OTA updates through MQTT

[maelp]

I read your blog post, really cool! At our company we do the OTA "updates" using a retained MQTT message, so devices get it immediately when they connect, and also immediately as it's pushed, rather than polling each hour, would you say that your polling approach has advantages over that?

[etiennetremel]

Thanks @maelp! Always nice to see someone digging up the hidden posts.

Regarding your question, does that mean the devices you manage are rebooting on a regular basis?

Polling at fixed intervals can reduce load on the OTA server, but that depends on the size of your fleet.
If you need instant feedback, then either webhooks or publishing MQTT messages when a new firmware version is available would be a better choice.

I will try to implement the MQTT handling from the otaflux server in the coming weeks, stay tuned!

[maelp]

Indeed they are rebooting often, but in the case of retained messages, it wouldn’t matter: you get the latest message the first time you connect, and each time a new message is published basically we have a “DesiredState” channel for each BMS which provides the desired configuration and firmware tag for the device, and each time the device sees it doesn’t corresopnd to the one it has it gets the latest

[etiennetremel]

This desired state strategy sounds like a solid approach and likely the way to go. I like it and will definitely give it a try in a near future 👍