Polling intervals

For security reasons, the Mender client does not require any open ports on the embedded device. Therefore, all communication between the Mender client and the server is always initiated by the client and it is important to configure the client so that the frequency of sending various requests to the server is reasonable for a given setup.

There are two client configuration parameters that allow controlling the frequency of communication between the client and the server:

• UpdatePollIntervalSeconds sets the frequency the client will send an update check request to the server. Default value: 1800 seconds (30 minutes).

• InventoryPollIntervalSeconds sets the frequency for periodically sending inventory data. Inventory data is always sent after each boot of the device, and after a new update has been correctly applied and committed by the device in addition to this periodic interval. Default value: 28800 seconds (8 hours).

Note that mender-auth, one of the client components, does not connect on its own, but acts as a proxy whenever mender-update needs to connect.

How to choose right intervals

The Mender client is more responsive with higher frequency intervals. Meaning that the client inventory data updates more frequently. The client also polls for updates at a smaller interval, leading to faster deployments.

But there is a trade-off; higher polling frequencies results in more server load. If one server has many clients connected, a high frequency will require more resources server-side to keep the environment responsive.

Changing the parameters

Both parameters are stored in the configuration file /etc/mender/mender.conf:

{
  "UpdatePollIntervalSeconds": 1800,
  "InventoryPollIntervalSeconds": 28800,
…
}