Relay Tracking

Location tracking server stack configured for live-tracking runners during a road relay. Originally set up for Race Condition Running's 2023 Ragnar Northwest Passage team.

Consists of:

• OwnTracks recorder: lightweight location database that talks to clients over MQTT/HTTP/WebSockets
• Mosquitto MQTT broker (server): manages long-lived MQTT connections
• forward_gps_tracker: a small shim for forwarding location data from an Invoxia Cellular GPS tracker to the broker (in case you have runners who don't want to use their phone).

Usage

If you have a tracker and plan to use the forwarder, build the forwarder image.

sudo docker build -t forward-gps-tracker .

You should already have SSL certs for the domain you plan to host the server on. Create a .env file in this directory and tell the containers what credentials to use.

OTR_PASS=x
CERT_PATH="/etc/letsencrypt/live/yourhost.com"
FORWARD_USERNAME=x
FORWARD_PASSWORD=x
FORWARD_MQTT_USERNAME=x
FORWARD_MQTT_PASSWORD=x

Run the three containers together using the included Docker Compose config:

sudo docker compose up

Use sudo docker-compose --profile forwarder up if you're using the forwarder.

Configure the OwnTracks recorder password with the MQTT broker now that the containers are up:

sudo docker exec -i mosquitto mosquitto_passwd -b /mosquitto/config/password_file owntracks $password

Make sure port 8883 is open for the MQTT broker.

Further configuration depends on your relay set up. Our configuration from a Ragnar is included in scripts/make_configs.sh. It'll set up accounts and credentials for runners and generate configuration files for the OwnTracks mobile clients. You can also preload these configurations with exchange locations by creating the per-runner JSON files consisting of arrays of waypoints. Here's an example waypoint:

{
  "type": "_waypoint",
  "desc": "Exchange 0",
  "rad": 100,
  "lat": 49.001428375,
  "lon": -122.753892034
}

HTTP API

OwnTracks recorder includes an HTTP and WebSocket server which makes building web clients simple (see our Ragnar NWP map). You should expose the parts of the server you need using a reverse proxy like nginx:

server {
    include snippets/listen-https.conf;
    server_name yourhost.com;
    root /var/www/yourhost.com;

    # ... SSL config ...

    location / {
        # Includes basic table views and historical maps of locations. Expose with caution!
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8083;
    }

    # Proxy and upgrade WebSocket connection. Live feed of location events.
    location /ws {
            proxy_pass      http://localhost:8083;
            proxy_http_version  1.1;
            proxy_set_header    Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header    Connection "upgrade";
            proxy_set_header    Host $host;
            proxy_set_header    X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }

    # OwnTracks Recorder Views (requires /view, /static, /utils)
    location /view/ {
         proxy_buffering         off;            # Chrome
         proxy_pass              http://localhost:8083/view/;
         proxy_http_version      1.1;
         proxy_set_header        Host $host;
         proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
    
    location /static/ {
         proxy_pass              http://localhost:8083/static/;
         proxy_http_version      1.1;
         proxy_set_header        Host $host;
         proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    location /utils/ {
         proxy_pass              http://localhost:8083/utils/;
         proxy_http_version      1.1;
         proxy_set_header        Host $host;
         proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    # HTTP read API. You can wrap this in basic auth if you want to limit reading, but really 
    # you should configure views for your runners and only expose them.
    location /api/0/ {
         proxy_pass              http://localhost:8083/api/0/;
         proxy_http_version      1.1;
         proxy_set_header        Host $host;
         proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    # HTTP write API. Uses Basic Auth to limit clients to only publish their
    # own info.
    location /pub {        
        auth_basic "OwnTracks pub";
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/owntracks.htpasswd;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8083/pub;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Limit-U $remote_user;
    }

}

Debugging

Take a look at container std-out logs:

sudo docker logs --follow forward-gpstracker

Listen for MQTT messages:

sudo docker exec -i mosquitto mosquitto_sub  -h localhost -p 1883 -t owntracks/runner2/phone