Advice Needed – Ignition Migration from Physical PC to VM, Licensing and Historian Database

Ignition
1

Hi everyone,

We are planning to upgrade our existing BMS Ignition system and would appreciate some advice on the best approach.

Current setup – ELCL-2

  • Ignition is currently installed on a physical BMS PC.

  • We have an existing Standard Edition license with several modules, including Tag Historian, BACnet, Modbus and OPC UA.

  • The Licensing page shows "License Incomplete", although an applied license is listed.

  • The existing BMS is running, and we want to avoid any interruption during migration.

Proposed setup

  • VM-1: One Ignition Gateway for both the existing ELCL-2 BMS and the new ELCL-1 BMS.

  • VM-2: A separate database server to store historical data from both systems.

  • ELCL-1 and ELCL-2 will remain on separate OT networks, with approved connectivity to the Gateway.

  • Existing local controllers and the Schneider CPMS will remain in operation.

We would like to clarify a few points:

1. Gateway Migration

What is the recommended way to move our existing Ignition Gateway from the physical PC to VM-1? Can we use Gateway Backup and Restore to retain the existing configuration, tags, projects and connections?

2. License Transfer

Can we transfer our current license to VM-1 and use it for both ELCL-1 and ELCL-2? Would any additional licenses or modules be required?

3. Installation Before License Transfer

Can we install and configure Ignition on VM-1 for the new ELCL-1 system before transferring the existing license from ELCL-2?

4. Historical Data Migration

We want to preserve all existing ELCL-2 historical data and use VM-2 as the database server for both systems.

What is the recommended migration approach to avoid data loss, duplicate records or broken historical trends?

5. Current License Status

Our current Gateway shows "License Incomplete". Could you help us understand what this means and what we should check before the migration?

6. Migration and Cutover

What would be the safest sequence for testing, parallel operation, license transfer and final cutover, with minimum impact on the existing BMS?

We have attached our current Licensing screenshot and a simplified proposed architecture for reference.

We would appreciate your recommendation on the best approach and any important points we should consider before starting.

Thank you for your support.

2
  1. Gateway backup and restore does it all and what I would do.
  2. Don't think so, one license for one standard server. If you are transferring it I think you can get a grace period before decomissioning the old one but if you're asking if you can run two standard servers with the same license then no.
  3. Yes you can restore your gateway to the new VM and it will have your projects, tags etc it will just be unlicensed. Use trial mode to confirm everything is good befor transferring license so I guess this answers my question about number 2 - yes you can transfer the license very simply.
  4. Cleanest way is during downtime backup your database and restore to your new machine. If you don't have any downtime it will be unavoidable. To avoid duplicate records you in general you need a unique index/primary key or you need to write a script/query to run post migration to find and then delete what you consider to be duplicate records.
  5. The standard ignition install installs a lot of modules that are typical. When you bought a license you likely only bought it for a subset of those modules, so if you go to the configure page -> modules you will many are Activated but some are unlicensed. Feel free to uninstall those and that message will go away. It is a harmless warning but I get it confuses people.
  6. Take a gateway backup, bring it over to the new machine, restore in disabled mode (mostly to avoid duplicate records in historian from 2 servers recording the same events), use trial mode to verify all connections and anything else, and when you are satisifed transfer the license is the general guideline I'd follow here.
3

Thanks a lot for your detailed explanation. This is very helpful and gives us a much clearer direction for the migration. We'll review the steps internally before moving forward. Really appreciate your support!

4

Reach out to Inductive and talk to them about the licenses as that's the best path. They may be able to provide a temporary license you can setup on the VM to ensure everything is working in parallel before shutting down your other server and transferring the license.

For the license incomplete status, in the modules page it will say which modules are not licensed. They can also help you review the license incomplete, if you have extra modules installed you don't need then they just need to be removed or if there is a gap in your current license and you need added they can assist.

5

Special note: If run both BMS systems from the same gateway, you only need one license.

If you only designed the ELCL-2 project to only support the one system (hard-coded tag paths, in particular), you may need to refactor to support multiple BMS in the same gateway.