System Architecture

AspenTech Inmation OT Data Fabric is built around a distributed Node-based architecture. Each Node combines configuration, data-ingress, processing, and access capabilities, and Nodes can be arranged hierarchically to support small single-process deployments as well as larger multi-node systems. The same platform can run as a Windows service or as a Linux container (AMD64 and ARM64), which gives the product a flexible deployment model across environments and processor architectures.

For a more specific explanation, please see the Node Concept page.

At a high level, the system is divided into two important operational views:

  • the System Model, which contains the hierarchy of Nodes, the Connection objects (to configure communication between Nodes) and Data-Store objects to configure historization at different Node levels.

  • the I/O Model, which contains the plant, device, and data-ingress hierarchy used for real-time data acquisition, processing, and publishing

The architecture separates system configuration from the operational data model, which makes I/O object paths independent from the hosting Node and allows objects to be moved across the system more cleanly.

The platform uses a single-master ownership model. Every object belongs to one owning Node, and change requests are routed to that owner before being propagated to the rest of the system. As a result, top-level object creation, scripting, and mass operations often need an explicit owner context. Object configurations such as Security Profiles and Lua Script Libraries can be shared in the Access Model and Script Model through Node Delegate objects.

Configuration is performed, with the System Config App UI providing the out-of-the-box interface for browsing the Object Model, editing object properties in the Object Lens, and working with operational models.