Introduction

This section provides the following parts:

• Introduction to UaGateway
• Tools Installed with UaGateway
• Notification Area Icon of UaGateway
• HowTo: Connect to UaGateway with UaExpert
• HowTo: Connect to the Local UaGateway with a COM Client
• OEM Edition

Introduction to UaGateway

The UaGateway is a product for migrating the "classic" COM/DCOM based OPC Servers to the new OPC Unified Architecture and vice versa. It is a high performance Wrapper/Proxy programmed in C++, based on the Unified Automation's C++ OPC UA Server/Client SDK/Toolkit.

Use cases that can be covered using the UaGateway:

• connecting UA Client(s) to COM/ DCOM Server(s)
• connecting COM/DCOM Client(s) to UA Server(s)
• tunneling COM/DCOM through secure UA connection
• data concentration on a single node, single point of access
• firewall-friendly, secure data access to "classic" OPC

The UaGateway is fully configurable through OPC UA Methods. It complies with the OPC DI Specification (Device Integration) and offers standardized diagnosis and configuration capabilities.

Typical Use Case:

One of the use cases the UaGateway was designed for is the connection of legacy OPC Clients (e.g. HMI/SCADA systems) that need to connect to OPC UA Servers. The UaGateway will act as a "classic" OPC DataAccess 2/3 Server being installed locally on the PC where the HMI/SCADA Client resides.

The UaGateway's internal UA Client connects to one or more UA Servers using the high performance binary protocol. The connection can be passed through firewalls, can run over the Internet and uses the OPC UA security mechanisms: authentication and encryption.

The information model of the underlying UA Server(s) will be transparently mapped into the address space of UaGateway's OPC DA Server, where the 'classic' HMI/SCADA Client can pick up the data.

Tools Installed with UaGateway

The installation procedure installs the following tools for configuring the UaGateway:

Administration Tool

to perform administrative tasks for the UaGateway itself, like configuring User Context, UA Endpoints, Certificates, etc.

Configuration Tool

to do runtime related configuration for the UaGateway, like adding/removing connections to underlying OPC Servers and diagnosis of these.

You can access these tools using the start menu entries or by right clicking the Notification Area Icon.

A more detailed description of the Notification Area Icon can be found in the following section.