barnacles-opcua is an OPC UA server of IoT data from ambient wireless sensors. reelyActive is an OPC UA logo member.
barnacles-opcua ingests a real-time stream of dynamb objects from barnacles, converting their properties into standard OPC UA format. It couples seamlessly with reelyActive's Pareto Anywhere open source IoT middleware.
barnacles-opcua is a lightweight Node.js package that can run on resource-constrained edge devices as well as on powerful cloud servers and anything in between.
A common application of barnacles-opcua is to publish IoT data from pareto-anywhere via an OPC UA server. Simply follow our Create a Pareto Anywhere startup script tutorial using the script below:
#!/usr/bin/env node
const ParetoAnywhere = require('../lib/paretoanywhere.js');
// Edit the options to customise the server
const BARNACLES_OPCUA_OPTIONS = {};
// ----- Exit gracefully if the optional dependency is not found -----
let BarnaclesOPCUA;
try {
BarnaclesOPCUA = require('barnacles-opcua');
}
catch(err) {
console.log('This script requires barnacles-opcua. Install with:');
console.log('\r\n "npm install barnacles-opcua"\r\n');
return console.log('and then run this script again.');
}
// -------------------------------------------------------------------
let pa = new ParetoAnywhere();
pa.barnacles.addInterface(BarnaclesOPCUA, BARNACLES_OPCUA_OPTIONS);barnacles-opcua currently supports the following properties:
| OPC UA browseName | OPC UA dataType | dynamb property |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | AnalogDataItem | temperature |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesX | YArrayItem | accelerationTimeSeries |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesY | YArrayItem | accelerationTimeSeries |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesZ | YArrayItem | accelerationTimeSeries |
Additional dynamb properties will be added in future. Helpful node-opcua API documentation references for adding items:
Clone this repository, then from its root folder, install dependencies with npm install. Start the OPC-UA server with the following command:
npm start
and connect an OPC-UA client (see examples below) on port 4840 and resource path /UA/ParetoAnywhere. Note that no device data will be available without a source of dynamb data, for example from Pareto Anywhere open source IoT middleware.
To validate secure communication, simply provide a certificate and private key as config files.
The following simulated devices/sensors are supported for interface testing.
To simulate a Sensor-Works BluVib industrial vibration sensor, start barnacles-opcua with the following command:
npm run sensorworks-bluvib
Simulated sensor browseName = "5e4504b1071b/3" will expose the following variables:
| OPC UA browseName | OPC UA dataType |
|---|---|
| Temperature | AnalogDataItem |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesX | YArrayItem |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesY | YArrayItem |
| AccelerationTimeSeriesZ | YArrayItem |
The opcua-commander CLI, based on the same node-opcua open source package used by barnacles-opcua, provides a simple means of browsing and monitoring the OPC-UA data.
After installing opcua-commander, open a terminal and browse to the barnacles-opcua server with the following command:
opcua-commander -e opc.tcp://localhost:4840
Use the arrow keys and the t / l / i / c / u / s / a keys to navigate through the CLI interface, and use the x key to close.
Unified Automation offers UaExpert, a full-featured Windows/Linux OPC UA client, for free download, with registration.
The /config folder accepts the following run-time configuration files:
- certificate.pem (security certificate)
- key.pem (private key)
Alternatively, these can be specified in the Options.
barnacles-opcua does not, by default, implement a secure OPC-UA server. This facilitates testing in a local sandbox environment. In any other environment, the use of an Application Instance Certificate is essential for secure operation.
When creating the security certificate, for example using OpenSSL, ensure that the following properties are included and correctly entered for compliance with the OPC UA specification.
| Property | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| subjectAltName | urn:machine:NodeOPCUA-Server | Application URI |
| commonName (CN) | Pareto Anywhere | Name of the product |
| organizationName (O) | Your organisation | Operator of server |
The Node-OPCUA server will output warnings when a certificate is present but not compliant, for example:
"The certificate subjectAltName uniformResourceIdentifier is missing."
"Please regenerate a specific certificate with a uniformResourceIdentifier that matches your server applicationUri"
"applicationUri = urn:machine:NodeOPCUA-Server"
It is up to the user to generate and validate compliant security certificates.
In a development environment, it is common for barnacles-opcua to run on the same local network as OPC UA client. A self-signed server certificate (for barnacles-opcua) and the CA certificate can be generated with OpenSSL using the following procedure:
[req]
default_bits = 2048
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
req_extensions = req_ext
x509_extensions = v3_req
prompt = no
[req_distinguished_name]
countryName = CA
stateOrProvinceName = QC
localityName = Montreal
organizationName = reelyActive
commonName = Pareto Anywhere
domainComponent = machine
[req_ext]
subjectAltName = @alt_names
keyUsage = digitalSignature, nonRepudiation, keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth, clientAuth
[v3_req]
subjectAltName = @alt_names
[alt_names]
URI.1 = urn:machine:NodeOPCUA-Server
Update the domainComponent and URI.1 fields, replacing "machine" with the network name of the machine running barnacles-opcua. Optionally update the other fields of the distinguished name to reflect the organisation/software using barnacles-opcua.
[ req ]
prompt = no
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
[ req_distinguished_name ]
C = CA
ST = QC
L = Montreal
O = reelyActive
OU = Develop
CN = Pareto Anywhere
Optionally update the fields of the distinguished name to reflect the organisation/software using barnacles-opcua.
First, generate a CA private key & certificate:
openssl req -nodes -new -x509 -keyout CA_key.pem -out CA_certificate.pem -days 1825 -config CA.cnf
Second, generate the web server's secret key & CSR:
openssl req -sha256 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out server.csr -config server.cnf
Third, create the web server's certificate, signing it with its own certificate authority:
openssl x509 -req -days 398 -in server.csr -CA CA_certificate.pem -CAkey CA_key.pem -CAcreateserial -out certificate.pem -extensions req_ext -extfile server.cnf
Configure barnacles-opcua by copying the certificate.pem and key.pem files to the /config folder, as described in the Config Files section above.
barnacles-opcua supports the following options:
| Property | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| port | 4840 | OPC UA Server port |
| certificateFile | config/certificate.pem | Path to optional certificate |
| privateKeyFile | config/key.pem | Path to optional key |
barnacles-opcua is based on the Node-OPCUA open source project, maintained by Sterfive, which we invite you to consider sponsoring at opencollective.com/node-opcua.
Discover how to contribute to this open source project which upholds a standard code of conduct.
Consult our security policy for best practices using this open source software and to report vulnerabilities.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2024 reelyActive
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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