Importing LON Devices from an LNS Network

Owned by Nina Cardillo
Last updated: 29-Mar-2024
3 min read
LON IS SUPPORTED WITH SMARTSERVER PI 4.3 AND HIGHER, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LON PL.
With SmartServer 4.1 and prior, the Firewall Configuration tab is called the Features Configuration tab.

This section only applies to LON devices using IMM. This section is not applicable if you are not using LON devices, or if you are using LON devices with DMM. 

You can use the SmartServer IoT on a network managed by the IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT) (see figure below), or other IzoT Net Server or LNS tool. This type of network is called an LNS network. To use the SmartServer IoT on an LNS network, you need to export the network information from the LNS network to the SmartServer IoT. 


The IzoT Net Export tool is a command-line software utility for use with a Microsoft Windows computer that also hosts the IzoT Net Server. The command-line name for the tool is inex. This tool relays definitions from an IzoT Net Server database to the SmartServer IoT. Once the export is complete, you can use the SmartServer IoT to monitor and control the devices defined in the LNS network; you can use applications written for IAP/REST or IAP/MQ to perform these tasks. 

Since the network remains under the management of IzoT Net Server, you must perform any changes to the network infrastructure, such as adding or removing devices, using an IzoT Net Server-based tool, and then you must repeat the export. Starting with version 1.5, the IzoT Net Export tool supports incremental exports so that if you have added devices to a LON network that you previously exported, the IzoT Net Export tool only exports the new devices.

You can export non-overlapping portions of a single LNS network to multiple SmartServers. To export a single LNS network to multiple SmartServers, you have to create an LNS subsystem for each SmartServer containing the portion of the network to be handled by the SmartServer. Each of these subsystems can only contain one SmartServer, but you may have multiple subsystems, each with a different SmartServer.

You can export a subset of an LNS database to a single SmartServer with or without IzoT CT as described in this section. You can also export an LNS database to a SmartServer, using a copy of the LNS database and all of its associated resources, from an instance of the IzoT Net Server that resides on a PC not actively connected to the control network.  

The IzoT Net Export tool requires IzoT Net Server 4.20.016 or higher for database exporting.

Beginning with IzoT Net Export version 1.60.001, support has been added for exporting an IzoT Net Server database to a SmartServer IoT using secure mqtts (port 8883). Earlier versions of the IzoT Net Export Utility only support exporting a database to a SmartServer IoT using standard mqtt (port 1883). In either case, the requisite IAP/MQ Server ports must be enabled on the SmartServer Features Configuration page. With SmartServer IoT release 3.5 and higher, these ports are closed by default. To export a database to a SmartServer IoT using standard mqtt, enable port 1883 on the SmartServer Firewall Configuration page. To export a database to a SmartServer IoT using secure mqtts, which also requires IzoT Net Export version 1.60.001 or newer, enable port 8883 on the SmartServer Firewall Configuration page.

If you are exporting a database using secure mqtts and your SmartServer IoT is using a signed certificate as opposed to the factory, self-signed certificate, you will also need to download a copy of the mqtt message broker certificate file from the SmartServer IoT onto your PC. You will need to reference this file when you run IzoT Net Export. To download this file, perform the following steps:

  1. Log into your SmartServer IoT using an SFTP client like WinSCP with apollo credentials.

  2. Copy the ca.pem file to your local PC from the SmartServer directory shown below.

    Since the IzoT Net Export Tool will need to reference this certificate, it is recommended that you download this certificate file into the same directory on your PC where you will be running IzoT Net Export.

This section describes how to export an LNS database to a single SmartServer, with or without IzoT CT, and consists of the following: