Machine onboarding to AWS IoT utilizing Digital Non-public Cloud endpoints

Introduction

Should you function safe non-public networks—comparable to an meeting line’s operational expertise (OT) community at a manufacturing unit or authorities company­—and intend to attach your gadgets to AWS, then you must use X.509 shopper certificates for authenticating requests to AWS providers—all whereas staying inside the Digital Non-public Cloud (VPC). On this publish, we are going to exhibit how you can use the brand new functionality, VPC endpoint (VPCe) for AWS IoT Core credential supplier to handle element deployments into AWS IoT Greengrass-powered gateways operating on non-public networks. Equally, we may also exhibit how you can develop and join gadgets that use AWS IoT Machine SDK and require trade of X.509 shopper certificates for safety tokens to work together with different AWS providers.

AWS IoT Core is a completely managed service that helps connectivity for billions of gadgets. Gadgets and software program purchasers that hook up with AWS IoT Core depend on X.509 certificates for authentication. Nonetheless, different AWS providers depend on safety tokens to authenticate API calls. To keep away from hardcoding credentials and/or tokens within the purchasers, AWS IoT Core gives AWS IoT Core credential supplier endpoint. This endpoint permits purchasers, like AWS IoT Greengrass elements, to trade their X.509 certificates as safety tokens to work together with different AWS providers. Furthermore, with AWS IoT Core’s credential supplier endpoint functionality, you possibly can prolong your operational networks to a VPC in AWS through Digital Non-public Community (VPN), thus eliminating the necessity in your tools to make use of public web entry to succeed in AWS IoT Core’s credential supplier.

How clients are benefiting from the brand new functionality

VR-Yhtymä Oy is a public sector Finnish railway that operates 250 long-distance and 800 commuter rail providers on daily basis. VR-Yhtymä Oy is utilizing VPC for personal communication between trains and AWS providers.

“With VPC endpoints for AWS IoT Core credential supplier, we will use X.509 shopper certificates to get credentials for accessing AWS providers, comparable to Amazon S3 or Lambda, with out leaving our non-public VPC subnets.” stated Tomi Uutela, Head of Digital Operations at VR-Yhtymä Oy.

Utopus Insights is a data-driven vitality analytics Software program as a Service (SaaS) firm that develops world digital options to speed up the combination of renewable vitality into the fashionable grid. Utopus Insights is utilizing VPC for personal communication between AWS IoT Greengrass, AWS IoT Core, and different AWS providers.

“Integrating AWS IoT Core and AWS IoT Greengrass VPC Endpoints will convey a number of advantages to our operations. Firstly, it’s going to simplify our infrastructure structure by eliminating the necessity for an extra proxy server. This can streamline our setup and scale back upkeep overhead. VPC Endpoints may also improve safety by enabling non-public connections between our VPC and AWS IoT Greengrass. This ensures that our IoT gadgets and knowledge stay remoted from the general public web, lowering the chance of unauthorized entry.” stated Gopi Valiyaveedu, Platform Engineering Supervisor, Utopus Insights, Inc.

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Pre-requisites

• Administrator entry to an AWS account
• Fundamental AWS CLI expertise
• Fundamental AWS IoT Greengrass and AWS IoT Core information

Resolution structure

The next structure represents a typical IoT infrastructure the place gadgets utilizing on-premises operational networks hook up with AWS by a non-public community.

Walkthrough

On this walkthrough you’ll learn to use AWS IoT Core credential supplier to allow a VPCe connection both for AWS IoT Greengrass or IoT gadgets developed utilizing the AWS IoT Machine SDK. 

Notice that you could implement the part “Create VPC endpoints” for each instances.

AWS IoT Greengrass

Create VPC endpoints

To determine an edge-to-cloud communication hyperlink fully over VPC, you could first setup AWS Direct Join between your on-premises community infrastructure and your AWS VPC. For detailed implementation, please consult with AWS Direct Join developer information.

As soon as AWS Direct Join is setup, there are 3 VPC Endpoints required for an IoT gateway to be provisioned, managed, and synchronized (element deployments) as an AWS IoT Greengrass gateway.

• AWS IoT Greengrass
• AWS IoT Core knowledge
• AWS IoT Core credential supplier

The AWS IoT Greengrass endpoint (com.amazonaws.[region].greengrass) is used to handle elements, deployments, and gadgets from the AWS IoT Greengrass cloud service. Authentication and authorization with this endpoint are achieved utilizing X.509 certificates as described in Machine authentication and authorization for AWS IoT Greengrass.

