Connect Your First Machine

Install a sample service that connects to a simulated OPC UA machine and watch live data arrive in Connectware.

See Connectware in action: you install a service from a sample service commissioning file, Connectware connects to a public OPC UA demo server that simulates a machine, and the incoming data appears in the Data Explorer. At the end, you have completed the full Connectware workflow once: from YAML configuration to live data on an MQTT topic.

You do not need any machine or hardware. The sample service connects to a publicly available OPC UA test server that publishes simulated data.

Prerequisites

• A running Connectware installation. See Installing Connectware.

• A user account that is allowed to install services. The default admin user is sufficient.

• Outbound Internet access from Connectware to the demo server opcua.demo-this.com on port 51210.

Step 1 — Download the Sample Service Commissioning File

Download the sample service commissioning file:

connect-your-first-machine.yaml

1KB

Open

The file defines the resources that make up the data pipeline:

• A Cybus::Connection to the demo OPC UA server.

• A Cybus::Endpoint that subscribes to a node publishing simulated values.

• A Cybus::Mapping that publishes those values to the MQTT topic example/opcua/dataexample.

For a walkthrough of each section in a service commissioning file, see How Connectware Works.

Step 2 — Log in to the Admin UI

1. Open your browser and enter the address of your Connectware instance (https://<HOST-IP>).

2. Enter your username and password and click Sign in.

Step 3 — Install the Service

1. On the navigation panel, click Services.

2. Click Upload Service.

3. Click Choose File and select the connect-your-first-machine.yaml file.

4. Click Install to confirm the parameters and start the installation. You can keep the default parameter values.

The service is now installed but not yet enabled.

Step 4 — Enable the Service

1. In the Service Overview list, click your service to open the Service Details view.

2. Click Enable.

3. In the Authorization Required dialog, click Allow to confirm the configuration changes.

Connectware now creates the connection, endpoint, and mapping, and data starts to flow.

Step 5 — Watch the Data Arrive

Data flows through Connectware as MQTT messages organized into topics. The Data Explorer lets you monitor them live.

1. On the navigation panel, click Data.

2. In the Available Topics tree, select the example/opcua/dataexample topic.

The Data Explorer shows the simulated values arriving from the demo server every few seconds.

Result

You installed, enabled, and verified a complete Connectware service. Every resource — the connection, the endpoint, and the mapping — was created from a single service commissioning file, and the machine data is available to any MQTT consumer through the Unified Namespace.

To remove the sample service, open its Service Details view, click Disable, and then delete the service. All resources are cleanly removed.

Next Steps

• Connect a real device with the other Machine Connectivity guides or browse the connectors for your protocols.

• Build your own service using the service commissioning file reference.

• Route and transform your data with the Rule Engine.