Configure Edge View with GUI

Updated

Introduction

Edge View is an operational troubleshooting feature which can be used as a separate application or within ZEDEDA Cloud. It allows you to remotely access your edge devices through a terminal, as if you were directly logged into them, enabling you to do hands-on maintenance and troubleshooting.

This article explains how to configure Edge View in the ZEDEDA GUI. For example, you can use the new Edge View UI workflow to review and modify an existing Edge View policy, connect to an edge app instance, or run troubleshooting commands (like ping or traceroute) to check the network connectivity. Lastly, you can collect information about the system by gathering logs, configuration files, software version, performance stats, and more, and downloading them as a .tar file.

Prerequisites

This is a series of articles. There are different paths to configuring Edge View, so you can follow them in the order below, but it is not necessary to do so.

  1. Edge View Overview
  2. Configure Edge View using the ZEDEDA GUI - You are here!
  3. Use the ZEDEDA CLI to Configure Edge View
  4. Configure Edge View (Advanced Method)

 

Configure Edge View from the Remote Access tab

The Remote Access tab gives you direct terminal access for troubleshooting your edge node using Edge View. Before you can use these diagnostic tools, follow the steps below to verify that the required Edge View policy is active for your intended node.

  1. Log in to the ZEDEDA GUI.
  2. Click Edge Nodes.
  3. Click the Filter icon (at upper right).
  4. Click Run State > Online > Apply.
  5. Select your node from the list of nodes that appears.
  6. Click the Basic Info tab.
  7. In the Identity section, click the Project link.
  8. For the project that appears, click the Policies tab and check whether it has an active edge node policy assigned. (The “Edge View Policy” should have its checkbox selected.)
  9. Return to your target edge node (click your browser’s ‘Back’ button twice).
  10. Continue to the Edge View Policy settings below.
     

Configure the Edge View Policy Settings

When you first click the Remote Access tab, the Edge View Policy is displayed, along with several icons at the upper right.

(For Informational purposes - none of these steps are mandatory): At the upper right, you can click the icons to display status information for the edge node. For example: 

  • Click the arrow icon next to ‘Activated’ to display the connection status (‘Connected’) and the timeout period for the session. If the session expires, you must re-activate the session if you want to continue.
  • To display the run state for the edge node, hover your cursor over the small green edge node icon to see if the run state is ‘Online’, ‘Rebooting’, and so on.
  • Click the Download icon to download the Edge View client’s script. (This is only for the advanced method of configuring Edge View.)
  • When you are ready to terminate an Edge View session, click the Disconnect link.

When you are ready to begin the Edge View wizard session: 

  1. Review the current settings.

     
  2. If any settings need to be modified, click the Edit icon (pencil at upper right) to modify the Edge View Policy configuration. Some of the settings are grayed out, since not all edge view policy fields can be modified from the ZEDEDA GUI.
  3. Under the Edge View Access Settings:
    • Access EVE-OS:  Enables the ability to “Collect Info” to help with troubleshooting efforts. Alternatively, you can collect diagnostic data from edge nodes with the collect-info script.
    • Access ZEDEDA Cloud Session only: Enable this toggle switch if you want to disable the Edge View Docker client sessions. (This will restrict access to only use  ZEDEDA Cloud.)
    • Override Access Policies:  Enable this toggle switch if you want changes made at the edge node to take precedence over the settings in the Edge View policy.
    • Access Edge App Instances: Enables remote access to the individual edge apps running on the edge node.
  4. Under the Edge View Session Details:
    • Maximum time allowed for session: The maximum duration for a remote access session. JSON Web Tokens are used to manage these session timeout values. (default: 720 hours)
    • Maximum connections allowed for session: The maximum number of simultaneous connections that can be made to the edge node during a single remote session. (default: 3)
    • Default time allowed for session: The default duration for a remote access session. (default: 5 hours)
    • Default connections allowed for session: The number of connections that can be made to the edge node during a remote session. (default: 1)
    • Encrypt Session: Select Yes if you want to enable an additional layer of end-to-end encryption on top of TLS for data transmitted during the Edge View session. (default: No)
    • Dispatcher URL: Enter the path to the dispatcher service. The dispatcher acts as a central point of contact, managing the communication and connections between your local Edge View client (on your laptop) and the remote edge node (the Edge View server). The dispatcher is an API endpoint in the ZEDEDA Cloud, and it manages the connection between the Edge View server on the edge node and the Edge View client on your laptop. The dispatcher manages remote access requests from the Edge View client. 
      Note: For more information about the dispatcher service or any of the other components in the Edge View architecture, see the LF-Edge wiki below: https://lf-edge.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EVE/pages/14584760/Edge-View+Architecture
  5. Click Save.
  6. Continue on to the Access Applications tab.
     

