OPC UA Server
The OPC UA Server listens for Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) clients and exposes this profile's tag tree to them as a read-only address space. Use it to let third-party OPC UA clients, such as a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or historian system, read the live values held in this Profinity profile. The OPC UA plugin also provides the OPC UA Client, and the two components can be used on their own or together.
flowchart LR
Tags --> Server["OPC UA Server"] --> Consumer["Third-party OPC UA client"]The server exposes the readable scalar tags in the profile's tag tree.
Licence required
The OPC UA plugin is not part of the standard installation, and it requires the Industrial Protocols licensed component group. Refer to Industrial Protocols for how to obtain, install, and licence it.
Add the server to your Profile from the Industrial Protocols group in the component catalogue, as described in Adding Components to Your Profile. The settings below can be changed later from the component's Change Settings menu action.
Settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the component. Must be unique within the profile. |
| Bind URL | The endpoint address that the server listens on, and the address clients connect to. Required, and must start with opc.tcp://. The default is opc.tcp://127.0.0.1:4840/Profinity, which accepts clients on this computer only. |
| Auto Connect | Starts the server automatically when the profile is loaded. Off by default. |
| Trust all client certificates | Skips validation of connecting clients' certificates. Off by default. Turn it on only on a trusted network. |
For where the server keeps its certificates and how to trust one explicitly, refer to OPC UA certificates.
What the server exposes
The server publishes the readable scalar values in the profile's tag tree.
Each tag appears as a node with the NodeId ns=2;s= followed by the tag's full tag ID, which is the tag's tag tree path.
Clients cannot write to the address space, so the server cannot be used to change values in Profinity.
The server accepts anonymous connections without message security only.
The address space is built once when the server starts, from the tags that are readable at that moment, so tags added to the profile after the server starts do not appear until the server is restarted.
A tag with no sample or a null value reads as BadNoData to the client.
Listening address
With the default Bind URL, the server listens on the loopback address 127.0.0.1 only, so only clients on the Profinity computer can connect.
The server uses no security policy and accepts anonymous clients, so allow other computers only on a network you trust.
To accept remote clients, replace the host in the Bind URL with the IP address or host name of the Profinity computer that those clients can reach, for example opc.tcp://192.168.1.20:4840/Profinity.
An IP address listens on that address only, and a host name listens on every address of the computer.
When the address changes, Profinity replaces the server certificate if it does not name the new address.
A Bind URL with a host of 0.0.0.0 or localhost is treated in the same way as the default and listens on 127.0.0.1 only.
Dashboard
The component has a dashboard showing its STATUS, whether it is LISTENING, and the number of client requests RECEIVED and responses SENT since the server last started listening.
To check that the server works, look for the status Listening and LISTENING true, then connect a client to the Bind URL, browse Objects > Profinity (the Profinity folder, NodeId ns=2;s=Profinity), and read a tag at ns=2;s= followed by its full tag ID.
Viewing the dashboard requires the Security administration permission, described under Roles and Permissions.