About Firmware Policies

The following actions are available for Firmware Policies:

    Creating Device Firmware Policies

    Modifying Device Firmware Policies

    Deleting Device Firmware Policies

    Viewing Device Firmware Policies

About Lifecycle Labels

When firmware builds are uploaded to the RiskBand ARIES Manager they are given a Release Lifecycle label (through the Firmware Build Model) that indicates the stability of the firmware. The labels, listed in order of most stable to least stable, are:

    LTS Production — this label, meaning “long term support,” is used to identify firmware builds that have been determined to be unusually stable.

    Stable Production — this label is used to identify firmware builds that have a stable track record in the field.

    Latest Production — this label is used to identify the newest firmware builds that have been released for general use.

    Community Technology Preview — this label is used to identify firmware builds that are very recent and may not have received complete test coverage before being made available to limited customers.

Firmware policies use these labels to determine which version of firmware should be downloaded to a device. If a firmware version with the specified Lifecycle label is not available for a device, then the RiskBand ARIES Manager will attempt to provide a more stable version of the firmware to the device.

For example, if a device has been assigned the Early Adopter Firmware Policy, the device will receive firmware updates that are designated by the Firmware Model Mapping as being “Stable Production.” If there is not a Firmware Model Mapping that matches this, the RiskBand ARIES Manager will attempt to use a Firmware Model Mapping that has the correct version of firmware your device requires, but with a Lifecycle label of “LTS Production,” as this indicates a more stable version than “Stable Production.”

Creating Device Firmware Policies

To create a device firmware policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, right-click Firmware Policies and select Create Device Firmware Policy.

The Create Device Firmware Policy dialog box appears. This screen contains the following components.

Table 24:    Components of Create Device Firmware Policy 

Component

Required/

Optional

Description

Name

Required

The name of the firmware policy. Maximum 80 characters.

Description

Optional

A description of the firmware policy. Maximum 512 characters.

Organization

Required

The accessibility of the firmware policy. That is, whether the policy is available only to a specific organization, or whether the policy is available to every organization in the RiskBand ARIES Manager.

Defer Firmware Upgrades

Optional

By default, firmware upgrades can not be deferred.

To enable devices to defer firmware upgrades, enable this option.

Mainstream Firmware Lifecycle

Required

This option allows you to specify whether you want the majority of devices to upgrade to stable firmware versions or whether the devices will upgrade to newer, perhaps less tested, firmware versions. This option is specified using lifecycle labels that are associated with every firmware build uploaded to the system. See About Lifecycle Labels.

As a general rule, specify a more stable version of firmware than is specified in the Early Adoption Firmware Lifecycle field below.

Device Firmware Log Level

Required

Specify the logging level you want to the device to use.

The following log levels are available:

   Debug — the most detailed logging.

   Info — information regarding device activity along with warnings and errors are logged.

   Warning — warnings and errors are logged.

   Error — only errors are logged.

Early Adoption Percent

Required

The percent of devices that will be placed into the early adoption lifecycle pool. This percentage of devices will download the firmware first in order to minimize problems that might result from the deployment of a faulty firmware file.

Early Adoption Firmware Lifecycle

Required

This option allows you to specify whether you want devices in the early adoption pool to download stable firmware versions or whether the devices will upgrade to newer, perhaps less tested, firmware versions. This option is specify using lifecycle labels that are associated with every firmware build uploaded to the system. See About Lifecycle Labels.See also About Lifecycle Labels.

This field provides an opportunity to specify a newer, perhaps less stable, version of firmware than is specified in the Mainstream Firmware Lifecycle field.

2. Choose the options from the fields and drop-down menus on the screen, and after you are finished click OK.

The firmware policy is added to the content pane.

Modifying Device Firmware Policies

To modify a device firmware policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Firmware Policies.

2. In the Firmware Policies content pane, right-click the firmware policy you want to modify and select Modify Device Firmware Policy.

The Modify Device Firmware Policy dialog box appears. For a description of the fields displayed in the dialog box, see Components of Create Device Firmware Policy .

3. Enter the information in the fields in the dialog box, and after you are finished click OK.

The device firmware policy is modified.

Deleting Device Firmware Policies

To delete a device firmware policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Firmware Policies.

2. In the Firmware Policies content pane, click the policy you want to delete.

You can also Ctrl-Click or Shift-Click on multiple policies if you want to delete multiple policies at the same time.

3. Right-click the selected policy or policies and select Delete Firmware Policy.

The Delete Device Firmware Policy dialog box appears.

4. Confirm the deletion of the policy or policies by clicking OK.

5. In the Confirm dialog box, type YES and click OK.

The selected policy or policies are deleted.

Viewing Device Firmware Policies

To view a device firmware policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Firmware Policies.

2. In the Firmware Policies content pane, right-click the policy you want to view and select View Device Firmware Policy.

The View Device Firmware Policy dialog box appears. For a description of the fields displayed in the dialog box, see Components of Create Device Firmware Policy .

3. After you are finished viewing the information about the policy, click Close.

The View Device Firmware Policy dialog box closes.