Installing an Ignition Designer Plugin when spinning up a Docker Container

Ignition
1

I am doing some work with Ignition + Docker + Kubernetes and I wanted to know if it is possible to install a plugin module when spinning up an ignition container? I want to use the Tag CICD plugin to have better source control when working in Designer.

2

Some of this might depend on what version you're using (8.1.x or 8.3.x), but you've got a few options:

  1. Build a derived image that places the module into /usr/local/bin/ignition/user-lib/modules alongside the other built-in modules. On 8.1.x, it will always be loaded if present. On 8.3.x, it will be loaded on a first-launch (fresh data volume) and treated as a built-in module (only able to be disabled, not uninstalled).
  2. Use an init container to retrieve the module and place accordingly prior to launch of the main Ignition container. Again, your approach may vary based on version--Ignition 8.3.x uses a data/modules.json to define which modules should be loaded/enabled on startup.
  3. On Docker only, you can simply bind-mount the module file directly into place.

With Ignition 8.3.x, you also have new environment variables such as ACCEPT_MODULE_LICENSES and ACCEPT_MODULE_CERTS to automate auto-acceptance of third-party modules. If you're needing to integrate third-party modules in 8.1.x, you might find useful information in my ignition-derived-example repo.

Let me know if you'd like more information on any of these options based on what you think you need.

1 Like
3

Thank you, the links and this information is really helpful.

4

Currently I have a docker compose file that is copying the third party module in along with updating the modules.json, so that ignition will be-able to detect it. The issue I am running into now is ignition is not automatically accepting the cert and license even though I am passing an environment variable with the module identifier. What do i need to do to automatically accept the licenses and certs?

services:
  io-gateway:
    image: inductiveautomation/ignition:8.3.1
    container_name: mqtt-gw
    user: "0:0"
    ports:
      - "8088:8088"
      - "8043:8043"
    environment:
      ACCEPT_IGNITION_EULA: "Y"
      IGNITION_EDITION: "standard"
      DISABLE_QUICKSTART: "true"
      ACCEPT_MODULE_LICENSES: "com.cirruslink.mqtt.transmission.gateway"
      ACCEPT_MODULE_CERTS: "com.cirruslink.mqtt.transmission.gateway"

    command: ["-n", "io-gw","-m","2048","--","wrapper.java.initmemory=2048"]

    volumes:
      - ./modules/MQTT-Transmission-signed.modl:/usr/local/bin/ignition/data/local/modl/MQTT-Transmission-signed.modl
      - ./modules/modules.json:/usr/local/bin/ignition/data/modules.json

    restart: unless-stopped
5

First thing I'll mention is that we observed a documentation error with respect to the location of user-installed modules in the Ignition 8.3 Docker image. The correct location is /usr/local/bin/ignition/data/var/ignition/modl. Modules in this location will be automatically enabled on a fresh launch.

That said, if you're bind-mounting the module into place, you actually probably want to just put it in the standard location under /usr/local/bin/ignition/user-lib/modules since it is by-nature unremovable with that bind-mount.

Nonetheless, I'm guessing that something in the modules.json that you're linking into place is interfering with the auto-accept. Try making the location adjust above and removing the bind-mount of modules.json.

6

After changing the module path, ignition isn’t detecting the module. I tried composing with both /usr/local/bin/ignition/data/var/ignition/modl and /usr/local/bin/ignition/user-lib/modules and ignition still wouldn’t detect it. I checked the container with docker exec -it mqtt-gw /bin/bash and I can see the file is inside the container. The reason I was copying in the modules.json was to automatically add a reference to the third party module. That worked with getting ignition to detect it, but it didn’t work for automatically accepting the licenses and certs.

7

Is the compose snippet you posted complete? I didn't see a data volume, which means that it should integrate any of the .modl files from either of those folders on first-launch (since there won't be a pre-existing data/modules.json).

8

Ahh the compose snippet above is a previous version. this is the snippet I’ve been using:

services:
  io-gateway:
    image: inductiveautomation/ignition:8.3.1
    container_name: mqtt-gw
    user: "0:0"
    ports:
      - "8088:8088"
      - "8043:8043"
    environment:
      ACCEPT_IGNITION_EULA: "Y"
      IGNITION_EDITION: "standard"
      DISABLE_QUICKSTART: "true"
      ACCEPT_MODULE_LICENSES: "com.cirruslink.mqtt.transmission.gateway"
      ACCEPT_MODULE_CERTS: "com.cirruslink.mqtt.transmission.gateway"
    command: ["-n", "io-gw","-m","2048","--","wrapper.java.initmemory=2048"]
    volumes:
      - ./io/mqtt/data:/usr/local/bin/ignition/data
      - ./modules/MQTT-Transmission-signed.modl:/usr/local/bin/ignition/user-lib/modules/MQTT-Transmission-signed.modl

    restart: unless-stopped

When I removed the data volume reference from the compose and ignition did detect and verify the custom module.