Hey everyone! I'm looking for some advice about deployment processes at work. We manage our product using AWS, and recently I've been asked to update each deployment individually through our site. The problem is, doing it one by one would take me over 40 hours! I suggested that we might be able to perform this update in bulk directly through AWS, but I was told that's not possible and that it has to be done one at a time. However, I feel like there's a better way to handle this. My understanding is that a software update equates to an update to the deployment group. Each product is essentially a 'thing', and these things can be grouped together in the AWS IoT core, especially with Greengrass deployments. Is there not a way to create a new group and assign the deployment to it, allowing for bulk updates? Any insights on this would be super helpful!
2 Answers
It sounds like you've run into a common misconception about AWS deployments. If you're using AWS IoT Greengrass, you can actually automate these updates using the CreateDeployment API. This would let you target multiple devices at once, rather than doing it one by one. If you're not familiar with creating little scripts, consider using a tool like ChatGPT or Claude to help you write a simple Python script that can automate these deployments. Just make sure to do some testing first!
You're right to question this. While it can be a bit tricky, AWS does support bulk updates for deployments through the appropriate APIs. It could be that your team isn't fully aware of the capabilities of Greengrass. If they insist it's one at a time, it might be worth showing them the documentation about bulk deployments. You shouldn't have to spend so much time on it.
Definitely bring up the documentation! Sometimes all it takes is a little reference to convince the team that there’s a better method out there.
Exactly! Using the API can save you a ton of time. Also, make sure your role has the right permissions to perform bulk actions. It can make a world of difference.