Q: How do you guys centrally update field devices?
I am working on professionalizing our IOT setup that currently consists of a few dozen raspberries which run docker containers. They are individually updated by sshing into them and running apt update manually. Docker containers are deployed with a commercial solution.
I want to have a centralized way to update the OSes, but it does not really make sense for our small team to introduce yocto knowledge, because that would make us fall behind development schedule even more. Also, the hardware needs are just too boring to justify rolling our own os.
I have not yet found a hardware independent Linux distro that can be reliably updated in an IOT context.
I am now looking if we can buy ourselves out of this problem.
Ubuntu Core goes in the right direction, but we don't want to make us dependent on the snap store.
Advantech has a solution for central device management with Ota updates, maybe we are going that route.
How do you guys update field devices centrally? Thanks!
As someone who works in the field, most customers are reluctant to commit to a platform that ties them to a single cloud.
Also, an MS employee I talked to alleged that azure IoT is not selling like hot cakes, so I guess most people see this similarly.
My recommendation is to go with a cloud hosted MQTT broker, and do stuff like device configuration and edge computing over a generic config management system like ansible or salt.
I am working on professionalizing our IOT setup that currently consists of a few dozen raspberries which run docker containers. They are individually updated by sshing into them and running apt update manually. Docker containers are deployed with a commercial solution. I want to have a centralized way to update the OSes, but it does not really make sense for our small team to introduce yocto knowledge, because that would make us fall behind development schedule even more. Also, the hardware needs are just too boring to justify rolling our own os. I have not yet found a hardware independent Linux distro that can be reliably updated in an IOT context.
I am now looking if we can buy ourselves out of this problem. Ubuntu Core goes in the right direction, but we don't want to make us dependent on the snap store. Advantech has a solution for central device management with Ota updates, maybe we are going that route.
How do you guys update field devices centrally? Thanks!