What is Azure Device Registry?
Azure Device Registry is a back-end service within Azure IoT Operations that enables cloud and edge management of devices and assets from the Azure portal. Device Registry maps assets from your edge environment to Azure resources in the cloud and offers a unified registry, so apps and services that interact with your assets connect to a single source. It syncs assets in the cloud with custom resources in Kubernetes at the edge.
When you create a device or asset in the operations experience or by using the Azure IoT Operations CLI, that device or asset is defined in Device Registry. The cloud is always the source of truth for the configuration.
Core Features
Assets and devices as Azure resources: Device Registry maps assets and devices to Azure resources, so resource groups, tags, role-based access control, policies, logging and auditing are available through Azure Resource Manager.
Unified registry: Applications and services that interact with assets connect to a single source instead of distributed individual systems.
Schema registry: The schema registry lets you define and manage schemas for your assets. Data flows use these schemas to deserialize and serialize messages.
Namespaces: Assets and devices are organized through namespaces. Each Azure IoT Operations instance uses one namespace, and multiple instances can share a namespace.
Cloud-to-edge synchronization: Changes made in the cloud sync to the edge and appear as custom resources in the Kubernetes cluster.
Typical Use Cases
Industrial asset management: Machines and plants connected for example through an OPC UA server are represented and managed as Azure resources.
Governance through Azure tooling: Resource groups, tags, RBAC and Azure Policy apply to assets and devices.
Data processing with schemas: Data flows use the schemas stored in the schema registry to process asset data.
Multiple sites: Namespaces structure assets and devices across several Azure IoT Operations instances.
Benefits
- Unified view of assets and devices across cloud and edge
- Use of established Azure governance tooling for industrial assets
- A clear source of truth in the cloud prevents configuration drift
- Management through operations experience, Azure portal, Azure CLI and ARM/Bicep
- Close interplay with Akri services, connectors and data flows in Azure IoT Operations
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you in building industrial IoT solutions with Azure IoT Operations and Azure Device Registry: modeling devices and assets, setting up the schema registry, structuring with namespaces, and governance through Azure Resource Manager.
Contact us for a no-obligation consultation on Azure Device Registry and Azure IoT Operations.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Azure Device Registry?
Azure Device Registry is a back-end service that enables the cloud and edge management of devices and assets from the Azure portal. It maps assets from your edge environment to Azure resources in the cloud and offers a unified registry so that apps and services that interact with your assets connect to a single source.
What is the difference between a device and an asset?
In Azure IoT Operations, a device is a configuration resource that encapsulates the connection information required to connect to one or more physical devices or assets. An asset is a configuration resource that encapsulates information about the data a physical asset or device exchanges with Azure IoT Operations. These configuration resources don't map one to one to physical entities.
How are cloud and edge synchronized?
You manage devices and assets through the operations experience or through Azure APIs and tools like Azure Resource Graph. Changes made in the cloud sync to the edge and appear as custom resources in the Kubernetes cluster.
Can resources be created directly on the cluster?
No. Microsoft explicitly states that the cloud is always the source of truth for device and asset configuration. Resources created directly on the cluster don't sync to the cloud, and direct edits to existing custom resources on the cluster can cause cloud and edge to go out of sync.
What are namespaces used for?
Device Registry uses namespaces to organize assets and devices. Each Azure IoT Operations instance uses one namespace for its assets and devices, and multiple instances can share a namespace.
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