This guide describes what EVE-OS images are, what kinds are available, and how they work with ZEDEDA Cloud. You’ll also find a list of procedural guides that you can use to do things with EVE-OS images, such as install EVE-OS.
Before reading ahead, you should be familiar with the content in our EVE-OS overview.
EVE-OS images
EVE-OS images are binary files that contain the EVE-OS operating system and various components that are required for ZEDEDA Cloud to manage edge nodes. They ensure a consistent, secure, and manageable environment for your edge applications.
Using EVE-OS images, you can either install EVE-OS onto a device, enable a device to boot EVE-OS from a portable drive, or update either an installation of EVE-OS or an in-use version of EVE-OS booting from a portable drive.
Types of EVE-OS images
There are three distinct types of EVE-OS images, each enabling a different type of provisioning:
- Installer images
- Live images
- Root file system (rootfs) images
Installer images, the most commonly used type, install EVE-OS onto an edge node. These images are flashed onto USB drives or SD cards. You can connect these portable drives to devices to install EVE-OS images. An installer image can be used to install the same EVE-OS image onto many devices.
Live images enable devices to boot EVE-OS from a connected storage device that contains the image. Live images are flashed onto USB drives or SD cards, which may be connected to a device to boot EVE-OS. When the portable storage is disconnected, the device will no longer be able to boot EVE-OS.
Root file system (rootfs) images update the version of EVE-OS already running on edge nodes. They are not for new installations or live-booting of EVE-OS. Instead, you can upload these images to ZEDEDA Cloud to remotely update your edge nodes at scale. Rootfs images can also be used to update SD cards that are connected to your edge nodes and running live images.
EVE-OS images are available for the following architectures:
- AMD64
- ARM64
Each type of image is available for each supported system architecture.
In addition to the aforementioned types, EVE-OS images can be created in a few different formats. For example, an installer image can be created as an .iso, .raw, or .net file, each facilitating different provisioning strategies.
Our EVE-OS image guides describe which image types and formats you need and how to get them.
Naming conventions of EVE-OS images
EVE-OS image names comprise various parts. Each part indicates a specification of the image.
Typically, you’ll get your images from Docker Hub, so this section focuses on what EVE-OS image names look like there.
In Docker Hub, EVE-OS image names follow this format:
version-hypervisor-systemArchitectureConsider the following image name, an example of a tag that you would find on Docker Hub:
11.0.5-lts-kvm-amd64- 11.0.5: the EVE-OS version number
- lts: indicates a “long-term support” version
- kvm: the hypervisor the image is compatible with; in this case, “kernel-based virtual machine”
- amd64: the system architecture the image is compatible with
EVE-OS version numbers, 11.0.5 for example, have three parts:
- 11: the major version
- 0: the minor version
- 5: the patch version
NOTE: You may see version numbers in Docker Hub replaced by the string, “latest”, which indicates the most recently released version, but not necessarily a latest LTS version. Our guides avoid using “latest”. They instead focus on LTS versions because LTS versions are officially supported.
NOTE: “latest” images in Docker Hub are not related to “latest” images in ZEDEDA Cloud.
EVE-OS images and ZEDEDA Cloud
After you install EVE-OS onto an edge node, you can upload rootfs images to ZEDEDA Cloud, enabling you to centrally manage and upgrade your EVE-OS versions at scale.
ZEDEDA Cloud does not, however, technically contain EVE-OS images. You must upload each of your images to a datastore, and then link those locations to EVE-OS entries in ZEDEDA Cloud, which actually contains only metadata about each image and a reference to its location in its datastore.
After an EVE-OS image is available in ZEDEDA Cloud, you can remotely update your edge nodes with it. The following section on Latest EVE-OS images contains more details about how to do so.
View your EVE-OS images
Use the ZEDEDA GUI
- Log in to the ZEDEDA GUI.
- Hover over Library on the left side nav.
- Select EVE-OS images.
Use the ZCLI
- Log in to the ZCLI.
- Print the list of your enterprise’s EVE-OS images.
zcli image showLatest EVE-OS images
In ZEDEDA Cloud, your enterprise administrators can mark an EVE-OS image in your enterprise as a latest image, which enables you to update your edge nodes with that image.
Each enterprise can have a single latest image for each system architecture (AMD64 and ARM64).
For more information, see our guide to managing latest EVE-OS images.
NOTE: “Latest” images in ZEDEDA Cloud are not related to “latest” images in Docker Hub.
EVE-OS image entries in ZEDEDA Cloud
EVE image objects in ZEDEDA Cloud have a number of attributes, which are grouped into two categories: Identity and Details.
Identity attributes
Each EVE-OS image object in ZEDEDA Cloud has the following attributes in its Identity section.
Id
Uniquely identifies an EVE-OS image object in ZEDEDA Cloud across an entire cluster.
Name
Uniquely identifies an EVE-OS image object in ZEDEDA Cloud across an entire enterprise.
There may be multiple occurrences of the same name in different enterprises running on the same cluster.
Title
Optional value that is not used in any way by the ZEDEDA system.
Description
Optional value that is not used in any way by the ZEDEDA system.
Image Format
Supported formats: RAW for EVE-OS images.
Image Architecture
CPU architecture of the device the image is compatible with.
Status
Possible values:
- Ready: upload or uplink successful - the image is ready to use
- Created: the image entry exists in ZEDEDA Cloud, but no image has been uploaded or uplinked
- Failed: failed to upload or uplink an image
- Uplinking: indicates uplinking in progress
- Uploading: indicates uploading in progress
Image Type
“EVE-OS Image” for EVE images.
Created By
The email of the user who created the EVE-OS image. For example, “bob@enterprise_name.com”
Created At
The date and time the EVE-OS image was created. For example, “Aug 02, 2023 11:20 AM”
Last Updated By
The email of the user who last updated the EVE-OS image. For example, “bob@enterprise_name.com”
Last Updated At
The date and time the EVE-OS image was last updated. For example, “Aug 02, 2023 11:20 AM”
Details attributes
Each EVE-OS image in ZEDEDA Cloud has the following attributes in its Details section.
Data Store
The ZEDEDA Cloud datastore entry that refers to the datastore that contains the image.
Projects
A list of projects that can use the image.
Image Relative URLs
Path to the image in your datastore.
Image SHA256
Used to verify the integrity of your EVE-OS image.
CAUTION: If the image is altered, its SHA256 value will change, and the SHA256 value in ZEDEDA Cloud needs to be manually updated to match the image’s new SHA256 value. This value in ZEDEDA Cloud does not update automatically.
Image Size
For example, “231.79 MB”.
Managing EVE-OS images in ZEDEDA Cloud
Getting EVE-OS images
The following guides describe how to get different types of EVE-OS images, each suited to a different purpose.
- Get an EVE-OS image: Gets you a standard installer or live image.
- Get a single-use EVE-OS image: Gets you a perishable installer image that will enable you to securely deliver initial configurations to your device rather than waiting for your device to pull its initial configuration from ZEDEDA Cloud.
- Get an SSH-enabled EVE-OS image: Gets you an installer image that will enable you to connect to your edge nodes through SSH before they are onboarded.
- Create a custom EVE-OS image: Gets you an EVE-OS image with custom configurations.
Installing EVE-OS
The following guides describe the necessary steps to install EVE-OS. Refer to these after you get an EVE-OS image.
Basic operations with EVE-OS images and ZEDEDA Cloud
The following guides describe the various EVE-OS-image-related operations available to you.