Basic Components of Connectware

Service Commissioning Files

The resources needed to connect machines to Connectware are provided by text-based YAML files, so called service commissioning files.

Services

While the Connectware gives interfaces for individually performing all actions (like managing users, setting permissions, starting containerized applications, etc.) the idea of services is to bundle all this activities into a single point of configuration and execution. This means that when a service is enabled it will perform a set of operations on the Connectware and when disabled these operations will be removed.

Examples of use cases for services

Preprocessing

Think of a simple machine that produces a metal part. Whether a metal part is being made at any one point of time may not be the important but the average amount being made over a given time period may be useful for knowing if the machine is underperforming. We can accomplish this by connecting the machine to the Connectware, and then deploying a service along side that takes the raw data from the data broker, calculates the average over a given period of time, then uploads the result to the data broker for some other application to consume. This type of application is classified as a preprocessor as it allows us to perform some operation on the data before it is consumed elsewhere.

Device Controller

Think of a machine that drills holes in a piece of material. When the machine is drilling we want to set a lamp to be green, when the machine is between drilling we want to set a lamp to be yellow and when the machine is powered off we want the light to be red. We can connect both the machine and the lamp to the Connectware, then read the status of the machine from the data broker into a service. This service can perform a check on the status and then write out to the data broker on a topic that controls the light to change colors. This type of application is classified as a Device controller as we are using input data to write to a device connected to the Connectware.

Data Visualization

Think of an assembly line that outputs new products ready to be shipped. We can connect the sensors of the assembly to the Connectware and build a service that provides a web dashboard which outputs different graphs for the average output, speed, temperature and power used throughout the day. Administrators can then sign in to the Connectware and view this dashboard to see the status of the assembly line. This type of application is classified as a Data Visualization as it takes data from the Connectware and provides visualizations to allow easier consumption of important data.

And Much More...

These are only a few examples of the types of services that Cybus Connectware can deploy. Connectware is built on top of Docker, so as long as your application can be containerized it can be deployed on the Connectware.

Resources

Resources define what a service needs to establish a connection. All resources such as connections, endpoints, users, permissions, and containerized applications are configured here.

Connections & Endpoints

A resource that manages the connection to a third-party system. A resource that uses a connection to address data sources and data sinks.

Mappings

The data collected by our OPC UA endpoints should be available to our service on the MQTT data interface provided by the Connectware MQTT Broker. So we create a mapping from the OPC UA endpoints to the desired MQTT topics. The mqttMapping subscribes to the endpoints we created previously and which we refer to by name utilizing the !ref operator followed by the resource’s name. The mapping then publishes the data to the specified topic.

Volumes

A volume is a resource that represents a storage space and can be associated with containers. We want to utilize two containers, which will need additional storage space, so we create a volume for each of them.

Containers

The containers section comprises the Docker Containers the service will run. These containers can either come from the Official Docker Registry or from the Cybus Registry. That means any application that is deployed on Connectware can take full advantage of all the containerized software on Docker Hub and your custom containerized software delivered securely through the Cybus Registry.

Agents

Agents are additional components of Connectware that can be deployed and started individually, usually somewhere outside of the central Connectware installation. Agents are additional components of Connectware that can be deployed and started individually, usually somewhere outside of the central Connectware installation.

MQTT

MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) is an ISO standard publish-subscribe messaging protocol that is becoming the de facto standard protocol for accessing IoT data from the Internet.