IoT & Connectivity Tips

Every edge component that connects to the ThingWorx platform requires an Application Key.  This 'AppKey' provides both authentication and authorization control.  When an edge component connects it steps through a connection process.  The second step of that process is to send the AppKey to the platform.  The platform will inspect the key and ensure that it is valid.  It also creates a session for that edge connection and associates the AppKey with the session.  Any future requests that are sent over that AlwaysOn connection will execute under the security context configured for the user associated with the AppKey. In order for edge applications to interact with the platform they require a certain set of permissions.  It is a best practice to not associate the Administrator user with an Application Key.  Doing this would allow an edge application to invoke any and all services on the platform, and to modify the property values of any thing.  The permissions applied to an edge component's AppKey should be the minimum set required for your application to function. The AppKey associated with an edge component is typically associated with a single Thing, or a collection of Things, usually of the same ThingTemplate.  Identify the Thing(s) or ThingTemplate(s) that your application will interact with.  There are four types of interactions for edge components: property reads, property writes, service invocations, and event executions (edge components do not subscribe to events).  These four types of interactions match the runtime permissions that can be configured on a Thing, or the 'run time instance' permissions for a ThingTemplate. If an edge application will be reading or writing all properties of a particular Thing, then applying the 'read property' and 'write property' permissions is appropriate.  If only a select set of a Thing's properties will be read or written, then read and/or write permission should be disabled, and only the select properties should be enabled using overrides. Since every Thing has a number of generic services, the 'service execute' permission should be disabled, and overrides should be configured for the selected services that the edge needs access to.  In addition, overrides should be configured for the 'UpdateSubscribeProeprtyValues' service and for the 'ProcessRemoteEvents' service.  Edge components often use these service to update a collection of properties or to fire a set of events. Finally, if your edge application triggers events on a Thing, overrides should be used to provide execute permission for those events. In summary, the safest path to configuring edge permissions is to create a new user and AppKey with no permissions applied, and to then selectively apply permissions for that user only on the Thing or Things that your edge components will interact with.

Remote Monitoring of Assets in Connected Factories   As stated in the previous reference benchmark, one of the missions of the IOT Enterprise Deployment Center (EDC) is to showcase how real-world IOT business problems are solved. Our goal is that these benchmarks can be used as a reference or baseline for architects working on their own implementations, showing not only a successful at-scale implementation, but also what happens when that same implementation is pushed to, or even past, it's limits.   The second in this series is attached here, this time reflecting a Connected Factory implementation. ThingWorx was deployed alongside Kepware Server, with the numbers of things, the number of properties, and the write rate for those properties being varied to once again test the capabilities of a remote monitoring use case, but this time in a Connected Factory setting. The business logic was kept simple to ensure it was not the limiting factor, as the throughput between Kepware Server and ThingWorx was pushed to the limit. See first hand the capabilities of Kepware Server and ThingWorx Foundation to handle implementations centered around real-time data reporting   More Connected Factory implementations will be added to this document in time, with multiple Kepware Server deployments and other scenarios to come. Please feel free to use this community post to ask any questions about our approach and discuss any design, deployment, and simulation factors. 

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Navigate 1.6.0 to 8.5.0   Description:   Covers Single Sign On concepts and main items to take into account when defining SSO architecture, with the following agenda: What is Single Sign on? What is PTC Strategy for Single Sign on? How does PingFederate fits in the existing SSO Federation? What products currently can be configured for SSO? Optional SSO in Navigate 1.6 What are the key diferences in SSO over the different Navigate versions? What are we doing internally to prepare for SSO? What resources are available for SSO discussions?         Related articles for further information Related Service: Configure SSO for Navigate

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Platform 7.0 to 8.5   Description:   Introduction to ThingWorx Extension Development, with the following topics: What is an Extension Why building an Extension Prerequisites Installing Eclipse plugin and features Creating entities with the plugin and including exported Entities in an Extension Project Upgrading or Updating and Existing extension in ThingWorx Building with Gradle and Ant       ThingWorx Extension Development Guide

Applicable Releases: ThingWorx Platform 7.0 to 8.4   Description:   Strategy and tools for Thingworx application backups Backup Terminology and concepts Drivers to define a backup strategy Tips for executing backup in a Thingworx instance: Tomcat, certificates, Configuration and file system data, application specific files, database     Neo4J database mentioned in the session is no longer supported For more information check Best Practices for ThingWorx Backup

ThingWorx is great for storing large amounts of data coming from your devices but it can also be used like a traditional, row based database for information you would like to integrate with your thing data. Attached to this blog entry is a short example of creating an address book database using a DataTable and a DataShape. It does not focus on creating mashups but sticks with discussing the modeling and service calls you would use to create a simple database.

Here is a spreadsheet that I created which helps to estimate data transfer volumes for the purpose of estimating egress costs when transferring data out of region.   You find that there are a number of input parameters like numbers of assets, properties, file sizes, compression ratio, as well as a page with the cost elements which can be updated from the Interweb.    

I created this recently for another group -  might be useful    Video Link to Create a Database connection to you Postgres Thingwork Database 

Still not sure what the reference benchmarks have to offer? Check out this short video abstract reviewing the purpose of the reference benchmarks, some notes on how to read the guide, and information about what these guides will have to offer. Then, check out the reference benchmark for remote monitoring here!   ~~

The App URI in the ThingWorx Remote Thing Tunnel configuration specifies the endpoint of the specified tunnel. The default value (/Thingworx/tunnel/vnc.jsp) will point to the built in ThingWorx VNC client that can be downloaded through the Remote Access Widget in a Mashup to provide VNC remote desktop access. Leaving the App URI blank will result in the Tunnel being connected to the listen port on the users machine as specified in the Remote Access Widget​. In this case the user must supply the application client (e.g. an ssh client) in order to connect to the tunnel endpoint.

