How to Transfer Data from Kafka to Allen Bradley

Open Automation Software can be used to transfer data from a Kafka cluster to an Allen Bradley device locally or over a network. This guide walks you through downloading and installing OAS, configuring a Kafka data source, an Allen Bradley connector and one tag for each connector.

This guide uses the Data Route feature of OAS to transfer a Tag's value to another Tag's value using the Tag-to-Tag method.

For this guide on how to transfer data from a Kafka cluster to an Allen Bradley device you will need:

• Docker installed in Linux or Windows including the docker-compose utility
• An Allen Bradley device connected to your workstation

1 - Download and Install OAS

If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform.

Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.

On Windows, run the downloaded setup.exe file to install the Open Automation Software platform. For a default installation, Agree to the End User License Agreement and then click the Next button on each of the installation steps until it has completed.

If you'd like to customize your installation or learn more, use the following instructions:

• Windows Installation
• Linux Installation
• Raspberry Pi Installation
• Docker Installation

The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows.

Click on each START SERVICE button to start each of the three OAS services.

2 - Configure OAS

Configure OAS is the main application used to configure local and remote OAS instances.

1. From your operating system start menu, open the Configure OAS application.

2. Select the Configure > Tags screen.

   Important

   If this is the first time you have installed OAS, the AdminCreate utility will run when you select a screen in the Configure menu. This will ask you to create a username and password for the admin user. This user will have full permissions in the OAS platform.

   For further information see Getting Started - Security.

3. If this is the first time you are logging in, you will see the AdminCreate utility. Follow the prompts to set up your admin account. Otherwise, select the Log In menu button and provide the Network Node, username and password.

   

   

3 - Create a Kafka test cluster using Docker

In this step you will create a local Kafka cluster. To simplify the deployment you will need to have Docker installed including the docker-compose utility. This method allows you to create a cluster very quickly for testing purposes and remove it again when you are done.

1. Create a new folder such as Kafka and inside the folder create a new docker-compose.yml file with the following definition.

   services:
       zookeeper:
           image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper:latest
           container_name: zookeeper
           ports:
               - "2181:2181"
           environment:
           ZOOKEEPER_CLIENT_PORT: 2181
           ZOOKEEPER_TICK_TIME: 2000
   
       kafka:
           image: confluentinc/cp-kafka:latest
           container_name: kafka
           ports:
               - "9092:9092"
           environment:
           KAFKA_BROKER_ID: 1
           KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT: zookeeper:2181
           KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS: PLAINTEXT://localhost:9092
           KAFKA_LISTENER_SECURITY_PROTOCOL_MAP: PLAINTEXT:PLAINTEXT
           KAFKA_OFFSETS_TOPIC_REPLICATION_FACTOR: 1
   
   

2. Open a command line terminal or bash terminal and use the following command to start a new container. This will download the image and all its dependencies and may take a few minutes.

   docker-compose up -d

3. Create a new topic called temperature using the following command.

   docker exec kafka kafka-topics --create --topic temperature --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 1 --replication-factor 1

4 - Configure Kafka Consumer Connector

In the following steps you will create and configure a Kafka Connector connecting to a local Kafka cluster on port 9092. This connector will act as a Consumer where Tags can subscribe to a topic in the cluster.

1. Select Configure > Drivers from the top menu.

   

2. Set the Driver Interface Name to Kafka Consumer to give this driver interface instance a unique name.

3. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: Kafka
   • Bootstrap Servers: localhost:9092
   • Security Protocol: Plaintext
   • Client Id: oas-kafka

   

4. Click on the ADD DRIVER button on the left hand side to add this driver configuration. Once added, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

   

5 - Add Data Source Tag

In this section you will create a Tag to represent your data point in the field (for example a temperature sensor). This can then be transferred your desired destination.

1. Select Configure > Tags from the top menu.

   

2. If you want to add a Tag to the root Tags group make sure the Tags node is selected in the tag list and click on the ADD TAG button.

   

   If you want to add a Tag to a Tag Group, select the Tag Group first and then click on the ADD TAG button.

