Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ef2ozxS7QPanGT8uoATbTe
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OPC UA Client (Gateway) Driver
Getting-started guide for the OPC UA Client driver. This is the short path — for
the full per-field spec read docs/v2/driver-specs.md §8,
and for the test-harness map read OpcUaClient-Test-Fixture.md.
What it talks to
A remote OPC UA server. This driver runs the opposite direction from the
usual "server exposes PLC data" flow: it acts as an OPC UA client, opens a
Session against an upstream server, and re-exposes that server's address space
through the local OtOpcUa server. Browse, read, write, subscribe, alarm, and
history calls are passed through to the upstream endpoint.
It is built on the OPC Foundation UA .NET Standard reference SDK and runs in-process in the OtOpcUa server's .NET 10 AnyCPU host — pure managed, no out-of-process isolation.
There is no standalone driver CLI for the OPC UA Client driver. To exercise a remote OPC UA endpoint by hand, point the general-purpose Client CLI at it directly.
Project split
| Project | Target | Role |
|---|---|---|
src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient/ |
net10.0 | In-process driver — session lifetime, read / write / subscribe / alarm / history passthrough |
src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient.Browser/ |
net10.0 | IDriverBrowser — live address-picker browse used by the AdminUI |
src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient.Contracts/ |
net10.0 | Config records + enums bound from DriverConfig JSON |
Minimum deployment
"Drivers": {
"upstream-1": {
"Type": "OpcUaClient",
"Config": {
"EndpointUrl": "opc.tcp://plc.internal:4840",
"SecurityPolicy": "None",
"SecurityMode": "None",
"AuthType": "Anonymous"
}
}
}
EndpointUrls (a list) takes precedence over the single-URL EndpointUrl and
provides ordered failover — the driver tries each candidate in turn at init
and on session drop, and the first to connect wins (e.g. a hot-standby pair on
4840 / 4841). See
src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient.Contracts/OpcUaClientDriverOptions.cs
for every field (security policy/mode, auth type, session timeout, keep-alive,
reconnect period, browse root, node/depth caps).
Session lifetime
A single Session per driver instance; subscriptions multiplex onto it. The
SDK reconnect handler takes the session down and brings it back on remote-server
restart, re-sending subscriptions on reconnect so monitored-item handles don't
dangle. Stored NodeIds embed the server-stable namespace URI (not the
session-relative ns=N index) so a remote namespace-table reorder across a
restart doesn't silently re-point references at the wrong namespace.
Namespace assignment (retired, Gitea #648)
Earlier versions required a per-instance TargetNamespaceKind (Equipment +
a mandatory UnsMappingTable, or SystemPlatform + an empty table). Both
options are removed: nothing ever read the mapping table beyond the startup
check, and in v3 the raw-to-UNS projection is explicit (UnsTagReference), so
the choice carried no behaviour — it only made a config without the key fail
Initialize. Remote nodes are authored as /raw tags bound by their upstream
nodeId; there is no namespace field on the driver, the AdminUI form or the
seed.
Stored DriverConfig JSON that still carries targetNamespaceKind or
unsMappingTable keeps working: the keys are unknown and ignored on parse and
initialise (the AdminUI form drops them on the next save). Pinned by
OpcUaClientReinitConfigAdoptionTests.Legacy_namespace_keys_are_ignored_by_parse_and_initialise.
Capability surface
OpcUaClientDriver : IDriver, ITagDiscovery, IReadable, IWritable, ISubscribable, IHostConnectivityProbe, IAlarmSource, IHistoryProvider
(src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient/OpcUaClientDriver.cs:31).
