In this post, we’ll describe a new feature in Jidoteki Meta, which makes it possible to generate special update packages aimed at updating a cluster of appliances on an internal network.
A solid foundation
This feature builds on top of a recent feature, Full update packages, which can be applied to ANY appliance regardless of their version.
Some of our customers deploy multiple types of appliances to their enterprise customers. In those situations, where you have a cluster of node (slave) appliances and one or more server (master) appliances on your internal network, it can be quite bandwidth intensive to perform online updates. If the node appliances don’t have internet access, manual updates are required, which is troublesome when each appliance is on a different version.
Distributing updates
To solve this problem, we can now create a special update package for the server appliance which includes the Full update package of the node appliances.
This makes it possible for the server appliance to hold and distribute updates to each node appliance, acting as an update server, allowing the node appliances to automatically update themselves to the latest version without requiring internet access or manual intervention.
Creating the updates
In Jidoteki Meta, the option is labeled as the “Node source”, which is the build ID of any previously built appliance. When building a server update package, and a node_source is selected, that build’s Full update package is added to the build’s OVA in /mnt/sda1/boot/ , and it’s added to the build’s update packages.
Complexity reduction
From the outside, it seems like a complex feature, but in fact it’s very simple and extremely useful in situations where an admin has more than a handful of appliances to update.
With Jidoteki, we build our solutions to solve problems which not only our customers have, but also problems their enterprise customers have.
If you’re currently distributing your software on-premises, or planning on doing that sometime soon, please feel free to contact us, as we’re focused exclusively on making the absolute best virtual appliances and automated offline update process. We’ll be more than happy to discuss your situation and see how we can help.