (page 67).

11. Click Check In to save the changes.

Create a Notification Template from a Notification Rule

If you have previously created a notification rule for an AF element, you can create a
notification template from the rule:
1. In PI System Explorer, click Notifications in the Navigator panel.
2. In the Browser pane, right-click the notification to use as the basis of the notification
template and click Convert to Notification Template.
3. If an element template does not yet exist for the notification template, click Yes to create
the element template and transfer to the Library.

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4. Enter a name for the notification template.

5. Change the Creation and Startup Options as needed.

6. Click Check In to save the notification template.

Manually Create a Notification Rule from a Notification Template

To manually create a notification rule for an element:

1. Click Notifications in the Navigator panel in PI System Explorer. In Notifications view,
click File > New > Notification from Template.
2. On the Notification Template dialog, click the notification template to use. You see a
list of all elements that are based on the target element template.
Elements without notifications have No in the column, Has Existing Notification.
3. Select the target elements from the list, and then click OK.
Select individual elements by selecting their check boxes. Alternatively, click Select
and choose All, Elements Without Existing Notification, or None from the
menu.

Note: If you select an element that has an existing notification, PI Notifications

creates a new notification rule for that element.

4. In the Notifications pane, you see a new notification rule for each element that you
selected.
5. For each notification rule that you created:
a. Click the Overview tab and enter the name and description for the notification rule.
b. (Optional) Customize the Time Rule and other Options on the Trigger tab. See
Configure Notification Rule Triggers (page 55).
c. (Optional) Subscribe additional contacts to the notification rule. See Subscribe
Contacts to a Notification Rule (page 89).
d. (Optional) Customize the content that is sent when the notification is triggered. See
Configure Notification Content (page 67).Custom (page 67)
e. (Optional) Add this notification to a category. Adding categories to a notification rule
helps you organize your notification rules. See Organize Notification Rules (page 78)
for details.

6. Click Check In to save your changes.

Alternatively, you can create the notification rule from a template in the Library: In Library
view, click the Templates node and Notification Templates node to open them if needed,
right-click the notification template to use, and then click New > Notification from
Template. On the Notification Template dialog, select the target elements and then proceed
as in steps 4 through 6 above.

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View or Edit Notification Rule Security

The detailed meanings of the permission attributes are discussed in the chapter PI
Notifications for Administrators (page 115).

Note: You need Admin access to modify security permissions.

1. Right-click a notification rule in the Notifications browser and select Security from the
drop-down menu.
2. Select users and set permissions as needed in the Permissions for Notification Rule
Name dialog box.

Note: To have Write access to a notification rule, you need to have Write access to both
the rule and the rule’s database. To edit the database security, right-click the
database in the Select Database dialog box, click Security, and edit the
Permission for Database dialog.

Deploy a Notification Rule

Deploying a notification rule or a set of rules involves the following two steps:
1. Export the notification rule(s) from the source database.
2. Import the notification rule(s) to the target database.

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Export a Notification Rule

To export all of the notification rules in the database, complete the following procedure:

Note: To exclude the import of notifications into another database, you must edit the
exported XML file.

1. Select the database for the notification rule(s) to be exported.

2. Open Notifications view in PI System Explorer.
3. Right-click on any notification in the Notifications browser and select Export from the
drop-down menu.
4. Click the Ellipsis (. . .) on the Export dialog box to browse to the directory where you
want to create the XML file. The default directory is the My Documents directory.
5. Name the XML file you will create. The default file name is Notifications.xml .

6. Select from the following export options:

ο Include all Referenced Objects: Mark this check box to include the notification
references to all objects. Referenced objects include contacts, categories, target
element and element template, analysis and analysis templates, content, and
subscription data. Also, this option exports references dependent on other values or
configuration data. This option can be used to facilitate moving objects between
different AF databases or PI Systems.
ο Default Values: Mark this check box to include the export of properties which are
set to their default value. If this check box is not marked, only properties that have
been changed from their default settings will be included in the output. This option is
useful to exclude default values, and thereby save considerable space and time when
you are exporting large amounts of data.
For example, the default value for the resend interval is zero (see Configure
Notification Rule Triggers (page 55) for information on the resend interval). When
the Default Values check box is not marked, all parameters inheriting default values
are not exported, resulting in a smaller export file.

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Also, when you import such a file, parameters with default values in the source rule
are not overwritten on the target database. For example, suppose you export a
notification rule without marking the Default Values check box. The resend interval
specified for the notification rule has the default value of zero, but this default is not
included in the export file. After you have exported the notification rule to a target
database, you change the resend interval to 60 seconds on the target database. Now, if
you re-export this rule, the resend interval is not overwritten and remains 60 seconds.
On the other hand, if you mark the Default Values check box, the resend interval is
overwritten and reset to zero.
ο Unique IDs: Select this option to include the unique ID of each object in the export.
Its primary purpose is to allow you to rename an existing object. With this option,
you can rename existing notification rules during import to the same database. Unless
renaming is required, it is more efficient to leave this option turned off. It does not
allow Unique IDs to be imported into a new database. However, it can be used by an
external application for getting access to the Unique ID of the object, and it may
allow for faster lookup of objects during import back into the same database than
using either a name or a path—this is particularly true for elements with long paths.
However, exporting Unique IDs when moving objects from one database to another
will slow down both export and import.

Note: Neither the states nor the state groups used in the trigger are exported in this
process. Since a missing state is dynamically added to the target PI System
when the PI Notifications Service runs a notification rule, this is not an issue
as long as the missing state does not belong to a state group. If it does belong
to a state group, create the missing states and groups on the target PI System
manually.

7. Click OK to export the notification rules to the XML file.

8. Click Close and use the PI System Explorer to select the database where you want to
deploy the notifications. You may now import the data that has been exported from a
database.

Import Notification Rules

To import notification rules, you must have permission required to create notifications—write
access to the notifications collection.
To import notification rules:
1. Navigate to the database where you want to import notification rules.
2. Navigate to the XML file created by exporting notification rules.
3. Right-click on any notification in the Notifications browser and select Import from the
drop-down menu.

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4. Use the Import dialog box to create notifications from the XML file you exported. Select
from the following import options:
ο Allow Create: Select this option to allow new objects to be created during the
import. If you intend to update only existing items, you can turn this option off to
prevent accidental creation of new objects.
ο Allow Update: Select this option to allow existing objects to be updated. If you
intent to add only new items, you can turn this option off to prevent accidental
overwrite of existing objects.
ο Automatic Check In: Select this option to automatically check in objects during the
import. This is strongly recommended if you are importing a large number of objects,
as it reduces the maximum memory requirements of the import operation.
5. Click OK.
6. Use PI System Explorer to access the notifications from the database where you deployed
the notifications.

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Subscribe Contacts to a Notification Rule

PI Notifications can deliver notification messages to various endpoints (or delivery channels).
It supports email and Web service delivery channels natively. You can expand the list of
endpoints by developing customized delivery channels. Refer to the PI Notifications
Programming Guide for details.
You subscribe an endpoint to a notification rule to receive its messages. To avoid configuring
the endpoint repeatedly, configure a template. We refer the endpoint as notification contact
and the template as notification contact template. To simplify the notification contact
template configuration further, you can construct notification contact templates out of
information from an Active Directory entry automatically. We refer to an Active Directory
entry as a contact.

What is a Notification Contact?

A notification contact is an individual entity or group of entities that can receive notification
messages. PI Notifications provides three types of notification contacts: Delivery Endpoints,
Groups, and Escalation Teams.
You can nest Groups and Escalation Teams within another Group or Escalation team.

Delivery Endpoint

A delivery endpoint is a single entity to which a notification is delivered, such as an

individual email address, or the set of email addresses associated with an AD group contact.
A contact can have more than one delivery endpoint. In the example that follows, the AF
contact has three delivery endpoints. Two of the contacts use an email delivery channel. The
third contact uses an XML delivery channel that was configured by the system administrator.

Every delivery endpoint contains the following Contact Options:

• Notify on close: When selected, the contact receives a notification when the trigger
condition is no longer true.

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• Retry interval: If an attempt to send the notification fails, specifies the amount of time
before resending the notification.
• Maximum Retries: Specifies the maximum number of times to attempt sending the
notification.
Depending on the delivery channel for the endpoint, you might need to specify additional
options. For more information on the configuration of specific delivery channels, see
Configure Delivery Channels (page 95).
The first time you subscribe a linked delivery endpoint to a notification rule, a dialog displays
to prompt you for configuration information. For example, the following dialog displays for
an email delivery endpoint:

If an Active Directory account does not exist for a contact, you need to create a Custom
Contact (page 92).

Group Contact

A group is an unordered collection of delivery endpoints. Notification messages are sent to

all members of the group simultaneously. For a group contact in PI Notifications, you must
specify:
• the notification contacts to be included in the group. The notification contacts can be
individual delivery endpoints, other groups, or an escalation team. Use this feature to nest
a group within another group.
• a Required acknowledgments value for the number of acknowledgements. The
Required Acknowledgments value is either Auto or an integer. If you select Auto, the
notification is automatically acknowledged after it is sent. This is useful when you want
to be notified but do not want to manually acknowledge the notification instances.

