Prerequisites

  • Ignition with Google Cloud Injector Module installed
  • Ignition Designer installed
    • Review the Inductive Automation documentation for Launching Designer against the Ignition gateway
  • An existing AWS account with an active Kinesis Stream and/or DynamoDB Database.
    • Documentation on creating a Kinesis Stream can be found here.
      • If using a Firehose stream, its source must be "Direct PUT or other sources"
    • Documentation on creating a DynamoDB Database table can be found here.
      • DynamoDB Database tables ideally should be created with the following settings:

        • Primary partition key: UUID (String)

        • Primary sort key: GROUP_EDGE_ID (String)

Summary

This tutorial will provide step-by-step instructions for the following:

  • Configuring the AWS Injector Module to connect to a Kinesis Stream
  • Configuring the AWS Injector Module to connect to a DynamoDB Database
  • Publishing live Tag data and events to the connected Kinesis Stream and DynamoDB Database. 

Upon completion of this module you will have an Ignition Gateway connected and publishing live Tag data to AWS.

Architecture


Tutorial

Step 1: Configure the AWS Injector Modules

Once you have Ignition and the AWS Injector Module installed and running we can setup the configuration to connect to AWS.

Review the AWS Injector Module configuration guide for more details on each tab

Navigate to the AWS Injector Module configuration section from the left side bar in the Ignition Gateway.

For this tutorial, we will be adding new Kinesis Stream and DynamoDB Database Settings.  You may optionally choose to skip one of the following two sections if you do not wish to setup a Kinesis Stream endpoint or a DynamoDB Database.

Create an AWS Kinesis Stream Setting

From the Kinesis tab, click on the "Create new AWS Kinesis Stream Setting..." link to bring up the following configuration form:

Set the following parameters:

  • Setting Name
    • This can be any unique identifier. For this tutorial we will use "TestSetting".
  • AWS Access Key
    • This is the Access Key used to authenticate to your AWS account 
  • Password
    • This is the Secret Key used to authenticate to your AWS account
  • Region
    • This is the AWS Region that your Kinesis Stream is in
  • Stream Name
    • This is the name of the Kinesis Stream that you wish to connect to.  This is shown below in the AWS Kinesis Streams console.

Click on "Create New Kinesis Stream Setting" to finish creating the new configuration setting.

Create an AWS DynamoDB Database Setting

From the DynamoDB tab, click on the "Create new DynamoDB Setting..." link to bring up the following configuration form:

Set the following parameters:

  • Setting Name
    • This can be any unique identifier. For this tutorial we will use "TestSetting".
    • Note that this only has to be unique among DynamoDB Settings so we can configure with the same used for the Kinesis Stream.
  • AWS Access Key
    • This is the Access Key used to authenticate to your AWS account 
  • Password
    • This is the Secret Key used to authenticate to your AWS account
  • Region
    • This is the AWS Region that your DynamoDB Database is in
  • Table Name
    • This is the name of the DynamoDB Database Table to connect to.  This is shown below in the AWS DynamoDB console.

Click on "Create New DynamoDB Setting" to finish creating the new configuration setting.

Now the AWS Injector module is connected to a Kinesis Stream and/or a DynamoDB Database, we have to determine if there are are changes needed to the Tag Agent tab to be able to push data.

If you already have Ignition tags defined, for example from the Ignition OPC UA Server, then depending on the depth of your tag tree you may need to configure the Sparkplug Settings. 

Review the Cloud Injector Tag Agents and Tag Trees document which describes how Cloud Injector Agent configurations interact with Ignition tag trees to push messages and tag change events to the cloud service. It explains how tags get identified to be pushed as well as what specific 'topics' will be included with the messages. It also goes over some example configurations to show how the system will behave in different scenarios.

Once the Tag Agent is setup as needed, you can jump to Step 3: Publishing data.


If you do not have Ignition tags defined we will do that in the next step with a tag tree depth that requires no additional Sparkplug settings.

Step 2: Create tags to be published in Designer

When the AWS Injector module is installed in Ignition, an Edge Node folder is automatically created in the 'default' Ignition tag provider.

Create a tree structure under this folder as shown below with some memory tags - this folder structure creates the same hierarchy that is described in the Sparkplug B specification of Group ID, Edge ID, and Device ID.

Refer to the Ignition Tag Browser and Creating Tags documentation for assistance in configuring Ignition tags

Step 3: Publishing data

When the AWS Injector module is installed in Ignition, an AWS Injector tag provider is automatically created. This folder will contain both information tags about the module's version and state, as well as control tags for refreshing the module and Tag Agents.

Make sure that the Ignition Designer has read/write communications turned on by selecting the Project/Comm Read/Write button highlighted in the image below. 

Review the Inductive Automation Designer documentation for additional assistance on setting the project communication mode


To refresh the default Tag Agent, open the folder "AWS Injector Control" and click on the Refresh Boolean. When this happens, the Tag Agent will scan the "Edge Nodes" folder and find the new Memory Tags that we have created, construct messages representing those tags with their current values and send the messages to the Kinesis Stream and/or DynamoDB Database that we have configured.

The Boolean tag will not change to true. This is really a one-shot and as a result, the tag will not change to true.


