Skip to main content

Status

Device status is described by three attributes, all of which are visible when viewing a device summary in the Golioth console.

  • Session Established: the time at which a device last established a secure session with the Golioth platform.
  • Last Report: the time at which a device last successfully delivered any data to the Golioth platform.
  • Setting Sync: the time at which a device last reported the status of its settings, and whether they were synchronized with the values set on the Golioth platform.

Analyzing Device Status​

The three device status attributes can be used in concert to analyze different aspects of a device's behavior. Examples for how to interpret various permutations of device status attributes are provided below.

Handshake Frequency​

It is typically optimal to maintain a session with the Golioth platform as long as possible, as re-establishing a session uses network bandwidth, power, and compute resources for a device. Approximate session duration can be ascertained by calculating the difference between the Session Established and Last Report attributes.

For example, if the Session Established timestamp is 20 hours old, but the Last Report timestamp is a few seconds ago, the device has maintained the same session of approximately 20 hours. In contrast, if the Session Established timestamp and Last Report timestamp are frequently close in value, it is potentially a sign that the device is performing unnecessarily frequent handshakes.

Availability​

Availability of a device, or whether it is actively listening for updates, is highly dependent on the environment in which it operates and the firmware that it is running. For example, a device may be operating normally, but not able to respond to updates from the Golioth platform due to entering a power save mode.

The Last Report attribute can be useful for predicting whether a device is online, or likely to come online soon, but ultimately the only mechanism to know for sure is to attempt to contact the device and to see if it responds. This can be accomplished by a number of mechanisms, such as Golioth's Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service.

Settings Freshness​

The Setting Sync attribute indicates whether the last reported settings from a device match the current settings configured on the Golioth platform. It is normal for settings to become out of sync for some period of time, as a device may not immediately process a change made on the platform. However, devices may process settings changes and report an error, which indicates that either the setting is not recognized by a device, or its value is not valid for the current version of firmware on the device.