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Note: A group contact differs from a delivery endpoint that is linked to an Active
Directory (AD) group. You cannot specify multiple or automatic acknowledgments
for a linked AD group, because the AD group is a single delivery endpoint.
Although notifications are sent to all members of the linked AD group, PI
Notifications can receive only one acknowledgement from the group.

To create and configure a new group:

1. In PI System Explorer, click Contacts.
2. Click File > New > New Group.
3. Enter a name for the group. Optionally, add a description.
4. To add contacts to the group, click to display the Add Contacts dialog. Select the
contacts to include in the group, and then click OK. Alternatively, drag contacts from the
Contacts pane onto the Contacts box.
5. Enter a Required acknowledgments value. The default value is Auto, which indicates
zero acknowledgments.

6. Click Check In to save the group.

Note: To delete a contact from the Contacts box, click the contact and then click Delete
, or right-click the contact and click Remove.

Escalation Team

An escalation team is an ordered collection of delivery endpoints. Notification messages are

sent sequentially to the members of the escalation team until the notification is
acknowledged. To define an escalation team, you must specify the following information:
• the notification contacts to be included in the escalation team
• the order in which to notify the contacts
• the Escalation period: If a notification instance is not acknowledged, the Escalation
period defines the amount of time to elapse before a notification is sent to the next
contact on the list.
• the action to be taken if the notification has been sent to all members of the escalation
team and has not been acknowledged.
To create an escalation team:
1. In the PI System Explorer, click Contacts.
2. Click File > New > New Escalation Team.
3. Enter a name for the escalation. Optionally, add a description.
4. Enter a time for the Escalation period to indicate the amount of time that elapses before
the notification is sent to the next contact.

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5. Specify the action to be taken if the notification is not acknowledged after being sent to
all contacts on the escalation:
ο Do nothing sends no further notifications to team members.
ο Repeat N times repeats the escalation process up to N times until the notification is
acknowledged.
ο Repeat while active repeats the escalation process indefinitely until the notification
is acknowledged or the notification rule is inactivated.
6. To add contacts to the escalation team, click to display the Add Contacts dialog,
select the contacts to include, and then click OK. Alternatively, drag contacts from the
Contacts pane onto the Contacts box.
7. Specify the correct order for the escalation chain by ordering the list of contacts in the
Contacts box. Use the Up arrow ( ) and Down arrow ( ) to move the contacts
within the list.

8. Click Check In to save the escalation team.

Note: To delete a contact from the Contacts box, click the contact and then click
Delete

Create a Custom Contact

You can create and maintain custom notification contacts within PI System Explorer. You
may want to create a custom notification contact when an Active Directory account is not
available for the contact.
To create a custom contact:
1. In PI System Explorer, click Contacts.
2. Search for an existing contact (page 93) to avoid creating duplicates.
3. Click File > New > New Contact.
4. In the Viewer pane, you must specify a name and an email address. The other
information is optional.

5. Click Check In to save this contact.

Add a Delivery Endpoint to a Contact

You can create more than one delivery endpoint for a contact. For example, you might want
some notifications to be sent to the email that is associated with your Active Directory
account and others to be sent to your pager. An email delivery endpoint that reads the email
address from the contact is present by default, so you must add a delivery endpoint for the
pager.

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 Search for Contacts

To add a delivery endpoint to a contact:

1. In PI System Explorer, click Contacts.
2. If necessary, search for the contact.
3. Right-click the contact and click New Delivery Endpoint.
4. In the Viewer pane, you must specify a name. Description is optional.

5. Select the delivery channel and configure as appropriate for the delivery channel:
ο Email: See Configure an Email Delivery Channel (page 95)
ο Web service: See Configure a Web Service Delivery Channel (page 97)

6. Click Check In to save the delivery endpoint.

Note: Your system administrator might provide additional delivery endpoints for all
contacts in addition to the email endpoint that reads from the contact. You can
change the configuration of these endpoints but cannot delete them.

Search for Contacts

You can use the following criteria to search for contacts:
• Name

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• Description
• Department
To search for a contact:

1. Click the Search or the New Search node to search for a contact to view.
2. Specify the parameters for your search in the Search Contacts dialog.

a. Select a box to search from the list.

b. Enter a wildcard character or characters to indicate what you are searching for.
c. Click OK.
A list of contacts that matches your search parameters displays in the Contacts browser.

If you do not find a contact, you might need to create a custom contact.

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Configure Delivery Channels

Two default delivery channels are distributed with PI Notifications:
• Email Delivery Channel
• Web Service Delivery Channel
This section contains information on how to configure these delivery channels.
Your system administrator can create additional delivery channels, such as the XML delivery
channel in the following figure:

For information on creating delivery channels, see the PI Notifications Programmer's Guide.

Configure an Email Delivery Channel

PI Notifications sends email messages to normal email boxes as well as to pagers that have
email capabilities. When configuring a subscription that sends a message using the email
delivery channel, you can specify either an address or an exchange server to resolve an email
address.
For the overall configuration of this delivery channel, the SMTP server and port and the
default From Address need to be specified. If Microsoft Exchange Server is being used to
resolve email addresses, the Microsoft Exchange Server needs to be specified.
There is very little involved in configuring the email delivery channel. When a subscriber is
selected from the Contacts palette and the contact’s email method is specified, the email
delivery channel is used automatically. The email delivery channel is configured when you
install PI Notifications. You can change these global settings later in the PI System Explorer.
To configure the global settings of the email delivery channel:

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1. In Contacts view, click Tools > Delivery Channel Plugins. Alternatively, click Tools >
Notification Settings in Notifications view.

2. On the Notification Settings dialog, click the Delivery Channels tab.

3. Right-click the Email delivery channel, and select Settings from the menu.
4. In the Email Delivery Channel Configuration dialog box, you can:
ο Set the primary and backup SMTP servers.
ο Choose the default email address that the system uses when sending emails
ο Choose whether to allow individuals to change the Sender Email on a per contact
basis.
ο Choose the Send Timeout: How long to wait when trying to send an email before
trying the backup SMTP server.
ο Choose the Backup Fail Back Time: How long to use the backup SMTP server
before trying to access the primary server again.

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For example:

Configure a Web Service Delivery Channel

To use this delivery channel you must first obtain a Web service and host it on a Web server
that is available to your PI Notifications Scheduler Service. There are many Web services
commercially available, and many development environments offer templates and other tools
to develop custom Web services.
PI Notifications can call any Web service method available, and can provide any of the
configured standard or custom content, subject to format restrictions. For example, a Web
service might not be able to make use of an attached file.
PI Notifications can call a Web service. When configuring a subscription that calls a Web
service, you can specify the Web service URL, the Web service method to call, and the Web
service method parameters. When a notification is triggered, the Web service is called.
To configure the Web services delivery channel:
1. In Contacts view, create a new delivery endpoint. Give your delivery endpoint a name
that is identifiable as the interface to your Web service.

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2. Complete the Web Service configuration:

Web Service Address: Enter the URL of your Web service. The entry in the example
above was created using the Microsoft Visual Studio ASP .NET Development Web
Server. You can validate the connection using the Get Web Services button.
Web Service: Select your Web service from the drop-down menu.
Default Web Method: Select the default Web method from the drop-down menu. This
menu displays all of the parameters defined in the Web service. The example above is
simply for illustration purposes—yours will be different.

Note: Each delivery endpoint with a Web service delivery channel is autonomous. There
are no global configuration parameters for this delivery channel.

Create a Custom Delivery Endpoint

You can create additional delivery endpoints that are not associated with a contact. For
example, you might have a process model that is composed of multiple nested elements.
Rather than receive an email when the process reaches a specified condition, you might want
a report to be generated and written to your computer desktop. To accomplish this, you
configure a custom delivery endpoint with a Web service that calls a workflow application,
and then subscribe that endpoint to the notification.
To create a custom delivery endpoint:
1. In PI System Explorer, click Contacts.
2. In the browser, click Delivery Endpoints.

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3. Click File > New > New Delivery Endpoint.

4. In the Viewer pane, specify a name. Description is optional.
5. Select and fill in the configuration associated with a delivery channel.

6. Click Check In to save the delivery channel.

View and Edit Contact or Notification Contact Security

1. Right-click a custom contact or a notification contact in the Contacts browser and select
Security from the drop-down menu.

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2. Select users and set permissions as needed in the Permissions for Notifications dialog
box.

Note: You need the Admin access to modify the security permission for a custom contact
or notification contact. Security from the drop-down menu is grayed out for an
Active Directory contact.

Subscribe to a Notification Rule

A notification contact that wants to receive a notification message subscribes to a notification
rule. A subscription defines which notification messages a contact will receive. A
subscription contains one or more notification contacts.
To subscribe a contact to a notification:
1. In Notifications view, click the target notification in the Notifications browser.
2. Click the Subscriptions tab.
3. Click to display the Add Contacts dialog. Select the contacts to include in the
subscription, and then click OK. Alternatively, you can drag contacts from the Contacts
pane onto the Contacts box on the Subscriptions tab.
4. After you add a contact to the notification subscription, you can Customize Subscriptions
to a Notification Rule (page 101).
5. (Optional) Customize Acknowledgments for a Notification Rule (page 101).

