Install ThingsBoard Gateway from Source

Generate an SSH Key to Clone the GitHub Repository

  1. Move to the home directory of the gateway: cd ~

  2. Generate an SSH key: ssh-keygen

    • You don’t need to enter any special configuration values for your SSH key if prompted. Simply press Enter for each prompt until the command has finished running.

  3. Visit the directory where your SSH key can now be found: cd .ssh

  4. Display the public key. Copy it.: cat id_rsa.pub

  5. Go to the GitHub and log in with your account associated with the gateway repository

  6. Navigate to Settings > SSH and GPG keys > New SSH Key

  7. Paste the public key in the Key box

Install ThingsBoard Gateway

  1. Move to the home directory of the gateway: cd ~

  2. Install dependencies: sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-dev python3-pip libglib2.0-dev git mosquitto mosquitto-clients

  3. Install python dependencies: pip install cython PyYAML

  4. Clone the repository: git clone --single-branch --branch thingsboard-master git@github.com:drexelwireless/thingsboard-gateway.git

  5. Move to the repository: cd thingsboard-gateway/thingsboard-gateway

  6. Install the gateway python module: sudo python3 setup.py install

  7. Copy the service files:

    • Move to the directory the service files will live in: cd /etc/systemd/system

    • Copy the service files to the current directory: cp ~/thingsboard-gateway/setup_files/*.service . <– the period here is important

  8. Notify the system that daemons were changed: sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Create Gateway Device

  1. Go to the VarIoT Devices panel

  2. Click the “+” button near the upper right corner to create a new device:

    • Give it a name

    • Check the “Is a gateway” box

    • Click “Add”

  3. Click on the new device in the list then click the “Copy access token” button

Configure ThingsBoard Gateway

  1. Move to the config directory of the gateway: cd ~/thingsboard-gateway/thingsboard-gateway/thingsboard_gateway/config

  2. Edit the main gateway config file: nano tb_gateway.yaml

    • Replace host: thingsboard.cloud with host: variot.ece.drexel.edu

    • Replace accessToken: PUT_YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE with the copied access token

    • Press Ctrl-O <Enter> Ctrl-X to save and exit

Optional: VPN

  1. If VPN access is needed, install it with: sudo apt install openconnect network-manager-openconnect-gnome

  2. Connect with: sudo openconnect -u <your Drexel abc123> <vpn.drexel.edu>

    • Be sure to type in Drexel when prompted for the Group. The password is the same one you use to login to your Drexel Connect account.

    • The VPN login sequence requires Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Be sure to check your mobile phone when prompted for the security response.

    The VPN output should look like the following:

    sudo openconnect -u abc123 vpn.drexel.edu

POST https://vpn.drexel.edu/
Connected to 144.118.1.196:443
SSL negotiation with vpn.drexel.edu
Connected to HTTPS on vpn.drexel.edu with ciphersuite (TLS1.2)-(ECDHE-SECP256R1)-(RSA-SHA512)-(AES-256-GCM)
XML POST enabled
Please enter your username and password:
GROUP: [DrexelVPN|IRT-Application-Test|IRT-Private|IRT-Private-MSmfa|VPN-ANS-Private|VPN-DPS-Private|VPN-Drexel-Trusted-Clients|ZNG-VPN-Drexel-Trusted-Clients]:Drexel
POST https://vpn.drexel.edu/
XML POST enabled
Please enter your username and password:
Password:

Run ThingsBoard Gateway

  1. Start the ThingsBoard service: sudo service thingsboard-gateway start

  2. Enable the Thingsboard service on start-up: sudo systemctl enable thingsboard-gateway.service

  3. Check the service status: sudo service thingsboard-gateway status (Press q to return to the prompt)

    The ouput should look like the following:

    ● thingsboard-gateway.service - ThingsBoard Gateway
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/thingsboard-gateway.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2022-04-14 20:18:27 EDT; 1s ago
   Main PID: 16994 (python3)
      Tasks: 11 (limit: 8986)
        CPU: 935ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/thingsboard-gateway.service
             └─16994 /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/thingsboard-gateway/thingsboard-gateway/thingsboard_gateway/tb_gateway.py

  4. Be sure to check there is no line in the status that contains |ERROR| - [tb_device_mqtt.py] - tb_device_mqtt - _on_connect - 146 - connection FAIL with error 5 not authorised". This error means the gateway failed to connect to ThingsBoard due to a bad access token.

  5. Once everything is running smoothly, use the following command to send a telemetry packet to ThingsBoard: mosquitto_pub -d -q 1 -h "variot.ece.drexel.edu" -p "1883" -t "v1/devices/me/telemetry" -u "$ACCESS_TOKEN" -m {"temperature":25}. Be sure to replace $ACCESS_TOKEN with your access code.

  6. Navigate to the devices panel of ThingsBoard, click on your gateway device, then the “Latest Telemetry” tab. If everything worked the way it should, you should see an entry with key “temperature” and value “25”.