title	description	services	author	manager	ms.reviewer	ms.author	ms.date	ms.topic	ms.service	ms.custom
Tutorial - Custom Python module tutorial using Azure IoT Edge	This tutorial shows you how to create an IoT Edge module with Python code and deploy it to an edge device.	iot-edge	kgremban	philmea	kgremban	kgremban	08/04/2020	tutorial	iot-edge	mvc

Tutorial: Develop and deploy a Python IoT Edge module using Linux containers

[!INCLUDE iot-edge-version-all-supported]

Use Visual Studio Code to develop Python code and deploy it to a device running Azure IoT Edge.

You can use Azure IoT Edge modules to deploy code that implements your business logic directly to your IoT Edge devices. This tutorial walks you through creating and deploying an IoT Edge module that filters sensor data on the IoT Edge device that you set up in the quickstart. In this tutorial, you learn how to:

[!div class="checklist"]

Use Visual Studio Code to create an IoT Edge Python module.

Use Visual Studio Code and Docker to create a Docker image and publish it to your registry.

Deploy the module to your IoT Edge device.

View generated data.

The IoT Edge module that you create in this tutorial filters the temperature data that's generated by your device. It only sends messages upstream if the temperature is above a specified threshold. This type of analysis at the edge is useful for reducing the amount of data that's communicated to and stored in the cloud.

[!INCLUDE quickstarts-free-trial-note]

Prerequisites

This tutorial demonstrates how to develop a module in Python using Visual Studio Code, and how to deploy it to an IoT Edge device.

IoT Edge does not support Python modules using Windows containers.

Use the following table to understand your options for developing and deploying Python modules using Linux containers:

Python	Visual Studio Code	Visual Studio 2017/2019
Linux AMD64
Linux ARM32

Before beginning this tutorial, you should have gone through the previous tutorial to set up your development environment for Linux container development: Develop IoT Edge modules using Linux containers. By completing that tutorial, you should have the following prerequisites in place:

A free or standard-tier IoT Hub in Azure.
A device running Azure IoT Edge. You can use the quickstarts to set up a Linux device or Windows device.
A container registry, like Azure Container Registry.
Visual Studio Code configured with the Azure IoT Tools.
Docker CE configured to run Linux containers.

To develop an IoT Edge module in Python, install the following additional prerequisites on your development machine:

Python extension for Visual Studio Code.
Python.
Pip for installing Python packages (typically included with your Python installation).

Note

Ensure that your bin folder is on your path for your platform. Typically ~/.local/ for UNIX and macOS, or %APPDATA%\Python on Windows.

Create a module project

The following steps create an IoT Edge Python module by using Visual Studio Code and the Azure IoT Tools.

Create a new project

Create a Python solution template that you can customize with your own code.

In Visual Studio Code, select View > Command Palette to open the VS Code command palette.
In the command palette, enter and run the command Azure: Sign in and follow the instructions to sign in your Azure account. If you're already signed in, you can skip this step.

In the command palette, enter and run the command Azure IoT Edge: New IoT Edge solution. Follow the prompts and provide the following information to create your solution:

Field	Value
Select folder	Choose the location on your development machine for VS Code to create the solution files.
Provide a solution name	Enter a descriptive name for your solution or accept the default EdgeSolution.
Select module template	Choose Python Module.
Provide a module name	Name your module PythonModule.
Provide Docker image repository for the module	An image repository includes the name of your container registry and the name of your container image. Your container image is prepopulated from the name you provided in the last step. Replace localhost:5000 with the Login server value from your Azure container registry. You can retrieve the Login server from the Overview page of your container registry in the Azure portal. The final image repository looks like <registry name>.azurecr.io/pythonmodule.

Add your registry credentials

The environment file stores the credentials for your container repository and shares them with the IoT Edge runtime. The runtime needs these credentials to pull your private images onto the IoT Edge device.

The IoT Edge extension tries to pull your container registry credentials from Azure and populate them in the environment file. Check to see if your credentials are already included. If not, add them now:

In the VS Code explorer, open the .env file.
Update the fields with the username and password values that you copied from your Azure container registry.
Save the .env file.

Note

This tutorial uses admin login credentials for Azure Container Registry, which are convenient for development and test scenarios. When you're ready for production scenarios, we recommend a least-privilege authentication option like service principals. For more information, see Manage access to your container registry.

