Getting Started

Requirements

IOTstack makes the following assumptions:

1. Your hardware is a Raspberry Pi (typically a 3B+ or 4B).

   • The Raspberry Pi Zero W2 has been tested with IOTstack. It works but the 512MB RAM means you should not try to run too many containers concurrently.
   • Users have also reported success on Orange Pi Win/Plus.
   • Most services will run on any Linux machine with Docker, but some have Raspberry Pi specific default configurations or dependencies.

2. Your Raspberry Pi has a reasonably-recent version of 32-bit or 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (aka "Raspbian") installed. You can download operating-system images:

   • Current release : "Raspberry Pi OS with desktop" is recommended.
   • Prior releases : This offers only "Raspberry Pi OS with desktop" images.

3. You've done a "default" Raspberry Pi OS install, which automatically satisfies:

   • you log in as a regular user, not root. The actual username and its numeric uid doesn't matter.
   • this user has sudo-access, usually this is done by belonging to the sudo-group.
   • boot partition is mounted at /boot.

4. Your operating system has been updated:

   $ sudo apt update
   $ sudo apt upgrade -y
   

For brevity, this documentation also makes some guesses, but these aren't technical requirements. If you have a different choice, you'll just have to adjust the commands presented in these instructions to match the change. For first-time Linux users it's recommended to start with these:

• You are logged-in as the user "pi".
• The home directory for user "pi" is /home/pi/.
• IOTstack is installed at ~/IOTstack (with that exact spelling).
• The system hostname is raspberrypi

New installation

automatic (recommended)

1. Install curl:

   $ sudo apt install -y curl
   

2. Run the following command:

   $ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SensorsIot/IOTstack/master/install.sh | bash
   

3. Run the menu and choose your containers:

   $ cd ~/IOTstack
   $ ./menu.sh
   

4. Bring up your stack:

   $ cd ~/IOTstack
   $ docker-compose up -d
   

manual

1. Install git:

   $ sudo apt install -y git
   

2. Clone IOTstack:

   • If you want "new menu":

     $ git clone https://github.com/SensorsIot/IOTstack.git ~/IOTstack
     

   • If you prefer "old menu":

     $ git clone -b old-menu https://github.com/SensorsIot/IOTstack.git ~/IOTstack
     

3. Run the menu and choose your containers:

   $ cd ~/IOTstack
   $ ./menu.sh
   

   Note:

   • If you are running "old menu" for the first time, you will be guided to "Install Docker". That will end in a reboot, after which you should re-enter the menu and choose your containers.

4. Bring up your stack:

   $ cd ~/IOTstack
   $ docker-compose up -d
   

scripted

If you prefer to automate your installations using scripts, see PiBuilder.

Required system patches

Unless you know what you are doing, assume these are needed.

patch 1 – restrict DHCP

Run the following commands:

$ sudo bash -c '[ $(egrep -c "^allowinterfaces eth\*,wlan\*" /etc/dhcpcd.conf) -eq 0 ] && echo "allowinterfaces eth*,wlan*" >> /etc/dhcpcd.conf'

See Issue 219 and Issue 253 for more information.

patch 2 – update libseccomp2

This patch is ONLY for Raspbian Buster. Do NOT install this patch if you are running Raspbian Bullseye.

1. check your OS release

   Run the following command:

   $ grep "PRETTY_NAME" /etc/os-release
   PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
   

   If you see the word "buster", proceed to step 2. Otherwise, skip this patch.

2. if you are indeed running "buster"

   Without this patch on Buster, Docker images will fail if:

   • the image is based on Alpine and the image's maintainer updates to Alpine 3.13; and/or
   • an image's maintainer updates to a library that depends on 64-bit values for Unix epoch time (the so-called Y2038 problem).

   To install the patch:

   $ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com:443 --recv-keys 04EE7237B7D453EC 648ACFD622F3D138
   $ echo "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free" | sudo tee -a "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-backports.list"
   $ sudo apt update
   $ sudo apt install libseccomp2 -t buster-backports
   

patch 3 - kernel control groups

Kernel control groups need to be enabled in order to monitor container specific usage. This makes commands like docker stats fully work. Also needed for full monitoring of docker resource usage by the telegraf container.

Enable by running (takes effect after reboot):

$ echo $(cat /boot/cmdline.txt) cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory | sudo tee /boot/cmdline.txt
$ sudo reboot

the IOTstack menu

The menu is used to install Docker and then build the docker-compose.yml file which is necessary for starting the stack.

