# Balena Glossary The glossary is a quick reference tool for important terms, concepts and phrasing used by balena. This includes both balena-specific and general terminology that's commonly used in and across balena. ## A ### AUFS A union filesystem (allows files and directories of separate file systems to be transparently overlaid forming a single coherent file system). The aufs storage driver is used by balenaEngine, but will be replaced by Overlay2 in the future. [more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufs) ### Aurora Amazon Aurora is a global-scale relational database service built for the cloud with full PostgreSQL compatibility. [more](https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora) ## B ### balena Blocks **(balena specific term)** Pre-built containers providing functionality to applications. Dropped into a fleet docker-compose to provide that function. For instance the browser block provides a Chromium instance. [more](https://github.com/balenablocks/blocks) ### balena CI **(balena specific term)** balena continuous integration system. This is in the process of being deprecated and is being replaced with Flowzone. [more](https://github.com/balena-ci) ### balena CLI **(balena specific term)** The Command Line Interface for interacting with balenaCloud, openBalena and local balenaOS devices. [more](/reference/balena-cli/latest.md) ### balenaCloud **(balena specific term)** Device deployment and management infrastructure, hosted by balena. [more](https://www.balena.io/cloud/) ### balenaEngine **(balena specific term)** Balena's fork of Docker, offering a range of added features including real delta downloads, minimal disk writes (for improved media wear) and other benefits for edge devices, in a small resource footprint. [more](https://www.balena.io/engine/docs/) ### balenaFin **(balena specific term)** **DEPRECATED**, a single board computer developed by balena with field deployment in mind. It is a carrier board for the Raspberry Compute Module 3 and 3+ Lite (CM3L/CM3+L), that can run all the software that the Raspberry Pi can run, hardened for field deployment use cases. ### balenaHub **(balena specific term)** A marketplace that enables the exchange of resources between our users. At a higher-level, the goal of hub is to lower the barrier to entry within the IoT industry. [more](https://hub.balena.io/what-is-balenahub) ### balenaOS **(balena specific term)** An operating system optimized for running Docker containers on embedded devices, with an emphasis on reliability over long periods of operation. Based on Yocto. [more](/reference/os/overview.md) ### balenaOS image **(balena specific term)** A versioned build of the host OS, specific to an fleet and device type. ### balena-proxy **(balena specific term)** A reverse proxy that handles requests made to Public Device URLs by passing them to the actual devices through a CONNECT-type proxy. The latter proxy resides on the VPN server and acts as a tunnel. ### balenaSDK **(balena specific term)** Balena’s Software Development Kit, allowing users to create software that can interact with balenaCloud via the balenaAPI. Available for node.js and python. [more](/reference/sdk.md) ### balena-on-balena (aka.BoB) **(balena specific term)** Balena’s developer environment, which is a device run on and managed by balenaCloud that runs a local instance of balena. ### Barys A wrapper around Poky's environment setup scripts used to initialize build directories [see *Yocto*](#yocto) ### base image A specific combination of a Linux distribution and additional packages (a docker image), used as the base operating environment for a service. ### bitbake Fundamentally, BitBake is a generic task execution engine that allows shell and Python tasks to be run efficiently and in parallel while working within complex inter-task dependency constraints. One of BitBake's main users, OpenEmbedded, takes this core and builds embedded Linux software stacks using a task-oriented approach. [see *Yocto*](#yocto) ## C ### CLI Command Line Interface is 'a text-based user interface (UI) used to run programs, manage computer files and interact with the computer.' [see *balenaCLI*](#balena-cli) ### Cloudlink **(balena specific term)** Previously called balenaVPN, this is the connection that allows balena to have a secure tunnel to the device. Cloudlink uses openVPN as an underlying technology to enable features like [SSH access](/learn/develop/local-mode.md#ssh-into-the-running-app-container-or-host-os), the [public device URL](/learn/manage/actions.md#public-device-url), and the [web terminal](/learn/manage/ssh-access.md#using-the-dashboard-web-terminal) in balenaCloud. ### config.json **(configuration files are not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** 'The main configuration file'. A file located on the boot partition of balenaOS devices, which can be used to modify the behaviour of the OS. [more](/reference/os/configuration.md) ### Container (docker) 'a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings.' [more](https://www.docker.com/resources/what-container/) ## D ### D-Bus a software bus, inter-process communication, and remote procedure call mechanism that allows communication between multiple processes running on the same machine. [more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Bus) ### Deltas **(balena specific term)** Deltas is a balenaCloud feature that enables users to minimize network bandwidth usage and associated costs when deploying new releases to their fleets, by letting devices download the absolute minimum amount of data. From a technical perspective it works as follows: the *delta server*, a backend component of balenaCloud, computes on-demand the binary difference between the images in the new release and the release the fleet is currently running, and the *Supervisor* on a device applies this difference locally by, effectively, mutating its local images. Under a few conditions, deltas are also generated by the *builder* when it builds a new release. ### Device (balena) **(Devices are not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** An internet-connected, single-board computer running balenaOS and provisioned with the balena platform. ### Devices proxy **(balena specific term)** [see *balena-proxy*](#balena-proxy) ### Docker [Docker](https://www.docker.com/) is a set of platform as a service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. [Containers](#container-docker) are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries and configuration files. ### Docker image 'A file used to execute code in a Docker container.' ### Deploy with balena aka. DWB **(balena specific term)** The ‘Deploy with balena’ button is a feature that allows balenaCloud users to create, and push code to an application, in just a few clicks. It’s an alternative deployment method that provides a shortcut so users don’t have to clone or download code and manually add it to their application. It is as much a feature for project builders as it is for project owners, who can enable others to build their projects by adding a single line of code in their readme, or any other web page, and it will link to their own github repo. [more](https://www.balena.io/blog/deploy-with-balena-makes-it-easier-to-deploy-and-share-iot-apps/) ## E ### Edge (computing) 'a distributed computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data.' [more](https://www.iiconsortium.org/pdf/Introduction_to_Edge_Computing_in_IIoT_2018-06-18.pdf) ### Etcher **(balena specific term)** [A software product made by balena.](https://www.balena.io/etcher/) A 'swiss army knife' for getting your software onto a device. Flashes disk images (such as balenaOS) on storage devices like SD cards and validates flash integrity. ### Etcher Pro **(balena specific term) DISCONTINUED.