Prerequisites

Prerequisites

Before enrolling a device, confirm it meets the requirements below. The install scripts perform some of these checks automatically and will stop with a clear error if a hard requirement is missing.

Hardware

• Any machine capable of running your target application(s) is sufficient — GateBeacon's own footprint is a lightweight background connector process.
• As a practical minimum, keep at least 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM free beyond what your published applications need.
• If you plan to install multiple catalog applications, budget more — each one runs as its own Docker container.

Software

Linux

• Root or sudo access to run the installer.
• One of the supported distributions (see Supported Operating Systems).
• systemd — GateBeacon's background services run as systemd units.
• Docker — installed automatically by the setup script if not already present.
• The installer also provisions its own supporting utilities (curl, tar, unzip, ufw, iproute2, jq, kmod) if missing.

Windows

• Administrator rights to run the installer.
• The Windows OpenSSH Client optional feature — installed automatically if not already enabled.
• PowerShell (built in to all supported Windows versions).

Network

• Outbound HTTPS (443) connectivity from the device to GateBeacon's API and tunnel endpoints. No inbound port needs to be opened on your router or firewall.
• Working DNS resolution on the device — the Linux installer explicitly checks IP configuration, internet reachability, and DNS resolution before proceeding, and will stop with an error if any of these fail.
• If the device sits behind a network that blocks outbound 443 (some locked-down corporate networks or proxies), the tunnel cannot be established — check with your network administrator first.

Things That Are Not Supported

• Non-apt Linux distributions. RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch, and similar are not currently supported by the automated installer — see Supported Operating Systems for the exact distribution list.
• Offline / air-gapped installation. Both the installer and the ongoing tunnel connection require internet access; there is no offline install path.
• Cloned VM images with a shared identity. Linux device identity defaults to /etc/machine-id. If you clone a VM or disk image and enroll multiple copies without regenerating this file, GateBeacon detects the collision and issues the second device a new identity automatically — this is handled safely, but it means the second device will not appear as the same device record as the first. If you intend to enroll multiple devices from the same image, regenerate /etc/machine-id on each clone before enrollment (for example, sudo rm /etc/machine-id && sudo systemd-machine-id-setup).

Before You Continue

Once your device meets the above, proceed to Creating Your GateBeacon Account if you don't have one yet, or straight to Enrolling a Linux Device / Enrolling a Windows Device.