Installation

inSCADA comes in two forms: Cloud, used from a browser with nothing to install, and Platform, which runs on your own server. This page is about the second.

How the Platform is obtained

The self-hosted edition is not distributed as a public setup file. Installation and licensing are arranged per project: the requirements are discussed first, and the installation package and licence are prepared for your deployment. To start, get in touch.

It runs on Windows and Linux, and air-gapped installations are supported.

The JDK 11 edition

The older JDK 11 edition is in maintenance mode — it receives critical fixes only and is not recommended for new projects. This documentation covers JDK 21.

Before the installation

The team doing the installation places the components to suit your environment, but three things are worth preparing in advance.

Components

The platform works with three data stores:

Component	What it holds
PostgreSQL	Configuration, users, the audit trail
Time series database	Logged values
Redis	The encrypted secret bundle and working state

Whether these sit on the same machine or on separate servers is decided by the size of the installation.

Ports

Port	What	Direction
8082	Web interface and API	Inbound
8083	Sandbox	Inbound

For the full list, including protocol ports, see System Requirements.

8083 is not optional

Custom HTML pages and animation scripts run in an isolated frame on that separate origin. With it closed the application still opens normally but none of that content appears — and it does not look like a firewall problem.

The master key decision

INS_MASTER_KEY is the one secret you supply, it is chosen once at installation, and it cannot be changed afterwards.

Record it outside the product on the day you install

Backups carry the encrypted secret bundle and not the key that opens it. Whoever restores a backup must already know this value. Put it in a password manager, or a sealed envelope in the plant safe. Detail: Backup.

First access

Once the installation is finished, open the server’s address in a browser:

https://<server>:8082

The initial sign-in details come with the installation package.

Change the password at first sign-in

The product does not force this, so the step can be skipped. The first thing done on a system considered commissioned should be changing the password it was delivered with.

Licensing

A licence is activated from the licence screen in the interface. There are two routes:

Route	How
Activate Key License	You enter the licence key you were given
Activate USB License	A hardware dongle is plugged in; no key is entered

Both ask for confirmation and require the UPDATE_LICENSE permission; without it the buttons are disabled. The same screen releases a licence with Deactivate License — the step to take when changing hardware or moving an installation.

A trial licence is a key as well: you obtain it from inSCADA and activate it like any other, through Activate Key License. There is no separate application form inside the product.

Permanent licensing is a one-off fee plus maintenance, with the scope set per project.

When a licence does not resolve the product does not refuse to start — it falls back to demo mode, a supported state, and carries on running. It reports that only in the log.

The fall back to demo is silent — read the log

A licence that was never bought, one that has expired, and one whose hardware fingerprint no longer matches are indistinguishable from outside: all three come back as a single “refused” status. That is why the product writes a warning line saying it is running on the demo.

The licence is re-read every five minutes, and the same outcome is not logged over and over: one line when the state changes — and a recovery to a real licence is a change too, so that is announced as well.

What follows in practice: if the licence stops resolving one morning, nobody may notice. Check the log after installation and after each licence renewal.

After the installation

• Environment variables, TLS, reverse-proxy topologies and a post-installation checklist: Configuration
• The backup arrangement and where the master key belongs: Backup
• The platform’s concepts and data hierarchy: Architecture