# IoT Apps Deployment

Ionoid.io makes it easy to deploy apps on IoT and Edge Linux devices, in just few clicks, an App can be deployed on hundreds or thousands of devices.

From dashboard you can update your applications, but also if enabled, rollback to previous version in case of errors.

# Apps Deployment Workflow

When deploying archive or static (opens new window) apps there are two extra deployment workflows that you can select or even combine.

# 1. Dual A/B Deployment Workflow

This workflow allows you to have two copies of the application stored in device storage. This is known as the dual A/B workflow, where for each new deployment of the application; we keep the previous one where we can rollback to it, in order to recover from errors, application bugs, etc.

Before activating this feature, please make sure you have enough space storage on devices for the uncompressed application files. Usually if your uncompressed application takes up less than 30% of the entire storage, then it should be fine.

By default it is disabled, to enable this feature, please see Project Configuration (opens new window), then Redeploy Project Configuration (opens new window) operation to redeploy the changes to devices.

# 2. Delta Updates Workflow

The delta update workflow is an update mechanism for applications that only requires the user to download the code that has changed, not the whole program. It can significantly save time and bandwidth.

An app can be updated faster and more efficiently due to this mechanism, as an example: a packaged archive app that is 100 megabytes will be updated with new files that add an additional two megabytes to the application's size, in this case only two megabytes will be downloaded instead of 102 megabytes.

Ionoid.io uses the VCDIFF format (opens new window) to perform delta encoding and updates, the full specification can be found in IETF's RFC 3284: The VCDIFF Generic Differencing and Compression Data Format (opens new window). The open source project xdelta version 3 (opens new window) is used to handle delta encoding.

By default, delta updates option is disabled, and app deployment is performed using the full application package. To enable this feature, please see Project configuration (opens new window), then Redeploy project configuration (opens new window) operation to redeploy the changes to devices. See Delta Updates Example for more details.

# Deploy Apps

In the next sections, we consider that you have:

Created an account on Ionoid.io
Created at least one project
Registered at least one device on this project

If not, please follow the guidelines on the links above then return to this page.

The dashboard provides a way to deploy on a subset of devices, using filters based on device names (for example, deploy only on devices with names matching weather-station-*), or devices with a specific status (for example device with status error to fix a bug).

To deploy an IoT app you have three options:

Deploy on a single device
Deploy on all devices of a project
Deploy on a subset of devices of a project

# Deploy on a Single Device

In this example we assume that the deployed applications are archive or static apps, deploying docker applications is same except that we use docker urls.

On the device details page , click on the ︙ button and choose Deploy app on this device action:

Click on Deploy App Button

On the window that appears, you can optionally add/remove environment variables for this app
Paste a public accessible URL to your app, and click on the Deploy button

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If you have not yet an app on hand, you can test our Hello World test app, for that, use this public URL for ARMv6 devices (opens new window), and this public URL for ARMv7 devices (opens new window) to deploy the version v0.1.

After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on the device.

Paste the App Public URL

Once the app deployed on this device, you can see it listed on the project app list page or on the device app list page .

# Deploy on All Devices of a Project

On the project details page make sure that no device is selected. Click on ︙ button and choose Deploy app on all devices action:

Click on Deploy App on All Devices

On the window that appears, you can optionally add/remove environment variables for this app.
Paste a public accessible URL to your app, and click on the Deploy button

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After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on each device.

Deploy App on All Devices of a Project

Once the app deployed on at least one device of the project, you can see it listed on the project app list page .

# Deploy on a Subset of Devices of a Project

On the project details page , select the device(s) you want to deploy to

WARNING

If you don't select any device, the deployment will concern all the devices of the current project.

Click on the ︙ button, and choose the Deploy app action
Optionally, remove/add environment variables this app needs to properly work
Paste a public accessible URL to your app, and click on the Deploy button

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Deploy App on Selected Devices

After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on each device.

Once the app deployed on at least one device of the project, you can see it listed on the project app list page .

# Predeployed Applications

There are cases where the applications should be packed with OS image, installed then run on first boot. This is supported by copying the application into the /data/ partition, inside directory /data/apps/archive/. The directory has to be created in first place by the user, before booting the image.

Example assuming mounted data storage is at /mnt/data/:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/data/apps/archive/
sudo cp my-app-v1.tar.gz /mnt/data/apps/archive/
sync /mnt/data/apps/archive/my-app-v1.tar.gz
umount /mnt/data/apps

When devices are booted, the directory /data/apps/archive/ will be checked every 10 minutes to 15 minutes, all applications inside will be installed. After trigerring the installation, the corresponding applications packages are removed.

