NEPI Engine – Software Updating, Backup, Cloning, and Recovery
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes you have a working NEPI Engine enabled edge compute platform and are familiar with basic NEPI user interfacing like accessing the NEPI RUI (Resident User Interface), the NEPI network shared User Storage drive, and the NEPI file system. If you are unfamiliar with any of these processes, you can find detailed tutorials at the links below:
https://nepi.com/nepi-tutorials/nepi-engine-connecting-and-setup/
https://nepi.com/nepi-tutorials/nepi-engine-user-storage-drive/
https://nepi.com/nepi-tutorials/nepi-engine-accessing-the-nepi-file-system/
Introduction
NEPI includes a flexible system for updating, backing up, and cloning the NEPI Engine software system. Typical steps for a updating, backing up, and cloning complete system images are provided below. During the NEPI Engine boot process, the NEPI Engine init boot system mounts/connects to one of the two Root File System partitions (A or B) on your NEPI device’s SSD card. Only one of the Root File System partitions is mounted and active at any given time, allowing NEPI’s software management system to provide updating, backup, and cloning services on the inactive Root File System partition.
What you will need
1) 1x NEPI-enabled device and power supply. This tutorial uses an S2X-S203-XNX NEPI-enabled NVIDIA Xavier NX edge compute platform.
NOTE: See available off-the-shelf NEPI enabled edge-compute options at: https://numurus.com/products-nepi-enabled-hardware/
2) 1x PC with internet access and configured to access the NEPI device’s RUI browser-based interface and user storage drive. This tutorial uses a Windows 11 PC and a USB GigE Ethernet adapter and Ethernet cable.
NOTE: Instructions for configuration a PC and connecting to a NEPI device’s RUI and user storage drive are provided in the NEPI Engine Getting Started tutorial at: https://nepi.com/nepi-tutorials/nepi-engine-connecting-and-setup/
3) 1x NEPI IDX supported 2D camera. This tutorial uses a USB webcam.
NOTE: See the NEPI Engine Hardware Interfacing tutorial “Imaging Sensors” for details on connecting a camera to your NEPI device at: https://nepi.com/tutorials/
Hardware Setup
1) Connect a NEPI IDX driver supported camera to your NEPI device.
2) Connect the NEPI device to your PC’s Ethernet adapter using an Ethernet cable, then power your NEPI device.
Updating Your Software
While the NEPI Engine Init File System image that manages a NEPI boot partition and software loading processes is not easily updatable and rarely required, the cored NEPI Engine software referred to as the NEPI Engine Root File System is easily to update when new versions of NEPI Engine become available.
Check your NEPI device’s current NEPI Engine software version by opening your NEPI device’s RUI DASHBOARD tab and check the version number in the “Device Info” section next to “Firmware”.
1) Obtain a NEPI Root File System image update file. Numurus maintains Root File System image files for a number leading edge-compute hardware platforms. You can check for software updates at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/xs08d4c43dupfg1ftc2vy/h?rlkey=we8r0omh123ufq9opbl5yj0g6&dl=0
2) After downloading the zipped image file, unzip it on your PC, then copy it to your NEPI device’s User Storage drive nepi_full_img folder. Ensure it has a filename of the form “*.img.raw”, where the wildcard * can be any valid filename substring and matches the edge-compute hardware you are working with. If the file has a .zip extension, make sure to unzip the file first.
3) Backup your user and system settings by opening your NEPI device’s RUI SYSTEM/DEVICE tab and clicking the “Save” button with “All” selected in the dropdown box.
4) Setup the NEPI Root File System partition to overwrite. Open the NEPI device’s RUI SYSTEM/SOFTWARE tab. In the “A/B PARTITION SETTINGS” section, you can see the current Active/Inactive partition numbers and the NEPI software version installed on each. From the image below, we can see on this system, the current Active partition is “1” with NEPI version “3.0.0” and the current Inactive partition is “2” with NEPI version “3.0.0”.
NOTE: During installation of a new NEPI software image, the INACTIVE partition will be overwritten. If the partition you want to overwrite is currently the Active partition, select the “Switch Active/Inactive” button, reboot and check that the inactive partition is the correct one.
5) Install the new NEPI Image. In the “Full System Update” section, click the “Check” button to verify a valid NEPI Root File Image has been uploaded to the NEPI device’s User Storage drive’s nepi_full_img folder. If successful, the uploaded NEPI Engine software’s version is reported in the “Image Version” textbox and the “Status” textbox will report “Ready to Install”. Click “Install” button to start the installation and wait for the installation to complete.
