Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions
Installation & Deployment
Features & Limitations
Support & Community Assistance

General Questions

What is ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition?

ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition (PE) is a commercial version of ThingsBoard Edge designed specifically for edge computing scenarios. It provides advanced features and enterprise-grade support for managing and analyzing IoT data at the edge while maintaining seamless synchronization with the ThingsBoard Server (Cloud or On-premise).

If you're new to edge computing, we recommend exploring What is Edge? and the Getting Started guides for more detailed information.

Can I customize and modify the ThingsBoard Professional Edition?

No, the ThingsBoard Professional Edition is a commercial project and can not be modified.

Does ThingsBoard Edge support clustering?

No, ThingsBoard Edge does not support clustering at the moment. But cluster support will be added in the following releases.

Do I need an internet connection to use the ThingsBoard Edge?

No, you can run it completely offline if you need to. The only connection required is to the ThingsBoard Server via gRPC.

However, ThingsBoard Edge does utilize an HTTP(s) connection to the ThingsBoard Server to verify the license. The URL set in the Cloud Endpoint configuration is used for this validation. Ensure that the HTTP(s) connection to the server is not blocked by any firewall settings. The ThingsBoard Server acts as a proxy for ThingsBoard Edge to connect to the ThingsBoard License Portal.

How will the license check be carried out if the connection to the ThingsBoard Server is temporarily not available?

ThingsBoard Edge can operate offline, without a connection to the ThingsBoard Server, for up to 7 days.

Installation & Deployment

Does the ThingsBoard Edge support multi-tenancy?

No, ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition does not support multi-tenancy. It is designed for a single tenant and multiple customers, but the customer hierarchy must be taken into account

For instance, if an Edge owner is a sub-customer, all the parent entities of that sub-customer up to the tenant level will be provisioned to the Edge. This means customers from the same hierarchy path can access the same ThingsBoard Edge PE instance.

However, you cannot share a ThingsBoard Edge between multiple tenants, and devices from multiple tenants cannot connect to a single ThingsBoard Edge. If this is required, you'll need to provision multiple ThingsBoard Edge instances for each tenant.

Is there an official Docker image for ThingsBoard Edge?

Yes, official Docker images are available on Docker Hub.

Can I run ThingsBoard Edge on Raspberry Pi or other edge devices?

Yes, ThingsBoard Edge is specifically designed to run on a variety of Edge hardware platforms, including single-board computers like Raspberry Pi and other devices with sufficient processing power and memory.

Where does ThingsBoard Edge store time-series data?

Depending on your database approach, there are two options. If you've chosen a hybrid approach, the time-series data will be stored in Cassandra. Otherwise, the data is stored in the PostgreSQL database, which is well suited for storing and querying entities and local time-series data.

What should I do if I have legacy devices to connect?

If you have legacy devices that don't natively speak one of the protocols supported by ThingsBoard Edge (such as MQTT, CoAP, or HTTP), you can still connect them by installing ThingsBoard IoT Gateway. It will act as a bridge between your legacy devices and ThingsBoard Edge.

ThingsBoard IoT Gateway is available out-of-the-box and requires no additional fees.

Features & Limitations

What features are exclusive to the Professional Edition?

The Professional Edition includes all the features of the Community Edition plus additional functionality:

White Labeling
Scheduler
Integrations
Custom menu
and more

How many devices can ThingsBoard Edge support?

The number of connected devices depends on your subscription plan.

Some plans offer 'Unlimited Devices and Assets', thus there are no soft limits on creating devices and assets on the edge side.

Can I integrate third-party systems with ThingsBoard Edge?

Yes, you can integrate the ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition with third-party systems through REST APIs.

Also, the platform integrations are available for the Professional Edition.

What databases does the ThingsBoard Edge support?

The ThingsBoard Edge supports pure SQL or a hybrid SQL + NoSQL (for telemetry storage) approach. For more details on database options, you can check here.

Can I automate device management and telemetry processing?

Yes, you can. The Rules Engine allows for event-based processing and alerts.

Does Edge Professional Edition support OTA (Over-the-Air) firmware updates?

Yes, the Professional Edition supports OTA (Over-the-Air) firmware updates.

Is there a mobile app for ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition?

No, there is no dedicated mobile app for ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition.

However, you can access and manage ThingsBoard Edge through a web browser on any device, including mobile devices, by visiting the ThingsBoard Edge dashboard (typically hosted on port 8080).

Does ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition support AI or machine learning integrations?

Not natively, but you can incorporate AI or ML into your ThingsBoard Edge deployment using custom development or third-party integrations.

How do I upgrade to the latest version of ThingsBoard Edge?

In order to upgrade to the latest version of ThingsBoard Edge, please follow these instructions.

How can I connect my device?

ThingsBoard Edge supports various protocols, including MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, and LwM2M.

Legacy devices can be connected to the platform via ThingsBoard Gateway. More information is available on the connectivity page.

You can also use the ThingsBoard Integrations to connect devices from different sources and with custom payloads to the edge.

Do I need to use a software development kit (SDK)?

No, many IoT devices are not designed to embed third-party SDKs.

ThingsBoard Edge provides a simple API over common IoT protocols, so you can choose any client-side library you like, or even use your own. Some useful references include MQTT client-side libraries list and C-implementation for CoAP.

Support & Community Assistance

What support options are available for the Professional Edition?

All subscriptions include optional support.

Also, support can be provided by the ThingsBoard community

Community Forums: Engage with other users and developers.
GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features.
Documentation: Comprehensive guides and API references available on the ThingsBoard Documentation.

What is optional support?

This means that Edge support is not bundled with the license. For now, we provide basic support to customers with more than 25 Edge licenses of any type.

Refund and Delivery Policy

Refund Policy

The License fee is non-refundable, regardless of any circumstances. Customers may manage their subscription plans: update or cancel them. Once the subscription is deleted before expiration, Stripe will keep the balance. After a certain time period (about an hour) positive Amount due with the remain credits will appear in Billing section of License portal. This sum is deducted from Total fee whenever particular customer purchase a new plan or a perpetual license.

Delivery Policy

The software is available for download and installation from our website. See Installation Guidesfor more details. In order to activate the software you will need to obtain the license key. Instruction how to obtain and use the license key is provided in the installation guide. See How-to get pay-as-you-go subscription or How-to get perpetual license for more details. Please contact us if you have any questions or require support.

You can use the contact us form and select the "Other" topic. Our account managers will assist you with any billing-related issues.

Do you offer 24/7 customer support?

Yes, we do provide 24/7 support. If this is what you're looking for, please contact us for a more detailed discussion about your specific needs.