Edge Deployments

Deployment Concepts

Understand what edge deployments are and how they work.

What is an edge deployment

An edge deployment is a virtual configuration of a gateway that runs at a customer site. It manages data acquisition from local industrial equipment and streams the collected data to the Fleetera cloud.

Each deployment runs Fleetera Edge — the IoT edge runtime — inside Docker containers on a Linux server at the site. The Fleetera config agent runs alongside Fleetera Edge and keeps the gateway synchronized with the cloud configuration.

Architecture

A site can have one or multiple edge deployments. Each deployment is configured for a specific hardware architecture:

ArchitectureDescriptionExamples
amd64Intel/AMD 64-bit processorsIndustrial PCs, servers, Intel NUCs
arm64ARM 64-bit processorsRaspberry Pi 4/5, industrial ARM boards

Deployment lifecycle

StatusDescription
PendingDeployment created but bootstrap command has not been run yet
DeployingBootstrap script has started; waiting for first heartbeat
OnlineGateway is running and sending regular heartbeats
OfflineNo heartbeat received for 5 or more minutes
ErrorBootstrap or runtime error occurred
Pending → Deploying → Online ⇄ Offline
                    ↘ Error

Key components

Bootstrap token

A one-time security token generated when you create a deployment. It is used by the installation script to authenticate the edge gateway with the cloud platform. The token expires after 24 hours and can only be used once.

VPN connectivity

Every edge deployment connects to the cloud platform through a WireGuard-based VPN mesh network. This provides:

  • Encrypted connectivity between edge and cloud
  • No need to open inbound firewall ports at the site
  • Stable private VPN IP address for each gateway
  • Works behind NAT and corporate firewalls

The VPN hostname is automatically set to the deployment alias.

Config agent

The config agent is a lightweight Go application that runs alongside Fleetera Edge. It:

  • Polls the cloud for configuration changes every 30 seconds
  • Downloads and applies edge device profiles and device configurations
  • Reports the application result back to the cloud
  • Sends heartbeats every 60 seconds

See Configuration Sync for details.

Fleetera Edge

Fleetera Edge provides the runtime environment for data acquisition. It includes:

  • Core services — data, metadata, and command management
  • Device services — protocol-specific drivers (OPC UA, Modbus, etc.)
  • Support services — notifications and scheduling
  • Database — Redis for local data persistence
  • MQTT broker — internal message bus

Edge Deployments

Deploy and manage edge gateways that acquire data from your industrial sites.

Creating Deployments

Create a new edge deployment for your site.

On this page

What is an edge deploymentArchitectureDeployment lifecycleKey componentsBootstrap tokenVPN connectivityConfig agentFleetera Edge