6) After the installation is complete, the NEPI software manager will automatically switch the Active and Inactive partitions and boot to the new NEPI software image just installed. Reboot your system and verify that the new NEPI software version is running on the Active partition.
NOTE: In rare cases, it may be necessary to manually click the “Switch Active/Inactive” button – the Full System Update: Status text field will inform you if that is the case.
7) Repeat the software install process for the other partition by clicking the “Install” button in the “Full System Update” section and wait for the installation to complete. After the installation on partition B is complete, the NEPI software manager will automatically switch the Active and Inactive partitions and boot to the new NEPI software image just installed. Reboot your system and verify that the new NEPI software version is now installed on both the Active and Inactive partitions.
8) (Optional) If the NEPI Engine image file was smaller than then your original NEPI Root File System partitions sizes, you may want to SSH into your system and resize the file system sizes to match the partition sizes.
a) Open an SSH connected terminal to your NEPI device and run the following commands:
sudo resize2fs /dev/nvme0n1p2
sudo resize2fs /dev/nvme0n1p3
9) (Optional) Restore your saved pre-install system and user settings by opening the RUI Settings/Admin tab, enabling the “Advanced Settings Enable” button, and selecting the “User Restore” button.
10) (Recommended) Upgrade your NEPI User Storage files to the latest version.
a) You can also download and update your system’s AI models, automation scripts, databases, and document files by first downloading the latest “user_storage_partition” files from: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/c7qap49hftrmi13ku49tg/h?rlkey=kbufq3lv04y9c2etc17kotk0j&dl=0
b) Open the File Manager application on your PC and access your NEPI device’s User Storage drive. Delete and replace any folders (or files) you downloaded and want to upgrade.
11) (Recommend) Refresh your NEPI device’s cached Driver, Application, and AI Model databases to catch any changes or updates in the updated image by opening each of these tabs from the RUI’s System menu.
Backing Up Your Software
If you are making changes to your NEPI Engine Root File System software, it is a good idea to create a backup (archive) of your working Root File System beforehand. Another reason you may want to archive your current NEPI Engine Root File System is if you have made changes to a system and want to clone those changes to other NEPI devices of the same type.
1) Set your current active partition (A), assuming that is the partition you want to backup, to the inactive partition (B). This will boot your system into the currently inactive partition on next power cycle.
a) Open your NEPI device’s RUI System/Software tab and make the current partition (the one you want to clone) Inactive by selecting the “Switch Active/Inactive” button in the “A/B PARTITION SETTINGS” box. You should see the active and inactive partition names turn RED, but not switch. For this tutorial, we want to archive the currently active partition “SSD Partition 1” and will boot to the currently inactive partition “SSD Partition 2” after clicking the “Switch Active/Inactive” button.
b) Power cycle your system to boot to the currently inactive partition. This will make your currently active partition available for backing up.
2) Backup your current inactive partition (B)
a) Once your system has rebooted, refresh your NEPI device’s RUI System/Software tab and ensure that the NEPI Engine software partition you want to archive is shown as “Inactive” and as the “Source” in the “FULL SYSTEM ARCHIVE” section. In this tutorial, we are archiving Partition 1 as shown in the image below. Click the “Archive” button to begin backing up your NEPI Engine software image.
b) Once the “Status” field shows “archive complete” you can use the File Manager application on your PC to access your NEPI device’s User Storage drive and copy the newly archived NEPI image file from the nepi_full_img_archive folder to a folder on your PC. This image can then be used to restore your NEPI software image in the future or copied to another NEPI device to for cloning.
3) Switch the active partition back to the current inactive partition, the one you just cloned.
a) Open your NEPI device’s RUI System/Software tab and select the “Switch Active/Inactive” button in the A/B PARTITION SETTINGS box. You should see the Active and Inactive partition names turn RED.
b) Power cycle your NEPI device. It should now boot back to the original Active Root File System You can verify this in the NEPI device’s RUI System/Software tab.
Cloning Your Software
If you have configured and customized a NEP device and want to clone its software, settings, and user storage files to another system of the same type, use the instructions below.
1) Create a backup (archive) Root File System image and copy the User Storage folders/files you want to clone from your working system following the instructions in the “Backing Up NEPI Engine Software” section of this tutorial.
2) Install the software from your backup process onto the new NEPI device following the instructions in the “NEPI Software Updating” section of this tutorial.
3) Reboot your system and test that everything works.
Software Recovery
If for any reason your NEPI file system crashes during the boot process and you are unable to access the RUI, the NEPI boot software will load the NEPI Inactive Image after the third failed attempt to load the currently Active Image.