iot-backend/README.md

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# IoT Prototyping Backend
## Overview
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.
## Features
* [Eclipse Mosquitto](https://mosquitto.org): MQTT broker
* [Grafana](https://grafana.com/): Real-time data visualization and monitoring dashboard
* [InfluxDB](https://www.influxdata.com/): High-performance data storage
* [Node-RED](https://nodered.org/): Flow-based development tool for visual programming and data flow automation
## Architecture overview
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.
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.
As our data is bases on time, we are using a *time series database* to store information. We used InfluxDB as this database.
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.
## Prerequisites
### Docker
First install Docker and `docker-compose`:
* [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/)
* [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/)
* [Git](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git)
If you want to use an UI for Docker, you can optionally also use [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/).
## Installation
### Clone the Repository
```sh
git clone https://code.curious.bio/simonox/iot-backend
cd iot-backend
```
### Build and launch Docker containers
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:
```sh
docker-compose --file software/container/docker-compose.yml up --force-recreate --build
```
## Usage
### Mosquitto
[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`:
```sh
mosquitto_sub -h localhost -t '#' -p 1883
mosquitto_pub -h localhost -p 1883 -t '/' -m $(date --utc +%s)
```
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/).
### Node-RED
[Node-RED](https://nodered.org) is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.
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
Node-RED is also running in Docker and is exposed on port `1880`: http://localhost:1880/
### InfluxDB
[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)
### Grafana
[Grafana](https://grafana.com) is a software to build operational dashboards. It runs in Docker and is exposed on port `3000`:
You can login to Grafana: http://localhost:3000/login (admin:admin)
## Examples and set-up
### Setting up a simple flow in Node-RED
A simple introduction to Node-RED can be found - along with the nodes / the code - in [this repository](./docs/flow/README.md).
### Connecting Node-RED to Influx
A more sophisticated exampe on how to connect Node-RED to influx is also available in [this repository](./docs/flow/docs/node-influx.md).
### Setting up Grafana
Have a look at the [the document in this repository](./docs/dashboard/README.md).
### Attaching a Shelly plug
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).
## Backup und hosting
This is just a prototype. You should not expose the services as-it-is to the public internet.
Also you have to think about a backup solution. At the moment data lives in Docker volumes, that could be backed up:
* influxdb2: The time series database
* grafana-dashboards: Grafana dashboards
* grafana-data: Grafana data
* nodered-data: Flows created in Node-RED
## Contribution
Feel free to open an issue for bugs, feature requests, or questions. Contributions are welcome.
## License
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.