How to Transfer Data from Sparkplug B to Azure IoT Hub

Open Automation Software can be used to transfer data from Sparkplug B Edge of Network devices to Azure IoT Hub, locally or over a network. This guide walks you through downloading and installing OAS, configuring a simulated Edge of Network node, a Host App connector and an Azure IoT Hub publisher, and finally publishing the tag using the Azure IoT Hub publisher.

Sparkplug B can be used with any standard MQTT broker. For the purposes of this guide on how to transfer data from Sparkplug B to Azure IoT Hub, you will use the built-in OAS MQTT Broker. Alternatively, you can also use an existing broker as long as you have the connection details such as the IP address and authentication credentials.

Typically you will also have an Edge of Network (EoN) node configured. For the purposes of this guide, you will create an EoN node and a Tag to simulate data changes. You can also use your own EoN node if you already have one.

For this guide on how to transfer data from Sparkplug B to Azure IoT Hub you will need:

• An Azure account with access to the Azure console

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

Web Configuration Application

Configuration of the OAS server is performed from the built-in Web Configuration Application. This is the main application for accessing any settings within the OAS server and is completely self-contained within the server.

You can reach this by opening your browser to:

http://<your server>:58725/app/config

If you are browsing from the OAS machine itself, you can use localhost, otherwise use the IP address of the machine. You will also need to ensure port 58725 is open on both the client and the server or you may not be able to reach the application.

On a new installation the OAS engine has no accounts yet, so the first screen you see is Create Admin Account. Once the administrator account exists that screen is not shown again, and browsing to the application displays the sign in screen instead.

1. Enter a name for the administrator in the Admin user name field. Typically you would use admin, but you can use whatever name you choose.

2. Enter a password in the Password field, then enter the same password again in the Confirm password field.

3. Click on the Create admin & sign in button. The account is created and you are signed in to the engine.

To sign in from then on, enter the Network node of the OAS engine, then the Username and Password of your account, and click on the Sign in button.

Legacy Configuration Application

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 - Check that the MQTT Broker is enabled

If you are using the OAS MQTT Broker, you can follow the steps below to ensure it is enabled, otherwise you can skip this step.

1. Select Options in the sidebar.

2. Expand the MQTT Broker section.

3. Check that the OAS MQTT Broker Enable toggle is turned on and the OAS MQTT Broker Port is configured as 1883.

   

4 - Create Security Group and User

When using Sparkplug B over the OAS MQTT Broker, you need to configure a security group and a user to provide Tag read/write access. You'll need these credentials when creating the Sparkplug B connector instances later.

ℹ️ You can skip this step if you already have your own MQTT Broker.

1. Select Security in the sidebar.

2. Click + Add, enter a Name such as SparkplugAccess and click Create. Once created, the security group name should appear in the list of security groups.

   

3. In the Read Tags section, ensure Disable All Tags From Reading is turned off.

   

4. In the Write Tags section, ensure Disable All Tags From Writing is turned off.

   

5. Select Users in the sidebar.

6. Click + Add, enter a User name such as sparkpluguser, set a Password, set the Security group to SparkplugAccess and click Create. Once created, the user name should appear in the list of users.

   

5 - Set up Sparkplug B Host App

In this section you will create a Sparkplug B driver configured using Host App mode. When you link EoN nodes to this host using the Host ID OAS will automatically create the Tags provided by the EoN node.

1. Select Drivers in the sidebar.

2. Click + Add, enter a name such as SpB Host App in the Driver Interface Name to give this driver interface a unique name, and click Create. Once created, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

3. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: Sparkplug B
   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 1883
   • User Name: sparkpluguser
   • Password: the password you configured in the previous step
   • Protocol Version: V500
   • Client ID: OAS_Client_Host
   • Mode: Host App
   • Host ID: OAS_Host (you will need to use this in your EoN node configuration)

   

   ℹ️ If you are using your own MQTT Broker, ensure that you configure the Host, Port, User Name, Password and Protocol Version accordingly.

