I know metarouter is kinda “retired”, but as I have no other options for zerotier+MIPS other than through OpenWrt, I seek for an advice if what I want to achieve is doable at all using MT and I thus can avoid a need for extra server .
I have mAP-2nd with LTE modem attached via mini USB, and a set of “iot” devices connected via WiFi.
I want to make them accessible via my zerotier network to few servers on internet using MQTT
So I thought I can use Metarouter feature with stripped down custom built image of OpenWrt with zerotier and mosquito mqtt bridge modules, so I should be able to fit it into my mAP.
I don’t want to reflash MT entirely.
Are there any obstacles that will prevent me from achieving what I am looking for from Mikrotik point of view (like some MT limitations of Metarouter implementation), assuming I get OpenWrt+zerotier+mosquitto up and running?
As an initial test, I have installed OpenWrt image on mAP and was able to interact with it via command line. I know I can make small enough image of latest OpenWrt with zerotier and mosquitto. But before jumping into all of that, I would like to ensure I am not missing any known limitation of Metarouter that will block me on later phase.
I’ve already solved the problem of uninstalling “bundled” packages from firmware npk, to get enough storage in mAP’s 16MB.
So if you know what are those expected problematic areas, please share - it may help me to research on them before assembling-installing proper build of OpenWrt to Metarouter.
Sorry didn’t mean to sound discouraging. I always liked the concept of MetaROUTER (e.g. it was Docker before Docker). And ZT on MIPSBE certainly be useful. But MR was underutilized, so you’re kinda in the wilderness of support here.
I guess the limited flash/disk was the main one (and no “real” USB to get more). NOW…if you’re willing to pull apart the packages, odds of success go up there
The other concern be ZeroTier… There is a package, so you got that. But with “native” ZT on ARM, it has access to the kernel networking interfaces to look for paths etc, but on MetaROUTER it’s limited to just the connected virtual ethernet. Maybe that’s enough, dunno.
Also, can’t recall if MR allows multiple veth’s, otherwise ZT be limited to just the OpenWRT instance since ZT “creates” an interface to the ZT network – this might okay if your need is only ZT to AWS for MQTT from the OpenWRT instance (and MQTT exposed on the LAN via veth)…but if also only one veth (like V7 /container), you’d have to use VLANs (or something) to get both the WAN and LAN interfaces into MetaROUTER.
Why ?
On mAP you can use the USB port to mount a flash disk. I have tested it not 2 weeks ago just to see if it was possible (using some 7.10-version, not sure anymore which one it was).
The cable to do so is even in the package so it must have been possible already for a long time.
True, but mine is already taken by LTE USB modem so my IoT infra is completely detached from my home network.
I honestly dunno if I will burn mAP2nd’s USB by attaching USB HUB and putting both modem and USB stick into it longterm.
Do you by chance know if an image (bin) for the MetaRouter can be uploaded and imported using external USB stick? Dunno how MT handles it… Will it have major performance issues in operation?
Haven’t dropped it yet, it’s just my Nth prio.
Anyway, I’ve stuck with building really small custom OpenWRT image with in-built Zerotier and Mosquitto - though it was stated it’s doable for 3MBs, I’m still struggling to get it, as the lowest I’ve got was 4.3MB.
As a newbie to OpenWRT I’ve ecountered few unexpected pecularities, like though I’ve excluded a number of features from “complete” build, they seems to still appear in resulting binary. And, as Zerotier is available only for OpenWRT 22.03.5 and up, I may fail overall, as newer kernels are getting bigger, and it may simply be not possible to get 3MB. It was possible for older versions like 18.* etc
