Service deployment in a cluster of I/O devices

1. A method for deploying a service in a cluster of Input/Output (I/O) devices, I/O devices of the cluster comprising respective container engines, the method comprising the following operations performed via a container client:

obtaining a stack file, wherein the stack file identifies at least one service and specifies at least one device constraint, wherein the device constraint specifies a characteristic of two or more I/O devices of the cluster; and

sending a command based on the stack file, to the cluster to deploy a service on a container engine of I/O devices of the cluster that match the at least one device constraint, wherein the command is configured to be disregarded by all I/O devices of the cluster that do not match the at least one device constraint.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the command by the container engine of the I/O devices of the cluster, and

upon reception of the command, the container engine of the at least one first I/O device retrieves at least one image of the service from at least one registry to deploy an image of the service in a container of the container stack.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the container engines of the respective I/O devices of the cluster are a Docker engines, wherein the container client is a Docker client, and wherein the method further comprises, prior to sending the command, the following operations:

creating a Docker swarm by designating at least one manager; and

receiving, by the at least one manager and from the container engines of the I/O devices of the cluster respective requests to join the cluster;

wherein the command is sent to the at least one manager and then forwarded by the at least one manager to the container engines of the I/O devices of the cluster.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one manager is a network entity separated from the I/O devices by respective firewalls.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein an identifier is attributed by the at least one manager or via the container client to each of the I/O devices of the cluster from which a request is received, and wherein one of the two or more I/O devices has a unique identifier matching the device constraint.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the device constraint is a first device type, and wherein the two or more I/O devices have device types that match the first device type.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the service is one or several among:

part of an automation application;

a runtime;

a firmware;

configuration data;

tuning data; and/or

a calibration procedure.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the command further comprises environment data, the environment data being related to data acquired, received, and/or transmitted by the two or more I/O devices, and wherein the service deployed on the container engines of the two or more I/O devices are configured to operate based on the environment data.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the environment data defines publish/subscribe mechanisms between several services deployed via the stack file.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the publish/subscribe mechanisms are according to a MQTT protocol and wherein one of the services deployed in the container engine of one of the first two or more I/O devices is a MQTT broker service.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable medium having processor-readable instructions stored thereon, the processor-readable instructions, when executed by a processor, causing performance of at least a method according to claim 1 .

12. A container client device comprising:

a user interface configured for receiving user inputs; and

a processor and a memory configured for executing a container client and for, based on the user inputs, obtaining a stack file identifying at least one service and specifying at least one device constraint, wherein the device constraint specifies a characteristic of two or more I/O devices of a cluster of I/O devices;

wherein the processor is further configured to generate a command based on the stack file and wherein the container client device further comprises a network interface configured for sending the command to the cluster -to deploy the service on a container engine of I/O devices of the cluster that match the at least one device constraint, wherein the command is configured to be disregarded by all I/O devices of the cluster that do not match the at least one device constraint.

13. A system comprising a container client device according to claim 12 , wherein each I/O device of the cluster further comprises an actuator or sensor, and an operating system.