Ignition by Inductive Automation on AWS

Partner Solution Deployment Guide

QS

February 2023
Travis Cox, Inductive Automation
Vinod Shukla, AWS Integration & Automation team

Refer to the GitHub repository to view source files, report bugs, submit feature ideas, and post feedback about this Partner Solution. To comment on the documentation, refer to Feedback.

This Partner Solution was created by Inductive Automation in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Partner Solutions are automated reference deployments that help people deploy popular technologies on AWS according to AWS best practices. If you’re unfamiliar with AWS Partner Solutions, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Overview

This Partner Solution deploys Ignition by Inductive Automation on the AWS Cloud. If you are unfamiliar with AWS Quick Starts, refer to the AWS Quick Start General Information Guide.

Costs and licenses

There is no cost to use this Partner Solution, but you will be billed for any AWS services or resources that this Partner Solution deploys. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

This Partner Solution builds an Ignition environment using a prebuilt Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with Ignition installed on an Amazon Linux operating system.

The solution requires an Ignition license from Inductive Automation. Refer to inductiveautomation.com/pricing/ignition or contact Inductive Automation at (916) 456-1045. You can use Ignition for a two-hour trial period without a license.

For licensing terms, refer to the Inductive Automation software license agreement. When you launch this Partner Solution, you must read and agree to the terms.

Architecture

This Partner Solution provides two ways to deploy Ignition: standalone or cluster.

Standalone

This option deploys a redundant pair of Ignition servers that are publicly available. Deploying this Partner Solution with default parameters builds the following Ignition environment in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture
Figure 1. Partner Solution architecture for Ignition on AWS

As shown in Figure 1, the standalone deployment option sets up the following:

  • A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.*

  • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.*

  • In the public subnets:

    • Managed NAT gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the private subnets.*

    • (Optional) Linux bastion hosts in an Auto Scaling group to allow inbound Secure Shell (SSH) access to Amazon EC2 instances and Aurora database in the private subnets.*

    • (Optional) An AWS Client VPN configuration to allow direct access to Amazon EC2 instances and Aurora databases in the private subnets (not shown).*

    • A primary and secondary Ignition server in the first and second Availability Zones, respectively.

  • In the private subnets, an Amazon Aurora DB cluster in a security group containing the following:

    • A primary DB instance supporting write operations.

    • Two replica DB instances supporting read operations.

  • AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) to enable encryption at rest for the Aurora DB cluster.

  • Amazon CloudWatch for a bastion host CPU usage alarm.

  • Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send notifications when the CloudWatch alarm is invoked.

* The template that deploys this Partner Solution into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.

Cluster

The cluster option deploys a redundant pair of Ignition backend (I/O) servers and two frontend servers behind a load balancer. Deploying this Partner Solution with default parameters builds the following Ignition environment in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture
Figure 2. Partner Solution architecture for Ignition on AWS

As shown in Figure 2, the cluster deployment option sets up the following:

  • A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.*

  • A VPC configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.*

  • In the public subnets:

    • Managed NAT gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the private subnets.*

    • (Optional) An AWS Client VPN configuration to allow direct access to Amazon EC2 instances and Aurora databases in the private subnets (not shown).*

  • In the private subnets:

    • A primary and backup Ignition backend server in the first and second Availability Zones, respectively.

    • An Ignition frontend server in each Availability Zone.

    • An Aurora DB cluster in a security group containing the following:

      • A primary DB instance supporting write operations.

      • Two replica DB instances supporting read operations.

  • An Application Load Balancer configured with an Amazon SSL certificate to route traffic to Ignition frontend servers in the private subnets.

  • AWS KMS to enable encryption at rest for the Aurora DB cluster.

  • CloudWatch for a bastion host CPU usage alarm.

  • Amazon SNS to send notifications when the CloudWatch alarm is invoked.

* The template that deploys this Partner Solution into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.

Deployment options

This Partner Solution provides the following deployment options:

Standalone

  • Deploy Ignition into a new VPC. This option builds a new AWS environment that consists of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys Ignition into this new VPC.

  • Deploy Ignition into an existing VPC. This option provisions Ignition in your existing AWS infrastructure.

This Partner Solution provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure instance types and Ignition settings.

