Add an edge node

To add a node to your project , you will be running a command line script. For this we assume you have ssh or console access to your node and are using a common shell, such as zsh or bash. Additionally, the installation script by default will need to run as sudo to register the necessary services to be automatically started after the node is rebooted.

Add nodes using the Darcy Portal UI or terminal commands via edgectl

Add a node using Darcy Cloud Portal

Get the node Install script

Log into Darcy Cloud and select the project to which you want to add thenode .

Add Node

Click the + ADD NODE button. This will bring up a modal dialog which shows all the type of node you could add in your project.

Register Node Script

Click on EDGE DEV BOARD (LINUX) This will bring up a modal dialog which shows the one line command that must be run on your host for it to become a node in your edge project.

Register Node Script

Click the COPY button to copy the install command to your clipboard.

Run the node Install script

SSH onto your host (or log in via the Cloud Portal) with a user that is in the sudo group.

Paste the command line that you copied in the previous step into your terminal. The entire install process can take up to a few minutes (depending on the spec of your node, your internet connection speed, and other dependencies).

Install Node

View the node in Your Darcy Cloud Project

Switch back to your browser and if you have not done so yet, click the DONE button in the modal dialog. You should see your new node ONLINE in your Nodes list. If you do not see your node online, check our Troubleshooting page for more information.

Node Added

You now have an edge node, let’s start using it!

Add a node using edgectl

In Darcy Cloud , nodes are edge devices that run Edgeworx Agents. Ultimately, we want to deploy applications to these nodes to put them to work.

If we list nodes in our default organization and project, we will notice that we have no nodes:

edgectl get nodes

In order to deploy nodes, we must get the node install script. You can use this command to get a shell snippet that you can execute on the node:

$ edgectl get node-register-script -t
curl -s https://ecj_vfsw9wess5kheafxaeaeh2kskkv301e9f0ip@api.darcy.ai/v1/project/b75676cb-ae3f-4808-a992-0811e077d783/node-install-script | sudo bash

We can use this shell snippet on our edge devices to install Edgeworx Agent and connect to our Darcy Cloud Project. This command can be used any number of times on different devices to grow the respective project’s node pool.

If you wish view the raw contents of the node install script:

edgectl project node-install-script --show-script --text

This is helpful if you wish to review or debug the installation procedure.

Example

First, get the node-install-script shell snippet, and copy it to the clipboard:

$ edgectl get node-install-script -t
curl -s https://ecj_vfsw9wess5kheafxaeaeh2kskkv301e9f0ip@api.darcy.ai/v1/project/b75676cb-ae3f-4808-a992-0811e077d783/node-install-script | sudo bash

Then SSH into your node (in this case, a Raspberry Pi):

$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local
pi@raspberrypi.local's password: ********
Linux raspberrypi 5.10.94-v8+ #1518 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 27 14:55:19 GMT 2022 aarch64

Last login: Wed Feb 23 19:26:53 2022
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

Then paste the node install script shell snippet at the Pi terminal. This installs the necessary Darcy Cloud components, and connects your node to Darcy Cloud.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -s https://ecj_vfsw9wess5kheafxaeaeh2kskkv301e9f0ip@api.darcy.ai/v1/project/b75676cb-ae3f-4808-a992-0811e077d783/node-install-script | sudo bash
Installing Edgeworx Agent
1 Initializing
      ✔ Package manager updated
2 Performing preflight checks
    ▶ Checking for dependencies
      ✔ curl found
      ✔ jq found
      ✔ java found
      ✔ docker found
3 Verifying node state
      ✔ Detected Linux distribution: debian
      ! Adding this node to a new project will leave a dangling node in the old project: neil/proj1/raspberrypi14511447b32329f25b77.
      ! Make sure to migrate any microservices that were running on it, then delete it. E.g. `edgectl node remove neil/proj1/raspberrypi14511447b32329f25b77`
      ✔ Node name raspberrypie1c0fe7939883f228946 is valid
      ✔ Node name raspberrypie1c0fe7939883f228946 is available
      ✔ Node is ready for installation
4 System finger print
    ▶ Shell
      ∙ Exec:       /bin/bash
      ∙ User:       root
    ▶ Host
      ∙ Hostname:   raspberrypi
      ∙ OS Release: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
      ∙ Kernel:     Linux raspberrypi 5.10.94-v8+ #1518 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 27 14:55:19 GMT 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux
    ▶ System
      ∙ CPUs:       4
      ∙ Memory:     5.5Gi
      ∙ Storage:    9.5G/118G (9%)
5 Installing services
    ▶ Edgeworx agent
      ✔ Darcy Cloud Node created
      ✔ GPG found
      ✔ Edgeworx Agent installed
    ▶ Deviceplane
      ✔ Deviceplane Agent registered
      ✔ Deviceplane Agent configured
    ▶ ioFog Agent
      ✔ Scripts downloaded
      ✔ Ready to install
      ✔ Docker installed
      ✔ Java installed
      ✔ ioFog Agent installed
      ✔ ioFog Agent registered
      ✔ ioFog Agent provisioned
6 SUCCESS
      ✔ You can view this Agent in your Darcy Cloud project here: https://cloud.darcy.ai/alice/edge-project-1/node/raspberrypie1c0fe7939883f228946
      ✔ To uninstall, execute `sudo /opt/edgeworx/uninstall.sh`

Note the final two lines: The first line provides a link to view your node in the Darcy Cloud web portal. The final line provides a command to uninstall the software and detach the node from Darcy Cloud.

Now that we have our node connected to Darcy Cloud, we can install an application to that node.