| Capability | Path | Notes |
|---|---|---|
ITagDiscovery |
DiscoverAsync (recursive browse) |
Mirrors the upstream tree from BrowseRoot (default ObjectsFolder i=85), bounded by MaxDiscoveredNodes / MaxBrowseDepth |
IReadable |
ReadAsync → Session.ReadAsync |
Upstream StatusCodes pass through verbatim (cascading-quality rule) |
IWritable |
WriteAsync → Session.WriteAsync |
Passthrough write |
ISubscribable |
native OPC UA subscriptions / monitored items | The remote server pushes data changes |
IHostConnectivityProbe |
session keep-alive | Host key is the endpoint URL actually connected to after the failover sweep |
IAlarmSource |
SubscribeAlarmsAsync (EventFilter) + AcknowledgeAsync |
Subscribes to upstream alarm/condition events and forwards acks |
IHistoryProvider |
ReadRawAsync / ReadProcessedAsync / ReadAtTimeAsync → Session.HistoryReadAsync |
Unique to this driver — passthrough history read against the upstream server |
Native alarms (#619). An alarm raw tag is
TagConfig{ "nodeId": "<upstream SourceNode>", "alarm": {...} }. The host subscribes with RawPaths and routes on (driver, RawPath), so the driver matches each event'sConditionId(then itsSourceNode) against the tag's authorednodeIdand reports the RawPath asConditionId. AuthornodeIdas the upstream condition node for a 1:1 mapping (required when one source carries several conditions, e.g. Hi + HiHi); authoring the source node folds every condition of that source into one tag.Acknowledgeis called on the condition node of the last event seen for the RawPath with that event's EventId (Part 9 §5.7.3). The event'sActiveState/Id+AckedState/Idare selected and turned into theRaise/Acknowledge/Clear/Retriggerkinds the host projector consumes (without a kind no upstream alarm could ever show active); the kinds are emitted from the state last told to the host per RawPath, so an identical re-delivery emits nothing (no re-raise, which would un-ack). Condition branch events (non-nullBranchId) are ignored.ConditionRefreshis called after the event item is created, after every in-place reconnect, and on aRefreshRequiredevent, so a condition already active upstream is reported at subscribe;RefreshStart/RefreshEndmarkers are dropped. A server without it (BadNotSupported/BadMethodInvalid/…) is logged once and tolerated. Last-told state survives a re-initialise (the host re-subscribes the same set over nodes it did not rebuild) and is forgotten when the subscribed set changes (the host rebuilt, recreating the nodes inactive). Index keys are server-stable (nsu=), so a namespace reorder across a reconnect keeps matching. docker-dev seeds an opc-plc driver (MAIN-opcua); the alarm tag is created only when@OpcPlcAlarmSourceNodeIdis set indocker-dev/seed/seed-clusters.sql.
This driver does not implement
IRediscoverable— there is no push-driven rediscovery signal from a remote OPC UA server in this driver.IHistoryProvideris implemented by no other driver; history reads for every other source route server-side throughIHistoryRouter.
History passthrough
IHistoryProvider forwards HistoryRead to the upstream server's own historian.
Raw, processed (the full HistoryAggregateType set — Average / Minimum / Maximum / Total / Count plus
Interpolative, TimeAverage, Start, End, Delta, Range, Min/Max ActualTime, Start/EndBound, DeltaBounds,
DurationGood/Bad, PercentGood/Bad, WorstQuality, NumberOfTransitions, AnnotationCount and the
population StandardDeviation/Variance — each mapped to its OPC UA Part 13 standard aggregate NodeId; #285),
and at-time reads are supported; each
returned DataValue keeps its upstream StatusCode and timestamps verbatim.
The per-node HistoryReadResult.StatusCode is honoured (#649). The driver never reads a Bad node status as
empty data: BadAggregateNotSupported on a Processed read throws HistoryAggregateNotSupportedException, and any
other Bad status (BadUserAccessDenied, BadNodeIdUnknown, BadHistoryOperationUnsupported, ...) throws
HistoryReadStatusException carrying the code (the constructor rejects non-Bad codes). Good, GoodNoData,
GoodMoreData (continuation point) and Uncertain are unchanged, and a node-level BadNoData is still an empty
result. The status is matched on its code bits, so an info/overflow sub-status does not dodge the match.
⚠️ This is currently latent. The OtOpcUa server does not dispatch HistoryRead to a driver's IHistoryProvider
(it serves only the server-wide IHistorianDataSource, see docs/Historian.md), so no OPC UA client of OtOpcUa
sees this driver's history results or its refusals today. The server's HistoryRead arms (ServeNodeAsync,
ServeRawPagedAsync) do map a HistoryReadStatusException thrown by an IHistorianDataSource to that node's
status verbatim, and the driver/wire tests exercise that path; if driver history is ever routed to the server,
refusals will reach clients correctly instead of as empty Good data. A routed deterministic refusal would also
need excluding from the HistoryRead pipeline's retry/breaker handling.
Event-history (ReadEventsAsync) is left at the interface default — the
interface doesn't yet carry the EventFilter surface needed to forward it.
Certificate trust
AutoAcceptCertificates accepts any self-signed / untrusted server certificate.
It is dev-only — leave it false in production so a MITM against the
opc.tcp channel fails closed. The SDK rejects a revoked certificate
(BadCertificateRevoked / BadCertificateIssuerRevoked) before the auto-accept handler runs, and the handler
also refuses them explicitly — defence in depth (#277), not a behaviour change.
