Core Metadata - Purpose

The core metadata micro service manages the knowledge about devices and sensors. This information is used by other services (Device, Command, etc) to communicate with the devices.

Specifically, metadata has the following abilities:

• Manages information about the devices connected to, and operated by, EdgeX Foundry
• Knows the type, and organization of data reported by the devices
• Knows how to command the devices

Although metadata has the knowledge, it does not do the following activities:

• It is not responsible for actual data collection from devices, which is performed by device services and core data
• It is not responsible for issuing commands to the devices, which is performed by core command and device services