15. Scan Schedules

Overview

Scan schedules run inventory scans automatically. Use them after the first scoped scans and first full scan have succeeded.

To configure scheduled scans:

1. Go to Admin > Scan Schedules.
2. Add or edit a schedule.
3. Enter a descriptive name and choose the scan scope:

• Full Scan scans the enabled inventory targets across PI Data Archives, AF, and PI Vision.
• PI Points scans PI Data Archive inventory only.
• Asset Framework scans AF attributes and analyses.
• PI Vision scans PI Vision display inventory.

1. Choose a frequency: Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
2. For an hourly schedule, enter the minute past the hour from 0 through 59. For daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, enter the server-local time. Weekly schedules also require a day of week; monthly schedules use a day from 1 through 28.
3. Decide whether to use all enabled targets for the selected scope. If this is disabled, select the individual PI Data Archives, AF servers, or PI Vision instances to scan.
4. For an Asset Framework schedule, leave Use all enabled databases on selected servers enabled for legacy server-wide behavior, or clear it and select one or more enabled AF databases. Missing, disabled, or server-mismatched database selections are rejected rather than broadened to the full server.
5. For Full Scan and PI Points schedules, decide whether to use all enabled PI Point Rules. Clear this option to select a specific set of enabled rules with Scan and evaluate matching PI Points enabled.
6. Enable Skip if another scan is running when overlapping scans would put unnecessary load on a large PI environment.
7. Save the schedule and confirm that it is enabled.

Times are evaluated in the PI Nexus+ server's local timezone, not the administrator's browser timezone. An hourly schedule runs once per hour at the configured minute, for example :15 runs at 01:15, 02:15, 03:15, and so on.

PI Point Rule selection controls scan scope; it does not change rule priority or ownership. The selected rules are evaluated in their configured priority order, and the first matching enabled rule owns each PI Point. If a rule's Scan and evaluate matching PI Points option is disabled, it is not offered for scheduled inventory selection and its matching points remain excluded from evaluation. After changing rule criteria or priority, run a scan so ownership and inventory can be recalculated before relying on the schedule.

Use separate schedules when different inventory groups need different cadences. For example, use an hourly PI Points schedule for a small set of fast-changing interface rules, a daily PI Points schedule for the remaining production rules, and a weekly full scan for broader metadata reconciliation. Keep the scopes and selected rules explicit so the schedule history is understandable during incident response.

Recommended initial schedule:

• One full scan weekly, outside business hours.
• An hourly or daily PI Points scan only for rules that need faster inventory refresh.
• Additional scoped scans only if needed.

For many environments, a weekly full scan is sufficient because PI System metadata changes less frequently than process data. If the environment changes often, add scoped schedules for the inventory area that changes most often.

A good result for this section is that a scheduled scan is configured during a maintenance-friendly time window.