TickManager Warnings and Slow Siemens Tag Updates on Large Ignition 8.3

Ignition
, ,
1

Hi everyone,

I'm facing a performance issue with the Siemens Enhanced Driver in Ignition 8.3 and would appreciate any suggestions.

System Configuration

  • Ignition Gateway: 8.3.x
  • OPC Driver: Siemens Enhanced Driver
  • Number of PLCs: 20 Siemens PLCs
  • Total OPC Tags: Approximately 22,000
  • One dedicated Tag Group per PLC
  • Each PLC has its own scan rate according to the application requirements.

Problem

The tags are not updating according to their configured Tag Group scan rates.

For example:

  • A Tag Group configured for 250 ms or 500 ms may update after 3 to 5 seconds.
  • Some PLCs experience even longer delays.
  • The delays are inconsistent between different PLCs.

Network

The PLCs are connected over Internet ( Cloud Gateway- Windows Server 2025 Standard).

  • Ping response time from the Ignition Gateway to each PLC is typically less than 30 ms.
  • There is no noticeable packet loss.

Observations

I frequently see the following warning in the Gateway logs:

TickManager
aggregate callback time exceeded tick rate: 2230ms > 1000ms

This appears repeatedly when the system is running.

What I've Already Checked

  • Different Tag Groups are configured for each PLC.
  • PLC network latency is low (<30 ms).
  • Communication is through the Siemens Enhanced Driver.
  • The issue affects multiple PLCs, not just one.

Questions

  1. Has anyone experienced similar delays with the Siemens Enhanced Driver in Ignition 8.3?
  2. Are there any recommended driver settings for systems with around 20 Siemens PLCs and 22,000 tags?
  3. Is there a recommended maximum number of tags per Siemens device or per Gateway?
  4. Could this be related to the TickManager warning?
  5. Are there any Gateway performance settings or Siemens Enhanced Driver parameters that should be tuned for large systems?

Any advice, best practices, or recommendations from similar large Siemens deployments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

2

Internet round trip latency is known to crucify performance on PLC polling protocols. You should test locally. OPC and MQTT do not have this problem, and are highly recommended in WAN applications.