   You can also add Tag Groups by using the ADD GROUP button.

3. Provide a Tag Name such as TemperatureSensor and click the OK button.

   

6 - Assign Kafka as Tag Data Source

You will now set the Tag's data source to the Kafka driver interface that you created previously.

1. Select the Tag that will source data from a Kafka data source.

   

2. Set the Data Source to Kafka.

3. Set the Select Driver Interface drop-down to the Kafka Consumer interface created previously.

4. Set the Topic to temperature. This is the topic that you created previously when setting up the local Kafka cluster.

   

5. Click on the Apply Changes button to apply the changes.

6. To publish a data value from your Kafka cluster, you can use the following command.

   docker exec -i kafka kafka-console-producer --topic temperature --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

   You can now type in any data such as a numeric value and it will be published to the temperature topic.

7. Check that the quality status is Good Quality and the data in the Value field is as expected.

   

7 - Configure Allen Bradley Data Destination

In the following steps you will create and configure an Allen Bradley Connector using an AB Logix driver type to act as a data destination. This guide assumes that you have a Micro800 series controller connected to the same network as the OAS instance.

1. Select Configure > Drivers from the top menu.

   

2. Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name to give this driver interface instance a unique name.

3. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: AB Logix
   • IP Address: Your controller IP address
   • Processor Type: Micro800

   

4. Click on the ADD DRIVER button on the left hand side to add this driver configuration. Once added, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

   

8 - Add Data Destination Tag

In this section you will create a Tag to represent a data point that you want to write to.

1. Select Configure > Tags from the top menu.

   

2. If you want to add a Tag to the root Tags group make sure the Tags node is selected in the tag list and click on the ADD TAG button.

   

   If you want to add a Tag to a Tag Group, select the Tag Group first and then click on the ADD TAG button.

   You can also add Tag Groups by using the ADD GROUP button.

3. Provide a Tag Name such as TemperatureOutput and click the OK button.

   

9 - Assign AB Logix as Tag Data Destination

You will now set the Tag's data source to the AB Logix driver interface that you created previously to act as a data destination.

1. Select the Tag that will be associated with the AB Logix destination.

   

2. Set the Data Source to AB Logix.

3. Set the Select Driver Interface drop-down to the Micro820-Destination interface created previously.

4. Click on the BROWSE button next to the Address field to open the AB tag browser.

   

5. Select the variable name that you wish to add. If necessary you can click on the REFRESH button to reload the variables. Click OK once you have selected the variable.

   

6. Click on the Apply Changes button to apply the changes.

7. Check that the quality status is Good Quality and the data in the Value field is as expected. If the PLC does not hold any value in the given register then the value will remain zero.

10 - Configure Tag-To-Tag Data Route

In this section you will configure the Target of the source Tag to be the destination Tag value. This means whenever the source Tag value is updated, the destination Tag value will also be updated. This will cause a write operation on any associated driver if it is supported.

1. Select the source data Tag.

   

2. Select the Target tab.

   

3. Enable the Enable Write to Target option.

   

4. Click on the BROWSE button to select the destination tag.

   

5. Optionally, configure the Deadband property or enable Write Continuously to configure a continuous writing frequency.

   

6. Click on the Apply Changes button to apply the configuration.

7. To verify that your data transfer is working correctly, select the destination Tag and check that the Tag value matches the Tag value of the source Tag.

   

   You should also verify that the Tag value has been written to your destination device. Depending on your configuration in step 5 above, this destination value should be updated whenever the source value changes or at the given frequency.

11 - Save Changes

Once you have successfully configured your OAS instances, make sure you save your configuration.

On each configuration page, click on the Save button.

If this is the first time you are saving the configuration, or if you are changing the name of the configuration file, OAS will ask you if you want to change the default configuration file.

If you select Yes then OAS will make this configuration file the default and if the OAS service is restarted then this file will be loaded on start-up.

If you select No then OAS will still save your configuration file, but it will not be the default file that is loaded on start-up.