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Getting Started

To get started you need to get EdgeX Foundry either as a User or as a Developer/Contributor.

User

If you want to get the EdgeX platform and run it (but do not intend to change or add to the existing code base now) then you are considered a "User". You will want to follow the Getting Started Users guide. The Getting Started Users guide takes you through the process of getting the latest release EdgeX Docker Containers from Docker Hub. If you wish to get the latest EdgeX containers (those built from the current ongoing development efforts prior to release), then see Getting Started Users - Nexus.

Warning

Containers used from Nexus are considered "work in progress". There is no guarantee that these containers will function properly or function properly with other containers from the current release.

Snap User

As an alternative to Docker containers, users may wish to use Canonical's EdgeX Foundry 'snap'. Snap is a software deployment and package management system developed by Canonical for the Linux operating system. The packages, called snaps, and the tool for using them, snapd, work across a range of Linux distributions allowing distribution-agnostic upstream software packaging. The EdgeX snap is published by EdgeX Foundry and made available through the snap store. If you wish to get the latest EdgeX release snap, follow the Getting Started Snap Users guide.

Developer and Contributor

If you want to change, add to or at least build the existing EdgeX code base, then you are a "Developer". "Contributors" are developers that further wish to contribute their code back into the EdgeX open source effort. You will want to follow the Getting Started for Developers guide.

Hybrid

See Getting Started Hybrid if you are developing or working on a particular micro service, but want to run the other micro services via Docker Containers. When working on something like an analytics service (as a developer or contributor) you may not wish to download, build and run all the EdgeX code - you only want to work with the code of your service. Your new service may still need to communicate with other services while you test your new service. Unless you want to get and build all the services, developers will often get and run the containers for the other EdgeX micro services and run only their service natively in a development environment. The EdgeX community refers to this as "Hybrid" development.

Device Service Developer

As a developer, if you intend to connect IoT objects (device, sensor or other "thing") that are not currently connected to EdgeX Foundry, you may also want to obtain the Device Service Software Development Kit (DS SDK) and create new device services. The DS SDK creates all the scaffolding code for a new EdgeX Foundry device service; allowing you to focus on the details of interfacing with the device in its native protocol. See Getting Started with Device SDK for help on using the DS SDK to create a new device service. Learn more about Device Services and the Device Service SDK at Device Services.

Application Service Developer

As a developer, if you intend to get EdgeX sensor data to external systems (be that an enterprise application, on-prem server or Cloud platform like Azure IoT Hub, AWS IoT, Google Cloud IOT, etc.), you will likely want to obtain the Application Functions SDK (App Func SDK) and create new application services. The App Func SDK creates all the scaffolding code for a new EdgeX Foundry application service; allowing you to focus on the details of data transformation, filtering, and otherwise prepare the sensor data for the external endpoint. Learn more about Application Services and the Application Functions SDK at Application Services.

Versioning

Please refer to the EdgeX Foundry versioning policy for information on how EdgeX services are released and how EdgeX services are compatible with one another. Specifically, device services (and the associated SDK), application services (and the associated app functions SDK), and client tools (like the EdgeX CLI and UI) can have independent minor releases, but these services must be compatible with the latest major release of EdgeX.

Long Term Support

Please refer to the EdgeX Foundry LTS policy for information on support of EdgeX releases. The EdgeX community does not offer support on any non-LTS release outside of the latest release.