Axeda Machine Streams enables external Platform integrators to access the current, raw data from connected assets. The Platform can stream the data item, alarm, mobile location, and registration messages from connected assets to an ActiveMQ server or Azure Service Bus endpoint. Streamed data can be used for data analytics or reporting, or simply for storage. This article explains the Machine Streams Data Relay project that Axeda provides. This sample project illustrates how stream consumers can create their own projects to relay Machine Stream messages from ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus into their environments. The Machine Streams Data Relay project was created using Apache Maven. The project operates by dispatching messages to a log message processor. Each machine streams message is logged to stdout. Note: The "Axeda Features Guide" provides a high level introduction to the Axeda Machine Streams feature. That PDF is available from PTC Support (http://support.ptc.com/).) Downloading and Installing the Project The machine-streams-data-relay project is provided as a tar.gz archive for Linux users and a .zip archive for Windows users. Each archive includes a Maven project with all source code. This page provides downloads and full source for the machine-steams-data-relay Maven project. The Data Relay project files are available from here. Prerequisites To download, build, and compile the machine-streams-data-relay project, you will need the following: Access to an Axeda Platform instance configured to stream asset data (for ActiveMQ endpoint this includes the Axeda provided ActiveMQ machine-streams plugin/overlay (axeda-jms-plugin-r<SVN_REVISION>-machine-streams.zip, which is provided here. ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server configured for Machine Streams. Instructions for configuring an ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server for Machine Streams are provided in the “Axeda® Machine Streams: A Guide to Setting Up Broker Endpoints", available with all documentation from PTC Support (http://support.ptc.com/). At least one machine stream (Axeda Artisan Machine Streams Archetype) configured to stream data to the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server for your assets. (Complete information about creating machine streams and adding machine stream support to the Axeda Platform is provided in the “Axeda v2 API/Services Developers Reference Guide” available from PTC Support (http://support.ptc.com/).) Access to the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server configured as the endpoint for streamed Machine Streams content Oracle Java JDK 1.7 or greater and java and javac installed and available in your PATH (if you need instructions for this, see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html) Maven 3.0.4 or greater and mvn installed and available in your PATH (if you need instructions for this, see http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi) Note: For the Machine Streams Data Relay project to work successfully, the Axeda Platform instance and the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server instance must be configured with support for Axeda Machine Streams, and at least one machine stream must be configured to stream data. Complete information about configuring Axeda Platform for Axeda Machine Streams, including the data format for the resulting streams (XML or JSON) is available in the “Axeda v2 API/Services Developers Reference Guide.” Instructions for configuring an ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server for Machine Streams are provided in the “Axeda® Machine Streams: A Guide to Setting Up Broker Endpoints” Reference Guide (available from PTC Support (http://support.ptc.com/)). Building the Project This page provides instructions for building the Data Relay project for Linux and for Windows environments. 1. Download and uncompress the project for your environment Linux: Click here for the machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3-project.tar.gz # tar -zxvf machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3-project.tar.gz # cd machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3 Windows: Click here for the machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3-project.zip Unzip the project to the following directory: C:\machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3 2. Edit the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus configuration file (configAMQ.properties or configASB.properties) in src\main\scripts\ as needed. sample Config.properties files for the MachineStreamsDataRelay component For ActiveMQ broker endpoints - configAMQ.properties # The ActiveMQ broker URL. brokerURL=tcp://localhost:62000 # The ActiveMQ queue name to process messages from. # It can be a single queue: MachineStream.stream01 # Or a wildcard queue: MachineStream.> queueName=MachineStream.> # The username used to connect to the ActiveMQ queue username=axedaadmin # The password used to connect to the ActiveMQ queue password=zQXuLzhQgcyRZ25JCDXYEPBCT2kx48 # The number of ActiveMQ broker connections. numConnections=10 # The number of sessions per connection. Note that each session will create a separate thread. numSessionsPerConnection=5 # The number of concurrent threads used for processing machine streams messages. numProcessingThreads=100 # The type of message listener container. # default = single queue name per connection. # multiDestination = supports multiple queue names per connection messageListenerContainerType=default For Azure Service Bus broker endpoints - configASB.properties # The ASB broker URL. brokerURL=amqps://your-azure-service-bus-namespace.servicebus.windows.net # The ASB queues to process messages from. # It can be a single queue: MachineStream.stream01 # Or multiple queues separated by a comma: MachineStream.stream01,MachineStream.stream02 # Or a queue range defined by the following syntax: MachineStream.stream[01-20] queueName=MachineStream.stream[01-50] # The username used to connect to the ASB queue(s) username=your-azure-service-bus-username # The password used to connect to the ASB queue(s) password=the-password-for-your-azure-service-bus-username # The max number of ASB broker connections. numConnections=10 # The number of concurrent threads used for processing machine streams messages. numProcessingThreads=100 # The type of message listener container. # default = single queue name per connection. # multiDestination = supports multiple queue names per connection messageListenerContainerType=multiDestination Note: messageListenerContainerType is provided because Azure Service Bus does not support wildcard queue names. The configuration details are as follows: Name Description Value brokerURL location of the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus (broker) location of the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus server (broker) queueName Name of the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus queue from which you want to process messages To define a single queue: MachineStream.<insert single queue name here> To define a wildcard queue name for multiple queues:MachineStream. It can be a single queue:  MachineStream.stream01 Or multiple queues separated by a comma: MachineStream.stream01,MachineStream.stream02 Or a queue range defined by the following syntax: MachineStream.stream[01-20]: queueName=MachineStream.stream[01-50] (if you have multiple queues and you want to use ASB, then you have to use multiDestination and use the range) username username used to connect to the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus queue For ActiveMQ: username=axedaadmin For ASB: username=your-azure-service-bus-username password used to connect to the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus queue password used to connect to the ActiveMQ or ASB queue(s) numConnections number of ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus broker connections Default is 10 broker connections numSessionsPerConnection The number of sessions per connection. Note that each session will create a separate thread. (This key is used infrequently.) APPLICABLE TO ACTIVEMQ ONLY. Default is 5 sessions per connection APPLICABLE TO ACTIVEMQ ONLY. numProcessingThreads The number of concurrent threads used for processing machine streams messages. Default is 100 concurrent threads messageListenerContainerType The type of message listener container. Default is single queue name per connection. Supports multiple queue names per connection 3. Build code using Maven.  Use -DskipTests option if you want to skip tests.  This will build all source code and produce a bin archive in the target directory. For Linux: # mvn package -DskipTests For Windows: c:\> mvn package -DskipTests 4. Enter the target directory and uncompress *bin.tar.gz archive and enter correct directory For Linux: # cd target # tar -zxvf machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3-bin.tar.gz # cd machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3 For Windows: c:\> cd target c:\> unzip machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3.bin.zip c:\> cd machine-streams-data-relay-1.0.3 5. Start the application. For Linux: # ./machineStreamsDataRelay.sh <config properties file> for example: e.g. ./machineStreamsDataRelay.sh configOfYourChoice.properties For Windows: # ./machineStreamsDataRelay.sh <config properties file> for example: e.g. ./machineStreamDataRelay.bat configOfYourChoice.properties See the two example config files included within the project: configASB.properties (for Azure Service Bus) and configAMQ.properties (for ActiveMQ). 6. Scan the output. If your ActiveMQ configuration is correct, output similar to the following should appear, and no ERRORS should be shown: 2014-03-26 10:27:06.179 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initializing connections to tcp://localhost:62000 username=axedaadmin 2014-03-26 10:27:06.346 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 1: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.351 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 2: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.356 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 3: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.365 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 4: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.369 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 5: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.381 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 6: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.388 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 7: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.402 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 8: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.411 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 9: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 2014-03-26 10:27:06.416 [main] INFO  [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized connection 10: queue=MachineStream.