The menu is only an aid. It is a good idea to learn the docker and docker-compose commands if you plan on using Docker in the long run.

menu item: Install Docker (old menu only)

Please do not try to install docker and docker-compose via sudo apt install. There's more to it than that. Docker needs to be installed by menu.sh. The menu will prompt you to install docker if it detects that docker is not already installed. You can manually install it from within the Native Installs menu:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ ./menu.sh
Select "Native Installs"
Select "Install Docker and Docker-Compose"

Follow the prompts. The process finishes by asking you to reboot. Do that!

Note:

• New menu (master branch) automates this step.

menu item: Build Stack

docker-compose uses a docker-compose.yml file to configure all your services. The docker-compose.yml file is created by the menu:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ ./menu.sh
Select "Build Stack"

Follow the on-screen prompts and select the containers you need.

The best advice we can give is "start small". Limit yourself to the core containers you actually need (eg Mosquitto, Node-RED, InfluxDB, Grafana, Portainer). You can always add more containers later. Some users have gone overboard with their initial selections and have run into what seem to be Raspberry Pi OS limitations.

Key point:

• If you are running "new menu" (master branch) and you select Node-RED, you must press the right-arrow and choose at least one add-on node. If you skip this step, Node-RED will not build properly.
• Old menu forces you to choose add-on nodes for Node-RED.

The process finishes by asking you to bring up the stack:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d

The first time you run up the stack docker will download all the images from DockerHub. How long this takes will depend on how many containers you selected and the speed of your internet connection.

Some containers also need to be built locally. Node-RED is an example. Depending on the Node-RED nodes you select, building the image can also take a very long time. This is especially true if you select the SQLite node.

Be patient (and ignore the huge number of warnings).

menu item: Docker commands

The commands in this menu execute shell scripts in the root of the project.

other menu items

The old and new menus differ in the options they offer. You should come back and explore them once your stack is built and running.

switching menus

At the time of writing, IOTstack supports three menus:

• "Old Menu" on the old-menu branch. This was inherited from gcgarner/IOTstack.
• "New Menu" on the master branch. This is the current menu.
• "New New Menu" on the experimental branch. This is under development.

With a few precautions, you can switch between git branches as much as you like without breaking anything. The basic check you should perform is:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ git status

Check the results to see if any files are marked as "modified". For example:

modified:   .templates/mosquitto/Dockerfile

Key point:

• Files marked "untracked" do not matter. You only need to check for "modified" files because those have the potential to stop you from switching branches cleanly.

The way to avoid potential problems is to move any modified files to one side and restore the unmodified original. For example:

$ mv .templates/mosquitto/Dockerfile .templates/mosquitto/Dockerfile.save
$ git checkout -- .templates/mosquitto/Dockerfile

When git status reports no more "modified" files, it is safe to switch your branch.

current menu (master branch)

$ cd ~/IOTstack/
$ git pull
$ git checkout master
$ ./menu.sh

old menu (old-menu branch)

$ cd ~/IOTstack/
$ git pull
$ git checkout old-menu
$ ./menu.sh

experimental branch

Switch to the experimental branch to try the latest and greatest features.

$ cd ~/IOTstack/
$ git pull
$ git checkout experimental
$ ./menu.sh

Notes:

• Please make sure you have a good backup before you start.
• The experimental branch may be broken, or may break your setup.
• Please report any issues.

• Remember:

  • you can switch git branches as much as you like without breaking anything.
  • simply launching the menu (any version) won't change anything providing you exit before letting the menu complete.
  • running the menu to completion will change your docker-compose.yml and supporting structures in ~/IOTstack/services.
  • running docker-compose up -d will change your running containers.

• The way back is to take down your stack, restore a backup, and bring up your stack again.

useful commands: docker & docker-compose

Handy rules:

• docker commands can be executed from anywhere, but
• docker-compose commands need to be executed from within ~/IOTstack

starting your IOTstack

To start the stack:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d

Once the stack has been brought up, it will stay up until you take it down. This includes shutdowns and reboots of your Raspberry Pi. If you do not want the stack to start automatically after a reboot, you need to stop the stack before you issue the reboot command.

logging journald errors

If you get docker logging error like:

Cannot create container for service [service name here]: unknown log opt 'max-file' for journald log driver

1. Run the command:

   $ sudo nano /etc/docker/daemon.json
   

2. change:

   "log-driver": "journald",
   

   to:

   "log-driver": "json-file",
   

Logging limits were added to prevent Docker using up lots of RAM if log2ram is enabled, or SD cards being filled with log data and degraded from unnecessary IO. See Docker Logging configurations

