Cannot connect designer to master when backup is active

Ignition
,
1

Our customer has recently implemented redundancy for their Ignition gateway and is currently soak testing running the backup to monitor if there are any issues (firewalls, hardcoded hostnames, etc)

I am trying to connect with the designer but am unable to connect to either primary or backup gateways.

current situation:

  • primary gateway
    • hostname: ign-app01
    • status: cold
  • backup gateway
    • hostname: ign-app02
    • status: active

I know I can’t connect designer to the backup server by design but it appears that because I haven’t connected to the primary with my designer since before the implementation of redundancy, it has an old configuration cached that thinks it is independent and refuses to connect (presumable as it is not the active gateway)

image
image884×728 42.3 KB

Has anyone found a way to connect/refresh the gateway config in designer to an inactive primary?

I assume failing over to the primary will allow me to reconnect but hoping to avoid as I will not be given a window by the customer for a few days.

2

Deliberately not permitted. Designers can never connect to backup gateways. Connecting to the master while inactive would break synchronization.

When running on a redundant backup, task #1 is to restore proper operation of the master.

1 Like
3

Have you tried...deleting the stored entry in the launcher and creating it again from scratch?

4

Deleted stored entry and reattempted connection but same result.

This appears to be happening at connection to gateway with the gateway incorrectly reporting (or designer incorrectly assuming?) indepenedent status.

image
image480×387 14.4 KB

It looks like @pturmel is right in that this isn’t allowed.

I get not wanting to break synchronisation, but it is frustrating to be locked out from even viewing designer level config/diagnostics while the backup is active. /whinge

Don’t suppose there is a ‘read-only designer access for backup gateways’ feature in the pipeline in the near future?

For now, I’ll just share my findings with my customer so they know to jump back to master gateway ASAP when failing over.

5

Definitely not in the near future. I wouldn't say it's never going to happen, but it's not anywhere on any roadmaps.

1 Like
6

Some background information: the traditional idea of redundancy in Ignition is that running on the redundant backup mode is considered an emergency situation. The role of the backup gateway was to keep clients/sessions functional while the master was down and being fixed or perhaps being upgraded. We know that this design is sometimes frustrating to customers who are expecting the backup gateway to become a fully functional alternate gateway when activated. We have long term plans to implement this type of design, but that is a ways off right now.

5 Likes