Remote update embedded systems with a device management platform
Embedded systems are designed to be stable and effective to serve the needed software task in the best way. To do so, we should have the ability to update and continually maintain our Linux based embedded systems at any time and from anywhere.
A remote update mechanism can be implemented in several different ways and could be a challenge that requires a few more tools to handle the job correctly. For example, What we will do if from any reason one of our embedded system products got an error in the field and no one can reach the device immediately? sure, we can deploy a remote update to the specific device and hope that things will go back to normal. But, clearly, this isn’t the right solution when we want to deploy thousands of embedded Linux devices and have a good understanding of their status.
Remote control embedded systems
That brings us to a more nice and clean approach – a full device management platform that helps to keep our product fleets under control. Looking at the last example, having remote control tools which tells what happen, and where the error occurred, then, using the remote control tool to access the specific device and debug the problem until we figure it what. Those steps are necessary before deploying another Over-The-Air software update to an embedded system. Understanding the problem which happened on one or two devices, can help us avoid the same problem on the rest of the embedded systems that are in the field.
We should have the understanding that different edge cases can happen on same type version of the embedded system and without good diagnostic capabilities, we will never have the tools to analyze the current software bugs and the right Over The air software update we should deploy. That’s, of course, can cause big damage to the customers, and moreover, will require us to handle the situation and to recall the device.
A remote update capability should always come with a set of tools that will protect our embedded Linux product from any coming to an unknown situation. Those tools have to work remotely and to give us the right device management capabilities which will help us avoid recalls at all cost.
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