Populating a deployment with data

This page is a contributor walkthrough, not a specification: it shows how a fresh deployment is seeded with enough data for the admin dashboard to have something to display, using the repository’s own simulators and integration-test harness. For the contracts behind each step, follow the links to the specs.

Step 1: Create super admin user

Configured in cli/test_config.json:

{
  "users": [
    {
      "name": "super_admin@example.com",
      "password": "<strong-password>",
      "super_admin": true
    }
  ]
}

The integration-test harness creates this user for you (test/itest/conftest.py), registering it in the admin Cognito pool and setting custom:super_admin = "true". See Authentication and Permissions for what that claim buys.

Step 2: Register nodes

# Single node
super_admin_user.register_node(device,
    admin_group_names=["my-group"],
    tags=["env:prod", "created_by:admin"])

# Bulk (CSV in S3: node_id,cert,admin_groups)
resp = super_admin_user.bulk_register_nodes(s3_path,
    admin_group_names=["batch-1"],
    tags=["env:staging"])
request_id = resp.get("request_id")

# Poll status
status = super_admin_user.get_bulk_register_status(request_id)

Step 3: Associate nodes with user groups

# Regular user creates group
group_id = group_api.create_group("My Group")

# Device connects MQTT, user confirms association
user.do_user_node_assoc(device, group_id)
device.wait_for_group_info()

Step 4: Device reports shadow data

Once connected, the device publishes to $aws/things/{thingName}/shadow/name/iparams/update with reported state. This populates the iparams shadow, which fleet indexing picks up and makes available to SearchIndex — see Indexed Parameters for the document shape and Fleet Indexing for what is indexed.

Step 5: Dashboard reads data

Admin signs in via Admin Cognito Pool
Gets AWS credentials via Identity Pool (AdminDeviceUsersRole)
Calls AWS IoT SDK directly: SearchIndex, ListThings, DescribeThingGroup, ListJobs, etc.
Calls ESP RainMaker Neo APIs via API Gateway for admin-specific operations

Where each piece lives

File	Purpose
`test/app_sim.py`	App simulator
`test/device_sim.py`	Device simulator (MQTT connect, shadow publish)
`test/itest/conftest.py`	Admin user fixture (`_init_admin_user()`, `super_admin_user`)
`test/itest/test_admin.py`	Admin auth, role assumption, group/subgroup access
`test/itest/test_node_registration.py`	Single & bulk registration with admin groups and tags
`test/test_user.py`	`register_node()`, `bulk_register_nodes()`, `assume_role_admin()`, `admin_get_node_groups()`