Installing Ignition on Linux

Stop and Start Ignition

After installation, you can start and stop Ignition with the following commands:

/etc/init.d/ignition start
/etc/init.d/ignition stop

Ignition as a Service

When installing under Ubuntu, Ignition starts automatically whenever the computer reboots. If you wish to stop this behavior, you need to use the update-rc.d tool to remove the service (uninstalling Ignition also removes the service) as follows:

/etc/init.d/ignition stop
update-rc.d -f ignition remove
rm /etc/init.d/ignition

When installing under other Linux distributions, use that distribution's method to automatically start a program after reboot.
For example, this command auto-starts Ignition installed in a Fedora 15 system (run as root user):

chkconfig --level 2345 ignition on

Set the system PATH

For Ubuntu installations, the installation directory is automatically appended to the system PATH. You can start programs like the Gateway Control Utility from the command line without specifying a complete path to the installation directory.

Note that after installation, you need to close and reopen the command shell for the PATH change to take effect. For other Linux installations, you need to manually add /usr/local/bin/ignition (or your installation directory) to any script that can set the system PATH (such as .profile or .bashrc).

Automated Installation on Linux

You can automate Ignition installation across different machines using scripts. Ignition is then installed silently from a command shell without showing any user prompts.

Keep in mind that the installer cannot automatically start the Gateway after a silent installation. Use the /etc/init.d/ignition start command as shown in example below.

Command line example

sudo ./ignition-7.x.x-linux-x64-installer.run --mode unattended --prefix /somefolder/bin/ignition --unattendedmodeui none
/etc/init.d/ignition start

Flags

-- mode unattended (ensures that no prompts appear during installation)
-- prefix /somefolder/bin/ignition (optional flag; if a value is set, then Ignition is installed in the specified folder, otherwise Ignition is installed in /usr/local/bin/ignition by default)
-- serviceuser username (allows a Linux system user to be installed (that is, a user that cannot log in to the OS))
-- unattendedmodeui none | minimal (the none flag does not display any sort of graphic during installation; the minimal flag displays a small progress bar and nothing else)

Installing using Debian Package Management

By using the package management tools you can quickly install Ignition on Ubuntu and other Debian-based systems. Debian package management is a powerful way to quickly install Linux programs and keep them up-to-date with minimal effort.

Note: that you need to be able to run as sudo to be able to install Ignition. Also, the machine where you want to install Ignition must be connected to the Internet so that the installer and updates can be installed automatically. If you are installing Ignition to a non Internet-connected machine, use the downloadable Linux installers instead (see the Download and Install on Linux section at the Top of this page for more details).

The Ignition Debian installers are dependent on an existing Java 6 or later installation through APT. Java 7 is highly recommended over Java 6. Oracle Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 7 is officially supported by Inductive Automation, although Ignition runs well in most cases using OpenJDK 7.

The installer installs files in the following locations:

/usr/local/bin/ignition - contains binaries and startup scripts
/var/lib/ignition/data - contains application-generated files, temporary files and the internal
database
/var/lib/ignition/user-lib - contains modules and JDBC jars
/var/log/ignition - contains the wrapper.log and other log files
/etc/ignition - contains configuration files. Symbolic links to these files are created in /var/lib/ignition/data.

When installing Ignition, you can choose whether to use the graphical package management tools, or install completely from the command-line. With either option, Linux automatically downloads the correct 32-bit or 64-bit installer depending on your installed system architecture.

Note that the instructions below are for an Ubuntu Linux system, but other Debian systems will contain the same tools, although they may be under different menus.

Graphical Installation

1. Download the Inductive Automation public key file from  http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/ia.public.key
   
   or on the command-line, run
   wget http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/ia.public.key
    
2. Within Ubuntu, navigate to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.
   
   
3. Within Synaptic Package Manager, navigate to Settings > Repositories.
    
4. Navigate to the Authentication tab. Click on Import Key File and select the downloaded ia.public.key file.
    
5. Navigate to the Other Software tab and click on the Add button. Add the following text to the text box:
   dep ://archive.inductiveautomation.com/ignition non-free
    
6. If you want to add the Ignition beta repository, click the Add button again and add this text to the text box:
   dep http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/apt ignition-beta non-free
   
   
7. Be sure to uncheck the check boxes next to repositories ending with Source Code, as Ignition does not supply source code with the repositories.
    
8. Click the Close button. Within Synaptic Package Manager, click the Reload button. You can now type ignition into the Quick Filter box and see the latest available Ignition repositories.
    
