Creating an alias in Yandex IoT Core

Written by

Yandex Cloud

Updated at May 13, 2025

Aliases are linked to specific devices. To create an alias, you need to find the device ID or name.

Note

You can only use the $me system alias for the $monitoring/<device_ID>/json topic.

Management console

CLI

Terraform

API

To create an alias:

In the management console, select a folder where you wish to create an alias.
Select IoT Core.
Select the required registry from the list.
On the left side of the window, select the Devices section.
Click to the right of the appropriate device name and select Edit from the drop-down list.
Add an alias:
1. Click Add alias.
2. Fill in the fields: enter an alias, e.g., events, and the topic type after $devices/<device_ID>, e.g., events.
  You will be able to use the events alias instead of the $devices/<device_ID>/events topic.
3. Repeat the steps for each alias you add.
Click Save.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud (CLI) command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

Create an alias:

yc iot device add-topic-aliases arenak5ciqss********
  --topic-aliases commands='$devices/arenak5ciqss********/commands'

Result:

id: arenak5ciqss********
registry_id: arenou2oj4ct********
created_at: "2019-09-16T12:32:48.911Z"
name: second
topic_aliases:
  commands: $devices/arenak5ciqss********/commands

You can also add an alias when creating a device. To do this, instead of a unique ID, specify the {id} in the device topic, since the unique ID is not known yet:

yc iot device create
  --registry-name <registry_name>
  --name <device_name>
  --topic-aliases <alias_name>='$devices/{id}/<events,_state,_commands_or_config>'

With Terraform, you can quickly create a cloud infrastructure in Yandex Cloud and manage it using configuration files. These files store the infrastructure description written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). If you change the configuration files, Terraform automatically detects which part of your configuration is already deployed, and what should be added or removed.

Terraform is distributed under the Business Source License. The Yandex Cloud provider for Terraform is distributed under the MPL-2.0 license.

For more information about the provider resources, see the documentation on the Terraform website or mirror website.

If you do not have Terraform yet, install it and configure its Yandex Cloud provider.

To add an alias to a device created usingTerraform:

In the configuration file, describe the parameters of the resources you want to create:
- yandex_iot_core_registry: Device properties:
  - registry_id: ID of the registry where the device was created.
  - name: Device name.
  - description: Device description.
  - aliases: Topic aliases.
Here is an example of the resource structure in the configuration file:
```
resource "yandex_iot_core_device" "my_device" {
  registry_id = "<registry_ID>"
  name        = "<device_name>"
  description = "test device for terraform provider documentation"

  aliases = {
    "some-alias1/subtopic" = "$devices/{id}/events/somesubtopic",
    "some-alias2/subtopic" = "$devices/{id}/events/aaa/bbb",
  }
...
}
```
For more information about the yandex_iot_core_device resource parameters in Terraform, see the relevant provider documentation.
In the command line, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.
Make sure the configuration file is correct using this command:
```
terraform validate
```
If the configuration is correct, you will get this message:
```
Success! The configuration is valid.
```
Run this command:
```
terraform plan
```
The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes will be made at this step. If the configuration contains any errors, Terraform will point them out.
Apply the configuration changes:
```
terraform apply
```
Confirm the changes: type yes into the terminal and press Enter.

You can verify device aliases in the management console or using the following CLI command:
```
yc iot device get <device_name>
```

To create an alias, use the create REST API method for the Device resource or the DeviceService/Create gRPC API call.

Creating an alias in Yandex IoT Core

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