Select your target architecture

Currently, Visual Studio Code can develop Python modules for Linux AMD64 and Linux ARM32v7 devices. You need to select which architecture you're targeting with each solution, because the container is built and run differently for each architecture type. The default is Linux AMD64.

Open the command palette and search for Azure IoT Edge: Set Default Target Platform for Edge Solution, or select the shortcut icon in the side bar at the bottom of the window.
In the command palette, select the target architecture from the list of options. For this tutorial, we're using an Ubuntu virtual machine as the IoT Edge device, so will keep the default amd64.

Update the module with custom code

Each template includes sample code, which takes simulated sensor data from the SimulatedTemperatureSensor module and routes it to the IoT hub. In this section, add the code that expands the PythonModule to analyze the messages before sending them.

In the VS Code explorer, open modules > PythonModule > main.py.
At the top of the main.py file, import the json library:
```
import json
```
Add the TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD and TWIN_CALLBACKS variables under the global counters. The temperature threshold sets the value that the measured machine temperature must exceed for the data to be sent to the IoT hub.
```
# global counters
TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD = 25
TWIN_CALLBACKS = 0
RECEIVED_MESSAGES = 0
```

Replace the input1_listener function with the following code:

    # Define behavior for receiving an input message on input1
    # Because this is a filter module, we forward this message to the "output1" queue.
    async def input1_listener(module_client):
        global RECEIVED_MESSAGES
        global TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD
        while True:
            try:
                input_message = await module_client.receive_message_on_input("input1")  # blocking call
                message = input_message.data
                size = len(message)
                message_text = message.decode('utf-8')
                print ( "    Data: <<<%s>>> & Size=%d" % (message_text, size) )
                custom_properties = input_message.custom_properties
                print ( "    Properties: %s" % custom_properties )
                RECEIVED_MESSAGES += 1
                print ( "    Total messages received: %d" % RECEIVED_MESSAGES )
                data = json.loads(message_text)
                if "machine" in data and "temperature" in data["machine"] and data["machine"]["temperature"] > TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD:
                    custom_properties["MessageType"] = "Alert"
                    print ( "Machine temperature %s exceeds threshold %s" % (data["machine"]["temperature"], TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD))
                    await module_client.send_message_to_output(input_message, "output1")
            except Exception as ex:
                print ( "Unexpected error in input1_listener: %s" % ex )

    # twin_patch_listener is invoked when the module twin's desired properties are updated.
    async def twin_patch_listener(module_client):
        global TWIN_CALLBACKS
        global TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD
        while True:
            try:
                data = await module_client.receive_twin_desired_properties_patch()  # blocking call
                print( "The data in the desired properties patch was: %s" % data)
                if "TemperatureThreshold" in data:
                    TEMPERATURE_THRESHOLD = data["TemperatureThreshold"]
                TWIN_CALLBACKS += 1
                print ( "Total calls confirmed: %d\n" % TWIN_CALLBACKS )
            except Exception as ex:
                print ( "Unexpected error in twin_patch_listener: %s" % ex )

Update the listeners to also listen twin updates.

    # Schedule task for C2D Listener
    listeners = asyncio.gather(input1_listener(module_client), twin_patch_listener(module_client))

    print ( "The sample is now waiting for messages. ")

Save the main.py file.
In the VS Code explorer, open the deployment.template.json file in your IoT Edge solution workspace.
Add the PythonModule module twin to the deployment manifest. Insert the following JSON content at the bottom of the moduleContent section, after the $edgeHub module twin:
```
    "PythonModule": {
        "properties.desired":{
            "TemperatureThreshold":25
        }
    }
```
Save the deployment.template.json file.

Build and push your module

In the previous section, you created an IoT Edge solution and added code to the PythonModule that will filter out messages where the reported machine temperature is within the acceptable limits. Now you need to build the solution as a container image and push it to your container registry.

Open the VS Code integrated terminal by selecting View > Terminal.
Sign in to Docker by entering the following command in the terminal. Sign in with the username, password, and login server from your Azure container registry. You can retrieve these values from the Access keys section of your registry in the Azure portal.
```
docker login -u <ACR username> -p <ACR password> <ACR login server>
```
You may receive a security warning recommending the use of --password-stdin. While that best practice is recommended for production scenarios, it's outside the scope of this tutorial. For more information, see the docker login reference.
In the VS Code explorer, right-click the deployment.template.json file and select Build and Push IoT Edge Solution.

