Deploying Sensor Collector in Docker

This article explains how to deploy Sensor Collectors in a Docker environment. It assumes you have already configured your Sensor Collector and met all system requirements.

Note: The steps in the procedure differ slightly depending on whether you are deploying a Gateway Sensor Collector (which receives time-series data in a "push" mode), or a CSV Sensor Collector (which collects time-series data from CSV files).

The Gateway mode requires a server certificate for secure communication with a Telemetry Collector or Assurance Sensor. You have two options for certificate generation:

• Generate a self-signed certificate (instructions provided in this article), or
• Use a certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA).

Step 1: Download Docker Package

To download the Docker package:

1. Navigate to the Sensors > Collectors > Sensor page.
   This page displays a list of all Sensor Collectors that have been configured on the platform tenant.

2. Select your configured Sensor Collector from the list.

3. Click the ellipsis (three dots) in the upper-right corner.

4. Choose Download (Docker).
   This action initiates the download of the package to your local machine.

Note: The package is built dynamically, which may take a few minutes. A banner displaying "Preparing file for download..." will indicate the process is underway.

Step 2: Transfer the Package

Once downloaded you can transfer the .tar file to the target machine where the Sensor Collector will be deployed.

Step 3: Obtain Server Certificate (Gateway Only)

A server certificate is essential for the Gateway Sensor Collector to securely communicate with a Telemetry Collector or Assurance Sensor.
Note: This step is not required for CSV type deployments.

For this , you have two options:

• Generate a self-signed certificate (instructions in this article)
• Use a certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA)

Step 4: Initialize Sensor Collector Directory

To initialize the Sensor Control Directory:

1. Run the following commands to create the directory, move the archive, and extract its contents:

mkdir sensorCollectorDir

mv sensorCollectorArchive.tar.gz sensorCollectorDir

cd sensorCollectorDir/

gunzip sensorCollectorArchive.tar.gz 

tar xvf sensorCollectorArchive.tar

Step 5: Copy Certificates: (Gateway Only)

Note: This step is not required for CSV deployments.

To copy the certificates into the Sensor Collector's target directory:

1. Enter the following commands:

# go to the folder where sensorCollector is unpacked

mkdir .tls_custom

# copy ca.crt ca.key tls.crt tls.key files into sensorCollector's ".tls_custom" folder

cp {path to your certificates}/ca.crt .tls_custom/
cp {path to your certificates}/ca.key .tls_custom/
cp {path to your certificates}/tls.crt .tls_custom/
cp {path to your certificates}/tls.key .tls_custom/

Step 6: Run the Sensor Collector

1. Execute the run.sh shell script to start the Sensor Collector:

# run roadrunner
./run.sh

Now that you have executed the run.sh shell script above, check that Sensor Collector is running correctly. You can obtain information on these instructions here.

If you experience any issues running the Sensor Collector, you can access information on troubleshooting Sensor Collector here.