This section provides the following parts:

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.

Use Case OPC UA proxy

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.

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Use Case OPC UA wrapper

This use case enables OPC UA Clients to connect to legacy OPC COM Servers. The UaGateway will act as an OPC UA Server being installed locally on the PC where the OPC COM Server resides. The UaGateway's internal OPC COM Client connects to one or more OPC COM Servers locally. Any OPC UA Client can remotely connect to UaGateway 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.

Use Case OPC UA tunnel

This use case is intended to replace remote DCOM communication by creating an OPC UA tunnel via UaGateway. On both machines where the OPC COM product (Client and Server) is running install UaGateway. The OPC COM Client locally connects to UaGateway and the UaGateway on that machine is configured to connect to the UaGateway on the remote machine via OPC UA. On the other machine UaGateway connects to the local COM Server. Now any service request coming from the COM Client is "translated" to OPC UA, forwarded to the UaGateway on the remote machine and there is "translated" back to OPC COM to communicate with the local OPC COM Server. This enables legacy OPC COM products to communicate remotely via an secure, encrypted, firewall friendly and routable protocol.

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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.