Important Information Concerning Upgrading to 7.7.7 and 7.8.2

This document pertains to users who are upgrading to 7.7.7 or 7.8.2 from previous versions. It also contains information about changes to the "internal database" (internal configuration storage) which may be useful to advanced users who previously exploited knowledge of the internal structure for purposes such as backups, test development, and so on.

Ignition 7.7.7 and 7.8.2 introduce a new internal storage system. As a result, a conversion will occur upon upgrade, and the previous file format will be converted into a new format for the new engine. The process is automated and does not require user input, and should not result in a noticeable change in the operation of the Ignition system.

There are, however, a few very important points to understand:

1. The conversion process is only one way. Once the file format is converted, it will not be possible to downgrade back to a previous version and maintain changes made with the new format.
2. Upon conversion, a backup of the old format will be made. The backup will be placed in "{InstallDir}\data\db\conversion_archive_{date}". If you must downgrade, you will need to first copy the files from this archive folder back into the "db" folder.
3. Restores from older *.gwbk backup files will be converted. It is perfectly fine to restore a backup from a previous version. It will be converted to the new format before being applied.
4. Backup (*.gwbk) files from these versions cannot be restored to older versions. Ignition has always prevented restores of newer versions to old, but it is worth noting that the backup file contains the internal database, and therefore will not be understandable by old versions.
5. Ignition 7.7.7 can only be upgraded to 7.8.2+. It will not be possible to upgrade 7.7.7 to either 7.8.0 or 7.8.1, as these versions of 7.8 do not use the new internal database format.

FAQ about the Internal Database

What is contained in the internal database?

The internal database contains virtually all configuration information for an Ignition system, with a few small exclusions (noted below). This includes:

• Project definitions and all project resources, such as windows, templates, transaction groups, etc.
• All global resources such as script libraries, alarm pipelines, and sfc charts.
• Images used in Vision.
• All tag definitions for Internal Tag Providers.
• Virtually all settings defined in the gateway interface and for 3rd party modules.

It does not contain:

• Settings for redundancy (those are defined in data/redundancy.xml)
• Settings for gateway ports (those are defined in data/gateway.xml)
• Tags defined in External (db) providers

 What are the files for the internal database?

Can I manually back up the internal database?

Yes, you can manually copy the files listed above to a different location, even while Ignition is running. They can be manually restored by stopping the Ignition service, and replacing the existing files. Note that the conversion process occurs when the system sees the old files (setting.*), but does not see the new (config.idb). Therefore, when manually restoring a previous format, make sure to remove the new format database first.