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Manual install (Debian)

This document provides the necessary steps for installation of TeslaMate on a vanilla Debian or Ubuntu system. The recommended and most straightforward installation approach is through the use of Docker, however this walkthrough provides the necessary steps for manual installation in an aptitude (Debian/Ubuntu) environment.

Requirements​

Click on the following items to view detailed installation steps.

Postgres (v17+)
wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt/ `lsb_release -cs`-pgdg main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y postgresql-17 postgresql-client-17

Source: postgresql.org/download

Elixir (v1.16+)
wget https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_2.0_all.deb && sudo dpkg -i erlang-solutions_2.0_all.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y elixir esl-erlang

Source: erlang.org/downloads

Grafana (v11.4.0+)
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main"
wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y grafana
sudo systemctl start grafana-server
sudo systemctl enable grafana-server.service # to start Grafana at boot time

Source: grafana.com/docs/installation

Import the Grafana dashboards after cloning the TeslaMate git repository.

An MQTT Broker (e.g. Mosquitto)
sudo apt-get install -y mosquitto

Source: mosquitto.org/download

Node.js (v20+)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Source: nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager

Clone TeslaMate git repository​

The following command will clone the source files for the TeslaMate project. This should be run in an appropriate directory within which you would like to install TeslaMate. You should also record this path and provide them to the startup scripts proposed at the end of this guide.

cd /usr/src

git clone https://github.com/teslamate-org/teslamate.git
cd teslamate

git checkout $(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`) # Checkout the latest stable version

Create PostgreSQL database​

The following commands will create a database called teslamate on the PostgreSQL database server, and a user called teslamate. When creating the teslamate user, you will be prompted to enter a password for the user interactively. This password should be recorded and provided as an environment variable in the startup script at the end of this guide.

sudo -u postgres psql
postgres=# create database teslamate;
postgres=# create user teslamate with encrypted password 'your_secure_password_here';
postgres=# grant all privileges on database teslamate to teslamate;
postgres=# ALTER USER teslamate WITH SUPERUSER;
postgres=# \q

Note: The superuser privileges can be revoked after running the initial database migrations.

Compile Elixir Project​

mix local.hex --force; mix local.rebar --force

mix deps.get --only prod
npm install --prefix ./assets && npm run deploy --prefix ./assets

MIX_ENV=prod mix do phx.digest, release --overwrite

Set your system locale​

You may need to set your system locale. If you get an error when running the TeslaMate service which indicates that you don't have a UTF-8 capable system locale set, run the following commands to set the locale on your system:

sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Starting TeslaMate at boot time​

Create a systemd service at /etc/systemd/system/teslamate.service:

[Unit]
Description=TeslaMate
After=network.target
After=postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=simple
# User=username
# Group=groupname

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

Environment="HOME=/usr/src/teslamate"
Environment="LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
Environment="LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8"
Environment="TZ=Europe/Berlin"
Environment="PORT=4000"
Environment="ENCRYPTION_KEY=your_secure_encryption_key_here"
Environment="DATABASE_USER=teslamate"
Environment="DATABASE_PASS=#your secure password!
Environment="DATABASE_NAME=teslamate"
Environment="DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1"
Environment="MQTT_HOST=127.0.0.1"

WorkingDirectory=/usr/src/teslamate

ExecStartPre=/usr/src/teslamate/_build/prod/rel/teslamate/bin/teslamate eval "TeslaMate.Release.migrate"
ExecStart=/usr/src/teslamate/_build/prod/rel/teslamate/bin/teslamate start
ExecStop=/usr/src/teslamate/_build/prod/rel/teslamate/bin/teslamate stop

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
  • MQTT_HOST should be the IP address of your MQTT broker. If you do not have one installed, the MQTT functionality can be disabled with DISABLE_MQTT=true.
  • TZ should be your local timezone. Work out your timezone name using the TZ database name in the linked Wikipedia page.

Start the service:

sudo systemctl start teslamate

And automatically get it to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable teslamate

Import Grafana Dashboards​

  1. Visit localhost:3000 and log in. The default credentials are: admin:admin.

  2. Create a data source with the name "TeslaMate":

    Type: PostgreSQL
    Default: YES
    Name: TeslaMate
    Host: localhost
    Database: teslamate
    User: teslamate  Password: your_secure_password_here
    SSL-Mode: disable
    Version: 10

  3. Manually import the dashboard files or use the dashboards.sh script:

    $ ./grafana/dashboards.sh restore

    URL:                  http://localhost:3000
    LOGIN:                admin:admin
    DASHBOARDS_DIRECTORY: ./grafana/dashboards

    RESTORED locations.json
    RESTORED drive-stats.json
    RESTORED updates.json
    RESTORED drive-details.json
    RESTORED charge-details.json
    RESTORED states.json
    RESTORED overview.json
    RESTORED vampire-drain.json
    RESTORED visited.json
    RESTORED drives.json
    RESTORED projected-range.json
    RESTORED charge-level.json
    RESTORED charging-stats.json
    RESTORED mileage.json
    RESTORED charges.json
    RESTORED efficiency.json
    tip

    To use credentials other than the default, set the LOGIN variable:

    LOGIN=user:password ./grafana/dashboards.sh restore