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A Practical Introduction to OPC UA (Udemy.com)

Learn the theoretical and practical aspects of installing, configuring and troubleshooting OPC UA software applications

Created by: Emile Ackbarali

Last updated May 2026

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What you will learn

  • Be aware of the industry forces that drove the development of OPC UA
  • Understand where OPC UA fits in to the Automation field
  • Be aware of the use of SDKs to implement OPC UA on platforms of various types
  • Be aware of the two protocols that are currently used for OPC UA client - server communication
  • Understand OPC UA security: authentication, modes and policies
  • Understand the OPC UA Information model
  • Be able to configure and connect an OPC UA client to a server under multiple conditions
  • Be able to interpret error messages and diagnose OPC UA connection issues

How it compares

Against the other 335 rated Udemy courses in Engineering on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.8 out of 5higher than 95% of them
  • Reviews615#131 of 336 by number of reviews
  • Length3.4 hoursshorter than 67% of them
  • Last updatedMay 2026more recently than 82% of them

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Course Description

Have you been trying to learn OPC UA by piecing together YouTube videos, forum posts, and random articles online — only to end up more confused than when you started? You're not alone. OPC UA is one of those topics where unstructured online resources will send you in ten different directions at once, leaving you with scattered bits of knowledge but no real ability to actually do anything with it.

That ends here.

This course has one clear, laser-focused goal — to take you from confused to proficient in installing, configuring, and troubleshooting OPC UA client and server applications. No fluff, no rabbit holes. Just simple, structured, step-by-step practical mastery.

Here's what you're going to command by the end of this course: multi-platform capabilities; security, authentication, modes and policies — one of the most critical and often misunderstood areas in OPC UA; digital signing and encryption; TCP binary and HTTP communication modes; information modelling; endpoints; and configuration options — knowing not just what they are, but when and why to use each one. That last point is what separates someone who knows OPC UA from someone who can actually work with it.

And we're not going to learn any of this as a theoretical exercise. We're going hands-on. You'll download and install two powerful, industry-relevant applications — UaExpert, a professional OPC UA client, and Prosys OPC UA Server — both completely free. You'll connect them, configure them, break them, and troubleshoot them. Once you can do it with these tools, you can do it with any OPC UA client and server applications you encounter on the job.

My name is Emile Ackbarali. I bring over 20 years of hands-on industry experience, and I've taught over 33,000 students across my courses. I'll be with you every step of the way — if you have a question, I will get back to you as soon as possible. You're not just enrolling in a course — you're getting a committed instructor in your corner.

If you're ready to finally cut through the complexity and gain a skill that will serve you throughout your career — I'll see you on the inside.

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Instructor Details

Emile Ackbarali

          I have been working in the fields of Software Development, Software Systems Integration and Process Automation since 1996. In 2003, I stepped out on my own and started working for myself providing software development and systems integration services to small and medium businesses.       

          Teaching has always been a passion for me. I have taught at the tertiary level for many years on the subjects of programming, control systems as well as systems integration. In the last few years I found myself incorporating more and more videos into the curriculum with amazing results. 

          When I heard of uDemy I just could not help but sign up. With teaching in a classroom, you can reach only so many students, but with uDemy you can reach the world! I plan to publish and promote as many courses as I possibly can on the uDemy platform. 

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Reviews

4.8

615 ratings on Udemy

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By Nikolay Sokolov on 1/14/2026

Did this course as a primer for dev work. I think it's really helpful. I appreciate the attached installers. Practice videos are great! Course is maintained (recommendation to download a particular software version, because the latest one lacks the functionality). Sound quality was dreadful in some of the old videos, but now the author has a good mic. One thing that I would love to add to that course is more info about the apps: when and why they are used on the real projects.

By Oleksandr Oliferuk on 3/26/2025

Really enjoyed the course! The information was clear and easy to understand. I gained solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills in working with OPC UA. I recommend it to anyone who wants to dive into the topic. Thank you!

By Akash Kumar on 9/15/2024

Emile is great instructor and has very good subject knowledge. This course is very well structured, and contents are taught in a very practical manner including real world application. Recommend this course to everyone!

By Anthony Griggs on 1/17/2024

An outstanding teacher who is very well spoken. He goes into enough detail to make understanding easy, without over doing it so as to make it dry. I would very much reconmend this course to anyone needing ground up training on OPC.

By Luff Eman on 9/28/2023

Gold. I am new to OPC UA and industrial integration and this course helped me a lot to get going. I feel like I have a pretty good highlevel understanding of things now. Thanks a lot Emile! Your explanations were very concise and on point. I appreciate that you kept the course short.

By Ramchandra Hegde on 7/20/2023

I am working on OPC Server development since 2009. I have worked on both Classic and OPC UA Server development. I just finished one OPC UA Server project. I subscribed to this course out of curiosity. It is great intro for people new to OPC UA. It also helped me fill the gaps in the knowledge. Thanks.

By Maurizio Busi on 7/16/2023

Good introductory course if you do not know anithing about opc ua, but it has to few information for anybody who already known what opc ua is. Personally I would prefere the author removed all information about classical OPC and add more information about OPC UA

By David McElroy on 4/24/2023

Very good course. Very informative and easy to understand. If you are self-educated and want to work with industrial automation systems, OPC will be a crucial missing link between working with a PLC, and knowing how to network groups of smart devices (PLCs included) together and exchange data. Very well worth the time to take this course.

By Giovanni on 1/7/2023

Last year I started to approach OPC UA in my working life and I can say that this course is really a good starting point. The concepts are expressed in a very clear way and the section relating to safety is particularly studied. It is not a complete course, in the sense that it does not cover other sections such as address space modeling or Data Access which would have been interesting to study (otherwise the course would have lasted much longer), but I certainly recommend it. Thanks Prof.

By Atef Bouchrit on 9/28/2022

It is an excellent introductory level course of OPC UA. It does not show examples of the utilisation of such tools. This mainly focused on Security Level, but it did not show any other topic regarding implementation with a simple concrete example.

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Overall Score : 96 / 100