# Access tags from OPCUA Server connection

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/access-tags-from-opcua-server-connection/10279>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [July 27, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/access-tags-from-opcua-server-connection/10279 "2015-07-27T17:04:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![clutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@clutton](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/clutton)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/access-tags-from-opcua-server-connection/10279/1 "2015-07-27T17:04:29Z")

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I am very new to the concepts of OPCUA and how machine control works so please  
bear with me.

What I am attempting to do is to integrate some custom production software  
into machine control using OPCUA. My desired effect is to allow sending  
values into various machines for setup purposes. In most cases our PLC’s  
are Allen Bradley and would connect directly to the Ignition OPCUA server as  
devices. In my testing this works just great. In at least one case though,  
we have a Beckhoff controller that has it’s own OPCUA server.

What I would like to do is connect the Ignition server directly to the  
Beckhoff OPCUA server… using the Ignition server as a proxy  
for communication so that all software I build only has to be concerned  
with connecting to Ignition for reading/writing machine tag data.

```auto
      +-------------------+
      | Custom Software |
      | OPCUA Client |
      | |
      +----------+--------+
              ^ v
      +-------+-----------+
      | |
      | Ignition Gateway |
      | |
      +----+------------+-+
         ^ v ^ v
   +-----+-----+ +----+------+
   | Beckhoff | | AB |
   | / Kepware | | Logix |
   | OPCUA | | |
   +-----------+ +-----------+
```

I have been able to connect Ignition to a Kepware server for testing and can  
browse the tags provided by Kepware using the Quick Client. Is there a way  
to make Ignition publish the Kepware tags when connecting to it as the OPCUA  
server? If so how do you browse the Kepware tags from an external client like  
UA Expert and later my custom software with OPC client functionality?

Thanks  
Cory L

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/access-tags-from-opcua-server-connection/10279/2 "2015-07-27T17:15:27Z")

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I think what you’re looking for is typically called an aggregating server in the OPC world, and that’s not a functionality Ignition’s OPC-UA server has right now.