Installing ThingsBoard Trendz Analytics on Windows

• Prerequisites
• Step 1. Install Java 17 (OpenJDK)
• Step 2. Trendz Analytics service installation
• Step 3. Obtain and configure license key
• Step 4. Configure connection with ThingsBoard Platform
• Step 5. Configure Trendz database
  • PostgreSQL Installation
  • Create Database for Trendz
  • Configure database connection for Trendz
• Step 6. Install Trendz Python executor
  • 1. Local environment
  • 2. Virtual environment (venv)
  • Troubleshooting
• Step 7. Run installation script
• Step 8. Start Trendz service
  • Authentication
• Post-installation steps
• Troubleshooting
• Windows firewall settings
• Next steps

Prerequisites

This guide describes how to install Trendz Analytics on a Windows machine. Instructions below are provided for Windows 10/8.1/8/7 32-bit/64-bit.

Hardware requirements depend on amount of analyzed data and amount of devices connected to the system. To run Trendz Analytics on a single machine you will need at least 1Gb of free RAM.

In small and medium installations Trendz can be installed on the same server with ThingsBoard.

Step 1. Install Java 17 (OpenJDK)

ThingsBoard service is running on Java 17. Follow this instructions to install OpenJDK 17.

• Visit Open JDK Download Page. Go to “Other platforms and versions”, select “Operating System” as “Windows”, “Architecture” as “x64”, “Version” as “17 - LTS” and download JDK .msi package.
• Run the downloaded MSI package and follow the instructions. Make sure you have selected “Add to PATH” and “Set JAVA_HOME variable” options to “Will be installed on local hard drive” state.
• Visit PostgreSQL JDBC Download Page to download PostgreSQL JDBC Driver. Choose the latest available option.
• Create the folder C:\Program Files\JDBC and copy downloaded file there. Then, add a new global variable - run PowerShell as an administrator and execute the following command. Do not forget to change “postgresql-42.2.18.jar” in the command to match the downloaded version.

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  [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("CLASSPATH", '.;"C:\Program Files\JDBC\postgresql-42.2.18.jar"', [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)
  

You can check the installation using the following command (using Command Prompt):

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java -version

Expected command output is:

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C:\Users\User>java -version
openjdk version "17.x.xx" 
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-17.x.xx (...)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Temurin-17.x.xx (...)

Step 2. Trendz Analytics service installation

Download and extract the package.

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https://dist.thingsboard.io/trendz-windows-1.13.1.zip

Note: We assume you have extracted Trendz package to default location: C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz

Step 3. Obtain and configure license key

We assume you have already chosen subscription plan for Trendz and have license key. If not, please get your Free Trial license before you proceed. See How-to get pay-as-you-go subscription for more details.

Once you get the license secret, you should put it to the trendz configuration file. Open the Notepad or other editor as administrator user (right click on the app icon and select “Run as administrator”).
Open the following file for editing (select “All Files” instead of “Text Documents” in file choosing dialog, the encoding is UTF-8):

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C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\conf\trendz.yml

Scroll to the bottom of the file and locate the following configuration block:

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license:
    secret: "${TRENDZ_LICENSE_SECRET:YOUR_LICENSE_SECRET_HERE}" # license secret obtained from ThingsBoard License Portal (https://license.thingsboard.io)

Step 4. Configure connection with ThingsBoard Platform

You can connect Trendz Analytics to the ThingsBoard Community Edition or ThingsBoard Professional Edition.

Open the Notepad or other editor as administrator user (right click on the app icon and select “Run as administrator”).
Open the following file for editing (select “All Files” instead of “Text Documents” in file choosing dialog, the encoding is UTF-8):

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C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\conf\trendz.yml

Add ThingsBoard REST API URL that would be used for communicating with ThingsBoard Platform. In most cases, when Trendz installed in the same server with ThingsBoard, API_URL would be http://localhost:8080. Otherwise you should use ThingsBoard domain name.

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tb.api.url: "${TB_API_URL:http://localhost:8080}"

Step 5. Configure Trendz database

Trendz uses PostgreSQL as a database. You can install PostgreSQL on the same serverfor Trendz or use managed PostgreSQL service from your cloud vendor.

