Getting Started with phyHUB

Introduction

phyHUB is the update, device, and security management platform of PHYTEC Messtechnik GmbH, developed in cooperation with our partner MLPA. It connects your embedded devices in the field to a central platform from which you control the complete software lifecycle of your fleet.

Core capabilities:

  • Fleet management and remote updates. Manage your entire device fleet online and roll out application (Snap) and operating system (RAUC) updates over the air, from a single device to thousands.

  • Integrated security monitoring. View CVEs for each individual device and deploy fixes directly from the platform. phyHUB integrates seamlessly into your existing vulnerability management process.

  • Role-based access control. Predefined and freely configurable user roles let you cleanly separate development, testing, and rollout responsibilities within your team.

  • Simple hand-off to end customers. Give your customers access to the full platform, or connect a simplified, customer-facing website through the UI.

How This Documentation Is Organized

The phyHUB documentation consists of focused manuals that build on each other. This page is your starting point: it walks you through the complete path from an empty account to a fully managed device and tells you which manual to read at each stage.

  1. Create your account

  2. Install the phyHUB client and onboard your development kit

  3. Explore the user interface

  4. Automate and publish from the terminal

Follow the steps in this order. Each manual states its prerequisites and points you to the next document once you are done.

Step 1: Create Your Account

To start evaluating phyHUB, first create an account on your platform instance. Registration, email verification, inviting your team, and assigning roles are covered in the:

User Management

Note

The person who creates the first account automatically becomes the Organization Admin of your test instance. This can be changed later, so you do not have to make a final decision at this point.

Step 2: Install the phyHUB Client and Onboard Your Device

Getting your hardware onto the platform is straightforward. The evaluation runs on PHYTEC development kits; we provide ready-made images for three platforms:

  • phyBOARD-Pollux

  • phyBOARD-Nash (image coming soon)

  • phyBOARD-Tauri-L (image coming soon)

Your kit runs the phyHUB image from its internal eMMC storage. You boot the kit from the SD card it ships with, write the phyHUB image onto the eMMC from there, and switch the board over to booting from the eMMC. On its first boot from the eMMC, the device displays a claiming token on its console; you enter this token on the online platform and the device completes its registration automatically. Both parts, installing the client and activating the device, are covered in the:

Device Provisioning

You will need console access to your kit and a network connection with internet access for the board. The manual lists the exact prerequisites and network setup before you start.

Note

This token-based flow is intended for evaluation and demonstration purposes. For production, PHYTEC provides professional, automated solutions for onboarding devices at scale. Contact us for details.

Step 3: Explore the Web Interface

With your device online, the UI Manual: Devices, Software & Assets introduces all functions of the web platform. Among other things, you will learn how to:

  • Register devices and monitor their status, installation state, and logs

  • Roll out your first application (Snap) update through a deployment group

  • Review, rate, and release uploaded software before it can be deployed

  • Model your physical equipment as assets and commission devices to them

  • Attach custom attribute sets to record equipment data

Step 4: Automate and Publish with the CLI

For this step you install m2cp, the phyHUB command-line client, on your computer (see Links and Tools). The phyHUB CLI Manual: Devices & Software explains the installation and documents all commands. m2cp covers the platform’s device and software management from the terminal and adds developer capabilities that are not available in the UI:

  • Upload new software, both applications and complete OS images, which then becomes available for deployment on the online platform

  • Register new device models to make your machines known to the platform

  • Generate snapd seeds for building custom OS images

  • Claim devices and follow updates live from the terminal

Document Overview

Order

Document

Purpose

1

User Management

Organization setup, invitations, user roles

2

Device Provisioning

Installing the phyHUB client on a PHYTEC development kit and onboarding it to the platform

3

UI Manual: Devices, Software & Assets

Devices, software, and assets in the web

4

phyHUB CLI Manual: Devices & Software

The m2cp command-line client