Configure and customize Defender-IoT-micro-agent for Eclipse ThreadX

This article describes how to configure the Defender-IoT-micro-agent for your Eclipse ThreadX device, to meet your network, bandwidth, and memory requirements.

Note

Defender for IoT plans to retire the micro agent on August 1, 2025.

Configuration steps

You must select a target distribution file that has a *.dist extension, from the netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/configs directory.

When using a CMake compilation environment, you must set a command line parameter to IOT_SECURITY_MODULE_DIST_TARGET for the chosen value. For example, -DIOT_SECURITY_MODULE_DIST_TARGET=RTOS_BASE.

In an IAR, or other non CMake compilation environment, you must add the netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/inc/configs/<target distribution>/ path to any known included paths. For example, netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/inc/configs/RTOS_BASE.

Device behavior

Use the following file to configure your device behavior.

netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/inc/configs/<target distribution>/asc_config.h

In a CMake compilation environment, you must change the default configuration by editing the netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/configs/<target distribution>.dist file. Use the following CMake format set(ASC_XXX ON), or the following file netxduo/addons/azure_iot/azure_iot_security_module/inc/configs/<target distribution>/asc_config.h for all other environments. For example, #define ASC_XXX.

The default behavior of each configuration is provided in the following tables:

General configuration

Name Type Default Details
ASC_SECURITY_MODULE_ID String defender-iot-micro-agent The unique identifier of the device.
SECURITY_MODULE_VERSION_(MAJOR)(MINOR)(PATCH) Number 3.2.1 The version.
ASC_SECURITY_MODULE_SEND_MESSAGE_RETRY_TIME Number 3 The amount of time the Defender-IoT-micro-agent will take to send the security message after a fail (in seconds).
ASC_SECURITY_MODULE_PENDING_TIME Number 300 The Defender-IoT-micro-agent pending time (in seconds). The state changes to suspend, if the time is exceeded.

Collection configuration

Name Type Default Details
ASC_FIRST_COLLECTION_INTERVAL Number 30 The Collector's startup collection interval offset. During startup, the value is added to the collection of the system in order to avoid sending messages from multiple devices simultaneously.
ASC_HIGH_PRIORITY_INTERVAL Number 10 The collector's high priority group interval (in seconds).
ASC_MEDIUM_PRIORITY_INTERVAL Number 30 The collector's medium priority group interval (in seconds).
ASC_LOW_PRIORITY_INTERVAL Number 145,440 The collector's low priority group interval (in seconds).

Collector network activity

To customize your collector network activity configuration, use the following:

Name Type Default Details
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_TCP_DISABLED Boolean false Filters the TCP network activity.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_UDP_DISABLED Boolean false Filters the UDP network activity events.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_ICMP_DISABLED Boolean false Filters the ICMP network activity events.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_CAPTURE_UNICAST_ONLY Boolean true Captures the unicast incoming packets only. When set to false, it captures both Broadcast, and Multicast.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_SEND_EMPTY_EVENTS Boolean false Sends an empty events of collector.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_MAX_IPV4_OBJECTS_IN_CACHE Number 64 The maximum number of IPv4 network events to store in memory.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_MAX_IPV6_OBJECTS_IN_CACHE Number 64 The maximum number of IPv6 network events to store in memory.

Collectors

Name Type Default Details
ASC_COLLECTOR_HEARTBEAT_ENABLED Boolean ON Enables the heartbeat collector.
ASC_COLLECTOR_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_ENABLED Boolean ON Enables the network activity collector.
ASC_COLLECTOR_SYSTEM_INFORMATION_ENABLED Boolean ON Enables the system information collector.

Other configurations flags are advanced, and have unsupported features. Contact support to change this, or for more information.

Supported security alerts and recommendations

The Defender-IoT-micro-agent for Eclipse ThreadX supports specific security alerts and recommendations. Make sure to review and customize the relevant alert and recommendation values for your service.

Log Analytics (optional)

You can enable and configure Log Analytics to investigate device events and activities. Read about how to setup, and use Log Analytics with the Defender for IoT service to learn more.

Next steps