Connect Devices

IronFlock supports multiple ways to connect devices, depending on the hardware and operating system. No hardware at hand? You can simulate a device on your laptop in minutes.

Prerequisites

Before connecting a device, make sure you have:

A project created on IronFlock
A device entry created within that project (click NEW DEVICE in the project Settings -> Devices panel.)
The downloaded device configuration file (.flock)

Test First: Simulate a Device on Your Laptop

You don’t need physical hardware to explore IronFlock. The FlockFlasher app can run the IronFlock agent directly on your laptop, so your laptop impersonates a real device within your project — perfect for testing apps and dashboards before rolling out to actual hardware.

Install Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine on Linux) and make sure it is running.
Download and install the FlockFlasher app for your OS.
Double-click the downloaded .flock file of your device — it opens in FlockFlasher and the device appears in the list. (Alternatively, open FlockFlasher and add the file via the + button.)
Click Test Device (▶) on the device entry. FlockFlasher automatically downloads the IronFlock agent on first use and starts it with your device configuration.

Your laptop now acts as this device within your IronFlock project: it appears online, and you can install and run apps on it exactly as on a real device. The apps run as Docker containers on your laptop.

When you are done, stop the test in FlockFlasher. You can later use the same .flock file to provision the real device — just make sure only one machine runs a given device configuration at a time.

Method 1: Flash an SD Card

Best for Raspberry Pi and other ARM devices that boot from SD cards.

Download the FlockFlasher app for your OS.
Insert an SD card (16 GB minimum) into your computer.
Open FlockFlasher and click the + button to load the .flock file.
Select the SD card drive (FlockFlasher auto-detects external drives).
Choose the correct image for your device (Raspberry Pi 3/4, Zero, etc.).
Optionally configure WiFi so the device can connect at its destination.
Click Flash and wait for writing, validation, and configuration to complete.
Insert the SD card into the device and power it on.

The device should come online within 20 minutes.

Warning: The flashing process erases all data on the selected drive. FlockFlasher hides internal drives by default, but always double-check your selection.

Method 2: USB Installer for Industrial PCs

For AMD64 devices with EFI boot (e.g., Siemens SIMATIC Box IPC).

Insert a USB stick (16 GB minimum) and open FlockFlasher.
Load the .flock file and select the USB drive.
Select the Industrial PC x86_64 (EFI) image.
Click Flash and wait for completion.
If necessary, change the boot order in the device’s BIOS to boot from USB.
Insert the USB stick and power on the device.

The device should come online within 60 minutes.

Method 3: Custom Installation

For devices keeping their existing Linux OS. Ideal for NVIDIA Jetson and custom hardware.

Note: This manual installation method is intended for real production hardware such as industrial PCs, gateways, and embedded devices — not for laptops. If you just want to try IronFlock on your laptop, follow Test First: Simulate a Device on Your Laptop instead — no manual agent installation required.

Linux / Unix Devices

SSH into the device.

Download the setup binary:


curl -sSL https://instance-registry.ironflock.com/dl/reswarmify/install.sh | bash

Copy the .flock file from your computer to the device:
```
scp mydevice.flock user@device-ip:/home/user/
```
Run the agent:
```
sudo ./ironflock-init -c mydevice.flock
```

Behind a corporate proxy? Export your proxy before step 2 so the downloads succeed, and pass --http-proxy / --https-proxy to ironflock-init in step 4 so it configures the Docker engine for you. See Behind a Corporate Proxy for the full command and the corporate-CA steps.

Windows Devices

Install Docker Desktop on the device and enable Start Docker Desktop when you sign in in the Docker Desktop settings. For unattended devices, also configure Windows automatic sign-in so Docker is available after a reboot without anyone logging in.
Download reagent.exe.
Copy the .flock file to the device.
Install and start the agent as a Windows service from an elevated (Administrator) prompt:
```
reagent.exe service install -config path\to\config.flock
```
The service starts immediately and again at every boot, restarts automatically on failure, and keeps the agent up to date. Add -noStart to install without starting it, and check on it any time with reagent.exe service status.

Behind a corporate proxy? Add -proxy http://proxy.example.com:3128 to the service install command, and set Docker Desktop’s proxy under Settings → Resources → Proxies. See Behind a Corporate Proxy for details and the corporate-CA steps.

Verifying the Connection

After connecting, check the device status in your project:

Green indicator — Device is online and communicating with IronFlock.
Red indicator — Device is offline. Check the network connection and ensure the agent is running.

The device map view shows the geographic location of all devices in the project.