Setup Tool prerequisites

Operator workstation

The reviewed release bundle contains a self-contained Windows executable:

BFC.SetupTool.exe

No separate .NET installation is required for that packaged executable. Extract the entire release and run it from the extracted directory; moving only the executable prevents image and Node-RED package discovery.

Use a trusted workstation. The preview stores its theme in app_settings.json and saved SSH connections in connection_values.json beside the working directory.

Target controller

The Setup Tool accepts Linux distributions whose /etc/*release identifies them as Debian, Raspbian, or Ubuntu (directly or through ID_LIKE).

Supported BFC image architectures are:

The tool can detect 32-bit Intel (i386/i686), but the current BFC bundle does not include matching images.

Required controller software

Before connecting, verify:

• SSH is enabled and reachable.
• Password authentication works for the selected account.
• Docker Engine is installed and running.
• The SSH user can run Docker commands and access /var/run/docker.sock.
• curl is installed.
• The controller has enough free storage for the BFC images, public service images, script workspaces, and database.

After adding a user to the docker group, close and reopen the SSH session before using the Setup Tool.

The codebase contains a Debian Docker-install script, but the current main Setup Tool interface does not expose an installation action. Prepare Docker before commissioning.

Network access

The controller needs outbound internet access during first setup to:

• Pull MariaDB, phpMyAdmin, and Node-RED images.
• Install the FlowFuse Dashboard package inside Node-RED.

The BFC Gateway and Console images are uploaded from the release bundle and do not require a registry.

Allow the operator workstation to reach SSH and the service ports you plan to use. The controller must also reach the configured IO-Link masters and devices.

Release bundle checklist

Confirm the extracted bundle contains matching files before starting:

images/balluff-bfc-console-latest-linux-ARCH.tar
images/balluff-bfc-gateway-latest-linux-ARCH.tar
files/node-red-bfc-gateway.tgz
_volumes/__lua_scripts/
_volumes/_plugins/
_volumes/_dependencies/

See Network ports for the complete port table.