Catch 22 for complete automation of a gateway setup

[justin3]

This is in relation to MQTT and Ignition data questions - Ignition - Inductive Automation Forum

To clear up a few likely questions:

1. Why is this necessary - because I am just a contractor who is remote and very part time for a startup without it’s own tech resources.

2. What is the goal - A completely pre-configured, commissioned, and ready to go Edge Gateway for their local HMI systems.

I have been battling for the last 3 weeks solid to get even remotely close to this goal and it, quite frankly, seems like the developers never even considered this to be necessary. So, what is the catch 22? You cannot fully configure the gateway without using the rest API, you cannot use the Rest API without an API key, you cannot configure the API key using the JSON files. That means you cannot fully setup and configure certain things like MQTT.

Thus, I am left in an impossible situation. I can have a partially configured useless lump sitting there and I get to burn PTO from my 9-5 in order to go and setup an ignition edge site randomly.

The documentation on the JSON files and their schemas is sparse at best. The docker image is similarly sparse and really not useful.

I have searched every corner of the web I can think of to see if anyone has had more success than I and I cannot find a soul who has come close. Even Mustry-Solutions/ignition-83-cicd didn’t get me much further down the road.

Everything says well use a gateway back up - that completely defeats the entire purpose, that would just be me manually setting up everything in the UI every time and then just packaging it for docker because not every system project is identical, but the basics will all be the same.

So, has any one actually accomplished a fully pre-configured deployment, docker or otherwise?

[Chris_Bingham]

I haven’t migrated my 8.1 automated deployment yet, but I’m not anticipating any showstoppers.

@justin3

use a gateway back up

I reckon I’ll add myself to the list, and echo to start with a gateway backup. Configure a single gateway in the UI, then use that gwbk for all future gateways. The gwbk can be restored via script (immediately following your automated install), and would contain the base config for your client - things common to every gateway. With any luck, that could include MQTT configuration…

Personally, I’m not a believer in Docker for bare metal Edge installs. To each their own…

Regarding the API key:

Is there way to create/generate api token?

If you want to 'preconfigure' a gateway with an API key, you can store one in the external resource collection, as mentioned in the post @Sfenwick linked: Note that this same principle can be applied a layer higher. If you want to preconfigure a gateway connection - you can do the exact same thing (move a configured resource to the external collection) but with your configured DB connection.

Regarding any other specific hurdles you encounter, inquire here.