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Configure machine settings
If most of your machines use the same setup, you can use a fragment, like a cookie cutter, to configure the machines in the same way. Fragments are a way of sharing and managing machine configurations across multiple machines.
For example, if you have a fleet of rovers that uses the same hardware, you could use a fragment to configure the motors, base component, camera, and all other resources for all rovers. If some of the rovers have a slightly different configuration, you can overwrite the configuration for just those resources of those rovers. If one rover has an arm attached, you can add the rover configuration fragment (including the motors, camera, and base components), and then configure the arm on just that one rover.
You must be an organization owner to create fragments for an organization.
In the Viam app, create a machine in any location.
Use the CONFIGURE tab to configure all the resources you want to use on your machines.
All available resources except triggers are supported in fragments. You can even configure other fragments inside a fragment.
Switch to JSON.
Copy the raw JSON configuration object.
Go to the FRAGMENTS tab and create a fragment.
Paste the copied JSON configuration into it.
Set your privacy settings in the menu bar. There are three options for this:
Click Save.
If you want to edit the fragment later, do it from this screen.
Delete the original configuration (optional).
Now that the configuration is saved as a fragment, you can delete each resource in the original config from your machine and replace the config with the fragment in the next step. By using the new fragment, this and every other machine you add the fragment to will use the exact same configuration.
With your fragment created, you can add it to all machines that should have it.
In the following steps, you will see how to add a fragment manually. If you are working in a factory setting and need to set up devices before they reach the end user, you can also use fragments to provision your machines.
On your machine’s CONFIGURE tab, click the + button and select Insert fragment.
Search for your fragment and add it.
Click Save in the upper right corner of the screen.
Repeat step 1 for each of the machines that you want to configure in the same way.
If some of your machines have slight differences, you can still add the fragment and then add fragment overwrites in the next section.
If some of your machines are similar but not identical, you can use a fragment with all of them and then overwrite parts of the configuration to customize it without modifying the upstream fragment.
For example, consider a fleet of rovers that all have the same motors, wheels, and base but a few rovers have a different camera than most. You can configure a fragment that has the motors, wheels, base on the rovers as well as the camera that is used on most rovers. For the rovers that have a different camera, you would then add the fragment and overwrite the camera configuration.
If you or a collaborator later modify fields within the upstream fragment, your modifications will still apply. For example if you changed the default camera configuration in the fragment to be a different camera model, your modified rovers would still overwrite the camera model set by the fragment.
On the CONFIGURE tab of the machine whose config you want to modify, make your edits just as you would edit a non-fragment resource.
You can click the {} button to switch to advanced view and see the changes.
Click Save.
You can modify fragment fields in your machine’s raw JSON config by using update operators.
Viam supports all update operators except for $setOnInsert
, $
, $[]
, and $[<identifier>]
.
To configure fragment overwrites manually instead of using the builder UI:
"fragment_mods"
(alongside the other top-level sections like "components"
and "fragments"
):
"fragment_mods": [
{
"fragment_id": "<YOUR FRAGMENT ID>",
"mods": [
{
<INSERT YOUR MODS HERE>
}
]
}
],
This example assumes the fragment with ID abcd7ef8-fa88-1234-b9a1-123z987e55aa
contains a motor configured with "name": "motor1"
.
{
"components": [],
"fragment_mods": [
{
"fragment_id": "abcd7ef8-fa88-1234-b9a1-123z987e55aa",
"mods": [
{
"$set": {
"components.motor1.attributes.max_rpm": 1818,
"components.motor1.attributes.pins.a": 30,
"components.motor1.attributes.board": "local"
}
},
{
"$unset": {
"components.motor1.attributes.pins.pwm": 0
}
}
]
}
],
"fragments": ["abcd7ef8-fa88-1234-b9a1-123z987e55aa"]
}
fragment_id
value to match the ID of the fragment you want to modify, for example "12345678-1a2b-9b8a-abcd987654321"
.mods
section.
Click to view each example:After configuring fragment overwrites, check your machine’s LOGS tab.
If there are problems with overwrites to the fragment, the overwrites will not be partially applied and the configuration changes will not take effect until the configuration is fixed.
(Optional) Revert fragment modifications.
If you need to restore the original fragment, click the … in the upper right corner of the card you modified, and click Revert changes. Now, the fragment will be identical to the upstream fragment.
You and your collaborators can edit a fragment at any time. The Viam app automatically creates new versions of your fragment as you make changes. Fragments can only be deleted if no machines are using them.
If you’ve already deployed the fragment to one or more machines, the Viam app updates the configuration on each deployed machine that uses that fragment. You can see the number of machines using your fragment from the fragments page in the Viam app.
We recommend testing updates to fragments on a small number of machines before deploying them to a larger fleet. For recommendations on updating software on deployed machines, see Update software.
You can create tags to differentiate between versions of your fragment.
For example, you may want to create a tag for stable
and beta
.
When you add a fragment to a machine you can choose to pin the version to use:
stable
or beta
.For an example of a fragment that configures multiple components and services, see the Viam Rover fragment.
For an example of creating a fragment and using it to configure a fleet of machines, see the air quality fleet tutorial.
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