Devices – Hermetry

A device is anything that sends data to Hermetry or receives commands from it: a sensor, a controller, a meter, a camera, a LoRaWAN gateway, a licensed router. Every device belongs to one organisation and uses exactly one device profile. This section explains how to add devices, connect them, keep their credentials safe, read their status, send them commands, update their firmware and change their settings.

The device model

Part	What it is	Read
Device	One record in Devices: name (unique in your organisation), label, type, profile, status, optional serial, and whether it is a gateway.	The Devices list and the device page
Device profile	The settings shared by one kind of device: transport, logins, topics, limits, online rule, telemetry and configuration keys, provisioning, plus alarm rules, commands and firmware.	Device profiles
Credential	What the device logs in with. At most one active credential per device.	Device credentials
Telemetry	Time-stamped readings, one series per key.	Telemetry and data
Attributes	Values that describe or configure the device: client (the device’s own), shared (sent to the device) and server (kept on the platform).	Attributes
Connection state	Online or offline under the profile’s rule, last seen, connection log.	Connection status and activity
Placement	The site, building, room or machine the device is on.	Placing devices

How devices reach Hermetry

Way	For	Page
MQTT 3.1.1 over TLS	Devices that keep a connection open	MQTT, MQTT topics and payload reference
HTTPS	Devices that wake up, send and sleep, or networks that block MQTT	Device HTTP API
LoRaWAN	Battery sensors behind LoRaWAN gateways (EU868)	LoRaWAN
Through a gateway	Field devices behind a router or gateway that reports for them	Gateways and devices behind a gateway
Polled by the platform	Boxes that cannot dial in: SNMP agents, IP cameras and recorders	Gateways and devices behind a gateway

Not sure which one fits? See Choose how to connect your devices.

How devices get into your organisation

Way	Use it for	Page
New device (by hand)	A few devices you set up yourself	Adding and claiming devices
Import from a CSV file	Tens to hundreds of devices at once (up to 1,000 rows per file)	Importing devices in bulk
Self-provisioning with a profile key	Many identical devices that register themselves on first start	Adding and claiming devices, Quarantine
Claim	Licensed devices, with the code on their Cloud page	Licensed devices
A gateway reports a new child	Field devices behind a gateway	Devices behind a gateway
LoRaWAN registration or pairing mode	LoRaWAN sensors	Add an OTAA device, Pairing mode

How devices prove who they are

Credential	Login
Access token	MQTT username = token, empty password. HTTP: `Authorization: Bearer <token>`.
MQTT basic	Username and password, optionally pinned to one client ID.
X.509 certificate	A client certificate issued by the Hermetry device certificate authority. Used by licensed devices.

Secrets are shown once, when they are issued or rotated. Hermetry stores only hashes. LoRaWAN sensors, gateway children and polled devices have no credential of their own: their gateway, the network server or the poller brings their data.

Device status

Status	Meaning
Active	The device may connect and its data is stored.
Disabled	The device is refused when it connects. Its live connection ends when you disable it.
Quarantined	The device registered itself and waits for approval. It may connect, but its data is dropped until an administrator activates it. It counts toward your device limit.

The status is separate from the connection state. An active device can be Online, Offline, Never connected, or show only Last seen, depending on its profile’s online rule.

Permissions

Permission	Default minimum role
View devices	User
Create devices	Admin
Edit and disable devices	Admin
Delete devices	Admin
Manage device credentials	Admin
View device attributes	User
Write server and shared device attributes	Admin

Other IoT modules add their own permissions (commands, firmware, alarms, LoRaWAN, settings). See Permissions reference.

Limits

Your plan sets the number of devices you may have. Every device counts: quarantined devices, LoRaWAN gateways and sensors, gateway children and polled devices. When you reach the limit, new devices are refused with the message that the plan’s device limit is reached. See Plans and the IoT add-on.

In this section

Basics

Connecting

Managing devices remotely