Setup Mender Server

The Mender server is run on a host machine OS which is formed of small container services. Pull the Mender utility Docker image and launch the container on the host machine.

These are the required environment variables, refer here for more details.

• MENDER_SERVER_DIR

• MACHINE

• BRANCH

docker pull registry.gitlab.com/linaro/cassini/meta-cassini/mender-utility-image:${BRANCH}
docker run --rm \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}:${MENDER_SERVER_DIR} \
  -it registry.gitlab.com/linaro/cassini/meta-cassini/mender-utility-image:${BRANCH}

This opens a shell environment and these are the required environment variables, refer here for more details.

• MENDER_SERVER_DIR

• MACHINE

• MENDER_SERVER_IP

• MENDER_SERVER_HTTPS_PORT

• MENDER_SERVER_HTTP_PORT

• Configure the Mender Server :

export MENDER_SERVER_NAME="ms-${MACHINE}"
cp -r /home/mender-server/. ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/
source ./mender_env_server.sh
source ./docker-compose-override.sh

• Start the Mender server :

docker compose --project-name "${MENDER_SERVER_NAME}" up -d --quiet-pull
docker compose --project-name "${MENDER_SERVER_NAME}" ps

• User Setup :

  Create a test user for the Mender server UI/API

  docker compose --project-name "${MENDER_SERVER_NAME}" exec useradm \
    useradm create-user --username "${MENDER_SERVER_USERNAME}" \
  --password "${MENDER_SERVER_PASSWORD}"
  

  Authenticate using mender-cli

  mender-cli login \
    --server "${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT}" \
    --skip-verify \
    --username "${MENDER_SERVER_USERNAME}" \
    --password "${MENDER_SERVER_PASSWORD}"
  

• Artifact Upload :

  These are the requirements to perform a mender system update.

  • Upload an unsigned mender artifact

  cp ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}.mender ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-unsigned.mender
  mender-artifact modify -n unsigned-image ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-unsigned.mender
  mender-cli artifacts upload -k --server ${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT} ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-unsigned.mender
  

  • Upload a signed mender artifact

  mender-artifact modify -n release-2 -k ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/keys/private.key ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}.mender
  mender-cli artifacts upload -k --server ${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT} ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}.mender
  

  These are the requirements to perform a mender capsule update.

  • Upload a incompatible mender capsule

  touch incompatible_capsule_fetch.txt
  mender-artifact write module-image \
    -T mender-capsule-fetch \
    -n incompatible-capsule-fetch \
    -o ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-incompatible-capsule-fetch.mender \
    -f incompatible_capsule_fetch.txt \
    -t ${MACHINE} \
    -k ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/keys/private.key \
    --provides "capsule.version:1.0.0" \
    --depends "rootfs-image.version:release-x"
  mender-cli artifacts upload \
    -k --server ${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT} \
    "${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-incompatible-capsule-fetch.mender"
  

  • Upload a compatible mender capsule

  mender-artifact write module-image \
    -T mender-capsule-fetch \
    -n compatible-capsule-fetch  \
    -o ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-compatible-capsule-fetch.mender \
    -f ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}.uefi.capsule \
    -t ${MACHINE} \
    -k ${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/keys/private.key \
    --provides "capsule.version:1.0.0" \
    --depends "rootfs-image.version:release-1"
  mender-cli artifacts upload \
    -k --server ${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT} \
    "${MENDER_SERVER_DIR}/artifacts/${MACHINE}-compatible-capsule-fetch.mender"
  

  To check the uploaded artifacts

  mender-cli artifacts list -k --server ${MENDER_SERVER_URL_HTTPS_PORT}