Balena

Devices are managed via an OpenBalena instance in the cloud, at balena.dgcsdev.com.

Application Configuration

Application creation and configuration is currently done manually.

There is also an smc-balena script which provides some utility functionality to perform these functions. But in general the approach is very much a case of hands-on driving Balena.

Putting the images in operator hands is possible via the UI though. See the Operator Functionality section below.

smc-balena Script

These docs references scripts in a remote repo - https://bitbucket.org/smc-dev/smc-balena - and should ideally be moved to that repo

The smc-balena script wraps the standard balena cli tool with an auto-login feature. It also manages the switching between the dgcsdev open-balena services and the balena-cloud functionality in the configuration process.

Transparent

The smc-balena script is transparent, in that you can run smc-balena balena …​ and it will pass the remaining command transparently through to the balena command, albeit with the necessary credentials etc automatically added.

Additional Functionality

The script also provides some additional functionality, which come in the following flavours:

  • Multi-step processes like building or configuring an image (smc-balena build and smc-balena configure)

  • Queries via the rest endpoints which are not obviously available via the cli (like device listing)

  • SSH utilities

All commands allow the form smc-balena <command> -h for help details, and it is best to consult these docs for current functionality.

Operator Functionality

The UI provides some functionality for operators, which also require some developer administration to set up. This is documented separately.