Version: Next

Child-Device Firmware Management using Cumulocity (legacy API)

thin-edge.io provides a legacy operation plugin to manage device firmware using Cumulocity on child devices.

caution

This operation plugin only supports firmware update on child devices and not on the main tedge device.
This is a legacy API. For new developments, the recommended approach is to implement a custom workflow.

Firmware management can be enabled for child devices by installing the c8y-firmware-plugin on the main device, along the Cumulocity mapper. This legacy thin-edge.io plugin coordinates the firmware update operation handling with Cumulocity, by establishing secure communication with the cloud, managing firmware file downloads, which are typically large files, even over flaky networks, caching the downloaded files for re-use across multiple child devices etc.

The c8y-firmware-pluginacts as the proxy between Cumulocity and the child device facilitating the routing of firmware update requests as well as the transfer of firmware binary files from cloud to the device.

For that to work, an additional piece of software must be provided by the child device owner as well. The main responsibility of this piece of software is to handle the specificities of firmware updates on the child device but also to coordinate the firmware installation on the device with the c8y-firmware-plugin running on thin-edge.io. This software, which is not provided out-of-the-box, is referred to as the child-device connector in the rest of this document.

This document describes:

how to install, configure and use the c8y-firmware-plugin
how to implement a child-device connector following the protocol of the c8y-firmware-plugin

c8y-firmware-plugin

Installation

The c8y-firmware-plugin has to be installed on the main device and run as a daemon.

The plugin will be installed at /usr/bin/c8y-firmware-plugin by the debian package. The systemd service definition files for the plugin are also installed at /lib/systemd/system/c8y-firmware-plugin.service. On systemd supported OSes, it can be run as a daemon service as follows:

sudo systemctl enable c8y-firmware-plugin
sudo systemctl start c8y-firmware-plugin

No operations files are created under /etc/tedge/operations/c8y/ as this plugin doesn't support firmware updates for the main device.

Child devices must be register the firmware update capability as part of their bootstrap process, as explained below.

Configuration

Support for this plugin is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled on the c8y mapper.

sudo tedge config set c8y.enable.firmware_update true
sudo systemctl restart tedge-mapper-c8y.service

The plugin supports a single tedge configuration named firmware.child.update.timeout, that defines the amount of time the plugin wait for a child device to finish a firmware update once the request is delivered. The default timeout value (in seconds) is 3600 and can be updated with:

sudo tedge config set firmware.child.update.timeout <value_in_seconds>

Usage

c8y-firmware-plugin --help

Output
Thin-edge device firmware management for Cumulocity

USAGE:
    c8y-firmware-plugin [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
        --config-dir <CONFIG_DIR>
            [env: TEDGE_CONFIG_DIR, default: /etc/tedge]

        --debug
            Turn-on the debug log level.

            If off only reports ERROR, WARN, and INFO If on also reports DEBUG

    -h, --help
            Print help information

    -i, --init
            Create required directories

    -V, --version
            Print version information

`c8y-firmware-plugin` subscribes to `c8y/s/ds` listening for firmware operation requests (message
`515`).
Notifying the Cumulocity tenant of their progress (messages `501`, `502` and `503`).
During a successful operation, `c8y-firmware-plugin` updates the installed firmware info in
Cumulocity tenant with SmartREST message `115`.

The **thin-edge.io** `CONFIG_DIR` is used to find where:
  * to store temporary files on download: `tedge config get tmp.path`,
  * to log operation errors and progress: `tedge config get log.path`,
  * to connect the MQTT bus: `tedge config get mqtt.bind.port`,
  * to timeout pending operations: `tedge config get firmware.child.update.timeout

Logging

The following details are logged by the c8y-firmware-plugin:

All the c8y_Firmware requests received from Cumulocity
All the mapped firmware_update requests sent to each child device
The firmware_update responses received from the child devices
All errors are reported with the operation context

Cleanup

To save bandwidth,the c8y-firmware-plugin downloads a single firmware file only once and keeps it cached for reuse across multiple child devices, as firmware updates could be applied to a fleet of devices together. The cached files are stored under the tedge data directory /var/tedge/cache, by default. Since thin-edge.io does not know how many devices it will be reused for and for how long, it can not clean them up on its own. So, the user must manually delete the cached firmware files once the update is complete on all child devices.

