Mastering Forge #3: Connecting with OPC UA Clients

Welcome to the third tutorial on our series Mastering Forge.

As a quick recap, in our previous article, Mastering Forge #2, we added data sources to Forge. We did this by connecting to an external OPC UA server.

In this article, we will first take a look at Forge’s security settings. After that, we will establish a secure connection to Forge with an OPC UA client. For this, we will use Prosys OPC UA Browser, which you can download for free.

Also, if you prefer your tutorials in video format instead, you can watch our video about creating a secure connection with an OPC UA client on YouTube.

During this tutorial, we’ll be using the following products:

OPC UA Security settings

First, we will change the OPC UA server security settings so that the OPC UA clients are required a secure connection with authentication.

1. Navigate to OPC UA Server > Server Settings.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Forge’s Server Settings inside the OPC UA Server tab.

2. Under Security Modes, select only Sign&Encrypt. This will allow only secured connections to Forge.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Forge’s OPC UA Server Configuration.

3. Under User Authentication, select only Username and Password. With this setting, Forge will require user authentication from the OPC UA client to be able to connect.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Forge’s OPC UA Server Configuration.

4. Press Save to save the changes.

5. Restart Forge from the top right menu button. Confirm the restart.

Prosys OPC UA Forge’s hamburger menu with an arrow pointing to “Restart Forge”.

Establish a Secure Connection With an OPC UA Client

1. In Forge’s Dashboard, copy the connection address.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Forge’s Dashboard view. One arrow points to the dashboard button. The second arrow points to the “Copy to clipboard” button for Forge Server Status.

2. Open Prosys OPC UA Browser and paste the connection address to the address bar.

A partial screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Browser with the address bar active.

3. Browser will prompt the Security Settings from which we can see that only Sign&Encrypt is allowed. Press OK.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Browser’s Security Settings.

4. Next, Browser will prompt the User Authentication. For simplicity, we’ll use the credentials created in the initialization process in the Mastering Forge #1 article. Press OK.

Note: To add security, we should create a new user for our specific client through User Management from the top right menu button. However, we will go through that process in a future article and use the initial user for now.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Browser’s User Authentication settings.

5. Press Accept Permanently or Accept Once, upon your preference. The connection cannot be established yet because Forge needs to trust the client’s certificate first.

6. Go back to Forge and navigate to OPC UA Certificates under OPC UA Server > Certificates.

A screenshot of Prosys OPC UA Forge’s Certificates view inside the OPC UA Servers tab.

7. Trust the “UaBrowser” certificate by clicking the shield button. This will move the certificate from Rejected Certificates to Trusted Certificates.

A screenshot of Forge’s Rejected Certificates with an arrow pointing to the “trust” button.

8. Now, you can repeat steps 2-5 with Browser, and the secure connection will be established. 

A screenshot of Forge and Prosys OPC UA Browser showing a successful connection between the two.

Next Steps

This wraps up the third article of our Mastering Forge series. To recap, we

  1. Updated Forge’s security settings to require secure connections from all connecting OPC UA clients.
  2. Next, we connected to Forge with Prosys OPC UA Browser. This process consisted of trusting the Browser’s certificate with Forge before the connection was successful.

Now, you can easily connect any number of OPC UA clients to Forge. This opens up a world of possibilities for you to browse Forge with an OPC UA client, giving you more control over your data integration.

In our next article, Mastering Forge #4, we’ll dive into the exciting world of data harmonization. We’ll walk through the process of importing information models and creating instances that accurately reflect your system. Then, we’ll look at how to map data to these newly created models. This essential step will not only streamline your data integration but also significantly improve your overall system efficiency. Get ready for a game-changer!

If you want to learn more about Forge and its capabilities, you can request a detailed introduction by emailing sales@prosysopc.com or using our contact form. We’d be delighted to provide tailored information about Forge that aligns with your interests and requirements.

A headshot of Iivo Yrjölä

Iivo Yrjölä

Customer Integration & Support, Prosys OPC

Email: iivo.yrjola@prosysopc.com

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