Mender 3.3 release: Bringing full visibility and efficiency in segregated networks

Today Mender 3.3 is released!

Thanks to the Mender Gateway, a new component in the Mender 3.3 release, it is possible to connect devices running in a segregated or isolated network to a Mender Server. Mender Gateway provides a complete visibility of devices that could not directly connect to the management server before.

At the same time, when running multiple devices behind the same Gateway, especially with mobile or satellite connections, caching the downloaded artifacts will significantly reduce the bandwidth consumption.

This release also includes several improvements in the Mender UI:

• Customizable columns
• Device full-text search
• Improved configuration interface for the Role-Based Access Control

Mender Gateway

In segregated networks, devices operate without direct access to the Internet. In such networks, typically, only a gateway has Internet access and offers limited services to devices in the local network.

The Mender Gateway is an application that runs on the Gateway and enables managing and deploying OTA updates to devices on the local network. To do so, the Gateway acts as an intelligent proxy with the ability to understand and serve client requests locally.

Mender Gateway operates by exposing a local HTTP(S) server on the local network and proxying the requests to the upstream Mender server. In addition, it is capable of proxying and caching the artifact downloads and, optionally, enabling mutual TLS authentication requests on behalf of the devices.

When running multiple devices behind the same Gateway, especially with mobile or satellite connections, caching the downloaded artifacts will significantly reduce the bandwidth consumption.

You can read more about the integration of the Mender Gateway in the documentation. The Mender Gateway is a component available to our Enterprise customers.

Watch a video on how to get started with Mender Gateway:

Customizable columns

You can now customize the device list tables by selecting up to five columns of inventory data and rearranging them in the order you prefer. Once selected, you can sort the table’s content by any of these columns, making it possible to see the chosen devices at a glance.

The customizable columns are available for all our plans.

Device full-text search

We extended the device filtering APIs to provide full-text search capabilities. You can now quickly find a specific device searching by ID, name, tag or inventory attributes.

The device full-text search is available for all our plans.

Improved configuration interface for the Role-Based Access Control

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) significantly reduces the risk of accidental and unauthorized actions. Admin Users of the Mender server can assign to the other Users Roles with limited access based on the User's responsibilities and required tasks. Role assignments reduce the risk of accidents, such as deploying beta software to production devices. It also reduces the security impact of any compromised Mender server User accounts (e.g., in the case of a stolen password).

Mender 3.3 revamps the configuration user interface for the RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). You can now easily define custom roles specifying which permissions shall be granted to users assigned to the role, either globally or scoped to a specific static device group.

You can read more about this feature in the Role-Based Access Control documentation. Please note that this feature is available to our Enterprise customers.

Try the new features

Get started is the best place to do a quick test of the new release from scratch and get you started with the new features of Mender 3.3. Sign up for a new Free trial and all features and add-ons are available for 12 months for free.

Support for your board

With an active open source community supporting a large number of different hardware and operating systems and growing every day, Mender has quickly become the trusted choice by some of the world’s most respected brands.

If you are getting started with OTA updates, or do not have time to integrate the Mender client with your board for robust A/B system updates, there are several resources available to you!

You can get a full overview of types of hardware and operating system support in the Device Support documentation.

The Board Integrations category in Mender Hub is a community site to contribute, reuse and maintain Mender board integrations.

We are also happy to help with consulting services to enable verified Mender support for your board!

Share your feedback

We appreciate your general feedback on Mender, be it positive or need for improvement, in the Mender Hub General Discussions forum. Your continued feedback ensures Mender will meet your needs even better in the future!

If you believe you have encountered a bug, please submit your report at the Mender JIRA issue tracker.

We hope you enjoy the new features and are looking forward to hearing from you!