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Customize Acknowledgements for a Notification Rule

An acknowledgment is a response to a notification instance. By default, the number of
required acknowledgements is set to Auto, which means that the notification is automatically
acknowledged after it is sent. Automatic acknowledgement is useful when you want to be
notified but do not want to manually acknowledge the notification instances.
To require a specific number of acknowledgments for a notification:
1. Click the Subscriptions tab.
2. Click the highest level of the tree, also named Subscriptions, and then click Options
.
3. On the Subscriptions dialog box, set the number of required acknowledgments for the
notification.

Customize Subscriptions to a Notification Rule

A notification rule can contain multiple subscriptions. You can customize each subscription
in the following ways:
• Customize Subscription Content (page 101): You can specify content to exclude from
the notification message for each subscriber.

Note: You cannot exclude content that was derived from the notification template.

• Customize Contact Configuration Options (page 102): Configuring a notification

contact sets the default subscription settings for all notifications. You can change these
settings for individual subscriptions in a notification without changing the default
configuration. For information on configuring notification contacts, see What is a
Notification Contact? (page 89)
• For email subscriptions, you can Copy Settings from One Subscription to Others (page
102).

Customize Subscription Content

To customize notification content for individual subscriptions:

1. In Notifications view, click the Subscriptions tab.
2. Click the subscription you want to customize.
3. Clear the check boxes in the Viewer pane next to the content that you want to exclude
from the notification message.

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Customize Contact Configuration Options

To customize the subscription options for a delivery endpoint:

1. Right-click the delivery endpoint in the Contacts box of the Subscription tab and click
Options.
2. Specify the configuration options. See What is a Notification Contact? (page 89)

Copy Settings from One Subscription to Others

You can copy settings from any email subscriber to other email subscribers. To copy settings:
1. In Notifications view, click the Subscriptions tab.
2. Right click the subscriber you want to copy settings from, and then select Copy Settings
to other Subscribers. You see the Copy Delivery Endpoints Settings dialog:

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3. Select the check boxes for the subscribers whose settings you want to change. To select
all subscribers, click Select and then click Select All. For example:

4. In the Settings to copy pane, select the group of subscriber settings that you want to
copy. To copy all settings, right-click the pane and select Select All.

Note: In groups of settings that contain multiple settings, all settings in the group are
copied to the target subscribers. In this example, the subscriber Bob Smith_email
has Include Standard Content enabled, while Include Trigger Input and Link
are disabled. All three settings are copied to the subscribers JD Hogg_Email and
Rudy Wells_email.

Unsubscribe from a Notification Rule

In Notifications view, on the Subscriptions tab, you can configure which contacts are
subscribed to a notification.
To unsubscribe a contact from a notification:
1. Right-click the target contact in the Contacts box on the Subscriptions tab.
2. Click Unsubscribe.

Note: You can also click the contact, and then click Unsubscribe .

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View Notification Rule Events

View My Notifications with MyPI

Use the MyPI add-in in PI System Explorer to see all the notifications that are subscribed to
by the contact or contacts associated with your login. This list spans all databases on the AF
System you have selected.

Note: This only works if you are using contacts imported from Active Directory to
subscribe to notifications.

To view your Notifications:

1. Select MyPI the Navigator Panel to go to MyPI view.

2. Look in the MyPI browser to see a list of the notifications you are subscribed to.
3. Select a notification in the MyPI browser to display its details in the Viewer pane.

Note: When you first log into PI System Explorer and select MyPI, the history for all the
currently running instances of all of your Notifications are displayed in the MyPI
viewer. You can select any notification in the MyPI browser to display the history
for only the selected notification. See View Notification Rule Events (page 105) for
details.

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View Sorted Notification Instances

View Active Notification Instances

Notification instances that are currently in an alert state are active.

To display the active history of a notification:
1. Select the notification in the Notifications browser.
2. Click the History tab.
3. Select Active from the drop-down menu.
The following columns appear in the History view:
ο Start Time: Time the notification instance event began.
ο End Time: Time the notification instance ended. This does not apply to active
events.
ο Duration: The total time range that the notification instance was active. Or, total
time the notification event was in the state indicated to the immediate right of the
duration column. This does not apply to events that are still active.
ο State: The state assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Priority: The priority assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Acknowledged: Indicates if a notification has been acknowledged by Yes, No, or—
for notifications that are configured to be automatically acknowledged—N/A.
ο Action: Records details about the Acknowledgment or State of the Notification.
ο Contact: Indicates the PI Notification Contact that the Notification was sent to.

View Recent Notification Instances

To display the recent history of a notification:

1. Select the notification in the Notifications browser.
2. Click the History tab.
3. Select Recent from the drop-down menu.
4. Type a number into the Notifications in the last box and select a unit of time from the
list.

5. Click Go .
The following columns appear in the History view:
ο Start Time: Time the notification instance event began.
ο End Time: Time the notification instance ended. This does not apply to active
events.

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ο Duration: The total time range that the notification instance was active. Or, total
time the notification event was in the state indicated to the immediate right of the
duration column. This does not apply to events that are still active.
ο State: The state assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Priority: The priority assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Acknowledged: Indicates if a notification has been acknowledged by Yes, No, or—
for notifications that are configured to be automatically acknowledged—N/A.
ο Action: Records details about the Acknowledgment or State of the Notification.
ο Contact: Indicates the PI Notification Contact that the Notification was sent to.

View Notification Instances within a Time Range

To display the history of a notification within a time range:

1. Select the notification in the Notifications browser.
2. Click the History tab.
3. Select Time range from the View Notifications list.
4. Type a start time in the Start Time box and type an end time in the End Time box.
Alternatively, you can select start and end times using available drop-down calendars.

Note: The time of day must be entered into the Start Time and End Time boxes
manually. The default start time is *, and the default end time is t.

5. Click Go .
The following columns appear in the History view:
ο Start Time: Time the notification instance event began.
ο End Time: Time the notification instance ended. This does not apply to active
events.
ο Duration: The total time range that the notification instance was active. Or, total
time the notification event was in the state indicated to the immediate right of the
duration column. This does not apply to events that are still active.
ο State: The state assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Priority: The priority assigned to the notification by the person who configured the
notification.
ο Acknowledged: Indicates if a notification has been acknowledged by Yes, No, or—
for notifications that are configured to be automatically acknowledged—N/A.
ο Action: Records details about the Acknowledgment or State of the Notification.
ο Contact: Indicates the PI Notification Contact that the Notification was sent to.

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Use the Notification History Viewer

Customize the Notification History Viewer

When you use the History Viewer, you may select from the following options to configure
the History Viewer display:
• Show contact events: Show all contact events.
• Show Search: Decide whether a search control is displayed in the History Viewer.
• Show Timeselector: Determine if you can select the time range you want to look at.
To use these options:
1. Right-click a notification.
2. Select one or more of the options.
In addition, you may expand or collapse the details of each notification instance displayed in
the History Viewer. Select from one of these options:
• Expand All: Open up the tree view to view the details of each notification instance.
• Collapse All: Close the tree view to view only the main information about notification
instances.

Sort History

You can sort the history by any column. For example, you click on the Duration column
header to sort all the instances by the duration.

Search History

You can search for a particular instance by typing a keyword in the search dialog above the
Notification Viewer column headers. For example, if you type Low, only the rows containing
the word Low show up. The search is case-insensitive.
If you do not see the search dialog, right-click and select Show Search to display the dialog
box.

View Notification Rule Summary

To open a dialog that displays a summary of the settings of a notification rule:

1. Click the notification in the Browser pane and click the History tab.
2. Right-click the notification and select View Notification Rule Summary.
3. The Notification Rule Summary dialog box appears. Click Close when you are finished
viewing the summary.

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Acknowledge and Comment

An acknowledgment is a response to a notification message delivered a subscriber or to a
notification instance. The former is referred to as Acknowledge Subscription and the latter
is referred to as Acknowledge Instance. Within the notification history viewer, you can
acknowledge a subscription, acknowledge a notification instance, or comment on a
notification instance.

Acknowledge a Notification Instance

When you acknowledge a notification instance, you want that no further notification be sent
to subscribers. Escalation is halted. In many cases, you have taken some action as a result of
the notification.
To acknowledge a notification instance:
1. Right-click any of the events within the notification instance and select Acknowledge
Instance from the drop-down menu.
2. Optionally, leave a comment.
3. Click OK.
The option Acknowledge Instance is unavailable if:
• The instance has already been acknowledged, either automatically or manually;
• The instance is closed (that is, not active); or
• You do not have the WriteData access to the notification rule.

