Install Telegraf for monitoring purposes

curl -fsSL https://repos.influxdata.com/influxdata-archive_compat.key -o /etc/apt/keyrings/influxdata-archive_compat.key
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/influxdata-archive_compat.key] https://repos.influxdata.com/debian stable main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/influxdata.list
apt update
apt -y install telegraf

The telegraf configuration is located in /etc/telegraf/

Example configuration:

[global_tags]
[agent]
  interval = "60s"
  round_interval = true
  metric_batch_size = 1000
  metric_buffer_limit = 10000
  collection_jitter = "0s"
  flush_interval = "10s"
  flush_jitter = "0s"
  precision = ""
  hostname = "DB152"
  omit_hostname = false
[[outputs.influxdb]]
  urls = ["https://192.168.21.152:8086"]
  database = "Verhaeg_Monitoring"
  username = "xxx"
  password = "xxx"
  insecure_skip_verify = true
[[inputs.cpu]]
  percpu = true
  totalcpu = true
  collect_cpu_time = false
  report_active = false
[[inputs.disk]]
  ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs", "devfs", "iso9660", "overlay", "aufs", "squashfs"]
[[inputs.mem]]
[[inputs.swap]]
[[inputs.net]]
  interfaces = ["ens18"]
[[inputs.netstat]]
[[inputs.kernel]]
[[inputs.system]]
[[inputs.processes]]
[[inputs.diskio]]

Updating Eclipse Ditto

First, kill all docker containers. Then remove them, and remove their related images:

docker kill $(docker ps -q) && docker rm $(docker ps -a -q) && docker rmi $(docker images -q)

Then we get the latest version of the docker-compose from GitHub:

wget https://github.com/eclipse/ditto/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
unzip master.zip

Unzip it, browse to the right directory, and start it:

cd master/deployment/docker
docker-compose up -d

Don’t forget to adjust the password:

openssl passwd -quiet
 Password: <enter password>
 Verifying - Password: <enter password>

Append the printed hash in the nginx.httpasswd (in the same folder as docker-compose.yml) file placing the username who shall receive this password in front like this:

ditto:A6BgmB8IEtPTs

Configure a tagged and untagged interface on a Juniper SRX (100)

set interfaces fe-0/0/0 flexible-vlan-tagging
set interfaces fe-0/0/0 unit 0 vlan-id 20
set interfaces fe-0/0/0 unit 0 family ethernet-switching port-mode trunk
set interfaces fe-0/0/0 unit 0 family ethernet-switching vlan members tagged_vlan
set interfaces fe-0/0/0 unit 0 family ethernet-switching native-vlan-id 20

Configuring Juniper SRX (100) as a DHCP server

Create a vlan interface:

set interfaces vlan unit 21 family inet address 192.168.x.2/24

Assign the vlan interface to a vlan :

set vlans vlan_name vlan-id 21
set vlans vlan_name l3-interface vlan.21

Assign the vlan to a physical interface:

set interfaces fe-0/0/0 unit 0 family ethernet-switching vlan members vlan_name

Assign the dhcp-local-server service to the vlan interface:

set system services dhcp-local-server group IoT interface vlan.21

Create the DHCP pool:

set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet network 192.168.x.0/24
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet range r1 low 192.168.x.200
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet range r1 high 192.168.x.250
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet dhcp-attributes name-server 192.168.x.1
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet dhcp-attributes name-server 8.8.4.4
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet dhcp-attributes name-server 8.8.8.8
set access address-assignment pool Verhaeg_IoT family inet dhcp-attributes router 192.168.x.1

Don’t forget your security zone to allow dhcp traffic:

set security-zone x interfaces vlan.20 host-inbound-traffic system-services dhcp

Validate clients have received an IP address from the DHCP server:

root@ROU-02> show dhcp server binding

IP address        Session Id  Hardware address   Expires     State      Interface
192.168.x.201    2           b6:54:ca:26:51:ae  70785       BOUND      vlan.21
192.168.x.202    3           c8:34:8e:5f:a4:2d  85932       BOUND      vlan.21

Installing and configuring Mosquitto on Debian

Eclipse Mosquitto is an open source (EPL/EDL licensed) message broker that implements the MQTT protocol versions 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1. Mosquitto is lightweight and is suitable for use on all devices from low power single board computers to full servers. The MQTT protocol provides a lightweight method of carrying out messaging using a publish/subscribe model. This makes it suitable for Internet of Things messaging such as with low power sensors or mobile devices such as phones, embedded computers or microcontrollers. The Mosquitto project also provides a C library for implementing MQTT clients, and the very popular mosquitto_pub and mosquitto_sub command line MQTT clients. Mosquitto is part of the Eclipse Foundation, is an iot.eclipse.org project and is sponsored by cedalo.com.
https://mosquitto.org/

Installation

wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-repo.gpg.key
sudo apt-key add mosquitto-repo.gpg.key
cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
sudo wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-buster.list
apt-get update
apt-get install mosquitto

