Agent specific vs. global types

The OPC UA server comes with a predefined set of enumeration, event and sample types. These sets are called the global data types. Global means that these data types are valid for all agents. The global data types are all the types which are specified in the MTConnect Standard. The global data types can be modified or extended by the user if e.g. a new release of the MTConnect Standard redefines existing or extent new data types.

To keep the server configuration consistent with existing OPC Client configurations we strongly recommend not to change or delete any global data types but only add new types!

A lot of MTConnect agents extend the standard data types by their own data types. Either they use additional sub types of a standard type or they define new types and sub types for specific sample or event items. This OPC UA server offers the possibility to deal with such agent-specific data types. Beside to the global data types, the server can manage agent-specific data types. Every single agent can be configured with its own set of specific data types. A agent-specific data type even can override a global data type, means the agent re-defines a global data type with the same name but with a different data type.

The following picture shows where the global and agent-specific data types can be found in the MTConnect configuration tree:

Global vs. agent specific types