New docker container for pimatic with autostart

petschni

I played around a bit and created new pimatic docker container that automatically starts pimatic and also wrote down some instructions on how to get it running:

http://www.grauvoegel.de/2017/02/10/home-automation-with-pimatic-and-docker-on-my-synology/

Hope it is useful!

mwittig

@petschni said in New docker container for pimatic with autostart:

Hope it is useful!

Nice. Thanks for sharing!

mwittig

It’ll be nice if you can add a link to the pimatic.org as part of the docker description published at https://hub.docker.com/r/petschni/pimatic/

petschni

@mwittig sure! should be there when the build finishes…

DavidZH

First of all I’m new to docker, and finding about it out as I go along… 😁
I have tried this and got it running (next step is to try to get the USB gateways to talk…), but it got me thinking.

I 'd like to keep the data seperate from the pimatic container for backup and update reasons. I have fumbled a bit and got some succes (some error about the config.json not being there as it tries to run the dockerfile script).

How would you go about that?

petschni

@DavidZH said in New docker container for pimatic with autostart:

I 'd like to keep the data seperate from the pimatic container for backup and update reasons. I have fumbled a bit and got some succes (some error about the config.json not being there as it tries to run the dockerfile script).

How would you go about that?

Makes totally sense to keep the config file outside of the container. You can find a little bit more detail in this article on how to use the image:

http://grauvoegel.de/2017/02/10/home-automation-with-pimatic-and-docker-on-my-synology/

Basically you need to name the config file: config-json-pimatic.json and the “-v” option when starting the container defines the mount point to the folder.

DDNRN

What about USB connected gateways like Homeduino or mySensors ?
Anyone tested if its useable?

Jos Hendriks

Good work!

Personally I think it is better to use a more complete base image. node already includes node and build-essentials

Even better, use my base image . It allows your to replace:

# We are using debian as the base image
FROM debian

# Author
MAINTAINER petschni

####### Base installation of NodeJS #######
# Install NodeJS v7.x
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl wget
RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | bash -
RUN apt-get install -y nodejs

####### PIMATIC installaton #######
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential git
RUN mkdir /home/pimatic-app
RUN /usr/bin/env node --version
RUN cd /home && npm install pimatic --prefix pimatic-app --production


####### Instal globally #######
RUN cd /home/pimatic-app/node_modules/pimatic && npm link

####### Copy the default config to our installation #######
RUN cp /home/pimatic-app/node_modules/pimatic/config_default.json /home/pimatic-app/config.json

####### Config the autostart #######
RUN wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimatic/pimatic/v0.9.x/install/pimatic-init-d && cp pimatic-init-d /etc/init.d/pimatic
RUN chmod +x /etc/init.d/pimatic
RUN chown root:root /etc/init.d/pimatic
RUN update-rc.d pimatic defaults

in your Dockefile with just this:

FROM joshendriks/pimatic

Jos Hendriks

@DDNRN said in New docker container for pimatic with autostart:

What about USB connected gateways like Homeduino or mySensors ?
Anyone tested if its useable?

USB passthrough should do the trick. I never tested it though…

petschni

@Jos-Hendriks said in New docker container for pimatic with autostart:

Good work!

Personally I think it is better to use a more complete base image. node already includes node and build-essentials

Good idea - totally makes sense. Hope to find some time during the weekend to update my container.

thex

Great I will definitely try this the next weeks as my NAS is running anyway and I currently have only usb accessories connected to the raspberry.

However I have to check how usb forwarding works on my synology NAS.

V1per

@thex said in New docker container for pimatic with autostart:

Great I will definitely try this the next weeks as my NAS is running anyway and I currently have only usb accessories connected to the raspberry.

However I have to check how usb forwarding works on my synology NAS.

I am exiting if this work. Mybee I can do the same

petschni

I updated the image - its now based on the NodeJS image.

DavidZH

Ok @petschni, I got your stuff running. And I got thinking. Again.

I have one instance of pimatic running on a Pi 3. That runs off a UPS that also feeds my NAS, but is waaaaaay more power-efficient so I want that to be my main pimatic device. My idea is to have the docker pimatic as a link to the outside world. I thought that maybe I could link the RPi SQLite db to the docker pimatic so that they would have the same data. And to switch some stuff I would use dummy switches with API calls to the RPi pimatic so that only the master pimatic writes to the db. But I’m not sure if that is a good idea…

Thoughts?

p.s.: I had to go through some stuff before I got the Docker image running:

I’m still sort of a GUI kind of guy so I tried that first to get it going. Fail. So i dove under the hood and used the CLI to try again. But that also failed the first time with all kind of errors. Then I remembered that I had to run the .js file one time to gat started, and only then I could use the daemon.
So only after the first two runs I could use the GUI of the Synology to control the container.
Like I said in a previous comment: I’m still very new to Docker, and very slowly learning to work with it.

Jos Hendriks

I assume your NAS is always on. If so then adding an extra device does not seem power efficient to me…
Then, more important, what is the goal of have a second pimatic instance? Do you have security in mind?

I’m just trying to understand your goals here.

As for sharing a sqlite3 db between multiple computers. There are some things to keep in mind. From the sqlite FAQ:
You should avoid putting SQLite database files on NFS if multiple processes might try to access the file at the same time. On Windows, Microsoft’s documentation says that locking may not work under FAT filesystems if you are not running the Share.exe daemon. People who have a lot of experience with Windows tell me that file locking of network files is very buggy and is not dependable. If what they say is true, sharing an SQLite database between two or more Windows machines might cause unexpected problems.

I’m also not sure if pimatic is programmed with locking in mind…

DavidZH

Yup, my NAS is always on, but when not running docker, it will go into sleep mode that saves more than the Pi will consume. And now I can suspend the NAS when the power fails and my UPS takes over. With the Syno running the UPS runs for about 35 minutes, only the Pi will run for 3 hours (according to the data the UPS gives).

I have been going back and forth on this, because I like the computing power the NAS has, (I had Pimatic running on a Pi B+ before, and that is slow!), and the sandbox docker provides gives an extra layer of protection from the big bad internet.

What I would like to do is use the Pi as the main data collection device with the database. Then run a sandboxed pimatic instance with it’s own config but READING from the SQLite db. (I’m not sure what protocol it uses, but I have seen an example from another user who used a remote db over TCP.) That pimatic is mainly to give me and my fellow house mates a glimpse on what’s going on in the house. There will be a few controls there but they will be made through API calls, so no direct manipulation of the db from the remote pimatic.
All this is to protect my house from digital invasion.

I’m probably overthinking everything… Story of my life!

Edit.: @petschni where do you store the db in your dockerfile? Because if it stays in the container, after a restart of the DS (like after an update), all the historic date will be gone…

Jos Hendriks

@DavidZH A volume map gives you the ability to store data outside the contianer. See https://docs.docker.com/engine/tutorials/dockervolumes/

mwittig

@Jos-Hendriks Do you also have experience with sharing GPIO amongst docker containers? As far as I understand this, it is done in a similar way as mapping USB devices, e.g. docker run --rm --cap-add SYS_RAWIO --device /dev/mem hypriot/rpi-gpio readall (assuming usage of the rpi-gpio image, see article below). I am wondering, however, whether or not it is possible to map GPIO into multiple containers and if this is robust at all.