Your EmbedOne Projects questions answered.

Could you give some application examples that can benefit from EMI?

EMI can be used in any Embedded Linux application as a generic system management framework. For example, company who wants to develop wireless router product may use EMI to manage system configuration, statistics, take care of system software update processes etc. For typical wireless router product, this company needs only to develop web based GUI using the EMI as a backend. In best case scenario, using EMI as a management framework may save months of the development time for this company.

EMI and SNMP looks similar, what are the differences?

SNMP is a protocol, while EMI is framework. EMI uses JSON-RPC over HTTP as a protocol. SNMP daemon has similarity to EMI, but is not as powerful as a framework. The key differences are:

• EMI has interface for creating web based device management GUI easily which is very important for most of the embedded systems. Not supported by SNMP.
• EMI has well defined interface for managing system far beyond simple key/value pairs supported by SNMP. For example, you can execute system utilities remotely and interact with them. Good examples of such applications are: request device to download system software update, install new software, perform packet sniffing, execute ping, traceroute etc.
• Since EMI is running over HTTP, it is possible also to use HTTPS/SSL connections which are much more secure than any standard SNMP security models.
• Despite the fact that SNMP can be used for configuring devices, open source Embedded Linux has very poor support for it.
• EMI supports human readable input/output. Not supported by SNMP.
• EMI supports Apply/Commit logic for configuration settings. Not supported by SNMP.
• EMI supports Atomic Commit of configuration settings. Not supported by SNMP.
• EMI supports detailed descriptions for each configuration parameter and statistics value. Not supported by SNMP.

What is the difference of EMI, EMID and EMIC?

EMI is the name of the framework: EmbedOne Management Interface. EMID is the daemon software running in device performing all framework tasks. EMIC is command-line client software that can be used to communicate device with EMID.

Is EMIC available for Windows?

EMIC will be initially available as a command line tool only for Linux Operating System. EmbedOne will provide Windows XP/Vista version of the same tool soon after the release.

Is there something like EMI already available in open source community?

No. At least we have never heard of anything similar. That’s why we decided to create it. We felt that embedded Linux requires proper framework for managing the entire system.

Does EMIC have a graphical user interface or command line interface only?

EMIC is command line tool and has command line interface only. For those looking for graphical user interface, please see EMI-RPC Web Client.

I know that EMI is bundled in EmbedOne Linux. However, I am interested in using EMI in <x> Linux distribution. Is it possible?

Yes. Definitely, yes. It might require some minor integration work to be done, but it should work just fine in any Linux distribution.

How I can start using EMI? Is it difficult? Can I do it myself?

You can download EMI Open Source Version directly from our downloads section. It is available as a package with full source code and makefiles. If you have experience in compiling any open source tools by yourself, the compilation and installation is very easy for you. For those who don’t want to get their hands dirty by compiling everything from sources, we have also pre made installation packages available.

How can I get more information about EmbedOne Linux and EMI?

Please see our support section for more information. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, please contact us.