Subscribing and Deploying On-premise Instances

This section describes the process to deploy a private Thinger.io On-premise instance within minutes by just accessing the Pricing Page (On-premise section) in the "PRICING" link from our Web Home. Just follow the next steps:

1. Select the right licence

On-premise instances can be deployed with different licenses, depending on the project requirements, mainly in terms of platform features like rebrands, custom domains, additional support, plugins, etc. On-premise licenses starts from free during first month with the Maker license (4,95€/mo after), which is limited in some advanced features, most notably, custom domains with automatic SSL support, rebranding, plugins, multiple server accounts, multi-threading support, or extend the server capabilities with plugins like Node-Red. So, the first step is to select the required license, as shown in the image below:

This pricing includes the software license to deploy an on-premise instance. Note that it is possible to select monthly or yearly license with a great discount.

The next table shows the main different features that are provided by each license as well as a desirable purpose specification. It is possible to select one license and change it in the future using the subscription management portal.

2. Configure license

Once the license has been selected, it is possible to customize the service with some options like additional users, support, custom domains, brands, etc. These options appears after selecting any plan, like shown in the figure below:

These options are described in more detail in the following:

• Admin Email: This is the email address that must be used when creating the Thinger.io account in the private instance deployed. It will be the main account with admin privileges, allowing to create (if contracted) new users, domains, brands, etc.

• Additional users: This option allows to increase the amount of accounts (in addition to the admin account) in order to allow other users to log-in to your instance. It is possible to add as many accounts as required, however, a large user base will require a better host to support their databases, plugins, etc.

• Extended Support: This option is recommended in order to obtain Thinger.io engineers development support with a 24-48h response time. All accounts can use the community discussion forum to obtain support from other community developers.

• Custom Domains: It is the amount of different web domains that can be redirected to the same Private Instance. The instance will automatically provision and renew SSL certificates to support the new defined domains. Domains are required for different brands, as they are associated to the domain name.

• Custom Brands: It is the amount of different console brands that can be created over the same instance. In each brand it is possible to customize some accent colors, logos, copyrights, contact emails, title, etc. Notice that each brand requires a custom domain, as the customization is done for each domain name.

3. Checkout and payment options

After configuring the selected license, the checkout process is really simple, just click on the "Deploy Instance" button, and wait for the checkout pop-up. In the new form, it is necessary to introduce your billing email (it can be different from the admin email) where the invoices (if subscribed to a paid plan) will be sent:

After introducing the billing email, it is necessary to set the billing address. It is possible to set a VAT number if you are a registered company from the European Union in order to calculate the right taxes and build the invoice.

Finally, it is necessary to select the payment method between Credit Card or Direct Debit (if subscribed to a paid plan), that allows the domiciliation of the payment with SEPA tansferences. Once the payment process is finished, Thinger.io customer management system will automatically generate a server license that will be emailed to the admin email.

4. On-premise install

Once you have received the license token by email, it is possible to easily deploy Thinger.io on your host with a few commands. Before starting this guide, please, install Docker Engine and Docker Compose in your computer or server.

This guide assumes you are installing Thinger.io on a fresh Linux host with Docker support, as it will run databases like MongoDB and InfluxDB, and will start listening on several ports: 80, 443, 25200, 25202, 1883, and8883. It will also create a root directory in /data where all the Thinger.io data and database information will be stored.

To start, just launch the following command that will download the docker-compose file associated to your license:

curl https://subscriptions.thinger.io/v1/docker-compose.yml?token={LICENSE} -o docker-compose.yml

Ensure that your docker-compose file has been downloaded correctly:

cat docker-compose.yml

It should display something like the following:

docker-compose.yml
version: '3.7'
services:
​
  # Thinger.io server
  thinger:
    image: thinger/server:latest
    container_name: thinger
    user: root
    volumes:
      # for controlling docker engine
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      # folder for storing thinger generated data (maxmind, certificates, plugins...)
      - /data/thinger:/data
    entrypoint:
      - thinger
      - -v1
      - --runpath=/data
    environment:
      - TOKEN=ce84fc9f089227a4828f66c470d9319533611ee37adc41676ba1ef5a92bd1dca0f2258962d19627010525e437c2cbf48a
    network_mode: host
    restart: always
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "200k"
        max-file: "10"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost/v1/server/healthcheck"]
      interval: 1m
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 2m
​
  # mongodb
  mongodb:
    image: mongo:4
    container_name: "mongodb"
    environment:
      - MONGO_DATA_DIR=/data/db
      - MONGO_LOG_DIR=/dev/null
      - MONGODB_USER=thinger
      - MONGODB_DATABASE=thinger
      - MONGODB_PASS=PiIcgpUcl0r5xUb/cXP8WS5G
    volumes:
      - /data/mongodb:/data/db
    ports:
        - 127.0.0.1:27017:27017
    command: mongod --quiet
    restart: always
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "200k"
        max-file: "10"
​
  # influxdb 
  influxdb:
    image: influxdb:1.7
    container_name: influxdb
    ports:
      # The API for InfluxDB is served on port 8086
      - 127.0.0.1:8086:8086
      - 127.0.0.1:8082:8082
      # UDP Port
      - 127.0.0.1:8089:8089/udp
    volumes:
      # Data & Config Volumes
      - /data/influxdb/data:/var/lib/influxdb
      - /data/influxdb/config:/etc/influxdb/
    environment:
      - INFLUXDB_HTTP_AUTH_ENABLED=true
      - INFLUXDB_ADMIN_USER=thinger
      - INFLUXDB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=PiIcgpUcl0r5xUb/cXP8WS5G
      - INFLUXDB_REPORTING_DISABLED=true
    restart: always
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "200k"
        max-file: "10"
​
  # ouroboros
  ouroboros:
    container_name: ouroboros
    hostname: ouroboros
    image: pyouroboros/ouroboros
    environment:
      - CLEANUP=true
      - INTERVAL=600
      - LOG_LEVEL=info
      - SELF_UPDATE=true
      - MONITOR=thinger
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "200k"
        max-file: "10"                       

