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Getting Started

For what Flowgate is and how it deploys across the plant floor, the DMZ, and the enterprise, see What is Flowgate first. This page is about using the console itself: signing in, finding your way around, and getting help.

Signing in

If the node requires authentication, the console opens on a sign-in screen headed Sign in to manage this node. Type your Username and Password, then select Sign in.

After too many failed attempts the node locks the form for a short time. The button then reads Try again in followed by a countdown. Wait for it to clear, then try again.

Not every node asks for a sign-in. A node with management authentication turned off opens straight into the console.

Your account decides what you see

Flowgate has three roles: Administrator, Engineer and Operator. Roles are granted per node, so the same account can be an Engineer on one node and an Operator on another. The sidebar hides any section your account may not use: Data Views and Users & Access are Administrator-only.

Choosing which node you are configuring

The title bar shows Configuring followed by a node name. That is the node your changes land on. Select the name to open a picker listing the node you connected to plus every node below it in the chain that you are allowed to manage. A node reached through the chain is marked over rc.

Switching the active node changes where configuration is written. The live screens keep showing the node you connected to.

The areas of the console

The sidebar groups the console under five captions.

Group Section What it is for
OVERVIEW Dashboard The configured architecture. Select a node for diagnostics.
OVERVIEW Live Data The address space served by this node, with live values.
CONFIGURE Connections The connections every node in the chain makes: protocol connectors and OPC-UA sources.
CONFIGURE Data Routing Move tags from a federated mount to a destination.
ACCESS Data Views Named tag-scope rule sets that narrow the data a user sees. Administrator-only.
ACCESS Users & Access Users, roles, and per-node scope. Administrator-only.
ACCESS Certificate Management The OPC-UA trust store for this node's embedded server. Approve a client before it can connect.
SYSTEM Settings Preferences for this console, and a read-only view of the node configuration.
SYSTEM Snapshots Back up a node's configuration and restore it later.
SYSTEM Audit Log The node's audit trail and the condition of its hash chain.
SYSTEM Troubleshooting Issues across the chain, each node's health, and its recent logs.
SYSTEM Help The full help contents, with search.
PRODUCT Licensing License status of every node in the chain: state, features, limits, expiry.
PRODUCT Updates Software update status of every node in the chain: running version and available releases. Check and notify only in this release.

An amber dot beside a sidebar entry always means the same thing: the section is in place, but the node has nothing to serve it yet.

Watch the Dashboard entry

A red warning triangle beside Dashboard in the sidebar counts the connections that are currently down, across this node and every node below it. Open Dashboard to see them as red links on the topology, or Troubleshooting for the same set as a list.

Getting help anywhere

Press F1 to open the help panel beside your work. The panel does not block the page, so you can keep working with it open.

What F1 opens depends on where the pointer is:

  • Over a control that has its own help, F1 opens that control's topic.
  • Anywhere else, F1 opens the topic for the page you are on.
  • Before you sign in, F1 opens this topic.

The ? button in the title bar always opens the topic for the current page. Press Escape, or use the close button at the top of the panel, to dismiss it. Once you are signed in, the panel also offers Open full page, which shows the same topic full width with an On this page outline and Previous and Next links.

Select Help in the sidebar for the full list of topics and a Search help box.

Where to go next