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Migrate devices and groups from Public Preview to Public Preview Refresh

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As the Device Update for IoT Hub service releases new versions, you'll want to update your devices for the latest features and security improvements. This article provides information about how to migrate from the Public Preview release to the current, Public Preview Refresh (PPR) release. This article also explains the group and UX behavior across these releases. If you do not have devices, groups, and deployments that use the Public Preview release, you can ignore this page.

To migrate successfully, you will have to upgrade the DU agent running on your devices. You will also have to create new device groups to deploy and manage updates. Note that as there are major changes with the PPR release, we recommend that you follow the instructions closely to avoid errors.

Update the device update agent

For the Public Preview Refresh release, the Device Update agent needs to be updated manually as described below. Updating the agent through a Device Update deployment is not supported due to major changes across the Public Preview and PPR release.

  1. To view devices using older agents (versions 0.7.0/0.6.0) and groups created before 02/03/2022, navigate to the public preview portal, which can be accessed through the banner.

    Screenshot of banner.

  2. Create a new IoT/IoT Edge device on the Azure portal. Copy the primary connection string for the device from the device view for later. For more details, refer the Add Device to IoT Hub section.

  3. Then, SSH into your device and remove any old Device Update agent.

    sudo apt remove deviceupdate-agent 
sudo apt remove adu-agent

  4. Remove the old configuration file

    sudo rm -f /etc/adu/adu-conf.txt

  5. Install the new agent

    sudo apt-get install deviceupdate-agent

    Alternatively, you can get the .deb asset from GitHub and install the agent

    sudo apt install <file>.deb

    Trying to upgrade the Device Update agent without removing the old agent and configuration files will result in the error shown below.

    Screenshot of update error.

  6. Enter your IoT device's device (or module, depending on how you provisioned the device with Device Update) primary connection string in the configuration file by running the command below.

    sudo nano /etc/adu/du-config.json

  7. Add your model, manufacturer, agent name, connection type and other details in the configuration file

  8. Delete the old IoT/IoT Edge device from the public preview portal.

Note

Attempting to update the agent through a DU deployment will lead to the device no longer being manageable by Device Update. The device will have to be re-provisioned to be managed from Device Update.

Migrate groups to Public Preview Refresh

  1. If your devices are using Device Update agent versions 0.6.0 or 0.7.0, upgrade to the latest agent version 0.8.0 following the steps above.

  2. Delete the existing groups in the public preview portal by navigating through the banner.

  3. Add group tag to the device twin for the updated devices. For more details, refer the Add a tag to your device section.

  4. Recreate the groups in the PPR portal by going to ‘Add Groups’ and selecting the corresponding groups tag from the drop-down list.

  5. Note that a group with the same name cannot be created in the PPR portal if the group in the public preview portal is not deleted.

Group and deployment behavior across releases

  • Groups created in the Public Preview Refresh release portal will only allow addition of devices with the latest Device Update Agent (0.8.0). Devices with older agents (0.7.0/0.6.0) cannot be added to these groups.

  • Any new devices using the latest agent will automatically be added to a Default DeviceClass Group in the ‘Groups and Deployments’ tab. If a group tag is added to the device properties, then the device will be added to that group if a group for that tag exists.

  • For the device using the latest agent, if a group tag is added to the device properties but the corresponding group is not yet created the device will not be visible in the ‘Groups and Deployments’ tab.

  • Devices using the older agents will show up as ungrouped in the old portal if the group tag is not added.

Next steps

Understand Device Update agent configuration file

You can use the following tutorials for a simple demonstration of Device Update for IoT Hub: