Changes in This Release

This release introduces secure tunnel access through HTTP and HTTPS in addition to SSH, Telnet, VNC, and RDP to devices connected to Device Cloud. It also enhances support for campaigns and triggers.

Remote Device Access

The following enhancements are made to Remote Device Access in release 18.28.0382, and release 18.06.19 of the Python agent:

  • The Remote Access link on the LaunchPad detects the operating system on which the web browser runs, for example, Windows (32-bit or 64-bit system), Mac OS X 10.10 or later, or Linux (64-bit DEB or RPM system). The client system must run a plugin application that needs to be installed once a remote connection is established. For more information, see Remote Access User's Guide: Introduction to Remote Device Access.

  • Multi-channel architecture through a secure tunnel, using one TCP websocket and multiple local TCP socket connections.

  • Reconnection to the local TCP socket, if the connection drops, and if Reconnect mode is enabled. For more information, see Remote Access User's Guide: Creating a Secure Tunnel for an SSH Connection.

  • Device filters to customize your searches. For more information, see, Remote Access User's Guide: Creating Filters to Manage your Devices.

  • Web proxy server connects the device to Device Cloud through HTTP, SOCKS4, and SOCKS5.

Configuration changes

The following configuration changes have been made:

  • discover_services_on_init in the iot.cfg file supports call back to refresh the remote access ports, for example, vncserver.

  • relay_version 2.0.0 in the device_manager_def.cfg file supports reconnect and multi-channel architecture

  • ota_handler: Installing a software package with OTA defined in the Thing Definition. An additional parameter extra_params has been added to allow one OTA package to be deployed using triggers with extra parameters for many different installations. The results are returned to the trigger or campaign that called the software update.

  • corr_id: A correlation ID can be sent in a telemetry sample to the device cloud so that it can be read back and verified.

  • A new developer_role has been added in the developer_role.cfg file. For more information, see Device Cloud Service API Reference guide.

Clients Tested on Operating Systems

The following clients have been tested on a Windows operating system:

  • SSH and Telnet: Putty (Windows 10 operating system).

  • VNC: TightVNC, RealVNC, and VNC® Viewer for Google Chrome™

  • Windows Remote Desktop application (RDP).

  • HTTP and HTTPS

The following clients have been tested on a Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems:

  • SSH and Telnet: Putty.

  • VNC: TightVNC, RealVNC, and VNC® Viewer for Google Chrome™

  • HTTP and HTTPS

For more information, see Device Cloud Remote Access User's Guide: Third-Party Tool Configuration for Remote Tunnel Access.

Servers Tested on Operating Systems

In addition to the Python device manager, the device must run the corresponding server applications to enable the connection to the device. You must install, configure, and run the server applications on your device using a mechanism supported by the device operating system.

The following servers have been tested on a Windows operating system:

  • SSH and Telnet: freesshd

  • VNC: TightVNC

  • RDP

  • HTTP and HTTPS

The following servers have been tested on a Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems:

  • Telnet: telnetd

  • SSH: sshd

  • VNC: TightVNC

  • HTTP and HTTPS

For more information, see Device Cloud Remote Access User's Guide: Third-Party Tool Configuration for Remote Tunnel Access.

Management Portal

The following enhancements are made to campaigns and triggers in release 18.28.0382, and release 18.06.19 of the Python agent:

Campaigns

Campaigns use Device Cloud triggers to automate enterprise interactions. Campaign management provides the ability to perform a single operation on multiple things simultaneously. The following enhancements have been made to campaigns:

  • Adding Campaigns

  • Creating a Campaign with Things

  • Adding Things to a Campaign

  • Cloning and Editing Campaigns

  • Viewing a Campaign

  • Scheduling and Starting a Campaign

  • Pausing and Resuming Campaigns

  • Adding and Removing Members for Campaigns

  • Configuring email notifications to receive daily campaign updates

  • Campaign Services include:

    • The campaign.member.list API call that returns two additional fields when the campaign has a trigger.result action: result string and result object.

    • campaign.pause

    • campaign.resume

    • campaign.member.add

    • campaign.member.remove

    • campaign.list

    • campaign.find

    • campaign.update

    • campaign.reset

    • campaign.cancel

Triggers

Cloud triggers provide event-driven functionality to initiate the appropriate actions in response to real-time events. Triggers provide options to interact with devices or external systems. The following enhancements have been made to triggers:

  • Use “serverless” computing through a new trigger aws.lambda.invoke action, that accepts an AWS Lambda function with payload and sends it to AWS to get a response

  • Importing and Exporting Triggers

  • Importing and Exporting Trigger templates

  • Updates to Cloud Trigger Actions and Events:

    • string.range action

    • cayenne.lpp.decode action

    • cayenne.lpp.publish action

    • trigger.result action

    • trigger.report.delete

    • base64.encode action

    • thing.bind action

    • aws.lambda.invoke action

    • location.network.donate

General Updates

  • A new parameter singelton has been added to mailbox.send that ensures multiple mailbox messages are sent with the same command, and if singelton=true, only one of the commands are executed

  • user.invite is used to send an invitation to a new user

  • Ability to copy and paste trigger and campaign actions

  • Exporting and Importing Dashboards

  • CSV Download option has been added to the Things List widget in dashboards.

  • An option to download billing reports with sub-orgs for Org Admin.

  • The activity log service is used to publish and browse activity logs.

  • Updated alarms, attributes, locations and property services to show correlation ID when available on history and current API calls.

    • HTTP interface: The HTTP interface enables you create applications that use HTTP (or HTTPS) to send commands either by calling the TR50 endpoints or by using the simple REST APIs.