ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector Release Notes, v. 2.0.0
ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector Release Notes, v. 2.0.0
ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector is part of the next generation of the ThingWorx connection servers. The next generation connection server is an architectural foundation that enables an expansion of the types of protocols that edge devices can use to communicate with ThingWorx Platform.
Components and Features of the Azure IoT Hub Connector
The ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector enables devices that use the Azure IoT Hub SDKs to interact with ThingWorx Platform. The ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector includesthe following components:
• The core, next-generation, connection server and the Azure IoT Hub Protocol Adapter, configured to support Azure IoT Hubs and the edge devices connected to them.
• An Azure IoT Hub Adapter Extension that must be imported into ThingWorx Platform to support Azure IoT Hub entities. This extension enables you to import your entire Azure IoT Hub and all of its device data into ThingWorx Platform.
• Another extension, called Connection Services Extension (CSE), which manages communication between ThingWorx Platform and the Azure IoT Hub Connector.
Together, these components provide the following features:
• Scalable connectivity between ThingWorx Platform and edge devices.
• Horizontally scalable by adding instances of the ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector to handle increased load.
• A health check service, logging, and metrics collection, which enable you to monitor the health of the connection to the ThingWorx Platform as well as the traffic that it is handling. The logging feature provides detailed logs to help in troubleshooting.
• Configuration file to tune settings for the Connector.
• Security for connections to ThingWorx Platform.
All of these components are part of the distribution bundle for the Connector.
What’s New in ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector, v. 2.0.0
Release 2.0.0 of the ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector provides better support for native capabilities of Azure IoT Hub, including:
• Support for device twin—An Azure device twin is a JSON document that stores device state information (metadata, configurations, and conditions). The Azure IoT Hub persists a device twin for each device that you connect to the Azure IoT Hub.
• Support for device methods—Device methods in Azure IoT Hub correspond to remote services in ThingWorx. This support allows users of ThingWorx to invoke remote services from the platform on Azure IoT Edge devices.
• Support for Azure Blob Storage—An Azure Blob Storage container can be set up as a File Repository in ThingWorx so that users can view the contents of the Azure Storage in ThingWorx.
• Support for file uploads and downloads
• Support for Azure IoT Hub Device Jobs
• Support for messages with multiple property updates in cloud-to-device messages.
For more information about the Azure IoT Hub features, refer to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub developer guide at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/guides/developer/azure-developer-guide and the documentation for this release of the ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector.
Issues Fixed in v.2.0.0
The following issues are fixed in this release:
ID
Description
AZX-8 (formerly VOL-41)
The Azure IoT Hub Connector disappears from the list of connected Connection Servers on the platform.
When it starts up, the Azure IoT Hub Connector is visible under the list of Connection Servers on the Monitoring tab in ThingWorx. When run continuously under a high load, the Connector disappears from that list after several hours have passed. The Connector also stops processing messages, but no exceptions are written to the logs.
This issue is fixed in this release.
AZX-320
Azure IoT Hubs with uppercase letters in their names will not connect.
With release 2.0.0, the Connector connects to Azure IoT Hubs with uppercase letters in their names.
AZX-327
Azure-cxserver-name does not exist or is not yet associated with a Thing error when starting up the Azure IoT Hub Connector.
The ApplicationLog error that was generated when the Connector Thing did not exist no longer occurs. However, if the bind fails (the Thing exists but does not have the tthcorrect template), the error message about the bind failure is logged.
AZX-341
Allow multiple properties in Cloud to device messaging.
Cloud-to-device messaging sends only one property at a time. Essentially, after a property value changes, a message containing the update is sent.
The ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector now allows multiple property updates to be sent in a single message. Refer to the ThingWorx Azure IoT Hub Connector Installation and Operations Guide, v.2.0.0 for details.
AZX-353
Remove azureHub property from AzureIotHubThing Thing Template.
The azureHub property on the AzureIotThing Thing Template is no longer used and has been removed from this Thing Template.
Known Issue
The following table describes a known issue for this release:
ID
Description
AZX-3
Message ordering is not preserved for a single device.
Although messages are retrieved synchronously from the Azure Event Hub endpoint, messages are dispatched to ThingWorx Platform asynchronously, leading to potential out-of-order application.