I followed the example from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-hub/schedule-jobs-python to create a scheduled job for calling a direct method. This somehow seems to work, as I get console output for the successful scheduling, running and completion of a job. However in my case, the device is not just a simple device but an edge device running multiple modules. So I want to schedule a direct method call on one specific edge module. Is this even possible? Is there some easy adaption of the given example?

Hello @Wegmann Silvan , welcome to this moderated Azure community forum. I'm not sure if the job works on edge device modules too. The documentation says: Jobs execute device twin updates and direct methods against a set of devices at a scheduled time. There is no mentioning of support for Azure IoT Edge module twins. Using Azure IoT Edge gives you a lot of flexibility with sending telemetry, module direct methods, and module twin. Perhaps you can design a similar approach? If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

Schedule direct method job for edge module

Accepted answer

Sander van de Velde | MVP 32,736 Reputation points MVP

2024-07-18T18:05:18.5+00:00

Hello @Wegmann Silvan ,

welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

I'm not sure if the job works on edge device modules too.

The documentation says:

Jobs execute device twin updates and direct methods against a set of devices at a scheduled time.

There is no mentioning of support for Azure IoT Edge module twins.

Using Azure IoT Edge gives you a lot of flexibility with sending telemetry, module direct methods, and module twin.

Perhaps you can design a similar approach?

If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.
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Wegmann Silvan 20 Reputation points

2024-07-22T14:20:37.8666667+00:00

I looked at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/iot/edge?view=azure-cli-latest for CLI commands on iot/edge and could not find any way to schedule module direct method calls. Did I overlook something?
Or should I actually check more along the route of a new edge module that calls a direct method on another module according to schedule? Is this even possible?

Sander van de Velde | MVP 32,736 Reputation points MVP

2024-07-22T21:15:41.21+00:00

Hello @Wegmann Silvan ,

Direct Methods cannot be scheduled using the API/CLI/Azure portal.

It seems the jobs do not apply for direct methods for module twins.

So, you need to build your own scheduler and call the modules twins/direct methods..

This can be done with eg. a schedule put in a storage queue (for linear schedules tasks) or a storage table (with randomly schedules tasks).

Then, a timer trigger Azure Function peeks every minute if there is a queue item or a table row with the current time is found.

Wegmann Silvan 20 Reputation points

2024-07-23T06:37:19.06+00:00

Hi @Sander van de Velde | MVP

Thanks for the update. Looks like there really is no way around implementing something myself.

I will have to look into possible approaches to solve this. I'm hoping I can call direct methods from an Azure Function running on the edge devices as I don't want to add any additional cost on the portal side just for this schedule. But the approach of using a storage for the schedule sounds reasonable to me. Thanks for the suggestions.
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