Using Global Discovery Server in GENESIS

Global Discovery Server (GDS) is a specialized OPC UA server that manages the security aspects of OPC UA applications in a network and enables central discovery in larger OPC UA deployments. Any OPC UA application, either client or server, can register at the GDS.

Thanks to its built-in certificate authority (CA), the GDS signs the identities and automatically rolls out the certificate, trust list, and revocation list for every registered application. All applications within the same security group only need to trust the CA to trust all applications that have been signed by this CA, with no further manual interaction.

These are the main benefits of using the GDS:

  • Reduced configuration effort—Connections to registered servers and applications can be added without manually entering the URL and other data or trusting the certificates, which is especially valuable in large and complex systems.
  • Central certificate management—All application certificates are managed in one place.
  • Automatic certificate renewal and distribution—No manual updates are needed on clients or servers.
  • Central Trust List and Certificate Revocation List management—Trusted and revoked certificates are always synchronized.
  • Consistent security level across the network

You can leverage these benefits in GENESIS by registering your OPC UA servers and GENESIS as a client application to the GDS and configuring the GDS settings in Workbench under OPC UA.

To use the Global Discovery Server with GENESIS:

  1. Install a GDS to your network and obtain the endpoint URL and the authentication data (username and password or user certificate).
  2. Register the desired OPC UA servers to the GDS as push models (server applications that provide data).
  3. Configure the GDS settings in Workbench and register GENESIS to the GDS. Learn more
  4. Create OPC UA connections using the GDS. Learn more