Run an OTA update campaign for embedded Linux devices using Mender
domain: mender · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Integrate the Mender client into your Yocto or Debian build; ensure the device uses an A/B partition layout with the Mender bootloader integration (U-Boot or GRUB) to support atomic rollback.
Build or capture a rootfs image and create a Mender Artifact using the mender-artifact CLI: 'mender-artifact write rootfs-image -t DEVICE_TYPE -n ARTIFACT_NAME -f rootfs.ext4 -o update.mender'.
Upload the .mender artifact to the Mender server (hosted or self-managed) via the UI (Releases tab) or the Mender Management API.
Create a deployment targeting a device group or individual device; the Mender server schedules the update and devices poll for pending deployments on their configured poll interval.
The Mender client downloads the artifact, writes it to the inactive partition, commits on next boot if the device is healthy, or automatically rolls back to the previous partition if the bootloader marks the new boot as failed.
Monitor deployment status in the Mender UI or query the Deployments API; check device logs via 'journalctl -u mender-client' for download or install errors.
Known gotchas
The device type in the artifact must exactly match the device type configured on the Mender client; a mismatch causes the client to reject the artifact before download.
If the watchdog or health check application does not mark the new partition as committed, the bootloader automatically rolls back — ensure the commit logic runs early in the startup sequence.
Mender Artifact format version 3 introduced delta updates; classic full-rootfs artifacts and delta artifacts are not interchangeable without updating the client to support the update module.
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