Upgrading to Ignition 8.0 - Making the Leap
We just went through our first large scale 7.9 to 8.0 upgrade with one of our customers. While it went smoothly, there were a couple of hurdles. Some of the issues might already be fixed in further updates by the time you upgrade (we used 8.0.2 for this first project)—but some might be weird bugs that you won't encounter. You will likely find some new and exciting issues of your own! Need to upgrade from 8.0 to 8.X instead? Click here!
Upgrading from Ignition 7.9 to 8.0: What Worked
About 95% of everything worked with either no changes, or only very minor changes required. First, we updated some of the tag paths in bindings to include the tag provider. It would have been smart to do this step originally, but we didn't always go to that level of detail. There was an issue with Ignition 8.0.2 where the project's default provider didn't map automatically, so this might be fixed in 8.0.3 and beyond. Basically if you see a wall of red, check your provider first. Otherwise the buttons, scripts, graphics, animation—our built-in system health notification system—and everything we needed to run the plant worked beautifully. Database connections, PLC connections, and generally everything else worked as expected. This is no surprise, since upgrading Ignition is generally a very easy process.
The one workflow change we found was the need to move from shared templates in Ignition 7.9 to global templates in 8.0. Global templates require you to use a global project to make adjustments to templates rather than making the template changes in the projects themselves. This approach is much more user friendly once everything is in place, but it does require a moment of "oh, yeah, I need to open up the global project" every now and then. The same applies to the production model configuration for the MES Modules. If you are on a fresh Ignition 8.0 installation, you can set up your projects however you wish. But, if you are upgrading you will get this project and everything that was previously shared moved into it accordingly.
What We Already Knew About Upgrading from 7.9 to Ignition 8.0+
In Ignition 8.0.1, there was an issue with nested UDT parameters. This was supposed to be fixed in 8.0.2, but it seemed to take 8.0.3 or beyond before it will no longer be an issue. Basically, instead of passing the parameter values through the lower level UDTs, it passes the parameter as the value so becomes "" instead of "Line 1 Controller". If you see bad quality on tags using nested UDTs, delete and re-enter the bindings to fix the issue.
Upgrade Surprises: What We Didn't Know
Across a handful of projects, some labels which did not previously have mouseover text bindings showed up in 8.0 with mouseover text bindings, bound to tags. Some of these tags existed, and we saw no overlays, but sometimes we ran into the tag provider issue and saw an overlay. These errors were easy enough to clear out, but just be aware that in the upgrade from Ignition 7.9 to Ignition 8x, you may find some new bindings here and there.
Upgrade Surprises: What BROKE
We were informed by Inductive Automation tech support that we were the second team to see this error—which given how long 8.0 has been available means it is a rare problem! Basically, in some projects, the project properties would break the ability to save the project after making changes. In our case, we were unable to save after adding auto-login, and automatically changing from the default to "Push" updates. When we made these changes, we got an error message that the system could not find module children. Closing and re-opening the designer fixed the issue with saving, but the values weren't changed. When we called tech support, we found out that the issue occured during the conversion process when some of the project settings were put into a folder called N)_renamedN where N was 1, 2, etc. depending on the order in which it was saved. The fix was simple, simply go into the projects in the file system, delete the files and re-open the designer. This process fixed the issue entirely. The issue was not obvious, so luckily it was a rare thing you probably won't encounter.
Our Overall Ignition Upgrade Impressions
Upgrading to an entirely new version of software can be scary. Without wanting to be too optimistic, I had anticipated running into issues that were more complicated than the couple of minor problems we found. As always, Inductive Automation's support was on top of everything when we had questions, and the forum was helpful for understanding the few hurdles. As a general rule, we prefer to use stable releases rather than nightly builds, however I think the issues we did find will be resolved moving forward, and we will be able to upgrade even more smoothly in the future. Learn more about upgrading Inductive Automation Ignition. Do you need help with an Ignition upgrade? Contact Us!