Acknowledge a Subscription

Acknowledging a subscription indicates that you have received a notification. Only you can
acknowledge your own notification. Depending on the subscription configuration for the
notification rule, acknowledging a subscription may trigger an acknowledging of the
notification instance.
To acknowledge a subscription (for example, an event sent to a subscriber):
1. Right-click on the subscription event and select Acknowledge Subscription from the
drop-down list.
2. Optionally, include a comment.
3. Click OK.
The option Acknowledge Subscription is not available if:
• The subscription has already been acknowledged;
• The instance is closed (that is, not active); or
• You are not the same Active Directory contact as the one for the subscriber.

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Add a Comment to a Notification Instance

You can comment on an active or existing notification instance if you have Write Data access
to the notification rule. You may comment on a notification instance without acknowledging
the notification.
To comment on a notification listed in the History view:
1. Right-click on any event within a notification instance and select Add Comment from
the drop-down menu.
2. Enter a comment.
3. Click OK.

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Use PI Notifications Desktop Alert

Monitor Notifications from Your Desktop

PI Notifications Desktop Alert automatically monitors all your notification rules that you
have subscribed to when you log on to a machine. This desktop tray application displays a
message box momentarily when you receive a notification. You can click on the message box
to view more detail in MyPI view.

Start PI Notifications Desktop Alert

Start PI Notifications Desktop Alert from the Start menu by navigating All Programs > PI
System > PI Desktop Alert. The Desktop Alert Warning icon will appear on your toolbar,
and Desktop Alert will attempt to connect to PI Systems.
The first time you start Desktop Alert, you must configure your preferences. For more
information, see Configuring Desktop Alert (page 112).
If you have previously configured Desktop Alert, it connects to PI Systems, starts to monitor
notification rules that you have subscribed to, and the Desktop Alert Normal icon appears.

Use Desktop Alert

While Desktop Alert is running, as indicated by the Desktop Alert Normal icon ( ) on your
toolbar, you can right-click this icon for menu options.

• About Desktop Alert: Displays a dialog box with the version number of PI Desktop
Alert.
• Preferences: Opens the Desktop Alert Preferences dialog box, where you configure
Desktop Alert. For more information, see Configuring Desktop Alert (page 112).
• Exit: Exits the application.

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Configure Desktop Alert

You must configure Desktop Alert the first time you start it. Double-click the PI
Notifications Desktop Alert Warning icon ( ) on your toolbar to open the Desktop Alert
Preferences dialog box.
The Desktop Alert Preferences dialog box has three tabs: General, Sound, and
Connections.

To configure Desktop Alert:

1. Open the Desktop Alert Preferences dialog box and select the General tab to configure
the appearance of desktop alerts:
ο Use the slider to determine how long an alert will remain on your screen.
ο Click the Preview button to see what an alert with these settings looks like.

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2. Select the Sound tab to configure sounds for your alerts.

ο The Enable audible alerts check box is where you enable or disable alerts from
making sounds.
ο Optionally, click on each type of notification event for which you can assign a sound
(for example, New Notification), and browse for a sound file to associate with the
notification event.
ο Under Play new notification sound, specify the number of times the notification
should repeat, or click the Until notification ends button. By default, the New
Notification sound plays either three times or until another notification fires. The
Notification Ended sound plays once.
ο For Repeat delay, specify a number of seconds as the amount of time a sound should
be delayed before it is repeated.
3. Click the Connections tab. On this tab, select and add PI Systems to monitor.
ο If you would like to monitor a listed PI System through Desktop Alerts, check the
box next to its name.
ο To show the properties of a PI System, click the name of the PI System and click the
Show Properties button.
ο To add a new PI System, click the Add button.
ο To delete a PI System from the list, click the name of the PI System and click the
Delete button.

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4. When you are finished configuring Desktop Alert, click OK.

Note: After Desktop Alert is configured, you can right-click the Desktop Alert Normal
icon on your toolbar and select Preferences to access the PI Notifications
Desktop Alert Preferences.

Receive a Desktop Alert

When a notification you're subscribed to triggers, an alert displays from your toolbar. The
alert contains the name of the triggered notification, a link to launch PI System Explorer, and
a drop-down menu arrow.

You cannot acknowledge a notification from Desktop Alert.

Click Launch MyPI to open a window that lists all of your subscribed notifications. For
information on acknowledging a notification within PI System Explorer, see View
Notification Rule Summary (page 108).
Click the drop-down menu button on the alert to display these options regarding alerts.

• View in PI System Explorer: Select to launch PI System Explorer and display the
details of this notification.
• Disable alerts for this notification rule: Select to stop receiving alerts for the
notification rule.
• Disable all desktop alerts: Select to disable all desktop alerts.
• Desktop alert settings: Select to open the Desktop Alert Preferences dialog box. For
more information, see Configuring Desktop Alert (page 112).

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Chapter 9

PI Notifications for Administrators

This chapter discusses common tasks for administrators of PI Notifications.

Manage Notification and Contact Security

PI Notifications uses the Windows security for notifications rules, custom contacts,
notification contact templates, and for its interactions with the AF server. To communicate
with the PI Server, PI Notifications uses the trust login mechanism or the Windows security,
which is supported on PI versions 3.4.380 or later. Windows security descriptors are
associated with the notification rules, custom contacts, and notification contact templates. We
may refer to custom contacts and notification contacts as contact objects in the sequel.

Default Security Settings

New notification rules and contact objects created within PI Notifications inherit their
respective default security settings. You may change these default security settings for
notification rules and new contact objects. Such changes apply only to new notification rules
and contact objects; the changes do not apply to existing notifications and contact objects.
You may change security settings for individual notification rules and contact objects.

Summary of Permissions

Security permission settings for a custom contact within PI Notifications are:

• Admin: Can assign privileges.
• Read: Can read the custom contact’s configuration information.
• Write: Can edit the custom contact’s configuration information.
• Delete: Can delete the custom contact.
Security permission settings for a notification contact template within PI Notifications are:
• Admin: Can assign privileges.
• Write: Can edit the object's configuration information.
• Delete: Can delete the object.
The Read permission is hidden since everyone has Read access.
These additional permission settings are available for notification rules:

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• Read Data: Can view the notification rule history.

• Write Data: Can write to the notification rule history.
• Execute: Can execute the notification rule.
• Subscribe: Can subscribe oneself to the notification rule.
• SubscribeOthers: Can subscribe others to the notification rule. This supersedes the
Subscribe permission. That is, if you have SubscribeOthers permissions, you can
subscribe yourself regardless whether or not you are assigned Subscribe permissions.

Permissions Behaviors in PI System Explorer

Notifications View
To see a notification rule in Notifications view, you must have Read access.
Write access gives you the ability to modify configuration data shown in the Overview,
Trigger, and Content tabs. Without Write access, all tabs are read-only.
If you have the Subscribe and Write accesses, you may subscribe or unsubscribe yourself.
SubscribeOthers access grants you permissions to subscribe or unsubscribe others.
Read Data access allows you to view the history on the History tab.
With Write Data access, you can comment on a notification or acknowledge a notification
rule instance.

Contacts View
You cannot modify the security settings for a contact object that derives from an Active
Directory entry. Your ability to view these contacts is determined by the login user and
security setting for the Active Directory entry. You cannot delete it from PI System Explorer.
You must have Read access to view any custom contact, delivery endpoint, individual
notification contact template, group notifications contact template, or escalation notification
contact template.
To modify a contact object you must have Write access; to delete contacts you must have
Delete access.

Note: It is important to understand that some of the events displayed on the History tab
point to contacts. Therefore PI Notifications cannot display information about
deleted contacts.

PI Notifications imports any available Active Directory information upon installation. For
more information about Active Directory, including how to configure an Active Directory,
see Configuring an Active Directory in the PI System Explorer User Guide.

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View and Edit Default Security for Contact Objects

To view and edit the default security for new contact objects, open Contact view and select
Tools > Default Contact Security.

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View and Edit Default Contact Object Security

To view and edit the default security for new notification rules, open Notifications view and
select Tools > Default Notification Security.

Configure Active Directory Contacts

You can link contacts from Active Directory so that users can use Active Directory
information directly to subscribe email to notification rules. Any change in the Active
Directory is reflected here. Configure a link as follows:
1. Click Contacts in the Navigator panel.
2. On the toolbar, click Tools > Active Directory Properties to open the Active Directory
Properties dialog box.
3. Configure the options as appropriate for your site. For information on the options, click
F1 to display the online help topic, Configuring an Active Directory in the AF 2.1 User
Guide.

Register Additional Delivery Endpoints

By default, each Active Directory contact in PI Notifications has an email delivery endpoint.
You can link additional delivery endpoints to all contacts by creating and registering a plug-

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in for the new delivery endpoint. For information on creating and registering these plug-ins,
see PI Notifications Programmer's Guide.

Manage PI Notifications Service

PI Notifications Service consists of a Windows service application,
PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe; and a host application, PIAnalyticsProcessor.exe.
PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe is responsible for communicating with all PI Notifications
applications (including the processor and other PIAnalyticsScheduler instances).
PIAnalyticsProcessor runs the notification rules (as set by PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe),
processes their events in real time, and executes the tasks requested by the
PIAnalyticsScheduler.
To start the Windows service application, use the Windows Service Control Manager or type
net start PIAnalyticsScheduler at a command prompt.