> numSessions=5 If your Azure Service Bus configuration is correct, output similar to the following should appear, and no ERRORS should be shown: 2014-10-01 16:51:30.114 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initializing Connections to amqps://acme.servicebus.windows.net username=owner 2014-10-01 16:51:31.613 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-6] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 6 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-8] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 8 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-10] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 10 created 0/9 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-2] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 2 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.621 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-7] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 7 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:31.756 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-1] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 1 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.613 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-6] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 6 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-8] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 8 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-10] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 10 created 7/9 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-2] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 2 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 7/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.623 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-7] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 7 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.756 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-1] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 1 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:32.833 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 1: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=2631 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:32.833 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 2: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=2488 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:33.613 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-6] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 6 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-8] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 8 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.614 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-10] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 10 created 9/9 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 8/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:33.623 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-7] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 7 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:34.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 0/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:34.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:34.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 8/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:34.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:35.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:35.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:35.615 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 8/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:35.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:36.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:36.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:36.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:36.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 8/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:37.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:37.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:37.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 9/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:37.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 8/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:38.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-3] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 3 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:38.617 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-9] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 9 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:38.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-4] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 4 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:38.616 [ConnectionRecovery-thread-5] INFO [MultiDestinationMessageListenerContainer]: Connection 5 created 10/10 queue consumers 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 3: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=8491 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 4: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=8490 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 5: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=8490 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 6: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=3485 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 7: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=3495 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 8: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=3485 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 9: numQueues=10 initTimeMillis=8488 millis 2014-10-01 16:51:38.643 [main] INFO [MessageListenerServiceImpl]: Initialized Connection 10: numQueues=9 initTimeMillis=3485 millis 7. To verify that messages are being streamed properly from the Axeda Platform, send DataItems from your connected Assets. You should see messages similar to the following. (Remember that each Asset you are testing must have an associated Machine Stream.) 2014-03-26 10:45:16.309 [pool-1-thread-1] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset1,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-00000000021d,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:16 EDT 2014,temp,43,analog 2014-03-26 10:45:21.137 [pool-1-thread-2] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset2,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-000000000225,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:21 EDT 2014,temp,43,analog 2014-03-26 10:45:26.134 [pool-1-thread-3] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset1,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-00000000022b,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:26 EDT 2014,temp,44,analog 2014-03-26 10:45:31.135 [pool-1-thread-4] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset2,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-000000000231,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:31 EDT 2014,temp,44,analog 2014-03-26 10:45:36.142 [pool-1-thread-5] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset1,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-000000000237,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:36 EDT 2014,temp,45,analog 2014-03-26 10:45:41.146 [pool-1-thread-6] INFO  [LogMessageProcessor]: StreamedDataItem: Model,Asset2,799021d6-70a3-7c32-0000-00000000023d,false,Wed Mar 26 14:45:41 EDT 2014,temp,45,analog Configuring a CustomMessageProcessor By default, the project is configured to use a LogMessageProcessor that logs each streamed message it receives to standard out. The project takes a StreamedMessage in either an XML or JSON format (as configured in the MachineStream SDKv2 object) and decodes the message into a StreamedMessage Java object. LogMessageProcessor.java implements the MessageProcessor interface. Here is the MessageProcessor.java interface: MessageProcessor.java package com.axeda.tools.streams.processor; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedMessage; /** * This class defines the message processor method callback that will called for message processing. * Note that this methods will be called by multiple threads concurrently. */ public interface MessageProcessor { /** * Process a machine stream message. Note that this method will be called by multiple threads concurrently.  * The number of concurrent processing threads is defined in MachineStreamsConfig.getNumProcessingThreads(). * If you add code here that significantly slows down message processing, then there is the potential that * MessageListenerService threads will also block.  When the MessageListenerService threads block, this means that * messages will start to backup in the ActiveMQ or ASB message queues. If you are processing a large number of messages, * then you may need to adjust your configuration parameters or optimize your processMessage() code. * @param message machine streams message to process */public void processMessage(StreamedMessage message);} An additional class named CustomMessageProcessor.java has been provided so that you can provide your own custom message processing logic: CustomMessageProcessor.java package com.axeda.tools.streams.processor; import org.springframework.stereotype.Component; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedAlarm; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedDataItemMessage; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedMessage; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedMobileLocation; import com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedRegistrationMessage; /** * This class was provided for customers to implement their own message processing business * logic. To use this class, change the @Autowired messageProcessor qualifier in * MessageProcessingServiceImpl.java to @Qualifier("customMessageProcessor") */ @Component("customMessageProcessor") public class CustomMessageProcessor implements MessageProcessor { /** * (non-Javadoc) * @see com.axeda.tools.streams.processor.MessageProcessor#processMessage(com.axeda.tools.streams.model.StreamedMessage) * * Process a machine stream message. Note that this method will be called by multiple threads * concurrently. The number of concurrent processing threads is defined in * MachineStreamsConfig.getNumProcessingThreads(). * If you add code here that significantly slows down message processing, then there is the * potential that MessageListenerService threads will also block. When the MessageListenerService * threads block, this means that messages will start to backup in the ActiveMQ or Azure Service Bus message queues. If you * are processing a large number of messages, then you may need to adjust your configuration parameters * or optimize your processMessage() code. */ @SuppressWarnings("unused") @Override public void processMessage(StreamedMessage message) { if (message instanceof StreamedDataItemMessage) { StreamedDataItemMessage dataItem = (StreamedDataItemMessage) message; // add your business logic here } else if (message instanceof StreamedAlarm) { StreamedAlarm alarm = (StreamedAlarm) message; // add your business logic here } else if (message instanceof StreamedMobileLocation) { StreamedMobileLocation mobileLocation = (StreamedMobileLocation) message; // add your business logic here } else if (message instanceof StreamedRegistrationMessage) { StreamedRegistrationMessage registration = (StreamedRegistrationMessage)message; // add your business logic here } } } The Axeda Platform Machine Streams feature currently support 4 different message types: StreamedDataItemMessage StreamedAlarm StreamedMobileLocation StreamedRegistrationMessage For each of the different message types, you should add your message processing business logic.  You may want to write each message to your favorite NoSql database or to a flat file. Once you have completed your changes to the CustomObjectMessageProcessor, then you must make one change in the MessageProcessingServiceImpl.java class to use this Spring bean. Uncomment this line  // @Qualifier("customMessageProcessor") Comment this line @Qualifier("logMessageProcessor") The following code snppet shows what your changes should look like when you are finished: MessageProcessingServiceImpl.java @Component("messageProcessingService") public class MessageProcessingServiceImpl implements MessageProcessingService private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MessageProcessingServiceImpl.class); @Autowired private MessageDecoder messageDecoder; @Autowired // If you want to use the CustomMessageProcessor instead of the default LogMessageProcessor then change this Qualifier to @Qualifier("customMessageProcessor") //@Qualifier("logMessageProcessor") private MessageProcessor messageProcessor; private ExecutorService executorService;

