'The Complete Guide to IoT Update Management' iot internetofthings
. The main benefit of OTA methods is that you can send updates from one central platform to every IoT device with no need to have physical access to it.One way for devices to get updates is to download them directly from the main distribution center: the cloud. Another approach of IoT update management is to build locally placed gateways that are responsible for a certain group of devices in the area and control the traffic that goes to and out of that group, including the updates control.
Effective IoT update management helps to avoid such unpleasant situations. So let’s discuss the meaning of the term effective IoT update management and how you can improve your current IoT update process.The main challenge for IoT update management lies in building the update process since it’s unique for every system. However, we can provide you with common workflows in that field and best practices that will make your IoT update process more robust.
Decide whether users can manually choose the time when their IoT devices will get updates, or the downloading and installation of updates will be automatic. The manual option is preferable for personal IoT devices, while the automatic option works better for industrial IoT fleets.A backup allows restoring configuration files to an earlier point in time in case of firmware or software failure after the installation of the update.
Then deploy updates and check whether devices successfully installed them without errors. Run tests to understand the impact on device performance. Test the correctness of the work of installed applications and programs if any. Then delete the patches and check whether the system works stable.There will always be cases of interruptions during the updates deployment.
Assess the impact of the device downtown during the update deployment and alert all interested parties that the IoT fleet will be out of use for some time. It’s necessary for people who interact and use the IoT fleet to understand the period during which IoT devices will be out of use and sensors will stop collecting the data from the environment. Specific situations like deploying updates on medical equipment during surgery are unacceptable.