[Introduction]
[Requirements]
[Installing]
[Configuration]
[Upgrading]
[Error reporting and support]
Introduction
taloLoggerCont is a Docker container based logger installation/composition
that provides the taloLogger and taloLogger graph containers and
sample configuration to be modified according to logging needs.
Out of the box the taloLoggerCont provides similar functionality that
taloLoggerPi produces, but in a container setup and not restricted to
the Raspberry Pi platform.
There are three sample compositions provided in the package for different
database setups: SQLite database, MySQL/MariaDB database and
PostgreSQL database. The composition, configuration and the containers
are freely modifiable to match the target environment.
Requirements
The requirements for taloLoggerCont are:
Installing
These are step by step instructions to install taloLoggerCont on an environment meeting the requirements.:
The docker-compose up command will pull the necessary docker container images from the internet repositories
and start the containers described in the docker-compose.yml file.
The out-of-the-box default configuration will create a SQLite database file in the vol/db/ directory.
Now taloLoggerCont is up and running with default settings. The taloLogger
is active and logging with 2 minute interval to a SQLite3 database set up
in the volume mount vol/db/. An example dummy outdoor temperature is being logged.
The example data logged is sinusoidial curve with 2 hour wave lenght
provided by the dummy data source on the taloLogger application.
The log can be viewed by web browser from URL:
http://<system IP address>:8080/
You should see a page opening with a heading TaloLoggerCont and a link
TaloLoggerGraph. The link will open the example log view with chart and
image.
NOTE!! The during the first start up the database container talodb will take some time to initialize.
If database connection cannot be initialized from the taloLogger containers, wait for few minutes and possibly check the
talodb container logs for database initialization state.
Configuration
You can alter the default configuration of the taloLoggerCont to match the log
environment you have and the required data sources, data measurements and
data stores.
Contents of the taloLoggerCont folder
The taloLoggerCont default container composition package contains the following
components when extracted.
-
docker-compose.yml - A composition file to orchestrate the default logger containers: talologger
for logging and talologgercont for log visualization. This file is initially the same as the
docker-compose.yml_sqlite file.
-
docker-compose.yml_mysql[-armhf] - A composition file to orchestrate the logger containers and database server container named
talodb for storing the logged data. Talodb container will run a MariaDB database server. See database configuration section
below for information about switching to MySQL/MariaDB database. For 32-bit ARM architectures use the ..._mysql-armhf version. This uses non-official MySQL container for older OS versions that do not have official MariaDB container available.
Database data will be stored in volume mount directory
vol/db_data_mysql/.
-
docker-compose.yml_postgresql - A composition file to orchestrate the logger containers and database server container named
talodb for storing the logged data. Talodb container will run a PostgreSQL database server. See database configuration section
below for information about switching to PostgreSQL database.
Database data will be stored in volume mount directory
vol/db_data_pgsql/.
-
docker-compose.yml_sqlite - A composition file to orchestrate the logger containers. Data will be stored in a file
based SQLite3 database file in the volume mount directory vol/db/.
-
taloLogger.conf - A configuration file for the talologger container. The talologger container
is responsible for logging the data from the datasources configured in this file and storing the data into datastores configured
in this file. This file replaces the configuration file inside the olammi/talologger:latest container image before the
container is started.
-
taloLoggerGraph.conf - A configuration file for the talologgergraph container.
The talologgergraph container is responsible for visualizing the logged data from the database
as graphs and data augmented images.
This file replaces the configuration file inside the olammi/talologgergraph:latest container image before the
container is started.
-
talo_php.ini - A configuration file for the PHP environment inside the talologgergraph container.
This file is injected inside the container before it is started. Initially this will set the correct timezone for the
PHP environment.
-
vol - (created, if missing, when the composition is launched for the first time) Directory containing
all stateful data conserning the composition that survives taking the containers down.
taloLogger
TaloLogger configuration file taloLogger.conf is monted inside
the talologger container being run.
The configuration file contains all the example configurations also in the
taloLogger package example configuration file. However only minimal functionality
is enabled by default. Read the comment sections in the configuration file
for information about possible configuration options.
You can also read about configuring the taloLogger from the
taloLogger HOWTO.
taloLoggerGraph
TaloLoggerGraph configuration file taloLoggerGraph.conf is monted inside
the talologgergraph container being run.
