The short answer
Ignition
Ignition is a server-based platform: a gateway runs on a server, modules add functions to it, a designer application builds the project, and clients launch from the gateway without per-seat licenses, because the server license is unlimited in tags, clients, and device connections. Its historian writes to a standard SQL database, its scripting is Python, its clients are either the older Java-based Vision or the browser-based Perspective that also runs on phones, and its drivers and built-in OPC UA server reach the common controllers directly. The freedom it offers is also its risk: an Ignition project can be built well or badly in the same way that any software can, and a utility that adopts it needs standards for tags, templates, scripting, and the database from the first day. Redundancy is a pair of gateways; Edge editions put a small gateway at a remote site with local screens and store-and-forward.
Key points
- One server license, unlimited tags, clients, and connections; modules add historian, alarming, reporting, and more.
- Perspective clients run in a browser and on mobile; Vision clients are the older desktop clients.
- The historian is a SQL database of your choosing, which you also have to administer.
- Scripting is Python, which is powerful and needs standards and review.
- Edge editions serve remote sites with local visualization and store-and-forward to the central gateway.
Architecture
| Element | Notes |
|---|---|
| Gateway | The server process; hosts projects, tags, device connections, and modules; managed through a web page |
| Modules | Vision, Perspective, Tag Historian, Alarm Notification, Reporting, SQL Bridge, OPC UA, MQTT, and others; licensed per gateway |
| Designer | The engineering application, launched from the gateway; builds tags, windows or views, scripts, and reports |
| Tag providers | Tag databases, with user-defined types for pumps, valves, and sites |
| Devices | Driver connections to controllers; the built-in OPC UA server exposes them and external OPC servers can be connected |
| Database | A SQL server for history, alarms journal, and audit; installed and maintained separately |
| Redundancy | A master and a backup gateway that synchronize; clients fail over |
| Gateway network | Links between gateways for remote tags, history, and central administration |
Perspective and Vision
Vision is the original client: a Java application launched from the gateway, fast on a control room workstation, with a large installed base. Perspective is the browser-based client built for phones and tablets as well as workstations, with a different component model and responsive layouts. New systems are generally built in Perspective, existing Vision systems continue, and a plant that has both should decide which is the operator standard so that the graphics and the training are consistent. Neither is an exposure to the internet by itself; the remote access design decides that.
The database is yours
The tag historian, the alarm journal, and the audit log write to a SQL database that the utility installs, sizes, backs up, and maintains. That is a strength for reporting, because the data is in a standard database anyone can query, and a responsibility, because a database that fills its disk or loses its backups takes the history with it. The database server is on the backup schedule, the disk is monitored, history partitions and pruning are configured, and someone knows how to restore it.
Standards before building
- A tag naming convention and user-defined types for every equipment class, matched to the controller structures.
- Templates and views for each equipment class, so a pump looks and behaves the same on every screen.
- Scripting rules: where scripts are allowed, naming, logging, and review; a script library rather than logic scattered in components.
- Alarm configuration standards that follow the alarm philosophy.
- Project structure: inheritance from a base project, and separation between the plant, the collection system, and administrative screens.
- Version control through project exports or the built-in tools, with a change procedure.
Edge and remote sites
Edge editions run a small gateway at a remote site: local screens for the operator at the site, local tag history that forwards to the central gateway when the link is up, and, in some editions, a full local project. A treatment plant with a central gateway and Edge gateways at lift stations and wells keeps the sites visible and the history complete through radio and cellular outages, at the cost of one more computer at each site to patch and back up.
Frequently asked questions
- Which SQL database should we use?
- One the utility can administer and back up. Common choices are the open-source servers and the Microsoft server; the platform supports several. The decision is about the staff and the backup tools, not the platform.
- Do we need a programmer to maintain it?
- For a system built without scripting beyond the standard library, no; the designer is a configuration tool. For a system full of custom scripts, yes, and the scripts had better be documented. The standards decide which system you have.
- Can Ignition talk to our old controllers?
- Through its drivers for the common controller families, through an OPC server for others, and through Modbus for nearly everything. Legacy networks need a gateway or an OPC server that speaks them.
- How does licensing handle a second server for redundancy?
- The backup gateway needs its own license, typically at a reduced cost as a redundant license. Edge gateways are licensed separately. Confirm the current terms with the vendor.
Related topics
- SQL IntegrationConnecting SCADA and historian data to relational databases: why a utility does it, the methods, a schema that handles time series, the query patterns for totals and reports, the mistakes that flood a database or stall a server, and security.
- SCADA RedundancyWhat redundant SCADA servers protect against and what they do not, how failover works for tags, alarms, history, and clients, the network and controller layers beneath it, and why an untested failover is not redundancy.
- OPC UAWhat OPC UA is for, how its information model, security, and transports differ from OPC Classic, where it belongs in a plant, and what to check before relying on it.
- High Performance HMI DesignGrey backgrounds, reserved color, and displays designed to make abnormal conditions obvious rather than to look impressive in a demo.
- SCADA BackupsWhat a SCADA backup must contain to bring a system back: the project export, an image of each server, the databases, historian archives, licenses, certificates, scripts, and network device configurations, with frequency, retention, and the restore procedure.
- Other PlatformsThe SCADA and HMI products a water utility may meet beyond the common ones: Siemens WinCC, distributed control systems, independent SCADA products, hosted lift station monitoring, and open-source tools, and the questions that decide whether one belongs.
Direct contact
Have a controls question?
Reach Eric Sullivan directly about anything on this site, a controls or automation topic, or one of his personal projects.