AWS (Amazon Web Services)

17 min

You can connect and send messages to AWS from a Belden Horizon Data Operations device. Data is collected from the selected device. Devices on Belden Horizon Data Operations can be set for further analysis and reporting capabilities.

Before You Begin

You must have an AWS account.

Set Up Integration in AWS

Step 1: Onboard Device

To onboard a device:

Open the AWS IoT browser tab and click Manage > Things. The Things pane appears.
From the left pane, click Onboard. The Connect to AWS IoT pane appears.
Connect to AWS IoT pane
From the Onboard a device box, click Get Started. The Connect to AWS IoT wizard appears.
Connect to AWS IoT wizard
Click Get Started. The How are you connecting to AWS IoT screen appears.
How are you connecting to AWS IoT screen
From the Choose a platform section, select Linux/OSX.
From the Choose a AWS IoT Device SDK section, select Java, and then click Next. The Register a thing screen appears.
Register a thing screen
In the Name field, enter Thing1, and then click Next step. The Download a connection kit screen appears.
Download a connection kit screen
Click Linux/OSX, view the downloaded .zip file at the bottom of the screen, and then click Next step. The Configure and test your device screen appears.
Configure and test your device screen
View the downloaded .zip file at the bottom of the screen, and then click Done. The Connected successfully screen appears.
Connected successfully screen
Click Done. The named Thing1 appears in the Things pane.

Step 2: Create Policy

To create the policy:

From the left pane in the AWS Things pane, click Secure > Policies.
Refresh the page. The named Thing1-Policy appears.
Policy item

Step 3: Create and Download Certificate and Private Key

You will need to download the certificate and private key that you will use to configure the AWS connector in Step 8.

To create and download the certificate and private key:

From the left pane, click Certificates. The certificate for the named Thing appears.
Certificate pane
Click the Actions icon for the certificate, and select Delete. The Confirmation dialog box appears.
Click Yes, continue with delete.
Refresh the page. The Certificates wizard appears.
Certificate wizard
Click Create a certificate. The Create a certificate screen appears.
Create a certificate screen
Click Create certificate. The Certificate created screen appears.
Certificate created screen
Click Download next to A certificate for this thing.
Click Download next to A private key.
Click Keep next to the downloaded files.
Click Activate, and then click Attach a policy. The Add authorization to certificate screen appears.
Add authorization to certificate screen
Select the named Thing1-Policy, and then click Done.

Step 4: Edit Policy

To edit the policy:

From the left pane, click Policies. The Policies pane appears.
Click the named Thing1-Policy. The named Thing1-Policy dialog box appears.
Policy dialog box
Click Edit policy document. The Edit Policy screen appears.
Edit Policy screen
Scroll down the policy document, copy the last line, paste the copied line below, and edit it as follows: Change sdk-nodejs to sdk-golang.
Edit policy code
Click Save as new version.
Click the Back arrow to return to the Policies pane.

Set Up Integration in Belden Horizon Data Operations

After setting up your AWS account, you will need to log in to Belden Horizon Data Operations to complete the steps below and complete the integration.

Step 5: Add Device

Follow the steps to Connect a Device. The device will be used to store tags that will be eventually used to create outbound topics in the connector. Make sure to select the Enable Data Store check box.

For this use case, select the Simulator device and Simulator (Gen1) driver, and enter the name simulator.

Step 6: Add Tag to Device

After connecting the device in Belden Horizon Data Operations, you can Add Tags to the device. Create tags that you want to use to create outbound topics for the connector.

For this use case, add a tag with the following details.

Name: Select int-integer.
Value Type: Select int.
Tag Name: Enter temp.
Polling Interval: Enter 1.
Address: Enter 6.
Min Value: Enter 1.
Max Value: Enter 100.

Step 7: Retrieve Parameters for AWS Connector

You will have to log in to your AWS account to retrieve the parameters for the AWS connector.

To retrieve the parameters:

Log in to your AWS account.
Open the AWS IoT browser tab and click Manage > Things. The Things pane appears.
Click Thing[#]. The Thing[#} dialog box appears.
From the left pane, click Interact. The pane changes to reflect your selection.
Copy the REST API Endpoint under the HTTPS section. This is the Hostname parameter for the AWS connector.
Click Secure > Policies. The Policies pane appears.
Click Thing[#]-Policy. The Thing[#]-Policy dialog box appears.
Scroll to the bottom and copy SDK resource to your clipboard. For this use case, the SDK resource is sdk-golang. This is the Client ID parameter for the AWS connector.
The SDK resource value
Copy the first topic value. In this use case, the topic is topic_1. This the Integration Topic value.
The topic value

Step 8: Add AWS Connector

Follow the steps to Add a Connector and select the MQTT - Amazon AWS IoT Core over SSL provider.