Cluster

  • Deploy Ignition into a new VPC. This option builds a new AWS environment that consists of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, client VPN, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys Ignition into this new VPC.

  • Deploy Ignition into an existing VPC. This option provisions Ignition in your existing AWS infrastructure.

This Partner Solution provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure instance types and Ignition settings.

Predeployment steps

  • During deployment, you must confirm that you have read and agree to the Inductive Automation Software License Agreement.

  • To make the deployment available to the public internet, enter 0.0.0.0/0 for the Web access CIDR (WebAccessCIDR) parameter. Or, enter a CIDR block to limit Ignition access to a specific group of IP addresses.

  • With the cluster deployment option, you must provide your own domain name to use for the load balancer. The deployment uses the domain name you provide to generate a trusted Amazon SSL certificate, and will send the domain administrator an email to verify ownership. Ensure that you approve certificate ownership while the CloudFormation stack is being deployed. After deployment, ensure that you configure a CNAME DNS record to the Ignition domain name, found on the stack’s Outputs tab in the AWS CloudFormation console.

Deployment steps

  1. Sign in to your AWS account, and launch this Partner Solution, as described under Deployment options. The AWS CloudFormation console opens with a prepopulated template.

  2. Choose the correct AWS Region, and then choose Next.

  3. On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.

  4. On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

    Unless you’re customizing the Partner Solution templates or are instructed otherwise in this guide’s Predeployment section, don’t change the default settings for the following parameters: QSS3BucketName, QSS3BucketRegion, and QSS3KeyPrefix. Changing the values of these parameters will modify code references that point to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket name and key prefix. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solutions Contributor’s Guide.

  5. On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you finish, choose Next.

  6. On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select all of the check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources that might require the ability to automatically expand macros.

  7. Choose Create stack. The stack takes about 1 hour to deploy.

  8. Monitor the stack’s status, and when the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the Ignition by Inductive Automation deployment is ready.

  9. To view the created resources, choose the Outputs tab.

Postdeployment steps

After deploying the stack, connect and sign in to the Ignition web console to verify the deployment and begin developing.

  • For a standalone deployment, connect to a public IP or hostname provided on the stack’s Outputs tab in the AWS CloudFormation console.

  • For a cluster deployment, connect to your domain name to access Ignition through the deployed load balancer (for example, https://50.60.70.80).

Ignition’s web server is initially configured to use a self-signed certificate. Your browser may display a warning like the one shown Figure 3. Choose Proceed to continue.

image
Figure 3. NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID error (Google Chrome)

For a cluster deployment, the Amazon root certificate authority (CA) trusts the SSL certificate generated from the domain name you specify. For a standalone deployment, we recommend that you update the self-signed certificate to a certificate signed by a trusted CA. For more information, refer to Secure Communication (SSL / TLS).

Access Ignition in a standalone deployment

For a standalone deployment, you can access Ignition’s Gateway and Designer directly using the public IPs found on the stack’s Outputs tab in the AWS CloudFormation console. You can also connect to the deployed EC2 servers using SSH to troubleshoot or patch Ignition.

If you chose to deploy the optional Linux bastion host, you can only connect using SSH to EC2 instances and Aurora database through the bastion host. You can access the database through Ignition using the database query browser. The CloudFormation templates of this Partner Solution use Amazon Linux AMIs. The username is ec2-user. For more information, refer to Connect to your Linux instance using SSH.

Access Ignition in a cluster deployment

For a cluster deployment, you cannot log in to Ignition Gateway or Ignition Designer from the internet. In a cluster deployment, Ignition servers are in the private subnets. Frontend servers are attached to a load balancer, but they are not directly exposed to the internet. To access the EC2 instances and Aurora database, refer to Getting started with Client VPN.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common Partner Solution issues, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide and Troubleshooting CloudFormation.

Ignition Resources

Customer responsibility

After you deploy a Partner Solution, confirm that your resources and services are updated and configured—including any required patches—to meet your security and other needs. For more information, refer to the Shared Responsibility Model.

Feedback

To submit feature ideas and report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Partner Solution. To submit code, refer to the Partner Solution Contributor’s Guide. To submit feedback on this deployment guide, use the following GitHub links:

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents current AWS product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS products or services, each of which is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at https://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either expressed or implied. Refer to the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.