cloudConnector-CloudConnector

cloudConnector-CloudConnector_Sentience

The CloudConnector component enables a NiagaraStation running in a localhost connection or on a JACE embedded controller to securely connect to a specific cloud platform.

For example, the CloudConnector_Sentience nCloudDriver component provides device registration and secure connection to the Honeywell Sentience Cloud Platform for use with Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver and other Cloud services.

NOTE: CloudConnector is a licensed feature.

In addition to enabling cloud connectivity, the CloudConnector handles device authentication to Niagara Cloud; maintains a message queue that can be used to send messages to and from the Cloud; raises an alarm if a connectivity problem occurs; and provides a bearer token to other services to identify those as coming from a properly registered device.

The CloudConnector Service generates alerts for the fault state, i.e. Cannot connect to Cloud. Alerts are routed to the alarm class specified in the service’s Alarm Source Info property.

Device Registration is the default view which enables a user to register a device.

This component is found in the cloudSentienceConnector palette.

NOTE: In the Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver release 2018_4 and later, the connectors in the cloudSentienceConnector palette are renamed for clarity. The intended use for each one is as follows:

Use “CloudConnector_Sentience nCloudDriver” for Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver and CloudBackupService (JACE-8000 and above).
Use “CloudConnector_Sentience cloudBackup Only” for CloudBackupService when nCloudDriver is not supported (JACE-7 and older).
Use ”Upgrade From cloudBackup Only to nCloudDriver” only if you initially added a connector that was for cloud backups only, or if you had an older connector that pre-dates the release of Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver.
Place “Upgrade From cloudBackup Only to nCloudDriver” under CloudConnector/Connector Impl and select the action Switch To Iot Hub Message Client. A JACE-8000 or above, as well as the CloudIotHubDep-rt.jar module are required for this upgrade.

For legacy JACE platforms (JACE-3, JACE-6, and JACE-7) and for JACE-8000 platforms that are only used for cloud backups, only use the CloudConnector_Sentience cloudBackup Only component. Note that this component, does not support the Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver, so this driver should not be used with legacy JACE platforms or with JACE-8000 platforms that are only used for cloud backups.

Figure 2. CloudConnector_Sentience nCloudDriver Property Sheet

Properties

Name	Value	Description
Status	read-only	Indicates the condition of the connector at the last check. {ok} indicates that the CloudConnector component is licensed, registered with Sentience and Niagara Cloud, and successfully connected. {down} indicates that the CloudConnector is not connected to the Niagara Cloud, perhaps it is not registered, or possibly loss of network connection. {disabled} indicates that the Enable property is set to `false`. {fault} indicates another problem. Check the Fault Cause property for more information.
Fault Cause	read-only	Indicates the reason why the CloudConnector component is in fault. This field is empty unless a fault exists. Check the Fault Cause property for more information.
Enabled	`true` or `false` (defaults to `true`)	Activates and deactivates use of the component.
Connector Impl	additional properties	A frozen slot on the CloudConnector component, this contains read only fields that show registration and connection URLs which determine how the device will be registered and connected. See the following section on SentienceConnectorImpl properties.
Id	text string	This is a globally unique identifier for each host, supplied by the Identity Provider with which the connector is registered. For the Sentience cloud platform, this is a “System GUID” that uniquely identifies the station within the Niagara Cloud.
Connection State	Disconnected, Connected, Pending Connect	Indicates whether or not the CloudConnector is currently connected to the specified cloud platform.
Connect Retry Interval	00000h 00m 20s (default)	Amount of time between attempts to establish a connection upon a failure to connect.
Alarm Source Info	additional properties	Contains a set of properties for configuring and routing alarms generated relating to CloudConnector connection problems.
Last OK Time	date time	Displays the last date and time the CloudConnector health was OK.
Last Fail Time	date time	Displays the last date and time the CloudConnector health failed.
Last Fail Cause	text string	Displays the reason for the last failure of the CloudConnector health.

SentienceConnectorImpl properties

All of these properties are specific to SentienceConnectorImpl. Another ConnectorImpl, such as "AWSConnectorImpl", or "BluemixConnectorImpl", would not have these same properties.

