123 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
123 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
# IoT Prototyping Backend
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## Overview
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This project is a backend solution for prototyping Internet of Things (IoT) services. It leverages the power of Docker containers to easily integrate Grafana, InfluxDB, and Node-RED into a seamless, scalable, and robust backend system. The solution aims to provide rapid prototyping capabilities for IoT applications that need real-time data visualization, storage, and workflow automation.
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## Features
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* [Eclipse Mosquitto](https://mosquitto.org): MQTT broker
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* [Grafana](https://grafana.com/): Real-time data visualization and monitoring dashboard
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* [InfluxDB](https://www.influxdata.com/): High-performance data storage
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* [Node-RED](https://nodered.org/): Flow-based development tool for visual programming and data flow automation
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## Architecture overview
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Data is collected by IoT devices, e.g. an ESP32 based power monitor. These devices *publish* their data via MQTT into a topic in a message broker. We use Eclipse Mosquitto as a MQTT message broker.
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Node-RED is used to read and transform or combine data and to implement more sophicsticated use cases like notifications or worksflow. Node-RED *subscribes* to topics in Mosquitto and can be used to save transformed data into a database.
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As our data is bases on time, we are using a *time series database* to store information. We used InfluxDB as this database.
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Dashboards can already be created in Node-RED, but to be more flexible (and include more options) we are using Grafana. Grafana reads data from our *database* and *other sources* (like CSV files on the Internet) and displays them in a nice dashboard.
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## Prerequisites
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### Docker
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First install Docker and `docker-compose`:
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* [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/)
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* [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/)
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* [Git](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git)
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If you want to use an UI for Docker, you can optionally also use [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/).
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## Installation
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### Clone the Repository
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```sh
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git clone https://code.curious.bio/curious.bio/iot-backend
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cd iot-backend
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```
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### Build and launch Docker containers
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Most Docker containers are of the shelf, but the Node-RED container has the be built, so some usefull plugins are already included. You can build and run these Docker containers in a single step:
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```sh
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docker-compose --file software/container/docker-compose.yml up --force-recreate --build
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```
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## Usage
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### Mosquitto
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[Eclipse Mosquitto](https://mosquitto.org) is an open source message broker which implements a server for MQTT. It runs in Docker and is exposed on the default MQTT port `1883`. You can subscribe to and push into `topics`:
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```sh
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mosquitto_sub -h localhost -t '#' -p 1883
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mosquitto_pub -h localhost -p 1883 -t '/' -m $(date --utc +%s)
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```
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There is also a *very* usefuly tool to debug MQTT: [MQTT Explorer](https://github.com/thomasnordquist/MQTT-Explorer/), that is also available at [mqtt-explorer.com](https://mqtt-explorer.com/).
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### Node-RED
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[Node-RED](https://nodered.org) is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.
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It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click
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Node-RED is also running in Docker and is exposed on port `1880`: http://localhost:1880/
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### InfluxDB
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[InfluxDB](https://www.influxdata.com) is a database for any time series data. It runs in Docker and is exposed on port `8086`: http://localhost:8086/ (you have to create an initial user in just a few simple steps)
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### Grafana
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[Grafana](https://grafana.com) is a software to build operational dashboards. It runs in Docker and is exposed on port `3000`:
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You can login to Grafana: http://localhost:3000/login (admin:admin)
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## Examples and set-up
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### Setting up a simple flow in Node-RED
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A simple introduction to Node-RED can be found - along with the nodes / the code - in [this repository](./docs/flow/README.md).
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### Connecting Node-RED to Influx
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A more sophisticated exampe on how to connect Node-RED to influx is also available in [this repository](./docs/flow/docs/node-influx.md).
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### Setting up Grafana
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Have a look at the [the document in this repository](./docs/dashboard/README.md).
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### Attaching a Shelly plug
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As an example you can use a Shelly plug flashed with Tasmota and feed MQTT data with Node-RED into InfluxDB and visualize it with Grafana. Have a look, [here](./docs/shelly/README.md).
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## Backup und hosting
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This is just a prototype. You should not expose the services as-it-is to the public internet.
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Also you have to think about a backup solution. At the moment data lives in Docker volumes, that could be backed up:
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* influxdb2: The time series database
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* grafana-dashboards: Grafana dashboards
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* grafana-data: Grafana data
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* nodered-data: Flows created in Node-RED
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## Contribution
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Feel free to open an issue for bugs, feature requests, or questions. Contributions are welcome.
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## License
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This project follows the [REUSE Specification](https://reuse.software/spec/) and is licensed under the [GPL 3.0 or later License - see the LICENSE file](./LICENSES/GPL-3.0-or-later.txt) for details. |