Checkout the below video which explores the Creo As A Service (CAAS) feature of the Product Insight extension. This allows to retrieve Creo analysis computation inside ThingWorx through the Analytics Manager framework.  

With the advent of faster and cheaper hardware, and owing to vast improvements in connectivity such as Gigabit networks and 5G, data is collected and processed at an ever increasing pace. As such, there is a related need for the Analytical Models built on top of such data to evolve over time. As part of this evolution, modelling experiments with more data, new variables, new techniques, and different training parameters will be performed. The resulting models need to be tracked, monitored, and appropriate versions need to be used for scoring in various scenarios. This creates the need for version control of Analytical Models.   ThingWorx Analytics makes it easy to implement an “Analytics Model Version Control” system via two mechanisms: A job Id and timestamp based identification system, so if a model with the same jobName (model name) is retrained, the old model will still exist and can be easily retrieved A tagging mechanism for the above jobs   Before using the above techniques to version control Analytics Models, it is critical to decide what represents “the same model” to be versioned. Unlike in the world of Software Engineering where the concept to be versioned is a file / folder that evolves over time, in the world of Analytics Models, there could be several, potentially customer specific definitions. For example, one definition could be “same training parameters, but trained on the latest, most comprehensive data available”. Yet another, more relaxed definition could be “any training parameters, but same training dataset and goal” or even “any training parameters, on any historical version of the training dataset”.   Once this concept is agreed upon within the customer's organization, and if training is done in a ThingWorx service by calling the APIs, for a given jobName (model name) one can simply query the tags for a LatestVersion type tag, increment, and create the new model with the same jobName and incremented tag. Any model version with the same jobName and its corresponding performance metrics can then be accessed using the tag. Additional tags (such as techniques used, dataset version, etc) can be added if desired to make retrieval of context dependent models more efficient.

