The Things Stack LoRaWAN Network Server

Introduction

This project deploys the The Things Stack LoRaWAN Network Server (Open Source Edition) on a PC, a Raspberry Pi or equivalent SBC using docker.

Main features:

• Supports for AMD64 (x86_64), ARMv8 and ARMv7 architectures.
• Automatically creates a configuration file based on environment variables
• Creates a self signed certificate
• Configures the identity database
  • Initializes it
  • Creates an admin
  • Creates oauth clients for the CLI and the console
• Support for Packet Broker

Based on The Things Stack image.

This project is available on Docker Hub (https://hub.docker.com/r/xoseperez/the-things-stack) and GitHub (https://github.com/xoseperez/the-things-stack-docker).

This is a Work In Progress. It is not meant for production environments but it should work just fine for local (LAN) deployments.

Requirements

Hardware

As long as the host can run docker containers, the The Things Stack service can run on:

• AMD64: most PCs out there
• ARMv8: Raspberry Pi 3/4, 400, Compute Module 3/4, Zero 2 W,...
• ARMv7: Raspberry Pi 2

NOTE: you will need an OS in the host machine, for some SBC like a Raspberry Pi that means and SD card with an OS (like Rasperry Pi OS) flashed on it.

Software

If you are going to use docker to deploy the project, you will need:

• An OS running your host (Linux or MacOS for AMD64 systems, Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu OS for ARM,...)
• Docker (and optionally docker-compose) on the machine (see below for installation instructions)
• balenaEtcher to burn the OS image on the SD card or eMMC for SBC if you have not already done so

If you are going to use this image with Balena, you will need:

• A balenaCloud account (sign up here)

Network

Even thou they are not necessary, you may want to have:

• a static IP for the device (either in the device itself or using a DHCP lease on your router)
• a domain (or a subdomain of a domain you already have) pointing to the device

Check the Configuring the domain section below for different options to fulfull these two options.

Deploy

Deploy using docker compose

You can use the next docker-compose.yml file to configure and run your instance of The Things Stack.

version: '3.7'

volumes:
    redis: 
    postgres:
    stack-blob:
    stack-data:

services:

  postgres:
    image: postgres:14.3-alpine3.15
    container_name: postgres
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
        - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=root
        - POSTGRES_USER=root
        - POSTGRES_DB=ttn_lorawan
    volumes:
        - 'postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data'
    ports:
        - "127.0.0.1:5432:5432"

  redis:
    image: redis:7.0.0-alpine3.15
    container_name: redis
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
        - 'redis:/data'
    ports:
        - "127.0.0.1:6379:6379"

  stack:
    image: xoseperez/the-things-stack
    container_name: stack
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
        - redis
        - postgres
    volumes:
        - 'stack-blob:/srv/ttn-lorawan/public/blob'
        - 'stack-data:/srv/data'
    environment:
        TTS_DOMAIN: lns.example.com      # set this to the IP or domain name of the host you will be using to access the stack
        TTN_LW_BLOB_LOCAL_DIRECTORY: /srv/ttn-lorawan/public/blob
        TTN_LW_REDIS_ADDRESS: redis:6379
        TTN_LW_IS_DATABASE_URI: postgres://root:root@postgres:5432/ttn_lorawan?sslmode=disable
        CLI_AUTO_LOGIN: "false"
    labels:
        io.balena.features.balena-api: '1'

    ports:

        - "80:1885"
        - "443:8885"

        - "1881:1881"
        - "1882:1882"
        - "1883:1883"
        - "1884:1884"
        - "1885:1885"
        - "1887:1887"

        - "8881:8881"
        - "8882:8882"
        - "8883:8883"
        - "8884:8884"
        - "8885:8885"
        - "8887:8887"

        - "1700:1700/udp"

Modify the TTS_DOMAIN environment variable to match your setup.