You can also turn logging off or set it to use another option for any service by using the IOTstack docker-compose-override.yml file mentioned at IOTstack/Custom.

starting an individual container

To start a particular container:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d «container»

stopping your IOTstack

Stopping aka "downing" the stack stops and deletes all containers, and removes the internal network:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose down

To stop the stack without removing containers, run:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose stop

stopping an individual container

stop can also be used to stop individual containers, like this:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose stop «container»

This puts the container in a kind of suspended animation. You can resume the container with

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose start «container»

There is no equivalent of down for a single container. It needs:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose rm --force --stop -v «container»

To reactivate a container which has been stopped and removed:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d «container»

checking container status

You can check the status of containers with:

$ docker ps

or

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose ps

viewing container logs

You can inspect the logs of most containers like this:

$ docker logs «container»

for example:

$ docker logs nodered

You can also follow a container's log as new entries are added by using the -f flag:

$ docker logs -f nodered

Terminate with a Control+C. Note that restarting a container will also terminate a followed log.

restarting a container

You can restart a container in several ways:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose restart «container»

This kind of restart is the least-powerful form of restart. A good way to think of it is "the container is only restarted, it is not rebuilt".

If you change a docker-compose.yml setting for a container and/or an environment variable file referenced by docker-compose.yml then a restart is usually not enough to bring the change into effect. You need to make docker-compose notice the change:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d «container»

This type of "restart" rebuilds the container.

Alternatively, to force a container to rebuild (without changing either docker-compose.yml or an environment variable file):

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up -d --force-recreate «container»

See also updating images built from Dockerfiles if you need to force docker-compose to notice a change to a Dockerfile.

persistent data

Docker allows a container's designer to map folders inside a container to a folder on your disk (SD, SSD, HD). This is done with the "volumes" key in docker-compose.yml. Consider the following snippet for Node-RED:

volumes:
  - ./volumes/nodered/data:/data

You read this as two paths, separated by a colon. The:

• external path is ./volumes/nodered/data
• internal path is /data

In this context, the leading "." means "the folder containingdocker-compose.yml", so the external path is actually:

• ~/IOTstack/volumes/nodered/data

This type of volume is a bind-mount, where the container's internal path is directly linked to the external path. All file-system operations, reads and writes, are mapped to directly to the files and folders at the external path.

deleting persistent data

If you need a "clean slate" for a container, you can delete its volumes. Using InfluxDB as an example:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose rm --force --stop -v influxdb
$ sudo rm -rf ./volumes/influxdb
$ docker-compose up -d influxdb

When docker-compose tries to bring up InfluxDB, it will notice this volume mapping in docker-compose.yml:

    volumes:
      - ./volumes/influxdb/data:/var/lib/influxdb

and check to see whether ./volumes/influxdb/data is present. Finding it not there, it does the equivalent of:

$ sudo mkdir -p ./volumes/influxdb/data

When InfluxDB starts, it sees that the folder on right-hand-side of the volumes mapping (/var/lib/influxdb) is empty and initialises new databases.

This is how most containers behave. There are exceptions so it's always a good idea to keep a backup.

stack maintenance

Breaking update

Recent changes will require manual steps or you may get an error like:
ERROR: Service "influxdb" uses an undefined network "iotstack_nw"

update Raspberry Pi OS

You should keep your Raspberry Pi up-to-date. Despite the word "container" suggesting that containers are fully self-contained, they sometimes depend on operating system components ("WireGuard" is an example).

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade -y

git pull

Although the menu will generally do this for you, it does not hurt to keep your local copy of the IOTstack repository in sync with the master version on GitHub.

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ git pull

container image updates

There are two kinds of images used in IOTstack:

• Those not built using Dockerfiles (the majority)

• Those built using Dockerfiles (special cases)

  A Dockerfile is a set of instructions designed to customise an image before it is instantiated to become a running container.

The easiest way to work out which type of image you are looking at is to inspect the container's service definition in your docker-compose.yml file. If the service definition contains the:

• image: keyword then the image is not built using a Dockerfile.
• build: keyword then the image is built using a Dockerfile.

updating images not built from Dockerfiles

If new versions of this type of image become available on DockerHub, your local IOTstack copies can be updated by a pull command:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose pull
$ docker-compose up -d
$ docker system prune

The pull downloads any new images. It does this without disrupting the running stack.

