How to Integrate OPC UA Data with Ignition SCADA and SQL

How to Integrate OPC UA Data with Ignition SCADA and SQL

Ignition by Inductive Automation is a widely used SCADA platform with its own OPC UA client and built-in historian and database logging capabilities. OPC Expert and Ignition are not competing layers in the same stack; they can coexist and each handle different responsibilities. OPC Expert is most useful alongside Ignition in scenarios where you need to archive OPC data to an external SQL database independently of Ignition’s historian module, where you need to connect to OPC servers that are not natively supported by Ignition’s OPC UA client, or where you need to add store-and-forward and tunneling capabilities that Ignition does not provide out of the box.

Where OPC Expert Adds Value in an Ignition Environment

Ignition’s built-in Tag Historian can log OPC tag values to SQL databases including MySQL and Microsoft SQL. However, Ignition’s historian logging requires the Ignition server to maintain a live connection to both the OPC server and the SQL database. If the SQL database becomes temporarily unavailable, some versions and configurations of Ignition may lose data during the outage. OPC Expert’s store-and-forward architecture provides a complementary layer: OPC Expert archives the same OPC data independently, using its own local buffer and forward mechanism, so the SQL archive remains complete even if the Ignition historian misses records during a connectivity gap.

Archiving OPC UA Data to SQL Outside of Ignition

If the requirement is specifically to archive OPC UA data to SQL without using Ignition’s historian module, OPC Expert handles this directly. You connect OPC Expert to the same OPC UA server that Ignition is reading from, configure an archive pointing to your SQL database, and OPC Expert begins writing records. This approach is useful when the SQL database is managed by an IT team that wants data delivered in a specific schema without relying on Ignition’s database module configuration, or when the archiving function needs to run on a different machine from the Ignition server for redundancy or network topology reasons.

Using OPC Expert for OPC DA and Legacy Server Integration

One scenario where OPC Expert is particularly complementary to Ignition is legacy OPC DA server integration. Ignition’s native OPC client is OPC UA-focused, and connecting to older OPC DA servers through Ignition typically requires Ignition’s Kepware or similar OPC-COM module. OPC Expert connects directly to OPC DA servers, archives their data to SQL, and can also convert OPC DA data to OPC UA for consumption by other clients including Ignition’s OPC UA client. This protocol bridging function allows Ignition to read legacy OPC DA data through OPC Expert’s OPC UA server interface without requiring separate third-party OPC-COM licensing.

Accessing Archived Data from Ignition

Data archived by OPC Expert to SQL is accessible to Ignition through Ignition’s standard database query capabilities. Ignition can execute SQL queries against external databases and display the results in reports, dashboards, or historical charts. This means OPC Expert’s archive can serve as a secondary or backup data source for Ignition’s reporting layer, with the Ignition designer pulling historical records from the OPC Expert SQL archive in addition to or instead of Ignition’s own historian tables.

Relevant Tools

Archive OPC Data from OPC Expert archives OPC UA and OPC DA data to SQL databases that Ignition can query as external data sources. OPC Bridge from OPC Expert handles the protocol conversion between OPC DA and OPC UA, enabling Ignition’s OPC UA client to read data from legacy OPC DA servers through OPC Expert’s built-in OPC UA server. OPC Tunneler from OPC Expert replaces DCOM for OPC DA communication, which is useful in Ignition environments where DCOM configuration on remote servers is restricted.

Conclusion

OPC Expert and Ignition SCADA serve complementary roles in an OPC UA and SQL integration architecture. Ignition handles SCADA visualization and real-time control while OPC Expert provides independent archiving with store-and-forward protection, legacy OPC DA support, and protocol conversion capabilities that extend what Ignition can access. The SQL archive that OPC Expert maintains is immediately queryable by Ignition’s reporting layer, making the two tools a practical combination for facilities that need both a SCADA platform and a robust, independent data archiving layer.