charithmadhuranga / chirpstack-network-server

A complete IoT Network server for LoRaWAN IoT projects: Chirpstack components (Application server + Network server + Gateway Bridge + Geolocation server) + MQTT + Nginx + let's encrypt using docker-compose

ChirpStack Network Server Docker example

This repository contains a skeleton to setup the ChirpStack open-source LoRaWAN Network Server stack using Docker Compose.

Note: Please use this docker-compose.yml file as a starting point for testing but keep in mind that for production usage it might need modifications.

Table of Contents

• Directory layout
• Configuration
• Data persistence
• Requirements
• ChirpStack architecture
• Build Setup
  • Create and edit the .env file
  • Start the server
  • Set up the MQTT User Credentials
• MQTTS Examples
  • Test MQTT Channels
• Configuration via Web GUI
• Release History
• Meta
  • Contributions
  • License
  • Trademark Acknowledgements
  • Support Open Source Hardware and Software
• Reference

Directory layout

• docker-compose.yml : the docker-compose file containing the services
• docker-compose-env.yml : alternate docker-compose file using environment variables, can be run with the docker-compose -f flag
• configuration/chirpstack* : directory containing the ChirpStack configuration files, see:
  • https://www.chirpstack.io/gateway-bridge/install/config/
  • https://www.chirpstack.io/network-server/install/config/
  • https://www.chirpstack.io/application-server/install/config/
  • https://www.chirpstack.io/geolocation-server/install/config/
• configuration/postgresql/initdb/ : directory containing PostgreSQL initialization scripts
• mqtts : directory containing the Dockerfile to build the mosquitto container and the configuration required for setting up MQTT channel.
• nginx : directory containing Dockerfile and a setup.sh file required to build the nginx container.

Configuration

The ChirpStack stack components are pre-configured to work with the provided docker-compose.yml file and defaults to the IN865 LoRaWAN band. Please refer to the configuration/chirpstack-network-server/examples directory for more configuration examples.

Data persistence

PostgreSQL and Redis data is persisted in Docker volumes, see the volumes definition in docker-compose.yml .

Requirements

Before using this docker-compose.yml file, make sure you have Docker and Docker-compose installed.

ChirpStack architecture

Build Setup

To build the docker-compose.yml file, there are some variables required in the .env file

Create and edit the .env file

1. Edit the .env file as follows:

   1. IOT_NETWORK_CERTBOT_FQDN=myhost.example.com The domain(s) to be used by certbot when registering with Let's Encrypt.
   2. IOT_NETWORK_NGINX_FQDN=myhost.example.com The fully-qualified domain name to be served by NGINX.
   3. [email protected] The email address to be used for registering with Let's Encrypt.
   4. IOT_NETWORK_DATA=/var/opt/docker/data/ The trailing slash is required! This will put all the data file for this instance as subdirectories of the specified path. If you leave this undefined, docker-compose will print error messages and quit.

Start the server

To start the ChirpStack open-source LoRaWAN Network Server stack, simply run:

docker-compose up -d --build

Note: during the startup of services, it is normal to see the following errors:

• ping database error, will retry in 2s: dial tcp 172.20.0.4:5432: connect: connection refused
• ping database error, will retry in 2s: pq: the database system is starting up

Set up the MQTT User Credentials

To access mqtt channel, user needs credentials to access it.

1. Log into the mosquitto docker container.

   $ docker-compose exec mosquitto /bin/bash
   #

2. In the container, Create username and password using mosquitto_passwd command. ( option -c - Create a new password file. If the file already exists, it will be overwritten. so -c should be used for the first user creation. please avoid -c for the second user creation onwards. )

   # mosquitto_passwd -c /etc/mosquitto/credentials/passwd <user>
   Password:
   Reenter password:

3. Close the connection to mqtts (Ctrl+D).

After all the components have been initialized and started, you should be able to open https://<IOT_NETWORK_NGINX_FQDN> in your browser.

• login with default username: admin and password: admin

MQTTS Examples

Mqtts can be accessed in the following ways:

Method	Hostname/Path	Port	Credentials
MQTT over TLS/SSL	myhost.example.com	8883	Username/Password come from mosquitto configuration (password_file)
MQTT over TCP protocol (not secure so disabled for external access)	myhost.example.com	1883	Username/Password come from mosquitto configuration (password_file)

Test MQTT Channels

• To test the MQTT over TCP and MQTT over TLS/SSL channels user can use mosquitto client tool.

  • MQTT over TCP

    Subscribing mqtt channel on topic test

    mosquitto_sub -h myhost.example.com -t test -p 1883 -u user1 -P pwd123
    
    hello

    publishing on mqtt channel with topic test

    mosquitto_pub -h myhost.example.com -m "hello" -t test -p 1883 -u user1 -P pwd123

  • MQTT over TLS/SSL

    Subscribing mqtt channel on topic test

    mosquitto_sub -h myhost.example.com -t test -p 8883 -u user1 -P pwd123 --capath /etc/ssl/certs/
    
    hello 

    publishing on mqtt channel with topic test

    mosquitto_pub -h myhost.example.com -m "hello" -t test -p 8883 -u user1 -P pwd123 --capath /etc/ssl/certs/

Configuration via Web GUI

Refer to setup.md for instructions on configuring Network Server, Gateway and Device in the web GUI.

Release History

• HEAD has the following changes

  • Getting Let's Encrypt cert via Nginx proxy and renewing it itself.
  • created a separate mosquitto container where the Let's Encrypt certs were used to secure mqtt communication on port 8883

Meta

Contributions

This repository started from the 'brocaar/chirpstack-docker' Chirpstack repository of commit 596df38fc64d40bf61af59a9c926893a78de24cd

• @brocaar and @bconway did the initial implementation.
• There are many others, who have contributed code and also participated in discussions, performed testing, reported problems and results. Thanks to all who have participated.
• In this project, @MuruganChandrasekar added support to get Let's Encrypt cert via Nginx proxy and renew it itself. Also, created a separate mosquitto container where the Let's Encrypt certs were used to secure mqtt communication on port 8883

License

This repository is released under the MIT license.

Trademark Acknowledgements

LoRa is a registered trademark of Semtech Corporation. LoRaWAN is a registered trademark of the LoRa Alliance.

MCCI and MCCI Catena are registered trademarks of MCCI Corporation.

All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Support Open Source Hardware and Software

MCCI invests time and resources providing this open source code, please support MCCI and open-source hardware by purchasing products from MCCI, Adafruit and other open-source hardware/software vendors!

For information about MCCI's products, please visit store.mcci.com.

Reference

1. ChirpStack Network Server