# Update Apps

You can easily update an already deployed app to a newer version, for that you have three options:

Update on a single device
Update on all devices of a project
Update on a subset of devices of a project

# Update on a Single Device

On the device app details page , click on the ︙ button, and choose Update app on this device

Click on Update App on this Device

You will get the same window as in the first deploy step, however with the previous public URL pasted. Follow the same steps as in the first deploy process, and after few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on this device.

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You can use the same public URL to deploy multiple versions of the same app. This is why for convenience, the previous public URL has been pasted to deployment field.

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If you used our Hello World v0.1 test app on the first deploy, you can now use its v0.2 version to test update. Here is the public URL for ARMv6 devices (opens new window), and the public URL for ARMv7 devices (opens new window) to deploy the version v0.1.

# Update on All Devices of a Project

On the project app details page , click on the ︙ button, then click on the Update app on all devices button:

Click on Update App on all Devices

You will get the same window as in the first deploy step, however with the previous public URL pasted. Follow the same steps as in the first deploy process, and after few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on devices of the project.

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You can use the same public URL to deploy multiple versions of the same app. This is why for convenience, the previous public URL has been pasted to deployment field.

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# Update on a Subset of Devices of a Project

Navigate to the project app list page then click on the target app
Select the devices you want to update app on
Click on the ︙ button, then click on the Update app on selected devices button:

Click on Update App on Selected Devices

You will get the same window as in the first deploy step, however with the previous public URL pasted. Follow the same steps as in the first deploy process, and after few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the status and progress of the app deployment on devices of the project.

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You can use the same public URL to deploy multiple versions of the same app. This is why for convenience, the previous public URL has been pasted to deployment field.

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# Delta Updates Example

Let's assume that the current app version has been deployed using the package file my-app-1.0.0.tar.gz, and that you want to deploy a new version packaged in file my-app-2.0.0.tar.gz. You will not need to upload the whole my-app-2.0.0.tar.gz file. Instead, you will upload the difference between the two packages, known under the fancy name of the delta.

To generate a delta between two files you will need to install xdelta3 (opens new window) on your Linux working station (make sure it is xdelta3 with version 3):

# For example, in debian/ubuntu based distributions:
sudo apt-get install xdelta3

The steps to perform a delta update are the following:

Produce a delta file named app.xdelta between my-app-1.0.0.tar.gz and my-app-2.0.0.tar.gz using xdelta3:

xdelta3 -e -s my-app-1.0.0.tar.gz my-app-2.0.0.tar.gz app.xdelta

Host the generated app.xdelta file somewhere such that it must be inside a folder named 1.0.0, the full URL will be, for example:

https://example.com/software/my-app/1.0.0/app.xdelta

N. B.

The current deployed version on device is read from the app.yaml file (opens new window) in package file my-app-1.0.0.tar.gz present on the device, not from the package filename itself, which can just as well be named, say, my-app-first-version.tar.gz.
The file must be named app.xdelta and the folder must be named 1.0.0.

Perform the delta update by navigating to the project app details page or the device app details page , then on the actions menu, click on Update app on all/selected/current device(s), make sure that Delta Update is enabled and paste the following delta base URL https://example.com/software/my-app/:

Paste Delta Update URL

N. B.

This is the delta base URL that must be filled (without the 1.0.0/app.xdelta) and not the full URL. Passing the full URL will result in a failure.

This instructs the device to:

Get the current version of the app from the local app.yaml file (opens new window), in this case 1.0.0.
Use the current version to construct the final URL by appending 1.0.0/app.xdelta to the delta base URL, to finally produce:

https://example.com/software/my-app/1.0.0/app.xdelta

Download the delta file and patch the current packaged version.

Question: Why should I provide the delta base URL and not the full delta URL

Even if it does not seem to be logical in the previous simple case to provide the delta base URL https://example.com/software/my-app/ instead of the full URL, this convention will prove useful when deploying multiple delta updates for multiple different obsolete versions.

