Quickstart

Installation and Configuration Guide

UaGateway – Runtime Software

Document Revision 1.0.0

Content
Requirements........................................................................................................................2
Setup.....................................................................................................................................2
Installation Procedure ...........................................................................................................2
Starting UaGateway ..............................................................................................................3
Configuring UaGateway ........................................................................................................4
Licensing UaGateway ...........................................................................................................4
Administrating UaGateway....................................................................................................5
Migrate to UA with UaGateway .............................................................................................7
Integrate UA with UaGateway...............................................................................................8
Tunneling with UaGateway ...................................................................................................9
Bridging Firewall with UaGateway.......................................................................................10
Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................................11

Full Online Reference Documentation:

https://documentation.unified-automation.com/runtime.html

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Requirements
The UaGateway is a 32bit NT-Service and hence requires Windows operating system
either 32bit or 64bit (WOW64) and requires minimum 70MByte of free disk space.

1. Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10

2. min. 70MByte disk space

Setup
To install the UaGateway the following steps must be followed.

1. Download/copy the setup program on the target PC

2. Execute setup program and follow the instructions (must have local admin rights)
3. If any, previous installations of UaGateway will be uninstalled automatically (must
stop running instance, will loose previous configuration)
4. First start administration wizard will be executed directly from the setup procedure
(must assign user credentials for service log on)

Installation Procedure
The following step-by-step instruction must be followed when installing the UaGateway on
the target PC.

Note: Installing into virtual machine may be possible, but is not tested and hence not
recommended.

1. Execute setup program will install UaGateway

2. Administration Dialog will be executed directly from the setup procedure, first start
preparation wizard:

 assign user/pwd credentials for service log on (launching user)

 wizard automatically creates two local user groups on the PC and adds
launching user for ACL usage for UaGateway (is classic OPC Server).
Second user group is used for authentication of UA security configuration.
 wizard automatically creates initial OPC UA application instance certificates
for UaGateway (is UA Server)
 wizard automatically creates initial OPC UA application instance certificates
for Configuration Tool (is UA Client)

3. Close Administration Dialog

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Starting UaGateway
The UaGateway initial administration was done by executing the wizard directly executed
by Installation procedure. The UaGateway must be started (service running) in order to
configure the connections to underlying OPC servers.

1. Start UaGateway service: start menuUnified AutomationUaGatewayStart

or use systray icon in taskbar, right mouse click on UA icon, Start.

UaGateway will be configured at runtime via OPC UA connection. This can be done
locally or remotely, however the UaGateway must run.

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Configuring UaGateway
The UaGateway can be configured to connect to underlying OPC Servers (either classic
OPC or OPC UA or both).

2. Start Configuration Tool: start menuUnified

AutomationUaGatewayUaGateway Configuration
or use systray icon in taskbar, right mouse click on UA icon, Configure UaGateway

Licensing UaGateway
The UaGateway is license per each individual installation. After installation and testing of
the desired functionality the “Runtime License (single installation)” must be requested. The
UaGateway has different feature set that can be licensed individually.

1. Start the Product Activation Dialog and fill out the fields.
2. Export the license request file and send to activate@unified-automation.com
3. Individual license key file (not transferable) will be generated and sent back
4. Import the license key
5. Restart the UaGateway service

UaGateway has (currently 4) different features, which you can combine by licensing
individually:

 Data Access Base feature (read/write/browse/monitor)  always required

 Alarms & Events AddOn feature (pass through events of underlying connections)

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  Historical Access AddOn feature (pass through raw history of underlying
connections)
 TagFile&Cache AddOn feature (create/map own address space onto underlying
tags)

Note: Runtime License (single installation) can not be transferred, it will bind to the
computer name, hence do not change hostname after licensing (can change hardware, but
not name)

Administrating UaGateway
Besides the Configuration (of underlying connections) the UaGateway comes with an
Administration Dialog that is used for administration tasks that take effect globally on the
UaGateway (independent of the underlying connections). The administration is modifying
the UaGateway’s UA Server side endpoints and available security profiles. Furthermore the
administration modifies attribute/property mappings and general behavior of UaGateway.

Typically all default setting will be fine to create running UaGateway, no changes required.
Changing administrative settings will require restart of the UaGateway to take effect.

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Note: Strongly recommended to change after initial installation: must switch OFF the
“None” security mode after successful commissioning.

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Migrate to UA with UaGateway
When having (legacy) classic COM based OPC Servers and want to migrate those to OPC
UA, you can make them accessible via OPC UA by using UaGateway.

PC-1

UA Client
(e.g. UaExpert)

remote UA

PC-2

local COM

classic HDA Server

classic A&E Server
classic DA Server

Note: use classic OPC connections local only (avoid DCOM).

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Integrate UA with UaGateway
When having (legacy) classic COM based OPC Client (e.g. legacy HMI/SCADA) and want
to integrate modern UA Servers, you can “convert” back and integrates the data of
underlying UA Servers into the UaGateway’s build-in DA Server and access with you
legacy DA Client (“UnifiedAutomation.UaGateway.1”)

PC-1
classic DA Client

local COM

remote UA

PC-2

UA Server UA Server UA Server

(e.g. DCS) (e.g. PLC) (e.g. Robot)

Note: use classic OPC connections local only (avoid DCOM).

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Tunneling with UaGateway
When having two PC and two UaGateway installations, the UaGateway can be used to
“tunnel” a classic OPC over the network.

PC-1 classic DA Client

local COM

remote UA

PC-2

local COM

classic DA Server

Note: use classic OPC only locally (avoid DCOM). Make sure to NOT create any loop
connections.

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Bridging Firewall with UaGateway
When having two separated networks and subnet (DMZ) is protected by Firewall,
UaGateway can be used to “Reverse Connect” (outgoing) to bridge the networks without
opening inbound ports in firewall.

PC-1 (IT office network)

single point of access to all data in subnet

The Reverse Connect is an UA feature that allows an UA

Firewall Server to actively establish a connection to an UA Client.

PC-2 (in DMZ)

Reverse Connect

UA Server UA Server UA Server

(e.g. PLC) (e.g. Robot) (e.g. Vision)

Note: Your third party UA clients and your third party UA servers (and classic OPC Servers)
must NOT support “Reverse Connect”, when bridging through two UaGatways.

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Troubleshooting
Can’t browse / see any tags inside UaGateway’s address space?

If you can see the entry folder of underlying connection in UaGateway’s address space, but
is empty, most likely the connection to the underlying OPC Server (the data source) could
not be established (either disconnected or trying reconnect). Check if underlying server is
running. If not available UaGateway will enter a “try reconnect loop” for this particular
connection.

Do not create looping connections?

When configuring UaGateway you must make sure to not create connection to yourself.
Such connections make no sense and will create unpredictable errors.

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