Outline

Chapter 1 Welcome Prerequisites Background History What is IoT Open Some examples of use Getting started Create an account Main objects DeviceX/FunctionX Device Function Installation Create an installation Summary Chapter 2 What about data? More about functions Function metadata Function topic metadata Predefined function types Function types Practical steps The Workbench Summary Chapter 3 More about how data flows Data / Metrics Topic Payload Time to try it out Chapter 4 More about users and access Two ways to access IoT Open Username and password API Key More about access Chapter 5 IoT Open Virtual Appliance What is the Virtual Appliance Where to get the appliance How to install it Verify network access Sum up Chapter 6 Grafana Installing grafana Login for the first time Configuring the IoT Open datasource Creating your first dashboard Chapter 7 Node-RED Installing Node-RED Installing the IoT Open Nodes Create your first flow connected to IoT Open Exercise Chapter 8 Lynx-bash-scripts Get the scripts Installing Getting started Exercise Chapter 9 More on Metadata

IoT Open Basic

Basic course for IoT Open developers and integrators.

Chapter 5

“It would be really nice with some cosy relevant quote here!”
― IoT Open Developer

IoT Open Virtual Appliance

If you don't have a Linux machine, now might be a good time to try the IoT Open Virtual Appliance out. It is a virtual machine running Linux, Docker and a collection of IoT Open tools. This chapter is not necessary if you have a Linux machine or have access to Grafana and Node-RED somewhere else. It is also possible to rent Node-RED and Grafana instances from IoT Open / TH1NG.

What is the Virtual Appliance

The Virtual Appliance is a virtual Linux system in an OVA container. It can be installed in VMware and in VirtualBox from Oracle. Here we will take you through the latter.

Where to get the appliance

You can get it by downloading it from this link (big download). Save it somewhere you can find it, since you will need to locate it later.

How to install it

  • Start by downloading VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/. Install it and accept the common installation options. This part should be smooth even though there are quite some things to accept
  • Choose File -> Import Appliance (choose the downloaded file and proceed) or simply open the file you downloaded
  • It presents you with the settings for the appliance, those should be correct
  • Click import (the import will take some time)
  • When done, click on your new virtual machine to start it

There might be an error coming up depending on your operating system regarding the network interface on Adapter 2. However, this is easy to fix.

Before the appliance boots, you will see an error like:

Network Error

  • Click Change Network Settings

You will come directly to the network settings. Choose the tab for Adapter 2.

Network Settings

Since the right name now has been chosen, just click OK and the virtual appliance should start.

When started you will see a black screen with something like:

Debian GNU/Linux 10 iot-open tty1

iot-open login:
  • Log in with username iot and the password open

Note: If your mouse gets captured in the terminal press the key mentioned in the right lower corner, in my case Right Ctrl.

You are now in the console of the virtual machine. However, the terminal in VirtualBox is not great. We recommend that you log in to it with another ssh-client. If you are on Windows we recommend that you install PuTTY instead and use it as a terminal. It's worth the hassle. If you don't have it already, go to this site and download it and install it. If you are on OS X, Linux or Solaris, there should be an ssh-client already installed that works fine.

Verify network access

There are several network interfaces on the machine, if you enter the command hostname -I you will see them. In my case it looks like this.

iot@iot-open:~$ hostname -I 
10.0.2.15 192.168.56.102 172.17.0.1 
iot@iot-open:~$

One of the addresses, 192.168.56.102 in my case, is available from the host-machine. Use that one to log in with PuTTY or your preferred ssh client, just remember it for later.

Also you need to verify that the machine has internet access. Try the command ping -c 1 1.1.1.1 and see that you get 0% packet loss.

That's it. Now you should have everything you need to start using the virtual appliance.

If you are scared of the black terminal window, don't worry you will only need it to start applications that have a graphical user interface. Then there are lots of other fun things you can do in the terminal as well, but those aren't necessary right now.

Sum up

Below is a picture of a screen after booting the Virtual Appliance. You can see the virtual appliance console to the right and PuTTY to the left. You can see the IP address in the appliance window and also entered in PuTTY.

Virtual Appliance