Child-Device Connector

Handling firmware update requests on a child device is a 7-step process:

Connect to the main device over MQTT and HTTP
Publish the capability to handle firmware updates.
Subscribe to, and receive firmware update requests via MQTT
Send an "executing" operation status update to acknowledge the receipt of the request via MQTT
Download the firmware file update from the URL received in the request via HTTP
Apply the firmware file update on the child device
Send a "successful" operation status update via MQTT

HTTP and MQTT Connection

The child-device connector interacts with thin-edge.io over its MQTT and HTTP APIs.

In cases where the child device connector is installed alongside thin-edge.io on the same device, these APIs can be accessed via a local IP or even 127.0.0.1. The MQTT APIs are exposed via port 1883 and the HTTP APIs are exposed via port 8000, by default. When the child device connector is running directly on the external child device, the MQTT and HTTP APIs of thin-edge.io need to be accessed over the network using its IP address and ports, which are configured using the tedge config settings mqtt.client.host or mqtt.client.port for MQTT and http.address and http.port for HTTP.

Capability Registration

The child-device connector must register the capability to process software update requests for that child-device.

This registration is done over MQTT, by sending a retained message to the topic te/device/${$CHILD_DEVICE_ID}///cmd/firmware_update where $CHILD_DEVICE_ID should be replaced with the child's identity.

tedge
mosquitto
mqtt

tedge mqtt pub -r 'te/device/child-1///cmd/firmware_update' '{}'

mosquitto_pub -r -t 'te/device/child-1///cmd/firmware_update' -m '{}'

Publish topic: retain=true

te/device/child-1///cmd/firmware_update

Payload

{}

The Cumulocity mapper will detect the registration of these child device operation capabilities and report them as supported operations for those child devices.

Request Subscription

The child device connector must subscribe to the tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/req/firmware_update MQTT topic to receive the firmware update requests from thin-edge.io.

Example

mosquitto_sub -h {TEDGE_DEVICE_IP} -t "tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/req/firmware_update"

These requests arrive in the following JSON format:

Payload

{
  "id": "{OP_ID}",
  "attempt": 1,
  "name": "{FIRMWARE_NAME}",
  "version": "{FIRMWARE_VERSION}",
  "url":"http://{TEDGE_HTTP_ADDRESS}:{TEDGE_HTTP_PORT}/tedge/file-transfer/tedge-child/firmware_update/{FILE_ID}",
  "sha256":"{FIRMWARE_FILE_SHA256}"
}

Example

{
  "id": "tLrLthPXksKbqRqIsrDmy",
  "attempt": 1,
  "name": "OpenWRT",
  "version": "22.03",
  "url":"http://127.0.0.1:8000/tedge/file-transfer/tedge-child/firmware_update/93d50a297a8c235",
  "sha256":"c036cbb7553a909f8b8877d4461924307f27ecb66cff928eeeafd569c3887e29"
}

The fields in the request are describe below.

Property	Description
id	A unique id for the request. All responses must be sent back with the same id.
attempt	This `attempt` count can be used to differentiate between fresh requests and re-sent requests, as this `attempt` count will be higher than `1` if the same request is resent from thin-edge.io on rare occasions (e.g: thin-edge.io gets restarted while the child device is processing a firmware request).
name	Name of the firmware package
version	Version of the firmware package
sha256	The SHA-256 checksum of the firmware binary served in the `url` which can be used to verify the integrity of the downloaded package post-download.

Execution Notification

On receipt of the request, the connector may optionally send an "executing" MQTT status message, to acknowledge the receipt of the request, as follows:

Topic

tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/res/firmware_update

Payload

{
  "id": "{OP_ID}",
  "status": "executing"
}

where the OP_ID must match the id received in the firmware_update request.

Example

mosquitto_pub -h {TEDGE_DEVICE_IP} -t "tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/res/firmware_update" -m '{"id": "{OP_ID}", "status": "executing"}'

Package Download

After sending this status message, the connector must download the firmware file from the url received in the request with an HTTP GET request. Validating the integrity of the downloaded package by matching its SHA-256 hash value against the sha256 checksum received in the request is highly recommended.

