Platforms · Linux
SCADA on Linux: run the gateway as a systemd service
Nexus, the Raylux gateway, installs on Linux from a .deb or an .rpm and runs as a systemd service. A Linux install is headless: no desktop, no database server and no runtime to set up beside it.
What runs where
What runs on Linux, and what does not
Nexus
The tag engine, historian, drivers, alarms, reporting and web server are one process. It is the same gateway you would install on Windows, with all eight protocols and OPC UA as client and server.
Spectrum
Operator screens are served by Nexus and open in any current browser. Nothing is installed on the machines that display them, so one Linux gateway can serve a whole building.
| Debian and Ubuntu | A .deb for x86-64: Ubuntu 24.04 or later, Debian 13 or later. sudo apt install ./raylux-nexus_<version>_amd64.deb |
| Fedora and RHEL | An .rpm for x86-64: Fedora 39 or later, RHEL, Rocky or Alma 10 or later. sudo dnf install ./raylux-nexus-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm |
| What the install does | Creates the raylux service account, installs the systemd unit, then enables and starts Nexus. It is non-interactive, so it works over SSH and from a provisioning script. |
| Where it lives | /opt/raylux, with its own Python runtime. Your data is in /var/lib/raylux. |
| First run | Browse to port 8080 on the gateway to create the administrator account. The manual's first run page continues from there. |
| Upgrades | Install the newer package over the old one. Projects, history, alarms and certificates are never removed, not even when you uninstall the package. |
| SELinux | Works enforcing on Fedora and RHEL with nothing to configure. |
Plan on about 600 MB of disk for the program, plus room for the historian, which grows with your tag count and logging rate. As a starting point, a few thousand tags polled at one-second rates runs comfortably on 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM. Nothing opens firewall ports for you; the gateway listens on 8080 (HTTP) and 8443 (HTTPS). On other distributions you can build from source. See Before you start for the requirements.
Deployments
Where a Linux gateway fits
Plant server
Nexus on a Linux server or VM polls the plant, holds the history and serves every operator screen. One install per site. Adding a client means opening a browser tab, not licensing a seat.
Skid or cabinet
The headless build has no Qt and no desktop. It polls, records, alarms and answers the API. For small boards, see SCADA on ARM64 and single-board computers.
Same licence
A gateway is $995 on Windows or Linux x86-64, with every driver and unlimited tags. See pricing for the modules, and compatibility to check your PLC.
Limits
Limits to know about
- The published packages are x86-64 only. ARM64 builds are available on request.
- Studio and Lens do not run on Linux.
- There is no container image on x86-64.
- Upgrading across a change in the configuration format is currently a manual edit.
- A source install is not relocatable, because the binary finds its Python runtime through a path set at build time. The .deb does not have this problem.
- No multi-day soak test with real device traffic has been published. On a first deployment, watch the Performance page for the first week.
Next step
Try it on a Linux box this afternoon.
Downloads are free, and the trial unlocks everything for two hours, as often as you restart it. The Linux packages and their install commands are on the downloads page.