How to Transfer Data from AWS IoT Core to Kafka

Open Automation Software can be used to transfer data from AWS IoT Core to a Kafka cluster, locally or over a network. This guide walks you through downloading and installing OAS, configuring an AWS IoT Core subscriber, a tag and a Kafka publisher, and finally publishing the tag using the Kafka publisher.

For this guide on how to transfer data from AWS IoT Core to a Kafka cluster you will need:

• An AWS account with access to the AWS IoT Core console
• Docker installed in Linux or Windows including the docker-compose utility

1 - Download and Install OAS

If you have not already done so, you will need to download and install the OAS platform.

Fully functional trial versions of the software are available for Windows, Windows IoT Core, Linux, Raspberry Pi and Docker on our downloads page.

On Windows, run the downloaded setup.exe file to install the Open Automation Software platform. For a default installation, Agree to the End User License Agreement and then click the Next button on each of the installation steps until it has completed.

If you'd like to customize your installation or learn more, use the following instructions:

• Windows Installation
• Linux Installation
• Raspberry Pi Installation
• Docker Installation

The OAS Service Control application will appear when the installation finishes on Windows.

Click on each START SERVICE button to start each of the three OAS services.

2 - Configure OAS

Configure OAS is the main application used to configure local and remote OAS instances.

1. From your operating system start menu, open the Configure OAS application.

2. Select the Configure > Tags screen.

   Important

   If this is the first time you have installed OAS, the AdminCreate utility will run when you select a screen in the Configure menu. This will ask you to create a username and password for the admin user. This user will have full permissions in the OAS platform.

   For further information see Getting Started - Security.

3. If this is the first time you are logging in, you will see the AdminCreate utility. Follow the prompts to set up your admin account. Otherwise, select the Log In menu button and provide the Network Node, username and password.

   

   

3 - Create a Kafka test cluster using Docker

In this step you will create a local Kafka cluster. To simplify the deployment you will need to have Docker installed including the docker-compose utility. This method allows you to create a cluster very quickly for testing purposes and remove it again when you are done.

1. Create a new folder such as Kafka and inside the folder create a new docker-compose.yml file with the following definition.

   services:
       zookeeper:
           image: confluentinc/cp-zookeeper:latest
           container_name: zookeeper
           ports:
               - "2181:2181"
           environment:
           ZOOKEEPER_CLIENT_PORT: 2181
           ZOOKEEPER_TICK_TIME: 2000
   
       kafka:
           image: confluentinc/cp-kafka:latest
           container_name: kafka
           ports:
               - "9092:9092"
           environment:
           KAFKA_BROKER_ID: 1
           KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT: zookeeper:2181
           KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS: PLAINTEXT://localhost:9092
           KAFKA_LISTENER_SECURITY_PROTOCOL_MAP: PLAINTEXT:PLAINTEXT
           KAFKA_OFFSETS_TOPIC_REPLICATION_FACTOR: 1
   
   

2. Open a command line terminal or bash terminal and use the following command to start a new container. This will download the image and all its dependencies and may take a few minutes.

   docker-compose up -d

3. Create a new topic called temperature using the following command.

   docker exec kafka kafka-topics --create --topic temperature --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 1 --replication-factor 1

4 - Create Subscriber Thing in AWS IoT Core

In this step you will create a Thing in the AWS IoT Core service and the required certificate and policies for subscribing to messages sent by AWS IoT Core. This represents your connection and security settings between AWS IoT Core and OAS.

1. Login to the AWS Console and select the AWS IoT service.

2. Under the Manage and All Devices menu select Things.

3. Click on the Create things button to start the create new things wizard.

4. Select Create single thing and click on the Next button.

   

5. Set the Thing name to OAS_Subscriber and click on the Next button.

   

6. Leave the default option to generate device certificate automatically and click on the Next button.

   

7. Select the Create policy button. This will open a new browser tab or window.

8. Set the Policy name to OASSubscriberPolicy. The policy will need to allow the iot:Connect and iot:Subscribe actions. For the purpose of this guide the policy will allow all resources using the * wildcard.

   

   Important

   For security best practices in production systems you should always restrict your policy to the client ID and AWS resource name (ARN) that represents your region, account and topic paths.

9. Go back to the create thing wizard and select the OASSubscriberPolicy. Click on the Create thing button.

10. You will see a window relating to certificates. Download the device certificate, the public key file, the private key file and one of the Root CA certificates. You should keep these files in a folder with limited permissions. You'll need them when configuring the AWS IoT Core subscriber in the OAS platform.

    

5 - Configure AWS IoT Core Subscriber

In the following steps you will create and configure an AWS IoT Core Subscriber for subscribing to tag values.

1. To determine the AWS IoT Core endpoint you will need to login to the AWS console and select the AWS IoT service. Select the Domain configurations menu.

2. If you don't already have a domain name use the Create domain configuration button to create one. You will need to take a note of the Domain name property, which represents your AWS IoT Core broker endpoint.

3. In the Configure OAS application, select Configure > Drivers from the top menu.

   

4. Enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name to give this driver interface instance a unique name (for example AWS IoT Subscriber).

5. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: AWS IoT Gateway
   • BrokerPort: 8883
   • Create Certificate: Select this if running Windows
   • Client Certificate File: The device certificate pem.crt file from the previous section
   • Client Certificate Key File: The private pem.key file from the previous section
   • Server Certificate File: The Root CA pem file from the previous section
   • Client ID: OASSubscriber
   • IoT End Point: This is your AWS Iot Core endpoint from step 2 above

   

   Info

   If you are using Linux, you can generate a PFX certificate using OpenSSL.

   openssl pkcs12 -export \
       -out oas-connection-certificate.pfx \
       -inkey 2ed57ff8e30d1a12345f69bc2a8a6b4a1721b123456789912e675cc74111ced7-private.pem.key \
       -in 2ed57ff8e30d1a12345f69bc2a8a6b4a1721b123456789912e675cc74111ced7-certificate.pem.crt \
       -certfile AmazonRootCA1.pem
   

   You can then use the generated certificate and password in your AWS IoT Gateway driver configuration:

   

6. Click the ADD DRIVER button on the left hand side to add this driver configuration. Once added, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

   

6 - Add Data Source Tag

In this section you will create a Tag to represent your data point in the field (for example a temperature sensor). This can then be transferred your desired destination.

1. Select Configure > Tags from the top menu.

   

2. If you want to add a Tag to the root Tags group make sure the Tags node is selected in the tag list and click on the ADD TAG button.

   

   If you want to add a Tag to a Tag Group, select the Tag Group first and then click on the ADD TAG button.

   You can also add Tag Groups by using the ADD GROUP button.

3. Provide a Tag Name such as TemperatureSensor and click the OK button.

   

7 - Assign AWS IoT Gateway as Tag Data Source

You will now set the Tag's data source to the AWS IoT Subscriber interface that you created previously.

1. Select the Tag that will source data from the AWS IoT Core data source.

   

2. Set the following properties:

   • Data Source: AWS IoT Gateway
   • Select Driver Interface: AWS IoT Subscriber
   • Topic: oas/temperature

   

3. Click on the Apply Changes button to apply the changes.

4. Login to the AWS Console and select the AWS IoT service.

5. Under the Test menu select MQTT test client and then select the Publish to a topic tab.

6. In the Topic name specify oas/temperature.

7. In the Message payload enter a value and then click on the Publish button.

   

8. Check that the quality status is Good Quality and you can see the value.

   

8 - Configure Kafka Producer

In the following steps you will create and configure a Kafka Connector connecting to a local Kafka cluster on port 9092. This connector will act as a Producer where Tags are published to a topic in the cluster.

1. Select Configure > Drivers from the top menu.

   

2. Set the Driver Interface Name to Kafka Producer to give this driver interface instance a unique name.

3. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: Kafka
   • Bootstrap Servers: localhost:9092
   • Security Protocol: Plaintext
   • Client Id: oas-kafka-producer

   

4. Click on the ADD DRIVER button on the left hand side to add this driver configuration. Once added, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

   

9 - Publish Selected Tags in Kafka Producer

In this step you will select the Tags that you want to publish to the Kafka cluster.

1. In the Configure > Drivers screen, select the Kafka driver instance that you created in the previous section (for example Kafka Producer).

2. Make sure the Publish Selected Tags checkbox is ticked.

   

3. In the table at the bottom click on the ADD button.

   

4. Select the Tag you want to add in the left hand panel and then ensure the Value property is selected. By default the name of the property will be the full Tag path (e.g. TemperatureSensor.Value). If you want to set your own property name, you can change the Id field to your own custom value.

   

5. The Tag has now been added to the list. You can add other Tags by repeating steps 3 and 4.

   

6. Click on the Apply Changes button.

10 - Verify Messages are Published to Kafka Cluster

In this step you will confirm that OAS is successfully publishing your selected Tags to the Kafka cluster.

1. Run the following command in a terminal or command line window to start listening for new messages on the oas_tags topic which is the default topic for the Publish Selected Tags configuration.

   docker exec kafka kafka-console-consumer --topic oas_tags --bootstrap-server localhost:9092
   

   Info

   You may receive a warning message, because the oas_tags topic doesn't exist yet. You can safely ignore this as it will be created automatically.

2. Any changes your TemperatureSensor tag value should be published within 10 seconds to the terminal window.

   {
       "values": [
           {
               "id": "TemperatureSensor",
               "value": 24.902344,
               "quality": true,
               "timestamp": "2025-05-20T09:23:41.332Z"
           }
       ]
   }
   

3. To stop listening for new messages press the Ctrl-C shortcut combination on your keyboard.

11 - Save Changes

Once you have successfully configured your OAS instances, make sure you save your configuration.

On each configuration page, click on the Save button.

If this is the first time you are saving the configuration, or if you are changing the name of the configuration file, OAS will ask you if you want to change the default configuration file.

If you select Yes then OAS will make this configuration file the default and if the OAS service is restarted then this file will be loaded on start-up.

If you select No then OAS will still save your configuration file, but it will not be the default file that is loaded on start-up.