Overview

Available since 2020.01.

The AzureIotHub Import connects to the built-in endpoint of the Azure IOT Hub. By default the IOT Hub exposes the endpoint as an Even Hub compatible endpoint. This allows clients to connect using the AMQPS protocol, which is used by the AzureIotHub import. The default port for AMQPS is port 5671 and a forecasting shell server should be allowed to connect to the Azure IOT Hub using this port from the Forecasting Shell Server.

The AzureIotHub import is a long running import that will keep running for one hour and will keep listening voor messages to arrive. After one hour the import will finish and state is store to keep track of the messages that have been imported. Since the import is completed after one hour, imports should be scheduled hourly and the import should never run in parallel on multiple Forecasting Shell Servers.

Import Configuration

General Section

• importType: AzureIotHub
• serverUrl: a valid URL is required, but is used for informational purposes only and will be displayed in the import status. It can be set to the event hub domain url, for example: https://delft-fews-iot-hub.azure-devices.net
• dataFeedId: required and can be set to any unique dataFeedId. For example: Delft-FEWS Azure IOT Hub

Properties

To configure the AzureIotHub import, some required properties have to be specified:

eventHubCompatiblePath

iothub-ehub-delft-fews-3109254-e665c23b62

consumersGroup

$Default

eventHubCompatibleHostname

ihsuprodamres086dednamespace.servicebus.windows.net

numberOfPartitions

sharedAccessPolicyName

sharedAccessPolicyKey

V86dqC3AhjIqSgvAuShKDSsNamUJh5rJrqZ1e3hw7EA=

runningTimeMilliseconds

120000

Example Import Configuration

This example is configured to import scalar observations from the Azure IOT Hub

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<timeSeriesImportRun xmlns="http://www.wldelft.nl/fews" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.wldelft.nl/fews
http://fews.wldelft.nl/schemas/version1.0/timeSeriesImportRun.xsd">
	<import>
		<general>	
            <importType>AzureIotHub</importType>
			<serverUrl>https://delft-fews-iot-hub.azure-devices.net</serverUrl> <!-- Not actually used -->
   			<relativeViewPeriod unit="day" start="-7" end="1" ></relativeViewPeriod>
            <missingValue>-99.99</missingValue>
            <dataFeedId>Azure IOT Hub</dataFeedId> <!-- data feed id is required for IOT hub -->
        </general>
		<properties>
			<string key="eventHubCompatiblePath" value="iothub-ehub-delft-fews-3109254-e665c23b62" />
			<string key="consumersGroup" value="$Default" />
			<string key="eventHubCompatibleHostname" value="ihsuprodamres086dednamespace.servicebus.windows.net" />			
			<string key="sharedAccessPolicyName" value="service" />			
			<string key="sharedAccessPolicyKey" value="V86dqC3AhjIqSgvAuShKDSsNamUJh5rJrqZ1e3hw7EA=" />			
			<int key="numberOfPartitions" value="2" />
			<int key="runningTimeMilliseconds" value="120000" /> <!-- run for 2 minutes for testing. Overrules the default running time of one hour -->
		</properties>	
		<timeSeriesSet>
			<moduleInstanceId>ImportObserved</moduleInstanceId>
			<valueType>scalar</valueType>
			<parameterId>T.obs</parameterId>
			<locationSetId>LocationSetId</locationSetId>
			<timeSeriesType>external historical</timeSeriesType>
			<timeStep unit="nonequidistant"/>
			<readWriteMode>add originals</readWriteMode>
			<expiryTime unit="year" multiplier="1"/>
		</timeSeriesSet>
	</import>
</timeSeriesImportRun>

Azure Portal

To configure the AzureIotHub some information from the Azure Portal is required. This sections shows the relevant parts of the Azure Portal to set the required properties.

Built-in endpoint

From the Azure IOT Hub built-in endpoint page, the following properties can be determined:

• numberOfPartitions: set to 2 in this example

• eventHubCompatiblePath: iothub-ehub-delft-fews-3109254-e665c23b62

• eventHubCompatibleHostname: ihsuprodamres086dednamespace.servicebus.windows.net

• consumersGroup: Set the $Default in this example
  
  

Shared Access Policies

From the Azure IOT Hub shared access policies page, the following properties can be determined:

• sharedAccessPolicyName: set to 2 in service. If a custom policy is used, make sure at least the Service connect permissing has been assigned to the policy.
•  sharedAccessPolicyKey: Either the Primary Key or Secondary key can be used for that. It should be similar to:  V86dqC3AhjIqSgvAuShKDSsNamUJh5rJrqZ1e3hw7EA=

Testing

To be able to send test messages to the Azure IoT Hub, a device has to be registered. See the following example of the Azure Portal where on the IoT device page, a device has been registered called "deltares-test-iot-device".

When looking at the details of a client registration, among others the Primary or Secondary connection string can be determined and used for testing.

There are different ways to test the import. 

Microsoft Visual Studio Code IoT Hub Extension

See: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vsciot-vscode.azure-iot-tools

Microsoft Visual Studio Code has support for a IoT Hub extension pack called IoT tools, that can be used to send Device to Cloud messages (D2C messages). See the following screenshot to see how to send a D2C message from the test client. To use The IoT Hub tools, an Azure Portal account is required.

Azure IoT Hub Tester

See: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1173356/Azure-IoT-Hub-Tester

With this tool a connection can be made to the IOT hub using the primary or secondary connection string that is given with the client registration. No Azure Portal account is required to test.

Once connected, test message can be sent with the tool. Currently only PI XML can be used for testing.