Microsoft IOT Central Plug and Play - Adding credentials to device

Question

How do you add IOT Central credentials to a device (device id, scope id) - do you even need to do this?

In the following video a plugin and play device is just powered on, and then it is visible in IOT Central. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzTw1_AuxdQ

I don't understand how this works, as if no IOT Central specific credentials are added, wouldn't this device be available to everyone in their IOT central environments?

As this isn't the case, I presume these to be added to the device (somehow?)

Answer 1

You can find a summary of the options for connecting a device to IoT Central here.

This article illustrates the process with a specific device.

The recommendation for a production environment is to use X.509 certificates - you install a root or intermediate certificate into IoT Central and then configure your devices with leaf certificates generated from the root or intermediate cert.

You can also use SAS keys - you can use a group key to generate multiple device keys than you can use in a connection string.

As Matthijs mentioned, Plug and Play means that a device can be automatically associated with a device template so that a device can start sending data that IoT Central understands as soon as it connects.

Answer 2

You do need to add something to the device before you connect it. How this works differs per device, but the process involves generating an SAS key or leaf certificate. The picture below explains the general steps that are taken. In the case of Plug And Play, step 5 becomes obsolete because the device communicates its capability model and is automatically associated.