Inductive Automation Ignition Minimum System Requirements
The Importance of Minimum Requirements
Before implementing a new Ignition installation, we should always discuss minimum system requirements. These requirements are important because you don't want to set up a new system, configure your screens, get ready to launch—only to experience avoidable hardware problems. Everyone working with the new control system needs to have confidence in it, so it’s important to avoid slow operation, lagging, and time outs. In this article, we will offer a few points of view regarding the minimum requirements for running Ignition. Also consider that your decisions will be vastly dependent on if you're using a server you already own, buying a new server, or hosting Ignition in a cloud environment.
General (Server) Purchasing Advice
Never buy the minimum requirements. Give your Ignition applications plenty of room to grow! Remember when a 3.5” floppy disk was 1.44MB and we never thought that we'd fill it? Servers can be similar—so if you're buying a new server and can, we'd suggest over buying—or at least buy something expandable. If you're using existing servers, hopefully they can be expanded when you need to add additional cores or more RAM. Cloud-based services are really interesting since you can add more cores, RAM, and storage capacity as needed. We fully realize that cloud computing might not appropriate for you or your application, but it's an option to keep in mind.
Choosing an Operating System
Before we get into the hardware requirements, we should make a note that Inductive Automation’s Ignition is special. It is (largely) operating system agnostic. Want to continue running on Windows? That's fine. If you're more of a Linux fan, that's great, pick your favorite distribution. If you want to run on Mac OS, you're more than welcome to do that too!
Inductive Automation's Take
Be sure to read the Inductive Automation downloads page for the most up to date requirements of the current version.
For Windows at a minimum, you need: Java 8+ (server), Java 6+ (client), a Dual-Core Processor (32 or 64 bit), 4GB RAM, and 10GB free HD space
The Corso Systems Approach:
We've built a lot of systems and for our applications, we prefer to have a slightly higher minimum requirement:
Java 8+ (server), Java 6+ (client)
Dual-Core Processor (32 or 64 bit)
8Gb Ram
500 Gb HDD
Here are our recommended MINIMUM requirements if we’re running a database on the same server:
Java 8+ (server), Java 6+ (client)
Quad-Core Processor (32 or 64 bit)
16 Gb Ram
500 Gb HDD
Ignition Minimum Requirements and Your Project…
So, can you use lower specifications? Sure, and you can probably even get by with less than the minimum requirements. But it’s important to think ahead for the life of the system. Our recommendations above come from experience.
Are you looking to build a really large system? Do a major conversion, migration, upgrade, or something else? Please feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to discuss your particular application.