Automated Device Software Management

Learn about automated downloads and steps to configure automated downloads by device and hierarchy. 

VHQ’s ability to efficiently and selectively download software packages provides users with a powerful and customized way to manage changes to the devices in their estate automatically.

Using the Device Management module on the VHQ Server, packages and reference set can be created for automatic download to one or more devices and scheduled at the hierarchy, group, or device level. When an automated download is scheduled, selected package/files is/are chosen to download to the selected devices.

Software Package Format

Platform

.TGZ

V/OS, V/OS2

.TAR

V/OS, V/OS2

.ZIP

VX eVo

.Bintbl

V/OS, V/OS2

.APK

Android

Disabling or enabling automated downloads in case of download failure at the device level:

When the device reports failure of an automatic download of an application, VHQ marks the application (at Device level) disabled for download automation and further restricts download of the particular application. However, the user can manually reset the state and enable the Applications for future automated downloads.

The Automated Download functionality is available for any Downloads (Software – V/OS Bundles and VPI Packages and Content).

  1. Select Enabled or Disabled in Device Profile > Software Status tab, the Bundle for download automation. You can also view, the reason of the installation failure while hovering over the disabled bundle.

By Device  

Direct assignment of Packages or Reference sets to a Device

Associating Reference Set to a Device

You can assign a Reference set directly to a Device.

To assign reference set:

  1. Go to Device Search and select the device to invoke Device Profile.
  2. Click Software Assignment under Software tab in Device Profile.
  3. You can enable or disable Download Automation and Assignment Type to Reference Set or Packages or none to the device. You can assign a reference set to the devices either by Direct Assignment or Inherit from Hierarchy. Select the option and click Save. (For VHQ devices)

NOTE: When a Reference Set is assigned directly (Direct Assignment), then attributes added at the time of RS creation will not be considered.

Hierarchy Assignment Screen

The Hierarchy Assignment screen is now presented in a column layout.

  1. Go to Device Management > Manage Reference Sets > Hierarchy Assignment.

The Hierarchy Assignment screen includes:

Hierarchy Path

Indicates the device hierarchy path.

Qualified Reference Sets

Indicates the qualified reference set assigned to the hierarchy and inherited from the parent hierarchy.

Direct Reference Sets

Indicates the qualified reference set assigned to the hierarchy and inherited from the parent hierarchy.

Assignment Type

Indicates the assignment type for the hierarchy. If the assignment is of direct assignment, the assignment type is Direct and if the assignment is of qualified reference set the assignment type as None.

Automatic Download Enabled

Indicates the hierarchy is enabled for auto downloads.

Download On

Indicates when the download should take place. The download can take place on Next Contact or Maintenance Window or Next available free time slot.

Details

Indicates the full path of the hierarchy reference set.

To edit the reference set assignment, click Edit icon.

The Qualified reference set is added in the Edit Reference Set Assignment screen.


From Device Profile screen

Assigning Software Packages (Direct Assignment at Device Profile)

You can assign a software package to the device through Direct Assignment.

To assign software package:

  1. Select a device or click the device serial number in Serial# column.
  2. Select Software Assignment under Software tab in Device Profile.

The software assignment screen includes:

  • Download Automation: This feature allows you to automatically download the schedule software packages.
    • Enabled: Select the option to enable download automation of software packages to the device.
    • Disabled: Select the option to disable download automation of software packages to the device. However, you can manually download software to the devices. For more information, refer Scheduling Downloads Manually.
  • Assignment Type: This allows you to select the Assignment Type as Reference Set or Packages or None.

You can assign a Reference Set which contains a collection of packages, to the device or assign multiple packages to a device by selecting the Package option; however you can only assign one reference set to a device.

  1. Selecting Assignment Type as Reference Set includes Direct Assignment and Inherit from Hierarchy.
    • Direct Assignment: The Direct Assignment option lists the reference sets which device qualifies, and their corresponding packages along with the Active or Inactive status. You can select a reference set and directly assigned to the device. Click Save to apply the changes.

NOTE: Any Reference Set with the Device Attributes criteria added, when used particularly in Direct Assignment, the criteria part will not be applicable to the device. Only the Download part is applicable. However, if the same Reference Set is assigned to a Hierarchy, the attributes criteria part will be applicable.

    • Inherit from Hierarchy: Selecting this option allows you to directly inherit the reference set assigned at the hierarchy. Click Save to apply the changes. For more information,

      refer Associating Software (Reference Set) to Hierarchy Node.

    • Inherit from Hierarchy: Selecting this option allows you to directly inherit the reference set assigned at the hierarchy. Click Save to apply the changes. For more information,

      refer Associating Software (Reference Set) to Hierarchy Node.

  • Selecting Assignment Type as Packages. You can select multiple packages from the available packages list and set the order of precedence.
  • Selecting Assignment Type as None will delete the existing assignments of the device.

From Device search

Assigning Software to Multiple Devices

Assigning Software Packages (Direct Assignment at Device Search)

You can assign software to multiple devices.

To assign software to multiple devices:

  • Select the devices in Device Search/Filter. In the Action drop-down, select Software Assignment.

