Deployment

After installing and configuring an acoupi program, users can proceed to deploy it. This means the device will start running the program, ensuring audio recordings happen according to the configured recording schedule, recorded files will be saved or deleted, and if the connected program was configured, messages will be sent to a remote server.

What happens when a deployment starts?

When starting the deployment of a program, acoupi will do the following:

• Create Storages: This step checks that the folders and database files to store recordings and metadata exist. If using the default program configuration, a storages/ folder will be created in the home directory (i.e., home/pi/), containing a metadata.db file and a recordings/ folder to store the .wav audio files.
• Schedule Tasks: This step creates special instructions called systemd unit files to ensure that the program runs automatically in the background. This means the program will keep running even when the terminal window is closed or the device restarts after power interruption.

How are deployments managed?

For more details about the system background processes and the management of a deployment, refer to the Explanation: System section.

Managing the deployment of acoupi programs via the CLI

The video shows how a user can start, stop, and get the status of acoupi programs.

Before starting a deployment

Before starting a deployment, it's important to run a health check to ensure there are no errors in the program configuration. If everything is in order, a green message saying Health checks passed will be printed. However, if there are any errors, the system will display specific error messages. To resolve them, modify the configurations settings according to the provided error messages.

CLI Command: pre-deployment checks

acoupi check

Starting a deployment

When ready to start a program, use the acoupi deployment start command. This will prompt you to provide some additional information; a name for the deployment and the latitude and longitude coordinates of the device’s location. This data will be saved in the metadata.db file along with the start date and time of the deployment.

CLI Command: activating an acoupi program

acoupi deployment start

Table: Additional parameters when starting a deployment

Deployment Parameter	Type	Value	Definition
name	string	-	Name for the specific deployment.
latitude	float	-	The latitude coordinate of the device location when deployed.
longitude	float	-	The longitude coordinate of the device location when deployed.

Getting the status of a deployment

After starting a deployment, it’s good practice to check the status of the program by running the acoupi deployment status command. This command provides a status report for system services, Celery workers, the program, and the overall deployment.

CLI Command: viewing the status of an acoupi program

acoupi deployment status

Stopping a deployment

Stopping the deployment can be necessary if you need to modify the program’s configuration, move the device to a different location, or fix any errors that have appeared in the logs. To halt the program, use the acoupi deployment stop command. Remember, once a deployment is stopped, it can only be restarted by running the acoupi deployment start command again.

CLI Command: halting an acoupi program

acoupi deployment stop

Understanding acoupi status

• System Services: Refer to the background processes that keep your acoupi installation running. These are the core services that manage the overall execution of the program and heartbeat monitoring. Two critical files handle these: the acoupi.service responsible for starting and stopping the program and the acoupi-beat.service that ensure the system's health at regular interval (hearbeats).

  • status: inactive: the system services are not running. This happen when the program has not been deployed.
  • status: active: the system services are running normally.
  • status: failed: an error has occured, and the services have stopped. The error message will provide information about the error.

• Celery: Celery is the task manager that coordinates the execution of background jobs, indlucing tasks like audio recording and file management. By default, acoupi uses two workers: the recording worker manages audio recording tasks, the default worker handles any other tasks.

  • status: unavailable: Celery hasn't started or has stopped. The program isn't processing tasks.
  • status: available and workers: ok : Celery is up and running, with workers active and processing tasks normally.
  • status: available and workers: notok : Celery is up and running, but one or both workers are encountering problems or is not available. Check the log to identify the issue.

• Program: Refer to the configuration and execution of the acoupi program.

  • status: ok : the program has been configured correctly, and no issues have been detected.
  • status: unhealthy : there is an issue with the configuration of the program. This suggests that you might need to review the program's configuration setup.

• Deployment: Refer to the overall state of your active acoupi instance, indicating whether everything is currently running as expected.

  • status: active: the deployment is running successfuly, the program is active and tasks are being executed.
  • status: inactive: the deployment has stopped or hasn't been started.