Hello Team,
I have a few-month-old Ignition Gateway backup in .gwbk format. In that backup, there is one particular project I need. Currently, the live server gateway contains many new projects, so I do not want to restore the entire old backup and overwrite the existing configuration.
My requirement is:
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Extract only the specific project from the .gwbk backup.
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Convert it into a format (e.g., ZIP) that can be imported into the current gateway.
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Import this project without deleting existing scripts and logic.
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Maintain all scripts and logic intact during the process.
Could you please confirm:
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Is it possible to extract a single project from a .gwbk file without restoring the entire gateway?
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If yes, what is the recommended approach or tool for converting and importing that project?
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Are there any official guidelines or best practices for this scenario?
I have tried one method:
I converted the entire .gwbk backup file into a ZIP, fetched the project folder, copied it to another folder on my local PC, then converted that particular project into a ZIP file and imported it into the gateway. Finally, when I tried to open the project in Designer, the UI screens, logic, and scripts were all missing.
Your guidance will help me understand the limitations and possibilities of Ignition Gateway backups.
Thank you for your support.
It may not be the “best” method, but what I have done for this situation is restore the .gwbk file onto a different server, usually my local workstation, then export the needed project .zip file. Last, import the project .zip file on the server where you need it.
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What Lynn says. Spin up a VM or docker container for temporary Ignition server and restore the gateway backup there. Then export just the project.
(It is wise to always use VMs or containers for Ignition gateways in development.)
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Kindling can do this with a graphical interface:
If you open up a .gwbk and then navigate to the root of a project folder there's a button to export the project as a separate zip:
All a project export zip is, though, is a zip of that project folder, so there's no need for any custom logic. Extract the project folder from the gwbk yourself and zip it back up - it'll make no difference to Ignition where it came from.
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Hi Paul,
Thank you for your support.
If you don’t mind, could you please explain this logic in detail? I want to make sure that if I follow this approach, I can convert the project into a ZIP file and import it into the live gateway without losing any scripts or logic associated with the project.
Hi Lynn,
Thank you for your support.
I tried the suggested approach, but I encountered some issues. My production gateway contains multiple projects and a large number of tags for both Perspective and Vision. When I attempt to restore my local Ignition backup, the process takes a very long time and eventually fails with an error. As a result, the restore does not work.
Could you please suggest any alternative options to achieve this without errors?
What errors?
Do you have the memory setup the same on both gateways in ignition.conf?
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There's not much to explain.
Take the .gwbk.
Open it as a ZIP file in whatever archive management tool you use.
Navigate to the root project directory.
Extract it out of the ZIP.
Create a new ZIP containing that whole directory.
The root folder of the zip should have the name of your project. Then within that one folder there must be the project.json manifest file, and a bunch of folders identifying the other project resources underneath that.
Again, if you want an easy way to do it you can use Kindling, which provides a graphical user interface.
The nature of this error completely changes what the advice for resolution is.
In general, if you want specific step by step advice working through something with Ignition because you're not confident - you should be contacting our Support department officially.
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