PostgreSQL Installation

Download the installation file (PostgreSQL 12.17 or newer releases) here and follow the installation instructions.

During PostgreSQL installation, you will be prompted for superuser (postgres) password. Don’t forget this password. It will be used later. For simplicity, we will substitute it with “postgres”.

Create Database for Trendz

Once installed, launch the “pgAdmin” software and login as superuser (postgres). Open your server and create database “trendz” with owner “postgres”.

Configure database connection for Trendz

Open the Notepad or other editor as administrator user (right click on the app icon and select “Run as administrator”).
Open the following file for editing (select “All Files” instead of “Text Documents” in file choosing dialog, the encoding is UTF-8):

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C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\conf\trendz.yml

and locate “datasource” block. Replace SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL, SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME and SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD properties with valid values. Don’t forget to replace “postgres” with your real postgres user password:

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datasource:
    driverClassName: "${SPRING_DRIVER_CLASS_NAME:org.postgresql.Driver}"
    url: "${SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL:jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/trendz}"
    username: "${SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME:postgres}"
    password: "${SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD:postgres}"
    hikari:
      maximumPoolSize: "${SPRING_DATASOURCE_MAXIMUM_POOL_SIZE:5}"

Step 6. Install Trendz Python executor

There are two options for installing Python to execute the necessary scripts in Trendz.

WARNING! Before proceeding, make sure that Python is not installed on your system in any form — standalone, via the Microsoft Store, or Chocolatey. Failing to do so may lead to unexpected results during the installation process. See the Troubleshooting section for details.

WARNING! It is important to use a specific Python version — 3.11.0. Newer versions do not have prebuilt dependencies and require building them from source, which can lead to errors during dependency installation.

1. Local environment

In this option, Python will be installed on your Windows user account, and the required modules will be installed in the user scope (not system-wide).

Follow the next steps:

• Download and install Python

Download and install Python 3.11.0 from the official Python website.

Download the Windows installer (64-bit) file and run it. When you see this window, select all proposed checkboxes. The administrator rights will be requested.

Check the Python is installed by launching the command:

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python --version

You will output like this:

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Python 3.11.0

• Install required python packages

Create the requirements.txt file with the following content:

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numpy == 1.26.4
scikit-learn == 1.4.2
statsmodels == 0.14.2
tensorflow == 2.16.1
pandas == 2.1.4
matplotlib == 3.8.4
prophet == 1.1.5
xgboost == 2.0.3

Run the command to install dependencies

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pip install --user --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

• Configure venv connection for Trendz

Open in Notepad with Administrator rights the file “C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\conf\trendz.yml” and locate the “script-engine” section.

Find the “use-custom-venv” field and replace “false” with “true”. Find the “custom-venv-path” field and replace the “/usr/bin/python3” value with “python”.

2. Virtual environment (venv)

In this option, Python will still be installed on your user account, but we will also create a virtual environment to manage dependencies in isolation from other projects and the base Python installation.

Follow the next steps:

• Download and install Python

Download and install Python 3.11.0 from the official Python website.

Check the Python is installed by launching the command:

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python --version

You will output like this:

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Python 3.11.0

• Create python virtual environment (venv)

Create a folder where the virtual environment will be stored. You can choose any path — for example, we place it in the same directory as Trendz: C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz

Open the command line in the mentioned folder and run:

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py -3.11 -m venv venv

• Install required python packages

Create the requirements.txt file with the following content:

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numpy == 1.26.4
scikit-learn == 1.4.2
statsmodels == 0.14.2
tensorflow == 2.16.1
pandas == 2.1.4
matplotlib == 3.8.4
prophet == 1.1.5
xgboost == 2.0.3

Run the command to install dependencies:

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.\venv\Scripts\pip.exe install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

Open in Notepad with Administrator rights the file “C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\conf\trendz.yml” and locate the “script-engine” section.

