Hardware and Software Requirements

Hardware requirements

• ESP32-S3-N16R8 ESP32-S3-N16R8
  Espressif ESP32 family microcontroller — this walkthrough targets ESP32-S3-N16R8 with PlatformIO firmware. board
• USB data cable (charge-only cables are not sufficient)
• 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network with SSID and password available

Software requirements

Install these tools on your Linux host before starting the walkthrough. Use the manual steps below for Ubuntu or Red Hat family systems (RHEL, Fedora, Amazon Linux).

Tool	Verify	Used in this walkthrough
GIT GIT Distributed version control — used to clone the demo repository and supporting docs.	git —version	Clone the demo repository demo repository esp32-aws-iot-demo — source repository for firmware, provisioning scripts, Terraform, and dashboard code. Commands run from its root unless stated otherwise.
AWS CLI v2	aws —version	Provision, CloudWatch CloudWatch Amazon CloudWatch Logs — stores IoT rule output for Phase 1 verification (`/aws/iot/esp32-demo/telemetry` and `/events`). logs, DYNAMODB DYNAMODB Amazon DynamoDB — persists telemetry and event records after Lambda ingest in Phase 2. checks
PlatformIO PlatformIO PlatformIO — build, upload, and serial monitor toolchain (`pio`) for ESP32 firmware. (pio)	pio —version	Build and flash FIRMWARE FIRMWARE PlatformIO-based ESP32 application in `firmware/` — connects to Wi-Fi, syncs time, and publishes MQTT telemetry and events.
TERRAFORM TERRAFORM HashiCorp Terraform — provisions shared infrastructure (IoT rules fan-out, Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, Amplify).	terraform version	Phase 2 infrastructure
Node.js 22	node —version	Dashboard local run and AMPLIFY AMPLIFY AWS Amplify — hosts the walkthrough dashboard frontend and connects it to the query API URL. deploy

This repository targets Node.js 22 (see .nvmrc in the docs site repo).

Automated installs are available from jdevto/cli-tools jdevto/cli-tools
jdevto/cli-tools — install scripts for Git, AWS CLI, PlatformIO, Terraform, and Node.js used as an optional Red Hat install path in prerequisites. under each Red Hat subsection below.

Git

Git on Ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git

Git on Red Hat

sudo dnf install -y git

Or install with install_git.sh:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdevto/cli-tools/main/scripts/install_git.sh) install

AWS CLI v2

AWS CLI on Ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl unzip
curl -fsSL "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o awscliv2.zip
unzip -q awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install
rm -rf aws awscliv2.zip

AWS CLI on Red Hat

sudo dnf install -y curl unzip
curl -fsSL "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o awscliv2.zip
unzip -q awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install
rm -rf aws awscliv2.zip

Or install with install_aws_cli.sh:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdevto/cli-tools/main/scripts/install_aws_cli.sh) install

Terraform

Terraform on Ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl gnupg software-properties-common
curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y terraform

Terraform on Red Hat

sudo dnf install -y curl gnupg2
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://rpm.releases.hashicorp.com/RHEL/hashicorp.repo
sudo dnf install -y terraform

Or install with install_terraform.sh:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdevto/cli-tools/main/scripts/install_terraform.sh) install

PlatformIO

PlatformIO on Ubuntu

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio-core-installer/master/get-platformio.py -o get-platformio.py
python3 get-platformio.py
rm get-platformio.py
export PATH="$HOME/.platformio/penv/bin:$PATH"

If your default Python is a pre-release build, use a stable interpreter:

python3.12 get-platformio.py

PlatformIO on Red Hat

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio-core-installer/master/get-platformio.py -o get-platformio.py
python3 get-platformio.py
rm get-platformio.py
export PATH="$HOME/.platformio/penv/bin:$PATH"

Or install with install_pio.sh:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdevto/cli-tools/main/scripts/install_pio.sh) install

Add PlatformIO to your PATH in a new shell, or append to ~/.bashrc / ~/.zshrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.platformio/penv/bin:$PATH"

Node.js 22

Node.js on Ubuntu

NODE_VERSION=22.14.0
curl -fsSL "https://nodejs.org/dist/v${NODE_VERSION}/node-v${NODE_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.xz" -o node.tar.xz
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/node"
tar -xJf node.tar.xz -C "$HOME/.local/node" --strip-components=1
rm node.tar.xz
export PATH="$HOME/.local/node/bin:$PATH"

Persist PATH in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/node/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

Node.js on Red Hat

NODE_VERSION=22.14.0
curl -fsSL "https://nodejs.org/dist/v${NODE_VERSION}/node-v${NODE_VERSION}-linux-x64.tar.xz" -o node.tar.xz
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/node"
tar -xJf node.tar.xz -C "$HOME/.local/node" --strip-components=1
rm node.tar.xz
export PATH="$HOME/.local/node/bin:$PATH"

Or install with install_npm.sh:

NODE_VERSION=22 bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jdevto/cli-tools/main/scripts/install_npm.sh) install

Tip

cli-tools scripts are idempotent and skip when a tool is already installed. Open a new shell (or source ~/.bashrc) after PlatformIO and Node.js installs so PATH updates apply.

Verify your toolchain

git --version
aws --version
pio --version
terraform version
node --version
npm --version

AWS account requirements

Use an IAM IAM
AWS Identity and Access Management — controls roles and permissions for IoT Rules, Lambda, and other services. principal with permissions to manage services used in this walkthrough:

• AWS IoT Core AWS IoT Core
  AWS IoT Core — managed MQTT broker with X.509 device authentication for ESP32 telemetry and events.
• IAM IAM
  AWS Identity and Access Management — controls roles and permissions for IoT Rules, Lambda, and other services.
• CloudFormation
• CloudWatch Logs CloudWatch Logs
  Amazon CloudWatch Logs — stores IoT rule output for Phase 1 verification (`/aws/iot/esp32-demo/telemetry` and `/events`).
• LAMBDA LAMBDA
  AWS Lambda — processes IoT rule payloads and serves query API logic behind API Gateway.
• DYNAMODB DYNAMODB
  Amazon DynamoDB — persists telemetry and event records after Lambda ingest in Phase 2.
• API Gateway API Gateway
  Amazon API Gateway — exposes HTTP routes for latest telemetry and recent events. The browser reads data through API Gateway, not DynamoDB directly.
• AMPLIFY AMPLIFY
  AWS Amplify — hosts the walkthrough dashboard frontend and connects it to the query API URL.

Export runtime variables

export WIFI_SSID="your-ssid"
export WIFI_PASSWORD="your-password"
export THING_NAME="esp32-c"
export AWS_REGION="ap-southeast-2"

Replace placeholder values with your own configuration before provisioning and flashing.

Linux one-time USB setup

sudo ./scripts/setup-linux-usb.sh

Then log out/in (or reboot), unplug/replug board, and verify access:

groups | grep dialout
lsusb
ls /dev/ttyACM*