How to Choose a Software Update Mechanism for Embedded Linux Devices

Leon Anavi, Konsulko Group

Presented at the Embedded Linux Conference North America, June 22, 2022

Atomic software system update of an embedded Linux device has always been an important part of any product, especially nowadays with the existing large fleets of connected devices and Internet of Things. There are several different widely used in the industry approaches: A/B updates with dual redundant scheme, delta updates, container-based updates and combined strategies. Open source technologies such as Mender, RAUC and libostree based solutions implement these strategies and provide tools to manage updates of multiple devices. What are the advantages and disadvantages? How to choose an appropriate open source solution for a specific project? This session explores a number of different open source Linux software update technologies with practical examples for integrating them using the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded. In order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, we deep dive in various use cases. The talk is appropriate for anyone with basic knowledge about Linux. It will hopefully help managers, engineers and developers better understand the technical challenges and the available open source solutions with which to overcome them easier and faster so that they can focus on the unique core features of their products.