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Table of Contents
The NETx BMS Platform provides Servers provide a standardized OPC UA (Unified Architecture) interfaces ,interface. OPC UA is one of the most important communication protocols for Industry and the IoT.

OPC UA installation

OPC UA extension is available through Extension Manager.  When the BMS Core Studio is stopped, the Extension Manager can be started from the BMS Studio menu Extensions / Manager / Start extension manager...

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After a successful installation the confirmation appears:

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The close the BMS Core Studio and reopen it again; this is required before the extension can be used.

OPC UA as Server

After starting the BMS Core Studio and from the BMS Studio menu Modules/ OPC UA/ OPC UA server configuration...

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To make BMS Core server  runs as OPC UA server you need Enable OPC UA option. After that Server needs to be restarted.

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BMS Core server datapoints will available through any OPC UA Client. 

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Integrate data points from another OPC UA Server

Adding Servers:

The NETx Server provides a OPC UA Client module to integrates data points from other OPC UA Servers.  After installing the plugin, in the Modules>OPC UA>Server definitions. This menu is corresponding with adding another OPC UA Servers to the BMS Platform.

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Table of Contents

Add remote server

The NETx Server provides an OPC UA client module to integrate data points from remote OPC UA servers.  After having installed the plugin, open the menu entry Modules > OPC UA > Server definitions. Within this definition file, remote OPC UA servers can be added. In the following example  another NETx Server Platform that is running as an OPC server is defined.

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ParameterDescription
Name

The given name of the OPC UA

Server

server in

BMS

the NETx Server. The combination of name and path must be unique within this definition file. 

Path

The generated

Path

path in the Item Tree. The combination of name and path must be unique within this definition file. 

URL

The URL of the OPC UA Server.

User
Use Security
To enable
If set to true, a secure connection will be used to connect to the OPC UA server.
Add Unknown Certificates
To enable Unknown Certificates(by default enabled
If enabled, unknown certificates are accepted by the OPC UA client implementation. If disabled, the certificate must be trusted by this computer. A trusted certificate must be either an official certificate or the CA certificated must be located in the certificate store of the local computer (path  "Local Computer\NETx BMS Platform").
Username

If the OPC UA Server requires

Authentication

authentication with a

Username

username and a

Password

password.

PasswordIf the OPC UA Server requires
Authentication
authentication with a
Username
username and a
Password
password.
Write timestamps Choose which
timestamp to write
timestamps shall be used for writing to OPC UA data points

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Add remote data points

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(nodes)

Now the OPC UA data point points can be defined. This is done in the menu item Modules > OPC UA > Data point definitions. In the following example, a data point from another NETx Server that is running as an OPC server is defined.


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ParameterDescription
Server NameThe full name of the remote OPC UA server. This must match the combination name and path from the server definitions.
NameThe name of the data point. The combination of name and path must be unique within

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this definition file. 
Path

The generated path in Item Tree. The combination of name and path must be unique within this definition file. 

Namespace Index

The index of the namespace URI in the namespace array.

NodeId TypeThe type of the Node ID (by default String).
NodeId ValueThe node ID of the data point. 
Data type

The data type of the data point.

Access mode read, read and write or write.
PersistentThis parameter specifies whether the value of the data point is persistent (restored from the database after server start up ) or not.

Synchronize

If set to True (T), the value is synchronized between the main and backup server (if present).


Info

To determine the required namespace index, node id type, node id value and data type, you can use any 3rd party OPC UA client like UaExpert


The added data points should appear in the Item Tree under the specified path: 

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Fine tuning

To get data from OPC UA servers, the client has many different configuration options. These options are used to establish the connection as well as for the data retrieval (OPC UA subscription service). The options can be changed within the OPC UA Client Configuration.

Info

For troubleshooting, the log level of the OPC UA driver can be increased. The corresponding log entries are stored in a separate log file (<WorkspaceDirectory>\LogFiles\xio.OpcUa.log). More information about the configuration can be found in the OPC UA driver configuration.

Article applies to the following products

  • NETx BMS Platform
  • NETx Multi Protocol Server
  • NETx BMS Server 2.0