thingsboard Installation Guide Installation Guide

thingsboard is a free and open-source IoT platform. ThingsBoard provides open-source IoT platform

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 4GB minimum

Storage: 20GB for data

Network: HTTP/MQTT/CoAP

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8080 (default thingsboard port)

MQTT on 1883

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install thingsboard
sudo dnf install -y thingsboard

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now thingsboard

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install thingsboard
sudo apt install -y thingsboard

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now thingsboard

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Install thingsboard
sudo pacman -S thingsboard

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now thingsboard

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Install thingsboard
apk add --no-cache thingsboard

# Enable and start service
rc-update add thingsboard default
rc-service thingsboard start

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Install thingsboard
sudo zypper install -y thingsboard

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now thingsboard

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install thingsboard

# Start service
brew services start thingsboard

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install thingsboard

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'thingsboard_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service thingsboard start

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install thingsboard

# Or using Scoop
scoop install thingsboard

# Verify installation
thingsboard --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/thingsboard

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
thingsboard --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable thingsboard

# Start service
sudo systemctl start thingsboard

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop thingsboard

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart thingsboard

# Check status
sudo systemctl status thingsboard

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u thingsboard -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add thingsboard default

# Start service
rc-service thingsboard start

# Stop service
rc-service thingsboard stop

# Restart service
rc-service thingsboard restart

# Check status
rc-service thingsboard status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'thingsboard_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service thingsboard start

# Stop service
service thingsboard stop

# Restart service
service thingsboard restart

# Check status
service thingsboard status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start thingsboard
brew services stop thingsboard
brew services restart thingsboard

# Check status
brew services list | grep thingsboard

powershell

# Start service
net start thingsboard

# Stop service
net stop thingsboard

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service thingsboard
Stop-Service thingsboard
Restart-Service thingsboard

# Check status
Get-Service thingsboard

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream thingsboard_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name thingsboard.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name thingsboard.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/thingsboard.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/thingsboard.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://thingsboard_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName thingsboard.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://thingsboard.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName thingsboard.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/thingsboard.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/thingsboard.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend thingsboard_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/thingsboard.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend thingsboard_backend

backend thingsboard_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server thingsboard1 127.0.0.1:8080 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R thingsboard:thingsboard /etc/thingsboard
sudo chmod 750 /etc/thingsboard

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status thingsboard

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u thingsboard -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep thingsboard)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/thingsboard"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/thingsboard-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/thingsboard /var/lib/thingsboard

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/thingsboard-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop thingsboard

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/thingsboard/thingsboard-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start thingsboard

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u thingsboard -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/thingsboard/thingsboard.log

# Check configuration
thingsboard --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/thingsboard

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8080

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8080

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep thingsboard)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep thingsboard)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8080

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  thingsboard:
    image: thingsboard:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/thingsboard
      - ./data:/var/lib/thingsboard
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update thingsboard

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade thingsboard

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu thingsboard

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade thingsboard

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update thingsboard

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade thingsboard

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/thingsboard-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/thingsboard

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart thingsboard

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/thingsboard

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/thingsboard -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/thingsboard

Official Documentation: https://docs.thingsboard.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/thingsboard/thingsboard

Community Forum: https://forum.thingsboard.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.thingsboard.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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