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Version: 7.9

Agent Task - Send Project

Inductive University

Agent Task - Send Project

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Agent Tasks have the ability to send projects and project resources from a Controller to an Agent.

New in 7.9.18
As of release 7.9.18, you can send projects and project resources across major Ignition platform versions, for example from release 7.9 to 8.1.
caution

Project resources are uniquely identified for agent tasks. If a resource is overwritten by a project import, please verify that it is correctly listed in any standing tasks.

Send Project Task

On the Controller, under the Configure section of the Gateway webpage, go to Enterprise Administration > Agent Tasks. Here you can create a Gateway Task to send a project from the Controller to an Agent.

  1. Click the ‘Create new Gateway Task’ link. The EAM wizard will guide you through each step of the Send Project task.

  2. Not only will the Send Project send a project from the Controller to the Agent, but if the project already exists on the Agent, it will replace it. Scroll down the list of Gateway Tasks, and select Send Project. Press Next.

  3. Just like with any Gateway Task, the Send Project task needs to be scheduled. There are several scheduling options available, but for this example, schedule the task to Execute Immediately and press Next.

  4. Select the Agent where you want to send your project, and press Next.

  5. The EAM wizard knows your controller and agent configuration. It’s going to prompt you to choose the machine where your project is located. In this example, the project that you want to send is located on the Controller or Gateway Source so select Local System, and press Next.

  6. The EAM wizard will display all your projects from your local system. Select the project you want to send to your Agent, and press Next (If you select your Agent on the previous screen, the EAM wizard will display all your projects running on your Agent that were sent over previously from the Controller).

  7. The EAM wizard summarizes all the information for you to review. Press Finish, and your project will be sent from the Controller to the Agent.

  8. The EAM wizard will execute the task, the screen will refresh, and a message will pop up stating that your Send Project task was successful.

  9. To verify that your project was sent, go to your Agent, click on the Configure tab on the Gateway webpage, and select Projects. In this example, you can see that the Parameters project was created by the EAM controller. If you don't see your sent project, refresh the screen by clicking Projects.

MySQL Warning Message

Notice that for the "Parameters" project there is an warning icon next to the "MySQL" database. This is because the project was configured to use a default database connection named "MySQL" on the Controller, but the Agent that the project has been restored on does not have a database connection named "MySQL".

Send Project Resources Task

You can also send project resources, such as project templates, windows, transaction groups, pipelines and even script modules from the Controller to an Agent.

caution

If a Send Project Resources Task is set up, and a project import is done on that project before the task executes, the Send Project Resources Task may not work properly, since new resource IDs are created for the imported project resources, even if the import keeps things the same.

Sending Global Resources

New in 7.9.6
Global Resources may now be sent with the Send Project Resources Task. Resources such as Shared Scripts and Alarm Pipelines may be sent to any Agent. When selecting a destination project, Global resources may only be sent to the "Global project" on the Agent.

Sending Project Resources Example

  1. On the Controller, under the Configure section of the Gateway webpage, go to Enterprise Administration > Agent Tasks. Let’s create another Gateway Task to send project resources from the Controller to the Agent. Click the ‘Create new Gateway Task’ link. The EAM wizard will guide you through each step of the Send Project Resources task.
Reference screenshots in the Send Project section

You can refer to some of the screenshots in the Send Project Task section as you work your way through the examples in this Send Project Resources Task.

  1. Click on the Send Project Resources radio button, and press Next.

  2. Schedule the Send Project Resources task to Execute Immediately, and press Next.

  3. Select the Agent on the Agent Selection window, and press Next.

  4. Select the Source Gateway/Local System where your project resources reside, and press Next.

  5. This example sends selected resources from the Training project on the Controller to the Agent. Select Training, and press Next.

  6. You can see all the resources inside of the Training Project. Of course, real projects will have many more useful project resources than are shown here. It can include templates, windows, transaction groups, pipelines and script modules. Choose whatever resources you want to send to the agent, and press Next.

  7. You have the option of either merging the project resources into an existing project or creating a new project on the Agent. In this example, let's create a new project. Select Other, and enter a new project name. Press Next.

  8. The EAM wizard summarizes all the information for you to review. Press Finish.

  9. The Gateway Task for Send Project Resources will execute, the screen will refresh, and a message will appear stating that the task was successful.

  10. To verify that the Training project resources were sent, go to your Agent, click on the Configure tab on the Gateway webpage, and select Projects. You can see in this example that 'NewProject' was created by the EAM controller. If you don't see your new project, refresh the screen by clicking Projects.

Once your project and project resources are sent to the Agent, you need to complete the installation of your project. You need to setup your authentication profile, database, and Tag providers. Once this is completed, you are ready to use the project and project resources on your Agent.

Send Tags Task

New in 7.9.5
Sending Tags from a Controller Gateway to an Agent Gateway works a little differently than the other Agent Tasks, since the Send Tags Task is executed from the Designer. Within the Controllers Designer, you can select any number of Tags from the Tag Browser that you want to send to any number of Agents.

Right clicking on the Tags brings up the right click context menu, which now has a new EAM > Send Tags to Agents option.

Selecting the Send Tags to Agents option brings up a new window, allowing you to remove any accidentally selected Tags, as well as select which Agents will be receiving the Tags and the Tag Provider to insert them into. Clicking the OK button will begin the process of sending the Tags to the Agents. Once the Tags have all been sent, you will get a new popup, letting you know of the success.

While you can't initiate this task from the Gateway Webpage, you will be able to see it as a running task, as well as find it listed in your task history after running.