Firmware Update

The connector can then apply the downloaded firmware file update on the device. This step is very device specific and might require use of other device specific protocols as well.

Success Notification

Once the update is successfully applied, send a "successful" MQTT status message as follows:

Topic

tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/res/firmware_update

Payload

{
  "id": "{OP_ID}",
  "status": "successful"
}

Example

mosquitto_pub -h {TEDGE_DEVICE_IP} -t "tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/res/firmware_update" -m '{ "id": "{OP_ID}", "status": "successful" }'

If there are any failures while downloading or applying the update, a "failed" status update (with an optional reason) must be sent instead, to the same topic as follows:

Payload

{
  "id": "{OP_ID}",
  "status": "failed",
  "reason": "Failure reason"
}

Example

mosquitto_pub -h {TEDGE_DEVICE_IP} -t "tedge/{CHILD_ID}/commands/res/firmware_update" -m '{ "id": "{OP_ID}", "status": "failed", "reason": "SHA-256 checksum validation failed" }'

Reference Implementation

The reference implementation of a child device connector written in Python to demonstrate the contract described in this document. This connector supports both configuration and firmware management operations. So, just focus on the firmware management aspects.

Firmware Update Protocol

The plugin manages the download and delivery of firmware files for child-devices connected to the thin-edge.io device, acting as a proxy between the cloud and the child-devices. The firmware updates are downloaded from the cloud on the main device then made available to the child-devices over HTTP. The child devices are notified of incoming firmware update requests via MQTT. The child-device connector has to subscribe to these MQTT messages, download the firmware files via HTTP, and notify the firmware plugin of the firmware update progress via MQTT.

The responsibilities of the c8y-firmware-plugin are:
- to download the firmware files pushed from the cloud, caching it to be shared with child devices
- to handle network failures during the download even on flaky networks
- to publish the downloaded firmware files over a local HTTP server and make them available to the child-devices,
- to notify the child-devices when firmware updates are available,
- to receive forward the firmware update status updates from the child devices to the cloud
By contrast, the c8y-firmware-plugin is not responsible for:
- checking the integrity of the downloaded file which is a third-party binary
- installing the firmware files on the child-devices.
The child-device connector is required to listen for firmware update related MQTT notifications from the plugin and behave accordingly along the protocol defined by this plugin.
- Being specific to each type of child device based on its device specific protocol for applying a firmware update.
- This software can be installed on the child device.
- This software can also be installed on the main device, when the target device cannot be altered or connected to the main device over MQTT and HTTP.
The child-device connector may be installed directly on the child device or alongside thin-edge.io as well, as long as it can access the HTTP and MQTT APIs of thin-edge.io and interact with the child device directly.

The following diagram captures the required interactions between all relevant parties:

The following keywords are used in the following section for brevity:

TEDGE_DATA_PATH: The path set by tedge config data.path. Default: /var/tedge
TEDGE_TMP_PATH: The path set by tedge config tmp.path. Default: /tmp
FIRMWARE_CACHE_PATH: $TEDGE_DATA_PATH/cache
FIRMWARE_OP_PATH: $TEDGE_DATA_PATH/firmware
FILE_TRANSFER_REPO: $TEDGE_DATA_PATH/file-transfer
TEDGE_HTTP_ADDRESS: The combination of tedge configs http.address:http.port
OP_ID: An operation ID
FILE_ID: A firmware file id derived from the SHA-256 digest of the firmware url

