What is AVEVA: Wonderware renamed, and how InTouch HMI, System Platform and PI Server are built

AVEVA is the current name of the industrial software that many plants in Vietnam still call Wonderware: InTouch, System Platform and Historian now carry the AVEVA name, next to the PI System from the former OSIsoft. This article explains, from AVEVA's own pages and product documentation, how the names changed, which AVEVA product does which job in a plant, and how InTouch HMI, System Platform and PI Server are built inside. It uses AVEVA's InTouch HMI and System Platform 2023 R2 SP1 P04 documentation and the PI Server 2018 installation guide.

From Wonderware to AVEVA

AVEVA's page on Wonderware gives the history in three steps. Schneider Electric acquired Invensys, the owner of the Wonderware brand, in 2014. In 2018 AVEVA and Schneider Electric's industrial software business were combined under the AVEVA name. In 2021 AVEVA acquired OSIsoft, the maker of the PI System.

AVEVA states that the change of name has little effect on existing users: the same software, development teams and sales and support contacts carry on under AVEVA. The renamed products are:

On site the old names stay in use in drawings, spare-part lists and daily talk, so when asking for a quotation or support it helps to give both names and the version number.

Which AVEVA product does what

AVEVA's product listing places these products under operations, HMI and SCADA, data and production management. In a plant they usually sit in the layers below.

• AVEVA InTouch HMI: operator screens for a machine, a line or an area, with alarms and trends.
• AVEVA Edge: HMI and SCADA for machines, skids and small systems on panel PCs.
• AVEVA System Platform: supervisory control across several areas or sites, built from reusable object templates in a central repository (the Galaxy), with the OMI visualisation layer.
• AVEVA Plant SCADA (formerly Citect SCADA): SCADA software for plant operations; AVEVA's Plant SCADA product page states that Citect SCADA is now AVEVA Plant SCADA.
• AVEVA Historian and AVEVA PI System: storage of time-series process data, from a single site to plant-wide data infrastructure.
• AVEVA Manufacturing Execution System and AVEVA Batch Management: production management, recipes and batches, at level 3 of ISA-95.

In our experience, the choice between InTouch HMI on its own and System Platform depends on how many areas share the same equipment types: System Platform pays off when templates are reused across many lines, while a single machine or a small area is often served by InTouch HMI or AVEVA Edge.

InTouch HMI: standalone and managed applications

AVEVA's InTouch HMI documentation separates two kinds of application:

A standalone application is a folder on disk, removed by deleting the folder and taking it out of Application Manager. A managed application lives in the Galaxy as an InTouchViewApp template, so deleting it means deleting that template in the IDE. This difference decides how an existing InTouch application is backed up and how it can later be moved into System Platform.

How a System Platform Galaxy is built

The Galaxy Repository is the database that holds the configuration of a Galaxy, stored in Microsoft SQL Server with one database for each Galaxy. The Galaxy Repository node also receives the Bootstrap, System Monitor, AVEVA License Server and AVEVA License Manager, and it can share a computer with the IDE, an Object Server, an I/O server or an OMI client in smaller systems. At run time it keeps every node informed of global changes such as the security model. AVEVA notes that the remaining nodes can keep running with the Galaxy Repository disconnected, but recommends keeping it connected so that global changes reach every node.

The deployment model decides which computer runs which objects. Every computer in a System Platform network needs a WinPlatform object, an AppEngine object and an Area object deployed to it, and the Deployment View of the IDE shows the Galaxy in that order: platform, engine, area. The load on a platform grows with the number of I/O points and attributes and with the depth of template derivation. AVEVA advises no more than two AppEngines on one logical processor, typically the primary and backup engines of a redundant pair.

Connecting InTouch HMI and System Platform to PLCs

Gateway Communication Driver is included with InTouch HMI, and installation creates an InTouch Access Name for it that points to the local computer. The driver simplifies OPC and OPC UA connections and is configured in the Operations Control Management Console, while OPC and OPC UA servers are installed separately. Tags can be created by dragging them from the list of OPC UA connections into the tag model. In the other direction, InTouch HMI can act as an OPC UA server so that other clients read its tag data.

Inside a PI Server

AVEVA's PI Server installation guide describes a PI System as a chain: the data source, a data collector for that source, Data Archive, the PI Asset Framework (PI AF) server, and visualisation on a client. AVEVA lists Data Archive, the PI AF server and PI Notifications Service as the parts of PI Server, and PI Analysis Service as a further server role in the same install kit:

• Data Archive: stores time-series data and routes it in real time to the rest of the system.
• PI AF server: models assets and equipment so that time-series data has context.
• PI Analysis Service: reads PI AF attribute values, runs calculations and writes the results to other attributes.
• PI Notifications Service: runs notification rules defined with PI AF and sends alerts by email or to a web service.

A gap in PI data usually starts at the data collector rather than in Data Archive; the checks are covered in PI System troubleshooting.

How TDL works with AVEVA software

TDL Industrial Automation is listed in AVEVA's Partner Finder as a System Integrator in the AVEVA Partner Ecosystem. Our AVEVA work has been on running plants: the SLC 500 to ControlLogix and Wonderware upgrade on the Maggi line at Nestlé Dong Nai, System Platform displays for the biomass system at Nestlé Tri An, and the facility and power monitoring systems at Samsung SEHC, maintained under a yearly contract. Older InTouch and System Platform applications are covered on Wonderware InTouch upgrade.