How it works
A SmartFleet Gateway at the customer’s, a server on your own hardware or in the cloud. What you install, how the data flows and why it is secure.
Three building blocks
Miniserver
The Loxone installation at the customer’s, made up of one or any number of Miniservers. Nothing changes there. No intervention is needed.
SmartFleet Gateway
Sits in the same network as the Miniservers: the SmartFleet Gateway on the DIN rail or an existing LoxBerry with the plugin. It collects values, pulls backups and keeps the connection to the server.
SmartFleet server
The interface in which all sites can be seen, managed and maintained. It runs on your own hardware, at a web host or in the SmartFleet Cloud.
Two options for the installation
Both variants do the same job at the customer’s and talk to the same server. Which one fits depends on whether a LoxBerry already runs in the installation.
Open hardware
SmartFleet Gateway
The dedicated device for every installation. It sits next to the Miniserver in the control cabinet and only needs LAN or WiFi and 24 V.
- DIN rail enclosure of only 2 modules, power consumption < 1.5 W
- Hardware based on ESP32, powered with 24 V from the control cabinet
- Network via LAN or WiFi (2.4 GHz), external antenna
- Set up through its own WiFi with a phone, then paired with a deployment code
- No SD card, stores nothing permanently
- Build it yourself from the bill of materials and board layout, no SMD soldering required, or as a kit with a finished circuit board
Plugin
LoxBerry SmartFleet Gateway
If a LoxBerry already runs in the installation, a plugin takes over the job of the SmartFleet Gateway.
- For installations with LoxBerry 4.0 or later – no additional hardware
- Installed through the LoxBerry’s plugin management, then paired with a deployment code
- Backs up its own configuration to the server
- Remote maintenance of the LoxBerry included, through a temporary tunnel
How the data flows
- The SmartFleet Gateway polls the Miniservers on the local network: metrics, selected values, configuration and project files.
- Once a minute it reports to the server and delivers whatever has accumulated. Backups follow in chunks; after an interruption they resume at the same point.
- In the same connection it learns whether a job is waiting, such as an immediate backup or a remote maintenance session.
- Everything can be seen in the browser on the server, from any device. On the desktop and on mobile.
Four options for the server
The SmartFleet Gateways at the customers’ sites connect to the server via HTTPS. So it has to be reachable from the internet; everything else is up to you.
Your own web hosting
An ordinary web hosting package with PHP and MySQL is enough. Upload the folder, open the setup in the browser, done. SmartFleet needs neither a cron job nor shell access.
Your own local server
At home or at the office on a Linux server with Apache, PHP and MySQL or MariaDB. The SmartFleet Gateways must reach it from outside via HTTPS, for example through a port forwarding with its own certificate.
LoxBerry for trying out
The LoxBerry server plugin sets up the server, database and a dedicated HTTPS port on a LoxBerry, with a self-signed certificate and the Free Community Edition. Meant for testing, not for permanent operation.
SmartFleet Cloud
The server runs at SmartFleet in a data centre in Germany/EU: Silver and Gold under a subdomain of smartfleetmanager.de, Enterprise under your own domain.
Requirements
- At every site a SmartFleet Gateway or a LoxBerry 4.0 or later with the plugin that reaches the Miniservers on the local network. For the SmartFleet Gateway 2 modules of space on the DIN rail and 24 V.
- For your own server PHP 7.4 or later with the extensions sodium, json, hash, pdo_mysql and mbstring, plus MySQL or MariaDB. These packages come with every web hosting package.
- Apache with .htaccess as the web server. Through it SmartFleet locks program code and data against retrieval from the web. Without an effective lock SmartFleet does not set itself up; a web space with nginx alone is not enough.
- HTTPS for the server’s address. SmartFleet does not set itself up over an unencrypted connection.
- Working mail delivery for login codes and alarms, via sendmail or SMTP.
Security
SmartFleet is built so that nothing at the customer’s needs to be reachable from outside.
- No open ports. The SmartFleet Gateway opens every connection itself, outbound. No port forwarding is needed on the customer’s router, and there is nothing outside that could be addressed.
- Certificate-based. Every site receives its own cryptographic identity when it is paired. Every request of the SmartFleet Gateway is signed, as is every response and every job of the server. The SmartFleet Gateway does not execute an unsigned job.
- HTTPS throughout. All communication is encrypted, also when self-hosting.
- Loxone Remote Connect. Miniservers open through Loxone’s encrypted remote access, without port forwarding.
- Remote maintenance only with the customer’s password. A remote maintenance session only comes about when three things come together: access to the server, the customer’s remote maintenance password and the server’s signature. The server itself does not know the password.
- Password vault in the browser. Credentials are encrypted and decrypted in the browser; the server stores only ciphertext. It does not know the master password itself.
- Second factor. Signing in to the server can be secured with an authenticator app or email and enforced for all users.