We are looking into converting/Migrating our Ignition instances from WINDOZE to Linux. As part of that we started looking at Ignition Docker images from Inductive Automation Repo.
Has anyone braved enough to run their production architecture with Docker?
I’ve been using Docker for about seven years and know enough to be dangerous. (Even build somes Docker images from scratch for some of the Oracle Applications such as APEX and ORDS on Tomcat).
It was so much easier with Ignition since Inductive automation has already build Docker Images to be consume, it was such a no brainer.
With that being said, my vision is to have Docker Engine running on Ubuntu host where we will deployed Ignition Docker Image with Docker Volume mounted at run time for “Stateful” container.
Is it a “fever dream” and I should just stick to either WINDOZE or vanilla Linux?
Note: Of course we will test the heck out of this regardless of going to vanilla Linux or Docker.
It can be challenging to use a permanent license with Docker deployments. If you get leased licenses, and don't mind maintaining internet connectivity for lease checks, go for it.
But, for this reason, I would not recommend it for gateways placed on your isolated or semi-isolated OT networks.
A permanent license places critical information in the filesystem, and is tied to root filesystem unique properties (and various other undocumented items). These properties change in many container restart/rebuild situations, even with a persistent volume. You are extremely likely to break your license and need IA support to reset it.
If you delete your docker container and make a new one, you will lose the license activation. Using the 8-Character license key and the online tethering with it enables you to reuse the license key on the new container provided there is only one container running that license at one time.