** A hardware product made by balena. A device running Etcher. Can flash 16 devices simultaneously. ## F ### Fleet **(Fleets are not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** A group of devices sharing the same releases, variables, configuration, settings and members. ### Fog The term “fog” attempts to categorize network+compute architectures which flatten in order to distribute computing, storage, and networking closer to end users and sensors. While the term “edge computing / nodes” can often be used in these scenarios, not all “edge compute” can be described by fog terminology, because fog requires the inclusion of network components, and not all edge compute models are network (IP) connected. [more](https://www.w3.org/2017/05/wot-f2f/slides/OpenFog-Overview-W3C-Open-Day-in-May-2017.pdf) ## G ## H ### hostapp **(balena specific term)** A docker image that contains the root filesystem for a device. ### hostapp extension **(balena specific term)** A docker image that is overlaid over a hostapp to add extra content and functionality ### Host os UPdater aka. HUP **(balena specific term)** Tool for balena host OS updates. It downloads an update bundle that replaces the BalenaOS for a Balena device, updating both the boot partition and the rootfs (using an inactive rootfs partition). [more](https://github.com/balena-os/balenahup) ## I ### Image maker (balena architecture) **(balena specific term)** Modifies a stock balenaOS image and embeds information needed to map the OS image to an application running on balenaCloud. The image maker is also used to embed WIFI network connection details into the image. ## J ## K ### Katapult A tool for launching environment variants on different modes and targets, based on kompose format files. [more](https://github.com/product-os/katapult) ### Kubernetes Kubernetes (K8s) is a system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Used by the balenaCloud backend for scaling. [more](https://kubernetes.io/) ## L ### Loki Loki is a horizontally-scalable, highly-available, multi-tenant log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus. Used by balenaCloud to store customer device logs. Used by productOS to store internal logs. [more](https://github.com/grafana/loki) ## M ## N ### NUC A range of small form factor PCs from Intel. [more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Unit_of_Computing) ## O ### openBalena **(balena specific term)** [A balena product.](https://www.balena.io/open/) The open source offering of balena’s platform. Devices run balenaOS and are managed via the balena CLI. openBalena does not include the dashboard. ## P ### Pine.js **(balena specific term)** Pine.js is a sophisticated rules-driven API engine that enables you to define rules in a structured subset of English. Those rules are used in order for Pine.js to generate a database schema and the associated OData API. This makes it very easy to rapidly create, update and maintain a backend while keeping the logic in an easily understood form, as well as providing the ability to update and maintain this logic going forward. [more](https://github.com/balena-io/pinejs) ### Provisioning (balena) **(Provisioning is not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** The process of adding a new device to a balena application. This involves booting the device with a balenaOS image which has had the application’s provisioning key embedded (e.g. by flashing an SD card and booting from that). [more](/learn/introduction/primer.md#device-provisioning) ## Q ## R ### Redshift Amazon Redshift is a cloud data warehouse used to process large amounts of data, typically for analytics use cases. [more](https://aws.amazon.com/redshift) ### Release (balena) **(Releases are not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** A snapshot of code collected into one or more [Docker images](#docker-image). ### Resin The former name for balena, changed late 2018. ### Rulemotion The former name for [Resin.](#resin) ## S ### SBVR SBVR provides a way to capture specifications in natural language and represent them in formal logic, so they can be machine processed. [See *Pine.js*](#pine.js) ### Semantic versioning aka. Semver A version number given to a new release. Versions are broken into MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH - depending on which number is changed, conveys what type of change has been made to the code between versions. For example if you are running version 2.0.0, a new version with the number 2.1.0 would signify a minor change has been made. [more](https://semver.org/) ### Service (balena) **(Services are not unique to balena, but in this instance it's a reference specific to balena)** An independently deployable component of an application, packaged into a Docker image and run as a container. ### Supervisor aka. SV **(balena specific term)** Balena's on-device agent, responsible for monitoring and applying changes to an IoT device. It communicates with balenaCloud and handles the lifecycle of an IoT application. [more](https://github.com/balena-os/balena-supervisor) ## T ### testbot **(balena specific term)** The testbot is a device used to aid in the automation of hardware testing. It connects to a balena fin through a HAT interface, and provides a mechanism to remotely provision, power, and run a test suite against a device under test (DUT). Testbot’s vision is to completely isolate the DUT when testing it much like an octopus around its prey. We control the power, network type and the image flashed to the DUT. ## U ## V ## W ### WiFi Connect A balena utility for dynamically setting the WiFi configuration on a Linux device via a captive portal. Allows you to get a device connected to the local wifi without physically accessing the device. [more](https://github.com/balena-os/wifi-connect) ## X ## Y ### Yocto The Yocto Project is an open source collaboration project that helps developers create custom Linux-based systems regardless of the hardware architecture. balenaOS is built upon Yocto. [more](https://www.yoctoproject.org/) ## Z --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.balena.io/learn/more/glossary.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.