The software assignment screen includes:

  • Download Automation: This feature allows you to automatically download the schedule software packages.
    • Enabled: Select the option to enable download automation of software packages to the devices.
    • Disabled: Select the option to disable download automation of software packages to the devices. However, you can manually download software to the devices. For more information, refer Scheduling Downloads Manually.
  • Assignment Type: This allows you to select the Assignment Type as Reference Set or Packages or None. 
    • You can assign a Reference Set which contains a collection of packages, to the device or assign multiple packages to a device by selecting the Package option; however you can only assign one reference set to a device.
    • Selecting Assignment Type as Reference Set includes Direct Assignment and Inherit from Hierarchy.
  • Direct Assignment: The Direct Assignment option lists the reference sets which devices qualifies, and their corresponding packages along with the Active or Inactive status. You can select a reference set and directly assigned to the devices. Click Save to apply the changes.
  • Inherit from Hierarchy: Selecting this option allows you to directly inherit the reference set assigned at the hierarchy. Click Save to apply the changes. For more information, refer Associating Software (Reference Set) to Hierarchy Node.
  • Selecting Assignment Type as Packages. Check the Overwrite existing assignment to delete the existing parameter template and add the selected parameter template to the common application of the particular device.
  • Selecting Assignment Type as None will delete the existing assignments of the device.
  • Check the Overwrite existing assignment to delete the existing parameter template and add the selected parameter template to the common application of the particular device.

By Hierarchy

Reference set configuration

Associating Software (Reference Set) to Hierarchy Node

You can assign Reference sets to hierarchy node. The Reference Sets can be assigned at any levels in a hierarchy tree.

To associate reference set:

  1. Go to Device Management > Manage Reference Sets > Hierarchy Assignment.
  2. Select the hierarchy.
  3. Click to edit the reference set assignment.

Select the Reference sets that need to be assigned to the selected Hierarchy node. You can also inherit reference sets from parent hierarchy.

You can assign multiple Reference Sets to a Hierarchy node. You can also define the order in which these Reference Sets need to be evaluated to identify the best qualifying Reference set for each Device.

VHQ evaluates and identifies one Reference Set that best qualifies for each Device. For complete set rules on how VHQ evaluates the best qualifying Reference Set for each Device, refer Automated Downloads.

You can enable of disable the Automatic downloads for Devices under a hierarchy by selecting the option Enable download automation.

You can also define when to schedule the Automated downloads by choosing the Download On option.

  • Maintenance window: Select this option to schedule the Automated downloads during the next maintenance window of the Device.
  • Next contact: Select this option to schedule the Automated downloads when the Device sends next heartbeat.
  • Next Available free time slot: Select this option to download the Packages by identifying free time slot. The VHQ server is notified to look for the next available free time slot for the download to take place.
  • Download during maintenance window: Notifies VHQ server to download packages only during the maintenance window of the available free time slot.

How does VHQ evaluates the Reference set that qualifies for a device?

In Auto boarding (XML Import), by default the Reference set is mapped to Hierarchy. If the user wants to map Reference set to Direct Assignment, then the user has to specify it explicitly.

In Direct Assignment VHQ validates the reference set that qualifies and lists based on the model type, and the user has to assign any one among the qualified reference sets.

After the reference set is assigned, VHQ validates:

  1. Whether the reference set is active or inactive.
  2. If Active – it checks for the device attributes conditions that are set.
  3. If there are multiple device-attributes set for a reference set, all the attributes should qualify against the device else the reference set gets disqualified.

If the user has selected Software Assignment as inherit hierarchy option, then:

  1. It checks if any reference set(s) are assigned directly to the device’s hierarchy, if any reference sets are assigned then validates if it is qualified.
  2. If Inherit from parent hierarchy option is set to true, then the reference sets assigned to its immediate parent hierarchy also gets qualified. The same operation continues if Inherit from parent hierarchy is set to true for all its parent nodes until it reaches its root node.
  3. If the child node and the parent node has the same reference set assigned, then VHQ validates and takes only one reference set.
  4. The reference set(s) assigned to device’s hierarchy gets qualified first followed by the reference set(s) assigned to its parent hierarchies. Each qualified reference set would be validates against the device attributes set.
  5. If there are multiple device-attributes set for a reference set, all the attributes should qualify against the device else the reference set gets disqualified.

NOTE: When multiple devices are under a hierarchy node, the device attributes of the reference set(s) qualified for that hierarchy will be validated against each device.


 

How Automated Downloads work?

Downloads occurs in response to a periodic request from the device. The request is made by the device whenever it reboots, principally to detect a change in operating environment such as POS type, and on a frequent periodic schedule. The purpose of frequent request is that despite changes to reference devices could be infrequent, when a change is made, the devices must be updated as quickly as possible.

NOTE: A key feature of automated downloads, the user creates a new reference set or make changes to the reference set and no further action is required by the user to update the devices to match the reference set.

Automated downloads:

MP generated should have the URL pointing to the Download Server configured for immediate Parent Hierarchy. If Download Server NOT configured for immediate Parent Hierarchy then look for grandparent hierarchy and keep going till the Root.

