Introduction
This document describes conceptual aspects of Cumulocity IoT Edge, the single-server variant of the Cumulocity IoT platform.
Overview
Edge is delivered as a software appliance designed to run on industrial PC’s or local servers and on a single node Kubernetes cluster.
In contrast to Cumulocity IoT platform, which is available in the cloud (for example, using AWS, Azure or other data centers), Edge is installed in factories, that is, in the same site (“onsite”) in which the IoT assets are located.
Reasons for using an onsite installation of Edge include:
- Autonomy: Even if there is no cloud connection, tasks like data collection and data analysis can still be performed.
- Data reduction: Data is analyzed and aggregated close to assets, and thus less data needs to be sent to the cloud.
- Reactivity: Both Edge and Cumulocity IoT platform include real-time streaming analytics engines. However, placing the rule execution in Edge reduces latency, because the round-trip to cloud is omitted.
Features of Edge include:
- Edge Agent, which enables remote monitoring and management of an Edge instance from the Cumulocity IoT tenant.
- Data Broker to send IoT data to the cloud and receive operations from the cloud, with web-based UI to filter data.
- Streaming Analytics engine for real-time local data analysis including the Cumulocity IoT Analytics Builder.
- Ready-to-use Cockpit and Device Management applications.
- Native protocol support for MQTT and REST.
- Edge database for operational data storage.
- Cloud Fieldbus with web-based UI to create local Modbus and OPC UA connections.
- Easy installation, upgrades and backup/restore.
- Microservice hosting, which allows to run server-side applications which may be used to extend the Cumulocity IoT platform with customer-specific functionality (optional component).
- DataHub Edge for historical data storage and analytics (optional component).
- Machine Learning to train and deploy your machine learning models (optional component).
Versions
Edge 10.17.0 uses the following versions:
Edge component |
Version |
|---|---|
| Cumulocity IoT platform | 10.17.0 |
| Streaming Analytics | 10.18.0 |
Edge versus other Cumulocity IoT deployments
Edge uses the same software as Cumulocity IoT platform.
However, while the base software is the same, there are differences regarding the activated optional features and pre-installed agents.
The following differences apply:
Area |
Edge | Cumulocity IoT platform |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenancy | No; single tenant | Yes |
| Cluster | No; single server | Yes |
| High availability | HA capabilities depend on the underlying virtualization technology, server failure could lead to temporary downtime* | Full HA: No downtime on server failure, optionally even for data center failure |
| Vertical scalability | Yes, limited to appr. 100 tps per CPU core | Yes, but not used |
| Horizontal scalability | No | Yes, nearly unlimited scalability |
| Upgrades with no downtime | No | Yes |
| Root access | Yes | Yes, if customer is hosting |
| Installation | Offline, with VM image Online, with Kubernetes Operator |
Online |
| Cloud Field Bus | Included | Optional |
| Streaming Analytics | Included | Optional |
| Data Broker | Included | Optional |
| OPC UA | Included | Optional |
| Microservice Hosting | Optional | Optional |
| Machine Learning | Optional | Optional |
| Data Hub | Optional | Optional |
Footnote: The underlying infrastructure, including the virtualization, is not part of the product. For further details on high availability or fault tolerance options, refer to the relevant information provided by third parties (for example, vSphere Availability).
Edge functionalities
Since Edge is based on the same software as the cloud-based Cumulocity IoT platform version, the included applications are the same in both versions, with minor restrictions.
For general information about functionalities and features of Cumulocity IoT platform, see Cumulocity IoT platform.
Below you can find the links to the most common functionalities of Cumulocity IoT.
Device Management
The Device Management application provides functionalities for managing and monitoring devices and enables you to control and troubleshoot devices remotely.
The following functionalities are available in Edge and described in detail in these sections:
| SECTION | CONTENT |
|---|---|
| Connecting devices | How to register one or more devices manually and how to bulk-register devices in order to connect devices to your account. |
| Viewing devices | What is displayed in the device list and how to sort devices by filtering devices. |
| Grouping devices | Why and how to group devices into top-level groups, subgroups and smart groups. |
| Device details | Detailed description of the various kind of information available for various types of devices. |
| Monitoring and controlling devices | How to monitor the connection quality and availability status of devices, how to handle alarms from devices, how to remote control and how to troubleshoot devices. |
| Managing device types | How to process data from various device types by using device protocols. |
| Managing device data | How to retrieve and manage firmware and software for devices; how to retrieve configuration data and store and manage it in a configuration repository as configuration snapshots. |
| Using SmartREST templates | How to work with SmartREST templates, a collection of request and response templates used to convert CSV data and Cumulocity IoT Rest API calls. |
Cockpit
The Cockpit application provides you with options to manage and monitor Internet of Things (IoT) assets and data from a business perspective.
The following functionalities are available in Edge and described in detail in these sections:
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Managing assets | Organize assets in hierarchies by creating groups and assigning devices. |
| Visualizing data using the Data Explorer | Interactively explore, compare and visualize IoT data. Describes how to access and use the data explorer, add data points to the data explorer, customize data point properties, modify the visualization, store the data explorer as widget, and export the data. |
| Working with dashboards | Create your own analytics and monitor pages by adding and arranging widgets. Share dashboards among all devices of the same type. |
| Widgets collection | Use various types of widgets from the Widgets collection that comes with Edge and configure them according your needs. |
| Working with alarms | Monitor problems of your assets using severities and workflows. Since working with alarms in the Cockpit application is actually the same as working with alarms in Device Management, refer to Working with alarms in Device Management. |
| Managing reports | Handle reports based on dashboard layouts, create reports for exporting data in CSV or excel format and schedule the export. |
| Using the Data Point Library | Manage default settings (“profiles”) of your devices and apply them automatically using the Data Point Library. |
| Working with Smart Rules | Create and manage business rules to work on incoming data in realtime and to perform actions based on this data. |
| Smart Rules collection | Use pre-defined global Smart Rules to configure rules for geofencing, thresholds or alarm escalation and notifications (SMS/email). Describes each smart rule and its configurable parameters in detail. |
Administration
The Administration application enables account administrators to manage their users, roles, tenants and applications and lets them configure a number of settings for their account.
The following functionalities are available in Edge and described in detail in these sections:
| SECTION | CONTENT |
|---|---|
| Configuring Edge | Providing information on Edge specific configuration options. |
| Home Screen | Providing information on your capacity usage and subscribed applications. |
| Managing Users | How to create users, edit, disable or delete them. |
| Managing Permissions | How to create and edit global roles and inventory roles, how to assign them to users, and how to grant application access. |
| Managing own applications | How to manage and configure own applications in your Cumulocity IoT Edge account. |
| Changing settings | How to change account settings like application settings or password policy settings and how to manage the properties library. |
| Managing data retention | How to manage and configure retention rules for your data and how to manage stored files in the file repository. |
Connecting devices
Edge uses REST and MQTT as protocols for external communication. Both protocols may be used to interface devices with Edge. For more information, see Device integration using REST in Device integration and SmartREST 2.0 in the Reference guide.
Additionally, Edge offers:
-
Cloud Fieldbus functionality to collect data from fieldbus devices and remotely manage them. For example, Modbus protocol.
-
OPC UA protocol. OPC UA protocols support through the OPC UA device gateway and OPC UA management service.
For details on how to integrate devices using Modbus and OPC UA protocols, see Cloud Fieldbus and OPC UA in the Protocol integration guide.
Info
Currently, only the Modbus and OPC UA protocols are supported.