  Hello, everyone!   With the release of ThingWorx 8.5, we’ve incorporated a lot of new functionality into our manufacturing and service apps. To cover a few, I’ve included the list below. We created a manufacturing common layer extension to bundle all the PTC-offered IoT apps (Operator Advisor, Asset Advisor, Production KPIs and Controls Advisor) into one extension to enable you to use them even more quickly. We added a UI to Operator Advisor to strengthen your development of work instructions. We introduced new shift and crew data models and user interfaces to standardize how to track workers’ shifts and crew availability. We also introduced Flexible KPIs to help you more rapidly develop apps to calculate common metrics. We enhanced the Operator Advisor MPMLink connector to allow users to access navigation criteria for filtering parameters based on required criteria with support for standard processes. We incorporated multiple context supports for assets—like different business units, separating maintenance views from production views or segmenting sites by location—to allow segmentation based on role and responsibility, showing the power of ThingWorx networks and permissions.   Today, I’d like to highlight one of these areas in particular: flexible KPI calculations.   I spoke with one of product managers, Ward (who you may recognize from this post) to learn more about what this new feature does and the value it brings the business. Here’s what he said:   Kaya: Why did we create flexible KPIs? What was the challenge users were facing that led us to create them? Ward: While there is an industry standard for KPIs such as OEE, availability, productivity and quality, many customers choose to customize the calculations slightly and use their own specific versions in their decision-making process or production monitoring.    Kaya: What do the flexible KPIs do? Can you provide an example? Ward: KPIs can now be customized by ThingTemplate; this allows users to calculate KPIs differently for different “classes” of things. Imagine you have a group of CNC machines and a group of pumps. You want to calculate the availability of each group, but the availability calculation for the CNC machines may differ slightly from the same availability calculations for pumps. With our new flexible KPIs, you’re able to customize the availability calculation to make slight tweaks or changes based on differences in machines or devices. So, you can calculate the availability for both your CNC machines and for your pumps using your customized availability calculations. You can also create your own KPIs to calculate metrics like safety incidents or waste.   Kaya: Let’s dive a little deeper there. If I want to create a quality station for my robot with custom KPIs, how exactly would I do that? Ward: Let’s consider OEE. We have an OEE ThingShape applied to our ISA95 physical ThingTemplate. This shape has services to perform the OEE calculation. You’re able to customize the service on this template, so you have the flexibility to change the way you perform OEE calculations. Now, let’s say you want to add a new KPI like mean time between repair (MTBR). To do so, you would create a MTBR ThingShape and add it to the ThingTemplates where you want OEE calculated. Then, you would update the KPI manager service GetKPINames to add your ThingShape to the list of KPIs to be executed each iteration. The SCO apps will then execute your MTBR service along with the other KPIs.   Kaya: What are their use cases? How does they improve the business? Ward: Customers can have their cells roll up OEE based on the worse performing asset and have their operations roll up on a different criterion.  If the customer wants to use a modified OEE on a machine that includes the size of the crew operating it, they can now do so on that one machine, on classes of machines or on all machines.   Kaya: Wow. You were certainly busy with 8.5 with all these new features. Can you tell me what you’re most excited about for 9.0? Ward: I’m most looking forward to High Availability. The ability to have multiple servers in an active-active mode allows me to do more processing in ThingWorx and provide a level of reliability to my customers. (Look out for info on this exciting new functionality in the future!)   Ready to get started using the flexible KPIs yourself? Check out the ThingWorx Apps Customization Guide! While you’re at it, be sure to also check out the other new features in 8.5 listed above!   Reach out with any questions and stay connected! Kaya

The intend of this post. This post is for the user who want to validate that, the ThingWorx Analytics Services related to Confidence Models work successfully. Underneath video walk through the steps to validate the Services via a non-supported PTC Mashup. The intend of this video is uniquely to validate that, Services related to Confidence Models works successfully.  What package files are used in the video? The Mashup entities and dataset used in the video, is attached to this post. Feel free to download the files and test on your machine. Why use Confidence Models? A confidence model is a way of adding confidence interval information to a predictive model. Statistically, for a given prediction, a confidence model provides an interval with upper and lower bounds, within which it is confident, up to a certain level, that the actual value occurs. During predictive scoring, this measure of confidence provides additional information about the accuracy of the prediction. More information about Confidence Models can be found here at PTC Help Center 

