Exploring the IoT Hub Service

In Chapter 1, you were given a brief introduction to setting up Azure IoT Hub and using a virtual sensor to send signals to it. Azure IoT Hub is a fully managed service, which makes it easy to set up and secure. It enables dependable and secure two-way communications between IoT devices and a backend solution for collecting and analyzing the data. Most IoT solutions need hundreds and even thousands of sensors. For example, a smart building or smart campus solution needs sensors in every room. When managing these systems at scale, it is very important to have tools that make them more manageable and secure. In this chapter, we will explore some of the features that make Azure IoT Hub an excellent choice for managing and scaling your IoT systems. After completing this chapter, you will have a better understanding of the following areas:

• The features of IoT Hub
• Configuring IoT devices
• Communicating with IoT devices
• Managing and monitoring...

The features of IoT Hub

You may become confused when you look at the different offerings Microsoft has on Azure. They have Event Hubs and IoT Hub. How do you decide when to use which offering? While they are both message-based service offerings, they are each designed with different use cases in mind. Event Hubs was designed for big data streaming, while IoT Hub was designed to address the unique requirements of addressing and managing IoT devices at scale. IoT Hub uses Event Hubs for its telemetry movement. Some of the advantages of using IoT Hub are as follows:

• IoT Hub offers bi-directional communication between the hub and the devices. This is very important for updating device properties and sending commands to the devices.
• IoT Hub also maintains unique device identities for better security and resilience from attacks.

Now that you have decided to use IoT Hub for your solution, the next step is to choose the right tier. IoT Hub has both a basic tier and a standard...

Configuring IoT devices

There are many different IoT devices available today. There are devices for consumer IoT, such as home appliances and voice assistance. Commercial IoT devices are used in healthcare and transportation. Industrial IoT is used in manufacturing, while infrastructure IoT is used in smart cities.

What all these devices have in common is that they are hardware devices that collect and exchange data over the internet. They can be standalone devices or embedded devices. When choosing a device, you must consider factors such as power consumption, networking, and available inputs and outputs. You also need to consider security, maintenance, and internet protocols. Fortunately, Microsoft has a certification program that verifies if the device will work on Azure. Bundled solutions are also provided for certain scenarios, such as license plate recognition.

When deploying and communicating with devices it is important that devices have a unique identity and can be authenticated...

Communicating with IoT devices

There are several different ways you can communicate with your IoT devices. This includes device-to-cloud messages, cloud-to-device messages, file upload notifications, direct method invocation, and operation monitoring events.

Device-to-cloud messaging

We can use the Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client SDK to create a simulated device. On the device, you will need to install an IoT device SDK and use it to establish a connection to IoT Hub using the connection string you obtained when you registered the device in IoT Hub.

The following code block shows some sample code in Python that demonstrates how to connect a device to IoT Hub using the Azure IoT device SDK:

import os
from azure.iot.device import IoTHubDeviceClient
# Connection string for the device
CONNECTION_STRING = "<your device connection string>"
# Connect to IoT Hub
client = IoTHubDeviceClient.create_from_connection_string(CONNECTION_STRING)
client.connect()
# Send a...

Managing and monitoring IoT devices

To manage IoT devices at scale, we are going to use Azure IoT Hub. Even though we are going to connect only a few devices to Azure IoT Hub, it is very capable of scaling to millions of devices. In this section, you are going to learn how to manage an IoT device using the Azure portal and the Azure command-line interface (CLI).

When managing devices, there are five stages that you need to be aware of:

• Planning consists of creating a metadata schema that allows you to query devices and complete bulk management operations. Azure IoT Hub uses device twins to store the metadata in JSON format.
• Provisioning is the process of securely provisioning new devices either individually or in bulk and immediately reporting their condition and capabilities.
• Configuring is the process of updating device properties and firmware updates.
• Monitoring involves observing the overall health and sending alerts to operators when attention is needed...

Setting up Azure Toolkit in Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is the preferred integrated development environment (IDE) and there is an extension called Azure Toolkit that makes it easy to work with and create services in Azure. Although we will be doing most of our work through the portal, you may want to install and investigate using Azure Toolkit in VS Code.

Setting up Azure Toolkit in VS Code allows you to work with Azure services and resources directly from your code editor. Here’s a step-by-step guide to set up Azure Toolkit in VS Code:

1. Install VS Code: If you haven’t already, download and install VS Code from the official website: https://code.visualstudio.com/.
2. Install the Azure Account extension:
   1. Open Visual Studio Code.
   2. Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the sidebar or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + X (Cmd + Shift + X on macOS).
   3. Search for Azure Account in the Extensions search bar.
   4. Click the Install button...

Lab – setting up and monitoring IoT devices

After completing this lab, you will be able to do the following:

• Set up a virtual device using VS Code and the IoT SDKs
• Create a direct method on a device and call it from IoT Hub
• Monitor a device using the CLI

To do this, you will need to perform the following steps:

1. Open VS Code and using Control + Shift + P, open the Command Palette.
2. Enter the Azure IoT Hub: Create Device command in the Command Palette.
3. Enter the device ID as Device02.
4. Once the device has been created, you should see the connection string for the device. Copy this for later.
5. Press the Ctrl + ~ keys to open the terminal.
6. Run the following code in the terminal to create a new project and install the SDK:

   mkdir Device02
   Cd Device02
   dotnet new console
   dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client

7. Open the Device02 folder in VS Code and open the Program.cs file.
8. Replace the code inside that file with the following...

Summary

In this chapter, we delved into the exciting world of IoT and explored various key aspects related to IoT Hub management and device communication.

We began by examining the essential features of IoT Hub, which serves as a central component in IoT solutions. You learned about its role in managing and facilitating communication between IoT devices, making it a crucial part of any IoT ecosystem.

Next, we delved into the process of configuring IoT devices. You gained insights into how to set up and prepare IoT devices for integration with IoT Hub, ensuring they are ready to send and receive data seamlessly.

Communication lies at the heart of IoT, and we explored the various methods and protocols for effectively communicating with IoT devices. You learned how to establish bidirectional communication channels to exchange data with these devices securely.

IoT device management is a critical aspect of maintaining an IoT ecosystem. We discussed strategies and tools for...