Site Agents
Register and manage industrial edge gateways that connect PLCs, SCADA systems, and IoT devices to ProBeya.
Overview
Site Agents are edge gateway registrations that connect your industrial equipment — PLCs, SCADA systems, sensors, and IoT devices — to the ProBeya cloud platform. Each agent collects real-time data points (tag readings) from shopfloor equipment using standard industrial protocols and relays them to ProBeya for KPI tracking, alerting, and visual display.
Supported Protocols
| Protocol | Use Case | Typical Equipment |
|---|---|---|
| OPC-UA | Unified Architecture for industrial automation | Siemens, Rockwell, Beckhoff PLCs |
| MQTT | Lightweight pub/sub messaging | IoT sensors, edge gateways, custom devices |
| S7comm | Siemens S7 native protocol | Siemens S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, S7-1500 |
| Modbus | Serial/TCP industrial protocol | Legacy PLCs, power meters, VFDs |
| REST | HTTP polling for web-enabled devices | Modern sensors, custom APIs, weather stations |
Agent Lifecycle
offline → online → error | maintenance
↑ │
└─────────────────────────┘
- Offline — newly registered or disconnected. No data is being collected.
- Online — actively collecting and transmitting data points.
- Error — communication failure. The agent detected a problem with the connection.
- Maintenance — manually set by an admin during planned equipment downtime.
Registering a Site Agent
Open Site Agent Settings
Navigate to Settings > Site Agents in your organization admin panel.
Click Create Agent
Click New Agent to register a new edge gateway.
Configure Basic Information
- Name — a descriptive label (e.g., “Building-A PLC Gateway”, “Line-3 SCADA Bridge”)
- Site ID — a physical site identifier for grouping agents (e.g., “SITE-BRU-01”, “PLANT-DUBLIN”)
- Protocol — select the industrial communication protocol (OPC-UA, MQTT, S7comm, Modbus, or REST)
Configure Connection
Enter protocol-specific connection parameters:
- OPC-UA: Server endpoint URL, security policy, authentication mode
- MQTT: Broker URL, port, client ID, topic prefix, QoS level
- S7comm: PLC IP address, rack, slot
- Modbus: Device IP address, port, slave ID, register map
- REST: Base URL, authentication headers, polling interval
Define Data Points
Add the tags (data points) the agent should read:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Tag Name | Human-readable identifier (e.g., “Temperature_Zone1”) |
| Address | Protocol-specific address (e.g., OPC-UA node ID, Modbus register) |
| Data Type | The expected value type (float, integer, boolean, string) |
| Scan Interval | How often to read the tag, in milliseconds |
| Description | Optional description of what the tag measures |
Save
Click Save to register the agent in offline status. The agent will transition to online once it establishes connectivity and sends its first heartbeat.
Data Points
Data points are individual tag readings streamed from the agent to ProBeya. Each reading includes:
- Tag name — which sensor or variable was read
- Value — the numeric or boolean reading
- Timestamp — when the reading was taken (agent-side clock)
- Quality — data quality indicator (good, uncertain, bad)
Data points are stored as time-series records and can be:
- Linked to KPI definitions for automatic KPI value recording
- Displayed on Andon boards for real-time shopfloor visibility
- Used in threshold alerts to trigger notifications when values exceed limits
Managing Agents
Filtering
The agent list supports filtering by:
- Site ID — show only agents at a specific physical site
- Status — filter by online, offline, error, or maintenance
- Protocol — show only agents using a specific communication protocol
Updating an Agent
Click on an agent to edit its name, connection configuration, or data point definitions. Changes take effect on the agent’s next connection cycle.
Decommissioning
To remove an agent, set its status to Offline and then click Delete. This permanently removes the agent registration and its data point history.
Deleting a site agent also removes all historical data point readings associated with it. Export data before deletion if you need to retain it for compliance purposes.
Health Monitoring
ProBeya monitors agent health through heartbeat signals:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Agent is online and sending data within expected intervals |
| Yellow | Agent is online but some data points have stale readings |
| Red | Agent has not sent a heartbeat within the expected window |
| Gray | Agent is offline or in maintenance mode |
Administrators receive notifications when an agent transitions from online to error status.
Security
- Connection configurations are stored as encrypted JSONB and never exposed in API responses.
- Only organization owners and admins can register, modify, or delete site agents.
- All agent operations are scoped to the current organization for multi-tenant isolation.
- Agent-to-cloud communication uses TLS encryption with mutual certificate authentication when supported by the protocol.
Best Practices
- Use descriptive site IDs — establish a consistent naming convention across all sites (e.g., “SITE--”).
- Set appropriate scan intervals — balance data freshness against network and storage load. Most KPIs only need readings every 30-60 seconds.
- Plan maintenance windows — set agents to maintenance status before planned equipment shutdowns to avoid false error alerts.
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