NIM — SolarNode OS Image Maker
One of the nicest about SolarNode as a platform is that it is highly customisable. It seems as if each SolarNode deployment is unique. We’ve added a Node Image Maker tool to help create custom SolarNode OS images.
In general we see that SolarNode uniqueness manifests in some common ways:
- the internet network configuration used, such as Ethernet, WiFi, or mobile
- the management infrastructure used, such as S3 configuration for S3 Backup and S3 Setup
- the plugins/features needed to communicate with the devices that need integrating
One of the hardest things about SolarNode as a platform is that is is highly customisable. It can be overwhelming to get started, given so many choices that can be made!
SolarNetwork publishes “vanilla” SolarNode OS images that serve as a starting point for deploying nodes. For individual users, this is often enough to get going, as you can tweak the node’s configuration as needed over time. For organisations that manage an entire fleet of nodes, however, it can be cumbersome to maintain the organisation’s configuration changes while keeping up with the “vanilla” OS image updates.
The SolarNode Image Maker , or NIM for short, is designed to help with this very issue. It allows you to take a “vanilla” OS image, apply a set of configuration changes, and produce a customised OS image as a result. This way you only need to maintain your organisation’s custom configuration over time, and apply those changes to updated “vanilla” OS images over time.
NIM is an application that exposes a REST API for applications to interact with. We’ve written a JavaScript package that makes using the API a breeze, and then a basic application using that package called NIM UI that allows you to apply your configuration changes to a “vanilla” OS image and download the result, all from your web browser. Here is a demo of using NIM UI:
