After having received several inquiries from people about how to get started with EdgeX Foundry I’ve decided to write a hands-on tutorial. Hopefully this will make it easier for newcomers to setup a system, configure data ingestion, data export & many other things.
Incidentally, getting started with EdgeX Foundry is also an excellent way to learn how to practically leverage new concepts and technologies in IT. In addition to learning about open source IoT solutions, the guide also covers topics like:
Docker
Building, running and monitoring containers
Grouping containers with docker-compose
Microservices
REST APIs
MQTT
Python scripting
Tools like Postman, cURL, etc.
The guide started as a blog post but ended up being way too long. Now it’s in PDF format and clocks in at 48 pages. Hopefully not too long for those looking to get started 🙂
The Open Source IoT solution called EdgeX Foundry has just had it’s first Long-Term Support (LTS) release. This is a big deal and a real milestone since it’s finally out of 0.x versions and into the first, big 1.x release. After a journey of over 2 years it’s finally ready for broad adoption. EdgeX Foundry is an official Linux Foundation project and part of LF Edge.
Why is EdgeX Foundry so relevant?
Data ingestion
It is a native speaker of the protocols and data formats of a myriad edge devices
Without the need for agents, it ingests data from most edge devices and sensors
It converts the data to XML or JSON for easy processing
It streams the data in real-time to internal or external cloud and big-data platforms for visualization and processing
Control and automation
It supports the native commands of edge devices and can change camera angles, fan speeds, etc.
It has rules that can act on input and trigger commands for instant action and automation
Architecture
EdgeX Foundry is cloud-native
It’s open source and can be downloaded by anyone free of charge
It’s made up of microservices running in docker containers
It’s modular, flexible and can be integrated into other IoT management systems
How does it fit in with the rest of the IoT world?
While the Internet of Things is fairly new and very much a buzzword, the concept of connected devices runs back much longer through the Machine 2 Machine era.
Oftentimes these solutions are vendor-specific, siloed off and lack any unified layer for insight, control and management. EdgeX Foundry bridges not only the old M2M with the new IoT solutions but also connects the Edge to the core DC to the Cloud. It’s the glue that holds the world of IoT together.
It can favorably be used both stand-alone, as a part of a larger IoT solution (containers can easily be integrated as they contain individual services) or together with a commercial IoT solution such as VMware Pulse IoT Center 2.0.
How to get started
Many resources are available for those looking to get started with EdgeX Foundry. There are starter guides and tutorials on the project page as well as docker-compose files on GitHub as per the below