The Axeda Platform has long had the ability to write custom logic to retrieve, manipulate and create data.  In the current versions of the Platform, there are two classes of API, Version 1 (v1) and Version 2 (v2).  The v1 APIs allow a developer to work with data on the Platform, but all of the APIs are subject to the maxQueryResults configuration property, which by default limits the number of results per query to 1000. For some subsets of data, this can be inadequate to process data.  In comes the v2 API, which introduces pagination. One of the first things a new user does when exploring the V2 API, is something like the following: HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria criteria = new HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria() criteria.assetId = '9701' criteria.startDate = '2014-07-23T12:33:00Z' criteria.endDate = '2014-07-23T12:44:00Z' DataItemBridge dbridge = com.axeda.sdk.v2.dsl.Bridges.dataItemBridge FindDataItemValueResult results = dbridge.findHistoricalValues(criteria)           And they get frustrated when they only get the same 100 rows of data.  Repeat after me: V2 API invocations (find operations) are limited to batches of 100 results at a time! But that's not the end of the story.  With a small change, the query above can be tuned to iterate through all results that match the search criteria:  HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria criteria = new HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria() criteria.assetId = '9701' criteria.startDate = '2014-07-23T12:33:00Z' criteria.endDate = '2014-07-23T12:44:00Z' criteria.pageNumber = 1 criteria.pageSize = 100 // Default. DataItemBridge dbridge = com.axeda.sdk.v2.dsl.Bridges.dataItemBridge FindDataItemValueResult results = dbridge.findHistoricalValues(criteria) tcount = 0 while ( (results = dbridge.findHistoricalValues(criteria)) != null  && tcount < results .totalCount) {   results.dataItems.each { res ->     tcount++   }   criteria.pageNumber = criteria.pageNumber + 1 }    I currently recommend that people avoid using the count() or countDomainObjectByCriteria() functions if you're then going to call a find.  Currently both the count*() and find functions compute total results, and doubles execution time of just those two calls.  Total count is only computed when running the first find() operation, so the code pattern above is so far the most efficient way I've seen to run these operations on the platform. So having covered how to do this in code (custom objects), let's turn our attention to the REST APIs - the other entry-point for using these capabilities.  The REST API doesn't offer a count*() function, but the first find() invocation (if using XML) brings back totalCount as part of the result set.  You can use this in your application to decide how many times to call the REST end-point to retrieve your data.  So for the example above: POST:  https://customer-sandbox.axeda.com/services/v2/dataItem/findHistoricalValues HEADERS: Content-Type: application/xml Accept: application/xml BODY: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria xmlns="http://www.axeda.com/services/v2" pageSize="100" pageNumber="1"> <assetId>9701</assetId> <StartDate>2014-07-23T12:33:00Z</StartDate> <endDate>2014-07-23T12:35:02Z</endDate> </HistoricalDataItemValueCriteria>      RESULTS: <v2:FindAssetResult totalCount="1882" xmlns:v2="http://www.axeda.com/services/v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">    <v2:criteria pageSize="100" pageNumber="1">       <v2:name>*</v2:name>       <v2:propertyNames/>    </v2:criteria>    <v2:assets>    </v2:assets> </v2:FindAssetResult>      Or JSON: POST:  https://customer-sandbox.axeda.com/services/v2/dataItem/findHistoricalValues HEADERS: Content-Type: application/xml Accept: application/xml BODY: {   "id":  9701,   "startDate": "2014-07-23T12:33:00Z",   "endDate": "2014-07-23T12:35:02Z",   "pageNumber": 1,   "pageSize": 2 }      And that's how you work around the maxQueryResults limitation of the v1 APIs.  Some APIs do not currently have matching v2 Bridges (e.g. MobileLocation and DataItemAssociation), in which case the limitation will still apply.  Creative use of the query Criteria will allow you to work around these limitations as we continue to improve the V2 API. Regards, -Chris

One of the signature features of the Axeda Platform is our alarm notification, signalling and auditing capabilities.   Our dashboard offers a simplified view into assets that are in an alarm state, and provides interaction between devices and operators.  For some customers the dashboard may be too extensive for their application needs.  The Axeda Platform from versions 6.6 onward provide a number of ways of interacting with Alarms to allow you to present this data to remote clients (Android, iOS, etc.) or to build extended business logic around alarm processing. If one were to create a remote management application for Android, for example, there are the REST APIs available to interact with Assets and Alarms.  For aggregate operations where network traffic and round-trip time can be a concern, we have our Scripto API also available that allows you to use the Custom Object functionality to deliver information on many different aggregating criteria, and allow developers to get the data needed to build the applications to solve their business requirements. Shown below is a REST API call you might make to retrieve all alarms between a certain time and date. POST:   https://INSTANCENAME/services/v2/rest/alarm/find <v2:AlarmCriteria xmlns:v2="http://www.axeda.com/services/v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">    <v2:date xsi:type="v2:BetweenDateQuery">     <v2:start>2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z</v2:start>     <v2:end>2015-01-31T23:59:59.000Z</v2:end>   </v2:date>   <v2:states/> </v2:AlarmCriteria>   In a custom object, this would like like the following: import static com.axeda.sdk.v2.dsl.Bridges.* import com.axeda.services.v2.* import com.axeda.sdk.v2.exception.* def q = new com.axeda.services.v2.BetweenDateQuery() q.start = new Date() q.end = new Date() ac = new AlarmCriteria(date:q) aresults = alarmBridge.find(ac)   Using the same API endpoint, here's how you would retrieve data by severity: <v2:AlarmCriteria xmlns:v2="http://www.axeda.com/services/v2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">    <v2:severity xsi:type="v2:GreaterThanEqualToNumericQuery">     <v2:value>900</v2:value>   </v2:severity>   <v2:states/> </v2:AlarmCriteria>   Or in a custom object: import static com.axeda.sdk.v2.dsl.Bridges.* import com.axeda.services.v2.* import com.axeda.sdk.v2.exception.*   def q = new com.axeda.services.v2.GreaterThanEqualToNumericQuery() q.value = 900 ac = new AlarmCriteria(severity:q) aresults = alarmBridge.find(ac)   Currently the Query Types do not map properly in JSON objects - use XML to perform these types of queries via the REST APIs. References: Axeda v2 API/Services Developer's Reference Guide 6.6 Axeda Platform Web Services Developer Reference v2 REST 6.6 Axeda v2 API/Services Developer's Reference Guide 6.8 Axeda Platform Web Services Developer Reference v2 REST 6.8

