Introduction
Device Configuration Profiles
The onboarding and connectivity of devices and sensors to IOTech’s edge software platforms requires defining configuration profiles for each device that needs to be connected. These device configuration profiles include information about each device (such as its name, model number, manufacturer, etc) and how its physical attributes should be mapped into the platform's data model. The profiles are typically defined in either YAML or JSON file formats.
The Device Configuration Tool
IOTech’s Device Configuration Tool (DCT) provides a graphical interface for modelling the edge devices and creating the necessary profiles. It has dedicated menus for each supported protocol and guides the user through the device modelling process. This is quicker, more convenient and less error-prone than creating and editing the profiles via other means such as a regular text editor.
Main Components
The Device Configuration Tool allows you to create, update, read, duplicate (clone) and delete the following main components:
- Device Types
- Device Resources
- Device Profiles
These components are described in the following table:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Device Type | The identification information for an edge device or IoT sensor such as the device's name, its manufacturer, model number and a description. Device Type information typically does not change between different deployments of a particular device - i.e. its manufacturer or model number does not change. You can create, edit and delete device types with the DCT. For more information, see Device Types |
| Device Resource | The information about the data points and attributes available on each device, for example, information about a thermometer's temperature sensing properties. You can create, edit and delete device resources with the DCT. For more information, see Device Resources |
| Device Profile | Defines a specific device instance in terms of the operations that it supports. It is an association of a device type with one or more device resources together with information about whether/how the resources should be grouped into commands. You can create, edit, delete and export device profiles with the DCT. For further information, see Device Profiles |
The Device Configuration Tool also allows you to do the following:
- Setup an account, log in and out, manage your password and access further information, as described in Account Setup
- Save more time by importing a set of device resources defined in a Comma Separated Values (csv) file, as described in CSV File Importing
- Import existing device profiles for further editing, as described in Device Profile Importing