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Quickstart: Create an Azure notification hub using the Azure CLI

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Azure Notification Hubs provide an easy-to-use and scaled-out push engine that allows you to send notifications to any platform (iOS, Android, Windows, Kindle, Baidu, etc.) from any backend (cloud or on-premises). For more information about the service, see What is Azure Notification Hubs?.

In this quickstart, you create a notification hub using the Azure CLI. The first section gives you steps to create a Notification Hubs namespace. The second section gives you steps to create a notification hub in an existing namespace. You also learn how to create a custom access policy.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

Important

Notification Hubs requires version 2.0.67 or later of the Azure CLI. Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Create a resource group

Azure Notification Hubs, like all Azure resources, must be deployed into a resource group. Resource groups allow you to organize and manage related Azure resources. See What is Azure Resource Manager to learn more about resource groups.

For this quickstart, create a resource group named spnhubrg in the eastus location with the following az group create command.

az group create --name spnhubrg --location eastus

Create a Notification Hubs namespace

  1. Create a namespace for your notification hubs.

    A namespace contains one or more hubs, and the name must be unique across all Azure subscriptions and be at least six characters in length. To check the availability of a name, use the az notification-hub namespace check-availability command.

    az notification-hub namespace check-availability --name spnhubns

    Azure CLI responds to your request for availability by displaying the following console output:

    {
"id": "/subscriptions/yourSubscriptionID/providers/Microsoft.NotificationHubs/checkNamespaceAvailability",
"isAvailable": true,
"location": null,
"name": "spnhubns",
"properties": false,
"sku": null,
"tags": null,
"type": "Microsoft.NotificationHubs/namespaces/checkNamespaceAvailability"
}

    Notice the second line in the Azure CLI response, "isAvailable": true. This line reads false if the desired name you specified for the namespace is not available. Once you have confirmed availability of the name, run the az notification-hub namespace create command to create your namespace.

    az notification-hub namespace create --resource-group spnhubrg --name spnhubns  --location eastus --sku Free

    If the --name you provided to the az notification-hub namespace create command is not available, or does not meet the Naming rules and restrictions for Azure resources, Azure CLI responds with the following console output:

    #the name is not available
The specified name is not available. For more information visit https://aka.ms/eventhubsarmexceptions.

#the name is invalid
The specified service namespace is invalid.

    If the first name you tried is not successful, select a different name for your new namespace and run the az notification-hub namespace create command again.

    Note

    From this step forward you must replace the value of the --namespace parameter in each Azure CLI command you copy from this quickstart.

  2. Get a list of namespaces.

    To see the details about your new namespace use the az notification-hub namespace list command. The --resource-group parameter is optional if you want to see all namespaces for a subscription.

    az notification-hub namespace list --resource-group spnhubrg

Create notification hubs

  1. Create your first notification hub.

    One or more notification hubs can now be created in your new namespace. Run the az notification-hub create command to create a notification hub.

    az notification-hub create --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --name spfcmtutorial1nhub --location eastus

  2. Create a second notification hub.

    Multiple notification hubs can be created in a single namespace. To create a second notification hub in the same namespace, run the az notification-hub create command again using a different hub name.

    az notification-hub create --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --name mysecondnhub --location eastus

  3. Get a list of notification hubs.

    Azure CLI returns either a success or error message with each executed command; however, being able to query for a list of notification hubs is reassuring. The az notification-hub list command was designed for this purpose.

    az notification-hub list --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --output table

Work with access policies

  1. Azure Notification Hubs uses shared access signature security through the use of access policies. Two policies are created automatically when you create a notification hub. The connection strings from these policies are needed to configure push notifications. The az notification-hub authorization-rule list command provides a list of policy names and their respective resource groups.

    az notification-hub authorization-rule list --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --notification-hub-name spfcmtutorial1nhub --output table

    Important

    Do not use the DefaultFullSharedAccessSignature policy in your application. This policy is meant to be used in your back-end only. Use only Listen access policies in your client application.

  2. If you want to create additional authorization rules with meaningful names, you can create and customize your own access policy by using the az notification-hub authorization-rule create command. The --rights parameter is a space delimited list of the permissions you want to assign.

    az notification-hub authorization-rule create --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --notification-hub-name spfcmtutorial1nhub --name spnhub1key --rights Listen Manage Send

  3. There are two sets of keys and connection strings for each access policy. You'll need them later to configure a notification hub. To list the keys and connection strings for a Notification Hubs access policy, use the az notification-hub authorization-rule list-keys command.

    # query the keys and connection strings for DefaultListenSharedAccessSignature
az notification-hub authorization-rule list-keys --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --notification-hub-name spfcmtutorial1nhub --name DefaultListenSharedAccessSignature --output table

    # query the keys and connection strings for a custom policy
az notification-hub authorization-rule list-keys --resource-group spnhubrg --namespace-name spnhubns --notification-hub-name spfcmtutorial1nhub --name spnhub1key --output table

    Note

    A Notification Hubs namespace and a notification hub have separate access policies. Make sure you are using the correct Azure CLI reference when querying for keys and connection strings.

Clean up resources

When no longer needed, use the az group delete command to remove the resource group, and all related resources:

az group delete --name spnhubrg

Next steps