OSIsoft provides a buffering service that can save your data if the Interface Node loses its connection to the PI Server. When an Interface Node is running the buffering service
(bufserv), data flows from the data source, through the interface to the buffering service and from there to the Snapshot Subsystem on the PI Server
If the PI Server is not available (e.g., for an upgrade on the Server) then bufserv stores the data in a file buffer on the Interface Node. When the PI Server becomes available again, bufserv sends all the stored data from the buffer, in chronological order, back to the PI Server. At this point, if you look at the data in ProcessBook, you see a continuous flow of data, with no gaps. As System Manager, you should make sure that the buffering service is running on each Interface Node. The main exception to this rule is for PINet Nodes, which perform their own buffering. Also, a few interfaces, such as batch file and event file, work better without the buffering service. If you're not sure whether a particular interface is compatible with the
buffering service, check the documentation for that interface. You need only one buffering service running on each Interface Node to buffer all the interfaces for a particular Server, however you can only buffer data to one Server at a time from each Interface Node. You can set the maximum size of the file buffer (up to 2GB) in the
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