# Real-Time Embedded Linux Observability with Pantavisor and InfluxDB Presently organizations are unable to monitor millions of embedded Linux devices in real-time. With so many different architectures and device types, aggregating telemetry and metrics and viewing that data in a centralized analysis tool is problematic. Onboarding embedded Linux devices into a telemetry service so that metrics can be easily observed is a significant challenge. But now you can automatically and quickly onboard large IoT fleets with Pantavisor-powered devices, and InfluxDB’s Telegraf plugin, and stream metrics to a centralized monitoring dashboard with minimal effort. This post describes how to onboard and configure devices for the Telegraf plugin service to monitor Pantavisor-powered embedded Linux fleets. Device onboarding is streamlined and fast with a single sign-on process where Pantacor Hub automatically acquires InfluxDB credentials. ## Telegraf and Pantacor Hub overview [Telegraf](https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/telegraf/) is an open-source server agent that collects telemetry and other metrics from your stacks, sensors, and systems. [Pantacor Hub](https://pantacor.com/products/what-is-pantacor/) is our open source SaaS for remote device firmware and software lifecycle management and cloud service integration. We containerized the telegraf plugin and made it available as a service from Pantacor Hub. Telegraf sends metrics to any InfluxDB server, including on-premise, cloud, or hosted. In this guide, we'll use the cloud service for InfluxDB found at [https://cloud2.influxdata.com/](https://cloud2.influxdata.com/). ![](https://i.imgur.com/IzOABb7.png) ## How to integrate Pantavisor-enabled devices with InfluxDB ### 1.- Create a Pantacor Hub account Go to https://hub.pantacor.com/signup and follow the steps to create an account. ### 2.- Flash a new device with Pantavisor Next, select the image for the device you are using from https://hub.pantacor.com/download-image. ![](https://i.imgur.com/wB8yKLR.png) For a Raspberry Pi 3 or a Raspberry Pi 4, the recommended image is the arm-rpi64 (pantahub-ci/rpi64_initial_stable). After downloading the image, flash it onto your device with either the [Raspberry Pi Imager](https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-imager-imaging-utility/) or the [Balena Etcher](https://www.balena.io/etcher/). Your device will now have Pantavisor running on it. Once the device boots, you will be able to see it in the device list on the Pantacor Hub dashboard. **Note:** If your Raspberry Pi is not connected directly via an ethernet cable to the Internet, you will need to configure the WiFi connection through our captive portal before you can connect to Pantacor Hub. See, [Booting a Pantavisor-enabled device](https://docs.pantahub.com/first-boot-rpi3/) and [Setting up a WiFi Portal](https://docs.pantahub.com/first-boot-rpi3/#setting-up-a-wifi-portal-for-your-raspberry-pi) for more information. ### 3.- Install PVR-CLI The PVR command line interface enables you to manage your device by installing new containers as well as many [other operations](https://docs.pantahub.com/pvr/). Instructions on how to install PVR are here: * [Download the binary for your OS](https://docs.pantahub.com/install-pvr/#get-pvr-stable) * [Install the binary](https://docs.pantahub.com/install-pvr/#get-pvr-stable) You can also watch this video to guide you through the process: https://youtu.be/yyohtCcxtog ### 4.- Create an account at InfluxDB Go to cloud2.influxdata.com and follow the steps to create an account. ### 5.- Create an InfluxDB API Token for Pantacor Hub Once inside the InfluxDB UI, select the left menu item "Load Data" and then "API TOKENS". Create a new token by selecting "All access API token". Set a description (like: "pantacor hub") and then copy the token and save it in a safe place. ![](https://i.imgur.com/5U1yXZw.jpg) ![](https://i.imgur.com/7LUiNUW.jpg) ### 6.- Setup Influx to receive the device data For InfluxDB to save the device data, we need to create a bucket and specify values for the data from all the devices in your account. Because Pantavisor is just a Linux system you can use the Linux System template from InfluxDB at: https://github.com/influxdata/community-templates/tree/master/linux_system To implement the template, go to Settings - Tepmlates and add this one: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/influxdata/community-templates/master/linux_system/linux_system.yml Click **Lookup Template** and it automatically sets up everything it needs. ![](https://i.imgur.com/HGbj9Yw.png) ### 7.- Connect your Influxdb account to your Pantacor account Next, connect the InfluxDB token to your Pantacor Hub account. To accomplish that, we'll use the sm.pantacor.com application. This app enables you to connect and set up the necessary user-meta (or the configuration parameters in Pantacor Hub) for your devices after connecting to InfluxDB. Go to sm.pantacor.com and log in with your Pantacor account credentials. Next, select **Connected services** from the menu to add a new service and fill in the following fields. * **Name of service**: `InfluxDB Cloud Server` (this is for description purposes only and can be anything) * **API URL**: This URL will vary depending on the server you chose when you created your InfluxDB account. You can find the URL in your signup email by looking in the Organization Settings for "Cluster URL (Host Name)". The URL should look something like this: https://us-east-1-1.aws.cloud2.influxdata.com * **Token**: You will put here the token created in the previous step. * **Secret**: This will remain empty since InfluxDB doesn't use a secret. * **UserMeta JSON**: This is a set of initial values to be injected into the configuration of the device. You will also need the Organization ID from InfluxDB. This is found in the Organization Settings (same place as the API URL) as Organization ID. ![](https://i.imgur.com/kEYESkJ.png) After adding those values, we will write a JSON file similar to this: ```{"bucket": "telegraf", "org": "34655d0049224811"}``` ### 8.- Install the Telegraf container with PVR First, locate the device from the hub.pantacor.com dashboard and copy the CLONE URL from the device summary. The URL will look similar to this: ![](https://i.imgur.com/nUMenRG.png) ```https://pvr.pantahub.com/highercomve/one_marketplace_development``` Once you have the device CLONE URL, you can install the telegraf container and its configuration with: ``` DESTINATION_CLONE_URL="YOUR CLONE URL" pvr fcp https://pvr.pantahub.com/asacasa/telegraf_arm64v8#telegraf,_config/telegraf ${DESTINATION_CLONE_URL}#telegraf,_config/telegraf ``` This command copies all of the configuration files and the telegraf container to your device. A new revision will also be created, which you can view in the dashboard at hub.pantacor.com. After the new revision is DONE or UPDATED, you have everything you need to view the device metrics and to monitor them with InfluxDB. ![](https://i.imgur.com/IUunFVi.png) ### 9.- Monitoring devices with InfluxDB Now that you have the telagraf container installed, go to the InfluxDB dashboard to view your device monitoring information. Go to Dashboards - Linux System And now you can enjoy your new device metrics! ![](https://i.imgur.com/SWCKtQw.png) ## Final Thoughts This post described how to set up embedded Linux devices to work with Telegraf and InfluxDB to stream metrics for real-time monitoring. If you have any questions or comments, reach out to us on our community forum at https://community.pantavisor.io Refer to our websites for more information on [Pantavisor](https://pantavisor.io) and [Pantacor blog](https://pantacor.com/blog)
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11/17/2023
Crypt disks

