Registering a Node in the Management System#

In this version, it is required to register the node through a Python command line tool before you can use it in the Management System. The command line tool will be executed locally on the Nerve Device.

During the registration process there are two key parts happening: First, the node is configured. This means that the serial number is assigned and its secure ID is generated according to its serial number. The login credentials for local UI, host and RT VM access are also set. Second, the node is registered in the Management System with its serial number and secure ID so that the node can log in when communication is needed. For that, an existing admin user in the Management System is required. The admin user admin@nerve.cloud is defined by default.

Hardware Setup#

In order to connect the node to the Management System, you will need to set up the Nerve Device and connect your local workstation to the Nerve Device:

1. Please set up your Nerve Device as described in the device guide.
2. Connect your workstation to the physical port associated with host access.

With this, the hardware is ready for the node registration process.

Copying the Tool to the Nerve Device#

As the dependencies for the command line tool are already installed on the Nerve Devices, you only need to copy it to the Nerve Device and execute it from there. To do so, you will need an SSH client and a file transfer client. PuTTY and WinSCP are used as examples.

1. Open a file transfer client like WinSCP.
2. Enter the host IP address of your Nerve Device under Host Name.

3. Enter the credentials for host access to the Nerve Device below under User name and Password.

   

4. Copy the nerve-onboard.py to the Nerve Device. The default path is /home/admin/ on the Nerve Device.

   

With the command line tool now copied to the Nerve Device, you can execute the command line tool locally on the Nerve Device. We will use an SSH connection to do so.

Using the Tool#

Now that all preparations are complete, you can execute the command line tool and start the registration of the node in the Management System.

1. Open an SSH client like PuTTY.

2. Enter the host IP address of your Nerve Device under Host Name (or IP address).

   

3. Click Open.

4. Log in with the credentials for host access of the Nerve Device.

5. Enter python3 nerve-onboard.py <domain> <serial> and replace the placeholders with this information:

   Item	Description
   <domain>	This is the URL of your cloud. Please enter the URL without the protocol in the beginning. You can find it in the customer profile. Example: example.nerve.cloud
   <serial>	Enter the serial number of your Nerve Device here. You can find it on the label of the Nerve Device.

   Note

   Depending on your Nerve Device, the command line tool might extend the serial number to 12 characters. Please make sure to take note of that after registering a Nerve Device.

6. Enter the following information in the table. The command line tool will prompt you one by one:

   Item	Description
   New LocalUI password	Define the new password for the local UI of your Nerve Device.
   New RT VM password	Define the new password for the CODESYS runtime.
   New system password	Define the new password for SSH host access.
   Cloud password	Enter the password of your cloud access.

   

   Note

   The passwords above must be at least 8 characters long.

The node is now online and registered in the Management System. You can find it under Root > Unassigned in the Node Tree.

Using the Tool Locally#

Since the dependencies for this tool are installed on the Nerve Device, the preferred method is to use the command line tool on the Nerve Device. However, the tool can still be executed locally if you prefer.

The tool needs Python 3 and Requests. Please download and install Python 3 on your workstation and follow the instructions on the Requests homepage to install Requests. On Debian and Ubuntu, enter apt-get install python3 python3-requests to install all dependencies.

Navigate to the folder where nerve-onboard.py is located on your workstation and open a command line. After that, the steps for using the tool are identical to the steps above. Follow the steps above starting from step 5 to register a node successfully.

Command Line Interface Parameters#

The command line tool offers many optional command line interface parameters. To see the list of parameters, enter python nerve-onboard.py -h. As described above, the command line tool will prompt you to define new passwords for the local UI, the CODESYS runtime and host access if no parameters are given. It will also ask for the password for Management System access. For the other parameters, the default values are used if they are not defined. The default parameters are given in the table below where applicable.