The PI Notifications Service does not necessarily have to run on the same machine that is
running the AF server, the PI server, or client applications. Only one instance of the PI
Notifications Service can run on a single machine at any one time.
Multiple service instances can be started simultaneously on multiple machines to process
notifications on one AF server, each configured to run notification rules on an arbitrary
number of AF databases.
A single instance can run notification rules within an arbitrary number of databases on the
same AF server; the Windows service spawns as many instances of the processor as required
automatically to run the notification rules. If you configure multiple instances to run the same
database, only one of the instances runs the notification rules in the database—the other
instances are in the backup mode.

Note: Since the PI Notifications Service uses the Windows Communication Service and
Windows security for authentication and authorization, it is important to configure
the Windows service to run under a domain account.

Service Behavior

When you start an instance of PIAnalyticsScheduler service, it first determines its role. If a
primary service has not been started, it becomes the primary service. If a primary service has
already been started, it becomes the backup service if the following conditions hold:
• There is currently no backup service.
• This instance can be used as a primary service.
Otherwise, it becomes the secondary service.
After determining its role, it determines a list of notification rules to run. The primary service
determines the list of notification rules each service instance needs to run. The service
instance spawns as many instances of PIAnalyticsProcessor to execute the notification rules.

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When starting a notification rule, PIAnalyticsProcessor retrieves its history so that it has the
same states as when it was stopped. However, it does not re-process all the events between
when the notification rule was stopped and the current time. When PIAnalyticsProcessor
receives an event whose timestamp is before the end of last notification instance or the start
of an active notification instance, the event is ignored.

Set up Service Account

If PI Notifications Service runs on a different machine from that for the AF Service, you
should configure PI Notifications Service to run under a domain account. If PI Notifications
Service runs on the same machine, you may configure it to run under the LocalSystem
account.
The account under which the PI Notifications service runs should have Read, Write, and
Execute rights to all the notification rules it is configured to run.

Customize Service Configuration

You can customize PIAnalyticsScheduler and PIAnalyticsProcessor by editing the

configuration files PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe.config and PIAnalyticsProcessor.exe.config,
respectively.

Edit PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe.config
The relevant portion of the configuration file for PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe and a table of
configurable parameters are shown.
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=utf-8 ?>
<configuration>
<ANCustomSection
TargetSystem=stargate
TargetDatabases=Production", Test
TraceSwitch=Error,Warning,Information
TCPPort=5458
FailoverTime=00:10:00/>
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<netTcpBinding>
<binding name=PIAnalyticsTcp
maxConnections=10000
portSharingEnabled=false
openTimeout=00:01:00
receiveTimeout=00:10:00
sendTimeout=00:01:00>
</binding>
</netTcpBinding>
</bindings>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

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Configurable Parameter Description

TargetSystem The AF server whose notifications this service instance runs. If
not specified, default to the default AF server configured on the
machine.
TargetDatabases A list of AF databases separated by comma, within the AF
server, whose notifications this service instance runs. The
default is “” which implies all of the databases on the AF
server.
TraceSwitch The type of messages to be logged. The default is “Error,
Warning, Information” and the valid trace switches
are None, Error, Warning, Information, Summary,
Detail, Data, and All:
 None: No message is logged.
 Error: Error messages are logged.
 Warning: Warning messages are logged.
 Information: Information messages are logged. Information
messages include starting/stopping/changing notification
rules, service startup, shutdown, and so on.
 Summary: Summary messages are logged. Summary
messages include entering/leaving method. This may be
useful when troubleshooting an expected behavior.
 Detail: Detail messages provide more detail within a method,
especially when calling methods outside of PI Notifications.
 Data: Logs the messages related to the variable values.
 All: Logs all message types.
TCPPort The TCP port number to be used for communication. The
default is 5458.
FailoverTime If the primary service instance shuts down ungracefully, the
backup service instance would retry and wait until this
specified amount before promoting itself to be the new primary.
This parameter does not affect the graceful shutdown in which
the primary service instance informs the backup service
instance that it is shutting down and the backup service
instance promotes itself immediately. The default is 10
minutes.
CanBePrimary Determines if this service instance can become a primary
service. It defaults to True.
openTimeout A TimeSpan value that specifies the interval of time provided
for an open operation to complete. The default is one minute.
portSharingEnabled A Boolean value that specifies whether TCP port sharing is
enabled for this connection. If this is false, each binding uses
its own exclusive port. If this is true, make sure that the
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service is enabled and started. The
Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service is disabled by default.
PIAnalyticsScheduler can only share a port with an application
that uses the WCF tcp based protocol. For example, it can
share a port with AF server but not PI Server.
receiveTimeout A TimeSpan value that specifies the interval of time provided
for a receive operation to complete. The default is 00:10:00.
sendTimeout A TimeSpan value that specifies the interval of time provided
for a send operation to complete. The default is 00:01:00.

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Edit PIAnalyticsProcessor.exe.config
The only configurable parameter for PIAnalyticsProcessor is TraceSwitch.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="TraceSwitch" value="Error,Warning,Information"/>
</appSettings>
</configuration>

The possible parameters are as described for PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe.config.

Set up Redundant Service Instances

The PI Notifications Service is designed to provide redundancy.
• If an instance of PIAnalyticsProcessor crashes for any reason, PIAnalyticsScheduler
immediately starts another instance of PIAnalyticsProcessor running the same
notification rules.
• If you configure more than one instance of the PI Notifications Service to run the
notification rules in the same AF database, only one instance runs the notification rules.
When the instance running the notification rules goes away gracefully, a backup starts the
notification rules immediately. When the instance goes away ungracefully (that is, it
crashes), a backup starts the notification rules when FailoverTime expires.

Note: All instances of PI Notifications Services that connect to the same AF server must
be running the same version of PI Notifications Services.

View PI Notifications Service Summary

To view if the PI Notifications Service is running:

1. In Notifications view, click Tools > Notification Settings.
2. In the Notification Settings dialog box, click the Service tab.

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Some Common Service Deployment Scenarios

Several common deployment scenarios can be configured using

PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe.config and PIAnalyticsProcessor.exe.config.

High Availability
You want to configure redundant PI Notifications services to provide a high level of quality
of service. You would need to determine the number of instances you would like to run. Once
you have the PI Notifications installed on these machines, you would specify the same
TargetSystem and TargetDatabases in PIAnalyticsScheduler.exe.config for all instances. For
example, the PI Notifications service runs the notifications configured in AFDatabases
Production and Engineering on the AF server Stargate.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<ANCustomSection
TargetSystem="stargate"
TargetDatabases="Production, Engineering"
TraceSwitch="Error,Warning,Information"
TCPPort="5458"
FailoverTime="00:10:00"/>
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<netTcpBinding>

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<binding name="PIAnalyticsTCP"
maxConnections="10000"
portSharingEnabled="false"
openTimeout="00:01:00"
receiveTimeout="00:10:00"
sendTimeout="00:01:00">
</binding>
</netTcpBinding>
</bindings>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Development or Test Environments

In many situations, you want to develop, debug, and test a notification rule before you want
to deploy it to the production database. You want to have no impact on the existing PI
Notifications service operations. In this case, you want to create a separate AF Database
where you can create your test notification rule(s). Suppose your test database is
Development. You simply specify the TargetDatabases to be Development for your instance
of the PI Notification Service as follows.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<ANCustomSection
TargetSystem="stargate"
TargetDatabases="Development"
TraceSwitch="Error,Warning,Information"
TCPPort="5458"
FailoverTime="00:10:00"/>
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<netTcpBinding>
<binding name="PIAnalyticsTCP"
maxConnections="10000"
portSharingEnabled="false"
openTimeout="00:01:00"
receiveTimeout="00:10:00"
sendTimeout="00:01:00">
</binding>
</netTcpBinding>
</bindings>
</system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

You can stop and start your test notification rule and/or your service instance at will without
affecting the current operations.

Security Isolation
Notification rules may have different security requirements and in some cases, you may not
want or it may not be possible to run all of them from one machine. In this case, you want to

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separate the notification rules with different security requirements into separate AF databases.
You configure different instances to run them according to the different security needs.

Archiving

PI Notifications Service archives all notification actions. Possible actions include:

• Entering a notification state.
• Exiting a notification state.
• Resetting a notification state.
• Sending a notification event to a subscription.
• Error countered when sending a notification event to a subscription.
• Acknowledging a notification event (manually or with an auto-acknowledgement
configuration).
• Commenting on a notification instance.
PIAnalyticsProcessor writes the events to the PI Server via PI API and retrieves them via PI
SDK. It also automatically creates tags to store history for new notifications. You need to
configure an appropriate trust to allow PIAnalyticsProcessor to be able to create tags, to
retrieve the archive values for these tags via PI SDK, and to write to these tags via PI API.
Here is a sample set of trust entries that allow PIAnalyticsProcessor to connect as the PI user
PIAnalyticsUser.
PI SDK:
Trust = PIAnalyticsProcessorSDK
AppName = PIAnalyticsProcessor.exe
IPAddr = IP Address for the computer where PI Notifications
service runs
NetMask = 255.255.255.255
PIUser = PIAnalyticsUser

PI API:
Trust = PIAnalyticsProcessorAPI
AppName = pianE
IPAddr = IP Address for the computer where PI Notifications
NetMask = 255.255.255.255
PIUser = PIAnalyticsUser

The above trusts may be sufficient if PIAnalyticsUser has the privileges to create tags on the
history PI Server.

