Automatic registration

When the agent starts, if both uuid and key are not defined, it will consider the router to be unregistered and it will attempt to perform an automatic registration.

The automatic registration is performed only if shared_secret is correctly set.

The device will choose as name one of its mac addresses, unless its hostname is not OpenWrt, in the latter case it will simply register itself with the current hostname.

When the registration is completed, the agent will automatically set uuid and key in /etc/config/openwisp.

To enable this feature by default on your firmware images, follow the procedure described in Compiling a Custom OpenWrt Image.

Consistent Key Generation

When using Automatic registration, this feature allows devices to keep the same configuration even if reset or reflashed.

The key is generated consistently with an operation like md5sum(mac_address + shared_secret); this allows the controller application to recognize that an existing device is registering itself again.

The mac_interface configuration key specifies which interface is used to calculate the mac address, this setting defaults to eth0. If no eth0 interface exists, the first non-loopback, non-bridge and non-tap interface is used. You won't need to change this setting often, but if you do, ensure you choose a physical interface which has constant mac address.

The "Consistent key generation" feature is enabled by default, but must be enabled also in the controller application in order to work.