Files
lmxopcua/docs
Joseph Doherty 803f4e6efe refactor(sql): split ISqlDialect/SqlServerDialect into a .Dialect leaf (#526)
`Driver.Sql.Browser` referenced the runtime `Driver.Sql` project. The AdminUI
references that browser, so the whole SQL driver runtime — and
`ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Core` through it — sat in the AdminUI's build/deploy graph.
This is the same layering violation #512 removed from the MQTT browser, in a
second driver, and it is why #512's expected removal of `Core.dll` from the
AdminUI's output did not happen.

MEASURED, both directions, on a clean AdminUI build:

  before: ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Core.dll + ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.Sql.dll present
  after:  both absent

The old csproj comment's premise was sound and survives — the dialect's catalog
SQL *is* the browse engine, so it must be shared rather than duplicated. What
was wrong was the conclusion that sharing it required referencing the runtime
driver. `ISqlDialect`/`SqlServerDialect` depend on nothing in `Driver.Sql`, so
they move to a `.Dialect` leaf that both consume.

This is the `.Transport` shape, not the cheap one: `ISqlDialect` exposes
`DbProviderFactory` and `SqlServerDialect` returns `SqlClientFactory.Instance`,
so `.Contracts` (deliberately provider-free) cannot hold them. Assembly name is
`.Dialect`; the NAMESPACE stays `ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.Sql`, matching the
`Driver.Mqtt.Transport` precedent — the extraction cost zero `using` changes.

Two dependencies the cut edge surfaced as the implicit ones they were:

- The AdminUI itself read `SqlDriver.DriverTypeName` in three places — the tag
  editor map, the tag config validator, and the Sql address picker. All three
  now read `DriverTypeNames.Sql`, which is exactly what that constant resolves
  to and exactly the repoint `SqlDriverBrowser`'s own comment had deferred
  until a factory was registered against the shared constant. One exists now.
- `SqlDriverFormContractTests` asserts the AdminUI form's emitted JSON against
  the runtime factory that reads it, so it genuinely needs the runtime driver.
  `AdminUI.Tests` now references it explicitly. A test project referencing a
  runtime driver is fine — tests are not in the AdminUI's deploy graph.

New guard: `DriverBrowserLayeringTests` (Commons.Tests) scans the csproj graph
of every `*.Browser` project in the tree, transitively. It reads csproj files
rather than loaded assemblies because the cost is a build-graph cost — the
compiler emits no assembly reference for an unused `ProjectReference`, so
`MqttBrowserLayeringTests`' assembly-reference approach cannot see that case.
The two are complementary and each now points at the other.

Falsified three ways, each red then green again: the direct reference re-added
to the browser; the same reference one hop out via `.Dialect` (proving the walk
is really transitive); and both controls — browsers-discovered and
references-parsed — which exist so an empty discovery cannot pass the absence
assertion vacuously.

#526's claim that the reference "carries no comment at all" was wrong; it
carried a detailed one from the scaffold commit. Corrected on the issue and in
the design doc's project table, which had recorded the deviation as deliberate.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015p7wGqy3YpZNCpDzTpGMKo
2026-07-31 08:38:57 -04:00
..

OtOpcUa documentation

Two tiers of documentation live here:

  • Current reference at the top level (docs/*.md) — describes what's shipped today. Start here for operator + integrator reference.
  • Implementation history + design notes at docs/v2/*.md — the authoritative plan + decision log the current reference is built from. Start here when you need the why behind an architectural choice, or when a top-level doc says "see plan.md § X".

The project was originally called LmxOpcUa (a single-driver Galaxy/MXAccess OPC UA server) and has since become OtOpcUa, a multi-driver OPC UA server platform. Any lingering LmxOpcUa-string in a path you see in docs is a deliberate residual (executable name lmxopcua-cli, client PKI folder {LocalAppData}/LmxOpcUaClient/) — fixing those requires migration shims + is tracked as follow-ups.

Platform overview

v2 (2026-05-26): the separate OtOpcUa.Server + OtOpcUa.Admin services fused into a single role-gated OtOpcUa.Host binary, joined by an Akka.NET cluster. See v2 design for the architectural decision.

  • Core owns shared abstractions (driver capability contracts, scripting, virtual tags, alarm historian).
  • Drivers plug in via capability interfaces in ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Core.Abstractions: IDriver, IReadable, IWritable, ITagDiscovery, ISubscribable, IHostConnectivityProbe, IAlarmSource, IHistoryProvider, IPerCallHostResolver. Each driver opts into whichever it supports.
  • Host (src/Server/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Host) is the single fused binary (.NET 10, AnyCPU). OTOPCUA_ROLES env decides what to mount: admin (Blazor + control-plane singletons), driver (OPC UA endpoint + per-node actors), or both. See ServiceHosting.md.
  • Cluster + ControlPlane + Runtime + AdminUI + Security sit between Core and Host. The cluster glues per-node actors into one logical fleet; the control-plane singletons (deploy coordinator, audit writer, redundancy state) live on the admin role-leader. See Redundancy.md.
  • The Galaxy driver still reaches MXAccess via gRPC to a separately-installed mxaccessgw sidecar (sibling repo).