The build and push command starts three operations. First, it creates a new folder in the solution called config that holds the full deployment manifest, built out of information in the deployment template and other solution files. Second, it runs docker build to build the container image based on the appropriate dockerfile for your target architecture. Then, it runs docker push to push the image repository to your container registry.

This process may take several minutes the first time, but is faster the next time that you run the commands.

Deploy modules to device

Use the Visual Studio Code explorer and the Azure IoT Tools extension to deploy the module project to your IoT Edge device. You already have a deployment manifest prepared for your scenario, the deployment.amd64.json file in the config folder. All you need to do now is select a device to receive the deployment.

Make sure that your IoT Edge device is up and running.

In the Visual Studio Code explorer, under the Azure IoT Hub section, expand Devices to see your list of IoT devices.
Right-click the name of your IoT Edge device, then select Create Deployment for Single Device.
Select the deployment.amd64.json file in the config folder and then click Select Edge Deployment Manifest. Do not use the deployment.template.json file.
Under your device, expand Modules to see a list of deployed and running modules. Click the refresh button. You should see the new PythonModule running along with the SimulatedTemperatureSensor module and the $edgeAgent and $edgeHub.

It may take a few minutes for the modules to start. The IoT Edge runtime needs to receive its new deployment manifest, pull down the module images from the container runtime, then start each new module.

View The generated data

Once you apply the deployment manifest to your IoT Edge device, the IoT Edge runtime on the device collects the new deployment information and starts executing on it. Any modules running on the device that aren't included in the deployment manifest are stopped. Any modules missing from the device are started.

You can view the status of your IoT Edge device using the Azure IoT Hub Devices section of the Visual Studio Code explorer. Expand the details of your device to see a list of deployed and running modules.

In the Visual Studio Code explorer, right-click the name of your IoT Edge device and select Start Monitoring Built-in Event Endpoint.
View the messages arriving at your IoT Hub. It may take a while for the messages to arrive. The IoT Edge device has to receive its new deployment and start all the modules. Then, the changes we made to the PythonModule code wait until the machine temperature reaches 25 degrees before sending messages. It also adds the message type Alert to any messages that reach that temperature threshold.

Edit the module twin

We used the PythonModule module twin in the deployment manifest to set the temperature threshold at 25 degrees. You can use the module twin to change the functionality without having to update the module code.

In Visual Studio Code, expand the details under your IoT Edge device to see the running modules.
Right-click PythonModule and select Edit module twin.
Find TemperatureThreshold in the desired properties. Change its value to a new temperature 5 degrees to 10 degrees higher than the latest reported temperature.
Save the module twin file.
Right-click anywhere in the module twin editing pane and select Update module twin.
Monitor the incoming device-to-cloud messages. You should see the messages stop until the new temperature threshold is reached.

Clean up resources

If you plan to continue to the next recommended article, you can keep the resources and configurations that you created and reuse them. You can also keep using the same IoT Edge device as a test device.

Otherwise, you can delete the local configurations and the Azure resources that you used in this article to avoid charges.

[!INCLUDE iot-edge-clean-up-cloud-resources]

Next steps

In this tutorial, you created an IoT Edge module that contains code to filter raw data generated by your IoT Edge device.

You can continue on to the next tutorials to learn how Azure IoT Edge can help you deploy Azure cloud services to process and analyze data at the edge.

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Functions Stream Analytics Machine Learning Custom Vision Service

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tutorial-python-module.md

tutorial-python-module.md

Tutorial: Develop and deploy a Python IoT Edge module using Linux containers

Prerequisites

Create a module project

Create a new project

Add your registry credentials

Select your target architecture

Update the module with custom code

Build and push your module

Deploy modules to device

View The generated data

Edit the module twin

Clean up resources

Next steps

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tutorial-python-module.md

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tutorial-python-module.md

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Tutorial: Develop and deploy a Python IoT Edge module using Linux containers

Prerequisites

Create a module project

Create a new project

Add your registry credentials

Select your target architecture

Update the module with custom code

Build and push your module

Deploy modules to device

View The generated data

Edit the module twin

Clean up resources

Next steps