Does Azure IoT Operations Support OPC UA over MQTT?

Question

Hello,

I am trying to understand whether Azure IoT Operations introduces OPC UA over MQTT functionality.

Based on my understanding, data is first generated from assets and sent to an OPC UA server. Then, this data is published to the built-in MQTT broker in Azure IoT Operations on the edge. Other systems can then subscribe to the MQTT broker topics using the data flow.

Would this be considered an implementation of OPC UA over MQTT? Or is there another mechanism at play here?

I’d appreciate any insights or clarifications on this. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Hello MohdFhG,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Your understanding on the setup is a practical and effective way to integrate OPC UA data with MQTT-based systems, but it’s not a native implementation of OPC UA over MQTT. Instead, it’s a bridge that enables communication between the two protocols. If you need true OPC UA over MQTT, you will need to look for solutions or configurations that specifically support this standard.

let's clarify the specifics of how Azure IoT Operations handles OPC UA and MQTT.

Data Generation and OPC UA Server:

• Data is generated by industrial assets (e.g., sensors, machines) and sent to an OPC UA server. OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a widely used industrial communication protocol for data exchange.

Azure IoT Edge and MQTT Broker:

• Azure IoT Operations (or Azure IoT Edge) can be configured to connect to the OPC UA server. The OPC UA server's data is then published to an MQTT broker running on the edge device. MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight messaging protocol ideal for constrained environments.

Data Flow:

• The MQTT broker on the edge device allows other systems or applications to subscribe to specific topics. These topics correspond to the data streams from the OPC UA server. Subscribers can receive real-time updates from the assets via MQTT.

In your case, the data from the OPC UA server is being republished by an MQTT broker. This is more accurately described as a bridge or gateway between OPC UA and MQTT rather than a native implementation of OPC UA over MQTT. The OPC UA data is being translated or converted into MQTT messages, but it’s not necessarily using the OPC UA over MQTT specification.

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Answer 2

Hello MohdFhG,

welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

In addition to @Suwarna S Kale excellent answer, let me show a few real-world examples of supporting OPC-UA.

For a real-world example of OPC-UA support by Azure IoT Operations, check out this blog post.

As an alternative to Azure IoT Operations, Azure IoT Edge has a more lightweight approach.

Microsoft provides a generic OPC-UA client solution named OPCPublisher on top of Azure IoT Edge for reading telemetry.

Dashboarding could be offered using the Azure Data Explorer (check out this almost free solution) or Microsoft Fabric.

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