Where to find what

Architecture + data-path reference

Doc Covers
OpcUaServer.md Top-level server architecture — Core, driver dispatch, Config DB, generations
AddressSpace.md GenericDriverNodeManager + ITagDiscovery + IAddressSpaceBuilder
ReadWriteOperations.md OPC UA Read/Write → CapabilityInvoker → IReadable/IWritable
DriverLifecycle.md Server-side driver lifecycle + infrastructure contracts (IDriverFactory, IDriverProbe, IDriverHealthPublisher, IDriverConfigEditor, IHistorianDataSource) + the Commons library
Subscriptions.md Monitored items → ISubscribable + per-driver subscription refcount (v1 archive)
AlarmTracking.md IAlarmSource + AlarmSurfaceInvoker + OPC UA alarm conditions — native Galaxy alarms end-to-end (live)
AlarmTracking.md Original alarm-tracking write-up (v1 archive)
AlarmHistorian.md Core.AlarmHistorian store-and-forward sink — LocalDbStoreAndForwardSink, the replicated alarm_sf_events buffer + Primary-only drain, IAlarmHistorianWriter, dead-letter/retry/eviction
DataTypeMapping.md Per-driver DriverAttributeInfo → OPC UA variable types (v1 archive — live mapping is in src/Drivers/ZB.MOM.WW.OtOpcUa.Driver.Galaxy/Browse/DataTypeMap.cs)
IncrementalSync.md Address-space rebuild on redeploy + sp_ComputeGenerationDiff
HistoricalDataAccess.md IHistoryProvider as a per-driver optional capability (v1 archive)
VirtualTags.md Core.Scripting + Core.VirtualTags — Roslyn script sandbox, engine, dispatch alongside driver tags
ScriptEditor.md Monaco script editor — Roslyn-backed IntelliSense (completions, diagnostics, hover, tag-path) for C# virtual-tag scripts; AdminUI/ScriptAnalysis/ backend
ScriptedAlarms.md Core.ScriptedAlarms — script-predicate IAlarmSource + Part 9 state machine

One Core subsystem is shipped without a dedicated top-level doc; see the section in the linked doc:

Project See
Analyzers (Roslyn OTOPCUA0001) security.md § OTOPCUA0001 Analyzer

Drivers

Doc Covers
drivers/README.md Index of the eight shipped drivers + capability matrix
drivers/Galaxy.md Galaxy driver — in-process gRPC client to the mxaccessgw sidecar
v1/drivers/Galaxy-Repository.md Galaxy-specific discovery via the ZB SQL database (v1 archive — the gateway owns this path now)

For Modbus / S7 / AB CIP / AB Legacy / TwinCAT / FOCAS / OPC UA Client specifics, see v2/driver-specs.md.

Operational

Doc Covers
Configuration.md Live appsettings + environment-variable reference (current state)
Configuration.md appsettings bootstrap + Config DB + Admin UI draft/publish (v1 archive — OTOPCUA_GALAXY_* env vars now live in mxaccessgw config)
Uns.md The global /uns master tree — manage Area/Line/Equipment/Tag/VirtualTag fleet-wide; replaces the per-cluster UNS/Equipment/Tags tabs
security.md Transport security profiles, LDAP auth, ACL trie, role grants, OTOPCUA0001 analyzer
Redundancy.md RedundancyStateActor (cluster-scoped singleton), ServiceLevelCalculator, IRedundancyRoleView, per-cluster meshes, Prometheus metrics
Reservations.md Fleet-wide ZTag / SAPID external-ID reservations — publish-time claim, release flow
ServiceHosting.md Single fused OtOpcUa.Host binary install/uninstall with OTOPCUA_ROLES gating; the historian backend is the external HistorianGateway
StatusDashboard.md Pointer — superseded by v2/admin-ui.md

Client tooling

Doc Covers
Client.CLI.md otopcua-cli — OPC UA command-line client
Client.UI.md Avalonia desktop client
DriverClis.md Driver test-client CLIs — index + shared commands
Driver.Modbus.Cli.md otopcua-modbus-cli — Modbus-TCP
Driver.AbCip.Cli.md otopcua-abcip-cli — ControlLogix / CompactLogix / Micro800 / GuardLogix
Driver.AbLegacy.Cli.md otopcua-ablegacy-cli — SLC / MicroLogix / PLC-5 (PCCC)
Driver.S7.Cli.md otopcua-s7-cli — Siemens S7-300 / S7-400 / S7-1200 / S7-1500
Driver.TwinCAT.Cli.md otopcua-twincat-cli — Beckhoff TwinCAT 2/3 ADS
Driver.FOCAS.Cli.md otopcua-focas-cli — Fanuc FOCAS/2 CNC

Requirements

Doc Covers
reqs/HighLevelReqs.md HLRs — numbered system-level requirements
reqs/OpcUaServerReqs.md OPC UA server-layer reqs
v1/reqs/ServiceHostReqs.md Per-process hosting reqs (v1 archive — only OtOpcUa server hosting remains in scope post-PR-7.2)
reqs/ClientRequirements.md Client CLI + UI reqs
v1/reqs/GalaxyRepositoryReqs.md Galaxy-scoped repository reqs (v1 archive — owned by mxaccessgw today)
v1/reqs/MxAccessClientReqs.md Galaxy-scoped MXAccess reqs (v1 archive — owned by mxaccessgw today)
reqs/StatusDashboardReqs.md Pointer — superseded by Admin UI

Implementation history (docs/v2/)

Design decisions + phase plans + execution notes. Load-bearing cross-references from the top-level docs:

v1 archive

The v1 in-process MXAccess architecture (Galaxy.Host + Galaxy.Proxy + Galaxy.Shared, .NET 4.8 x86 COM, the OtOpcUaGalaxyHost Windows service) was retired in PR 7.2 (2026-04-30, commit ae7106d). Docs that described that shape are kept under v1/ as historical record — see v1/README.md for the index.