Configure System-Wide Parameters

While notification rules are stored in AF Databases, they share the following system-wide
parameters within the same AF Server:

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• Notification states and groups: When you create a new state, it is available to all
databases within the same AF Server.
• History PI Server: The history for all notification rules within one AF Server regardless
the databases they are in is stored in the same history PI Server.
• Acknowledgment Page.
• RtWebParts Server.
• Email Delivery Channel configuration.

Configure States and Groups

You can configure a structure to the notification states that you assign. This gives you the
ability to specify that one state is preferred over another. For instance, if High and Hihi are
both true, use a group to specify that Hihi is more important and should be fired in place of
High. When a notification rule goes from preferred state to a lower priority state, a
notification will not be fired.
1. Click Tools > Notification Settings.
2. In the Notification Settings dialog box, on the State Group Configuration tab,
configure state group settings as desired.

a. Add a new group using the New State Group button.

b. Add a new state using the New State button.

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c. Move states within a group using the up and down arrows.

d. Rename a group by selecting it and clicking the Edit button.
e. Change the name, default priority, or group for a state by selecting it and using the
Edit button.
f. Delete states and groups by selecting them and clicking the Delete button.

Note: If a state is deleted, it can be restored by adding a new state with the same name
as the deleted state.

How to Create and Use a High State Group

State Groups handle the case where a notification should trigger when the value of an input
goes above one threshold and when it goes above a second, more severe threshold, but should
not be triggered while it goes back down to a normal state.

If State Groups were not used in this case, another alert would be triggered when you return
to the High State from the Hihi state.
To create and use a new state group named High Group:
1. From the Tools menu, click Notification Settings.

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2. In the Notification Settings dialog box, on the State Group Configuration tab, click the
New State Group button. Name the new state High Group and click OK.

3. In the Notification Settings dialog box, on the State Group Configuration tab, click the
New State button. Name the new state High, set the default priority to Normal, and
assign High Group as the state group.

4. Using steps similar to those already used in this procedure, create a new state named Hihi
and add it to the High Group state group.
5. Make sure the states are in the correct order (Hihi above High). Use the up and down
arrows to place them correctly if necessary.

6. Click OK on the Notification Settings dialog box. You can now use these states in a
notification.

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7. Create a new notification or open a notification that already exists. Create a comparison
condition that corresponds to the highest test you want to perform. Select High Group for
State Group and Hihi for State.

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8. Create another comparison condition for the lower test you want to do. Select High
Group for State Group and High for State.

Configure Additional Notification Parameters

To configure additional notification parameters:

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1. From the Tools menu, click Notification Settings. You see the Notification Settings
dialog:

2. On the Global Configuration tab, specify the following parameters:

a. RtWebParts Server: A link to the RtWebParts installation for use in instant
RtWebParts trends.
b. Acknowledgment Web Page: The acknowledgment link points to the link specified
here.
c. History Server Name: PI Server where notification history is stored. Be very careful
when you modify this parameter, because you need to migrate the history from the
current PI Server to the new one.
d. ValidateAcknowledgmentUser: True means that the acknowledgment Web page
needs to validate the login user is the recipient of the notification event. This option
is not supported in this release.
e. Show AD Groups: True means that you can subscribe Active Directory (AD)
groups, as well as individual AD contacts, to a notification.

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Troubleshoot PI Notifications
This chapter answers frequently asked questions with regards to installation, running
notification rules (page 134), subscribing to notification rules (page 140), acknowledging and
commenting on notification rule events (page 141), and viewing notification rule events (page
144). It also describes available troubleshooting tools (page 145).

Installation

I cannot change the configuration information for the PI Notifications

Service feature during installation.

PI Notifications Service may have been previously configured from another instance of the PI
Notifications Service. During the installation, you cannot change the configuration of the
supporting information for the PI Notifications Service.

To change the global configuration:

1. Launch PI System Explorer and select Notifications in the Navigator pane.
2. Click Tools > Notification Settings.
3. Click the Global Configuration tab.

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To change the email configuration:

1. Launch PI System Explorer.
2. Click File > Database.
3. Click the Properties button.
4. Select the Plug-Ins tab and scroll down to Delivery Channel Plug-Ins.
5. Right-click the Email plug-in and select Settings.

Run Notification Rules

My notification rule won't start.

Make sure the PI Notifications Service is running and is configured properly. For more
information, see Manage PI Notifications Service (page 119).

My notification rule is running, but I'm not getting emails.

There are a few reasons why this may be happening:

1. Verify that the status for the notification rule is Enabled. If it is Enabled but not running,
it means that either no service is running or no service is configured to run the
notification rule. For more information, see Manage PI Notifications Service (page 119).
2. Verify that the service can connect to and has the permission to create the tags on the
history PI Server. Check the PI Server message log on the machine where the service is
running for the presence of connection or tag creation errors.
3. Verify that the notification rule is generating the history. For more information, see View
Notification Rule Events (page 105).
4. You may have to edit the SMTP Server Configuration restart service. PI Notifications
Service uses SMTP to send emails. The service requires that it can connect and use a
SMTP Server. Two common SMTP servers are the IIS SMTP Virtual Server and
Microsoft Exchange’s default SMTP Server. For information on changing the
configuration of the email delivery channel, see Email Delivery Channel (page 95).

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 Run Notification Rules

5. If you are using an IIS SMTP Virtual Server you will need to configure the SMTP server
to allow Relay from the computer that is running the PI Notifications Service. From
Computer Management, right-click the default SMTP Virtual Server and select
Properties. Click the Access tab and click Relay.

PI Notifications User Guide 135

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

Add the computer that is running the PI Notifications Service to the list of allowed
computers.

136
 Run Notification Rules

6. Many virus scan programs will block port 25 in order to prevent mailing worms. Make
sure this port is not blocked on the computer running the PI Notifications Service.

PI Notifications User Guide 137

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

7. Your emails could be going into your Junk folder. To fix this in Microsoft Exchange
Server, go to Actions > Junk Email > Junk Email Options. Select the Safe Senders
tab, and add the sender email of PI Notifications.

My notification rule seems 'stuck.'

• Check the Notify on change in status option. When enabled (the default), you are
notified only if the output value changes. See Configure Notification Rule Triggers (page
55).
• Check the Time True evaluation options. If the Time True Evaluation is set to Natural,
the notification will not check the time true parameter until a new event comes in. Use
Clock if you want to re-evaluate when the time true expires.
• Check the non-repetition interval (page 65). Notifications of the same or lower priority
will not be resent if the non-repetition interval has not expired.
• Check the states and groups of the all the conditions. It is possible that the condition you
are firing is in the same state group as the previous state of the notification, but of lower
severity within in the group. In that case, the state of the notification would change, but
no notification is sent.

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 Create or Edit a Notification Rule

I get multiple emails, but the state has not changed.

Even if the state has not changed, you may get multiple emails under the following scenarios:
• You have the Notify only on change in status box unchecked. When unchecked, you
would receive an email whenever the notification rule receives a trigger event (for
example, an input snapshot for the natural time rule is used). This is independent of
whether you have acknowledged the notification event.
• You have configured a positive value for the resend interval. You would receive an email
for every resend interval until you have acknowledged the notification event.
• The priority has changed. Two notification states are the same only if and only if they
have the same state and priority.

My escalation team won't escalate.

Check if the top level group in the Subscriptions tab is set to auto-acknowledge. If this is the
case, the first level person in an escalation team will be notified, then the notification will be
acknowledged and therefore will not escalate. See Customize Subscriptions to a Notification
Rule (page 101).

Create or Edit a Notification Rule

I cannot create a notification rule.

You need to have the write access for the default notification security and for the AF
database where you want to create a notification rule.
To change the default notification security:
1. Open PI System Explorer and click Notifications in the browser.
2. Click Tools > Default Notification Security.
3. Edit the security settings in the Permissions for Notifications dialog box, and click OK.
To change the AF Database security:
1. Open PI System Explorer.
2. Click the Database button on the toolbar.
3. In the Select Database dialog box, right-click the name of the database and select
Security > Database.
4. Edit the security settings in the Permissions for Configuration dialog box, and click
OK.

I cannot edit a notification rule even if I have the full access to it.

You need to have the write access to the notification rule and to its AF Database.