4. Turn on Enable and click on the Apply changes button. The driver interface is not active until it is enabled and the changes are applied.

   

6 - Create Source Sparkplug B EoN node

In order to simulate the Edge of Network (EoN) node acting as a data source, we can use the features available in OAS to create an EoN using a Sparkplug B connector instance and leverage the built-in MQTT broker.

ℹ️ You can skip this section if you want to use your own existing EoN node. You'll have to ensure that your EoN node is configured with the details in step 3 below so that it can talk to the OAS Host App.

1. Select Drivers in the sidebar.

2. Click + Add, enter a name such as EoN Source Node in the Driver Interface Name to give this driver interface a unique name, and click Create. Once created, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

3. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: Sparkplug B
   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 1883
   • User Name: sparkpluguser
   • Password: the password you configured in the previous step
   • Protocol Version: V500
   • Client ID: OAS_Source_Node
   • Mode: Edge Node
   • Group ID: SourceGroup
   • Edge Node ID: SourceNode

   

4. Turn on Enable and click on the Apply changes button. The driver interface is not active until it is enabled and the changes are applied.

   

7 - Create a Tag attached to EoN for data source simulation

Now that the EoN node has been created we want to be able to publish data from it so we can simulate data being generated by the EoN node.

ℹ️ If you skipped creating an EoN node in OAS and you already have your own EoN node configured, you can skip this section as well and instead generate some data in your own EoN node.

1. Select Tags in the sidebar.

2. If you want to add a Tag to the root Tags group make sure another tag at the root is selected. Click the [+] button and select Add Tag.

   

   If you want to add a Tag to a Tag Group, select the Tag Group first and then click on the [+] button. Alternatively, you can right click on a Tag Group and select Add Tag.

   You can also add Tag Groups by clicking the [+] and selecting Add Group.

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

   

4. To assign this Tag to a Sparkplug B node configure the Host properties to match your EoN node Group ID and Edge Node ID properties.

   • Host Group ID: SourceGroup
   • Host Edge Node ID: SourceNode
   • Host Device ID: EoN Data Source
   • Host Metric Name: Temperature

   

5. Click on the Apply changes button to apply the changes.

8 - Verify Host App Tag Generation for Data Source

You will now check to make sure the Tag Group folder structure and Tag for the Temperature metric was automatically generated and that any updates to the TemperatureSensor tag will flow through from the EoN node to the generated Tag.

1. Select Tags in the sidebar.

   Tips

   If you were already on the Tags screen, you may need to click on the ↻ refresh button next to the Node field to refresh the tag list.

2. You will see a Tag Group structure starting with a parent folder called SpB Host App and then a sub-folder for SourceGroup, another sub-folder for SourceNode and finally a sub-folder for the EoN node called EoN Data Source. The Temperature tag representing the Temperature metric is inside this final sub-folder.

   As you can see the Sparkplug B host app driver has automatically generated the folder structure and Tags.

   

3. Select the Temperature tag in the EoN Data Source sub-folder. You should see a value of zero (0) and the Client parameters configured according to the EoN node Host properties. These properties were automatically configured by OAS.

   

4. Now you will test the data flow.

   ℹ️ If you have your own EoN node configured and you skipped creating an EoN node in OAS then you can trigger a data change in your EoN node to test the configuration.

   If you created an EoN node in OAS you can select the TemperatureSensor tag in the root Tags folder. Type in a value of 24.9 in the Enter Value field and click on the Apply changes button. If everything is working correctly, this change should trigger the EoN node to publish a new value via the OAS MQTT Broker.

   

5. Select the Temperature tag again in the EoN Data Source sub-folder. You should now see a value of 24.9.

   

9 - Create Azure IoT Hub Resource

In this step you will create a new Azure IoT Hub resource. This creates the necessary IoT broker and management framework.

