Quick Start for Linux Overview

The instructions in this document enable you to install the agent on a Linux device, run the device manager application to perform basic device management, and run a sample application that sends data from your device to Device Cloud.

Before using this document, ensure that you understand the basic Device Cloud concepts. For information about the components of Device Cloud, see Device Cloud Getting Started.

To follow this Quick Start, you need a device or computer with the Linux operating system installed.

To install the agent and run the applications, you need Python installed on your device. Python releases 2.7.9 and later and Python 3.4 and later are supported. To check if Python is already installed and confirm the Python release installed on your device, type python --version on the command line.

Most Linux distributions have Python installed by default. If it is not installed and you do not currently use Python, Python 3 is under active development and is the recommended release for developing applications with the agent. To install it, you can use the package manager for your distribution (recommended) or download it from http://python.org and build it from the source code.

You may have multiple releases of Python already installed on your device. You must ensure that the version of the default Python executable is a supported release and the directory into which you install the Python packages match. On a Linux device with multiple releases of Python installed, the /usr/bin/python file is typically a soft link to the release-specific executable.

The required Device Cloud components (applications and thing definitions) for the device manager and sample applications may already exist in your organization. This means that you do not have to create thing definitions and an application in Device Cloud, which you would normally do in your development process. If the components are not present, you will create them as part of the procedures in this document.

To access the browser-based user interface to Device Cloud, you must have completed the account registration process to create a password and activate your account as described in your welcome email. You also receive the URL to access Device Cloud, which is specific to your geographic region.

Quick Start Workflow

  1. Install the agent from the Python package repository.

  2. If necessary, set up the Device Cloud definitions.

  3. Generate the connection configuration files for the applications.

  4. Run the device manager application.

  5. Run the sample application to send data to Device Cloud.