Ignition Edge
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
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. The following features are available on all Edge Gateways, licensed or unlicensed. See Edge Gateway for more details on the the Edge Gateway.
OPC UA Module and Drivers
Edge can create OPC UA client connections natively to other UA servers. The IIoT product allows Edge to act as an OPC UA server, allowing other OPC UA clients to connect to Edge's OPC UA server.
Internal Storage
An Edge installation can store certain historical data inside Ignition.
Tag History -
Changed in 8.1.34Up to 35 days 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
The Edge product line was reconfigured to combine the five previous Edge products into two updated Edge products. Users with an existing Ignition Edge license and Upgrade Protection may have upgrades available, contact your account representative for more information.
Pages detailing features of the previous Edge products can be found in Deprecated Ignition Features.
Edge Gateways can fill multiple roles and help bridge different architectures, and the available product options further extend Edge's capabilities. There are two Ignition Edge products available: Ignition Edge IIoT and Ignition Edge Panel. Please note that a license is required to activate an Ignition Edge product.
Both Ignition Edge IIoT and Ignition Edge Panel have been updated to automatically include the EAM, Compute, and Sync Services products that were offered as stand-alone products prior to 8.1.33.
| Product | Description |
|---|---|
 | Ignition Edge IIoT turns virtually any field device, such as a touch panel or a client terminal, into a lightweight, MQTT-enabled Edge Gateway that works seamlessly with Ignition IIoT and other common IIoT platforms, providing remote data acquisition and optional secured feedback and control. It’s ideal for polling data at the device location and publishing data to an MQTT server that business systems and applications can access.Ignition Edge IIoT includes unlimited tags and device connections for included drivers, the ability to run scripts, create REST APIs, synchronize data to a central server, and act as an EAM Agent Gateway. |
 | Ignition Edge Panel includes everything in Ignition Edge IIoT plus local visualization functionality for your HMIs. Choose between Perspective (2 sessions) or Vision (1 local client, 1 remote client) as your visualization system for Edge Panel. Build future-proof, robust local control systems that are Industry 4.0-compatible. It’s ideal for standalone HMIs and providing a local-client fallback for field HMIs if the network connection is lost.Like Ignition Edge IIoT, Ignition Edge Panel includes unlimited tags and device connections for included drivers, the ability to publish MQTT data, run scripts, create REST APIs, synchronize data to a central server, and act as an EAM Agent Gateway. Additionally, both the Web Browser module and Symbol Factory image library are included in Edge Panel. |
Edge EAM
This Edge product is no longer a stand-alone Ignition Edge product. It is now included in both the Edge IIoT and Edge Panel products.
The EAM product allows an Edge Gateway to act as an agent in EAM architecture. The Edge Gateway can only be an agent, not a controller. EAM enables you to bring diagnostics, automatic backup and recovery, central licensing, and project and Tag synchronization to your edge-of-network device.
The EAM product activates the Enterprise Administration module. Some features of Ignition Edge EAM require the Enterprise Administration module to be installed on the central Ignition Gateway.
For an example of architecture using EAM, see Edge Architectures.
Gateway Backup and Recovery
The EAM enables automated backup and quick recovery for all Gateways through a Gateway backup archive.
Edge Compute
This Edge product is no longer a stand-alone Ignition Edge product. It is now included in both the Edge IIoT and Edge Panel products.
Ignition Edge Compute brings true edge computing to your network. Compute enables you to program directly against the web server in the Ignition Edge Gateway. You can remotely run scripts and create REST APIs for interfacing with third-party applications. It also provides Gateway Network Messaging.
Ignition Edge Compute gives your edge devices the ability to run scripts without the need to depend on the central server. Python is an easy to read, versatile programming language. Even if you don't know it at all, you will probably be able to understand a basic Python script. See Python Scripting for complete information.
Scripting in Edge Compute
Gateway scoped scripting, such as Gateway Event Scripts and scripts that execute on a Tag (such as Tag Event Scripts or scripts called by runScript on a tag/alarm property), are unlocked when the Compute product is applied. This allows you to use any of the Gateway scoped Event scripts for your project. You will not see the “Gateway Events” menu item in the Designer on unlicensed Gateways. Applying a license will require a Designer restart before the menu item will appear.
Edge Gateway Network Messaging
Edge Compute provides access to call message handlers on other Gateways. This allows you to send data to other Gateways to be dealt with. You can access this functionality through the following system.util messaging functions:
WebDev Module
Edge Compute comes with the WebDev module, which enables you to directly program against the web server inside the Ignition Edge Gateway and systems running Vision Clients. This gives you the ability to host web pages or files, and create full-fledged REST APIs that allow external systems to interact with the Ignition server.
Edge Sync Services
This Edge product is no longer a stand-alone Ignition Edge product. It is now included in both the Edge IIoT and Edge Panel products.
Ignition Edge Sync Services acts as a limited remote server that synchronizes data from the edge of the network to a central Ignition server.
- Remote tags
- Tag history sync
- Alarm journal sync
- Audit log sync
- Remote alarm notification profiles
For an example of architecture using Sync Services, see Edge Architectures.
Agent Gateway
Ignition Edge Sync Services, acting as an Agent Gateway in a secure, high-performance Ignition Gateway Network, can share information with other Ignition Gateways through Distributed Services, including distributed tags, history, and remote alarming.
Store and Forward
Ignition Edge Sync Services now comes with 35 days of historical data buffering, instead of a single week, so it can be better used to store-and-forward your data to a central server in case of network failure. Alarm Journal and Audit Log data is still limited to 7 days of storage.
Data Synchronization
Synchronization allows you to sync your historian data, audit records, and alarm journal entries from the Edge Gateway to a Standard Ignition Gateway, allowing you to save past the internal data limit. The Edge Gateway will still only see the limited data it can hold, but synchronization will allow you to store the data in a more permanent database that can be viewed from other Ignition systems.
Before data can be synchronized across Gateways, your Standard Gateway's system must be configured to accept Edge storage. See Data Synchronization on the Configuring Sync Services page for setup information.
Sync Reset
Edge has a way to reset synchronization state for remote services. If you restored a Gateway backup onto a system with existing locally "syncable" configuration files, then the backup may have IDs from a range beyond the local files. Use the Reset button under Config > Data Sync > Overview to reset your local sync configuration.
Prior to 8.1.8, the Sync Reset functionality can be found under Config > Enterprise Services > Sync Reset page.
Remote Alarm Notification Profiles
Sync Services allows alarms in the Edge Gateway to invoke remote alarm pipelines, via a remote alarm notification profile configured on the Edge Gateway.
For more information, see Alarm Notification Profiles.
Remote Tag Provider
With Edge Sync Services installed, Ignition Gateways will be able to create remote tag providers, targeting a provider on an Edge Gateway: either the system provider or the one realtime tag provider. This also allows writing to tags on your Edge server from your central server and for tags to be edited from a remote Designer, among many other options to customize your remote tag provider and security services beyond enabling Read/Write capabilities.
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 and Project Backups: A Gateway backup made in an Edge installation will work in other Edge installations, or if needed, Standard Edition Gateways as well. Although restoring a Standard Edition Gateway backup is possible in an Edge installation, it is not recommended due to the limitations of the Edge platform. You can, however, still export tags, windows, and other project resources in the Designer from Standard Edition 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.