Hashicorp Vault is a flexible and highly configurable tool for RBAC-based access and management of secrets. Similarly, flexible is the Vault CLI binary, a tool for effective managing both single Vault instances or whole clusters.
The Hashicorp Vault secrets management tool comes as an executable binary supporting all major operating systems. The binary itself is a multi-purpose tool, providing several commands to start and configure single vault instances or a cluster of multiple servers, define authentication mechanisms and policies, and configure and work with secret engines.
Hashicorp Vault is a flexibility and robust secrets management tool. Installable as a simple binary that starts a single server or joins others to create a server cluster, it offers token-based, policy-controlled access to encrypted data. Incorporating Vault into applications can be done directly via the exposed REST-like API interface, by running the Vault binary in an agent mode that fetches secrets in the context of a server or containers, or by installing operator abstractions directly in the container orchestrating software Kubernetes.
Application hosting is complex and manifold: starting with dedicated programs running on bare metal or virtual severs, to containers on dedicated servers or as a fleet managed by an orchestration software like Kubernetes. Most applications require secrets, access credentials for databases or services, or keys to process encrypted data. From an operations point of view, managing secrets coherently and effectively across on-premise and cloud provider hosted applications is a crucial task.
With the introduction of OpenMQTT to my IOT@Home stack, the availability of long-range sensors increased dramatically. Over the course of the last articles I explored RF433, Bluetooth BLE, and IR signals. With these gateways, messages from surrounding devices are captured, for example an outdoor temperature sensor, your smart watch, or a long-range GPS sensor. Reading messages is only one feature of OpenMQTT. Sensing messages to the devices is the opposite direction.
In the last two articles, a radio frequency sensor in the 433MHz frequency range and a BLE gateway were created. This article continues with capturing and transmitting infrared signals, opening up several options to integrate different consumer products into your home automation stack.
OpenMQTT Gateway is an all-in-one solution to grab consumer product sensor information via radio frequency, Bluetooth BLE, infrared, Lora or even GSM. It does only require a compatible device that is flashed with a gateway software stack, and a Wi-Fi connection and MQTT broker to send sensor data via MQTT. Once setup, it will continuously publish sensor data from a wide range of supported end consumer production. Additionally, it also provides options for sending commands to the devices.
My IOT@Home stack is based on ESP8266 boards, ESPHome, Home Assistant, and InfluxDB. Each component has a dedicated role: ESPHome is the tool to configure and manage the boards and their sensors, Home Assistant integrates all boards, provides dashboards for their data and automation options, and finally InfluxDB is for long-term data retention. During trying new sensors, a limit to the sensor network became apparent: Sensors can only be added if they are within Wi-Fi range.
ESPHome is an amazing tool that simplifies adding various sensor to your IOT@Home. A novel feature is that it not only supports ESP8266 and ESP32 boards, but also boards based on the RP2040, first arriving in the form of the Raspberry Pi Pico. While the original RP2040 was without any Wi-Fi capabilities, a later released variant added Wireless capabilities. I was curious to see an RP2040 W board with Home Assistant added to my sensor network, and to understand if there are any limitations when using this board.
Through the combination of ESPHome and Home Assistant, a myriad of sensors can be added, managed, and their data visualized and stored. Over the previous articles, I added sensors that generally detect the presence of movements and sounds. Another signal that I want to create is a simple "I'm home" electronic message. For near-field communication, several protocols exist: RFID, NFC, LoRa, Bluetooth. This article investigates how to add RFID tag reading support to Home Assistant.
