lmxopcua/docs/Client.CLI.md

Client CLI

Overview

ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Client.CLI is a cross-platform command-line client for the OtOpcUa OPC UA server. It targets .NET 10 and uses the shared IOpcUaClientService from Client.Shared for all OPC UA operations. Commands are routed and parsed by CliFx.

The CLI is the primary tool for operators and developers to test and interact with the server from a terminal. It supports all core operations: connectivity testing, browsing, reading, writing, subscriptions, alarm monitoring, history reads, and redundancy queries. Any driver surface exposed by the server (Galaxy, Modbus, S7, AB CIP, AB Legacy, TwinCAT, FOCAS, OPC UA Client) is reachable through these commands — the CLI is driver-agnostic because everything below the OPC UA endpoint is.

Build and Run

cd src/Client/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Client.CLI
dotnet build
dotnet run -- <command> [options]

The executable name is otopcua-cli. Dev boxes carrying a pre-task-#208 install may still have the legacy {LocalAppData}/LmxOpcUaClient/ folder on disk; on first launch of any post-#208 CLI or UI build, ClientStoragePaths (src/Client/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Client.Shared/ClientStoragePaths.cs) migrates it to {LocalAppData}/OtOpcUaClient/ automatically so trusted certificates + saved settings survive the rename.

Architecture

All commands inherit from CommandBase, which provides common connection options and helper methods. Every command follows the same lifecycle:

1. Build ConnectionSettings from common options
2. Create an IOpcUaClientService through the factory
3. Call ConnectAsync to establish a session
4. Perform the command-specific operation
5. Call DisconnectAsync in a finally block

No command accesses the OPC UA Session directly; all operations go through the shared service abstraction. This ensures consistent behavior with the desktop UI client.

Common Options

All commands accept these options:

Flag	Description
-u / --url	OPC UA server endpoint URL (required)
-U / --username	Username for UserName token authentication
-P / --password	Password for UserName token authentication
-S / --security	Transport security mode: none, sign, encrypt, signandencrypt (default: none)
-F / --failover-urls	Comma-separated failover endpoint URLs for redundancy
--verbose	Enable debug-level Serilog console logging (default: warning)

Authentication

When -U and -P are provided, the shared service passes a UserIdentity(username, password) to the OPC UA session. Without credentials, anonymous identity is used.

otopcua-cli write -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840 -n "ns=2;s=MyNode" -v 42 -U operator -P op123

Failover

When -F is provided, the shared service tries the primary URL first, then each failover URL in order. For long-running commands (subscribe, alarms), the service monitors the session via keep-alive and automatically reconnects to the next available server on failure.

otopcua-cli connect -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -F opc.tcp://localhost:4841/OtOpcUa

Transport Security

When sign or encrypt is specified, the shared service:

1. Ensures a client application certificate exists under {LocalAppData}/OtOpcUaClient/pki/ (auto-created if missing; pre-rename LmxOpcUaClient/ is migrated in place on first launch)
2. Discovers server endpoints and selects one matching the requested security mode
3. Prefers Basic256Sha256 when multiple matching endpoints exist
4. Fails with a clear error if no matching endpoint is found

otopcua-cli browse -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -S encrypt -U admin -P secret -r -d 2

Verbose Logging

The --verbose flag switches Serilog output from Warning to Debug level, showing internal connection lifecycle, endpoint discovery, and OPC UA SDK diagnostics on the console.

Commands

connect

Tests connectivity to an OPC UA server. Creates a session, prints connection metadata, and disconnects.

otopcua-cli connect -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -U admin -P admin123

Output:

Connected to: opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa
Server: OtOpcUa Server
Security Mode: None
Security Policy: http://opcfoundation.org/UA/SecurityPolicy#None
Connection successful.

read

Reads the current value of a single node and prints the value, status code, and timestamps.

otopcua-cli read -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -n "ns=3;s=DEV.ScanState" -U admin -P admin123

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to read (required)

Output:

Node:        ns=3;s=DEV.ScanState
Value:       True
Status:      0x00000000
Source Time: 2026-03-30T19:58:38.0961252Z
Server Time: 2026-03-30T19:58:38.0971257Z

write

Writes a value to a node. The shared service reads the current value first to determine the target data type, then converts the supplied string value using ValueConverter.ConvertValue().

otopcua-cli write -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840 -n "ns=2;s=MyNode" -v 42

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to write to (required)
-v / --value	Value to write (required)

browse

Browses the OPC UA address space starting from the Objects folder or a specified node. Supports recursive traversal with a configurable depth limit. Output uses tree-style indentation with [Object], [Variable], and [Method] markers.

