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It’s simple to provision an Azure IoT Hub service instance using the Azure Portal. However, there are time when you need a more DevOps style approach by scripting it. The Azure Powershell Az.IotHub module can be used to manage commands for managing Azure IoT Hub resources. This method enables you to use the command-line directly or even write PowerShell scripts to deploy Azure IoT Hub in dev, stage, or even production environments.


Create Azure IoT Hub using PowerShell

Follow these steps to create an Azure IoT Hub service instance using the Azure PowerShell Az.IotHub module:

  1. Open an Azure PowerShell prompt, or an instance of the Azure Cloud Shell.

  2. To create a new instance of the Azure IoT Hub service, the following command can be used:

    New-AzIotHub -Name {iot-hub-name} `
        -ResourceGroupName {resource-group-name} `
        -SkuName {sku} `
        -Unit {number-of-units} `
        -Location {azure-region}
    

    -Name: The Name parameter is used to specify the name of the IoT Hub service. This is also used as part of the DNS endpoint for the service, so it is required to be unique.

    Naming Requirements: The IoT Hub Name must meet the following requirements:

    • must be unique across all customers using IoT Hub within Azure
    • must be between 3 and 50 characters long
    • must only be alphanumeric characters

    -ResourceGroupName: The Resource Group is how the IoT Hub service is organized within your Azure Subscription. Once this command is executed, a new instance of the Azure IoT Hub service will be created and ready to use. Be sure to set the required parameters. You can reference the following section of this guide for more information about the -SkuName parameters.

Azure IoT Hub SKUs (Pricing Tiers)

The -SkuName parameter of the New-AzIotHub command must be set to a valid pricing tier (SKU) for Azure IoT Hub.

Here are the pricing tiers with a little information about their limits and scalability targets:

Basic tier

SKU Messages / day per Unit Message meter size
B1 400,000 4 KB
B2 6,000,000 4 KB
B3 300,000,000 4 KB

Standard tier

SKU Messages / day per Unit Message meter size
F1 (FREE) 8,000 0.5 KB
S1 400,000 4 KB
S2 6,000,000 4 KB
S3 300,000,000 4 KB

Please refer to the Azure IoT Hub Pricing page for further information about the pricing tiers available.

Here’s an example with the placeholders filled in to create an Azure IoT Hub using the Standard S1 pricing tier:

New-AzIoTHub -Name TestIoTHub59 -ResourceGroupName Test `
    -SkuName S1 -Unit 1 -Location centralus

Install Azure PowerShell Az.IotHub Module

The New-AzIotHub cmdlet is a part of the Azure PowerShell Az.IotHub module. In order to use this module with Azure PowerShell, you will need to have the module installed.

You can use the following command within PowerShell to install the Az.IotHub module:

Install-Module -Name Az.IotHub

Happy Scripting!

Microsoft MVP

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.
HashiCorp Ambassador Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect