Commission a controller · Fog Computing Docs

Create an SSH connection

Select Connect to host, then Add connection. Provide:

Field	Meaning
Connection name	A local label, such as `Line 4 controller`
Host or IP address	DNS name or address reachable from the workstation
Username	Linux SSH account
Password	Password used by SSH and remote commands
Store password	Saves the password in the local connection file

The current client supports username/password SSH. It does not offer an SSH private-key selector. If Store password is disabled, later connections submit an empty password, so this only works for an account that accepts it.

On connection, the tool verifies the Linux family, detects the CPU architecture, creates ~/.bfc, synchronizes helper scripts, and begins polling Docker every second.

Upload the BFC images

Select Upload images. The tool chooses the Console and Gateway tar files for the detected architecture and streams each one through SSH to docker load.

This action loads or updates image tags, but it does not replace containers already created from an older image. Recreate an existing container when an upgrade must take effect.

Set up the Gateway

Select Setup gateway. The tool creates missing resources in this order:

Docker network bfc-network.
MariaDB named volume bfc-mariadb.
Public MariaDB and phpMyAdmin images, when absent.
Container bfc-mariadb.
Container bfc-phpmyadmin.
Container bfc-gateway.

The Gateway uses the MariaDB container name in its connection string and automatically applies schema migrations during startup.

Open these addresses from the workstation:

Gateway:    http://CONTROLLER_IP:5000/
Swagger:    http://CONTROLLER_IP:5000/swagger/
phpMyAdmin: http://CONTROLLER_IP:8080/

Set up Node-RED

Select Setup Node-RED. The tool:

Creates volume bfc-nodered.
Pulls nodered/node-red if necessary.
Creates container bfc-nodered on bfc-network.
Copies node-red-bfc-gateway.tgz into the Node-RED data volume.
Installs the local BFC node package and @flowfuse/node-red-dashboard.
Restarts Node-RED.

Open the editor at:

http://CONTROLLER_IP:1885/

Verify service state

The container overview should show MariaDB, phpMyAdmin, Gateway, and optionally Node-RED as running. Use Console to inspect startup logs. If the Gateway is still starting, allow time for MariaDB initialization and migration.

Setup actions create missing containers but do not reconfigure existing containers. To apply changed ports, environment variables, or image versions, stop and delete the affected container, then run its setup action again. Named database and Node-RED volumes remain unless removed separately.