Then, if everything seems to be correct, just run the following command to start all the processes defined in docker-compose.yml and run them in dettached mode with -d option:

docker-compose up -d

If everything goes fine, it should show something like the following information (it may take several minutes to complete depending on your network connection):

root@docker-s-1vcpu-1gb-fra1-01:~# docker-compose up -d
Creating network "root_default" with the default driver
Pulling thinger (thinger/server:latest)...
latest: Pulling from thinger/server
da6fc00e4d0b: Pull complete
c3c0be9d84b3: Pull complete
9c1dda927878: Pull complete
4b8880231fa0: Pull complete
ec7cf4588dfa: Pull complete
f03c87626902: Pull complete
2c927b4e662e: Pull complete
0c0ed4ba2578: Pull complete
db577de2586f: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:156bb95f155ce9d3706c6a2f17d2a6750cf62e91777a610625910c7ebf780894
Status: Downloaded newer image for thinger/server:latest
Pulling mongodb (mongo:4)...
4: Pulling from library/mongo
2746a4a261c9: Pull complete
4c1d20cdee96: Pull complete
0d3160e1d0de: Pull complete
c8e37668deea: Pull complete
fc3987a82b4c: Pull complete
c75f139e0836: Pull complete
4acc9c8680b4: Pull complete
fb02df30d947: Pull complete
ae725ef3d2ce: Pull complete
e30f54ed6b43: Pull complete
bca9e535ddb8: Pull complete
9c3edad81b2a: Pull complete
6dbcf78fe5ae: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:7a1406bfc05547b33a3b7b112eda6346f42ea93ee06b74d30c4c47dfeca0d5f2
Status: Downloaded newer image for mongo:4
Pulling influxdb (influxdb:1.7)...
1.7: Pulling from library/influxdb
146bd6a88618: Pull complete
9935d0c62ace: Pull complete
db0efb86e806: Pull complete
5dd32e36b488: Pull complete
750868d0ab2b: Pull complete
f4d98645d729: Pull complete
c8bd5f153b8d: Pull complete
f458001f5cb1: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:eae897c8ebf85ac3e2bdff8ba053d40a3df7598c41f4b63d42faf2603e2eef74
Status: Downloaded newer image for influxdb:1.7
Pulling ouroboros (pyouroboros/ouroboros:)...
latest: Pulling from pyouroboros/ouroboros
8e402f1a9c57: Pull complete
cda9ba2397ef: Pull complete
d7153c29df0e: Pull complete
cbbf0d0a5ee3: Pull complete
c142a4eca653: Pull complete
829de03e02e7: Pull complete
499113b78598: Pull complete
7a2dcb0f00c1: Pull complete
2cd0c4b889bd: Pull complete
01c721e4643e: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:cfa29916459fb8c578fce084ce839a0d3bee478b83a21b6b1d10c6b78bc4a372
Status: Downloaded newer image for pyouroboros/ouroboros:latest
Creating mongodb   ... done
Creating ouroboros ... done
Creating influxdb  ... done
Creating thinger   ... done

Then, the Thinger.io instance and the associated databases will be running:

root@docker-s-1vcpu-1gb-fra1-01:~# docker ps
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                   COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                    PORTS                                                                          NAMES
c7075dd45e5d        mongo:4                 "docker-entrypoint.s…"   43 minutes ago      Up 43 minutes             127.0.0.1:27017->27017/tcp                                                     mongodb
ff9d6178773b        influxdb:1.7            "/entrypoint.sh infl…"   43 minutes ago      Up 43 minutes             127.0.0.1:8082->8082/tcp, 127.0.0.1:8086->8086/tcp, 127.0.0.1:8089->8089/udp   influxdb
8ee8b4c924dd        thinger/server:latest   "thinger -v1 --runpa…"   47 minutes ago      Up 43 minutes (healthy)                                                                                  thinger
eee1b9479368        pyouroboros/ouroboros   "ouroboros"              47 minutes ago      Up 47 minutes                                                                                            ouroboros

Then, you can access your on-premise instance by pointing your browser to your host IP address.

​

Steps After On-premise Deployment

To start working with your on-premise installation, just follow the next steps:

First Login

1. Access the server by writing the local IP address of your host, for example: https://192.168.1.100. This step should show the Thinger.io login screen after accepting to use a self-signed certificate (the browser will ask you about a security issue with the certificate).

2. Note that this server has never been accessed before, and it is a completely isolated instance so there is not any user account created. Then, it is necessary to click on Create an accountbutton, and fill the form to create a new user profile using the Admin Email address provided in the license configuration (any other address will not be authorized to sign up).

3. After creating the new account it is possible to access the new server. It is not necessary to confirm the mail address.

Device Connection

When working with a private Thinger.io instance, it is necessary to point your devices to the newly created server. If you are using the Arduino or Linux client libraries, i.e., for Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, Raspberry Pi, etc., you should add a definition on top of your code to point to your host. So, modify your sketch like this:

#define THINGER_SERVER "192.168.1.100"
​
// the rest of your code goes here