Access Application

The Access Applications tab displays the number of edge app instances running on your edge node. To connect to one of these edge apps through remote access, use VNC or SSH, and this will open a VNC or SSH terminal inside the browser.

  1. Click the Access Applications tab. 
    This page displays the number of edge apps currently running on your edge node.
  2. Click Connection Method field and select either Remote Console VNC or SSH.
  3. Click the Edge App Instance drop-down and select the app you want to connect to.
  4. If you are selecting Remote Console VNC, when you click the ‘Access’ button, this will open a separate VNC client in a separate window. (Note that VNC is a graphical remote access system that lets you see a remote computer's desktop and control it with your keyboard/mouse. It may be slower than an SSH connection.) 
    The VNC window appears in a second window. For some browsers (e.g., Chrome), you may need to accept the pop-up warning generated on first use.
  5. If selecting SSH, configure the following additional fields:
    • SSH Username: Enter the username for the account configured in the edge application that you want to access.
    • SSH Port Number: This is the network port the edge app is using for the SSH connection, which is typically 22.
    • Upload SSH private key: Click the arrow to upload your SSH private key. 
      For details about creating a private key, see Enable SSH for an edge device.
    • When you enter the username, the SSH Terminal opens and you are prompted to enter the associated password for the username. 
      Note: For more information about securing SSH, see https://github.com/lf-edge/eve/blob/master/docs/EDGEVIEW-CONTAINER-API.md
  6. Click the Access button to start the session.
  7. When finished, continue to the Troubleshooting section below. 
     

Troubleshooting

The Troubleshooting tab provides direct access to the edge node through a remote terminal session. From here, you can run a variety of troubleshooting commands to help resolve many issues, all without needing physical access to the device. Note the following caveats:

When you click the Troubleshooting tab, the page presents the following troubleshooting options:

  • View & Copy Files: These commands are for looking at the file system of your node. You can look at text files, list directory contents, or look at disk usage.
  • Network Monitoring: The network monitoring commands help diagnose any network-related issues. For example, you can use these to check network connectivity, view network configurations, and monitor traffic.
  • System Monitoring: These commands help perform health checks and monitor the performance of the node's hardware and operating system. For example, you can monitor CPU usage, memory, disk space, and any processes that are running.


 

View & Copy Files

You can use the View & Copy Files commands to browse the edge node's file system in order to view important log files and configuration files.

  1. Select the View & Copy Files radio button.
  2. Click Command drop-down and select one of these options:
    • List files (ls):  Run this command to display a list of files in the specified directory.
      • Path or File Name: Enter the directory path or filename to view.
      • Example: enter /persist/ to see all files and folders in that directory
    • View file (cat): This displays the contents of a text file in the terminal. You can read config files, scripts, or logs without needing an editor. The “cat” command is only for viewing, and it can’t be used to modify the file.
      • Path or File Name: Enter the full path to the specific file you want to view. You must provide a path to a file and not just the directory.
      • Example: Enter /etc/resolv.conf to check the DNS resolver configuration.
      • Display up to lines: Select 50, 100, 500, or 1000 lines to designate how many lines at a time you want displayed in the text reader.
    • Disk usage (du): The "du" (disk usage) command helps manage storage on your edge node by calculating how much disk space is being consumed by specific files and directories.
      • Path or File Name: Enter the directory path or filename to view.
      • Example: run du -sh /var/log/ to see the total disk space used by the system and application log files.
  3. Click Run Command. The output appears in the terminal session below.
  4. (Optional) Continue to the Network Monitoring commands.
     

Network Monitoring

Use the Network Monitoring commands to help diagnose connectivity problems, test the reachability of the edge node, or inspect the firewall rules.

