Azure Devices Overview and Management

Azure Devices provides a comprehensive platform for managing and monitoring IoT devices. This includes device registration, data ingestion, and device twin management.

Azure IoT Hub is a key component of Azure Devices, allowing for bi-directional communication between devices and the cloud. It supports protocols like MQTT, AMQP, and HTTP.

Device registration is a crucial step in setting up Azure Devices, allowing devices to be identified and managed within the platform. This involves creating a device identity and registering it with the IoT Hub.

Azure Devices supports a wide range of device types, including industrial automation, healthcare, and consumer electronics.

Device management is a crucial aspect of Azure devices, allowing you to manage and track your devices in real-time. Azure IoT Hub enables a set of device management patterns, including reboot, factory reset, configuration, and reporting progress and status.

You can use the device twin to store device metadata, such as tags and properties, to enable easy and accurate querying for and targeting of devices for bulk management operations. This is particularly useful during the planning stage of the device lifecycle.

Related reading: Azure Mobile Device Management

Here are some key device management features in Azure IoT Hub:

The device lifecycle is a crucial aspect of device management. There are five stages within the lifecycle: Plan, Provision, Configure, Monitor, and Retire.

In the Plan stage, operators create a device metadata scheme to easily query and target devices for bulk management operations. They use the device twin to store metadata in the form of tags and properties.

Device provisioning is a critical aspect of the Provision stage. Operators securely provision new devices to IoT Hub and enable them to immediately discover device capabilities. This is done using the IoT Hub identity registry to create flexible device identities and credentials.

The Configure stage involves facilitating bulk configuration changes and firmware updates to devices while maintaining health and security. Operators perform these operations in bulk using desired properties or direct methods and broadcast jobs.

Monitoring device health and status is essential in the Monitor stage. Operators use the device twin to allow devices to report real-time operating conditions and status of update operations. They also build powerful dashboard reports to surface immediate issues using device twin queries.

Related reading: Azure App Insights vs Azure Monitor

Here are the five stages of the device lifecycle with a brief description of each:

In the Retire stage, operators replace or decommission devices after a failure, upgrade cycle, or at the end of the service lifetime. They use the device twin to maintain device info if the physical device is being replaced, or archived if being retired.

Device management is a crucial aspect of IoT development, and IoT Hub provides a set of core templates for device management patterns.

These patterns enable you to extend and design new solutions based on their core templates. You can use the device management tutorials to learn more about how to implement these patterns.

Reboot is one of the device management patterns enabled by IoT Hub. The back-end app informs the device through a direct method that it has started a reboot.

The device uses the reported properties to update the reboot status of the device. This is a simple yet effective way to manage devices remotely.

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Factory Reset is another pattern that allows the back-end app to inform the device through a direct method that it has started a factory reset.

The device uses the reported properties to update the factory reset status of the device. This ensures that the device is properly reset and ready for new configuration.

Configuration is a key aspect of device management. The back-end app uses the desired properties to configure software running on the device.

The device uses the reported properties to update configuration status of the device. This allows you to manage device configuration remotely and ensure that devices are properly configured.

Reporting progress and status is also an essential aspect of device management. The solution back end runs device twin queries, across a set of devices, to report on the status and progress of actions running on the devices.

Here are the four device management patterns enabled by IoT Hub:

Device management is a crucial aspect of maintaining a secure and efficient IT environment. You can view, block, and unblock devices in the Azure Administrator portal.

To view devices, log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal as Administrator, select Active Directory, and then select your directory. From there, select the Users tab, then select a user to view their devices. Next, select the Devices tab, and then choose Registered Devices from the dropdown menu.

Azure AD Registered devices provide support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or mobile device scenarios, allowing users to access organization's resources using a personal device. These devices are registered to Azure AD without requiring an organizational account to sign in to the device.

To register a device, you'll need to generate a Device key and Transport key. The registration software generates two keysets, which are used to identify the device and decrypt session keys. A certificate signing request (SCR) is then generated for the Device key.

You can enable Azure AD Device Registration in the Azure Portal by logging on as Administrator, selecting Active Directory, and then selecting your directory. From there, select the Configure tab, and then scroll to the Devices section. You'll need to select ALL for USERS MAY WORKPLACE JOIN DEVICES and set the maximum number of devices you want to authorize per user.

Azure AD Device Registration discovery is also an important aspect of device management. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices will discover the Device Registration Server by combining the user account name with a well-known Device Registration server name. This requires creating a DNS CNAME record that points to the A record associated with your Azure Active Directory Device Registration Service.

Consider reading: Join This Device to Azure Active Directory Missing

Here's a summary of the device attributes and their values related to different join types:

Note that the attribute names presented here are those exposed by Azure Active Directory Graph API with api-version=1.61-internal query parameter. The objectId is the id of the Azure AD device object.

Azure AD Device Registration can be thought of as the foundation for various scenarios, including conditional access to applications hosted on-premises and conditional access for Office 365 applications with Microsoft Intune.

Hybrid joining devices is a process that allows you to connect on-premises devices to Azure AD. There are two ways to create device objects in Azure AD for hybrid joining.

