Data Broker Overview

The Data Broker is one of the possible GENESIS workloads you can install when creating a GENESIS node. Learn more about installing workloads.

The primary purpose of the Data Broker workload is to bundle together the components of GENESIS related to data connectivity protocols and device interoperability. The workload includes data connectivity protocols as well as FrameWorX core services in order to allow for device communication as well as interoperability to a larger GENESIS architecture.

You can install the Data Broker workload alone, or in conjunction with other components of GENESIS. If you choose to create an independent Data Broker configuration node as part of a larger GENESIS deployment architecture, it will communicate with the other GENESIS nodes via the FrameWorX connection.

Be aware that certain licenses may distinguish between standalone Data Broker workloads and mixed workload nodes. This is reflected in licensing but does not relate to capabilities of the Data Broker itself. Learn more

Using Data Broker to communicate with OPC Classic Servers

A specific use case for the Data Broker is to connect with OPC Classic Servers. The recommended approach in GENESIS version 11 to connect to an OPC Classic server is to install a Data Broker instance of GENESIS locally to the OPC Server, and enable the OPC Classic service on the Data Broker node.

GenBroker was a stand-alone application in GENESIS64 version 10 that facilitated tunneling to connect to remote OPC Classic servers. It has been removed in GENESIS version 11.

Since the OPC Classic protocol represents a security risk, we recommend only using this connection in isolated environments and using the more modern and secure OPC UA protocol wherever possible.

The OPC Classic service is disabled by default, and you need to manually enable it before you can connect to an OPC Classic server. Learn more