The AWS IoT Core knowledge endpoint (com.amazonaws.[region].iot.knowledge) is used for interactions between AWS IoT Greengrass elements and AWS IoT Core by publishing/subscribing to AWS IoT Core MQTT dealer. Authentication and authorization with this endpoint can also be achieved utilizing X.509 certificates.

The AWS IoT Core credential supplier endpoint (com.amazonaws.[region].iot.credentials) is used to speak with different AWS providers that don’t help X.509 authentication and authorization, comparable to Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR). In both case, the gadgets developed utilizing the AWS IoT SDK or an AWS IoT Greengrass element, will name the AWS IoT Core credential supplier endpoint utilizing the X.509 certificates to authenticate and get approved. The endpoint will then concern a short lived safety token for the shopper to make use of within the name to the providers not supporting X.509.

Calls to Amazon S3 and Amazon ECR are required throughout AWS IoT Greengrass element deployments as described within the following sequence diagram. The AWS IoT Greengrass element may also require a safety token if it makes use of AWS SDKs to speak with different cloud providers not supporting X.509 certificates authentication and authorization.

Then, to perform an end-to-end VPCe communication, you could create these 3 VPC endpoints pointing to a number of non-public subnets chosen to route visitors to and from AWS.

Every VPC endpoint will get an Web Protocol (IP) deal with, one for every non-public subnet the place the VPCe is created. We advocate deciding on a minimum of 2 subnets for top availability.

You need to use the next AWS CLI instructions to create the three VPC endpoints passing your non-public subnet as parameters or use the AWS Console to create them.

All following instructions are for us-east-1 area.

1. Create VPC endpoints

aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint --vpc-id <YOUR VPCID> --vpc-endpoint-type Interface --service-name com.amazonaws.us-east-1.iot.credentials | jq -r ".VpcEndpoint.VpcEndpointId"
aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint --vpc-id <YOUR VPCID> --vpc-endpoint-type Interface --service-name com.amazonaws.us-east-1.greengrass | jq -r ".VpcEndpoint.VpcEndpointId"
aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint --vpc-id <YOUR VPCID> --vpc-endpoint-type Interface --service-name com.amazonaws.us-east-1.iot.knowledge | jq -r ".VpcEndpoint.VpcEndpointId"

2. Get safety teams related to the VPC endpoints

Utilizing the VPC endpoints IDs returned by the instructions applied within the step 1, apply the next command to get the safety teams related to them.

aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.credentials VpcEndpointId> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].Teams[0].GroupId"
aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.greengrass VpcEndpointId> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].Teams[0].GroupId"
aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.knowledge VpcEndpointId> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].Teams[0].GroupId"

The safety groupId will most probably be the identical for all of your VPC endpoints. If that’s the case, you possibly can run steps 3 and 4 simply as soon as.

3. Add ingress rule to the safety teams

Utilizing the Safety Teams IDs returned by the instructions within the step 2, run the next command to permit ingress communication from the IP vary the place your AWS IoT Greengrass system might be operating.

On this weblog publish, for simplicity, we enable ingress from anyplace (0.0.0.0), however we advocate you restrict the ingress to the CidrIp the place your AWS IoT Greengrass system might be deployed.

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id <.iot.credentials GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id <.greengrass GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id <.iot.knowledge GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443

4. Add egress rule to the safety teams

Utilizing the Safety Teams IDs returned by the instructions executed in step 2, run the next command to permit egress communication to the IP vary the place your AWS IoT Greengrass system might be operating.

On this weblog publish, for simplicity, we enable egress to anyplace (0.0.0.0), however we advocate you restrict the egress to the CidrIp the place your Greengrass system might be deployed.

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-egress --group-id <.iot.credentials GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-egress --group-id <.greengrass GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-egress --group-id <.iot.knowledge GroupID> --protocol tcp --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 --port 443

5. Add subnets to the VPC endpoints

As soon as the VPC endpoints have being created and configured, you possibly can comply with the Amazon Digital Public Cloud documentation so as to add or take away subnets to the VPC endpoint. We advocate configuring a minimum of 2 subnets in every endpoint for HA.

6. Allow DNS help for the VPC

Run the next instructions to allow DNS help within the VPC the place the VPC endpoints have been created.

aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id <YOUR VPCID> --enable-dns-support "{"Worth":true}"
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id <YOUR VPCID> --enable-dns-hostnames "{"Worth":true}"

7. Create non-public hosted zone in Amazon Route 53

Subsequent step is to configure a non-public hosted zone in Amazon Route 53.

