Universal Industrial Database

Universal Industrial Database v1.3

ABSTRACT
Using standard SQL servers as a long-term storage for technical real-time data is problematic for a number of reasons, and namely:

Insufficient speed of new record insertion.
Substantial performance losses as the database size increases.
Low speed of data retrieval from the database.
Standard SQL servers do not support the OPC external interfaces, which are the standard for industrial automation systems today.

Therefore, industrial automation systems require a particular approach for storing large volumes of archived technological data.

"Universal Industrial Database" is a high-performance real-time database designed to be used in industrial automation systems. It was created in compliance with the rigid requirements for the products of this type and provides the customer with the following main advantages:

The product has been optimized for archiving technological data (values of analog and discrete measurement channels with timestamp and quality).
The database uses the most wide-spread standards (OPC History Data Access and SQL) as the external interface for reading/writing to the archive.
The data are stored in standard SQL databases (currently supported: "Microsoft SQL Server" and "Interbase" DBMS).
The product offers great scalability. Currently, a number of solutions are based on it: from small information systems (up to 100 measurement channels) to huge cluster systems using as many as 100000 measurement channels.
Special algorithms allow the product to reach a very high database writing speed (at least 100 million records per day on a standard Pentium4-based system) and prevent performance losses as the database grows in size. The writing speed can also be increased by using dedicated hardware (dedicated servers, SCSI HDD, RAID, etc.).
Data retrieval speed for one parameter in the archive can reach up to 100000 records per second on a standard Pentium4-based system.
The product has been optimized for storing real-time data with up to 1 ms sampling intervals.
The data storage depth is limited only by the HDD capacity. Some systems that currently use the "Universal Industrial Database" have the storage depth of 3 years.
A special data storage scheme provides for a comparatively simple data backup/restore mechanism.

PROGRAM SCOPE
UNIDB allows to efficiently read data from an arbitrary number of OPC Data Access servers and save them to OPC Historical Data Access or OPC Data Access servers.
To optimize data saving, you can specify the set value, boundaries and aperture for every parameter that is being archived. Using UNIDB HDAServer, you can send the data to MS SQL, Firebird or Interbase DBMS. It can be used as part of any SCADA system supporting OPC HDA for efficient archive storage in MS SQL, Firebird or Interbase DBMS.

COMPONENTS

UNIDB HDAServer is a standalone OPC Historical Data Access server for MS SQL, Interbase and Firebird DBMS. The address space of the server tags and database connection settings are configured arbitrarily by UNIDB HDAServer Config. This server can be used as a separate OPC HDA server, as well as with other UNIDB products.
UNIDB HDAServer Config - a visual configuration utility for UNIDB HDAServer.
UNIDB Collector is a service that allows to organize a reliable and efficient data retrieval from OPC DA servers and their archiving to OPC HDA servers or transfer to OPC DA servers. UNIDB HDAServer or any other server can be used as an OPC HDA server. UNIDB Collector "connects" the tags of one OPC server with those of another.
UNIDB Collector Config is a visual configuration utility for UNIDB Collector.
UNIDB Collector Manager is a visual tool for UNIDB Collector. It allows to configure, start and stop the Collector.