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Advanced Features

This section covers advanced features for power users, including offline deployment, custom firmware, and extended storage.

Section Contents

Document Description
Image Builder Create custom OpenWrt firmware images
Local Repository Set up offline package repository
Repository Implementation Technical repository details
Full Archive Mode Complete offline deployment
Monitoring & Alerting Advanced monitoring setup

When to Use Advanced Features

Feature Use Case
Local Repository Deploying multiple nodes, slow/expensive internet
Image Builder Custom packages, faster deployments, consistent images
Full Archive Air-gapped networks, disaster recovery
USB Storage Persistent logs, large configs, monitoring data

Feature Comparison

Standard Deploy
      │
      ├── Need Faster? ──► Local Repository
      │
      ├── Need Offline? ──► Full Archive Mode
      │
      ├── Need Storage? ──► USB Storage (see Operations)
      │
      └── Need Custom FW? ──► Image Builder

Quick Start: Local Repository

# Download all packages (~500MB-1GB)
make repo-setup

# Start local HTTP server
make repo-start

# Deploy using local repo
OPKG_REPO_URL=http://your-ip:8080 make deploy-node NODE=1

Quick Start: Image Builder

# Create config snapshot
make snapshot NODE=1

# Build custom image
make image-build NODE=1

# Flash to node
make sysupgrade NODE=1

Quick Start: Full Archive

# Create complete offline archive
make archive-full

# Deploy from archive (no internet required)
make deploy-offline NODE=1

Performance Benefits

Feature Benefit
Local Repo 60% faster package installation
Custom Image 80% faster deployments (packages pre-installed)
Full Archive 100% offline capability

Combining Features

For maximum efficiency, combine features:

  1. Build custom image with all packages pre-installed
  2. Use USB storage for persistent logs and metrics
  3. Keep full archive for disaster recovery
# Complete advanced setup
make repo-setup                  # Cache packages
make snapshot NODE=1             # Capture current config
make image-build NODE=1          # Build with packages
make deploy-monitoring NODE=1    # Enable monitoring