General FAQ

  --> For Pricing & Licensing questions, please refer to this FAQ
  --> For Partner questions, please refere to this FAQ.

Q. What is OSIsoft vCampus exactly?
A. The OSIsoft Virtual Campus (vCampus) is a subscription-based, online offering that consists of providing everything people need to develop applications on the PI System, in a community-oriented manner and with the focus on 'doing it right'. The OSIsoft vCampus program provides access to a number of resources, including:

• A personal development PI System;
• A community experience: discussion forums and blogs published by OSIsoft staff;
• An online library with a growing collection of technical articles;
• Technical, interactive webinars;
• Online courses.

The OSIsoft vCampus is intended to facilitate and encourage communication around PI programming and integration (good PI programming, that is), between OSIsoft partners, customers and employees.

It is the source of information for everything related to programming, and the way to get obtain development licenses of the Data Access products, including PI SDK and AF SDK.


Q. Who exactly can join?
A. Everybody! Customers, third-parties (ISVs, SIs, etc.) and OSIsoft employees can participate to this program. The idea is to create a community of developers/integrators where everybody is at the same level and ask or answer questions. (if you currently are or wish to become a Partner, make sure you read the Partner FAQ)


Q. Do I need to go through any kind of subscription process?
A. Yes. You first need to sign in using your Single Sign-On (SSO) account (or create one) by clicking on Sign In. Then you can click on Apply Now to enroll in the OSIsoft vCampus program.

OSIsoft Employees: you need to click on Apply Now too, as if you were to apply for a license. Then acknowledge the 2 informational pages that appear and log in using your network credentials.

Should anybody have trouble signing in, please contact SSOHelp@osisoft.com as indicated on the Sign-On page.


Q. Is my subscription activated immediately after applying?
A. No: all applications first go through a manual screening process. Upon acceptation of your application, you will receive an email notification with instructions to complete your registration, which includes payment.    (make sure you read the Pricing/Licensing FAQ)


Q. What PI software does it include?
A.  The vCampus PI Products Kit contains the following:

• Servers: PI Server, AF Server, PI Notifications Server, PI ACE Server
• Clients: PI ProcessBook, PI DataLink (and PI DataLink Server), PI WebParts, PItoPI Interface
• Data Access Technologies: PI OLEDB Provider, PI OPC DA/HDA Server, PI SDK and AF SDK (which includes the Notifications SDK), PI JDBC Driver
• Community Technology Previews (CTPs): Early exclusive previews to new products or product versions
  

Q. Anything else I need to know on the software provided?
A. The PI Server is limited to 10,000 points and HA (High Availability) Collectives of up to 3 nodes.

Because this server is meant to be used as a personal development system (i.e. isolated from production data sources), only the default interfaces & simulators installed with the PI Server and the PItoPI Interface are provided. All other PI Interfaces (such as the PI OPC Interface, the PI Foxboro Interface, etc.) will not work with this PI Server. The PItoPI Interface is included because it provides an easy way to feed production data to this development system if need be.


Q. How can I download and use these PI products?
A. The vCampus PI Products Kit is available as a DVD image (an .ISO file) from the OSIsoft vCampus Download Center. This image can then be burnt on an actual DVD or simply loaded in a CD/DVD emulation software (such as Daemon Tools) to install the contained PI products. The "CD/DVD image and emulation software" technique is gaining popularity among software vendors, especially for bigger install kits or kits including various products.

Just like any other PI System, a PI Server License file is required for the downloaded PI Server to run. That license is valid for the length of the subscription (1 year) and is bound to the subscriber's machine. The binding to a specific machine is done via "Machine Signature File" (MSF), which the subscriber uploads. More details about the these processes are provided in the OSIsoft vCampus Download Center.

Q. Can I install this PI System on a Virtual Machine?
A. Yes

Q. Is the licensing different on a Virtual Machine?
A. No: the subscriber still has to generate and upload the "Machine Signature File" (MSF) to get a PI Server License file generated. On a Virtual Machine, however, that MSF is generated with information from both the Virtual Machine and the Physical Host. This means the PI Server is bound to that "Virtual Machine + Physical Host" combination.

Please note that you are NOT licensed to run multiple copies concurrently. However, for archiving
purposes you may create backups of your virtual machine in various configurations subject to your license agreement. Please note as well that changes in the virtual machine's  hardware will require
you to apply for a new license file. A new license file can only be issued by a request sent to vcampus@osisoft.com and approval is granted on a case-by-case basis.

Q. What is the relationship between OSIsoft vCampus and the technical support website?
A. The two websites are going to function in parallel and the technical support website will remain as is. As in the past, the technical support site and team focus on "end users" and "PI administrators": this is where you can download your production PI Server and other products, and ask questions about using and administering PI.

On the other hand, OSIsoft vCampus focuses on developers: this is where you obtain your development server and technologies such as PI SDK and AF SDK. The OSIsoft vCampus discussion forums and webinars are the perfect places for questions pertaining to PI development and integration.


Q. So what happens to DevNet?
A. The OSIsoft Developers Network (DevNet, OSIDN) was decommissioned on June 30th, 2009. Some of the applications residing on the DevNet were made available in a "Legacy DevNet Content" branch on the OSIsoft vCampus Library.


Q. Is OSIsoft vCampus a direct replacement for the DAP, DA or "PI Development Server" components?
A. No - it's easy to confuse the OSIsoft vCampus and the PI Server it provides with the "DAP", "DA" and "PI Development Server" components, but they are very distinct in reality. Let's take a closer look at them:

• OSIsoft vCampus takes care of the "development" of applications; among other things, the OSIsoft vCampus provides each subscriber with a personal development PI System (what used to be the "PI Development Station" in the component price list).
   
• DAP and DA are "deployment" (i.e. runtime) licenses; that's what must be purchased by end-users in order to deploy applications that were developed with OSIsoft vCampus - contact your Account Manager for more information.
   
• The "PI Development Server" is something people can still get as a separate item off the pricelist; as opposed to the personal PI System provided as part of OSIsoft vCampus, this is a clone of an organization's Production PI Server (i.e. same number of PI Points, same PI Interfaces, etc.). This is the kind of system people can use for training, staging, testing version upgrades, data backfilling/reprocessing, etc.