Creating an OPC UA Connection

This topic explains how to set up an Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) connection between your OPC UA server and your FrameWorX™ server. For more details on OPC and OPC UA protocols, refer to OPC Introduction and Getting the OPC UA Server URL.

To establish a connection between GENESIS and an OPC UA Server, you need the following prerequisites:

• GENESIS is installed.
• The Windows service for the OPC UA point manager is running.
• The Workbench OPC UA provider is configured on the SQL Server. For more architectural details, refer to Internal Architecture of Workbench.
• An OPC UA server installed and running with an open network port or on the same machine as GENESIS. We recommend using a certificate to avoid Man In The Middle Attacks (MITM). The following example uses DeviceXPlorer OPC Server.

To set up an OPC UA connection on DeviceXPlorer OPC Server:

1. Install DeviceXPlorer OPC Server and open it.
2. Navigate to Project Explorer > Project > IoT Interface > OPC UA Server > OPC UA Server.

3. Right-click OPC UA Server and select Property.

   

4. Select the following checkboxes and click Apply.

   • Enable OPC UA Server
   • Enable Anonymous
   • None

   You can see the OPC settings in the External system cooperation OPC UA Server list.

   

To create an OPC UA connection in Workbench:

1. Open Workbench and in Project Explorer, expand your project > Data Connectivity > OPC UA.

   

2. Double click OPC UA Connections to open the OPC UA Connections dialog.

   

3. In the Connections section, select Click here to add new item.
4. In Name, enter a name for your connection.
5. In Connection Settings in Server URL, enter opc.tcp://localhost:52250/ which represents the local instance of DeviceXPlorer OPC Server listening on port 52250.

6. Select next to Preferred Endpoint to display the available endpoints (depending on the OPC UA server configuration), and then select the desired OPC UA endpoint from the drop-down list.

   

7. Click Test Connection. When the Success message is displayed, click OK, and then click Apply.

   

8. In the right pane in Data Browser, expand Data Connectivity > OPC UA > My OPC UA Connection to see the new connection.