Depending on the Axeda® Agent and type of asset (wireless or wired), the requirements vary. For complete information about the features of packages supported by agents, refer to Package Features Supported by Axeda Agents.
Here are the requirements for the different types of assets and agents:
o Before creating packages for wireless assets running AWP Agents, make sure that the types of file transfers you require (upload or download or both) are enabled for the AWP Agents. In addition, if you want to use compression, make sure that the asset can handle compression and extraction.
o Before creating packages for wired assets running the Axeda IDM Agent, make sure that the IDM Agent is configured with a file watcher. In addition, any files to transfer cannot be larger than 2GB. While you can transfer compressed files, the IDM Agents cannot extract the contents of an archive. For Software Director packages for IDM Agents, refer to Guidelines for Creating IDM SoftwareDirector Packages.
o Before creating packages for wired assets running Axeda® Gateway or Axeda® Connector, make sure the following requirements are met:
a. The project for the Agent asset must be configured with appropriate Axeda® Software Management settings as well as the data source and data items that you want to use in a package (either to set them or to test their current value).
b. Any files to you want to download to the Agent assets (using the Software Management Download instruction, for example) must first be archived and compressed, using the tar and gzip tools. The Axeda Agents recognize the .tar.gzip extensions and can extract the files from the archive. If you use relative paths in creating the archive, the agents will recognize the relative paths and unpack the files to the correct subdirectories.
c. If the file does not exist in the Agent, you cannot select any Registry dependencies when creating or editing a package. Using your favorite text editor, you can create the dependencies.xml file(s) that each asset will upload to the Axeda® Platform upon registration and at intervals specified in the agent's project. Refer to the Axeda® Enterprise Server Platform Installation and Maintenance Guide for instructions, "Configuring the Axeda® Connected Product Management Applications" information.
d. Then,
from the Applications, download the files to the assets (and save them
in the working directory of the agent). When the agent starts up, it will
register with the Enterprise Server
and upload this file automatically. (If the dependencies.xml
was uploaded, it is viewable from the Axeda® Service
application, Asset dashboard Uploaded
Files module.)
As an alternative, you may want to write a script that will generate this
file for each asset.
e. If you require any custom components, write them using the appropriate toolkit documentation, and set them up in the Software Management application (select New menu - Custom Component) so that they are available in the lists of dependencies and instructions. If the custom component is to be a dependency, it will need to be set up to return a pass or fail for the test it performs. If the custom component is to be an instruction, you need to set up the parameters to pass to it.
For packages for Axeda Agent Embedded, refer to the Axeda® Agent Embedded Reference for details on compression and archiving.
Once the agent has registered with the Axeda Platform, you can create and deploy a package. To check that an asset has registered, you can go to the home page of the Axeda Service application and search for the asset.