Find the “use-custom-venv” field and replace “false” with “true”. Find the “custom-venv-path” field and replace the “/usr/bin/python3” value with “C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\venv\Scripts\python.exe”.

Troubleshooting

If you want to make a clean installation, you need to remove all previous versions of Python:

• 1. Remove Python via “Programs and Features”

Click on Start, then go to Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features, find Python and Python Launcher, and remove them.

You will see the uninstallation window like this:

• 2. Uninstall Python from Chocolatey

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

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choco uninstall python

If you want to be sure no remnants are left, you can also check for: C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\python* and delete it manually if needed.

• 3. Remove aliases

Also, you need to switch off the Python aliases that can cause issues with working with Python in the command line. For this purpose, you need to go to Settings → Apps → Advanced app settings → App execution aliases and find all items related to Python and switch them off.

• 4. Remove remaining folders

Make sure to delete the following folders along with all of their contents:

• C:\Users<your_username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python

• C:\Users<your_username>\AppData\Roaming\Python

• 5. Last check

Now, if you type “python” in the command line, you will get an error output like this one.

Step 7. Run installation script

Launch windows shell (Command Prompt) as Administrator. Change directory to your Trendz installation directory.

Execute install.bat script to install Trendz as a Windows service. This means it will be automatically started on system startup. Similar, uninstall.bat will remove Trendz from Windows services. The output should be similar to this one:

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C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz>install.bat
Detecting Java version installed.
CurrentVersion 11
Java 11 found!
Installing Trendz Analytics...
...
Trendz Analytics installed successfully!

Step 8. Start Trendz service

Now let’s start the Trendz service! Open the command prompt as an Administrator and execute the following command:

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net start trendz

Expected output:

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The Trendz Analytics service is starting.
The Trendz Analytics service was started successfully.

In order to restart the Trendz service you can execute following commands:

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net stop trendz
net start trendz

Once started, you will be able to open Web UI using the following link:

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http://localhost:8888/trendz

Note: If Trendz installed on a remote server, you have to replace localhost with the public IP address of the server or with a domain name. Also, check that port 8888 opened for public access.

Authentication

For first authentication you need to use Tenant Administrator credentials from your ThingsBoard

Trendz uses ThingsBoard as an authentication service. During first sign in ThingsBoard service should be also available to validate credentials.

Post-installation steps

It is essential to follow these instructions to fully use all features, such as saving telemetry to ThingsBoard and adding Trendz views to dashboards.

Troubleshooting

The log files are located in logs folder (“C:\Program Files (x86)\trendz\logs” in our case).

The trendz.log file should contain following line:

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YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss,sss [main] INFO  o.t.t.TrendzApplication - Started TrendzApplication in x.xxx seconds (JVM running for x.xxx)

In case of any unclear errors, use general troubleshooting guide or contact us.

Windows firewall settings

In order to have external access to Trendz Web UI you need to create a new inbound rule with Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

• Open “Windows Firewall” from “Control Panel”:

• Click “Advanced settings” on the left panel:

• Select “Inbound Rules” on the left panel, then click “New Rule…” on the right “Actions” panel:

• Now new “New Inbound Rule Wizard” window will open. On the first step “Rule Type” select “Port” option:

• On the “Protocol and Ports” step select “TCP” protocol and enter port 8888 in the “Specific local ports” field:

• On the “Action” step leave “Allow the connection” option selected:

• On the “Profile” step select Windows network profiles when to apply this rule:

• Finally, give the name to this rule (for ex. “Trendz Service Networking”) and click “Finish”.

Next steps

• Getting started guide - These guide provide quick overview of main Trendz features.

• Calculated Fields - Learn about Calculated fields and how to use them.

• States - Learn how to define and analyse states for assets based on raw telemetry.

• Prediction - Learn how to make forecasts and predict telemetry behavior.

• Filters - Learn how filter dataset during analysis.

• Available Visualizations - Learn about visualization widgets available in Trendz and how to configure them.

• Share and embed Visualizations - Learn how to add Trendz visualizations on ThingsBoard dashboard or 3rd party web pages.

• AI Assistant - Learn how to utilize Trendz AI capabilities.