One-click deploy via Balena Deploy

Running this project is as simple as deploying it to a balenaCloud application. You can do it in just one click by using the button below:

Follow instructions, click Add a Device and flash an SD card with that OS image dowloaded from balenaCloud. Enjoy the magic 🌟Over-The-Air🌟!

In-control deploy via Balena-Cli

If you are a balena CLI expert, feel free to use balena CLI. This option lets you configure in detail some options, like adding new services to your deploy or configure de DNS Server to use.

• Sign up on balena.io
• Create a new fleet on balenaCloud.
• Add a new device and download the image of the BalenaOS it creates.
• This is the moment to configure the DNS server in the BalenaOS if required. See the Configuring the domain section below.
• Burn and SD card (if using a Pi), connect it to the device and boot it up.

While the device boots (it will eventually show up in the Balena dashboard) we will prepare de services:

• Clone this repository to your local workstation. Don't forget to update the submodules.

  cd ~/workspace
  git clone https://github.com/xoseperez/the-things-stack-docker
  cd the-things-stack-docker

• Using Balena CLI, push the code with balena push <fleet-name>
• See the magic happening, your device is getting updated 🌟Over-The-Air🌟!

Log in

Point your browser to the first local IP of the device or to the domain name (if you have defined one) using HTTPS and use the default credentials (admin/changeme) to log in as administrator.

Details

Resetting values

Certificates are recreated if TTS_DOMAIN or any TTSSUBJECT* variable below changes. Database is reset if TTS_DOMAIN, TTS_ADMIN_EMAIL, TTS_ADMIN_PASSWORD or TTS_CONSOLE_SECRET change.

Alternatively you can run the reset_certificates and reset_database scripts in the container and restart it.

docker exec stack reset_certificates
docker exec stack reset_database
docker restart stack

Configuring the IP and domain

You want to assign your device a fixed IP or a domain name where you can always reach it. Here you have a few clues on how to do it.

Static IP

To reach the IP or to properly configure a domain or subdomain you will have to configure the Raspberry Pi with a static address. You have two options here:

1. Configure a static lease on your home router linking the RPi MAC with an IP. Everytime the RPi boots it will ask for an IP using DHCP (this is the default) and router will allways gfive it the same IP.

2. Configure a static IP on the RPi itself instead of using DHCP.

Configuring the domain or subdomain

Once you know the PI will always be accessible at the same IP, there are a number of ways to define a domain name or a subdomain pointing to the device IP. After doing any of these approaches change the TTS_DOMAIN environment variable accordingly so the stack service recreates the right certificates for the domain.

1. Using a DNS in your LAN, like PiHole, dnsmask,... these will work great inside your LAN. But this option requires an extra step since BalenaOS by default uses Google DNS servers (8.8.8.8). So you have to instruct it to use your local DNS server instead.

2. Using a third party service, like Cloudflare, for instance. If you are managing a domain from such a service you can just add an A register for a subdomain pointing to your local (or public) IP address.

A lns.ttn.cat 192.168.1.25

Then you just have to wait for the domain name to propagate.

CLI Auto Login

The ttn-lw-cli is a CLI (Command Line Interface) tool that allows you to create or edit gateways and devices and can be very handly to automate tasks. The tool is included and available from within the container but first step to use it is to configure it (ttn-lw-cli use <lns_ip>) and login (ttn-lw-cli login). By setting the CLI_AUTO_LOGIN variable to true these initial steps will be done for you by first creating a API key for the admin user and then using it to pre-login the CLI tool. The default value for the CLI_AUTO_LOGIN variable is false which means that you will have to perform these steps manually.