9. Right-click on the Ignition repository that you want to install, and select Mark for Installation. Then click the Apply button at the top. Ignition will be automatically downloaded and started. Navigate to http://localhost:8088 to log into the Ignition Gateway.

Command-line Installation

1. Run
   wget http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/ia.public.key
   
   
2. Run
   sudo apt-key add ia.public.key
   
   
3. Copy
   /etc/apt/sources.list 
   
   to
   /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
   
   
4. Edit
   /etc/apt/sources.list 
   
   and add the following lines (the ignition-beta line is optional):
   deb http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/apt ignition non-free
deb http://archive.inductiveautomation.com/apt ignition-beta non-free
   
   

5. Run 

   $sudo apt-get update

   to update the download list within the APT utility.
   
   

6. Run
   sudo apt-get install ignition 
   
   to install the latest stable Ignition version or run 
   
   sudo apt-get install ignition-beta 
   
   to install the latest beta Ignition version.
   
   If you want to run the Gateway Command Utility or gwcmd right after installation, open a command shell in your home folder and run
   source .profile
   
   This forces your command shell to reload the .profile script, which has been updated with a path to the Ignition executable during installation.

Upgrades

During an upgrade, the Ignition internal database, configuration files, and any custom installed modules are not changed. Whenever a new version of Ignition is released, the online Debian repositories also get updated with the latest version.

Your Linux environment will list Ignition in the list of package upgrades when a new version is available. As with the installation, you can choose whether to upgrade using a graphical environment or using the command-line.

Graphical Upgrade

Ignition will appear as an entry under your system's Update Manager under the Other Updates section. If you choose to install updates using the Update Manager, Ignition will be upgraded at the same time as other packages.

You can also manually upgrade Ignition using Synaptic Package Manager. Locate ignition or ignition-beta in the list using the Quick Filter.

Ignition can also be found in the World Wide Web section. Right-click and select Mark for Upgrade. Then click Apply at the top. The latest version of Ignition will be downloaded and installed.

Command-line Upgrade

To upgrade all installed packages, including Ignition, run
sudo apt-get upgrade

To only upgrade Ignition, run
sudo apt-get install ignition

or
sudo apt-get install ignitionbeta

The APT utility recognizes that Ignition is already installed, and performs the upgrade.

Uninstalling Ignition on Linux

During a new Ignition installation, an uninstaller executable is created.

When Ignition is uninstalled, the settings database and folder in /data is backed up to /data_<current date>, and modules and user-supplied JDBC jars in /user-lib are backed up to /user-lib_<current date>. Also, the Ignition service is removed from Ubuntu Linux installations automatically. 

Linux – Using Downloaded Installer

Ignition 7.3 or later installations on Linux contain an uninstaller executable.

To run the uninstaller,

1. Open a command shell and navigate to /user/local/bin/ignition (or your installation folder).
    
2. As root or sudo, run
   ./uninstall

Linux Ignition installations before 7.3 used a zip file that did not form an installation. Since these installations were never created with an installer executable, no uninstaller executable was ever generated. This is true even if using a 7.3 or later installer executable to upgrade an installation from before 7.3. For installations before 7.3, you must manually remove the Ignition folders using the commands below.

/etc/init.d/ignition stop
*Ubuntu only* update-rc.d -f ignition remove 
rm /etc/init.d/ignition 
rm -rf /usr/local/bin/ignition 
*Recommended* mv /var/lib/ignition/data /var/lib/ignition/data_<current date> 
*Recommended* mv /var/lib/ignition/user-lib /var/lib/ignition/user_lib_<current date> 
*Recommended* mv /etc/ignition /etc/ignition_<current date> 
rm -rf /var/log/ignition

Linux Uninstallation – Using Ubuntu Package Management

Installation using the Ubuntu Package Manager offers the choice to either remove the installation while keeping the configuration files in /etc, or to completely remove/purge the installation from the system.

If you choose to remove the installation and then reinstall Ignition, Ubuntu will need to download Ignition again.

To simply remove the installation,

1. Open a command shell.
2. Run 
   sudo apt-get remove ignition (for stable installations) or 
   sudo apt-get remove ignition-beta (for beta installations)

To completely remove/purge the installation,

1. Open a command shell.
2. Run
   sudo apt-get purge ignition (for stable installations) or 
   sudo apt-get purge ignition-beta (for beta installations)