Gateway Settings
Gateway Settings Property Reference​
After you launch the Gateway, you can define the high-level settings that apply to the entire Gateway by going to the Config > Gateway Settings on the Gateway Webpage. From this page, you can use the default values or define a new setting. The Gateway is at the heart of the Ignition software. It runs as a web server and you can access it through a web browser. Once running, you can get various status information about the Gateway and access important functions.
The Gateway Settings Properties were updated significantly for release 8.1.0. Many security related settings have been moved to Gateway General Security Settings.
The following tables describe all the properties on the Gateway Settings.
Gateway Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| System Name | Is a unique name for this Ignition installation. It is used to distinguish this server from others on the network when working with multiple Ignition installations. CAUTION: It is not recommended to change the Gateway's System Name after initial Gateway setup. Renaming your Gateway may break critical dependencies, affect data collection, and halt production. To see a list of features dependent on the Gateway name, click here. |
| Homepage Redirect URL | The URL this gateway will redirect to when http://ip:port/ is visited. Can either be a relative path (e.g., /web/home), or fully qualified (e.g., https://inductiveautomation.com). |
| Gateway Scripting Project | The Gateway Scripting Project is a Project in which Gateway-scoped scripts with no project affiliation can access user script libraries. |
| enable Tag Reference Tracker Store | New in 8.1.34 Enables the storing of Tag Reference entries to a database on the local Gateway for analysis in a Designer for third party modules. Default is true. |
Launch Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Designer Memory | The maximum amount of memory that the Designer has access to. |
| Disable Direct3D | Disables the Direct3D rendering pipeline launched clients. Direct3D can cause performance problems with XOR painting. (affects clients on Windows only) |
| Disable DirectDraw | Disables the DirectDraw system for launched clients. Can be useful for some video cards that don't support DirectDraw well. (affects clients on Windows only) |
| Use Condensed Font | New in 8.1.4 Designers and Vision Clients will use a condensed version of the "Dialog" font for better compatibility with pre-8.0 Vision project design. (affects clients on Windows and Linux only). Defaults to false. |
Local Client Fallback​
Ignition provides a Local Vision Client Fallback mechanism that lets you use a Gateway running on the local machine. If the Gateway is lost, the Client can automatically retarget to a project that you specify in the local in the local Gateway.
Local Client Fallback Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Local Fallback | Enables a client to fall back to a project in a local Gateway if communication is lost to the central Gateway. Note that port 6501 must be open on the local machine. |
| Seconds Before Failover | The number of seconds to wait before switching to the local Gateway project after communication loss. |
| Fallback Project | The local project to use during fallback. |
Scheduled Backups​
The Scheduled Backup Settings control the Gateway's scheduled backup system. This system automatically creates Gateway backups at scheduled times and stores them in a specified destination folder. Scheduled backups are executed by the Ignition Gateway service. When enabled, you must specify a destination folder, which can be one of the following:
- A local folder, such as
C:\backupsor/var/backups - A network location, such as
\\fileserver\backups
Scheduled Backup Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Scheduled Backups | Enables the scheduled backup system which automatically makes backups at a scheduled time. |
| Backup Folder | The folder where scheduled backups are stored. This can be a local directory or a network location specified using a full UNC path. |
| Backup Schedule | A UNIX 'crontab' format scheduling string representing when to make the backups. See the Crontab Formatting Reference page for more details. |
| Retention Count | The maximum number of Gateway backups the Gateway manages in the backup folder location. The Gateway deletes older backup files to make room for new ones. |
| Filename Pattern | New in 8.1.4 The filename pattern used for creating scheduled and manually downloaded Gateway backups. Default pattern is ${gatewayName}_Ignition-backup-${edition}${timestamp}.gwbk. There are a few possible placeholder pattern values:
|
Scheduled backups are executed by the Ignition Gateway service. When using a network location, mapped network drives are not supported, and the Gateway service must have permission to create and write files in the backup folder.
Scheduling Automatic Backups Example​
This example uses an Ignition installation in a Windows environment.
Navigate to Config > Gateway Settings on your Gateway and scroll down to Scheduled Backup Settings.
Check the Enable Scheduled Backups box.
Enter your backup folder path into the Backup Folder field. If you are using a network location, ensure the path is specified as a full UNC path and that the Ignition Gateway service has permission to write to the destination.
Adjust the Backup Schedule, Retention Count, and Filename Pattern fields as desired.
tipWhile testing your configuration, you can temporarily set the Backup Schedule to
*/5 * * * *. This schedules a backup every five minutes and makes it easy to confirm that backups are being created successfully. Once verified, update the schedule to the desired frequency.Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
After saving, Ignition tests for the presence of the backup location. If the location does not exist, the Gateway attempts to create one. For example, if the file location \\fileserver\ exists, but does not contain a folder named backups, a folder of the same name will be created at that location. If the Gateway cannot create or write to the location, an error appears in the Gateway console, which typically indicates a permissions or access issue with the destination.
As an additional verification step, restarting the Gateway and confirming that new backup files continue to appear in the backup folder can help ensure that scheduled backups persist after restarting the Gateway.
The image below displays an Ignition Gateway configured to save to a network location every evening at midnight.
Automatic Thread Dump​
When enabled, Ignition will conduct automatic thread dumps at the specified interval when above the target CPU Usage Threshold. If the threshold is met or exceeded, a timestamped thread dump will be saved to the logs folder. When the number of thread dumps in the logs folder exceeds the Retention Count, old files will be automatically removed. The default sample rate (1 second) can be overridden by adding an additional parameter to the Ignition configuration file.
Automatic Thread Dump Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Automatic Thread Dumps | Enables automated thread dump generation when CPU utilization exceeds the threshold below. |
| Thread Dump Capture Interval | Number of seconds between thread dumps when utilization threshold+duration is met. |
| CPU Usage Threshold | CPU Usage Threshold (%) that when exceeded for a given duration (below) will trigger a thread dump capture. |
| CPU Usage Exceedance Duration | Duration (seconds) during CPU Usage Threshold exceedance to delay a thread dump capture. |
| Retention Count | The number of thread dumps to keep in the logs folder. |
Error Reporting​
When an error occurs in the Client or Designer, the users can click a link on the Details tab to report the error via email.
| Message Tab | Details Tab |
|---|---|
 |  |
These settings define how the errors are reported.
Error Reporting Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| SMTP Server | The address of the SMTP server used for sending emails, such as mail.example.com. Optionally, specify a port, like mail.example.com:25, or include STARTTLS settings, such as mail.example.com:587. |
| To Address | The email address(es) that will receive the error notification. Separate multiple email addresses with a semicolon (;) |
| From Address | The email address that the error notification is from. |
| SMTP Username | A username for the SMTP server, if required. |
| Change Password? | Check this box to change the existing password. |
| Password | A password for the SMTP server, if required. |
| Password | Re-type password for verification. |
Multicast​
These properties allow the Gateway to broadcast information about itself via multicast UDP packets. This allows the Gateway to be discoverable by any components that are also listening to the same multicast address. For example, native client launchers listen on a multicast address to provide a list of available Gateways on the network. Verify that the send ports and receive ports are open on the Gateway machine in order to be able to broadcast multicast message.
Multicast Settings​
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable Multicast | Allows this Gateway to be discoverable on your local network. |
| Multicast IP Address | Gateway messages are broadcast on this address. |
| Send Port | This port must be open on this machine to send multicast messages. |
| Receive Port | This port must be open on any machine that will receive multicast messages. |
| Message Interval | The interval in milliseconds at which multicast messages will be sent. |