How to Audit Your PI System: A Technical Checklist for PI Admins

A PI System audit should verify more than server uptime. It should confirm that data moves from source systems to users with the expected quality, context, and configuration.

A useful audit covers interfaces, PI Points, compression, AF, analyses, PI Vision, security, capacity, and change history.

1. Review interface and connector health

Confirm that each production interface or connector is required, connected, and sending data as expected.

Review:

• Service status

• Communication errors

• Buffering status

• Data gaps

• Last successful updates

• Inactive interfaces that can be retired

Do not rely on service status alone. A running interface can still have unhealthy points.

2. Review stale, bad, and inactive PI Points

Identify tags that have not updated within their expected interval. Also review tags with persistent bad states or abnormal data gaps.

Classify each point by operational status and intended use. Separate active problems from retired equipment and intentionally inactive signals.

3. Review tag usage before cleanup

Identify which tags are referenced by AF attributes, analyses, PI Vision displays, and known external applications.

This step is necessary before tag retirement, server consolidation, or naming changes.

4. Review exception and compression settings

Look for settings that are inconsistent with the signal type and engineering range.

Review:

• Exception deviation and timing

• Compression deviation and timing

• Span and engineering units

• Points with unusually high or low archive event rates

Do not apply one compression standard to every measurement. The correct settings depend on the signal and its required fidelity.

5. Review PI Asset Framework structure

Check whether AF still represents the physical plant and current data sources.

Review:

• Template consistency

• Attribute mappings

• Broken data references

• Duplicate or obsolete elements

• Engineering units

• Hierarchy design

• Ownership of template changes

6. Review AF analyses

Identify analyses in error or warning states. Review lag, skipped calculations, and repeated performance problems.

For important analyses, verify:

• Inputs

• Output

• Schedule or trigger

• Bad-data handling

• Downstream dependencies

• Recent changes

7. Review PI Vision dependencies

Identify displays that reference stale tags, old servers, deprecated AF attributes, or retired equipment.

Prioritize displays used for operations, reliability, production reporting, or compliance.

8. Review infrastructure capacity and performance

Check archive storage, disk capacity, service health, and system resource trends.

Compare current behavior with a normal baseline. One high resource measurement is less useful than a sustained deviation from normal operation.

9. Review security and access

Confirm that service accounts, users, groups, and PI security mappings still match operational requirements.

Remove obsolete access only through a controlled process. Verify that application and interface accounts will not be affected.

10. Review changes and audit evidence

Identify important configuration changes since the previous audit.

Focus on changes to:

• PI Points

• AF templates and attributes

• Analyses

• Interfaces

• Security

• Critical PI Vision content

For high-impact changes, confirm that the team can explain who changed the object, what changed, and what depended on it.

Turn the audit into an operating process

A one-time audit creates a backlog. It does not keep the environment healthy.

Repeat high-value checks continuously or on a defined schedule. Track ownership and remediation status. Measure whether recurring problems are decreasing.

The objective is a PI environment in which administrators can detect problems early, understand their effect, and make changes with controlled risk.