I just started using Balena for a small fleet. I have been using a small database with custom fields to track things like storage card type, speed class, etc. for future reference.
My preference is to get rid of that database and just use Balena. I created custom tags in Balena for the values I need to maintain for each device. I miss having a specific set of values to select from in a drop-down though. I’m concerned that without a list of allowed value, my data will get messy.
This is not a big deal right now, but it would be a nice improvement for those using the UI to manage devices.
I realized that this request can be simplified and remain very useful.
Instead of managing lists of allowed values for each tag, just auto-suggest previously used values for tags with the same name when entering a new value. This helps ensure the values that get entered are consistent and is super easy to implement. There is no new management UI needed. Users just get a little help when entering data into existing fields.
For our devices we populate most tag values automatically from the device, which on boot reads data on what hardware model it is, options selected, modem IMEI, etc, etc and uses its API key to write those values to Balena.
Thanks. I could do that for one piece of info that I’m recording (basically, the registered location of the device that gets set when connecting to the local wi-fi). I’m also recording info about the microSD cards though, including brand and speed specs. I have no idea if those are readable from the device. I’m recording that info to understand if any particular cards have reliability issues. It may be overkill, but I’m new to this and not sure if this is something to be concerned about or not.
Have a look at the mmc tool (installed by mmc-utils on Debian) which allows querying a ton of metadata from SD/eMMC storage, including things like the manufacturer ID, model, and serial number. Its a bit cryptic but some Googling will get you reference material to translate the octal values it spits out into human.
Also, yes, you should absolutely be concerned about that. Thankfully I no longer do, but for a while I was responsible for a fleet of several hundred Raspberry Pis booting from SD cards and we’d see one or two a month kill their storage and need swapping out. Things would have been somewhat better on balenaOS because it takes steps to reduce disk wear, but it’ll still be an issue unless you’re careful about how much your writing to the SD card and how.
Thank you for that info! I’ll likely go down that path.