The up -d notices any newly-downloaded images, builds new containers, and swaps old-for-new. There is barely any downtime for affected containers.

updating images built from Dockerfiles

Containers built using Dockerfiles have a two-step process:

1. A base image is downloaded from from DockerHub; and then
2. The Dockerfile "runs" to build a local image.

Node-RED is a good example of a container built from a Dockerfile. The Dockerfile defines some (or possibly all) of your add-on nodes, such as those needed for InfluxDB or Tasmota.

There are two separate update situations that you need to consider:

• If your Dockerfile changes; or
• If a newer base image appears on DockerHub

Node-RED also provides a good example of why your Dockerfile might change: if you decide to add or remove add-on nodes.

Note:

• You can also add nodes to Node-RED using Manage Palette.

when Dockerfile changes (local image only)

When your Dockerfile changes, you need to rebuild like this:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose up --build -d «container»
$ docker system prune

This only rebuilds the local image and, even then, only if docker-compose senses a material change to the Dockerfile.

If you are trying to force the inclusion of a later version of an add-on node, you need to treat it like a DockerHub update.

Key point:

• The base image is not affected by this type of update.

Note:

• You can also use this type of build if you get an error after modifying Node-RED's environment:

  $ cd ~/IOTstack
  $ docker-compose up --build -d nodered
  

when DockerHub updates (base and local images)

When a newer version of the base image appears on DockerHub, you need to rebuild like this:

$ cd ~/IOTstack
$ docker-compose build --no-cache --pull «container»
$ docker-compose up -d «container»
$ docker system prune
$ docker system prune

This causes DockerHub to be checked for the later version of the base image, downloading it as needed.

Then, the Dockerfile is run to produce a new local image. The Dockerfile run happens even if a new base image was not downloaded in the previous step.

deleting unused images

As your system evolves and new images come down from DockerHub, you may find that more disk space is being occupied than you expected. Try running:

$ docker system prune

This recovers anything no longer in use. Sometimes multiple prune commands are needed (eg the first removes an old local image, the second removes the old base image).

If you add a container via menu.sh and later remove it (either manually or via menu.sh), the associated images(s) will probably persist. You can check which images are installed via:

$ docker images

REPOSITORY               TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
influxdb                 latest              1361b14bf545        5 days ago          264MB
grafana/grafana          latest              b9dfd6bb8484        13 days ago         149MB
iotstack_nodered         latest              21d5a6b7b57b        2 weeks ago         540MB
portainer/portainer-ce   latest              5526251cc61f        5 weeks ago         163MB
eclipse-mosquitto        latest              4af162db6b4c        6 weeks ago         8.65MB
nodered/node-red         latest              fa3bc6f20464        2 months ago        376MB
portainer/portainer      latest              dbf28ba50432        2 months ago        62.5MB

Both "Portainer CE" and "Portainer" are in that list. Assuming "Portainer" is no longer in use, it can be removed by using either its repository name or its Image ID. In other words, the following two commands are synonyms:

$ docker rmi portainer/portainer
$ docker rmi dbf28ba50432

In general, you can use the repository name to remove an image but the Image ID is sometimes needed. The most common situation where you are likely to need the Image ID is after an image has been updated on DockerHub and pulled down to your Raspberry Pi. You will find two containers with the same name. One will be tagged "latest" (the running version) while the other will be tagged "\<none>" (the prior version). You use the Image ID to resolve the ambiguity.

pinning to specific versions

See container image updates to understand how to tell the difference between images that are used "as is" from DockerHub versus those that are built from local Dockerfiles.

Note:

• You should always visit an image's DockerHub page before pinning to a specific version. This is the only way to be certain that you are choosing the appropriate version suffix.

To pin an image to a specific version:

• If the image comes straight from DockerHub, you apply the pin in docker-compose.yml. For example, to pin Grafana to version 7.5.7, you change:

    grafana:
      container_name: grafana
      image: grafana/grafana:latest
      …
  

  to:

    grafana:
      container_name: grafana
      image: grafana/grafana:7.5.7
      …
  

  To apply the change, "up" the container:

  $ cd ~/IOTstack
  $ docker-compose up -d grafana
  

• If the image is built using a local Dockerfile, you apply the pin in the Dockerfile. For example, to pin Mosquitto to version 1.6.15, edit ~/IOTstack/.templates/mosquitto/Dockerfile to change:

  # Download base image
  FROM eclipse-mosquitto:latest
  …
  

  to:

  # Download base image
  FROM eclipse-mosquitto:1.6.15
  …
  

  To apply the change, "up" the container and pass the --build flag:

  $ cd ~/IOTstack
  $ docker-compose up -d --build mosquitto