Restart device and update existing python file in RPi

General Discussions
#11

I’m not a 100% understanding your question, so I going to answer:
“I have deployed a bash script which reboots the device, and the deployments gets stuck at 70% for a while in the Mender server, and then fails, what is going on?”

  1. Scripts cannot necessarily be used to reboot the device successfully in any state [1][2]. This is because: How can Mender differentiate a reboot in a state-script from a power-loss, or other significant device failures? Thus, the only state-script state which permits this kind of functionality is RebootEnter. Here a script which calls reboot can be run, and the Mender-client will be happy to reboot into the newly installed root-filesystem. If this is a script update module [3], it actually seems that the description on Mender-hub is wrong. This module does not support rebooting the device. I will fix this up, after clarifying with the Module author.

Thus, I guess what I am trying to say, is that rebooting the device at any time is not supported as it is now.

Solutions I can think of at the top of my head are:

  • Write a custom update-module which runs the script in the ArtifactReboot state. This will allow the script to reboot the device successfully, unlike the current ‘official’ script update-module.
  • Use some other tool to reboot the device (ssh? maybe), and keep it out of the Mender update loop.

Which solution is best is a little hard to say, as it depends on your specific use-case.

References:
[1]: https://docs.mender.io/2.3/artifacts/state-scripts#power-loss
[2]: https://docs.mender.io/2.3/devices/update-modules#power-loss
[3]: Script

1 Like
#12

Sure @oleorhagen, I got ur point, Thank you so much for this amazing response. Ill go thru the ArtifactReboot state, Let me explore more on this.

Im actially facing a huge probs now, I have raised another issue:

No one is actually responding, so I refered here, sorry if its wrong way to do it. But its critical, Im not able to see anything wrong with my server, Its 16GB ram and 4 cpus, But Demo server GUIs doesn’t respond smoothly, It hangs, staggers whenever we click at anything on the gui.

#13

Hi @oleorhagen,

Im facing one more issue with my deployment, Once a deployment failes or aborted, the release\artifact is tagged with “Inconsistent” name, and after that the device is never synced in real time update, and because of this I cant deploy any further releases unless I restart the device manually, which is a very unfavourable situation for Mender isn’t it.

#14

In general I would recommend using another tool for rebooting your entire fleet. It could be done with an update module like:

#! /bin/bash

set -e

STATE="$1"
FILES="$2"

case "$STATE" in
    NeedsArtifactReboot)
        echo "Automatic"
        ;;
esac
exit 0

However, this is slightly cumbersome, as it would change the artifact name installed. There is simply no way around it.

1 Like
#15

Sure @oleorhagen, I understand this reboot is not happening for now, Now Ill give a try with the state script u have mentioned… Changing the artifact name isn’t a nice way actually. But Ill try this once.

#16

@oleorhagen Any idea on this ?

#17

@nishad1092 this is not a state-script.
It is an update-module

#18

Sure, I’m looking into now, Looks different way to execute\deploy this to a device.

#19

The inconsistent state is related to a failed update-module update.

I’m going to need a little more information on what exactly you are trying to do?

Is this from the script update-module?

#20

Yes, It is from the script module, Few times it worked fine, But twice it failed and yes, It went to “Inconsistent” mode, But after that, the device stopped taking real time update.

#21

Hi @oleorhagen,

Im facing this lke I mentioned 2 days back, One of my deployment is failed and current software I can see “Inconsistent”, after this Mender deployment isnt happening, deploy is stuck in ‘pending. Why all this happening, device type and every detail is fine.

#22

I think this might be helpful :slight_smile:

#23

@oleorhagen So this is a bug which has not been resolved?

#24

No, this is a feature ticket.

#25

Im very sorry @oleorhagen, I couldtn reply u sooner. What is this ticket, I can see its open, and this is what Im looking for I guess, Still I couldnt resolve it, Im not able to deploy any further releases to the device because of a past failure deployment and causing it to be "Inconsistent " artifact. I think I’ll have only one option to decommision, But even after decommission, no change. :frowning:

#26

Hi @nishad1092.

From what I understand the device should still be able to take a new update.

What exactly is the script doing? Is trying to reboot?

#27

Hi @oleorhagen, Im using dir module to deploy a directory of two python files, and its done, and further execute the python file using .sh script module. And it fails for some reason, Even if it fails , it shouldnt cause these many issues right, The Entire mender is slow, and freezy, and now can’t deploy update to taht device also.

#28

Could you post a deployment log here?

#29

all the logs are gone when I decommisioned it. Well, let me try to get it and Ill share it here sooner.

#30

@oleorhagen,

Hi, Could you genuinely tell me, If I power up a production server, will it be smoother than the Demo server I have now?
Tell me please, So I can confidently say No to Demo server, Because Im trying to evaluating this platform. Have u faced these issues in Demo server. Even the server GUI is freezy and stuck mate.