Either way, manually or automatically, you will be able to run the tool with the usual arguments by typing from the host docker exec stack ttn-lw-cli. For instance, to create a new gateway you will just have to:

docker exec stack ttn-lw-cli gateways create my-gateway-001 --user-id admin --frequency-plan-id EU_863_870 --gateway-eui --gateway-eui 0011223344556677 --enforce-duty-cycle

Packet Broker

The Packet Broker is a service provided by The Things Industries (TTI) that allows peering between networks. To use the Packet Broker you need:

• A NetID provided by the LoRaWAN Alliance or a subrange of addresses from an existing NetID (TTI provides such service)
• A Packet Broker ID and Secret provided by TTI

If you want to fully integrate your cluster with The Things Network, this can be achieved by configuring TTS_NET_ID to "000013" (NetID owned by The Things Industries) and set the TTS_DEVADDRRANGE to the range leased from TTI. Then configure the rest of PB* variables with the info provided by TTI. All these variables must go to the environment section in the stack service or added as environment variables in the Balena Dashboard.

Variables

Using custom certificates

To use CA certificates you already have or custom self-signed certificates, you can provide them via docker secrets uncommenting the corresponding sections of the provided docker-compose.yml file:

services:

  ...

  stack:

    ...

    secrets:
      - ca.pem
      - cert.pem
      - key.pem

    ...

secrets:
  ca.pem:
    file: ./ca.pem
  cert.pem:
    file: ./cert.pem
  key.pem:
    file: ./key.pem

If you want to use the certificate (cert.pem) and key (key.pem) that you already have, you also need to set the permissions below. If you don’t set these permissions, you may encounter an error resembling /run/secrets/key.pem: permission denied.

sudo chown 886:886 ./cert.pem ./key.pem

When using custom certificates, the TTS_SUBJECT_* variables are not used.

Troubleshooting

Certificates errors

If you are having certificates problems or "token rejected" message on the TTS website, double check your domain (TTS_DOMAIN) settings. Alternatively try forcing a certificate regeneration:

docker exec stack reset_certificates
docker restart stack

If you reset the certificates (by running reset_certificates or changing any of these variables: TTS_SUBJECT_COUNTRY, TTS_SUBJECT_STATE, TTS_SUBJECT_LOCATION, TTS_SUBJECT_ORGANIZATION or TTS_DOMAIN) you will need to fetch the new certificate to update any gateways connecting to the server using BasicStation:

docker exec stack get_trust_certificate

The above does not apply when providing your own custom certificates.

Database reset

If you are having certificates problems or "token rejected" message on the TTS website, try forcing a certificate regeneration:

docker exec stack reset_database
docker restart stack

When the database is reconfigured (because you ran reset_db.sh or changed any of these variables: TTS_ADMIN_EMAIL, TTS_ADMIN_PASSWORD, TTS_CONSOLE_SECRET or TTS_DOMAIN) the passwords for the admin and the console are overwritten. So if you are logged in as admin you will have to logout and login again with the default password.

Using The Things Stack with BasicStation

When used together (same machine) with the BasicStation packet forwarder the following matrix will help you identify working combinations.

1. Basicstation in the same machine as TTS and using network_mode host.
2. Works only if the domain name resolves OK from the basicstation container (CUPS response redirects to wss://<domain_name>:8887)
3. User gets redirected to https://<domain_name> after login, hence domain name must resolve to the IP.
4. User gets redirected to https://<ip> after login, hence domain name must resolve to the same IP.
5. Basicstation service allows to disable server name indication (SNI) check by setting TLS_SNI to false. See https://github.com/xoseperez/basicstation/issues/4#issuecomment-1230138180.

Therefore:

1. Using a domain name for your machine is the best option. Set TTS_DOMAIN to that name. The name should resolve from the same machine and from the network that will be accessing the server. Use the same domain name everywhere.
2. If you cannot have a domain name, you can use the IP of the machine as TTS_DOMAIN and bypass any possible certificate errors by setting TLS_SNI to false in your basicstation service. This is OK for private deployments with self-signed certificates.

Build problems

If you are building the images, please make sure you have a proper multiplatform builder in place:

docker buildx create --name cross --bootstrap --platform linux/arm/v7,linux/arm64,linux/amd6,linux/arm/v7 --use

Attribution

• This is based on the The Things Network LoRaWAN Stack repository.
• This is in joint effort by Xose Pérez and Marc Pous from the TTN community in Barcelona.