= Data collector!
  
image::ROOT:swarmlab.png[swarmlab,150,float=right]

The "data collector" is a lightweight microservice application that collect and sends metadata, collected from a system, such as an IoT network, distributed system, data center, etc to a storage system.


* The data are transmitted, stored, and can be retrieved at any time.

*"data collector"* are developed with a platform agnostic"container-based application strategy

[NOTE]
====

A platform-agnostic approach offers many choices

* Can be seamlessly moved from local development machine to production deployments

* Flexibility, Reliability

** Avoiding Vendor Lock-In

* From Code to full-blown systems

** from a single container on your local machine

** to a running cloud native - container-based environment
====



== Start 

You can start it in the same way as you start any other application.

TIP: You can find more information http://docs.swarmlab.io/SwarmLab-HowTos/swarmlab/docs/swarmlab/docs/hybrid/start-microservices.html[here^]


=== Open web interface

Find "webclient" Instance from menou: 

* *Instances* - > click *more*

* *connect* -> "Click here to open the Web_App"

=== Open console

Find "webclient" Instance and *run*

[source,c]
----
docker exec ... Command
----


=== Source directory

The directory that contains the source is in "Directory Maps -> Local" column.


image::ROOT:swarmlab-connect.png[float=right]


* (1)  Opens the info  menu 
* (2)  Run a shell in a running container
* (3)  Opens web interface
* (4),(5)  Source directory -  Directory Maps

*"Directory Maps"* are the preferred mechanism for persisting data generated by and used by Docker containers. We use here "bind mounts" and they are dependent on the directory structure and OS of the host machine.

WARNING: Your local changes to the files will be overwritten by click on "Download" button. You should always *take a full backup* first (simple copy the directory tree)