¶ Cyber Gateway Deployment on NanoPi R5C
The NanoPi R5C is an open-sourced gateway device with two 2.5G Ethernet ports, designed and developed by FriendlyElec. It uses Rockchip RK3568B2 Soc, with 4GB LPDDR4x RAM and 32GB eMMC, Quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU, up to 2.0GHz.
A common deployment scenario for the NanoPi R5C deployment is to replace the Firewall. The architecture includes single WAN interface connecting to an ISP for Internet connection and single LAN towards your private network as described in below diagram.
¶ Hardware Checklist
Before deployment, make sure you have everything in the checklist below.
|
|
Item |
Quantity |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nanopi R5C Mini |
1 (2) |
2 for HA (high availability deployment) |
| 2 | USB C Cable |
1 (2) |
2 for HA |
| 3 | SanDisk 64GB Ultra microSDXC Memory Card |
1 |
The same SD card can be used to flash the image to the NanoPi R5C built-in 32GB eMMC flash for multiple devices |
| 4 | SD Card Reader |
1 |
To burn image on the SD card |
| 5 | RJ45 Cat-6 Ethernet Cable |
2 (4) |
Each NanoPi R5C box requires 2 RJ45 Cat-6 cables |
¶ Deploying Cyber Gateway on NanoPi R5C
To deploy Cyber Gateway on NanoPi R5C. follow the instructions below:
Keep the device powered off while connecting the WAN cable to the NanoPi R5C's Ethernet port labeled "WAN," and the LAN cable to the port labeled "LAN."
¶ Step 1: Download the cyber gateway image file
- Download the image in gz file format from Exium downloads page here.
- Insert the SD card in the SD card reader and plug the reader in the USB port of a Windows (or Mac) machine.
¶ Step 2: Burn the image on to the SD card
- Download and launch balenaEtcher software on your windows (or Mac) machine: https://www.balena.io/etcher
- Unzip the OS image file that you downloaded in your file folder, and then select the unzipped OS image (Disk image file format) in the balenaEtcher and flash onto the SD card. You may also directly import the gz file without unzipping.
¶ Step 3: Insert the SD card into the NanoPi R5C
- When flash is completed, remove the SD card from the SD card reader.
- Power off your NanoPi R5C, insert the SD into the NanoPi-R5C’s microSD card slot.
¶ Step 4: Power on the NanoPi R5C
- Turn on NanoPi-R5C, it will boot from the SD card and automatically run EFlasher to install the OS to the board’s eMMC.
- After flashing is complete, you will see the message below if you have connected a monitor via NanoPi-R5C’s HDMI slot.
- Eject the SD card from NanoPi-R5C, NanoPi-R5C will automatically reboot and boot from eMMC.
¶ Step 5: Login to the NanoPi R5C box
- Connect a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the NanoPi R5C via its HDMI and USB ports to access the console. Alternatively, if direct console access isn't possible, use network scanning software like nmap to find the NanoPi R5C's local IP address and then connect via SSH.
- Login with username:
piand password:pi. We recommend that you change the default password immediately before deploying the cyber gateway.
To change password, at the command prompt, type “sudo passwd pi” and press Enter. Enter the root user password (which is also pi). Enter the new user password. Retype the new password a second time.
¶ Step 6: Deploy the Cyber gateway on the NanoPi R5C
- Follow the instructions for Multiple interface Cyber Gateway deployment. During deployment, when asked to choose WAN and LAN interfaces, select
eth0for WAN andeth1for LAN, as illustrated in the picture at the start of this document.
After successful deployment, box will reboot. Default IP configuration on LAN ports of NanoPi box will be replaced with values which you will configure on admin console for LAN Interface(s).
For SSH login, you can use LAN Gateway IP of the LAN Interface Subnet which you configured on admin console.
To learn more about implementing SASE for your organization and explore tailored solutions that meet your unique requirements, contact Exium at partners@exium.net for a consultation or demonstration. If you are ready to get started, check out our testing and onboarding process.