First create a hosted zone for every VPC endpoint.

echo '{
"VPCRegion":"us-east-1",
"VPCId":"<YOUR VPCID>"
}' > vpc.json

echo '{
"Remark": "PrivateZoneForVPCe",
"PrivateZone": true
}' > hostedzoneconfig.json

aws route53 create-hosted-zone --name credentials.iot.us-east-1.amazonaws.com --vpc file://vpc.json --caller-reference <UUID> --hosted-zone-config file://hostedzoneconfig.json |jq -r ".HostedZone.Id"|sed 's?^.*hostedzone/??g'
aws route53 create-hosted-zone --name iot.us-east-1.amazonaws.com --vpc file://vpc.json --caller-reference <UUID> --hosted-zone-config file://hostedzoneconfig.json |jq -r ".HostedZone.Id"|sed 's?^.*hostedzone/??g'

You need to use the next on-line software to generate the required UUIDs https://www.uuidgenerator.internet/version1

You then get:

a. VPC endpoints addresses

aws iot describe-endpoint --endpoint-type iot:CredentialProvider | jq -r '.endpointAddress'
aws iot describe-endpoint --endpoint-type iot:Information-ATS | jq -r '.endpointAddress'

b. VPC endpoints DNS names

aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.credentials VpcEndpointId FROM STEP 1> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].DnsEntries[0].DnsName"
aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.knowledge VpcEndpointId FROM STEP 1> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].DnsEntries[0].DnsName"

c. Hosted Zone IDs

aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.credentials VpcEndpointId FROM STEP 1> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].DnsEntries[0].HostedZoneId"
aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.knowledge VpcEndpointId FROM STEP 1> | jq -r ".VpcEndpoints[0].DnsEntries[0].HostedZoneId"

With the data from sections 7.a, 7.b, and seven.c, you possibly can create the DNS file within the Non-public Hosted Zones.

Credential endpoint:

echo '{
"Remark": "Route visitors from Credential default endpoint to VPCe.",
"Adjustments": [
{
"Action": "UPSERT",
"ResourceRecordSet": {
"Name": "<Credentials Endpoint Address from 7.a",
"Type": "A",
"AliasTarget": {
"HostedZoneId": "<Credentials Endpoint Hosted Zone ID from 7.c>",
"DNSName": "<Credentials Endpoint DNS name from 7.b>",
"EvaluateTargetHealth": true
}
}
}
]
}' > credentialvpce.json

aws route53 change-resource-record-sets --hosted-zone-id <Hosted Zone Id of your Route53 hosted zone> --change-batch file://credentialvpce.json

IMPORTANT!!!!

HostedZoneId within the credentialvpce.json is the ID you’ll find within the credentials VPCe console definition between parenthesis below the DNS Names part. Additionally it is returned by the command “aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints —vpc-endpoint-ids <.iot.credentials VpcEndpointId FROM STEP 1> ……” on part 7.c

–hosted-zone-id parameter within the AWS CLI command is the Hosted Zone Id returned by the command “aws route53 create-hosted-zone —title credentials.us-east-1.iot.amazonaws.com …….” You’ll find this ID additionally within the Amazon Route 53 console, by deciding on your hosted zone and navigating to the “Hosted zone particulars” part.

Information endpoint:

echo '{
"Remark": "Route visitors from IoT Core default knowledge endpoint to VPCe.",
"Adjustments": [
{
"Action": "UPSERT",
"ResourceRecordSet": {
"Name": "<Data Endpoint Address from 7.a",
"Type": "A",
"AliasTarget": {
"HostedZoneId": "<Data Endpoint Hosted Zone ID from 7.c>",
"DNSName": "<Data Endpoint DNS name from 7.b>",
"EvaluateTargetHealth": true
}
}
}
]
}' > datavpce.json

aws route53 change-resource-record-sets --hosted-zone-id <Hosted Zone Id of your Route53 hosted zone> --change-batch file://datavpce.json

Deploy and join your AWS IoT Greengrass core system

Now you can comply with any of the supported strategies to configure your AWS IoT Greengrass core system. On this situation, you’re most probably working in an surroundings with out web entry to obtain packages into the machine the place you’ll set up AWS IoT Greengrass nucleus. We advocate following Set up with handbook provisioning.

