Send Data to Azure IoT Hub with a Device Certificate
You can connect and send data (messages) to Azure IoT Hub from Belden Horizon Data Operations with SSL using a device certificate.
Additional Resources
Refer to the following resources for more information.
Before You Begin
You must first Set up an Azure IoT Hub. When you add the IoT device to the hub, select X.509 Self-Signed as the Authentication type when you add the IoT device in Azure.
Step 1: Add a 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.
Step 2: Add Tags
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.
Step 3: Add the Connector in Belden Horizon Data Operations
Follow the steps to Add a Connector and select the MQTT - Azure IoT Hub using Device Certificates provider. Define the following parameters.
- Name: A recognizable name to identify the connector.
- Hostname: The IP address or server FQDN of the MQTT broker (must be reachable from your edge device).
- Port: The MQTT broker's port number. The default value is 8883.
- Device ID: Copy the Device ID of your edge device from the IoT Devices page in the Azure portal and paste it here.
- Certificate: Copy the certificate from the mydevicekeycer.pem file and paste it here.
- Private Key: Copy the key from the myprivatekey.pem file and paste it here.
- Parallel Publish Count: The maximum number of concurrently published messages. The default value is 16.
- Integration Topic: The default topic to publish or subscribe to: devices/[deviceId]/messages/events/. Replace [deviceId] with the Device ID copied from Azure.
- LWT Topic: The topic for MQTT's Last Will and Testament feature.
- LWT payload: The payload for MQTT's Last Will and Testament feature.
- 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 4: Create Topics for Azure Connector
You will now need to create topics from the tags you added in Step 2.
Before creating the topics copy the Raw Topic parameter for all tags you want to use for topics. See Manage Tags for more information.
To create topics:
- Click the connector tile. The connector Dashboard appears.
- Click the Topics tab.
- Add topics to the connector with the details below. See the Add a Topic to a Connector section in Manage Connectors for more information.
- Data Direction: Select Local to Remote - Outbound.
- Local Data Topic: Paste the Raw Topic for the tag created in Step 2.
- Remote Data Topic: Enter integration.raw.outboundtest.
- Enable: Click the toggle to enable the topic.
- Click Yes to add the topic.
- After adding all required topics, navigate to the Integration pane.
From the connector tile, click the toggle to enable the connector.
Toggle to enable connector
Step 5: View Outbound Messages
You can create a flow in Belden Horizon Data Operations to view the outbound messages of the connector.
To view outbound messages:
- DataHub Subscribe:
- Debug
- Connect the two nodes.
- Double-click the DataHub Subscribe node. The Edit DataHub Subscribe node dialog box appears.
- Paste the local topic you created in Step 4.
- 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.
- Check the Debug messages tab. See the Additional Options section in Manage the Flow Canvas for more details.
- Verify that outbound messages are displaying.