Suppose you have my-app deployed on 10 devices, you regularly deploy updates of this app to keep it up to date. But due to connectivity issues, some devices still have an obsolete version of the app (latest version is 10.0.0):

Device A: has version 5.0.0
Device B: has version 7.0.0
Device C: has version 9.0.0

All remaining devices have version 10.0.0. You will not have to update each device individually. Instead, prepare 3 delta files:

A first one for passage from 5.0.0 to 10.0.0
A second one for passage from 7.0.0 to 10.0.0
A third one for passage from 9.0.0 to 10.0.0

All delta files need to be named app.xdelta, but each of them must be put inside a folder named with the starting version, thus:

The first delta update must be put in folder 5.0.0/
The second delta update must be put in folder 7.0.0/
The third delta update must be put in folder 9.0.0/

So, folder structure at the my-app level must be:

my-app
├── 5.0.0
│   └── app.xdelta # represents transition from 5.0.0. to 10.0.0
├── 7.0.0
│   └── app.xdelta # represents transition from 7.0.0. to 10.0.0
└── 9.0.0
    └── app.xdelta # represents transition from 9.0.0. to 10.0.0

Then, all what you need to do is to visit the project app details page , and choose Update app on all devices, then you paste the delta base URL https://example.com/software/my-app/. Each device will go and look at path CURRENT_VERSION/app.xdelta in the delta base URL based on the CURRENT_VERSION of the app installed on it, then download the delta file and patch app package with it:

Device A: will read local version 5.0.0 and fetch path 5.0.0/app.xdelta in delta base URL
Device B: will read local version 7.0.0 and fetch path 7.0.0/app.xdelta in delta base URL
Device A: will read local version 9.0.0 and fetch path 9.0.0/app.xdelta in delta base URL

Don't worry about up-to-date devices that will try to fetch 10.0.0/app.xdelta, they will simply fail to download the delta file and cancel the update. If you want to avoid such inoffensive errors, just select devices with outdated app version before updating app.

# Rollback Apps

If you deployed an IoT app, then discovered that it is buggy (on one or more devices), do not panic! You can easily rollback the app version, for that you have three options:

Rollback on a single device
Rollback on all devices of a project
Rollback on a subset of devices of a project

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To be able to use this feature, Dual A/B Deployment must be enabled.

# Rollback on a Single Device

On the top of the device app details page , you can check what is the current version, and what is the previous version
Click on the ︙ button, and choose Rollback app on this device

Click on Rollback Device App

Confirm by clicking on the Rollback button on the confirmation window
After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the rollback process on the device

# Rollback on All Devices of a Project

On the project app details page , make sure that no device is selected
Click on the ︙ button, then click on the Rollback app on all devices button:

Click on Rollback Project App

Confirm by clicking on the Rollback button on the confirmation window
After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the rollback process on the device

# Rollback on a Subset of Devices of a Project

On the project app details page , select the devices you want to update app on
Click on the ︙ button, then click on the Rollback app on selected devices button:

Click on Rollback Selected Devices App

Confirm by clicking on the Rollback button on the confirmation window
After few seconds, you will receive realtime messages about the rollback process on the selected devices

# Start/Stop Apps

You can either stop an (already running) app on all or some devices of a project, or on a single device:

To stop a running app on all devices of a project, navigate to the project app details page . Click on the ︙ button, then click on the Stop app on all devices:

Click on Stop App on allDevices

To start the app again, use the same menu, and click on Start app on all devices
To stop a running app on a single device, navigate to the device app details page
Click on the ︙ button, then click on Stop app on this device:
To start the app again, use the same menu, and click on Start app on this device

Click on Stop App on thisDevice

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Starting an already running app will have the effect of restarting this app
When an app has been started, you don't need to start it again on the next reboot of the device, it will auto-start

# Disable Apps

Disaling an IoT app is like stopping it, except that it will not restart the next time the device reboots. You can either disable an app on all, or some devices of a project, or on a single device:

To disable an app on all devices of a project, navigate to the project app details page and click on Disable app on this project button:

Click on Disable App on thisProject

To disable an app on a single device, navigate to the device app details page . Click on the ︙ button, then click on Disable app on this device:

Click on Disable App on thisDevice

# Delete Apps

You can either delete an app on all or some devices of a project, or on a single device:

To delete an app on all devices of a project, navigate to the project app details page and click on Delete app on this project button:

Click on Delete App on thisProject

To delete an app on a single device, navigate to the device app details page . Click on the ︙ button, then click on Delete app on this device:

Click on Delete App on thisDevice

Have Questions?

We're always happy to help with IoT projects or other questions you might have! Check our documentation (opens new window), contact our support team at support@ionoid.io, or our sales team sales@opendevices.io. You can also ask questions on our forums (opens new window) or open an issue on Github (opens new window).

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