Installing Ignition Gateway on Raspberry Pi


1. Verify the Prerequisites

  1. Operating System: Make sure your Raspberry Pi has an operating system installed. Instructions can be found here.

  2. Java 17: Ensure that Oracle Java 17 is installed. Instructions can be found here.

2. Install the Edge Gateway

With the operating system and Java 17 installed, you are ready to download and install Ignition Edge. This section will walk you through the steps to get your Ignition Edge up and running.

Step 1: Download Ignition Edge Linux AARCH64 Installer

To install Ignition Edge on Raspberry Pi, you will need a specific installer - the "Edge Linux AARCH installer". The generic Linux installer will not work because it is not intended for the processor architecture used on Raspberry Pi boards.

  1. Download the Installer:

    • Go to the Ignition downloads page.

    • Scroll down to the "ARM" section and locate the "Ignition Edge - Linux AARCH64 zip (1.7 GB) installer".

  2. Transfer the Installer:

    • If you downloaded the zip archive on another computer, move the archive to your Raspberry Pi.

Step 2: Extract the Installer Archive

Now you need to extract the installer you downloaded in the previous step into the /usr/local/ignition directory. The following steps will need to be performed in the terminal (command prompt).

  1. Open Terminal:

    • Change into the directory where you downloaded the installer:

      • cd Downloads

  2. Extract the Installer:

    • Extract the installer archive placing it into the /usr/local/ignition directory:

      • sudo unzip ./Ignition-Edge-linux-aarch-64-8.1.42.zip -d /usr/local/ignition

Step 3: Change into the Ignition Installation directory

Change into the directory where you extracted the archive:

cd /usr/local/ignition

Step 4: Make Files Executable

Change file permissions on the ignition.sh, ignition-util.sh, ignition-gateway, and gwcmd.sh files to make them executable:

sudo chmod +x ignition.sh ignition-util.sh ignition-gateway gwcmd.sh

Step 5: Start Ignition Edge

From the /usr/local/ignition directory, run:

sudo ./ignition.sh start

If Ignition started correctly, you should see the process ID output in the terminal:

The raspberry pi terminal running the command listed above.

Step 6: Open the Gateway's Web Page

You can now navigate to the Gateway web page. Open a web browser and type the Gateway's address http://localhost:8088 in the browser's address bar. You should see your Edge Gateway home page:

The Edge Gateway home page.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and started Ignition Edge on your Raspberry Pi!

3. Further Steps and Considerations

Start the Edge Gateway on boot

You will notice that if you reboot your Raspberry Pi, you will need to start the Edge Gateway manually again. To make the Edge Gateway start automatically on boot, follow these steps:

  1. Open rc.local File:

    • Run the following command in the terminal to open the /etc/rc.local file in a text editor:

      • sudo nano /etc/rc.local

  2. Edit rc.local File:

    • Just before exit 0, add the following line:

      • /usr/local/bin/ignition/ignition.sh start

  3. Save and Exit:

    • Use Ctrl+X to close the file, press Y to save changes, and then press Enter to confirm. No need to select Save as DOS format, Mac format, or anything else.

Now your Edge Gateway will start automatically when you reboot your Raspberry Pi.

  • Reboot - run the sudo reboot command.