Load Testing through C SDK Remote Device Simulation in ThingWorx   As discussed in the EDC's previous article, load or stress testing a ThingWorx application is very important to the application development process and comes highly recommended by PTC best practices. This article will show how to do stress testing using the ThingWorx C SDK at the Edge side. Attached to this article is a download containing a generic C SDK application and accompanying simulator software written in python. This article will discuss how to unpack everything and move it to the right location on a Linux machine (Ubuntu 16.04 was used in this tutorial and sudo privileges will be necessary). To make this a true test of the Edge software, modify the C SDK code provided or substitute in any custom code used in the Edge devices which connect to the actual application.   It is assumed that ThingWorx is already installed and configured correctly. Anaconda will be downloaded and installed as a part of this tutorial. Note that the simulator only logs at the "error" level on the SDK side, and the data log has been disabled entirely to save resources. For any questions on this tutorial, reach out to the author Desheng Xu from the EDC team (@DeShengXu).   Background: Within ThingWorx, most things represent remote devices located at the Edge. These are pieces of physical equipment which are out in the field and which connect and transmit information to the ThingWorx Platform. Each remote device can have many properties, which can be bound to local properties. In the image below, the example property "Pressure" is bound to the local property "Pressure". The last column indicates whether the property value should be stored in a time series database when the value changes. Only "Pressure" and "TotalFlow" are stored in this way.  A good stress test will have many properties receiving updates simultaneously, so for this test, more properties will be added. An example shown here has 5 integers, 3 numbers, 2 strings, and 1 sin signal property.   Installation: Download Python 3 if it isn't already installed Download Anaconda version 5.2 Sometimes managing multiple Python environments is hard on Linux, especially in Ubuntu and when using an Azure VM. Anaconda is a very convenient way to manage it. Some commands which may help to download Anaconda are provided here, but this is not a comprehensive tutorial for Anaconda installation and configuration. Download Anaconda curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-5.2.0-Linux-x86_64.sh  Install Anaconda (this may take 10+ minutes, depending on the hardware and network specifications) bash Anaconda3-5.2.0-Linux-x86_64.sh​ To activate the Anaconda installation, load the new PATH environment variable which was added by the Anaconda installer into the current shell session with the following command: source ~/.bashrc​ Create an environment for stress testing. Let's name this environment as "stress" conda create -n stress python=3.7​ Activate "stress" environment every time you need to use simulator.py source activate stress​  Install the required Python modules Certain modules are needed in the Python environment in order to run the simulator.py  file: psutil, requests. Use the following commands to install these (if using Anaconda as installed above): conda install -n stress -c anaconda psutil conda install -n stress -c anaconda requests​ Unpack the download attached here called csim.zip Unzip csim.zip  and move it into the /opt  folder (if another folder is used, remember to change the page in the simulator.json  file later) Assign your current user full access to this folder (this command assumes the current user is called ubuntu ) : sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /opt/csim   Move the C SDK source folder to the lib  folder Use the following command:  sudo mv /opt/csim/csdkbuild/libtwCSdk.so.2.2.4 /usr/lib​ You may have to also grant a+x permissions to all files in this folder Update the configuration file for the simulator Open /opt/csim/simulator.json  (or whatever path is used instead) Edit this file to meet your environment needs, based on the information below Familiarize yourself with the simulator.py file and its options Use the following command to get option information: python simulator.py --help​   Set-Up Test Scenario: Plan your test Each simulator instance will have 8 remote properties by default (as shown in the picture in the Background section). More properties can be added for stress test purposes in the simulator.json  file. For the simulator to run 1k writes per second to a time series database, use the following configuration information (note that for this test, a machine with 4 cores and 16G of memory was used. Greater hardware specifications may be required for a larger test): Forget about the default 8 properties, which have random update patterns and result in difficult results to check later. Instead, create "canary properties" for each thing (where canary refers to the nature of a thing to notify others of danger, in the same way canaries were used in mine shafts) Add 25 properties for each thing: 10 integer properties 5 number properties 5 string properties 5 sin properties (signals) Set the scan rate to 5000 ms, making it so that each of these 25 properties will update every 5 seconds. To get a writes per second rate of 1k, we therefore need 200 devices in total, which is specified by the start and end number lines of the configuration file The simulator.json  file should look like this: Canary_Int: 10 Canary_Num: 5 Canary_Str: 5 Canary_Sin: 5 Start_Number: 1 End_Number: 200​ Run the simulator Enter the /opt/csim  folder, and execute the following command: python simulator.py ./simulator.json -i​ You should be able to see a screen like this: Go to ThingWorx to check if there is a dummy thing (under Remote Things in the Monitoring section): This indicates that the simulator is running correctly and connected to ThingWorx Create a Value Stream and point it at the target database Create a new thing and call it "SimulatorDummyThing" Once this is created successfully and saved, a message should pop up to say that the device was successfully connected Bind the remote properties to the new thing Click the "Properties and Alerts" tab Click "Manage Bindings" Click "Add all properties" Click "Done" and then "Save" The properties should begin updating immediately (every 5 seconds), so click "Refresh" to check Create a Thing Template from this thing Click the "More" drop-down and select "Create ThingTemplate" Give the template a name (ensure it matches what is defined in the simulator.json  file) and save it Go back and delete the dummy thing created in Step 4, as now we no longer need it Clean up the simulator Use the following command: python simulator.py ./simulator.json -k​ Output will look like this: Create 200 things in ThingWorx for the stress test Verify the information in the simulator.json  file (especially the start and end numbers) is correct Use the following command to create all things: python simulator.py ./simulator.json -c​ The output will look like this: Verify the things have also been created in ThingWorx: Now you are ready for the stress test   Run Stress Test: Use the following command to start your test: python simulator.py ./simulator.json -l​ or python simulator.py ./simulator.json --launch The output in the simulator will look like this: Monitor the Value Stream writing status in the Monitoring section of ThingWorx:   Stop and Clean Up: Use the following command to stop running all instances: python simulator.py ./simulator -k​ If you want to clean up all created dummy things, then use this command: python simulator.py ./simulator -d​ To re-initiate the test at a later date, just repeat the steps in the "Run Stress Test" section above, or re-configure the test by reviewing the steps in the "Set-Up Test Scenario" section   That concludes the tutorial on how to use the C SDK in a stress or load test of a ThingWorx application. Be sure to modify the created Thing Template (created in step 6 of the "Set-Up Test Scenario" section) with any business logic required, for instance events and alerts, to ensure a proper test of the application. 

