Provisioning Niagara means an administrator can configure Supervisor automation of:

Tasks would otherwise need to be performed manually by a user with Workbench, often by making platform connections to JACEs. All provisioning work is performed by the Supervisor station, as jobs.

For more details, see Niagara Provisioning overview.

Provisioning includes the ability to do station backups, install software, update license s, and copy files, among other things. Also, you can write custom Program code to execute as “provisioning robots,” allowing station database changes. For more details, see Niagara provisioning job steps.

Provisioning now accommodates “secure platform access” (platform SSL) introduced starting in AX-3.7, providing subordinate JACE hosts are licensed and configured to support this new certificate-based SSL platform access. Primarily, this affects the configuration of each NiagaraStation’s “PlatformConnection” provisioning extension. This type of platform access is optional, where the previous (non-SSL) method is still supported. For related details, see Platform Connection.

For complete details on SSL starting in AX-3.7, refer to the NiagaraAX SSL Connectivity Guide.

Now, when choosing stations in a provisioning job, the “Add Device” dialog shows a tree structure that reflects any station folders, as well as any station “display names”. Both features can be useful when navigating a very large system with many replicated stations. Also, the “Station Software View” of a NiagaraStation’s “Software” extension was updated to operate similar to the corresponding platform “Software Manager” view in AX-3.5. Finally, a timeout routine with associated “timeout properties” was added to the NiagaraNetwork’s ProvisioningExt. The timeout mechanism permits a step in a provisioning job to fail, yet continue the job with the next station (instead of suspending the job indefinitely). These changes are covered in detail in the appropriate sections of this document.

If you upgrade a Supervisor that was previously running AX-3.3 or later, the provisioning architecture remains the same, and operates as before. A few changes and additions were made starting in AX-3.7 as well as AX-3.5, as outlined in previous FAQ answers.

If you upgrade a Supervisor that was previously running AX-3.2 or AX-3.1 (using the “old style” provisioning architecture), you should convert to the newer architecture (NiagaraNetwork ProvisioningNwExt-based). A right-click command on the Supervisor’s “ProvisioningService” automates this. For details, see the appendix Converting from old style (AX-3.1) Provisioning.

At the time of this document, provisioning in AX-3.7 applies only to the Niagara driver, meaning for Niagara hosts represented in the NiagaraNetwork of a Supervisor station. However, with the separation of provisioning functions into different modules, reflected by a “BatchJobService” as well as a “network-level” “ProvisioningNwExt,” other driver types may support provisioning in the future.