1. Login to the Azure Console and select the IoT Hub service.

2. Click on the Create button.

3. Select your Subscription and Resource group, then provide an IoT hub name such as OASIoTHub. You can adjust the Region if necessary. For the purposes of this guide you can use the Free tier.

   If you already have an IoT Hub configured you can use that instead.

   

4. Click on the Review + create button and then click on the Create button when you have reviewed the details.

5. It will take a few minutes to create a new IoT Hub resource.

10 - Configure Azure IoT Hub Connector

In the following steps you will create and configure an Azure IoT connector.

The OAS Azure IoT connector can automatically create the device in Azure that represents the OAS connection. For this reason it uses the iothubowner shared access policy.

1. You can obtain the OASIoTHub connection string in the IoT Hub portal. Open the IoT Hub that you created and in the menu select Security Settings > Shared access policies.

   

2. Click on iothubowner to open the key and connection strings panel.

   

3. Next to the Primary connection string click on the copy button.

   

4. Select Drivers in the sidebar.

5. Click + Add, enter a meaningful Driver Interface Name to give this driver interface instance a unique name, and click Create. Once created, the driver interface name should appear in the list of drivers.

6. Ensure the following parameters are configured:

   • Driver: Azure IoT
   • Type: IoT Hub
   • Azure IoT Device ID: OAS
   • Azure IoT Connection: The connection string copied from Step 3
   • Azure IoT Hub: OASIoTHub.azure-devices.net

   

7. Turn on Enable and click on the Apply changes button. The driver interface is not active until it is enabled and the changes are applied.

   

11 - Verify Azure IoT Hub Device

In this section you will verify that a device with the Device ID OAS was created automatically in the Azure IoT Hub.

1. In the Azure IoT Hub portal for the OASIoTHub IoT Hub, select Device management > Devices.

   

2. You should see the device OAS listed in the table.

   

12 - Publish Selected Tags in Azure IoT Hub connector

In this step you will select the Tags that you want to publish to the Azure IoT Hub in the Azure IoT Hub connector configuration.

1. In the Drivers screen, select the Azure IoT driver instance that you created in the previous section (for example Azure IoT Connector 1).

2. Make sure the Publish Selected Tags toggle is turned on.

   

3. In the Tags To Publish table click on the Add button.

   

4. The Publish tag window will appear. Click on the … button to browse for a Tag, select the Tag you want to add in the left hand panel and then ensure the Value property is selected, and click on the Use this tag button.

   

5. Back in the Publish tag window the Id defaults to the full Tag path (e.g. SpB Host App.SourceGroup.SourceNode.EoN Data Source.Temperature.Value). If you want to set your own property name, you can change the Id field to your own custom value. Click on the OK button.

   

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

   

7. Click on the Apply changes button.

13 - Verify Messages are Published to Azure IoT Hub

In this step you will confirm that OAS is successfully publishing your selected Tags to the Azure IoT Hub. By default, the publishing type is set to Continuous and the interval is 10 seconds.

1. In the Azure portal open the Cloud Shell in the toolbar.

   

2. Use the following command to start listening for events.

   az iot hub monitor-events --hub-name OASIoTHub --device-id OAS
   

   It may request for installation of the Azure IoT commands

3. You should see a payload printed for each message that is received. This should occur every 10 seconds.

   Starting event monitor, filtering on device: OAS, use ctrl-c to stop...
   {
       "event": {
           "origin": "OAS",
           "module": "",
           "interface": "",
           "component": "",
           "payload": "{\r\n  \"deviceId\": \"OAS\",\r\n  \"values\": [\r\n    {\r\n      \"id\": \"TemperatureSensor\",\r\n      \"value\": \"24.902344\",\r\n      \"quality\": true,\r\n      \"timestamp\": \"2025-05-14T07:52:30.576Z\"\r\n    }\r\n  ]\r\n}"
       }
   }
   

   The data from OAS is contained in the payload field of the JSON structure.

4. To stop monitoring you can press ctrl-c on your keyboard.

14 - Save Changes

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

On each configuration page that has a Save button, click on it.

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.