Archiving Options in WinCC OA 3.22: What are the available migration paths and recommendations?

Changes to Archiving Options in WinCC OA 3.22

Am I affected by these changes?

You are affected if your project currently uses one of the following archiving technologies:

• Value Archives (HDB/RAIMA)
• Oracle (RDB)
• NGA InfluxDB Backend

These technologies will no longer be available for archiving in WinCC OA 3.22. 
Accessing historical data through these archive types will also no longer be supported.
Migration of existing data to supported archiving solutions will be possible also in 3.22.

What are my options?

1. Continue using WinCC OA 3.21

You can continue using WinCC OA 3.21 for the next three years with full support included.
All archiving technologies listed above remain fully available in WinCC OA 3.21. 
Therefore, there is currently no immediate need to migrate.

2. Migrate to an NGA backend

Historical data can be migrated using the NGA Importer to one of the archiving technologies that will be supported in WinCC OA 3.22:

• TimescaleDB
• PostgreSQL
• Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL)

The NGA Importer provides a straightforward and resource-friendly migration process. 
The most recent data is migrated first, and an automatic throttling mechanism ensures that the migration does not negatively impact system performance.

Starting with WinCC OA 3.22, or with a corresponding patch for WinCC OA 3.21, the NGA Importer will also support migration from Oracle RDB. 
Migration from InfluxDB and Value Archives (HDB/RAIMA) is already supported today.

Our recommendation: TimescaleDB

We recommend migrating to TimescaleDB, which is an add-on to PostgreSQL.

Key benefits include:

• Data compression with storage savings of up to 90% compared to standard PostgreSQL
• Improved query performance
• Optional professional support directly from the vendor (TigerData)
• Future support for automatic aggregations directly within the database
• Elimination of additional Oracle licensing costs

3. What if migrating away from Oracle is not an option?

If a technology change is currently not an option for your project, please contact us at: pm(AT)etm.at

We will register your interest and evaluate the overall demand.