IoT Hub only allows connections from known devices that present valid credentials. This document describes how to use the iothub-explorer tool to provision a device for use in IoT Hub. While IoT Hub supports multiple authentication schemes, the iothub-explorer tool generates a pre-shared key.
Note: You must have an IoT hub running in Azure before you can provision your device. The document Set up IoT Hub describes how to set up an IoT hub.
The iothub-explorer tool enables you to provision devices in your IoT hub. It runs on any computer where Node.js is available. For your convininence the tool is also published to npm, preventing you from having to clone the repository or download the code. To provision a new device:
- Get the connection string for your IoT Hub. See Set up IoT Hub for more details.
- Run the following commands in a terminal/shell window on your machine after making sure node is installed. When running the commands, use the IoT Hub connection string from the previous step and replace "mydevice" with your desired device name.
npm install -g iothub-explorer
iothub-explorer <iothub-connection-string> create mydevice --connection-string
You should see a response like this:
Created device mydevice
-
...
-
connectionString: HostName=<hostname>;DeviceId=mydevice;SharedAccessKey=<device-key>
Copy the device connection string information for later use. The samples in this repository use connection strings in the format HostName=hub-name.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=device-id;SharedAccessKey=key.
To get help on using the iothub-explorer tool to perform other tasks such as listing devices, deleting devices, and sending commands to devices, enter the following command:
iothub-explorer --help
Note: Windows users also have the option of using the Device Explorer application to provision devices.