Migrating Ignition from local server to cloud ( licensing questions)

Ignition
1

Hi all,

I'm planning to migrate our Ignition Gateway from a local on-premise server to a cloud server (e.g., AWS/Azure/GCP), and I want to make sure I handle the licensing correctly before starting. A few questions:

  1. License transfer – Since Ignition licenses are tied to a hardware fingerprint, do I need to deactivate the license on the old server before activating it on the new cloud instance? Is there a grace period, or does it need to happen in a specific order?
  2. Activation on cloud VMs – Does license activation work the same way on a cloud VM as on physical hardware, or are there quirks with virtualized/cloud environments (e.g., changing VM specs affecting the hardware fingerprint)?
  3. Network requirements – Does the cloud Gateway need constant outbound access to Inductive Automation's activation servers, or is offline/manual activation an option if outbound access is restricted?
  4. Support subscription – Our license has an annual support subscription attached (not a subscription-based license itself). Does moving to a cloud server affect the support subscription in any way, or is it purely tied to the license key regardless of where the Gateway is hosted?

Any guidance, gotchas, or lessons learned from others who've done a similar local-to-cloud migration would be much appreciated!

2

  1. Deactivate on old before activation on new. Use two-hour trial mode to bridge the short gap. However...

  2. Cloud edition licenses are bought through the hypervisor's infrastructure. If you move a permanent (6-char) Standard edition license to the cloud, be sure to deploy on VMs with suitable persistent storage. If you are using a leased license (8-char), non-persistent infra is possible.

  3. Permanent licenses for Standard edition do not need internet access. Leased licenses do. No matter where you deploy.

  4. Standard edition support is associated with a license key, not the physical server location.

3

Hi Phil thank you for your fast reply

Just to confirm our license is a 6-character key, so it sounds like we're on the permanent Standard edition license. Good to know we'll need persistent storage on the cloud VM (so we'll avoid any ephemeral/spot instance setups) and that we won't need to worry about constant internet access for activation.Also glad to hear the support subscription just follows the license key regardless of where the Gateway is hosted and one less thing to worry about during the migration.Appreciate the help and this clears up exactly what we needed to plan the cutover properly.