Sending Sensor Data to SAP Cloud Platform by using the IoT Message Management Service (IoTMMS)- From Sensor to Cloud – Part 1

In this tutorial series, we will use the existing SAP tools & services to make an IoT pipeline.

Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios involve sensors & microcomputers that send various measures to a server on a regular basis (usually every second). This quickly leads to high amounts of data that needs to be managed, analyzed and visualized. Following this logic, we can think of a general IoT scenario to consist of 3-components:

IoT Pipeline:

1 – Capturing and sending data to a server by using sensors & microcomputers

2 – Modifying/wrangling the data with various computation units

3 – Visualizing the data with visualization tools

In this tutorial, we will set-up a device in order to send data to SAP Cloud Platform. We will use the IoT Message Management Service (IoTMMS) of SAP Cloud Platform in order to receive the data and store it. In the following parts of the tutorial series, we will modify the data by using a HANA Calculation Views and finally visualize it with SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.

Since there is existing documentation that explains how to set-up IoTMMS on SAP Cloud Platform; I will simply point you to the resources in order to set-up the first component of our IoT pipeline.

On the SAP IoTStarterkit page, complete the following steps:

1. Getting started in the Cloud
   1. Get SAP Cloud Platform Developer Account
   2. Enable Internet of Things
   3. Create Device Information in Internet of Things Cockpit
   4. Deploy the Message Management Service (MMS)
2. Sending messages from a device
   1. Send messages with MMS built-in sample client using HTTP API
      • MMS helps you send custom messages to IoTMMS without actually using a device. Send 10-20 messages with different data points so that you can have some sample data for the next parts of this tutorial.
      • Make sure you get 200 as a response after you send your messages. If you get 202, try again after 60 seconds or re-format your message.
      • You can display your messages by clicking on the “Display Stored Messages” tile on the Message Management Service Cockpit and finding the table for the device you created.
   2.  Send sensor data from a RaspberryPi Microcomputer (optional)
      • If you have access to sensors and a microcomputer, you can send real sensor data and make the scenario more realistic by completing this step. The way to do this is sending the same messages with HTTP requests from the microcomputer.

With these steps, we have completed the sensor & microcomputer set-up of our IoT pipeline and sent the data to cloud.

The next step is modifying this data by Creating a Calculation View Based on the Table of SAP Cloud Platform IoT Message Management Service – From Sensor to Cloud – Part 2.

This is the first part of a 3-part tutorial. Here are the other parts:

Creating a Calculation View Based on the Table of SAP Cloud Platform IoT Message Management Service – From Sensor to Cloud – Part 2

Establishing Live Data Connection to HANA Views From SAP BusinessObjects Cloud – From Sensor to Cloud – Part 3