New to balena, have a few questions

General
1

Hi!
Very new to using Balena, so I am way over my head for now :slight_smile:
My Software developer is using this to remotely update my devices, but I need way to log into them locally and look at the log files.

I did some poking around and I didnt see anything that looks like it would work, or would open Balena allow me to do this?

Thanks

2

Greetings, @Mike2 – welcome to the Balena forums!

While this is at the discretion and configuration of ‘your software developer’ - Deployed Balena devices typically have an SSH listener - sometimes at the OS level, and often the individual containers deployed on BalenaOS.

In addition, there is both ‘shell’ and log access via the BalenaCloud console. You you have access to this?

Finally - with proper authentication and authorization, you can also use the Balena command line interface (CLI) to view logs from a deployed device.

As someone who is also relatively new to Balena, I know there’s a whole LOT to wrap your head around here. Let me know what type of access you have to the Balena device / ecosystem, and I’ll try to get you pointed in the direction.

Cheers!
Billy

5

Billy,
Thank you for the welcome!
As of right now, I don’t have any access to my devices.
My SW dev only sent me a invite, but never gave me any access yet. He thought it would have automatically, so he still needs to do that.

You mentioned that I can view data/logs from the cloud, but that is the big question I have.
My device is at a test Facility that I cannot get internet access to, only local network.

But it does sound like I can still view the logs via the OS?

Thanks
Mike

6

Hi Mike, this will be a tricky one. There are a few “maybe” scenarios here, but let’s see what we can do.

First and foremost, if the devices themselves can connect to balenaCloud, then logs are streamed into the balenaCloud dashboard, so you’d have that available. Second, if the devices are connected to balenaCloud, then you can use the dashboard to SSH directly into them, right from the website, so you could access them that way.

Alternatively, if you can SSH to a machine on that LAN, and can install some tooling on that machine, then you could it as a gateway to your devices as well. The balenaCLI can be installed on Mac, Linux, or Windows, so if you had access to a PC or laptop on that network, and could install the CLI, then you could hop onto your devices from there.

Hope that helps!

8

It has only worked on my Windows. As for the Mac, I cannot comment because I have not used it yet.