marketlytics / big-brother-pi

The Pi Module

###Overview The purpose of this script is to notify current active nodes inside a network periodically. It uses fing command line tool internally for the network discovery. We deployed this script on raspberry pi which was connected with our router for tracking in-house attendance.

###Dependencies:

libcurl
pycurl
fing
sqlite3

###Installing dependencies on raspberry pi: sqlite3: sudo apt-get install sqlite3

libcurl:
    sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-openssl-dev
    sudo apt-get install -y libcurl4-gnutls-dev librtmp-dev

pycurl:
    sudo apt-get install python-pycurl

fing:
    wget http://www.overlooksoft.com/packages/download?plat=arm
    mv download\?plat\=arm overlook-fing.deb
    sudo dpkg -i overlook-fing.deb

###Setting up the script:

#####transfer all the files to raspberry pi:

clone the repo or either download the zip from the github

from the terminal, use scp command to copy the files to the raspberry. for example:
scp -r path/to/project/directory [email protected]:/destination

#####set an environment variable COMPANY_ID with some random string:

from the terminal, ssh into the raspberry pi and run the following commands:
nano ~/.bash_profile
this will open up an editor; add this line at the end of the file
export COMPANY_ID = <SOME RANDOM VALUE>
hit cmd+x and enter y to save changes

#####set the urls for the script to send the data to:

open up the project in any text editor and navigate to base > Config.py
change the variable BASE_ADDR to the base address of the server you want to data to be sent
change the variable NODE_ADDR where the data regarding the nodes will be send at every fixed interval
change the variable LOG_ADDR to where the log data will be sent at every fixed interval

#####set up cron jobs to execute main.py and log.py at fixed intervals:

after connecting to the pi via ssh, type crontab -e
An editor will show up; add these two lines at the bottom of the file
    */15 * * * * . ~/.bash_profile; python path/to/project/directory/main.py
    01 */1 * * * . ~/.bash_profile; python path/to/project/directory/ping.py
Hit ctrl+x and then type 'y' and hit enter to save changes to the file. You should see the message 'new cronjobs are installed'.
the breakdown of the cronjob is as follows (from left to right) minute - hour - day of week - month - year - /path/to/script

####Automate the process To automate the whole process, there is a bash script DeployementReady.sh present in the repo. On it's execution, it will:

ask for a company id and automatically and set the environment variable

download the latest version of the script from this repo

install all the dependencies

set up cron jobs to be executed at a fixed interval (send node data every 15 minutes - send log data every hour)