Field Information Manager supporting ABB Ability™ through OPC UA

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Field Information Manager contains an OPC UA server that is supporting ABB Ability™ and ABB Ability™ Edgenius. Please get in contact with your local ABB service partner for more information.

Note:
Other OPC UA clients are supported if the corresponding licensed feature is activated.

Note:
Pub/Sub can be enabled in Tools Menu - OPTIONS - OPC UA SERVER SETTINGS if the corresponding licensed feature is activated.
The MQTT Server Address can also be configured in this view while more specific settings are located in the following file:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ABB\Field Information Manager\ABB Field Information Manager Server\Publisher\appsettings.json"

Setup of Connection to OPC UA Server

Field Information Manager 3.0:

The OPC UA server of Field Information Manager is a standard server which becomes active after importing a suitable license.

Certificates between client and server have to be exchanged in order to establish a trustworthy connection:
  • The server certificate of Field Information Manager can be exported via Tools Menu - OPTIONS - CLIENT/SERVER SETTINGS - OWN CERTIFICATE.
    It must be installed at the OPC UA client machine according to the requirements of the used client software.
  • The client certificate must be added as a trusted certificate via Tools Menu - OPTIONS - CLIENT/SERVER SETTINGS - TRUSTED CERTIFICATES.

A connection can be built up by using the IP address of the Field Information Manager node and the port number (default: 48030). All connected OPC UA clients are displayed in Tools Menu - OPTIONS - CLIENT/SERVER SETTINGS - CONNECTIONS.

Note:
The security policy can be defined in Tools Menu - OPTIONS - OPC UA SERVER SETTINGS and defines the level of security applied to the communication between the tool and connected OPC UA clients. Please note that the selected setting must match with used OPC UA clients.

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Field Information Manager 2.5 or older:

The OPC UA server of Field Information Manager is a standard server which becomes active after importing a suitable license.

Certificates between client and server have to be exchanged in order to establish a trustworthy connection:
  • The server certificate of Field Information Manager is found in the following directory:
    "C:\ProgramData\ABB\Field Information Manager\CertificateStores\certs". 
    It must be installed at the OPC-UA client machine according to the requirements of the used client software.
  • The client certificate must be installed to the store "ABB.FIM.TrustedPeople" using
    standard Windows mechanisms.

A connection can be built up by using the IP address of the Field Information Manager node and the port number (default: 48030).

Features of OPC UA Server

The OPC UA server allows subscriptions to device data, e.g. parameter values.

The tool starts uploads of corresponding data right after subscribing by the client. The communication load and upload statistics can be monitored via Tools Menu - PROJECTS - PROCESS COCKPIT.

Used Namespaces and assigned Common Names are also available via OPC-UA and allow subscriptions with a generic access model for the different devices.

Pub/Sub

Pub/Sub is a standard of the OPC UA specification for publishing and subscribing data in an efficient way.

The Field Information Manager Server acts as the publisher and provides access to the published data on a defined address.
Pub/Sub has to be enabled and configured before usage:

  1. Ensure that the corresponding licensed feature is activated.
  2. Enable Pub/Sub in Tools Menu - OPTIONS - OPC UA SERVER SETTINGS and configure the MQTT Server Address.
  3. Enable Namespaces to publish in Tools Menu - OPTIONS - NAMESPACES AND COMMON NAMES.

Note:
The Namespace "PA-DIM" is disabled because it is too large with the complete set of defined Common Names for efficient publishing with Pub/Sub.
Recommendation is to export the Namespace "PA-DIM" and reduce the number of Common Names to create a user-defined Namespace (e.g. "PA-DIM Custom") with a subset for the required parameters. This can be imported and mapped to the corresponding parameters. Within the options menu, the new Namespace can be enabled for Pub/Sub. Publishing will be more efficiently and the reduced number of
Common Names helps to reach the required performance.

More specific settings for secure Pub/Sub using a TLS connection between publisher and MQTT Broker are available in the following file:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ABB\Field Information Manager\ABB Field Information Manager
Server\Publisher\appsettings.json"

Secure PubSub Settings

Setup Instructions - UA Expert

Field Information Manager 3.0 or later:

The OPC UA server in Field Information Manager becomes active after importing a suitable license which exists in two versions:

  • License option for ABB Ability™ and ABB Ability™ Edgenius.
  • License option for any OPC UA Client.


The setup of a connection between client and server is illustrated with the free OPC UA client "UA Expert" from Unified Automation:

  1. Within the UA Expert, please select the top menu option "Settings" and then "Manage Certificates".
  2. Click "Copy Application Certificate To..." and save the UA Expert application certificate to a specified file location.
  3. Please close the settings dialog.
  4. Start the Field Information Manager Client, navigate to Tools Menu - OPTIONS - CLIENT/SERVER SETTINGS - TRUSTED CERTIFICATES. Click the "Add certificate" button, specify a name (e.g. of the OPC UA client) and browse for the previously exported UA Expert certificate. Click the ADD button and the UA Expert certificate is listed as trusted.
  5. Within the UA Expert, please select the top menu option "Add server" and select the tab "Advanced".
  6. Configure the Field Information Manager OPC UA server connection with these properties:
    1. Endpoint URL: "opc.tcp://localhost:48030"
      (or the IP address of the Field Information Manager node instead of "localhost")
    2. Security Policy: "Basic256Sha256"
    3. Message Security Mode: "Sign & Encrypt"
    4. Authentication Settings: "Anonymous"
  7. Click OK and accept any upcoming dialogs.
  8. Find the configured FIM as a new server entry, open the context menu with right mouse click and select "Connect".
  9. UA Expert brings up a certificate validation dialog because the certificate of Field Information Manager is not trusted yet.
    Please select "Trust Server Certificate" and continue with connecting process.
  10. UA Expert browses the complete OPC UA information model and allows access to the published data, e.g. subscribed parameter values.


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Field Information Manager 2.5 or older:

The OPC UA server in Field Information Manager becomes active after importing a suitable license which exists in two versions:

  • License option for ABB Ability™ and ABB Ability™ Edgenius.
  • License option for any OPC UA Client.

The setup of a connection between client and server is illustrated with the free OPC UA client "UA Expert" from Unified Automation:
  1. Within the UA Expert, please select the top menu option "Settings" and then "Manage Certificates".
  2. Within the list of trusted certificates, please doubleclick the UaExpert certificate (listed as "Own Certificate").
    Install it to the store "ABB.FIM.TrustedPeople" using standard Windows mechanisms via "Install Certificate..." > "Local Machine" > "Place all certificates in the following store" > "Browse..." > "ABB.FIM.TrustedPeople" > "OK".
  3. Please close the settings dialog.
  4. Within the UA Expert, please select the top menu option "Add server" and select the tab "Advanced".
  5. Configure the Field Information Manager server connection with these properties:
    1. Endpoint URL: "opc.tcp://localhost:48030" (or the IP address of the Field Information Manager node instead of "localhost")
    2. Security Policy: "Basic256Sha256"
    3. Message Security Mode: "Sign & Encrypt"
    4. Authentication Settings: "Anonymous"
  6. Click OK and accept any upcoming dialogs.
  7. Find the configured FIM as a new server entry, open the context menu with right mouse click and select "Connect".
  8. UA Expert brings up a certificate validation dialog because the certificate of Field Information Manager is not trusted yet.
    Please select "Trust Server Certificate" and continue with connecting process.
  9. UA Expert browses the complete OPC UA information model and allows access to the published data, e.g. subscribed parameter values.
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