# Making Ignition Tags Discoverable For BACnet Server

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [June 19, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121 "2024-06-19T19:26:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Csantaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@Csantaw](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Csantaw)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/1 "2024-06-19T19:26:28Z")

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I have an ignition project coming up where i am reading/writing tags to an Allen Bradley PLC. The customer wants some of the information passed to their BACnet system. usually we would do this via third party gateway etc. but the BACnet company says they have done it before by reading the tags from ignition. they are claiming all i need to do is make the tags "discoverable" for the BACnet system and they can pull the data from the server. i don't see any mention of anyone doing this in the forums or any options in the gateway or in the ignition designer to achieve this. has anyone had any experience with something like this? any help on this would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/2 "2024-06-19T21:05:43Z")

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> [@Csantaw](#):
>
> they are claiming all i need to do is make the tags "discoverable" for the BACnet system and they can pull the data from the server. i don't see any mention of anyone doing this in the forums or any options in the gateway or in the ignition designer to achieve this. has anyone had any experience with something like this

They may be talking about Ignition's "Exposed Tags" feature, which makes _all_ your Ignition tags available via the OPC UA server (no roles and permissions or narrowing down scope right now, unfortunately. This is something done for 8.3).

It's over OPC UA, though, not BACnet.

"Expose Tag Providers" setting: [Ignition's OPC UA Server | Ignition User Manual](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.1/ignition-modules/opc-ua/ignitions-opc-ua-server#advanced)

note that it requires a gateway restart to take effect.

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**Author:** ![DavidO](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/davido/32/53092_2.png) [@DavidO](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/DavidO)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 9:30am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/3 "2025-01-16T09:30:44Z")

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A bit new to BACnet, so bear with me 😄

Do I understand it correctly that Ignition can NOT "host" any tags locally for external devices to access via BACnet?

Currently have a Ignition system initializing as foreign device to a Schneider EBO server. I can browse and read the tags there.

If I want to make some data availabe **to** this EBO server, I must then ask them to configure a BACnet Object in their server?  
No way for **them** to access/browse/read a tag in an Ignition Tag Provider?

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/4 "2025-01-16T13:43:20Z")

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Ignition cannot expose data as a BACnet device on your network. The driver is only meant to consume data from other BACnet devices to expose in the Ignition OPC UA server.

Exposing your Ignition tags to other applications is typically done with OPC UA or web service calls.

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**Author:** ![bmusson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bmusson/32/87530_2.png) [@bmusson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bmusson)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/5 "2025-01-16T15:31:03Z")

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Went ahead and made a feature request on the ideas portal.

> **[Support exposing tags as BACnet objects. | Ignition Features and Ideas |...](https://inductiveautomation.canny.io/ignition-features-and-ideas/p/support-exposing-tags-as-bacnet-objects)**
>
> Add support to expose tags as BACnet objects so that external systems can read them. OPC UA is great, but many clients specifically request BACnet/IP access to

We've had to do this several times over the last year using BACnet/IP gateways and it's a pain, but we don't do enough with BACnet to justify adding the functionality ourselves.

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**Author:** ![Matt\_Gessner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Matt\_Gessner](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Matt_Gessner)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/making-ignition-tags-discoverable-for-bacnet-server/92121/6 "2025-12-12T18:58:57Z")

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We need to this as well. Any recommendations on a gateway to use?
