OPC UA Learner Series - How to Build a Secure OPC-UA Server for PLCs in Node-RED

[Hisma]

Hey guys, last week I posted part 1 of a series of OPC UA articles in Node-RED. That article covered some important concepts of OPC UA and how they relate to building your own server in Node-RED. I then walk through an example OPC UA Server flow and show how to successfully deploy it.

https://flowforge.com/blog/2023/07/how-to-deploy-a-basic-opc-ua-server-in-node-red/

In this second article, I create a more practical example, and show how to build a custom OPC UA Server for an Allen Bradley PLC in Node-RED, including how to encrypt the server connection with SSL to make it production-ready.

https://flowforge.com/blog/2023/07/how-to-build-a-secure-opc-ua-server-for-plcs-in-node-red/

I did my best to break everything down into manageable details, so that hopefully even someone with minimal experience can follow it. But ultimately building a custom OPC UA Server does take some effort.

My hope is that this tutorial can teach someone enough concepts to go on and develop their own custom OPC Server applications to suit their specific use-case.

As always, if you have any questions please let me know! Here to help.

note - the full source code is included at the end .

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[widelto]

Thanks, I always wanted to learn and use node red

 

[Hisma]

you're welcome! This content is geared towards controls engineers who are familiar with PLCs and industrial automation, but may have little to no experience with node-red. So it's geared toward folks like you!

 

[KreuzerS]

All that makes a lot of sense, and I fully agree. There is just one small addition that I would like to make. If I were looking for a good server for my hosting or data backup, I would rather choose mac vps as I think they are the quickest and most secure nowadays. Plus, they offer regular backups. For me, that is essential.

 

[hardaysknight]

That's awesome. Thanks for posting

 

[BachPhi]

Very nice write up even though rtfm is not really my forte. I don't really see where ‘ConveyorData’ gets set.
A Youtube link would be nice.


A related link for setting up Rockwell to Siemens S7: https://youtu.be/dteXgcBXUnk?list=PLIaonIlaaO0O5edWUh413RWSVfjJmYPF1&t=32

 

[Hisma]

Very nice write up even though rtfm is not really my forte. I don't really see where ‘ConveyorData’ gets set.
A Youtube link would be nice.


A related link for setting up Rockwell to Siemens S7: https://youtu.be/dteXgcBXUnk?list=PLIaonIlaaO0O5edWUh413RWSVfjJmYPF1&t=32

I did the youtube video as a follow-up to that article later on.

It's the youtube link you posted, that's me narrating .

Glad you found it useful!

 

[BachPhi]

What is the node-red proper syntax for TimerTag.PRE and TimerTag.ACC ?

These 2 tags are in my Eth-ip node and I can see their value fine.

how do you use it like in the case of msg.payload.TimerTag.ACC ?

 

[BachPhi]

its corrected syntax is msg.payload["TimerTag.ACC"]