Rules

VHQ evaluates the qualifying reference set to a device on the bases of following rules:

1. If a device is assigned reference sets at multiple levels in the hierarchy, the order of precedence is:

    • Reference Set Assigned to Device
    • Reference Set Assigned to Parent Hierarchy
    • Reference Set Assigned to its Parent
    • Reference Set Assigned to the Root Node

2. If a device is assigned a reference set at the device level and hierarchy level, the order of precedence is:

    • Reference Set Assigned to Device
    • Reference Set Assigned to Parent Hierarchy
    • Reference Set Assigned to its Parent
    • Reference Set Assigned to the Root Node
  1. If multiple reference sets are assigned to a node in the hierarchy, the GUI configuration, to assign the reference set to a Hierarchy Node defines the order that helps VHQ server to decide the reference set to be used for the automatic download.
  2. If download automation is disabled or enabled for a node in the hierarchy, all nodes under this node in the hierarchy will also be disabled or enabled for auto downloads.
  3. If download automation is disabled or enabled for a node in the hierarchy, and the exact opposite value is defined at the device level, the configuration at the device level always takes precedence for auto download to happen.
  4. If multiple device attributes are listed in a reference set, all the conditions must be satisfied for this reference set to be applied to the devices. Devices that qualify the rules or set of conditions will qualify for the reference set and packages which are part of reference set will be downloaded. These rules or set of conditions can also be used to restrict devices from downloading specific software packages.

You can assign reference set at Parent hierarchy or child hierarchy. If download automation is disabled at parent Hierarchy to which Reference Set is assigned, all the child level hierarchy assigned with reference set or without reference set will automatically get disabled for download automation. You can enable download automation for child hierarchy individually. If download automation is enabled at child hierarchy to which Reference Set is assigned, the devices under the hierarchy are enabled for download automation.

If download automation is enabled at parent Hierarchy to which Reference Set is assigned, all the child hierarchies are enabled for download automation. If download automation is disabled at child hierarchy assigned with or without the reference set the devices under child hierarchy are not qualified for download automation.

If any devices under hierarchy which is disabled for download automation are enabled, the configuration at device level will take precedence and will be enabled for download automation.  


Steps to configure Automatic Download

  1. Application Developer or SE creates the Application (Package) along with a Manifest file. Package Manifest needs to have the following information
    1. File to be downloaded to the VHQ(.TGZ or .ZIP).
    2. Package Name
    3. Package Version
    4. Software Dependency: The minimum version of each dependent Package
    5. Model Dependency: List of models supported.
    6. List of files. For each file
      • Filename/Size/Hash
    7. Manifest Hash/Control Hash
    8. Parameter Definitions: Defines all the parameters supported by a Package.
       NOTE: Parameter files should be uploaded in the Application Library.

      It should define:
      • Parameter Name
      • Data Type: String/Numeric/Boolean/DateTime/Binary
      • Default Value (if any)
      • Validation Rules

2. VHQ User imports Application (Package) to VHQ to configure the Application on VHQ. The Import process will read the manifest file and setup the necessary properties in the database.
VHQ User defines Parameter Templates for the Application.

    • Parameter Template defines values for all or some of the Parameters (defined as part of Parameter Definition) for a Specific Application\.

3.VHQ User defines Reference Set with

    • Parameter template can be configured at the Application level. In such a case the parameter values defined in the template apply to the devices which get this Application.
    • The Values of the specific Parameters can be overridden/edited device level also.
  • VHQ User can edit the Parameter values
    • Collection of Software Packages. Order of download.
    • List of Device Models which require this package.
    • Device selection criteria using attributes of a device.
  • Reference sets to be associated with
    • Hierarchy: Packages can be associated at any levels in a hierarchy tree.
    • Specific Device (Direct Assignment or Package Assignment): Packages can be associated with specific devices.
  • Downloads occur in response to a periodic request from the device.

Determining when a device needs an update requires two sets of information. The request shall have both the device profile and a list of all device files. The profile is used by VHQ to match the device with a reference device. When there is no reference device match, VHQ responds to the device that no download is required. When a match occurs, VHQ compares the device file list with the items contained in the reference device. If there are no differences in the file comparison VHQ responds that no download is required. When a mismatch does occur, VHQ will issue a schedule download action to the device. The schedule for the download is set by VHQ based on system availability. When the device receives the schedule download action, periodic updates are suspended until the scheduled download is completed.

If a device reboots after a scheduled download, VHQ will receive an update request with the device’s current profile. If the device profile attributes used for matching a reference device have changed since the scheduled download and the content of the matched reference device is different from the content of the reference device used for the original schedule, VHQ shall send a cancel download command and new schedule download. 

Device Assignment Report

You can view the information about the assigned devices in Device Assignment Report. The Device assignment report includes the Device Serial Number, Device ID, Device Hierarchy Path, Device Model, Device Reference Set, Device Packages, Direct Assignment enabled, and Assigned Reference Set. The report also includes whether the device has been assigned reference set through direct assignment or hierarchy.

  • Go to Device Management > Manage Reference Set > Device Assignment Report.