A popular open-source RTOS among Mender users, the Zephyr Project has received significant and increasing interest regarding over-the-air (OTA) updates.
To meet the demands of the ever-expanding IoT ecosystem, the Mender team is happy to release a preview of Zephyr in Mender, enabling robust over-the-air support for Zephyr users as well. To ensure the final release works well for your use cases, we invite you to join our journey and test the preview release today!
To get started: follow the documentation on Get started for Zephyr, using the reference board ESP32-S3.
Be one of the first to try Mender on Zephyr
Integrating robust OTA update support with real-time operating system (RTOS) is essential for elevating an RTOS project to the next level. As the Zephyr Project continually gains prominence in the industry, the Mender team is excited to announce our preview release for Zephyr in Mender. To ensure the smooth functioning of the final release in your specific use cases, we invite you to test the preview release of Mender for Zephyr today and experience the enhanced OTA capabilities tailored for real-time performance and secure updates.
What is Zephyr and why is it gaining prominence?
Zephyr, an open-source real-time operating System (RTOS) supported by the Linux Foundation, is gaining traction in the IoT space. Unlike conventional Linux-based systems, renowned for their scalability and extensive feature sets, Zephyr’s lightweight architecture is specifically designed for resource-constrained environments that require real-time processing. Zephyr’s design makes it ideal for applications where precise and deterministic behavior is non-negotiable, such as in industrial automation, medical devices, and automotive systems.
The benefit of Zephyr lies in its simplicity, minimal memory consumption, and robust power management features, making it a formidable alternative to other real-time operating systems (RTOSes), particularly FreeRTOS which has faced growing vendor lock-in concerns since its acquisition by Amazon. Since Zephyr remains open-source and backed by the Linux Foundation, there is a strong preference to integrate with the open-source solutions, especially among Mender users. Customers who used Mender on Linux wanted to apply Mender’s robust feature set to Zephyr-based applications. Recognizing this demand, we made provisions to provide Zephyr support, ensuring the security of devices running on this widely used infrastructure.
How Mender supports Zephyr
Mender’s addition of Zephyr support enables significant headway in bringing secure and reliable OTA updates to a wider range of devices. Expanding Mender’s compatibility aligns with our mission to secure the world's connected devices, regardless of their underlying operating systems, and ensure they can receive seamless, secure firmware and software updates throughout their lifecycle.
Key benefits of Mender's support for Zephyr:
- Increased portability: Mender is designed to be extensible and can be integrated into a variety of embedded systems. This addition broadens the scope of devices that can benefit from Mender’s OTA solutions.
- Customizable image installation: Firmware updates are now available as an Update Module rather than being built-in, enabling more flexible full-image installations, even being able to support custom local protocols for installing the update on the end device.
- Scalable OTA solutions: Mender’s robust infrastructure ensures that even devices operating with limited resources remain updated and secure.
Why this matters
Mender’ extensibility enables seamless integrations for various operating environments, providing out-of-the-box support for a broader spectrum of operating systems (OS) and now real-time operating systems (RTOSes). Integrating Zephyr support empowers Mender to offer versatile, secure, and customizable over-the-air (OTA) update solutions to a wider range of projects.
With Zephyr gaining prominence for critical applications demanding precision and low-latency performance, it’s crucial to have an OTA solution that aligns with its fundamental strengths. Real-time operating systems (RTOS) manage critical infrastructures and inherently have an even lower tolerance for vulnerabilities. By enabling secure OTA updates on these systems through Mender, Zephyr devices can receive timely, secure, and transparent firmware and software updates over the air, providing greater benefit and security to both manufacturers and end consumers.
A cost-effective microcontroller tier is coming
As Zephyr is often used for resource-constrained product environments, typically with less software and infrastructure complexity, the Mender team plans to introduce a new device tier with a different per-unit price to support Zephyr use cases. The new device tier will likely limit the size of the OTA payload as well as the frequency of Mender Server communication. More details will be released with the official Zephyr launch.
Start your Mender for Zephyr journey
Take the next step in modernizing your IoT development process by testing Mender on Zephyr today. Access our comprehensive Get Started guide to explore how you can seamlessly integrate Zephyr-powered devices into your existing OTA strategy.
Test the preview release today - Visit Mender docs to elevate your IoT deployment with Zephyr and Mender’s seamless OTA capabilities.
