PLC4X Server

The PLC4X Server is a small relay server that speaks the PLC4X proxy protocol.

A client using the plc4x driver connects to this server, and the server opens the real connection to a PLC on its behalf and forwards reads and writes.

This is useful when the PLCs are only reachable from the machine running the server (e.g. behind a firewall or on an isolated OT network), while the clients live elsewhere.

 +------------+   plc4x proxy protocol    +--------------+   native protocol   +-------+
 |  client    | ------------------------> | PLC4X Server | ------------------> |  PLC  |
 | (plc4x drv)|        TLS + auth         |              |   (s7, modbus, …)   |       |
 +------------+                           +--------------+                     +-------+

The server bundles all PLC4X drivers, so the relayed connection string can target any supported protocol (s7, modbus, ads, opcua, simulated, …).

Security model

  • Authentication is mandatory. Every client connection must complete a username/password handshake before any operation is accepted. There is no unauthenticated mode.

  • TLS is the default transport. Credentials and payloads are encrypted in transit. Plaintext TCP is available only as an explicit opt-in for trusted networks/testing.

Building

From the module directory:

mvn package

This produces a runnable fat-jar at target/plc4j-plc4x-server-<version>.jar.

Running the server

java -jar target/plc4j-plc4x-server-<version>.jar [port]

The listen port may be given as the first argument, or via the plc4x.server.port system property / PLC4X_SERVER_PORT environment variable. If omitted it defaults to 59837.

First start with no configuration

If you start the server without configuring credentials, it generates a default identity and prints it once to the console:

============================================================
 No PLC4X server credentials configured - generated defaults:
   username: toddy
   password: 3Qm0v2yq... (randomly generated)
 Provide plc4x.server.username/password to set your own.
============================================================

Because no keystore is configured either, it also generates an ephemeral self-signed TLS certificate and logs its fingerprint so a client can trust/pin it:

No keystore configured - generated an ephemeral self-signed certificate.
Server certificate SHA-256 fingerprint: B1:A5:51:F8:...:35:CE
Configured credentials are never logged — only generated ones are printed.

Configuration

All settings are read from system properties (-D…) or environment variables.

Setting System property Environment variable Default

Listen port

plc4x.server.port

PLC4X_SERVER_PORT

59837

Username

plc4x.server.username

PLC4X_SERVER_USERNAME

toddy

Password

plc4x.server.password

PLC4X_SERVER_PASSWORD

(generated)

Plaintext mode

plc4x.server.plaintext

PLC4X_SERVER_PLAINTEXT

false (TLS on)

TLS keystore

plc4x.server.keystore

—

(self-signed)

Keystore pass.

plc4x.server.keystore-password

—

—

Example: explicit credentials + your own TLS certificate

java \
  -Dplc4x.server.port=59837 \
  -Dplc4x.server.username=operator \
  -Dplc4x.server.password='s3cr3t!' \
  -Dplc4x.server.keystore=/etc/plc4x/server.p12 \
  -Dplc4x.server.keystore-password='keystorepass' \
  -jar target/plc4j-plc4x-server-<version>.jar

The keystore must be a PKCS12 (or JKS) file containing the server’s private key and certificate.

Example: plaintext (trusted network / local testing only)

java -Dplc4x.server.plaintext=true \
     -Dplc4x.server.username=operator \
     -Dplc4x.server.password='s3cr3t!' \
     -jar target/plc4j-plc4x-server-<version>.jar

Connecting a client

A client uses the plc4x driver. The connection string points at the server, and the remote-connection-string parameter (URL-encoded) tells the server which PLC to open.

Connection string format

plc4x:<transport>://<server-host>:<server-port>?remote-connection-string=<url-encoded-plc-url>&username=<user>&password=<pass>[&tls.verify-ssl=false]

  • <transport> is tls (default) or tcp (plaintext). plc4x://… without a prefix uses the default, TLS.

  • remote-connection-string is the URL-encoded connection string the server should open to the actual PLC.

  • username / password are mandatory.

  • tls.verify-ssl=false disables certificate validation — needed when the server uses an auto-generated self-signed certificate. With a properly trusted (CA-signed) certificate, leave it at its default (true).

Example (Java)

Target PLC URL s7://10.10.1.5 → URL-encoded as s7%3A%2F%2F10.10.1.5.

String url = "plc4x:tls://server.example.com:59837"
    + "?remote-connection-string=s7%3A%2F%2F10.10.1.5"
    + "&username=operator"
    + "&password=s3cr3t!"
    + "&tls.verify-ssl=false"; // self-signed server cert

try (PlcConnection connection = new DefaultPlcDriverManager().getConnection(url)) {
    PlcReadRequest request = connection.readRequestBuilder()
        .addTagAddress("value", "%DB1.DBW0:INT")
        .build();
    PlcReadResponse response = request.execute().get();
    System.out.println(response.getInteger("value"));
}

Plaintext client

String url = "plc4x:tcp://server.example.com:59837"
    + "?remote-connection-string=s7%3A%2F%2F10.10.1.5"
    + "&username=operator&password=s3cr3t!";

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause / fix

Server certificate not trusted … PKIX path building failed

TLS cert not trusted by the client. Add tls.verify-ssl=false, or trust/pin the server cert.

Connect fails with ACCESS_DENIED / authentication error

Missing or wrong username / password.

Connect hangs or fails immediately on a tcp client vs tls server

Transport mismatch — client and server must agree on TLS vs plaintext.

INVALID_ADDRESS on connect

The server could not open the remote-connection-string (bad URL, PLC unreachable).