Download FreeRTOSDownload IDT for FreeRTOSCreate and configure an AWS accountAWS IoT Device Tester managed policy(Optional) Install the AWS Command Line Interface

Prerequisites

This section describes the prerequisites for testing microcontrollers with AWS IoT Device Tester.

Download FreeRTOS

You can download a release of FreeRTOS from GitHub with the following command:

git clone --branch <FREERTOS_RELEASE_VERSION> --recurse-submodules https://github.com/aws/amazon-freertos.git
cd amazon-freertos
git submodule update --checkout --init --recursive

where <FREERTOS_RELEASE_VERSION> is a version of FreeRTOS (for example, 202007.00) corresponding to an IDT version listed in Supported versions of AWS IoT Device Tester for FreeRTOS. This ensures you have the full source code, including submodules, and are using the correct version of IDT for your version of FreeRTOS, and vice versa.

Windows has a path length limitation of 260 characters. The path structure of FreeRTOS is many levels deep, so if you are using Windows, keep your file paths under the 260-character limit. For example, clone FreeRTOS to C:\FreeRTOS rather than C:\Users\username\programs\projects\myproj\FreeRTOS\.

Considerations for LTS qualification (qualification for FreeRTOS that uses LTS libraries)

  • In order for your microcontroller to be designated as supporting long-term support (LTS) based versions of FreeRTOS in the AWS Partner Device Catalog, you must provide a manifest file. For more information, see the FreeRTOS Qualification Checklist in the FreeRTOS Qualification Guide.

  • In order to validate that your microcontroller supports LTS based versions of FreeRTOS and qualify it for submission to the AWS Partner Device Catalog, you must use AWS IoT Device Tester (IDT) with FreeRTOS Qualification (FRQ) test suite version v1.4.x.

  • Support for LTS based versions of FreeRTOS is limited to the 202012.xx version of FreeRTOS.

Download IDT for FreeRTOS

Every version of FreeRTOS has a corresponding version of IDT for FreeRTOS to perform qualification tests. Download the appropriate version of IDT for FreeRTOS from Supported versions of AWS IoT Device Tester for FreeRTOS.

Extract IDT for FreeRTOS to a location on the file system where you have read and write permissions. Because Microsoft Windows has a character limit for the path length, extract IDT for FreeRTOS into a root directory such as C:\ or D:\.

Note

We don't recommend that multiple users run IDT from a shared location, such as an NFS directory or a Windows network shared folder. This may result in crashes or data corruption. We recommend that you extract the IDT package to a local drive.

Create and configure an AWS account

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

  1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

  2. Follow the online instructions.

    Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

    When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

    For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

  2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

    For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

  1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

    For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

  2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

    For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

  • To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

    For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

  1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

    For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

  2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

    For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

AWS IoT Device Tester managed policy

The AWSIoTDeviceTesterForFreeRTOSFullAccess managed policy contains the following AWS IoT Device Tester permissions for version checking, auto update features, and collection of metrics.

  • iot-device-tester:SupportedVersion

    Grants AWS IoT Device Tester permission to fetch the list of supported products, test suites and IDT versions.

  • iot-device-tester:LatestIdt

    Grants AWS IoT Device Tester permission to fetch the latest IDT version available for download.

  • iot-device-tester:CheckVersion

    Grants AWS IoT Device Tester permission to check version compatibility for IDT, test suites and products.

  • iot-device-tester:DownloadTestSuite

    Grants AWS IoT Device Tester permission to download test suite updates.

  • iot-device-tester:SendMetrics

    Grants AWS permission to collect metrics about AWS IoT Device Tester internal usage.

(Optional) Install the AWS Command Line Interface

You might prefer to use the AWS CLI to perform some operations. If you don't have the AWS CLI installed, follow the instructions at Install the AWS CLI.

Configure the AWS CLI for the AWS Region you want to use by running aws configure from a command line. For information about the AWS Regions that support IDT for FreeRTOS, see AWS Regions and Endpoints. For more information about aws configure see Quick configuration with aws configure.