Ubuntu in a industrial environment - increasing robustness

njoye

2/1/23, 8:21 AM

I'm trying to figure out ways our company can make their industrial computers running Ubuntu more robust. We use industrial computers in vehicles which run (at the moment) Ubuntu 18.04 (Desktop Version). We use 18.04 because our software is built with ROS Melodic, only runs on 18.04 and we heavily depend on Docker Containers for modularization of our software. An upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 is possible. Recently we've been running into some issues with the OS that we then fixed either manually (which is bad) or through monitoring the situation via cron. These situations include but are not limited to:

OS log files (/var/log/kern.log, ...) getting too large --> running out of storage space
Auto Updater running and blocking start-up of our software
Sudden disconnects (one day to the next, no software or network change) between software that communicates via UDP on various ports

All of that has me wondering if there is a way to make Ubuntu more "robust". By that I mean a way that allows me as the user to be confident that, when I start the system for the n-th time, it will still work the same way as before, that no updates will be installed unless we want it to, etc.

One option I know of is using the server version of Ubuntu 18.04 which will likely solve some of these issues as the requirements for a server are similar to those of the vehicles (long uptime without failure for example).

tl;dr -> How can I make sure that my Ubuntu system doesn't "magically" change something overnight that causes our companies software (vehicles, industrial setting) not to work anymore? Any resources, opinions and hints are welcome!

Thanks in advance.

0 + 0

18.04

Nmath

2/1/23, 8:33 AM

Please ask about each issue separately since this is a Q&A site and not a forum. Some questions may be easier to answer than others. Namely, the `unattended-upgrades` package can be safely removed if you do not want security and critical bugfixed patched automatically. You can also configure how often the system checks for updates. It's encouraged that you search/research on these tasks before asking so as to not post duplicate questions.

user535733

2/1/23, 11:57 AM

Ubuntu Core is designed for this use case. Have you looked at it?

njoye

2/4/23, 1:38 PM

@user535733 I haven't yet, but will do - it looks like it's what we need - thanks. Would you like to write an answer to this question so that in case it fits our needs I can give you the credit ?

user535733

2/4/23, 1:50 PM

If Ubuntu Core works for what you need, write an answer about how it works for you, what customizations you needed to make, the learning curve for snapping your software, etc. And I'll upvote it.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Ubuntu in a industrial environment - increasing robustness

TH: Ubuntu ในสภาพแวดล้อมอุตสาหกรรม - เพิ่มความทนทาน

RO: Ubuntu într-un mediu industrial - creșterea robusteței

RU: Ubuntu в промышленной среде — повышение надежности

VI: Ubuntu trong môi trường công nghiệp - tăng độ mạnh mẽ

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