Step 7: Device Onboarding Control Plane Setup

These steps are used to configure ThingsBoard* for device onboarding. Do all steps on the control plane.

Install the MQTT Service

1. Make sure that the common name is the hostname of control plane.

2. Install the Eclipse Mosquitto* broker and client for device onboarding and application over-the-air (AOTA) message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) messages:

   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mosquitto-dev/mosquitto-ppa
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install mosquitto
   sudo apt-get install mosquitto-clients
   sudo apt clean
   

3. Generate the certificates for the Mosquitto secure sockets layer (SSL) and the server.key for the Mosquitto SSL:

   cd  /etc/mosquitto/certs
   openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key 2048
   openssl req -new -x509 -days 1826 -key ca.key -out ca.crt
   openssl genrsa -out server.key 2048
   openssl req -new -out server.csr -key server.key
   

   openssl x509 -req -in server.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -CAcreateserial -out server.crt -days 360
   chmod 777 *
   

   Note

   Use the machine hostname of control plane as the common name.

4. Update /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf:

   # Place your local configuration in /etc/mosquitto/conf.d/
   #
   # A full description of the configuration file is at
   # /usr/share/doc/mosquitto/examples/mosquitto.conf.example
   
   persistence true
   persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/
   
   log_dest file /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log
   
   include_dir /etc/mosquitto/conf.d
   
   listener 18883
   allow_anonymous true
   
   cafile /etc/mosquitto/certs/ca.crt
   certfile /etc/mosquitto/certs/server.crt
   keyfile /etc/mosquitto/certs/server.key
   

5. Go to AMR_server_containers folder, and start the MQTT service:

   cd <edge_insights_for_amr_path>/Edge_Insights_for_Autonomous_Mobile_Robots_*/AMR_server_containers
   ansible-playbook 01_docker_sdk_env/docker_orchestration/ansible-playbooks/02_edge_server/smart_edge_open/fleetmanagement_interface.yaml
   ufw allow 18883
   

   For errors, go to Troubleshooting.

6. Open a browser, use the controller IP, and open <IP Address>:32764. Use the following credentials:

   • account: tenant@thingsboard.org

   • password: tenant

7. Go to the Rule Chain page, and select MQTT_SEO.

   

8. Assign the control plane IP to the variable Host*.

9. Select the Enable SSL option.

10. Assign PEM to the variable Credentials.

11. Upload the /etc/mosquitto/certs/server.crt certificate that was generated above, and apply the changes.

    

Prepare ThingsBoard* for OTA Updates

1. Prepare for the Intel® RealSense™ camera firmware update.

   1. Download the latest firmware version from https://dev.intelrealsense.com/docs/firmware-releases.

   2. Place the .bin file that contains the firmware in a .tar.gz archive. Make sure that you do not archive the entire directory, only the .bin file.

   3. Set up a basic HTTP server, and upload the .tar.gz on it as a trusted repository server:

      1. Install the apache2:

         sudo apt update
         sudo apt install apache2
         

      2. Put the .bin file inside a .tar.gz, and place it on a http server:

         tar -czvf rs_firmware_update.tar.gz Signed_Image_UVC_<version>.bin
         sudo cp rs_firmware_update.tar.gz /var/www/html/
         

2. On ThingsBoard*, open Rule Chain.

3. Open Form_Config_Update, and, on line 15, update the URL of HTTP host that has the new firmware.

   

4. Open Form_POTA, and, on line 15, update the following.

   1. The entire HTTP URL with the .tar.gz file for the firmware file.

      Note

      The link should be similar to http://<hostname>/<archive.tar.gz>

   2. The Manufacturer, Vendor, and the Product name with the output of the following commands. Execute these commands on the robot.

      dmidecode -t system  | grep Product
      dmidecode -t system  | grep Manufacturer
      dmidecode -t bios  | grep Vendor
      

   

   Note

   Updating the Manufacturer, Vendor, and Product name needs to be done every time you onboard a new type of robot. If these values do not match the ones from the robot trying to onboard, the flow fails.

5. Save all changes.

If you encounter errors, see Troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting

If, even after reinstalling the playbook and verifying that the ports are not blocked by the firewall, ThingsBoard* does not work, contact Intel’s Support Forum.

• Verify that the MQTT service is running:

  systemctl status mosquitto.service
  

  If the command above returns Active: failed:

  chmod -R 755 /etc/mosquitto/
  systemctl restart mosquitto.service
  systemctl status mosquitto.service
  systemctl restart mqtt_aota.service
  systemctl status mqtt_aota.service
  

  Expected result: The status of the mosquitto service is Active: active.