The plugin, on reception of a c8y_Firmware request from Cumulocity for a child device named $CHILD_DEVICE_ID in the SmartREST format 515,$CHILD_DEVICE_ID,$FIRMWARE_NAME,$FIRMWARE_VERSION,$FIRMWARE_URL
1. Validate if the same firmware update operation is already in progress by iterating over all the operation files in the $FIRMWARE_OP_PATH directory. The operation files contains the last firmware_update request's JSON payload along with the device ID. If an operation file with the child_id id, name, version and url fields matching the incoming $FIRMWARE_NAME,$FIRMWARE_VERSION and $FIRMWARE_URL is found, the same request is re-sent to the child device by just incrementing the attempt count value. The operation file content is also overwritten the with updated attempt count.
2. If a pending operation match is not found, do a look up if the firmware file for the given url already exists in its firmware cache at $FIRMWARE_CACHE_PATH. The file name for the lookup is derived from the SHA-256 digest of the firmware url.
3. If a cached copy is not found in the firmware cache, the plugin downloads the firmware file from the url to $FIRMWARE_CACHE_PATH with the name derived from the SHA-256 digest of the firmware url. If a cached firmware copy is found, downloading is skipped.
4. Create an operation file at $FIRMWARE_OP_PATH/$OP_ID with a JSON record containing the following fields:
  - operation_id: A unique id generated by the plugin
  - child_id: The child device ID received in the cloud request
  - name: Name of the firmware received in the cloud request
  - version: Version of the firmware received in the cloud request
  - server_url: The firmware URL received in the cloud request
  - tedge_url: The file-transfer service entry URL for the downloaded firmware file (http://$TEDGE_HTTP_ADDRESS/tedge/file-transfer/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/firmware_update/$FILE_ID)
  - sha256: The SHA-256 checksum of the firmware file served via the tedge_url
  - attempt: The count that indicates if this request is being resent or not, with an initial value of 1
5. After creating the operation file, do a look up if the firmware file for the given url already exists
The cached firmware file is published via the file-transfer repository of tedge-agent by creating a symlink to the cached firmware file is created in the file-transfer repository at $FILE_TRANSFER_REPO/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/firmware_update/$FILE_ID making this file available via the HTTP endpoint: http://$TEDGE_HTTP_ADDRESS/tedge/file-transfer/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/firmware_update/$FILE_ID.
Once the updated firmware file is published via the HTTP file transfer service, the plugin send the firmware_update request to the child device connector by publishing an MQTT message:
- Topic: tedge/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/commands/req/firmware_update
- The payload is a JSON record with the following fields
  - id: A unique id generated by the plugin
  - name: Name of the firmware received in the cloud request
  - version: Version of the firmware received in the cloud request
  - url: The file-transfer service entry URL(http://$TEDGE_HTTP_ADDRESS/tedge/file-transfer/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/firmware_update/$FILE_ID)
  - sha256: The SHA-256 checksum of the firmware file served via the url
  - attempt: The count that indicates if this request is being resent or not, starting from 1 for the original request
On reception of the firmware update request on the topic tedge/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/commands/req/firmware_update, the child device connector is expected to do the following:
1. Send an acknowledgement of the receipt of the request by sending an executing status message via MQTT:
  - Topic: tedge/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/commands/res/firmware_update
  - Payload must be a JSON record with the following fields
    - id: The id of the request
    - status: "executing"
2. GETs the firmware file from the url specified by the notification message.
3. Validate the integrity of the downloaded binary by matching its SHA-256 hash value against the sha256 checksum value received in the request.
4. Apply the downloaded firmware file update on the device using whatever device specific protocol.
After applying the update, send the final operation status update to thin-edge.io via MQTT:
1. Topic: tedge/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/commands/res/firmware_update
2. The payload must be a JSON record with the following fields:
  - id: The id of the request received
  - status: successful or failed based on the result of updating the firmware
  - reason: The reason for the failure, applicable only for failed status.
On reception of an operation status message, the plugin maps it to SmartREST and forwards it to the cloud.
- When a successful or failed status message is finally received, then the plugin cleans up the corresponding operation file at $FIRMWARE_OP_PATH/$OP_ID and the firmware file entry in the file transfer repository at $FILE_TRANSFER_REPO/$CHILD_DEVICE_ID/firmware_update/$FILE_ID.
- If a notification message is received while none is expected, i.e with an operation id that doesn't exist at $TEDGE_DATA_PATH/firmware/<id>, then this notification message is deemed stale and ignored.

c8y-firmware-plugin​

Installation​

Configuration​

Usage​

Logging​

Cleanup​

Child-Device Connector​

HTTP and MQTT Connection​

Capability Registration​

Request Subscription​

Execution Notification​

Package Download​

Firmware Update​

Success Notification​

Reference Implementation​

Firmware Update Protocol​

c8y-firmware-plugin

Installation

Configuration

Usage

Logging

Cleanup

Child-Device Connector

HTTP and MQTT Connection

Capability Registration

Request Subscription

Execution Notification

Package Download

Firmware Update

Success Notification

Reference Implementation

Firmware Update Protocol