Name	Value	Description
Message Client	additional properties	This slot describes properties used to control messaging to the cloud platform. For legacy JACEs, this client is not used, and will be a NullMessageClient. For JACE-8000 and Supervisor platforms configured for Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver, this will be an IotHubMessageClient, which can be configured to optimize messaging to the IotHub. Note that for JACE-8000 and Supervisor platforms, installing the cloudIotHubDep-rt module and the CloudConnector_Sentience nCloudDriver connector ensures that the IotHubMessageClient is available.
System Id		Contains a logical identifier for the station outside of the provisioning lifecycle, and is used in registering the system with the cloud platform's identity provider.
System Type		Specifies identity for the station in the cloud, outside of the provisioning lifecycle. This property is required to be configured before registration. The System Type is used to group systems of similar origin/brand for data segregation purposes. NOTE: In the 2018.2 pre-release (and later), the System Type property value is determined by the installed software image. IMPORTANT: It is very important that you register with the correct system type. If using the “built-in” cloudConnector palette, by default the System Type property is blank. Although it is possible to manually enter the system type, a best practice is to use the external palette provided in the software image download.This software image contains one palette with the System Type property already correctly configured for your brand.
System Ownership Code	text string	A unique code used to prove physical ownership and/or possession of the device in question.
Device Registration Url		Endpoint for the Niagara Cloud web service that will register this device's identity with the cloud identity provider.
Device Authentication Url		Endpoint for authenticating the device; i.e., establishing that this device is the device whose identity was previously registered with the identity provider.
Registration Url		Endpoint of the cloud platform identity provider for device registration.
Registration State	Unregistered, Registered, Needs Provisioning	Current state of device's registration with the identity provider.
Http Connect Timeout	00000h 02m 00s (default)	NOTE: This property is used in configuring the CloudConnector for the Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver, not for Backup as a Service.
Http Read Timeout	00000h 10m 00s (default)	NOTE: This property is used in configuring the CloudConnector for the Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver, not for Backup as a Service.

Actions

Switch To Iot Hub Message Client — Used in conjunction with the CloudConnector named ”Upgrade From cloudBackup Only to nCloudDriver”. Use this action only if you initially added a connector that was for cloud backups only, or if you had an older connector that pre-dates the release of Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver

IotHubMessageClient properties

These properties pertain only to the IotHubMessageClient. The NullMessageClient has no properties.

Name	Value	Description
Transport	AMQPSoverWebSocket (default), AMQPS	The Transport mechanism is used for sending messages to the IotHub. The AMQPSoverWebSocket (AMQPS/WS) option connects to Sentience using the HTTPS web port, typically 443. The AMQPS transport option connects to Sentience on port 5671. NOTE: You will need to configure firewalls to allow outbound connections from NiagaraStations to the hosts specified in the prerequisites for the procedure, “Setting up device internet access”, and for the port indicated by the selected Transport value (either AMQPSoverWebSocket or AMQPS).
Message Timeout	00000h 05m 00s (default)	Specifies how long to wait for a response for a message sent to the cloud platform. CAUTION: The Message Timeout value should remain at the default value. Adjust this value only upon recommendation by your Support channel.
Compression	GZip (default)	When configured, this is used to compress messages.
High Priority Queue	additional properties	See the following section, High/Low Priority Queues.
Low Priority Queue	additional properties	See the following section, “High/Low Priority Queues”.
Sentience Message Rate Limit	5 (default), 0 (no limit)	Maximum number of messages/second from station to Sentience. Default is recommended for Sentience starter environment instance. NOTE: This property is used in configuring the CloudConnector for the Niagara Cloud Honeywell Sentience Driver, not for Backup as a Service.

High/Low Priority Queues

Data is sent to the cloud by taking messages from the priority queues in a round robin fashion, according to the Weight property value for each queue. For example if the High Priority Queue has a weight of 2 and the Low Priority Queue has a weight of 1 then assuming both queues have data to send the IotHubMessageClient will send the two high priority messages first followed by the 1 low priority message.

Name	Value	Description
Queue Size	1048576 (default)	The amount of data that can be placed in the queue before it will stop accepting new messages.
Weight	1 (default)	The weight property sets this queue’s relative weight for message selection. A higher weight value will cause the queue to consume a larger share of the available bandwidth.

Actions

When you right-click on the service you can invoke the following action(s):

Reconnect — reconnects to Device Registration site.