OPC UA monitoring with PRTG
Enhance operational efficiency of your converged IT/OT networks
- Keep track of the health & availability of your OPC UA servers and clients
- Identify errors at an early stage during the manufacturing process
- Forward PRTG alerts to your OPC UA systems like SCADA or MES
Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG
PRTG OPC UA monitoring: What you’ll find on this page
PRTG makes OPC UA server monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualization make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent OT network issues.
4 reasons why to choose PRTG as your OPC UA monitoring tool
As information technology and operational technology become more and more converged, monitoring your infrastructure not only with classic IT protocols like SNMP, but also with industrial standards like OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) is becoming more important than ever. Paessler PRTG is your all-in-one network monitoring solution that comes with support for Modbus TCP, MQTT, and OPC UA out of the box – for a combined overview of your IT & OT networks.
Monitor converged IT/OT networks
Monitoring classic IT infrastructures and OT networks together does not have to be complicated. With PRTG’s preconfigured OPC UA sensors, you can monitor your OT devices without much configuration effort.
PRTG’s user-friendly web interface helps you to easily add devices, define notification triggers, and set up your monitoring environment the way you need.
View from a central dashboard
Do away with checking IT and IIoT devices with multiple tools and on multiple dashboards. With OPC UA integration in PRTG, you get a combined overview of your classic IT and OPC UA devices – all in one place.
What’s more: The PRTG Map Editor functionality lets you easily create custom dashboards using drag and drop so that you have the status of all your critical devices and applications at a glance.
Receive custom alerts & notifications
Set individual warning and error thresholds and let our network monitoring tool do the work for you. With PRTG’s real-time alerts and customizable notification templates, you’re always notified in time.
Use OPC UA notifications, for example, to forward PRTG alerts by writing them to a predefined OPC UA tag on an OPC UA server like SCADA, DCS, or any other system that provides OPC UA server capability.
Implement predictive maintenance
When monitoring OT components, one of the most important goals is predictive maintenance. Prevent malfunctions and failures to avoid that production lines stop and high costs are incurred.
OPC UA monitoring with PRTG reliably informs you about the state of the various components of your production line, helps you with implementing a proactive approach to troubleshooting.
What OPC UA monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose network issues by continuously monitoring your entire IT and OT infrastructure. Show hardware status, uptime, session and subscription numbers, CPU usage, and more in real time and visualize data in graphic maps & dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot your OPC UA components and connections proactively.
Device tree view of the complete monitoring setup
Preconfigured OPC UA Server Status sensor in PRTG
Custom PRTG dashboard for monitoring an industrial cabinet
Start monitoring using OPC UA with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
“All-around winning “The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers” “PRTG Network MonitorIT experts agree: Paessler PRTG is a great solution for IT infrastructure monitoring
network monitor”
is very hard to beat”
How OPC UA monitoring with PRTG works
PRTG comes with more than 250 preconfigured sensor types out of the box for monitoring your IT, OT, and IoT infrastructures on all levels – from hardware to applications, from on-prem installations to cloud and virtual environments. For OPC UA monitoring, there are several native sensors that allow you to monitor everything that communicates via OPC UA.
OPC UA Server Status
The OPC UA Server Status sensor monitors status, uptime, and diagnostic information of your OPC UA server. It can show the following:
- Number of (security-)rejected requests and sessions
- Number of sessions and subscriptions
- Number of session aborts and timeouts
- Server status
- Uptime
OPC UA Custom
The OPC UA Custom sensor monitors up to five numeric values returned by specific OPC UA node IDs. As it is a custom sensor, it can show all kinds of different metrics, for example:
- PLC status
- Battery lifetime
- System-specific error states
- Fan speed
- CPU usage and available memory
- Number of server messages
OPC UA Certificate
The OPC UA Certificate sensor monitors the certificate of an OPC UA server and helps you to ensure a secure and consistent communication between the machines on your shop floor. It can show the following:
- Number of days to expiration
- Public key length
- If a self-signed certificate is used
Beckhoff IPC System Health
The Beckhoff IPC System Health sensor monitors the system health of a Beckhoff Industrial PC via OPC UA. IT can show the following:
- Available memory
- CPU load
- CPU and mainboard temperature
- RAID controller status
Easily find the source of the problem with our PRTG OPC UA monitoring solution
Real-time alerts and custom notifications make it easy to solve issues with the health and availability of your OPC UA servers and clients.
PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems
Discover our new product extension
Paessler PRTG OPC UA Server
Do you want to have a full overview of your OT environment in your supervisory and control systems – including traditional IT network components like routers, switches, firewalls, and more?
PRTG OPC UA Server consolidates monitoring data from your OT network and the IIoT in your control system. View all your data in one place for centralized monitoring and alarms.
Your OPC UA monitor at a glance – even on the go
Set up PRTG in minutes and use it on almost any mobile device.
Get your free white papers
White paper I
In modern industrial IT, the right teams need the right data. Our guide shows how to implement holistic monitoring that brings elements from IT, OT and IIoT into your dashboards.
White paper II
Our second guide gives you inspiration and ideas for dashboards that feature IT, OT and IIoT data – all in one place. We show you what truly convergent industrial dashboards look like!
“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”
Infrastructure and Operations Engineer in the Communications Industry, firm size 10B - 30B USD
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With ScriptRunner, Paessler integrates a powerful event automation platform into PRTG Network Monitor.
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PRTG makes OPC UA server monitoring easy
Custom alerts and data visualization make it easy to monitor, identify, and prevent OT network issues.
Monitor OPC UA: FAQ
What is OPC UA?
OPC UA (short for Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a data exchange standard for industrial communication (machine-to-machine or PC-to-machine communication). It is a platform-independent communication framework that runs on any software platform like Windows, Linux, macOS, or Android.
The open interface standard is also independent from the manufacturer or system supplier of the application or the programming language in which the respective software was programmed. Security is baked into the protocol for access control, authentication, and encryption.
Because of its flexibility, OPC UA has been widely adopted in industries like automotive, food and beverage, oil and gas, energy and utilities, packaging, and building automation.
How does OPC UA work?
OPC UA enables access to machines, devices, and other endpoints. Its architecture is designed as follows:
- OPC UA server: The OPC server is the basis of OPC communication. It is a software program that implements the OPC standard and thus provides the standardized OPC UA interfaces to the outside world. The proprietary communication protocol for the manufacturer's control is implemented inside. OPC UA servers are provided by various parties.
- OPC UA client: The OPC UA client is the logical counterpart to the OPC UA server. The OPC UA client can be connected to the OPC UA server and read out the data provided by the server. Since the OPC UA servers implement the specified interfaces of the OPC UA standard, each client can access any OPC UA server and exchange data with the server in the same way.
What is OPC UA monitoring?
OPC UA monitoring refers to the process of observing, tracking, and analyzing data and events within an OPC UA-enabled system. OPC UA is a machine-to-machine communication protocol for industrial automation, providing interoperability and secure data exchange between devices and systems from different manufacturers.
Monitoring using OPC UA usually involves collecting real-time data from various devices and systems within an industrial environment, detecting specific events or changes in the state of devices, and analyzing collected data to gain insights into the performance and health of the equipment and processes.
Does PRTG support other industrial protocols?
Paessler PRTG is a comprehensive monitoring tool that supports a wide range of industrial standards and protocols to monitor various aspects of industrial IT infrastructure, including:
- Modbus TCP
- MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Protocol)
- IPMI and Redfish
It also comes with preconfigured sensor types for manufacturers such as Rittal or Beckhoff.
What is OPC UA monitoring with PRTG versus PRTG OPC UA Server?
With PRTG, you can monitor the status and health of every system that supports OPC UA.
To bring PRTG alarms and metrics directly into a control and supervisory system like SCADA, you need our product extension Paessler PRTG OPC UA Server.
What is a sensor in PRTG?
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.
On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
PRTG: The multi-tool for sysadmins
Adapt PRTG individually and dynamically to your needs and rely on a strong API:- HTTP API: Access monitoring data and manipulate monitoring objects via HTTP requests
- Custom sensors: Create your own PRTG sensors for customized monitoring
- Custom notifications: Create your own notifications and send action triggers to external systems
- REST Custom sensor: Monitor almost everything that provides data in XML or JSON format
Paessler conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. We asked: would you recommend PRTG?
Over 95% of our customers say yes!
The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier. Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network. Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.Still not convinced?
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Start monitoring using OPC UA with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.
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PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.4.102.1351 (November 12th, 2024) |
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Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |
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