# Browse top-level Objects folder
otopcua-cli browse -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -U admin -P admin123

# Browse a specific node recursively to depth 3
otopcua-cli browse -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -U admin -P admin123 -r -d 3 -n "ns=3;s=ZB"

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to browse (default: Objects folder)
-d / --depth	Maximum browse depth (default: 1)
-r / --recursive	Browse recursively using -d as max depth

subscribe

Monitors a node (or every Variable in its subtree) for value changes using OPC UA subscriptions. Prints each data-change notification with timestamp, value, and status code, then prints a summary on exit. Exits on Ctrl+C, or automatically after --duration seconds.

# Subscribe to a single node
otopcua-cli subscribe -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840 -n "ns=2;s=MyNode" -i 500

# Browse a subtree and subscribe to every Variable, run for 60 seconds, write the summary to disk
otopcua-cli subscribe -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840 -n "ns=3;s=ZB" -r --max-depth 4 \
  --duration 60 --quiet --summary-file C:\Temp\subscribe-summary.txt

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to monitor (required). When --recursive is set, this is the browse root.
-i / --interval	Sampling interval in milliseconds (default: 1000)
-r / --recursive	Browse recursively from --node and subscribe to every Variable found
--max-depth	Maximum recursion depth when --recursive is set (default: 10)
-q / --quiet	Suppress per-update output; only print the final summary
--duration	Auto-exit after N seconds and print the summary (0 = run until Ctrl+C, default: 0)
--summary-file	Also write the summary to this file path on exit

Summary buckets

The summary prints per-node counts across these buckets:

• Ever went BAD during window — node received at least one notification whose status was not Good.
• NEVER went bad (suspect) — node received at least one notification and every one was Good.
• Last status GOOD / NOT-GOOD — final observed status across nodes that received any update.
• No update received at all — node was subscribed but no notification arrived during the window.

historyread

Reads historical data from a node. Supports raw history reads and aggregate (processed) history reads. --start and --end are parsed with CultureInfo.InvariantCulture and treated as UTC; supply them in ISO 8601 UTC form (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ) for unambiguous behaviour across hosts.

# Raw history
otopcua-cli historyread -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa \
  -n "ns=1;s=TestMachine_001.TestHistoryValue" \
  --start "2026-03-25T00:00:00Z" --end "2026-03-30T00:00:00Z"

# Aggregate: 1-hour average
otopcua-cli historyread -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa \
  -n "ns=1;s=TestMachine_001.TestHistoryValue" \
  --start "2026-03-25T00:00:00Z" --end "2026-03-30T00:00:00Z" \
  --aggregate Average --interval 3600000

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to read history for (required)
--start	Start time in ISO 8601 UTC format, e.g. 2026-01-15T08:00:00Z (default: 24 hours ago)
--end	End time in ISO 8601 UTC format, e.g. 2026-01-15T09:00:00Z (default: now)
--max	Maximum number of values (default: 1000)
--aggregate	Aggregate function: Average, Minimum, Maximum, Count, Start, End, StandardDeviation
--interval	Processing interval in milliseconds for aggregates (default: 3600000)

Aggregate mapping

Name	Aliases	OPC UA Node ID
Average	avg	AggregateFunction_Average
Minimum	min	AggregateFunction_Minimum
Maximum	max	AggregateFunction_Maximum
Count		AggregateFunction_Count
Start	first	AggregateFunction_Start
End	last	AggregateFunction_End
StandardDeviation	stddev, stdev	AggregateFunction_StandardDeviationSample

alarms

Subscribes to alarm events on a node. Prints structured alarm output including source, condition, severity, active/acknowledged state, and message. Runs until Ctrl+C, then unsubscribes and disconnects cleanly.

# Subscribe to alarm events on the Server node
otopcua-cli alarms -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa

# Subscribe to a specific source node with condition refresh
otopcua-cli alarms -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa \
  -n "ns=1;s=TestMachine_001" --refresh

Flag	Description
-n / --node	Node ID to monitor for events (default: Server node)
-i / --interval	Publishing interval in milliseconds (default: 1000)
--refresh	Request a ConditionRefresh after subscribing to get current retained alarm states

redundancy

Reads the OPC UA redundancy state from a server: redundancy mode, service level, server URIs, and application URI.

otopcua-cli redundancy -u opc.tcp://localhost:4840/OtOpcUa -U admin -P admin123

Example output:

Redundancy Mode:  Warm
Service Level:    200
Server URIs:
  - urn:localhost:OtOpcUa:instance1
  - urn:localhost:OtOpcUa:instance2
Application URI:  urn:localhost:OtOpcUa:instance1

Testing

The Client CLI has 52 unit tests covering option parsing, service invocation, output formatting, and cleanup behavior:

dotnet test tests/Client/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Client.CLI.Tests