Configure the following parameters.

Name: A recognizable name to identify the connector.
Hostname: Paste the REST API Endpoint value copied in Step 6.
Port: The MQTT broker port. The default value is 8883.
Certificate: Paste the downloaded certificate in Step 3.
Private key: Paste the downloaded private key in Step 3.
Client ID: Paste the SDK resource copied in Step 6.
QoS: Confirm that the default value 0 is entered. The Quality of Service (QoS) level is an agreement between the sender of a message and the receiver of a message that defines the guarantee of delivery for a specific message.
Parallel Publish Count: The number of messages being published simultaneously. Once the defined limit has been reached, subsequent messages are silently dropped. The default value is 100.
Integration Topic: Paste the topic value copied in Step 6.
LWT topic: The topic for Last Will and Testament feature of MQTT.
LWT payload: The payload for Last Will and Testament feature of MQTT.
LWT payload type: The payload type for MQTT's Last Will and Testament feature. The options are string and base64.
LWT QoS: The Quality of Service value for MQTT's Last Will and Testament feature.
LWT retained: Select this check box to retain the value for MQTT's Last Will and Testament feature.
Throttling limit: The maximum number of messages per second to be processed. The default value is zero, which means that there is no limit.
Persistent storage: When enabled, this will cause messages to undergo a store-and-forward procedure. Messages will be stored within Belden Horizon Data Operations when cloud providers are online.

Step 9: Create Topics for AWS Connector

You will now need to create topics for the connector. To create outbound topics, you have the option of importing the tag created in Step 6. To create inbound topics, you will have to manually create the topic.

Create Outbound Topics

To create outbound topics:

Click the connector tile. The connector Dashboard appears.
Click the Topics tab.
Click the Import from DeviceHub tags icon. The DeviceHub Import dialog box appears.
Select all the tags to import and click Import.

Create Inbound Topics

Before creating inbound topics, copy the Raw Topic for tags that you want used for topics. See Manage Tags for more information.

To create inbound topics:

Click the connector tile.
Click the Topics tab.
Click the Add a new subscription icon. The Data Integration dialog box appears.
Add a new subscription icon
Configure the following parameters.
- Data Direction: Select Remote to Local - Inbound.
- Local Data Topic: Paste the Raw Topic copied for the device tag.
- Remote Data Topic: Confirm the topic where the data is pushed.
- Enable: Select the toggle to enable the topic.
Click Yes to add the topic.

Step 10: Enable Topics

To enable the topics, return to the Topics tab and click the Enable all topics icon.

Enable all topics icon

Step 11: Enable the AWS Connector

To enable the connector:

Navigate to the Integration landing page.
Click the connection toggle on the AWS connector tile. The connector shows connected after verifying the connection.
Toggle to enable connector

Step 12: Verify Outbound Messages

You will need to log in to your AWS account to verify that outbound messages are being sent.

To verify outbound messages:

Log in to your AWS account.
Navigate to the AWS Things pane and click Monitor. The Monitor pane appears.
Select Hour from the Time range drop-down list. The charts change to reflect your selection.
Click the browser Refresh to refresh the page. The Successful connections chart shows a connection.
Scroll down to the Messages published chart. The Messages published chart shows messages arriving.

Step 13: View Outbound Messages in Belden Horizon Data Operations Flow

You can create a flow in Belden Horizon Data Operations to view the outbound messages.

To create a flow:

Follow the steps to Create a Flow and add the following nodes.
- DataHub Subscribe
- Debug
Double-click the DataHub Subscribe node. The Edit DataHub Subscribe node dialog box appears.
Paste the local topic you created in Step 9.
If needed, configure the Datahub Subscribe connection. See the "Step 3: Configure Connector Nodes" section in Create a Flow to learn more.
Click Done, and then click Deploy.
Click the debug tab. See the Additional Options section in Manage the Flow Canvas for more details.
Verify that Test Message appears in the debug results.

You can return to AWS Monitor browser tab and view the Messages published chart to see the outbound messages are being sent.