CertificateValidation (defaults change nothing):
| Key | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
rejectUnknownRevocationStatus |
false |
Reject a server certificate whose revocation status cannot be determined (no CRL for its issuer, or a stale one). Leave false for brownfield sites without CRL infrastructure. Only effective with autoAcceptCertificates off — the auto-accept handler accepts every suppressible error, including revocation-unknown. |
issuerStorePath |
null (= %LocalAppData%/OtOpcUa/pki/issuers) |
Directory used as the trusted-issuer store. The SDK reads issuer CRLs (*.crl) from its crl/ sub-folder, so this is how an operator points the driver at a managed CRL set. |
Subscription tuning (#273)
The per-subscription parameters that used to be hardcoded are driver options; the defaults are the old values.
| Key | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
subscriptionPublishingInterval |
null |
A .NET TimeSpan string ("00:00:02"), not a number. null = the interval the runtime requests per subscribe (floored at 50 ms). When set it overrides that value (floor still applies); monitored-item sampling follows it. |
subscriptionKeepAliveCount |
10 |
>= 1. |
subscriptionLifetimeCount |
1000 |
Must be >= 3 x keep-alive count (Part 4 §5.13.2). |
subscriptionMaxNotificationsPerPublish |
0 |
0 = server decides. |
subscriptionPriority |
0 |
0-255. |
Out-of-range values (and a non-absolute discoveryUrl) are rejected when the options are loaded — driver creation / InitializeAsync fails once with a clear message rather than the driver faulting and retrying forever. The alarm subscription uses the same counts.
Per-tag tuning (deadband / sampling interval / queue size, #274) is not implemented — it needs an
ISubscribable signature change on Core.
Server OperationLimits (#275)
Nothing driver-side: the SDK session already honours the remote server's
ServerCapabilities/OperationLimits. Opc.Ua.Client.Session derives from Opc.Ua.SessionClientBatched,
fetches the limits on open (FetchOperationLimitsAsync) and splits Read / Write / CreateMonitoredItems / Browse /
HistoryRead requests that exceed them (a limit of 0 = unlimited). The driver issues one logical call per
operation and a unit test pins the Session : SessionClientBatched relationship so an SDK change that dropped
it is caught. (A driver-side splitter was tried and removed: it duplicated the SDK and, on a stalled link, held
the driver gate for chunks x timeout.)
Discovery URL (#278)
discoveryUrl (default null, e.g. opc.tcp://lds:4840): at InitializeAsync the driver runs FindServers on it
and GetEndpoints on every returned server, keeping the endpoints matching securityPolicy + securityMode.
Discovered URLs are tried after endpointUrls/endpointUrl (case-insensitive de-dup) — discovery can add
fallbacks but never outranks or replaces the configured server. Because an LDS commonly registers several servers
(identical line PLCs, a gateway plus a historian) and the first to accept a connection would be bound silently:
discoveryServerUriset: only endpoints of the server with that ApplicationUri are used.- unset and exactly one distinct server discovered: that server is used.
- unset and more than one: the connect attempt fails with an error naming the discovered ApplicationUris and
telling the operator to set
discoveryServerUri.
A discovery network failure (LDS down) is logged and non-fatal — the static list is used (note it is retried on
every InitializeAsync, including comms-loss reconnects). The discovery channel itself is always unsecured (spec).
Diagnostics counters (#276)
Session/publish events are published on the shared OTel meter as the counter
otopcua.driver.opcuaclient.events, tagged driver_instance (the driver instance id) and event =
publish_response, notification (items), data_change, bad_status_value, publish_error,
keepalive_miss, reconnect_attempt, reconnect_success, reconnect_exhausted. A climbing keepalive_miss /
reconnect_attempt rate is the signature of a flapping upstream. They are not part of DriverHealth or the
/hosts panel.
Testing
- Unit tests —
tests/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.OpcUaClient.Tests/cover the session lifecycle, namespace remapping, alarm/history passthrough, and config binding against a faked SDK session. - Integration fixture — exercises the driver against a reference OPC UA server (opc-plc) on the shared docker host; see OpcUaClient-Test-Fixture.md for the coverage map.
Further reading
docs/v2/driver-specs.md §8— full per-field spec, namespace-assignment rules, and cascading-quality detail- OpcUaClient-Test-Fixture.md — test-harness map
- Client.CLI.md — general-purpose OPC UA client CLI for ad-hoc browsing of any endpoint