Deployment

This page is the host install. You use install.sh and the edgelet CLI. Joining a cluster with potctl and kind: Agent is documented in Edgelet nodes.

Production deployment topology for Edgelet on linux, darwin, and windows.

Installation, upgrade, rollback, and OTA readiness: see Installation.

Install script distribution

install.sh and uninstall.sh are self-contained monoliths. Online install, airgap staging, and GitHub Releases need only those scripts plus the platform binary (or install.sh --bin-path=…). No co-located helper directories (scripts/lib/, packaging/init/, or similar) are required beside the scripts.

After install on linux, /usr/share/edgelet/ holds:

Path	Role
install.sh, uninstall.sh	OTA lifecycle copies (same self-contained monoliths)
edgelet-config.yaml.sample	Default config template
edgelet-controller-ca.crt.sample	Lab bootstrap CA sample

Init units and edgelet-shutdown are written directly to system paths (/etc/systemd/system/, /usr/libexec/edgelet/, etc.) at install time. Not stored under /usr/share/edgelet/lib/ or /usr/share/edgelet/init/.

Product model

Platform	Binary	Embedded engine	containerEngine	Default engine
linux	Thin wrapper (~30 MB) + fat in zstd embed	Yes	edgelet, docker, podman	edgelet
darwin	Monolithic	No	docker, podman	docker
windows	Monolithic .exe	No	docker, podman	docker

Linux thin path: /usr/local/bin/edgelet → lazy extract → /var/lib/edgelet/data/current/bin/edgelet (fat).

Prerequisites

Platform	Requirements
linux	Root/sudo; Ubuntu 20.04+, RHEL 8+, Debian 11+ (or equivalent); network to Controller for online install
darwin	Admin for /usr/local/bin; Docker or Podman for containerEngine
windows	Admin; Docker or Podman
edgelet engine (linux)	No external container runtime
docker / podman	Docker 26.10+ or Podman 3.0+ on host

Controller CLI contract

Orchestrators must not pass provision keys to install.sh.

1. SSH to the edge host.
2. Online: run install.sh on the remote (see Installation).
3. Airgap: verify SHA256SUMS on the orchestrator → SCP binary → install.sh --airgap --bin-path=….
4. Provision: SSH edgelet provision <key> (and edgelet config … as needed).

When deploying a local ControlPlane controller on a system fog, create that fog on Controller with isSystem: true so Edgelet can register the controller microservice after provision.

Daemon and systemd

Production linux uses the thin binary as the service entry point:

edgelet daemon          # extract fat bundle if needed → exec runtime
systemctl start edgelet # ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/edgelet daemon

Unit templates: packaging/init/systemd/edgelet.service. Init matrix: Init systems.

For docker or podman, systemd installs a drop-in After=docker.service (or podman). The daemon retries socket connection with backoff before staying in WARNING.

Embedded runtime layout (containerEngine: edgelet)

Path	Role
/var/lib/edgelet/data/<hash>/	Content-addressed fat bundle extract
data/current	Symlink to active hash
data/previous	Last current before rotation (manual / coordinated rollback). Older hash directories are pruned after a successful extract

Operator CLI (edgelet ms, edgelet deploy, ...) runs in the thin process and does not trigger extract.

Thin-binary and fat-bundle OTA: Installation. Workload impact: Workload continuity.

Runtime engine selection

# /etc/edgelet/config.yaml
currentProfile: production
profiles:
  production:
    containerEngine: edgelet   # linux default
    containerEngineUrl: unix:///run/edgelet/containerd.sock
    pruningFrequency: 24       # hours between image + unused-local-model prune cycles (not persistent VOLUME data)
    watchdogEnabled: true      # orphan container cleanup; also disables local models
    arch: auto
    upgradeScanFrequency: 24   # hours between OTA readiness scans

containerEngine	Linux extract?	Host requirement
edgelet	Yes (first daemon start)	None
docker	No	Docker socket
podman	No	Podman socket

Verify:

edgelet --version
edgelet system version -o json | jq '{embeddedEngine, allowedEngines, containerEngine}'

Engine details: Container engines.

EdgeletAPI PKI

Daemon creates /etc/edgelet/edgelet-api and TLS material on first start. CLI uses bearer token + edgeletapi-ca.crt.

Provisioning

edgelet provision <provisioning-key>
edgelet system status
edgelet deprovision

Container image (linux)

Item	Value
Image	ghcr.io/datasance/edgelet:<tag> (multi-arch)
Dockerfile	Root Dockerfile (scratch + CA certs layer)
Entrypoint	edgelet daemon
Env	EDGELET_DAEMON=container
Volumes	/var/lib/edgelet, /etc/edgelet (optional override)
OTA	Orchestrator replaces image tag (not install.sh)

Local IT tag: edgelet:local (EDGELET_IMAGE=edgelet:local in nested-docker smokes).

FogType (provision.type)

ID	Architecture
1	amd64
2	arm64
3	riscv64
4	arm (32-bit)

Config arch values: auto, amd64, arm64, arm, riscv64.

See also

• Installation. Install.sh, OTA, readiness, upgrade/rollback
• Architecture. Thin/fat model
• Container engines. Engine matrix
• Troubleshooting. Service teardown
• packaging/PACKAGING-STRUCTURE.md

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