Balena Device Heartbeat only

[RodrigoM]

Hi there,

We are seeing a strange situation. One Balena device (x86_64) is shown as Heartbeat only, even though no errors are visible in its supervisor locally.

[api]     GET /v1/device 200 - 44.443 ms
[info]    Reported current state to the cloud
[error]   LogBackend: unexpected error: Error: read ENETUNREACH
[error]         at TLSWrap.onStreamRead (internal/stream_base_commons.js:205:27)
[api]     GET /v1/device 200 - 55.911 ms
[api]     GET /v1/device 200 - 43.323 ms
[info]    Reported current state to the cloud
[api]     GET /v1/device 200 - 53.177 ms
[api]     GET /v1/device 200 - 43.578 ms

Pinging balena-cloud.com:

root@xxxxx:~# ping balena-cloud.com
PING balena-cloud.com (18.229.49.158): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 18.229.49.158: seq=0 ttl=52 time=15.635 ms
64 bytes from 18.229.49.158: seq=1 ttl=52 time=15.611 ms
64 bytes from 18.229.49.158: seq=2 ttl=52 time=15.381 ms

After rebooting the server, it is shown back as online.
Issues like this worries us, as how we can manage remote devices if we need to access them physically to reboot?

How can we trace better the root cause of these issues when they occur again?

[pranavpeshwe]

Hi Rodrigo,
The ‘Heartbeat only’ state indicates that the device is disconnected from balena VPN. However, the device is able to make API & heartbeating calls into balena’s API backend. Device status are documented here.
At times, devices can go into such a state (for up to a few minutes) when balena’s VPN servers are undergoing an upgrade. So, unless you see multiple devices going into a ‘Heartbeat only’ state multiple times, it should not be a reason for concern. Also, the devices are programmed to auto-retry, so they will eventually get back to the ‘Online’ state (without needing a reboot).
Do you see such behaviour time and again? And, do you see it on a specific device or a bunch of devices specific to a location?

Thanks and regards,
Pranav