Getting started with Yandex IoT Core device registries

Written by

Yandex Cloud

Updated at August 14, 2025

Getting started
Create a certificate
Create a registry
Create a device
Set up message exchange between the device and the registry
What's next

To start using the Yandex IoT Core service, create the following:

Then, set up message exchange between the device and the registry.

Getting started

Navigate to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create a new account.
On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one and link a cloud to it.

If you have an active billing account, you can navigate to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure.

Learn more about clouds and folders here.

Create a certificate

X.509 certificates enable interaction between MQTT clients: the registry and device. Each of them needs its certificate.

If you have certificates, add them to the MQTT clients. You can do this when creating clients.
If you do not have certificates, create them using the OpenSSL program (the command below creates only one certificate):
```
openssl req -x509 \
-newkey rsa:4096 \
  -keyout private-key.pem \
  -out cert.pem \
  -nodes \
  -days 365 \
  -subj '/CN=localhost'
```
Where:
- -x509: Certificate type, X.509.
- -newkey: Encryption algorithm.
- -keyout: File with the private key of the certificate.
- -out: File with the public key of the certificate.
- -nodes: This flag is set when no public key encryption is required.
- -days: Certificate validity period in days.
- -subj: Request object.
For each of the MQTT clients, specify different names for files with private and public keys.

Create a registry

Management console

CLI

In the management console, select the folder to create your registry in.
Select IoT Core.
In the left-hand panel, select Registries.
Click Create registry.
Under General information, add my-registry as the registry name.
Add a certificate:
- To add a file:
  1. Choose the File method.
  2. Click Attach file.
  3. Select the file with the public key of the certificate and click Open.
  4. Click Add.
- To add text:
  1. Choose the Text method.
  2. Paste the public key of the certificate to the Content field.
  3. Click Add.
Click Create.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI installed yet, install and initialize it.

By default, the CLI uses the folder specified when creating the profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also set a different folder for any specific command using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

Create a registry:

yc iot registry create --name my-registry

Result:

id: b91hafek85**********
folder_id: aoek49ghmk*********
created_at: "2019-05-27T13:40:06.923Z"
name: my-registry
status: ACTIVE
log_group_id: ckghotead**********

Add a certificate to the registry:

yc iot registry certificate add \
  --registry-name my-registry \
  --certificate-file registry-cert.pem

Where:

--registry-name: Registry name.
--certificate-file: Path to the public key of the certificate.

Result:

registry_id: b91hafek85**********
fingerprint: 589ce16050****
certificate_data: |
   -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
   MIIE/jCCAuagAwIBAgIJAPRA...
   -----END CERTIFICATE-----
created_at: "2019-05-27T13:41:45.295Z"

Create a device

Management console

CLI

In the management console, select a folder to create a device in.
Select IoT Core.
Select my-registry from the list.
On the left side of the window, select the Devices section.
Click Add device.
Under General information, add my-device as the device name.
Add a certificate:
- To add a file:
  1. Choose the File method.
  2. Click Attach file.
  3. Select the file with the public key of the certificate and click Open.
  4. Click Add.
- To add text:
  1. Choose the Text method.
  2. Paste the public key of the certificate to the Content field.
  3. Click Add.
Click Create.

Create a device:

yc iot device create \
  --registry-name my-registry \
  --name my-device

Where:

--registry-name: Name of the registry that the device is part of.
--name: Device name.

Result:

id: b912an77oq**********
registry_id: b91hafek85**********
created_at: "2019-05-27T13:44:35.164Z"
name: my-device

Add a certificate to the device:

yc iot device certificate add \
  --device-name my-device \
  --certificate-file ./certs/device-cert.pem

Where:

--device-name: Device name.
--certificate-file: Path to the public key of the certificate.

Result:

device_id: b912an77oq**********
fingerprint: 65e5b05006***
certificate_data: |
   -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
   MIIE/jCCAuagAwIBAgIJANZbq...
   -----END CERTIFICATE-----
created_at: "2019-05-27T13:45:23.306Z"