Trying to understand

General Discussions
1

Hi all, I’m trying to understand how mender works and if it’s appropriate for what I’m trying to do.
I am using an x86 based device and am not using a device image. I install my own Ubuntu and then the mender client. I have a bunch of work flows which I need

  • updating the OS itself via the usual package manager
  • I run some custom applications including a couple based on docker compose, one python application
  • I have existing shell scripts which I used to deploy my applications from aws system manager
  • I host a custom container that runs as a docker compose service
  • I host my own application code which needs to be pulled down during updates

I’m trying to sort out if mender is the right tool for us. I see that I would need to create artifacts and probably create some custom update modules, is that correct?

2

Hi @pinter,

Technically all of this should be possible, and yes, it would be done through a number of Update Modules. Basically one per specialized task which you want to fulfill.
The artifacts would then hold whatever information or payload is required for the specific task.

One note on the first item though: running “the usual updates through the package manager” is somewhat risky. If something needs a confirmation, a package download fails, or similar things, then accessing the box might not be possible anymore. Plus, you will end up with a variety of states depending on when the box actually ran this. So I’d definitely consider finding another way here.

Greetz,
Josef