The configuration file contains all the example configurations also in the
taloLoggerGraph package example configuration file. However only minimal
functionality is enabled by default. Read the comment sections in the configuration file
for information about possible configuration options.
You can also read about configuring the taloLoggerGraph from the
taloLoggerGraph HOWTO.
Database
The taloLoggerCont stores data in example configuration in to a SQLite3 database
file:
vol/db/talo.db
The schema/structure of the database is generic. When new measurement
points to log are being configured, no alternations to the database
schema or the table model is needed. All you need to do is to
configure new @MEASURE directives to the taloLogger
configuration and utilize the logged data points in the taloLoggerGraph
@SERIES and @POSITION directives.
The taloLoggerCont example composition contains also sample docker-compose.yml files for
container based databases: MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL. In order to utilize these configurations,
the following steps are necessary:
- Copy the relevant yml-example over the file
docker-compose.yml.
- Edit
taloLogger.conf configuration file to switch to use relevant data store (snippet from line 153...):
#@DATASTORE=FILESTORE:FILESTORE
#@DATASTORE=FILESTORE:XMLFILE
#@DATASTORE=RRD:RRD
#@DATASTORE=MYSQLDB:MYSQLDB
#@DATASTORE=POSTGREDB:POSTGREDB
@DATASTORE=SQLITEDB:SQLITEDB
#@DATASTORE=THINGSPEAK:THINGSPEAK
#@DATASTORE=MQTT:MQTT
Comment out the non relevant line and remove comment mark from the relevant database type row.
- Edit
taloLoggerGraph.conf configuration file to switch to use relevat database (snippet from line 20...):
#############################################################################
# Data store configuration
#############################################################################
# Database type (Supported types: MYSQL, POSTGRESQL and SQLITE)
DB_TYPE = SQLITE
Replace the DB_TYPE configuration value with relevant database type (MYSQL, POSTGRESQL or SQLITE).
- If using MySQL/MariaDB database, replace the database root password (environment variable
MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD)
in the docker-compose.yml file before the first start of the database container (docker-compose up). During the first start
the database is created and initialized. After the init, the root password environment variable and its value may be removed
from the docker-compose.yml as it has no influence over the container after the db init.
In order to work properly, the time zone configuration for all logger containers should be set properly. This is done in
two locations:
- The
TZ environment variable configuration for each container in the docker-compose.yml
- The
[Date] date.timezone configuration directive for the PHP environment in the talo_php.ini
Initially these are all set to "Europe/Helsinki". If You are located on a different timezone, change the time zone
information on all locations mentioned above to Your relevant value.
Web server port
In the default setup the logger data visualization site accessible by a web browser is served on port 8080 on the
talologgergraph container. This port may be altered by changing the talologgergraph
container composition configuration in the docker-compose.yml file. The olammi/talologgergraph
container image internally exposes the service on port 80 and this is redirected and exposed to port 8080 in the
configuration:
ports:
- "8080:80"
Change the port 8080 to another value if needed. If port 80 is desired, use value "80:80".
Committing configuration
Safest way to ensure that the altered configuration will affect the containers and have the desired effect, restart the
composition by giving the following commands:
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d
Some changes might be effective only by restarting single relevant container, but if you want to be sure, the down-up-cycle
will read all the configuration files.
Logs
Containers produce logs to the Docker environment. A container log may be followed using the command
docker logs -f <container_name>
where the container_name is talologger, talologgergraph or talodb
Upgrading
Upgrading software inside the containers is not the preferred way to upgrade to new versions. As newer
taloLogger-containers are released, the composition file refers to the newest version of the container released.
Docker-compose can be asked to check for and pull the new versions of the containers. Therefore the following
commands are sufficient to upgrade to newest versions of the containers:
docker-compose down
docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -d
Error reporting and support
If you still encounter problems running the application after following
instructions of this HOWTO documentation and after reading the
taloLoggerCont FAQ, send a support request or
error report by email to the author of the application
(olammi at iki dot fi). Please include the following data to the mail:
- description of the problem
- possible log rows concerning and elaborating the problem
- any possible error messages related to the problem
- any configuration files causing the problem or being root of the problem
