Getting started

These steps describe how to get started with ChirpStack Gateway OS after you have installed ChirpStack Gateway OS on your gateway.

Important: The chirpstack-gateway-os-full image will setup the PostgreSQL on its first boot. This could take a couple of minutes and during this time, the gateway will be less responsive!

Connecting

After booting the gateway, you need to login using SSH. In case the gateway running the ChirpStack Gateway OS supports Wi-Fi, then it will be configured as access-point with the name ChirpStackAP and password ChirpStackAP. Once connected with ChirpStackAP the IP of the gateway is 192.168.0.1.

If you are connected using ethernet, then it uses DHCP to obtain an IP address. Many internet routers provide a web-interface with the IP addresses of connected devices.

If the IP of your gateway is 192.168.0.1:

ssh admin@192.168.0.1

The default username is admin, the default password is admin.

This will prompt the following message:

   ________    _           _____ __             __     _     
  / ____/ /_  (_)________ / ___// /_____ ______/ /__  (_)___ 
 / /   / __ \/ / ___/ __ \\__ \/ __/ __ `/ ___/ //_/ / / __ \
/ /___/ / / / / /  / /_/ /__/ / /_/ /_/ / /__/ ,< _ / / /_/ /
\____/_/ /_/_/_/  / .___/____/\__/\__,_/\___/_/|_(_)_/\____/ 
                 /_/

Documentation and copyright information:
> www.chirpstack.io

Commands:
> sudo gateway-config  - configure the gateway
> sudo monit status    - display service monitor

Configuration

Execute the sudo gateway-config to configure the concentrator shield model and the channel-configuration that the gateway must use.

Base image

After the board and channel-plan have been configured, you must update the ChirpStack MQTT Forwarder configuration, such that it connects to your MQTT broker. This can be done using the Edit ChirpStack MQTT Forwarder config option in the gateway-config menu.

Use the Edit configuration file option to edit the configuration file or the MQTT connection wizzard. In case you are using (client-)certificate authentication / authorization, the latter is recommended as it allows you do directly paste the certificate files.

Full image

Unlike the chirpstack-gateway-os-base image, you should not update the ChirpStack MQTT Forwarder configuration. It is configured to point to the MQTT broker which comes with the chirpstack-gateway-os-full image.

If using the chirpstack-gateway-os-full image and after configuring the channel-plan, the gateway will be automatically added to ChirpStack. In case the gateway-config displays an error during this step, it is recommended to wait ~ 30 seconds and try again. On first boot, it might take some time to setup the database (which happens on the background) and during this process it is normal to see an error message.

Access ChirpStack web-interface

To access the web-interface, you need the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. If it is still in Wi-Fi access-point mode, the IP will be 192.168.0.1, else you can usually retrieve the assigned IP address from your internet modem.

Assuming its IP address is 192.168.0.1, enter the following address in your browser to access the web-interface: http://192.168.0.1:8080.

The default login credentials are: admin / admin.

Create device profile

After login, the first thing to do is creating a device profile. A device profile stores the properties for a certain device type (e.g. brand, model, ...) that are important for ChirpStack to correctly handle your devices. To do so, click Device profiles and then Add device profile.

Note: It is important that the Region field matches the region that you have configured using gateway-config.

Create application

To group simmilar devices together, you need to create an application. This can be done by clicking Applications and then Add application.

Create first device

After creating the application, you are directly redirected to the created application, with the Devices tab enabled. You can add your device by clicking the Add device button.

Important to know

SD Card wearout

Although ChirpStack will try to minimize the number of database writes, there will be regular writes to the SD Card (PostgreSQL and Redis snapshots). According to Is it true that a SD/MMC Card does wear levelling with its own controller? it might make a difference which SD Card brand you use.