Creating

Deployments associate firmware images to devices. NervesHub won't send firmware to a device until you create a deployment. First find the UUID of the firmware. You can list the firmware on NervesHub by calling:

mix nerves_hub.firmware list
​
Firmwares:
------------
  product:      example
  version:      0.3.0
  platform:     rpi3
  architecture: arm
  uuid:         1cbecdbb-aa7d-5aee-4ba2-864d518417df

In this example we will create a new deployment for our test group using firmware 1cbecdbb-aa7d-5aee-4ba2-864d518417df.

mix nerves_hub.deployment create
​
NervesHub organization: nerveshub
Deployment name: qa_deployment
firmware uuid: 1cbecdbb-aa7d-5aee-4ba2-864d518417df
version condition:
tags: qa
Local user password:
Deployment test created

Here we create a new deployment called qa_deployment. In the conditions of this deployment we left the version condition unspecified and the tags set to only qa. This means that in order for a device to qualify for an update, it needs to have at least the tags [qa] and the device can be coming from any version.

At this point we can try to update the connected device.

Start by bumping the application version number from 0.1.0 to 0.1.1. Then, create new firmware:

mix firmware

We can publish, sign, and deploy firmware in a single command now.

mix nerves_hub.firmware publish --key devkey --deploy qa_deployment

Conditionally applying updates

It's not always appropriate to apply a firmware update immediately. Custom logic can be added to the device by implementing the NervesHub.Client behaviour and telling the NervesHub OTP application about it.

Here's an example implementation:

defmodule MyApp.NervesHubClient do
   @behaviour NervesHub.Client
​
   # May return:
   #  * `:apply` - apply the action immediately
   #  * `:ignore` - don't apply the action, don't ask again.
   #  * `{:reschedule, timeout_in_milliseconds}` - call this function again later.
​
   @impl NervesHub.Client
   def update_available(data) do
    if SomeInternalAPI.is_now_a_good_time_to_update?(data) do
      :apply
    else
      {:reschedule, 60_000}
    end
   end
end

To have NervesHub invoke it, update your config.exs as follows:

config :nerves_hub, client: MyApp.NervesHubClient