You can create a device object in on-prem AD, sync it to Azure AD, and then hybrid join it. This process involves creating a computer object in on-prem AD, getting its GUID, generating a self-signed certificate, and setting the public key of the certificate to the userCertificate attribute of the computer object.

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AADInternals can also be used to create device objects directly in Azure AD using the Join-AADIntOnPremDeviceToAzureAD function. This function uses the same API as Azure AD Connect, so you'll need to be a Global Admin or have the Directory Synchronization Accounts role.

To hybrid join a device, you'll need to provide the generated certificate, name, and SID of the computer. The Join-AADIntDeviceToAzureAD function can also be used to register, join, and hybrid join devices to Azure AD.

Hybrid joining devices requires a device object to exist in Azure AD, which can be created through syncing from on-prem AD or by using AADInternals to create it directly. All device certificates are technically identical, regardless of the join type used.

To configure and set up Azure devices, you'll need to create a DNS CNAME record that points to the A record associated with your Azure Active Directory Device Registration Service. This record must use the well-known prefix "enterpriseregistration" followed by the UPN suffix used by the user accounts at your organization.

For example, if you use two UPN suffixes at your organization named "@contoso.com" and "@region.contoso.com", you'll create the following DNS records: EntryTypeAddressenterpriseregistration.contoso.comCNAMEenterpriseregistration.windows.netenterpriseregistration.region.contoso.comCNAMEenterpriseregistration.windows.net

Additionally, you'll need to set up the Device Provisioning Service (DPS) by defining the name of the DPS instance, Azure subscription, and resource group where it will be hosted. You'll also need to link the IoT Hub to the DPS instance, add CA certificates to the DPS instance, and create an enrollment group.

Service Setup is a crucial step in configuring Azure Active Directory Device Registration. To enable this service, you must log on to the Azure Portal as an Administrator.

You'll then navigate to the Active Directory section and select your directory. From there, you can enable Azure AD Device Registration by selecting the Configure tab and scrolling to the Devices section. Here, you can select ALL for USERS MAY WORKPLACE JOIN DEVICES and set the maximum number of devices you want to authorize per user.

Two-factor authentication is not enabled by default, but it's highly recommended when registering a device. To require two-factor authentication, you must configure a two-factor authentication provider in Azure Active Directory and configure your user accounts for Multi-Factor Authentication.

To view and manage device objects in Azure Active Directory, you can log on to the Microsoft Azure Portal as an Administrator and navigate to the Users tab. From there, you can select a user to view their devices and manage their registered devices.

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Here's a summary of the service setup steps:

Understanding Object Id is crucial for Azure AD device configuration. The id of the Azure AD device object is what we're referring to here.

In Azure AD, the objectId serves as a unique identifier for each device object. This identifier is essential for various device management tasks.

The objectId is used to distinguish one device object from another within the Azure AD system. This is similar to how a social security number identifies an individual.

Hybrid Joined devices have a specific objectId value that is equal to the objectGuid of the on-prem AD device object. This is a key consideration for admins managing these types of devices.

Azure Devices supports IoT and Edge scenarios by providing a scalable and secure platform for data processing and analysis. This allows for real-time insights and actions to be taken, reducing latency and improving overall system performance.

Azure IoT Hub can handle millions of devices, making it an ideal solution for large-scale IoT deployments. With its built-in support for device management, data processing, and analytics, Azure IoT Hub simplifies the process of connecting and managing IoT devices.

Edge computing with Azure IoT Edge enables data processing and analysis closer to the source, reducing latency and improving real-time decision-making capabilities.

If this caught your attention, see: Azure Edge

The IoT Edge uses a config.toml file to initialize settings for the device, which can be found in the /etc/aziot/config.toml path.

To use the Device Provisioning Service (DPS), we just need to set up the Azure IoT Hub parameters in the config.toml file.

Azure IoT Hub is a cloud-hosted managed service that acts as a central message center for communication between an IoT application and its connected devices.

To access the Azure IoT Hub, you can connect as many devices as you need to their backend solutions reliably and securely.

The config.toml file has several options in each of its sections, but not all options are mandatory as they apply to specific scenarios.

To accomplish the configuration, we have to perform the tasks related to devices configuration, which involves provisioning and configuration authentication credentials and the assigned device provisioning service ID and endpoint.

Every IoT Hub enrollment requires the provisioning and configuration of authentication credentials and the assigned device provisioning service ID and endpoint.

The config.toml file is essential for initializing settings for the device, and setting up the Azure IoT Hub parameters is crucial for using the DPS.

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Creating IoT Hub is a crucial step in building an IoT solution. Once the IoT Hub is created, you can manage all linked IoT devices through the Azure console.

The Azure console provides a centralized hub and console for managing IoT devices. You can check their connectivity state and deployment history for each device.

For your interest: Console Azure

The IoT Hub page in the Azure Portal offers an overview of the IoT Hub and allows you to manage linked IoT devices. This is where you can monitor the status of your devices and their deployment history.

With the IoT Hub created, you can now perform actions for device management. This includes checking the connectivity state of your devices and viewing their deployment history.