PI Notifications User Guide 139

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

To change the default notification security:

1. Open PI System Explorer and click Notifications in the browser.
2. Click Tools > Default Notification Security.
3. Edit the security settings in the Permissions for Notifications dialog box, and click OK.
To change the AF Database security:
1. Open PI System Explorer.
2. Click the Database button on the toolbar.
3. In the Select Database dialog box, right-click the name of the database and select
Security > Database.
Edit the security settings in the Permissions for Configuration dialog box, and click OK.

Subscribe to Notification Rules

I can't subscribe to a notification.

If you can't subscribe to a notification, check your security settings. To do this, right-click the
notification that you want to subscribe to, select Security, and verify that you have permission
to Subscribe (if you want to subscribe yourself) or SubscribeOthers (if you want to subscribe
other users).

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 Acknowledge and Comment on Notification Rule Events

Acknowledge and Comment on Notification Rule Events

My notification is already acknowledged, but I didn't acknowledge it.

Check if the top level group in the Subscriptions tab is set to auto-acknowledge. If this is the
case, no one will ever be notified. See Customize Subscriptions to a Notification Rule (page
101).

The acknowledgment link in my notification email does not work.

There are a few possible problems and solutions to this behavior. Review the following
questions to narrow down the solution to the situation you are experiencing.

Do you get a 401.1 access error accessing the PI Notifications

Acknowledgment page on IIS 7?
In this case, the security settings will need to be set for the PI Notifications Acknowledgment
Web page. To do this:
1. Navigate Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager. When the IIS Manager opens, expand the tree view until you see the PI
Notifications Acknowledgment page.
2. For the PI Notifications Acknowledgement page, under the IIS settings, double-click
Authentication.
3. Right-click Anonymous Authentication and select Edit.
4. Select Application Pool Identity and click OK.
5. Right-click the top node of the IIS tree, which is the server node. Click Stop. Wait until
the service is stopped, then right-click that node again and select Start.

Do you get a 404.3 error when accessing the PI Notifications Acknowledgment

page on IIS 7?
In this case, ASP.NET bindings will need to be propagated to the site that contains the PI
Notification Acknowledgment page. To do this:
1. Click Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager. Right-click the Web site that has PI Notification Acknowledgment page
installed and click Remove.
2. Right-click Web Sites and select Add Web Site. Add back the Web site that was
removed.
3. Click Control Panel > Programs and Features and right-click PI Notifications. Select
Repair. This action re-creates the PI Notifications Acknowledgment Web site.
4. Right-click the top node of the IIS tree, which is the server node. Click Stop. Wait until
the service is stopped, then right-click that node again and select Start.

PI Notifications User Guide 141

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

Was PI Notifications installed on Vista before ASP.NET was installed?

If PI Notifications was installed on Vista before ASP.NET was installed, then ASP.NET
needs to be installed and the PI Notifications Acknowledgment Web site needs to be re-
installed. To do this:
1. Click Control Panel > Programs and Features, and then click Turn Windows features
on and off. When the Windows features are displayed, click Internet Information
Services > World Wide Web Services > Application Development Features and select
the check box next to ASP.NET. Click OK and ASP.NET installs.
2. Click Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager. Right-click the Default Web Site and click Remove.
3. Right-click Web Sites and select Add Web Site. Name the new Web site Default Web
Site.
4. Click Control Panel > Programs and Features and right-click PI Notifications. Select
Repair. This action re-creates the PI Notifications Acknowledgment Web site.
5. When the installation program has completed, the security settings may need to be set for
the PI Notifications Acknowledgment Web page. To do this:
a. Click Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services
(IIS) Manager. When the Manager opens, expand the tree view until you see the PI
Notifications Acknowledgment page.
b. For the PI Notifications Acknowledgement page, under the IIS settings, double-
click Authentication.
c. Right-click Anonymous Authentication and select Edit.
d. Select Application Pool Identity and click OK.
6. Now reset IIS. To do this:
a. Right-click the top node of the IIS tree, which is the server node. Click Stop. Wait
until the service is stopped, then right-click that node again and select Start.

If running IIS 7, is IIS 6 configuration compatibility enabled?

Before you install PI Notifications on IIS 7, you must install ASP.NET and enable IIS 6
configuration compatibility. To do this:
1. Click Control Panel > Programs and Features, and then click Turn Windows
features on and off.
2. When the Windows features display, click Internet Information Services > World
Wide Web Services > Application Development Features and select the ASP.NET
check box.
3. In the Windows Features dialog, Click Internet Information Services > Web
Management Tools > IIS 6 Management Compatibility. Enable IIS Metabase and IIS
6 configuration compatibility.
4. Click OK to update IIS 7.
5. Run the PI Notifications self-extracting executable.

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 Acknowledge and Comment on Notification Rule Events

Are there multiple versions of .NET used in an application pool?

Internet Information Services 6 does not allow multiple versions of .NET to be used in an
application pool. If your Web server is using .NET 1.x pages, you need to make a new
application pool or assign the application to a pool that is already using .NET 2.x.
The Acknowledgment Web page is a 32-bit application. If you are running 64-bit Windows,
you need to configure IIS to run 32-bit applications.
1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the
%systemdrive%\Inetpub\AdminScripts directory.

2. Type the following command:

cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set
W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32BitAppOnWin64 true

3. Press Enter.

Note: For full details, see the Microsoft article Running 32-bit Applications on 64-bit
Windows (http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/ee52acd2-
84e0-417c-92b3-80b1cb3848281033.mspx?mfr=true).

4. Install ASP.Net (32-bit version) by typing the following in the command window:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>aspnet_regiis.exe -
i

5. Type iisreset at a command prompt.

6. In the IIS Management console, under Web Service Extensions, allow ASP.NET (32-bit).

Was Internet Information Services installed after .NET 2.0?

Perhaps Internet Information Services was installed after .NET 2.0. This will render your
Web page unusable. To correct this issue, repair the .NET 2.0 installation so that the IIS
extensions are added to the system.

Is ASP.NET 2.0 allowed in the Web Service Extensions?

If you choose to install the Acknowledgment Web Page feature, a virtual directory will be
created on a Web site of your choosing. The virtual directory requires that the Web site uses
ASP.NET 2.0.
To check that ASP.NET 2.0 is allowed in the Web Service Extensions:
1. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Right-click the Web Service Extensions folder in the tree view and select Properties to
open the Default Web Site Properties dialog box. On the ASP.NET tab, make sure that
the ASP.NET version is 2.0.

PI Notifications User Guide 143

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

View Notification Rule Events

My notification is triggering, but I cannot view any history.

The PI Server where events are archived must have a PI Trust set up to allow data writing via
PI API for each of the PI Notifications service instances. For more information, see the PI
Server System Management Guide.

Security

I accidentally changed the security for a notification rule so that no one can
change the security settings or edit it.

This may involve changing the SQL tables storing the notification rule. Contact our technical
support for guidance.

I see Default Notification Security on the Tools menu and Security >
Notifications on the selected AF Database. What is the difference?

When you change the default notification security, we make sure the notification rules and
their dependent objects share the same security settings. When you modify the security for
notifications from Security > Notifications, the security for their dependent objects is not
modified and may not have the same security settings, resulting in inconsistent behavior.
Thus, it is recommended that you should always change the default security for notifications
from Tools > Default Notification Security.

I see Default Contact Security on Tools menu and Security > Contacts on
the selected PI System. What is the difference?

When you change the default contact security, we make sure the contact objects and their
dependent objects share the same security settings. When you modify the security for
contacts from Security > Contacts, the security for their dependent objects is not modified
and may not have the same security settings, resulting in inconsistent behavior. Thus, it is
recommended that you should always change the default security for contacts from Tools >
Default Contact Security.

144
 Tools

I get the following errors when I try to edit security permission on a

notification rule (or contact object).

followed by

Check the firewall setting for the machine where the AF Service is running. The following
ports needs to be opened: 139 and 445.

What ports do I need to open for PI Notifications applications?

By default, PI Notifications uses the port 5458 to communicate among all its applications.
The port is configurable. It communicates with an AF Server via port 5457 and a PI Server
via 5450. To retrieve contact information, the AF Server communicates with Active
Directory. The ports 139 and 445 may also need to be open in some operations.

Tools

Message Logs

By default, PI Notifications applications write messages to the central log file for the PI
Message Subsystem on the machine where the application runs and can be retrieved using the
pigetmsg utility. See the PI Server System Management Guide for details. You can control
the message log levels in two ways: (1) through the application configuration file or (2)
through notification rule settings configured with the Notification add-in to the PI System
Explorer (REF). The latter is useful for troubleshooting an issue for a notification rule.

Debug Notification Rules

You can dynamically set the debug level for a notification rule while it is running. Set the
debug level within the PI System Explorer:

PI Notifications User Guide 145

Troubleshoot PI Notifications

1. Right-click the notification rule and select Debug level.

2. Select the appropriate message filter(s) in the Test Notification dialog box. Click OK.

Performance Counters

PI Notifications Service creates the following counters for each notification rule:
• Contact Events Acknowledged: Number of events that have been acknowledged since
start.
• Contact Events Escalated: Number of events that have been escalated since start.
• Contact Events Sent: Number of events sent to contacts since start.
• Contact Events Sent With Error: Number of events sent to contacts with error since
start.
• Events Before Last Instance Received: Number of events received with timestamps that
are earlier than the last notification instance.
• Events Received: Number of events received since start.
• Instances Acknowledged: Number of notification instances that have been
acknowledged either manually or automatically since start.
• Instances Generated: Number of notification instances generated since start.
• Number of Notifications: Number of notifications currently running on the computer.
• Queued Instance Events: Number of events currently waiting to be processed.

