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Deploy With Installer

The Cloud Installer is a small CloudFormation stack you install once, into a region of your choosing. It then gives you a web dashboard where you pick a Neo version and modules, fill in parameters, and deploy — no local toolchain.

This is the recommended way to stand up ESP RainMaker Neo, and the route most take. If you intend to modify the backend, or want the deployment under your own CI, use Deploy from Source instead.

Install it once per AWS account. One installer manages deployments in every region, so a second one in the same account collides with the first over shared bucket and table names.

What you need

An AWS account you own, signed in as a user or role with administrator access. The installer creates IAM roles, Lambda functions, DynamoDB tables, S3 buckets, Cognito pools and API Gateway APIs, and then deploys the Neo stacks on your behalf.

1. Deploy the installer stack​

Enter the email address(es) that should be allowed to sign in to the installer dashboard and pick the region to install into, then click Install ESP RainMaker Neo. One Cognito user is created per address.

Separate multiple addresses with commas. Each one becomes an initial admin user for Neo.

Where the installer stack itself is created. You choose the region for the ESP RainMaker Neo deployment separately, in the installer dashboard.


The CloudFormation Quick create stack page opens in a new tab with the template, the stack name ESP-RainMaker-Neo-Installer and the InstallerEmails parameter already filled in. On that page:

  1. Scroll to the bottom and tick I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names.
  2. Choose Create stack.

Tick the IAM acknowledgement, then choose Create stack

The stack takes about 5 to 10 minutes to reach CREATE_COMPLETE.

2. Sign in to the installer dashboard​

Open the stack's Outputs tab and follow InstallerFrontendUrl to the installer login page.

Open the Outputs tab and follow InstallerFrontendUrl

Enter one of the InstallerEmails addresses from step 1. A one-time code is emailed to that address; enter it to sign in. There is no password.

Code not arriving?

Check your spam folder. Corporate mail servers often filter Cognito's automated mail.

3. Pick a version and modules​

  • Version — listed newest-first. Once you have deployed a version, downgrades are blocked.

  • Region — the region your Neo deployment lives in. It is independent of the region the installer runs in, and you can deploy to several.

  • Packages — the ESP RainMaker Neo package is free. Modules marked Required are always installed:

    • ESP RainMaker Neo Identity — standalone identity management system.
    • ESP RainMaker Neo — core IoT cloud, and the Admin Dashboard you administer it from.
    • Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings — control your devices from each voice assistant.

    Assisted Claiming is optional: tick it for cloud-signed node onboarding, with the CA held in AWS KMS.

The Enterprise Plan modules below it are paid and stay locked until Espressif enables them for your account.

The RainMaker Neo package with its Required modules and the optional Assisted Claiming

Choose Deploy.

4. Fill in the parameters and deploy​

The installer prompts only for the parameters the selected modules need.

  1. Set AdminEmails under ESP User Core to a comma-separated list of the emails to create as super admin users of the Admin Dashboard. Include your own: it is what you sign in to the Admin Dashboard with. These can be the same addresses you gave as InstallerEmails in step 1.

    The Parameters step with AdminEmails filled in on ESP User Core

  2. Choose Next.

  3. On Review & Deploy, check the deployment plan and choose Deploy.

The deployment page tracks progress live. Stacks deploy stage by stage, with the stacks inside a stage running in parallel. A first deployment takes up to an hour, and it is safe to leave the page and come back.

The deployment page with its live progress bar

If the deployment fails

Retry it from the installer home page: pick the same version and packages, and choose Deploy again.

Your deployment is live​

Once the deployment completes, go to the installer home page and choose Open setup guide.

The installer home page with the Open setup guide button

The installer home page with Quick access, the deployed version and region, and Deploy

You can also open the guide directly at /rmng/account/<account-id>/get-started on your InstallerFrontendUrl, where <account-id> is your AWS account ID.

The setup guide takes you end to end: point the mobile app at your deployment, bring a real ESP32 device online, and see the whole flow work together.

The setup guide on the Mobile App step: install ESP RainMaker Home, then tap Private Deployment and scan the QR code

It has three steps:

  1. Mobile App — install the ESP RainMaker Home app and scan the deployment QR code to point it at your deployment. See the Phone app walkthrough.
  2. Admin Dashboard — sign in to the ESP RainMaker Neo Admin Dashboard with one of the AdminEmails addresses from step 4, then generate and register a node identity for your device. See Admin Dashboard.
  3. Firmware — flash the firmware and that node identity onto an ESP32. On boot it connects to your cloud and prints a QR code for adding it in the app. See Flash a device and the Dashboard batch flow.