WaterSight - Sensor Data Acquisition Requirements

Overview

The OpenFlows On-Site Data Coordinator (OFOSC), commonly called the Data Pusher, is responsible to collect and transmit sensors data into OpenFlows WaterSight. The OFOSC is data agnostic, this means that can connect to any type of system, SCADA or non-SCADA (any other IOT devices), as long as it can access the data through a database connection, OPC or Citect Sources. Another method to connect with the time series data is through restAPI. In this specific case, the installation of the OFOSC does not apply.

The Data Pusher tool needs to be installed in a physical or virtual machine that has direct access to the sensors data sources. After being installed, the tool will run in the background as a service, and will collect and transmit the raw sensor data to Microsoft Azure Cloud, where they will be stored, processed and then used in OpenFlows WaterSight. 

Before installing the On-Premise tool, it is first required that a temporary WaterGEMS license is installed in the machine or server where the OFOSC will be installed (as a WaterGEMS model needs to be able to access sensors data sources). The connection with the database will be done using the SCADA Connect functionality of WaterGEMS. After the connection is done inside WaterGEMS, the On-Premise tool can be installed. See below some requirements. For more information and support, please reach your Bentley point of contact.

Types of connection

The Data Pusher can connect to the following data sources:

• ODBC
• OLEDB
• OPC HDA / OPC DA
• SQL Server Source
• Oracle Connection
• Access / Excel
• Rest API - may need some additional customization (for this case the installation of the pusher on premise tool does not apply)

Information that the utility needs to prepare (if database connection):

• Machine/Server: will need temporary access to a machine or server that has direct access to the sensors database. This machine or server needs to be turned on 24 hours/7 days:
  • Connection could be made, for example VPN connection (preferred way) or trough other remote-control tools (for example, Teamviewer or other) – username and password for that VPN connection or the credentials for remote desktop connection
  • Need the credentials (username and pass) to enter in the machine or server
  • Communication with WaterSight via our API through port 433 (https) only outbound traffic so that needs to be released.
• Database connection access
  • Server name (or IP)
  • Login (user)
  • Password
• Database information
  • Name of the database
  • Name of the table or view
  • Table needs to have at least the following columns: Sensor ID/tag, value and Timestamp
  • ID of the sensors and the units in the database

Information that the utility needs to prepare (if API connection):

• API address
• API must be publicly accessible (anyone can connect as long as they are authenticated, see below)
• Provide access to a Personal Access Token (PAT) so Bentley can authenticate in the API. the PAT is sent in the “Authentication: Bearer” header of the request and the PAT has to be valid for the full duration of the pilot (it cannot expire sooner).
• the API must allow requesting data for a sensor (via an id) and for a start date and an end date (these are the 3 minimum URL parameters you must have)
• the result of the request must be a list with pairs of instants and values (for the requested sensor and for the requested dates).
• the names used in the parameters (e.g. “tagId”, “startDate”, etc.)  and in the results (e.g. “timeStamp”, “value”, etc.) as well as the date format Bentley can configure.

For other structures not described above, some additional customization may be required, and should be analysed by Bentley team. In this case please reach to your Bentley point of contact.

Server/Machine Recommended Requirements

• Machine or server where the On-Premise tools are installed need to have direct access to the sensors data sources
• The machine must be always running 24 hours/7 days. The On-Premise tools will run in the background as a service. If by any reason the machine restarts, the service will also automatically restart.
• Windows 10 or a recent Windows Server should be installed in the machine
• Recommended 12GB of memory in the machine where the On-Premise tools are installed and running
• 256 GB of disk space

See Also 

OpenFlows WaterSight TechNotes and FAQ's