146
 Tools

These counters are under the performance object PI Notifications. You can view it with the
Windows Performance Monitor. On Windows XP and 2003, click Control Panel >
Administrative Tools > Performance. Double-click Console Root to open it, click System
Monitor, and then click the Add button on the System Monitor task pane:

The performance counter object instance list includes all the running notification rules and
_total. The instance name for a notification rule has the format of
AFDatabaseName\NotificationRuleName. The _total instance totalizes a counter for
notification rules. For example, the counter Instances Generated for the _Total instance
gives the total number of instances that have been generated since the PI Notifications
Service started for all notifications.

PI Notifications User Guide 147

Appendix A

Migrate to PI Notifications
PI Notifications unifies all existing alarm, alert, and notification packages and expands
functionalities significantly. However, you can choose to run PI Notifications and other tools
in parallel and migrate according to your own needs.
In this release, PI Notifications allows you to migrate from the following products:
• RtAlerts: RtAlerts will be continuously supported. There is a migration tool to convert
all RtAlerts rules to notifications within PI Notifications. The Web configuration
interface is replaced by the PI System Explorer.
• PI Alarm/PI SQC Alarm: PI Alarm will be continuously supported. There is a
migration tool to convert all alarm configuration to notifications within PI Notifications.
PI SQC Alarm (also known as PI RtSQC) will be continuously supported. There is a
migration tool to convert all SQC alarm configurations to notifications within PI
Notifications. These notifications will be viewable within the PI System Explorer.
However, the PI SQC Alarm Add-In to ProcessBook is not able to view these
notifications.
• PI AlarmView: PI AlarmView will be continuously supported. The basic functionality of
AlarmView is covered in PI System Explorer within the view of notifications in MyPI.
These functionalities include searching history, acknowledgment, and adding comments.
See the document Migrate to PI Notifications, available from the OSIsoft Technical Support
site, for information on using the migration tool.

PI Notifications User Guide 149

Appendix B

Technical Support and Resources

You can read complete information about technical support options, and access all of the
following resources at the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site:
http://techsupport.osisoft.com (http://techsupport.osisoft.com)

Before You Call or Write for Help

When you contact OSIsoft Technical Support, please provide:

• Product name, version, and/or build numbers
• Computer platform (CPU type, operating system, and version number)
• The time that the difficulty started
• The message log(s) at that time

Help Desk and Telephone Support

You can contact OSIsoft Technical Support 24 hours a day. Use the numbers in the table
below to find the most appropriate number for your area. Dialing any of these numbers will
route your call into our global support queue to be answered by engineers stationed around
the world.
Office Location Access Number Local Language Options
San Leandro, CA, USA 1 510 297 5828 English
Philadelphia, PA, USA 1 215 606 0705 English
Johnson City, TN, USA 1 423 610 3800 English
Montreal, QC, Canada 1 514 493 0663 English, French
São Paulo, Brazil 55 11 3053 5040 English, Portuguese
Altenstadt, Germany 49 6047 9890 English, German
Manama, Bahrain 973 1758 4429 English, Arabic
Singapore 65 6391 1811 English, Mandarin
86 021 2327 8686 Mandarin
Perth, WA, Australia 61 8 9282 9220 English

PI Notifications User Guide 151

Technical Support and Resources

Support may be provided in languages other than English in certain centers (listed above)
based on availability of attendants. If you select a local language option, we will make best
efforts to connect you with an available Technical Support Engineer (TSE) with that language
skill. If no local language TSE is available to assist you, you will be routed to the first
available attendant.
If all available TSEs are busy assisting other customers when you call, you will be prompted
to remain on the line to wait for the next available TSE or else leave a voicemail message. If
you choose to leave a message, you will not lose your place in the queue. Your voicemail
will be treated as a regular phone call and will be directed to the first TSE who becomes
available.
If you are calling about an ongoing case, be sure to reference your case number when you call
so we can connect you to the engineer currently assigned to your case. If that engineer is not
available, another engineer will attempt to assist you.

Search Support

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Search Support.
Quickly and easily search the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site's Support Solutions,
Documentation, and Support Bulletins using the advanced MS SharePoint search engine.

Email-based Technical Support

[email protected]
When contacting OSIsoft Technical Support by email, it is helpful to send the following
information:
• Description of issue: Short description of issue, symptoms, informational or error
messages, history of issue
• Message logs: See documentation for your PI System for information on obtaining
message logs pertinent to the situation.

Online Technical Support

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Contact us > My Support > My Calls.
Using OSIsoft's Online Technical Support, you can:
• Enter a new call directly into OSIsoft's database (monitored 24 hours a day)
• View or edit existing OSIsoft calls that you entered
• View any of the calls entered by your organization or site, if enabled
• See your licensed software and dates of your Service Reliance Program agreements

152
 Remote Access

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Contact Us > Remote Support
Options.
OSIsoft Support Engineers may remotely access your server in order to provide hands-on
troubleshooting and assistance. See the Remote Access page for details on the various
methods you can use.

On-site service

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Contact Us > On-site Field Service
Visit.
OSIsoft provides on-site service for a fee. Visit our On-site Field Service Visit page for more
information.

Knowledge Center

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Knowledge Center.
The Knowledge Center provides a searchable library of documentation and technical data, as
well as a special collection of resources for system managers. For these options, click
Knowledge Center on the Technical Support Web site.
• The Search feature allows you to search Support Solutions, Bulletins, Support Pages,
Known Issues, Enhancements, and Documentation (including user manuals, release
notes, and white papers).
• System Manager Resources include tools and instructions that help you manage: Archive
sizing, backup scripts, daily health checks, daylight savings time configuration, PI Server
security, PI System sizing and configuration, PI trusts for Interface Nodes, and more.

Upgrades

From the OSIsoft Technical Support Web site, click Contact Us > Obtaining Upgrades.
You are eligible to download or order any available version of a product for which you have
an active Service Reliance Program (SRP), formerly known as Tech Support Agreement
(TSA). To verify or change your SRP status, contact your Sales Representative or Technical
Support (http://techsupport.osisoft.com/) for assistance.

PI Notifications User Guide 153

Index
Web link • 71
A
D
Acknowledgment
definition • 3 Delivery Channel
of a notification • 108 configure • 95
of a notification in MyPI • 105 definition • 3
of a subscription • 109 Delivery Endpoint Contact
Active Directory (AD) configure • 89
configuring contacts • 118 definition • 3
security settings • 116 Desktop Alert
view AD contacts in MyPI • 105 configuring • 112
Alerts
configure • 112 E
receive • 114 Element Templates
definition • 3
B Escalation Contact
Browser pane • 48 definition • 3

C G
Category • 78 Glossary • 3
Check In • 50 Group Contact
Clock time true setting • 3 configure • 90
Comment • 109, 110 definition • 3
Components • 2 groups • 90
or • 64 Groups • 126
performance equation • 61
SQC • 59 H
Condition High Availability • 4, 122
and • 62 configuring • 122
comparison • 56 definition • 123
configuring • 56 upgrading PI Notifications Services • 8, 12, 13
Contacts • 2
browser • 49 I
configuring • 98
definition • 3 Installation • 8
search for • 93
view • 49 M
Content Migration to PI Notifications • 149
custom • 3 Model • 3
definition • 3 MyPI • 2
Custom Content MyPI Alert • 111
constant value • 68
file • 77 N
file link • 77
Natural time true setting • 3
RtReports Link • 74
Navigator panel • 48
RtWebParts link • 76

PI Notifications User Guide 155

Index

Notification instance customize content • 101

acknowledge • 108 definition • 3
definition • 3 unsubscribe • 103
history of • 106
sort in MyPI • 106 T
view • 106, 107, 108 Target
Notification rules definition • 3
create • 54 element • 54, 83
create manually from template • 84 Time rule
definition • 3 definition • 3
deploy • 85 Time true
export • 86 definition • 3
import • 87 Triggers
organize by category • 78 configure • 55
rule summary • 108 definition • 3
security • 85
subscribe to • 100 U
unsubscribe from • 103
view • 49 Unsubscribe • 103
Notification template
create from notification rule • 83 V
custom content supplied by • 82 Viewer pane • 48
definition • 3
startup options • 82
Notifications
definition • 3

P
Palette • 48
PI Alarm • 149
PI AlarmView • 149
PI Clients
interaction with • 4
PI System Explorer
components • 48
launch • 47

R
RtAlerts • 149

S
Security • 5
edit contact • 117
edit notification • 85
States • 126
Subscription
add to notification rule • 100
copy settings to another subscription • 102
customize contact configuration • 102

156