Outbound connections

During normal operation, LORIX OS does multiple outbound connections related to some specific features.

Overview

Details

Websocket connection to the Manager User Interface

The websocket connection is initiated by the Manager UI to the Manager daemon. This connection allows the manager to report live events to refresh the Manager UI state.

Connection only occurs when loading the Manager UI. It cannot be disabled separately from the Manager daemon API.

Available system updates check

The Manager will check at a defined period if there are new system updates available. To do so, it will download two metadata files from the Wifx's servers.

Change destination

There is no sense changing the final destination until you have your own update server. But if you cannot open access to Wifx's servers, you can proxy it through your infrastructure. If you do so, you can then update the manager configuration to check update on your proxy URL by editing the Manager configuration:

[update] 
repository = "https://updateproxy.company.com/lorix-os/"

Change frequency

You can change the check frequency editing the Manager configuration and adding:

[update] 
onlineCheckPeriod = "72h"

Disable

You can disable it by editing the Manager configuration and adding:

[update] 
onlineCheck = false

The consequences of disabling it is that you will not be informed automatically on CLI login that a new update is available. Available updates checked from the Manager UI are not concerned as they are made from the Manager UI directly.

Connectivity level check

The connectivity level check is an operation performed by NetworkManager to evaluate what type of connectivity is available on the system. If NetworkManager successfully contacts the defined remote server, it will consider that the system has access to the Internet.

Change configuration

You can change the destination or period by editing the NetworkManager connectivity configuration file:

[connectivity]
uri=http://nmcheck.gnome.org/check_network_status.txt
interval=300

You can find more details about the connectivity section on the NetworkManager documentation.

Disable

You can disable it by removing the NetworkManager connectivity configuration file /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity.conf or commenting its content (prefix the lines with #).

The consequences of disabling it is that the connection will never be shown as "Globally connected" anymore. The behavior of some software may change. E.g. when performed from the Manager UI, the system update will not be downloaded directly from the Wifx's servers by the Manager daemon but it will be streamed through the Manager UI.

Time synchronisation

Time synchronisation allows the time of the gateway to be correct and regularly updated. This is essential for proper operation of the gateway (including LoRaWAN packet forwarders). 

Change configuration

You can change the used servers and the update frequency by editing the chrony configuration file. E.g. to use a defined server with a maximal frequency of 256 minutes:

#pool pool.ntp.org iburst

server 0.europe.pool.ntp.org maxpoll 8

Disable

We do not recommend disabling time synchronisation as it is essential for proper operation of the gateway.