Manually Setting up an Edge Device

Currently, Outpost requires you to purchase and setup your own device.

Outpost Physical Machine Requirements

Outpost requires a physical machine connected to your local network, behind your firewall. Typically, this is a small "NUC"-style device that runs headless (i.e., without a monitor or keyboard), but it can be any machine that meets the minimum requirements.

We recommend the following specifications, which should be sufficient for most deployments:

• Operating System: 64-bit (amd64) Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu)
• CPU: 64-bit (amd64) CPU
• RAM: 8 GB
• Storage: 256 GB
• Networking: Dual NIC (Network Interface Controller)

Setting Up Your Own Edge Device

The following are the basic steps needed to setup your Outpost device:

1. Re-image the Device (if needed)
   
   If the machine ships with Windows, re-image it with a Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu): How to Install Ubuntu on Windows

2. Install SSH
   
   Enable remote access by installing SSH: Install SSH on Ubuntu

3. Enable SSHD (SSH Daemon)
   
   Ensure that the SSH service is running and enabled on boot: Enable SSHD on Ubuntu

4. Register Outpost Device in Platform Console Register device with the platform: Register Outpost Device

5. Run Setup Scripts
   
   Once the machine is ready and accessible via SSH, proceed to run the Outpost setup scripts (detailed below).

Installation & Configuration of Outpost (Automated)

These steps assume a fresh installation of Ubuntu or another Debian-based Linux distribution, used exclusively for Outpost.

Step-by-Step Installation

Run the following commands on the target Linux machine:

wget https://cdn.tandem-connect.autodesk.com/outpost/install-debian.sh

sudo chmod 700 install-debian.sh
sudo ./install-debian.sh

Follow the on-screen prompts. The default options should work for most installations.

System Maintenance (Scripted)

A maintenance script is provided to assist with routine patching. It performs the following actions:

✅ Updates:

• OS packages
• Docker packages
• Outpost (if using the :latest image tag)

❌ It does not perform:

• Major OS version upgrades

IMPORTANT

This script is a convenience tool. Maintenance and patching of the Linux OS remain your responsibility.

Download & Use the Maintenance Script

# One-time setup:
wget https://cdn.tandem-connect.autodesk.com/outpost/update-debian.sh
sudo chmod 700 update-debian.sh

# Run manually according to your patching schedule:
sudo ./update-debian.sh

Advanced Configuration

Installation & Configuration of Outpost and Dependencies (Manual Steps)

These steps assume that you have a new installation of Ubuntu Server or Desktop and that this installation will be used exclusively for Outpost. It also assumes that the minimum requirements have been met. Do not follow these steps if you have completed the automated installation above.

Step 1 - Create a User for Outpost

Login as a user with sudo privileges (or root):

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/sh outpost

Add the outpost user to the docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker outpost

Step 2 - Set Up Docker's APT Repository

This step is based on the official documentation: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using-the-repository. If a conflict exists between this document and the official documentation, use the Docker documentation.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates curl

sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$ID")/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$ID") \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

Step 3 - Install the Docker Packages

sudo apt-get -y install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Step 4 - Create the Docker Compose File

Switch to the outpost user:

sudo su - outpost

Create a directory for Outpost to use for persistent storage:

mkdir volume

Create a new file called compose.yml:

vi compose.yml

Paste the following example content, updating the placeholders:

services:
  outpost:
    image: autodesk/tandem-connect-outpost:latest
    pull_policy: always
    ports:
     - "47808:47808/udp"
    volumes:
     - /home/outpost/volume:/usr/src/volumes
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
     - API_URL=https://api-1.tandem-connect.usa.autodesk.com/v1
     - ACCOUNT_ID=<your account id from above>
     - OUTPOST_DEVICE_ID=<your outpost device id from above>
     - PASSWORD=<your outpost device password from above>
    logging:
       options:
          max-size: "20m"
          max-file: "3"

Remove the ports section if port mappings are not required.

Step 5 - Start Docker

Change to the directory where the compose.yml file is located:

cd /home/outpost
docker compose up -d

Outpost should start, connect to Tandem Connect, retrieve its configuration and start the pipeline. You can confirm this by viewing the logs.

Docker Compose File Reference

Custom variables should be prefixed with OP_VAR_ and consumed as opvar. in plugin config.

Useful Docker Commands

List running containers:

docker container ls

Example output:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE   ...   PORTS                      NAMES
e3784e50cf65   autodesk/tandem-connect-outpost ...      outpost-bacnet_outpost-1

View logs:

docker logs <container_id>

Shutdown Outpost:

docker compose down

Connectivity and Firewalls

Outpost requires the following connectivity:

Other Connectivity Options

Outpost supports Purdue model architectures and can act as a proxy between network layers. Contact support for more information.