Pantavisor offers a way to define the physical storage medium by setting up disks. This will allow pantavisor containers to access to does disks directly. There are currently 4 disks types supported: Non-encrypted directory Device Mapper crypt using without hardware acceleration (dm-crypt-versatile) Device Mapper crypt using i.Mx CAAM (dm-crypt-caam) Device Mapper crypt using i.Mx DCP (dm-crypt-dcp) Each disk that is defined in the state JSON can then be privately used by the containers. They can also be internally used by Pantavisor, as in the case of metadata.

2/27/2023
How to manage drivers with pantavisor

Let's do a quick refresh on Pantavisor Linux architecture, the idea behind Pantavisor Linux is to build the full OS using containers as the building blocks. This will allow the creation of a reproducible state for the device system. In that way the system will look something like this: In this image we can see the network management is done by a container, then there is the pvr-sdk which is a container used in development to manage the device in the local network environment, ssh into the device, and another couple of development tasks that can be run on the device. Then we have in an upper layer the main app that is running the device functionality. How pantavisor manages drivers Pantavisor offers a mechanim for BSPs to define which (abstract) drivers they support. For that the bsp can specify a list of such abstract drivers and - if needed - map each of those to a list of kernel modules that can be loaded by pantavisor as needed. Driver loading can parameterized and those parameters can be dynamically sources from user-meta. Containers on the other hand can express what drivers they need by referencing one of such driver names and pantavisor will mediate loading the drivers as needed. By offering this alias mechanism, product and platform builders can add level of abstraction that allows multiple BSP to suffice the requirements of containers by loading the appropriate modules.

2/24/2023
Pantavisor by Chat GPT

Pantavisor is a firmware and software solution for embedded Linux devices that provides a number of features to improve the security, reliability, and manageability of these devices. At its core, Pantavisor is a lightweight, custom Linux distribution that is designed to run on embedded devices. It provides a number of features that are typically not found on standard Linux distributions, such as: Secure boot: Pantavisor uses a secure boot process to ensure that only authorized firmware and software can run on the device. This helps prevent malicious software from running on the device. Over-the-air updates: Pantavisor provides a built-in mechanism for over-the-air (OTA) updates, which allows you to easily update the firmware and software on the device without having to physically access it. Remote management: Pantavisor provides a web-based management interface that allows you to remotely monitor and control the device. You can view device information, configure settings, and even reboot the device remotely. Secure communication: Pantavisor provides secure communication channels that allow devices to communicate with each other and with the cloud securely. Sandboxing: Pantavisor uses sandboxing technology to isolate different parts of the system, which helps to prevent malware from spreading and to contain any potential damage.

1/13/2023
Read more from Sergio Marin
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