Background: Firewall-Friendly Agents can be configured for server certificate authentication in the Axeda Builder project or via the Axeda Deployment Utility. When server certificate authentication is configured, the Agent will compare the certificate chain sent by the Platform to a local copy of the CA certificate chain stored in the SSLCACert.pem file in the Agent’s home directory. The certificate validation compares three things: Does the name of the Platform certificate match the name in the request? Does the CA certificate match the CA certificate that signed the Platform certificate? Is the Platform or CA certificate not expired? If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, then connection is refused and the Agent does not communicate further with the Platform. To determine if certificate trouble is an issue, see the Agent log: EKernel.log or xGate.log. Recommendation: For Agent-Platform communications, we recommend always using SSL/HTTPS. If the Agent is not configured to validate the server certificate (via the trusted CA certificate), the system is vulnerable to a number of security attacks, including “man in the middle” attacks. This is critically important from a security perspective. Note: For on-premise customers, if the Platform certificate needs to change, always update the SSLCACert.pem file on all Agents before updating the Platform certificate. (If the certificate is changed on the Platform before it is changed on the Agents, communications from the Agent will stop.) Note: Axeda ODC automatically notifies on-demand customers about any certificate updates and renewals. At this point, though, Axeda ODC certificate updates are not scheduled for several years. Finally, it is recommended that your Axeda Builder project always specify “Validate Server Certificate” and set the encryption level to the strongest level supported by the Web server. Axeda recommends 168 bit encryption, which will use one of the following encryption ciphers: AES256-SHA or DES-CBC3-SHA. Need more information? For information about configuring and managing Agent certificate authentication, see Using SSL with Axeda® Platform Guide.

This demo walks through how Range Count works. The Range Count service calculates the difference between the maximum and minimum value.  Agenda of the demo: 1. Create a demo Thing 2. Add a new property to the Thing 3. Add the property statistical calculation type Range Count to the Thing 4. Validate the statistical calculation service via the added calculation type Range Count 5. Validate the statistical calculation service via the Service QueryTimedValuesForProperty      

Background: The frequency with which an Agent checks its connection to the Axeda Cloud Server is called the Agent “ping rate” (also known as heartbeat). (For Axeda IDM Agents, ping rate is referred to as “poll rate”; the meaning is the same.) Pings are a very important aspect of Firewall-Friendly communication. All communication between the Agent and the Cloud Server is initiated by the Agent. In addition to indicating the Agent is still active, the Ping also gives the Cloud Server an opportunity to send commands back to the Agent on the Ping acknowledgement. The ping rate effectively defines how long users must wait before they can deliver a command or request to an Agent. Typical commands may include setting a data item, starting an Access Session, or running a script. The place where Ping rate is most noticeable to system users is when requesting a remote session. When a session request has been submitted by the user, the Cloud Server waits for the next Agent ping in order to send down the command to begin the session process. A longer ping rate means the remote session takes longer to get started. (Note that the same is true of any command initiated from the Axeda Cloud Server.) Ping traffic comprises the majority of inbound traffic to the Cloud Server. The higher the ping rate, the more resources are consumed on the Server and the greater the requirements for network bandwidth for the customer. Unnecessarily high ping rates will result in an increase in network traffic on your customer's network. By default, the ping rate for Firewall-Friendly Agents is 60 seconds, or every 1 minute. The Agent ping rate is set using Axeda Builder when configuring the project. The ping rate can also be set via an action from the Axeda Cloud Server. When set via an action, the new ping rate is in effect until the next Agent restart (at which time the Agent will go back to the default ping rate set in the project). The Axeda Cloud Server also uses Agent ping rate to determine when assets are missing. One of the model settings is to define how many missed pings (or missed pings and time) will cause a device to be marked as missing. The default setting for new models is to mark assets as missing after they’ve missed 3 consecutive pings. Recommendations: Make sure that your Agents’ ping rates are set to reasonable frequencies. The ping rate should be set based on use case and not necessarily volume. The recommended practice is to make sure the ping rate is never set less than 60 seconds. Where possible the ping rate should be set to 2 minutes or higher. In the end, it is often user expectations around starting Access sessions that drives the ping rate value. If only occasional user access is required, one recommendation is to dynamically adjust the ping rate when conditions require expedited communication with the Cloud Server. One use case is to expedite a remote session when a device is in alarm condition or when an end user needs assistance. In this case you would temporarily increase the ping rate. This can be done using an action from the Cloud Server, by downloading a software package ping rate update, or by Agent extension using the SDK. (For information about using the Agent SDK, see the Axeda® Platform Extending Axeda® Agents PDF.) You can configure alerts to indicate if an asset is missing. Axeda recommends that you configure the alert to a reasonable time given your resources and the expense of tracking every missing asset. A reasonable missing alert for your organization may be 1-2 days, meaning the Server generates the missing asset alert only after the asset has been missing for one or two days, based on its ping rate, and an asset should be marked as missing only after 15 missed pings or 30 minutes (whichever is less). The most common cause of a missing asset is not an issue with the device but rather the loss of Internet connectivity. Note: Any communication from an Agent also serves the function of a Ping. E.g., if the ping rate is set to 30 minutes and the device is sending a data value every 5 minutes, the effective Ping rate is 5 minutes. Need more information? For information about specifying Agent ping rate, see the online help in Axeda® Builder (Enterprise Server Settings). If setting the ping rate from Platform actions or verifying Agent ping rates, see the online help of the Axeda® Connected Management Applications.