12.7. Application Management

Application management is the process of deploying, activating, deactivating, and decommissioning applications on a GEISA ADM compliant platform, for execution within an execution environment.

12.7.1. Software Management

The LwM2M /9/x Software Management object SHALL be used to manage the Installation and Activation of containerized edge applications running in the GEISA EE. In contrast to the Firmware Update object, each instance of the multi-instance Software Management object represents a distinct edge application Package installed in the EE. The format of the edge application Package is defined in Base Filesystem for LEE conformant systems and SHALL be composed of the following components:

• X.509 Public Key Certificate used to verify the digital signature in the Package

• Digital Signature across the Edge Application Manifest and Edge Application Binary

• Edge Application Manifest

• Edge Application Binary

To minimize edge app container sizes, applications are encouraged to dynamically link against the libraries provided by the base GEISA environment rather than providing their own. Consideration for the management of the base libraries and/or package dependencies will be deferred to a future release; at this time, no consideration is made for the use of LwM2M object 14 Software Component.

App Installation and Activation

Similar to Firmware Update, the LwM2M spec permits edge app packages can be transferred to the EE via either of the following methods:

• PUSH via Write of the opaque package to /9/x/2 Package

• PULL via Write to resource /9/x/3 Package URI for the GEISA platform

  to download via CoAP/HTTP as soon as practical

In contrast to Firmware Update, the Software Management object 9 does not support the concept of automatic Installation or Activation. Both operations of Installation and Activation are manually executed by the EMS, following successful package download/verification and successful package install, respectively.

During creation of an Software Management object 9 instance to install an edge app, an ADM conformant EMS SHALL use the AppID as the object 9 instance number, in order to simplify subsequent app management operations (start, stop, purge, etc.).

The following example demonstrates GEISA compliant edge app installation and

activation:

1. PULL download of the edge app package from the URL set by the EMS into /9/x/3 Package URI, shown in Figure 12.9.

2. The EMS performing a manual Execute /9/x/4 to trigger edge app Installation following successful app download and verification, shown in Figure 12.10.

3. The EMS performing a manual Execute /9/x/10 to trigger edge app Activation following successful app installation, shown in Figure 12.10.

4. The EMS performing a manual Execute /9/x/6 to trigger Uninstall of the edge app (not shown).

Figure 12.9 Edge App Image Pull

Figure 12.10 Edge App Install and Activate

The Software Management object Activation state machine defines the ability to use an app but does not address app execution state semantics:

• When the current state is set to ACTIVE, the installed software can be used by the LwM2M Client.

• When the current state is set to INACTIVE, the LwM2M Client MUST NOT use the installed software.

App Execution State

Version 1.1 of the Software Management object adds resources for an EMS to control the Execution State of an edge application:

Resource ID	Operation	Data Type	Description
19	Execute		Start Application. Only available when Activation State = Enabled.
20	Execute		Stop Application. Only available when Activation State = Enabled.
21	Read	Integer	Execution Status. 0 = Stopped. 1 = Running.

App Purge

Version 1.1 of the Software Management object adds an executable resource for an EMS to remotely purge local data from an instance of an edge application installation:

Resource ID	Operation	Data Type	Description
22	Execute		Purge Data. Deletes existing local application data without modifying the app installation/activation states.