Install Barbara Core on Ubuntu Linux

This article refers to Platform v3.2.0. The current Platform version is v3.3.0.

Overview

This guide covers installing Barbara Core on Ubuntu Linux. Barbara Core is the edge agent that connects your machine to the Barbara platform, enabling remote management and telemetry collection.

Supported distributions:

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy)
• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble)

Supported architectures: amd64 · arm64

Install

Prerequisites

Before running the installer, make sure curl is available on the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl

Run the installer

Run the following command as root in your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://prod.images.barbara.tech/agent/ubuntu/run.sh | sudo bash

The script will:

1. Configure the Barbara APT repositories and GPG key
2. Prompt you for your Barbara Panel credentials:
   • Email — your Barbara Panel account email
   • Password — your Barbara Panel account password
   • Client ID — the OAuth client ID for your organisation
   • Client Secret — the OAuth client secret for your organisation
3. Detect your architecture and download the correct package
4. Ask you to confirm before erasing /var/lib/docker and /var/lib/redis
5. Launch the installer — you will be prompted to size the encrypted storage volumes
6. Verify that the agent services are running and display your Barbara ID

Storage volumes

During installation, an interactive menu will ask you to size the encrypted volumes that Barbara Core uses to store data. Accept the recommended values by pressing Enter, or type a custom size in MB.

Volume	Purpose	Minimum
Application data	Persistent data for applications running on the device	2048 MB
Container runtime	Docker container images and layers	1024 MB
Agent database	Internal agent state: message queues, telemetry, and configuration	512 MB

warning

Volume sizes can be increased later but cannot be reduced. Size the container runtime volume generously if you plan to run large Docker images.

Resize volumes after installation

sudo bbrinit -resize-data

After installation

Once the script completes, it will print your Barbara ID. You can also retrieve it at any time with:

sudo bbrmanager --status

Example output:

Barbara Agent Status
════════════════════════════════════════
Barbara ID:   core_ubuntu_amd64-9a1522d6289b11f184a1bc2411fc62a5
OS:           Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Uptime:       7m

Provisioning
────────────────────────────────────────
  State:      Unprovisioned

Use the Barbara ID to register the device in the Barbara management console.

Troubleshooting

Services not starting — check logs with journalctl -u bbrinit or journalctl -u bbrmanager.

Agent not ready immediately after install — wait a few seconds and run sudo bbrmanager --status again. The services may still be initialising.

Unsupported release or architecture — the installer will exit with an error message. Supported releases: jammy (22.04) · noble (24.04). Supported architectures: amd64 · arm64.