Geo Scada OPC DA client

[Fernando84]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to read variables using Geo SCADA as a client to an OPC DA server, but I can't even establish a connection. I've tried all the available OPCs in Geo SCADA—OPC Simple, OPC Advanced, OPC XLM-DA, but none of them detect the server. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[AdamWoodlandToo]

Is the OPC server on the same machine as Geo SCADA or remote?

If remote, are you using a tunnel or directly connecting to the remote IP?

If local, can third party OPC clients connect?

What errors do you get?

[BevanWeiss]

There's no point trying to use OPC XML-DA if your server is only OPC-DA.  OPC XML-DA is an entirely different 'protocol' than OPC-DA...

Your issue is almost certainly going to be DCOM security related.  Especially if you're using an up to date operating system on the OPC-DA Server end.

If you can change your OPC-DA server over for OPC-UA things will be so very much easier.

Likewise if you can change your OPC-DA server over for OPC XML-DA.. both of these avoid DCOM, and you do really want to avoid DCOM.

If you're really stuck with OPC-DA, then you're going to want to start looking up on DCOM, and DCOM security.

To browse for the remote OPC-DA server, you will need to allow for remote start and access to OpcEnum on the remote machine.  If both OPC-DA server and client are on the same domain, then you can use domain authentication, and configure the DCOM authorization based on this.  If they're not... then things start to get much sketchier... sometimes it works if you create a local user on the OPC-DA server, give that permissions for OpcEnum and the server that you need to expose, and then make sure that the OPC-DA client passes through a username/password for authentication.

Often I just end up opening up OpcEnum to anonymous users.. which is terrible from a security perspective.

Really really really try to get OPC-UA instead.  It's really so much easier.

Ohh.. or you can try either KepWare / Matrikon OPC Tunnellers

https://www.opcturkey.com/uploads/kepserverex-opc-tunnel.pdf

https://www.matrikonopc.com/opc-ua/products/opc-ua-tunneller.aspx

[Fernando84]

Hi Adam, about your questions:

1. the server is remote

2. I'm connecting directly by IP addressing

3. I tested a local connection using a third party opc client and it worked good.

[Fernando84]

Hi Bevan, thank you for your answer, but unfortunately I'm stuck with OPC DA server.  I'll check the information in the links you sent me.

[AdamWoodlandToo]

Then what Bevan says about DCOM is likely your hurdle and has been since WinXP SP2... follow his suggestions and see what you can get sorted

Side note, if the remote server is also ClearSCADA/Geo SCADA, configuring ViewX also sets up a tunnel bypassing the headache of DCOM. If you configure ViewX at the client machine to connect to the remote server (hide it from ViewX if you want) and then point your OPC client to 127.0.0.1