Publishing Files with Transmission

Prerequisites:

• Installing the Java Runtime Environment
• Installing Ignition on an 'host/backend' system
  • This must be a 'full version' of Ignition (i.e. not Ignition Edge)
  • Installing the following MQTT Modules
    • MQTT Distributor
      • v4.0.X if using Ignition 8.0.x
    •  MQTT Engine
      • v4.0.X if using Ignition 8.0.x
• Installing Ignition on an 'edge' system
  • This can be a 'full version' of Ignition or Ignition Edge
  •  Installing the following MQTT Modules
    •  MQTT Transmission
      
      • v4.0.X if using Ignition 8.0.x

Overview:

Transmission is an MQTT module for Ignition that can publish files using MQTT Sparkplug. This tutorial shows how to configure MQTT Transmission to publish files from one Ignition system to another. Files are transferred using Sparkplug over MQTT. The files which get transferred and when they get transferred can be configured in a number of different ways.

Publishing files with Transmission:

As noted in the prerequisites, you should have two Ignition systems installed at this point.

• A full version of Ignition with MQTT Distributor and MQTT Engine installed
• A full version of Ignition or Ignition Edge with  MQTT Transmission installed

Begin by configuring the host system with MQTT Engine. Set the following:

• MQTT Engine Settings → General Tab
  • Primary Host ID: IamHost
  • Block Node Commands: unchecked
  • Block Device Commands: unchecked
  • Leave all other settings default
  • When complete, it should look similar to the following. Save the changes after confirming.
    
• MQTT Engine Settings → General Tab
  • Primary Host ID: IamHost
  • Block Node Commands: unchecked
  • Block Device Commands: unchecked
• MQTT Engine Settings → Namespaces → Default Tab
  • Click the 'edit' button to the right of the 'Sparkplug B' namespace as shown below
    
  • Now select the 'Files' tab and set the following
    • Ignore Files: unchecked/false
    • File Host Type: ACTIVE
    • Base File Directory: Set to some directory file path (i.e. 'C:\My Files' or something similar)
    • Add Topic Tokens: checked/true
    • File Storing Policy: Overwrite
    • When complete, it should look similar to the following. Save the changes after confirming.
      
  • Finally select the 'Servers' tab and confirm that the 'Status' shows 'Connected' as shown below.
    

At this point the Ignition system with MQTT Engine and MQTT Distributor is configured. However, other MQTT Server must be accessible to the Ignition system running MQTT Transmission. In order for this to work port 1883 must be open to outside connections. Make sure this is allowed via your Operating System's firewall configuration and any anti-virus software you may have installed. Note this configuration is not recommended for production systems. If running this in production, you should be using TLS encryption. More information on how to configure TLS can be found here.

Now switch to the Ignition system running MQTT Transmission and set the following.

• MQTT Transmission Settings → Servers → Sets Tab
  • Edit the existing Default Server Set to contain a 'primary host ID' of 'IamHost' as shown below.
    
• Browse to the 'Transmitters' tab and note the 'Sparkplug IDs'. Save these IDs for later use
  
  • In the example below, the Sparkplug IDs field is 'My MQTT Group/Edge Node faec7e'. This means the corresponding Group ID and Edge Node ID are:
    • Group ID: My MQTT Group
    • Edge Node ID: Edge Node faec7e'
      
• Browse to the 'Servers' tab
  
  • Change the server URL to point to the Server IP address or domain name of the Ignition system running MQTT Distributor and save the configuration as shown below. When complete, you should see something similar to the following. Under the 'Connected' status, make sure it shows '1 of 1'.
    • If it does not, check the logs to show what may be going wrong and/or validate the rest of your configuration.