  1. Select the Network Monitoring radio button.
  2. Click Command drop-down and select one of these options:
    • ARP Table: Displays the ARP table to see IP to MAC address mappings
      • Filter String: Search for a specific entry in the ARP table instead of viewing the entire list. For example, you could enter a specific IP address to find its corresponding MAC address or vice versa.
    • Flow Table: Shows content of the Linux Conntrack table. The Conntrack table is part of the kernel's Netfilter subsystem which handles connection tracking for NAT and stateful firewalls, and shows active network connections.
      • Search String: You can use the search string field to filter listed results based on an IP address or port number. This helps to isolate traffic based on certain criteria. For example, you could enter a destination port like dport=443 to see all HTTPS traffic.
    • showcerts: Fetches the TLS/SSL certificate from a remote server or proxy.
      • URL or URL/Proxy: Specify the target server whose SSL/TLS certificate you want to inspect. You can enter a simple URL (example.com:443) to check its certificate directly. If the node must go through a proxy, you can specify both the final destination URL and the proxy server's address.
    • URL Metrics: Displays URL access metrics for services like zedclient, zedagent, downloader, and loguploader. Stats include: success and failure counts, data transfer volumes, TLS resumptions, and timing information per endpoint.
    • Ping: Tests network connectivity by sending packets to a specific IP or domain name.
      • IP Address or Domain Name: Specify the destination you want to ping. You can enter either a specific IP address (8.8.8.8) or a domain name (example.com).
    • Traceroute: Traces the network path and measures transit delays of packets to a destination.
      • IP Address or Domain Name: Enter the destination for the network path trace. The command displays the sequence of network hops.
    • ACL: Displays the firewall Access Control List rules from the specified iptables table.
      • Table Type (iptables): Specify which iptables rule table you want to view. The iptables firewall organizes rules into different tables based on purpose. Enter the name of the table you want to inspect. For example: Enter nat to view the rules for Network Address Translation.
    • Interface: Shows IP addresses and statistics for a specific physical or logical network interface.
      • Interface Name: Enter the name of the network interface you want to inspect. Your node may have multiple network interfaces for different connections (Ethernet, cellular, Wi-Fi), so specify which one you want to see details for. For example, enter eth0 to view the first Ethernet port.
  3. Click Run Command. The output appears in the terminal session below.
  4. (Optional) Continue to the System Monitoring commands.
     

System Monitoring

Investigate the health of your edge node's hardware, EVE-OS, and the processes that are running on the node:

  1. Select the System Monitoring radio button.
  2. Click Command drop-down and select one of these options:
    • Dmesg: Displays kernel ring buffer messages showing hardware events, driver activity, and system errors since boot time to help diagnose low-level issues.
    • ConfigItem: Shows specific configuration items sent from the ZEDEDA cloud controller to the edge node. These are the active EVE-OS configuration settings, may be set by ZEDEDA Cloud or set directly by a user.
    • Hardware (lshw): Lists detailed information (JSON format) about all hardware components, including the CPU, memory, and storage. Results are based on the lshw command.
    • PCI (lspci): Lists all PCI devices, such as network cards and other hardware expansion cards using the 'lspci -v' command.
    • USB (lsusb): Shows all connected USB devices and hubs to verify they are being detected correctly (based on the 'lsusb' utility).
    • Reboot Reason: Displays the logged reason for the last system reboot, helping diagnose unexpected restarts.
    • Microservices: Shows the status of the internal ZEDEDA microservices running on the edge node software.
      • Name: Specify the exact name of the microservice you want to investigate. For example, you could focus your query on one service, such as the Domainmgr (Domain Manager), which manages the application instances.
      • Sub Directory: This field allows you to drill down to view a specific data folder that is managed by the selected microservice. You can use this field to get more granular information, such as the list of AssignableAdapters for hardware passthrough.
    • PS: Displays a snapshot of all currently running processes and applications on the system. For example, displays the ‘pid', system times, 'vms', 'rss', CPU, memory and 'cmdline' information.
      • Filter string: Enter a string to search the full process list. For example, you could enter the name of an application like nginx or a ZEDEDA service like zedagent to quickly check its status.
  3. When finished, continue to the Collect Info section below.
     

Configure the Collect Info tab

The Collect Info tab helps you to gather information about the edge node and edge apps. You can then download the tarball file, which contains system logs, configuration files, software versions, performance stats, and other information that will help you diagnose the root cause of any issues.

To use this approach:

  1. Click the Collect Info tab.
  2. Click the Generate Collect Info TAR File link beneath the orange arrow.
  3. This process of generating the tar file may take several minutes. If the generation process is interrupted, click the Regenerate TAR File link to try again.
  4. When the tar file is ready, click the Download TAR File link. The tarball image will be in your downloads folder (Windows), and will be named similar to this: “eve-info-edgeview-v31-2025-07-29-08-18-02.tar.gz”

To learn about the existing method for collecting data from the edge node, see collect diagnostic data from edge nodes with collect-info.sh. Note that this is an older approach which is not GUI-based, but instead relies on downloading the script and giving it execute permission. You can run the script with the ‘chmod +x collect-info.sh’  command.
 

Next Steps

This is a series of articles. There are different paths to configuring Edge View, so you can follow them in the order below, but it is not necessary to do so.

  1. Edge View Overview
  2. Configure Edge View using the ZEDEDA GUI - You are here!
  3. Use the ZEDEDA CLI to Configure Edge View
  4. Configure Edge View (Advanced Method)

After you’ve completed the series, you might be interested in the following articles. 

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