RDFM Linux Device Client¶

Introduction¶

The RDFM Linux Device Client (rdfm-client) integrates an embedded Linux device with the RDFM Server. This allows for performing robust Over-The-Air (OTA) updates of the running system and remote management of the device.

rdfm-client runs on the target Linux device and handles the process of checking for updates in the background along with maintaining a connection to the RDFM Management Server.

Getting started¶

In order to support robust updates and rollback, the RDFM Client requires proper partition layout and integration with the U-Boot bootloader. To make it easy to integrate the RDFM Client into your Yocto image-building project, it’s recommended to use the meta-rdfm Yocto layer when building the BSPs.

Installing from source¶

Requirements¶

• C compiler

• Go compiler

• liblzma-dev, libssl-dev and libglib2.0-dev packages

Steps¶

To install an RDFM client on a device from source, first clone the repository and build the binary:

git clone https://github.com/antmicro/rdfm.git && cd devices/linux-client/
make

Then run the install command:

make install

Installation notes¶

Installing rdfm this way does not offer a complete system updater. System updates require additional integration with the platform’s bootloader and a dual-root partition setup for robust updates. For this, it’s recommended to build complete BSPs containing rdfm using the meta-rdfm Yocto layer.

Building using Docker¶

All build dependencies for compiling the RDFM Client are included in a dedicated Dockerfile. To build a development container image, you can use:

git clone https://github.com/antmicro/rdfm.git && cd devices/linux-client/
sudo docker build -t rdfmbuilder .

This will create a Docker image that can be later used to compile the RDFM binary:

sudo docker run --rm -v <rdfm-dir>:/data -it rdfmbuilder
cd data/devices/linux-client
make

Configuring the client¶

RDFM default config¶

The main config file contents are located in /etc/rdfm/rdfm.conf. It’s JSON formatted and with the following keys of interest:

RootfsPartA string¶

Partition A for the A/B updating scheme.

RootfsPartB string¶

Partition B for the A/B updating scheme.

RDFM overlay config¶

The file /var/lib/rdfm/rdfm.conf defines the high-level RDFM client configurations. They are overlaid over the configuration located in /etc/rdfm/rdfm.conf during client startup.

DeviceTypeFile string¶

Path to the device type file.

UpdatePollIntervalSeconds int¶

Poll interval for checking for new updates.

RetryPollIntervalSeconds int¶

Maximum number of seconds between each retry when authorizing.

ServerCertificate string¶

Path to a server SSL certificate.

ServerURL string¶

Management server URL.

HttpCacheEnabled bool¶

Describing if artifact caching is enabled. True by default.

ReconnectRetryCount int¶

HTTP reconnect retry count.

ReconnectRetryTime int¶

HTTP reconnect retry time.

TelemetryEnable bool¶

Describing if telemetry is enabled. False by default.

TelemetryBatchSize int¶

Number of log entries to be sent to a management server at a time. Fifty by default.

RDFM telemetry config¶

The JSON structured loggers.conf file, laying under /etc/rdfm/, serves as a configuration file that defines a set of loggers to be executed once the client establishes a connection to the RDFM management server. Each logger can be any executable binary, which will be invoked by the client at predefined intervals. The client captures and processes the output generated by these loggers, providing a flexible mechanism for collecting and reporting system or application data during runtime.

The loggers.json file contains an array of dictionaries, each of which describes a logger.

Consider the following example:

[
    {
    "name": "current date",
    "path": "date",
    "args": ["--rfc-email"],
    "tick": 1000
    }
]

name string¶

Denotes the name of the logger, each one should have a unique name. Loggers lower in the file will overwrite their counterparts that are above them.

path string¶

A path to an executable to be ran.

args []string¶

A list of arguments for the given executable.

tick int¶

Number of milliseconds between each time a logger is ran. In the case of a logger taking more than tick to execute, it is killed and the client reports a timeout error.

Testing server-device integration with a demo Linux device client¶

For development purposes, it’s often necessary to test server integration with an existing device client. To do this, it is possible to use the RDFM Linux device client, without having to build a compatible system image utilizing the Yocto meta-rdfm layer. First, build the demo container image:

cd devices/linux-client/
make docker-demo-client

You can then start a demo Linux client by running the following:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.demo.yml up

If required, the following environment variables can be changed in the above docker-compose.demo.yml file:

• RDFM_CLIENT_SERVER_URL - URL to the RDFM Management Server, defaults to http://127.0.0.1:5000/.

• RDFM_CLIENT_SERVER_CERT (optional) - path (within the container) to the CA certificate to use for verification of the connection to the RDFM server. When this variable is set, the server URL must also be updated to use HTTPS instead of HTTP.

• RDFM_CLIENT_DEVTYPE - device type that will be advertised to the RDFM server; used for determining package compatibility, defaults to x86_64.

• RDFM_CLIENT_PART_A, RDFM_CLIENT_PART_B (optional) - specifies path (within the container) to the rootfs A/B partitions that updates will be installed to. They do not need to be specified for basic integration testing; any updates that are installed will go to /dev/zero by default.

The demo client will automatically connect to the specified RDFM server and fetch any available packages. To manage the device and update deployment, you can use the RDFM Manager utility.

Developer Guide¶

Running tests¶

Use the test make target to run the unit tests:

make test

Additionally, run the scripts available in the scripts/test-docker directory. These scripts test basic functionality of the RDFM client.