Background: Axeda Agents can be configured with standard drivers to collect event-driven data, which is then sent to the Platform. Axeda provides many standard event-driven data (EDD) drivers for use with the Axeda Agent (as explained in Axeda® Agents EDD Toolkit Reference (PDF)). All EDD drivers are configured by an xml file and enabled in Axeda Builder, through the Agent Data Items configuration.
You can configure an EDD driver to send important information from your process to the Agent, including data items, events and alarms. The manner in which you configure your drivers will affect the ability for your project to operate efficiently.
Recommendation: Use drivers to reduce the amount of data sent to the platform.
Instead of sending data items to the Platform, which then generates an event or alarm, it is possible to use the drivers to scan for specific
data points or conditions and send an event or alarm. Before you can configure your agents, you first need to determine how often you will need your agent to send data to the Enterprise server.
Two example workflows and recommendations:
- If you want to monitor a data item every second or two, configure the Agent to do the monitoring
- If you want to trend information once per day, perform that logic at the Enterprise Server.
These examples may address your actual use case or your needs may fall somewhere in between. Ultimately, you want to consider that time scale (how often you want to monitor or trend data) and resulting data volume should drive how your system handles data.
More data is available at the Agent, and at a higher frequency, then that needed at the Platform. Processing at the Agent ensures that only the important results are communicated to the Platform, leading to a “cleaner” experience for the Platform. Using this guidance as a best practice will help reduce network traffic for your customers as well as ensure the best experience for Enterprise users using server data in their dashboards, reports, and custom applications.
Need more information? For information about the standard EDD Drivers, see the Axeda® Agents: EDD Drivers Reference (PDF).
