Requirements

Niagara Version Information

Workbench (Niagara 4.15 and higher) -to-station (Niagara 4.15 and higher) connections can use foxwss. Station (Niagara 4.15 and higher) -to-station (Niagara 4.15 and higher) connections can use foxwss. A Niagara 4.15 and higher Workbench version or station can connect to an earlier version station using the existing fox/foxs connection types.

Security requirements and best practices

Follow the security requirements for FoxService and WebService. Consider best practices for the certificate used by HTTPS as configured in the WebService.

Fox over WebSocket (foxwss) connects to the station's WebService instead of the station's FoxService, which means that you configure the server certificate used for the Fox over WebSocket connection in the WebService's Main Https Cert property and not in the FoxService. FoxService is still used for fox/foxs connections, but not for foxwss connections. However, there is still a property to enable foxwss connections in the FoxService, and therefore you must set the Https Enabled property in the WebService to true in order for foxwss connections to be made to a station. For more information, see the "web-WebService" section in the "Getting Started with Niagara" guide.

Note:

If the WebService restarts, any active Fox over WebSocket connections to the station will be forced closed. For a Workbench-to-station foxwss connection, you may notice that because Workbench will disconnect and then you will need to re-login to the station after the WebService has finished restarting. WebService restarts are rare, but can happen for certain configuration changes. For example, new client cert auth users, two minutes after station startup, and certain WebService configuration property changes can trigger a WebService restart.

Note: When you use a Workbench or station version Niagara 4.15 (or later) to connect to a remote station, here is what happens by default: If the initial fox or foxs connection attempt fails because the remote host/port is unreachable, a foxwss fall-through connection attempt will automatically happen before considering the connection failed. This may cause an additional delay for truly unreachable (for example, misconfigured) connection attempts. If the remote station's certificate used by its WebService is untrusted (self-signed), a new entry may appear in the client's Certificate Management's Allowed Hosts tab for the foxwss connection attempt made to the remote host's HTTPS port. This entry will be created if an entry was not already one from a prior connection to the HTTPS port for any other reason.

Prerequisites

  • Niagara 4.15 and later has been installed. Fox over WebSocket is enabled by default.

  • No new license requirements are needed.