Configuration

Create file /etc/mosquitto/conf.d/listener.conf:

bind_address x.x.x.x

Create file /etc/mosquitto/conf.d/authorisation.conf:

listener 1883 x.x.x.x

Create a user and password:

mosquitto_passwd -c <password file> <username>
kill -HUP <process id of mosquitto>

Result in /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log:

1636747458: New connection from x.x.x.x:59620 on port 1883.
1636747458: New client connected from x.x.x.x:59620 as y (p2, c1, k60, u'client').
1636747843: New connection from x.x.x.x:5709 on port 1883.
1636747843: New client connected from x.x.x.x:5709 as z (p2, c0, k60, u'client').

Validation

Backup and restore ArangoDB data

You can easily back-up and restore the ArangoDB database from Windows. All you need is WinSCP, Putty, and some diskspace. I’m running the batch script below every time I login to my workstation automatically to backup the configuration database:

plink -batch -pw xxx -t root@1.1.1.1 "systemctl stop arangodb3"
plink -batch -pw xxx -t root@1.1.1.1 "cd /data/backup && zip -r arangodb.zip /data/arangodb/data"
plink -batch -pw xxx -t root@1.1.1.1 "systemctl start arangodb3"
pscp -pw xxx -v -r root@1.1.1.1:/data/backup/arangodb.zip  G:\IoT\ArangoDB\arangodb.zip
plink -batch -pw xxx -t root@1.1.1.1 "rm /data/backup/arangodb.zip"

You can restore the database by installing ArangoDB on another system and copying the data back into the correct directory. Make sure you stop the ArangoDB service before you restore the data.

When the ArangoDB version on the target system is newer then the ArangoDB version on the source system you need to upgrade the database first. Stop the ArangoDB service and start it in the console with the –database.auto-upgrade parameter:

systemctl stop arangodb
/usr/sbin/arangod --uid arangodb --gid arangodb --pid-file /var/run/arangodb3/arangod.pid --temp.path /var/tmp/arangodb3 --log.foreground-tty true --database.auto-upgrade

Install ArangoDB on Debian

Installation

curl -OL https://download.arangodb.com/arangodb37/DEBIAN/Release.key 
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key 
echo 'deb https://download.arangodb.com/arangodb38/DEBIAN/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/arangodb.list
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install arangodb3

Change database directory

Change the database directory in: /etc/arangodb3/arangod.conf

[database] 
directory = /data/arangodb/data

Ensure the arangodb has access rights to this directory: /etc/systemd/system/arangodb3.service

chown -R arangodb:arangodb /data/arangodb
chmod 700 /data/arangodb

Change endpoint and secure connection

ArangoDB configuration file location: /etc/arangodb3/arangod.conf

endpoint = ssl://0.0.0.0:8530 
[ssl] 
keyfile = /var/lib/arangodb3/server.pem

Generate the server certificate:

# create private key in file "server.key" 
openssl genpkey -out /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key -algorithm RSA -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048 -aes-128-cbc 

# create certificate signing request (csr) in file "server.csr" 
openssl req -new -key /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key -out /var/lib/arangodb3/server.csr 

# copy away original private key to "server.key.org" 
cp /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key.org 

# remove passphrase from the private key 
openssl rsa -in /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key.org -out /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key 

# sign the csr with the key, creates certificate PEM file "server.crt" 
openssl x509 -req -days 10000 -in /var/lib/arangodb3/server.csr -signkey /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key -out /var/lib/arangodb3/server.crt 

# combine certificate and key into single PEM file "server.pem" 
cat /var/lib/arangodb3/server.crt /var/lib/arangodb3/server.key > /var/lib/arangodb3/server.pem

Webinterface

https://x.x.x.x:8530/

Enable SSH root access in Debian

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Add a line PermitRootLogin yes:

# Authentication:
#LoginGraceTime 2m
PermitRootLogin yes
#StrictModes yes
#MaxAuthTries 6
#MaxSessions 10

Restart the SSH server:

systemctl restart sshd

How to Get the Size of a Directory in Linux (recursively)

sudo du -hc --max-depth=1 /var

Installing the UniFi Network Application on Raspberry Pi

Unfortunately MongoDB does not have an ARM64 bit package for Raspberry Pi yet, so I’m installing this on a Raspberry Pi with a 32-bit (Debian-based) Raspberry Pi OS:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt-get autoclean -y
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre-headless jsvc libcommons-daemon-java -y
sudo apt install haveged -y
sudo apt install mongodb-server mongodb-clients -y

echo 'deb https://www.ui.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/100-ubnt-unifi.list
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/unifi-repo.gpg https://dl.ui.com/unifi/unifi-repo.gpg
sudo apt update && sudo apt install unifi -y

Go to your UniFi Controller via the IP address and port, for example: https://10.1.0.5:8443