Configure dataflow endpoints

To get started with dataflows, first create dataflow endpoints. A dataflow endpoint is the connection point for the dataflow. You can use an endpoint as a source or destination for the dataflow. Some endpoint types can be used as both sources and destinations, while others are for destinations only. A dataflow needs at least one source endpoint and one destination endpoint.

Use the following table to choose the endpoint type to configure:

Dataflows must use local MQTT broker endpoint

When you create a dataflow, you specify the source and destination endpoints. The dataflow moves data from the source endpoint to the destination endpoint. You can use the same endpoint for multiple dataflows, and you can use the same endpoint as both the source and destination in a dataflow.

However, using custom endpoints as both the source and destination in a dataflow isn't supported. This restriction means the built-in MQTT broker in Azure IoT Operations must be either the source or destination for every dataflow. To avoid dataflow deployment failures, use the default MQTT dataflow endpoint as either the source or destination for every dataflow.

The specific requirement is each dataflow must have either the source or destination configured with an MQTT endpoint that has the host aio-broker. So it's not strictly required to use the default endpoint, and you can create additional dataflow endpoints pointing to the local MQTT broker as long as the host is aio-broker. However, to avoid confusion and manageability issues, the default endpoint is the recommended approach.

The following table shows the supported scenarios:

Reuse endpoints

Think of each dataflow endpoint as a bundle of configuration settings that contains where the data should come from or go to (the host value), how to authenticate with the endpoint, and other settings like TLS configuration or batching preference. So you just need to create it once and then you can reuse it in multiple dataflows where these settings would be the same.

To make it easier to reuse endpoints, the MQTT or Kafka topic filter isn't part of the endpoint configuration. Instead, you specify the topic filter in the dataflow configuration. This means you can use the same endpoint for multiple dataflows that use different topic filters.

For example, you can use the default MQTT broker dataflow endpoint. You can use it for both the source and destination with different topic filters:

resource dataflow 'Microsoft.IoTOperations/instances/dataflowProfiles/dataflows@2024-09-15-preview' = {
  parent: <DEFAULT_PROFILE_RESOURCE>
  name: 'broker-to-broker'
  extendedLocation: {
    name: <CUSTOM_LOCATION_RESOURCE>.id
    type: 'CustomLocation'
  }
  properties: {
    mode: 'Enabled'
    operations: [
      {
        operationType: 'Source'
        sourceSettings: {
          endpointRef: 'default'
          dataSources: [
            'example/topic/1'
          ]
        }
      }
      {
        operationType: 'Destination'
        destinationSettings: {
          endpointRef: 'default'
          dataDestination: 'example/topic/2'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

apiVersion: connectivity.iotoperations.azure.com/v1beta1
kind: Dataflow
metadata:
  name: broker-to-broker
  namespace: azure-iot-operations
spec:
  profileRef: default
  operations:
    - operationType: Source
      sourceSettings:
        endpointRef: default
        dataSources:
        - example/topic/1
    - operationType: Destination
      destinationSettings:
        endpointRef: default
        dataDestination: example/topic/2

Similarly, you can create multiple dataflows that use the same MQTT endpoint for other endpoints and topics. For example, you can use the same MQTT endpoint for a dataflow that sends data to an Event Hub endpoint.

resource dataflow 'Microsoft.IoTOperations/instances/dataflowProfiles/dataflows@2024-09-15-preview' = {
  parent: <DEFAULT_PROFILE_RESOURCE>
  name: 'broker-to-eh'
  extendedLocation: {
    name: <CUSTOM_LOCATION_RESOURCE>.id
    type: 'CustomLocation'
  }
  properties: {
    mode: 'Enabled'
    operations: [
      {
        operationType: 'Source'
        sourceSettings: {
          endpointRef: 'default'
          dataSources: [
            'example/topic/3'
          ]
        }
      }
      {
        operationType: 'Destination'
        destinationSettings: {
          // The endpoint needs to be created before you can reference it here
          endpointRef: 'example-event-hub-endpoint'
          dataDestination: 'example/topic/4'
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

apiVersion: connectivity.iotoperations.azure.com/v1beta1
kind: Dataflow
metadata:
  name: broker-to-eh
  namespace: azure-iot-operations
spec:
  profileRef: default
  operations:
    - operationType: Source
      sourceSettings:
        endpointRef: default
        dataSources:
        - example/topic/3
    - operationType: Destination
      destinationSettings:
        # The endpoint needs to be created before you can reference it here
        endpointRef: example-event-hub-endpoint
        dataDestination: example/topic/4

Similar to the MQTT example, you can create multiple dataflows that use the same Kafka endpoint for different topics, or the same Data Lake endpoint for different tables.

Next steps

Create a dataflow endpoint:

• MQTT or Event Grid
• Kafka or Event Hubs
• Data Lake
• Microsoft Fabric OneLake
• Local storage