Earlier than operating the set up command:

sudo -E java -Droot="/greengrass/v2" -Dlog.retailer=FILE 
-jar ./GreengrassInstaller/lib/Greengrass.jar 
--init-config ./GreengrassInstaller/config.yaml 
--component-default-user ggc_user:ggc_group 
--setup-system-service true

It’s important to examine your “./GreengrassInstaller/config.yaml” appears to be like like the next:

system:
certificateFilePath: "/greengrass/v2/[your thing cert]"
privateKeyPath: "/greengrass/v2/[your thing private key]"
rootCaPath: "/greengrass/v2/AmazonRootCA1.pem"
rootpath: "/greengrass/v2"
thingName: "[your thing name]"
providers:
aws.greengrass.Nucleus:
componentType: "NUCLEUS"
model: "[your NUCLEUS version]"
configuration:
awsRegion: "us-east-1"
iotRoleAlias: "[your GreengrassCoreTokenExchangeRoleAlias]"
iotDataEndpoint: "[the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Data Enpoint]"
iotCredEndpoint: "[the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Credential Endpoin]"
mqtt:
port: 443
greengrassDataPlaneEndpoint: "iotdata"
greengrassDataPlanePort: 443

Validate you’re utilizing VPCe

To validate you’re utilizing the VPCe and never traversing the general public web, run the next command from the AWS IoT Greengrass core machine:

nslookup [the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Credential Endpoin]
nslookup [the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Data Enpoint]

The IP addresses returned by the above instructions needs to be within the vary of the subnets related along with your VPC endpoints.

Then, you possibly can run the identical instructions out of your laptop computer. You must get public IPs for the endpoints.

AWS IoT gadgets

After you’ve applied the steps in part “Create VPC endpoints,” you may as well use AWS IoT Core credential supplier by VPCe, instantly from AWS IoT Core issues operating in your VPC. To check this selection, comply with the subsequent steps.

1. Observe the step-by-step wizard within the console to create a single factor.

2. Observe the Authorizing direct calls to AWS providers utilizing AWS IoT Core credential supplier documentation to create the required roles and insurance policies, and connect them to the certificates created within the earlier step.

3. Transfer the connect_device_package.zip file created through the wizard execution into the system the place you’re planning to make use of the AWS IoT Machine SDK. For testing this, you should use an Amazon EC2 occasion. In any case, verify the system or EC2 occasion is linked to a community or subnet inside the VPC the place the VPC endpoint was created. You’ll be able to validate this operating the next instructions from the system or EC2 occasion.

nslookup [the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Credential Endpoin]
nslookup [the 'A' record created in Route53 for IoT Data Enpoint]

The IP addresses returned by the above instructions needs to be within the vary of the subnets related along with your VPCe endpoints.

4. Run the next CURL command from the Authorizing direct calls to AWS providers utilizing AWS IoT Core credential supplier documentation, pointing to the “A” file created in Amazon Route 53 within the credentials.iot.us-east-1.amazonaws.com non-public zone. It is going to seem like your_aws_account_specific_prefix.credentials.iot.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

curl --cert your certificates --key your system certificates key pair -H "x-amzn-iot-thingname: your factor title" --cacert AmazonRootCA1.pem https://your endpoint /role-aliases/your position alias/credentials

Conclusion

With the brand new VPCe help for AWS IoT Core credential supplier, now you can have end-to-end VPC communication between gadgets—both instantly by AWS IoT Machine SDKs or AWS IoT Greengrass—with no need to arrange community proxies and sophisticated firewall configurations. This simplified community infrastructure might help you scale back operational overhead prices and enhance the safety posture of your answer. To study extra, go to AWS IoT Greengrass and interface VPC endpoints (AWS PrivateLink)

In regards to the authors

	Vladi Salomon is a Principal IoT Information Architect with Amazon Net Providers. He has 7+ years of expertise in IoT structure in several vertical like IIoT, Good Residence, Good Metropolis and Mining in addition to knowledge warehousing and large knowledge platform. Within the newest years he obtained focus in how you can convey AI to IoT by scalable MLOps platforms. As a member of AWS Skilled Providers, He works with clients of various scale and industries architecting and implementing a wide range of end-to-end IoT options.
	Victor Lesau is a Sr. Technical Product Supervisor at Amazon Net Providers. He focuses on product technique, roadmap planning, enterprise evaluation, buyer engagement, and different product administration areas of AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Id, and sensible house initiatives.
	Ben Omer is a Sr. Technical Product Supervisor at Amazon Net Providers. He works with IoT system providers and merchandise together with FreeRTOS, AWS IoT Greengrass, and KVS, with a deal with roadmap planning, function exploration, and buyer engagement.