Moving Configuration Between Installations

An instance's configuration can be taken out as a zip archive and brought into another instance: all of it, or only the records you choose. This guide covers both directions, and how to take one plant out of an instance that holds several.

Both actions are in the Configuration section of the Site's menu: Export and Import. Both need the engine stopped - press Stop first - and both need the Configuration role.

Exporting

Export opens a list of every record in the instance, grouped by kind, each with a checkbox. Everything is ticked to begin with, which exports the whole configuration. Groups with more than 50 records start collapsed and show 100 at a time.

Ticking a record never ticks the records that use it. Exporting a variable does not bring every panel that shows it; press Users on its row when you want those too. A record added by Include what it needs can be unticked, and stays out.

Some parts of a record are chosen on their own row:

Each group also has an All values, All history or All secrets switch.

Below the list, Expected on the target names what the ticked records refer to but the archive will not carry. The instance you import into should already have those records.

Taking one plant out of an instance that holds several

Suppose an instance runs three plants, and one of them - the talc dosing station - has codes that all start with Talco_.

1. Press Stop, then Export.
2. Press Clear matches with the search empty. Nothing is ticked now.
3. Type Talco_ into Search code or name, and press Select matches.
4. With Include what it needs on, the station's variables and its Talco_HMI panel are ticked, and so is anything else they read. A variable the panel shows but whose code does not start with Talco_ is added too, and its row says needed by Talco_HMI.
5. Read Expected on the target. If it names only a role, the station is self-contained.
6. Press Export. The summary counts what the archive holds.

The records the other two plants share with the station - a logger that records its variables, say - are not added, because they use the station rather than being used by it. Press Users on a row to bring them.

From the Program screen you can also start from the diagram: select nodes, then press Export the selection to another installation. The export opens with those records ticked and what they need added. Save pending changes first; the export reads the saved configuration.

Importing

Import asks for an archive, then lists every record in it, and says on each row what importing it would do.

Where a code is already in use decides between the last three: Bring it in alongside, as _IMP, or Replace what is there. It applies to the whole import. Codes are matched without regard to case, and variables and modules share one set of codes.

What starts ticked:

• Every record, except one that would be Unchanged.
• A persistent variable's Value, when the record is new or brought in alongside. On Replace what is there it starts unticked, so the instance keeps its live value. A value the archive did not carry cannot be ticked, and never empties the value here.
• A logger's History, when the archive carries it. Replacing a history moves the old database aside under a new name, and the summary gives that name.

Changing Where a code is already in use updates these defaults, but never a tick you set yourself.

Where references land

A ticked record may refer to one that is not being imported. Only records coming in are renamed, so after the import that reference names whatever this instance has under the code. Each row says which of three things will happen:

Press Import to write. If any record fails to write, everything already written is put back. Press Start afterwards for the imported configuration to take effect.

Archives from other versions

An archive stays readable in both directions. An older version of the Site imports an archive that carries only some records, and a newer version imports an archive made before records could be chosen, reading it as the whole configuration with every value included.

Troubleshooting