I have a project coming up to install a plant wide historian, we will be using OSI PI, PI has in interface for just about any protocol. However, you must pay for each one, and they are not cheap. I routinely use RSLinx OEM, and I believe it can function as an OPC server for the PI collector, has anyone used RsLinx with PI before?

You may look at THIS. I don't know if it will help you or not.

RsView apparently has been used to do it. Doesn't RsView actually use RsLinx for communications?

This is from the old Rockwell Forum if it helps you any

Looking through the RSLinx help files, I found documentation that Linx is an OPC compliant server. However, it looks like I will have to upgrade to the Gateway version.

Ken you know better than me when it comes to this but it looks to me like Gateway just adds OPC to Remote Clients and samples and documentation for OPC.

Are you saying this requires OPC to Remote Clients?

Not arguing, trying to learn myself.

Look at the screen capture below. I am understanding that a Remote Client would be another computer making a request. Is this wrong? May be I need a definition of a Remote Client. I can't seem to find that

You should be able to use anything but lite or RSView, you just need to run historian on the same PC as RSlinx.

The historian clients are connecting to historian not RSlinx, is this what is causing your confusion?

I'll need the gateway version, because the "collecter" will not be running on the same PC.
The basic layout is to have one server that historizes all the data from the entire plant, feeding the server will be several collecters, one in each process area. The collectors can buffer data for a short period, which will allow the server software to be updated, patches applied, etc.... Then when the server comes back up the collectors dump all the buffered data. With multiple collectors if one part of the plant has issues, I don't lose the entire plants history.

Oh ok I get it now. Wouldn't be a very good historian without redundancy.