Sending tag data to the Kinesis Stream

The AWS Injector Tag Agent will push two JSON messages to the Kinesis Stream.  The format of these messages closely follows the Sparkplug B Specification's payload structure.

The first message represents the Edge Node and will contain the following:

  • The Sparkplug elements: Namespace, Group ID, Edge Node ID.  They will be grouped under "topic".
  • A "timestamp" for when the payload was constructed.
  • A "bdSeq" sequence number to track the "session" of the Tag Agent.
  • Any Edge Node tags defined in the "Tutorial Edge Node" folder (in our example we have none).

It will look something like this:

First Payload
{
  "topic": {
    "namespace": "spBv1.0",
    "groupId": "Tutorial Group",
    "edgeNodeId": "Tutorial Edge Node"
  },
  "payload": {
    "timestamp": 1504739061495,
    "metrics": [
      {
        "name": "bdSeq",
        "timestamp": 1504739061495,
        "dataType": "Int64",
        "value": 0
      }
    ],
    "seq": 0
  }
}


The second message represents the Device and will contain the following:

  • The Sparkplug elements: Namespace, Group ID, Edge Node ID, Device ID.  They will be grouped under "topic".
  • A "timestamp" for when the payload was constructed.
  • A "bdSeq" sequence number to track the "session" of the Tag Agent.
  • Any Device tags defined in the "Tutorial Device" folder.  It will look something like this:

It will look something like this:

Second Payload
{
  "topic": {
    "namespace": "spBv1.0",
    "groupId": "Tutorial Group",
    "edgeNodeId": "Tutorial Edge Node",
    "deviceId": "Tutorial Device"
  },
  "payload": {
    "timestamp": 1504739061501,
    "metrics": [
      {
        "name": "Boolean001",
        "timestamp": 1504739061546,
        "dataType": "Boolean",
        "properties": {
          "Quality": {
            "type": "Int32",
            "value": 192
          }
        },
        "value": true
      },
      {
        "name": "String001",
        "timestamp": 1504739061546,
        "dataType": "String",
        "properties": {
          "Quality": {
            "type": "Int32",
            "value": 192
          }
        },
        "value": "onetwothree"
      },
      {
        "name": "Integer001",
        "timestamp": 1504739061546,
        "dataType": "Int32",
        "properties": {
          "Quality": {
            "type": "Int32",
            "value": 192
          }
        },
        "value": 123
      },
      {
        "name": "Float001",
        "timestamp": 1504739061546,
        "dataType": "Float",
        "properties": {
          "Quality": {
            "type": "Int32",
            "value": 192
          }
        },
        "value": 1.23
      }
    ],
    "seq": 1
  }
}

Sending tag data to the DynamoDB Table

The AWS Injector Tag Agent will insert two items into the DynamoDB Database table.  The columns of these items represent different elements of the Sparkplug B Specification's payload structure.

The first item represents the Edge Node and will contain the following:

  • EDGE_NODE_ID
    • The Sparkplug Edge Node ID.
  • GROUP_ID
    • The Sparkplug Group ID.
  • GROUP_EDGE_ID
    • A combination of the Group ID and Edge Node ID, (used as the Primary Partition Key).
  • TIMESTAMP
    • A "timestamp" for when the payload was constructed
  • TOPIC
    • The Sparkplug topic.
  • bdSeq
    • A  sequence number to track the "session" of the Tag Agent.
  • Any Edge Node tags defined in the "Tutorial Edge Node" folder (in our example we have none).

It will look something like this:

The second item represents the Device and will contain the following:

  • DEVICE_ID
    • The Sparkplug Device ID.
  • EDGE_NODE_ID
    • The Sparkplug Edge Node ID.
  • GROUP_ID
    • The Sparkplug Group ID.
  • GROUP_EDGE_ID
    • A combination of the Group ID and Edge Node ID, (used as the Primary Partition Key).
  • TIMESTAMP
    • A "timestamp" for when the payload was constructed
  • TOPIC
    • The Sparkplug topic.
  • Any Device tags defined in the "Tutorial Device" folder
    • Boolean001
    • Float001
    • Integer001
    • String001

It will look something like this:



Step 4: Use Ignition Designer to Publish Tag Data (Live Tag Values Changes)

Now we can change the values of the new Memory Tags and generate messages that contain the Tag change events. Click on the value of the "Boolean001" Memory Tag to change it's value.

Sending Live Tag Data to the Kinesis Stream

The following message will be constructed to represent this Tag change event and pushed to the Kinesis Stream:

Change Event Payload
{
  "topic": {
    "namespace": "spBv1.0",
    "groupId": "Tutorial Group",
    "edgeNodeId": "Tutorial Edge Node",
    "deviceId": "Tutorial Device"
  },
  "payload": {
    "timestamp": 1504740884529,
    "metrics": [
      {
        "name": "Boolean001",
        "timestamp": 1504740883526,
        "dataType": "Boolean",
        "value": false
      }
    ],
    "seq": 2
  }
}

Sending Live Tag Data to the DynamoDB Database

The following item will be constructed to represent this Tag change event and inserted into the DynamoDB Database table

Step 5: AWS Applications

It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to show how to design an application in AWS to handle the data flowing into the Kinesis Stream and/or DynamoDB Database.  For additional information on developing applications to consume this data see https://aws.amazon.com/.




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