Ignition Edge is a lightweight, lean version of Ignition with software solutions designed for devices used in the field and OEM devices at the edge of the network. Ignition Edge solutions work on a wide variety of operating systems such as Linux, Windows (any version), macOS, and more. With support for ARM processors, Ignition Edge can run on devices like a Raspberry Pi or the latest generation of edge-of-network devices. 

Edge Onboard

Ignition Edge comes pre-installed on a range of edge-of-the-network devices that are IIoT ready out of the box. Edge can also be installed on virtually any industrial device.

Licensing

The new Edge version of Ignition has a separate license that works in the same way as a traditional Ignition license. The Edge license is set up to only work on an Edge Gateway, so it will not work if you attempt to activate it on an Ignition Gateway. However, you can activate a full Ignition license on an Edge Gateway, although this is not recommended due to the limitations of the Edge platform.

Additionally, once a license has been activated on an Edge Gateway, the trial time for any unlicensed Edge products will be removed, and you will no longer have access. To regain access, contact your Account Representative and inform them what Edge products you need to purchase. After purchasing, the products will be added to the existing license. Reload the license on your Gateway to view and use the products. 

Core Functionality

The following features are available on all Edge Gateways, license or unlicensed.

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OPC UA Module and Drivers

Edge can create OPC UA client connections. The internal OPC UA server in the Edge Gateway acts only as a client and not as a server. This means Edge can connect to other outside OPC servers as a client to fetch data, but can not act as an OPC UA server for outside programs to connect to. Adding the IIoT product extends this functionality.

Device Connections

By default, Edge Gateways can have two device connections. Once two devices have been configured, the “add device” UI on the Gateway’s Devices config page will be hidden. Speak to your sales representative for more details on increasing the device limit. 

The following Inductive Automation OPC UA drivers are available to Edge Gateways:

  • AB suite of drivers
  • Siemens drivers
  • Modbus driver
  • Omron drivers
  • DNP3 driver
  • UDP/TCP drivers
  • Serial drivers
  • BACnet driver

One Week of Internal Storage

An Edge installation can store certain historical data inside Ignition. 

  • Tag History - Up to one week or 10 million data points of history can be stored locally. Pruning will automatically happen, and the historian is automatically enabled and not configurable. You can learn more about Tag history here.  

  • Alarm Journal - The alarm journal will store all alarm events locally for one week of events. There are limited configuration options; the Alarm Journal can be accessed via the Edge Alarm Journal profile. The Edge alarm journal and audit log can sync under EAM.

  • Audit Logs - Like the Alarms, the Audit log is limited to one week of local storage. It cannot be configured.

Projects

Edge installations have just one project. This project is created automatically if it did not exist, and it cannot be removed. The default project name is "Edge" and can be renamed. For more information, see Edge Gateway Config section.

Redundancy

Two Edge Gateways can be set up with redundancy. An Edge Gateway can only failover to another Edge Gateway (not a standard Ignition Gateway).

One-way Email Notifications

Edge gateways can make use of a Simple One-Way Email Notification Profile, allowing the gateway to send out email notifications. 


Edge Products

Products extend Edge's capabilities, each adding a unique set of features. There are five Ignition Edge products available: Panel, IIoT, Compute, Sync Services, and EAM. Products can be mixed and matched to create the system you need. Please note that a license is required to activate each of the Ignition Edge products. Each Edge product offers specific functionality that works best in certain scenarios, but because any combination of products can be installed, an Edge Gateway may fill multiple roles and help bridge different architectures.  

Ignition Edge Panel creates a standalone HMI at the edge of network. HMIs run in either a web browser or a dedicated application. Either Vision of Perspective may be selected.

Additionally, both the Web Browser module and Symbol Factory image library are included in Edge Panel. 

Ignition Edge IIoT turns any device into an edge gateway that publishes data to an MQTT broker. (IIoT was formerly Edge MQTT.)  The product allows access to the MQTT Transmission, Opto22 SNAP PAC driver, the Emerson ROC driver modules, and the ABB Totalflow driver (manual installation required). In addition, Ignition Edge IIoT exposes Edge’s OPC UA server to external OPC UA clients.

Ignition Edge Compute enables you to remotely run scripts and create REST APIs for interfacing with third-party applications. The product allows access to Python scripting, Gateway Event Scripts, and the Web Dev module. 

Ignition Edge Sync Services synchronizes data from the edge of the network to a central Ignition server. The product allows access to Sync Services, remote Tags and alarm pipelines, Tag history sync, alarm history sync, and audit log sync. 

Ignition Edge EAM brings diagnostics, automatic backup and recovery, central licensing, and project synchronization to your edge-of-network device. The EAM product allows this Edge Gateway to be an Agent in an EAM architecture.


Edge Gateway

All Edge installations are a limited version of the Ignition platform for a significantly reduced cost. This helps keep things simple, and these installations always work with other full versions of Ignition if you need additional functionality. In an Edge installation there are a lot of visual changes to the Gateway Webpage, and some pages have been removed to avoid confusion. You can see below that after installing Edge, the traditional orange Ignition logos are replaced with new green Edge logos so a Gateway can be easily identified. For more information, see Edge Gateway.


Ignition Edge Compared with Ignition

Because Edge is a lean solution, it does have some functionality limitations compared to full Ignition. Ignition and Ignition Edge share the same basic platform, but Edge is a leaner version of Ignition made specifically for use in on edge-of-network devices. Ignition comes with unlimited Tags, Clients, and database connections, while Ignition Edge comes with unlimited Tags, two Clients (one local and one remote) and no database connectivity.

Database Access

Database access is disabled. This means that any database queries or bindings will not work, and the user sources that require a database connection will not be available. The Status and Configure pages of the Gateway Webpage have been updated to remove these features and reduce confusion. Despite this restriction, some "historical" storage can happen inside of Ignition.

Gateway Scripting

All Gateway level scripting is disabled including Gateway Event Scripts and Tag Event Scripts. This does not affect project or Client-scoped scripts. If you wanted to take advantage of Gateway Events Scripts and Tag Events Scripts with an Edge installation, you can do so through the use of the Compute product. Keep in mind that you will not see the “Gateway Events” menu item in the Designer on unlicensed Gateways. Applying a compute license will require a Designer restart before the menu item will appear.

Gateway and Project Backups

A Gateway backup made in an Edge installation will work perfectly in other Edge installations. Edge Gateway backups are not compatible with Ignition Gateways, so you may not take an Edge Gateway backup and restore it on an Ignition Gateway. Nor may you take an Ignition Gateway backup and restore it on an Edge Gateway.

However, you can still export Tags, windows, and other project resources in the Designer from full Ignition Gateways, and import them into an Edge project, or vice versa. 

Tag Providers

Edge Gateways only contain a single active Realtime tag provider. Additional providers may not be created. 

Historian Providers

Edge Gateways contain a single historian provider, which is an instance of an internal historian provider (named the "Edge Historian Provider")

Third-Party Modules

Edge's core functionality and products largely determine which modules run on the platform. Third-party modules will not run on an Edge Gateway, with the exception of any third-party module explicitly stated by a product, such as the Edge IIoT Product. 





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