Pre-install components in Greengrass V2

Question

It's my understanding after reading through the various Greengrass V2 documentation pages and doing some tests that a deployment can only be done when the Greengrass software is up-and-running. So I guess this means that it's not possible to so to speak "pre-install" a Greengrass environment where everything (including custom components) is already installed once the software starts up for the first time? Our use case for this would be customers with limited or no internet connectivity at all (or corporate policies in place blocking external access to AWS).

The only way I have been able to circumvent this is by doing a local deploy which seems to work even if no connection to AWS can be made, but this requires the use of the Greengrass CLI which from what I understand is not recommended to include in a production deployment?

The only way I have been able to circumvent this is by doing a [local deploy](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/greengrass/v2/developerguide/test-components.html) which seems to work even if no connection to AWS can be made, but this requires the use of the [Greengrass CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/greengrass/v2/developerguide/publish-components.html#publish-component-gdk-cli) which from what I understand is not recommended to include in a production deployment?

junfucAWS · Answer

For your use case, I recommend using the Greengrass CLI to locally deploy components.

As the warning states, this component provides access to information and operations to modify Greengrass environments locally, which is generally not required for production environments. Therefore, it's crucial to ensure that CLI is secured on the devices you deploy to. (restrict user permission, etc.)

Additionally, please note that local deployments default to a "local group." This can cause component version conflicts when you try to upgrade a locally installed component with a cloud deployment. To avoid this, I suggest using the --groupId option during local deployment and specifying the cloud group name. This ensures the local deployment overrides the cloud group, preventing any conflicts. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/greengrass/v2/developerguide/gg-cli-deployment.html

Greg · Answer

As an alternative, please also consider "golden images": [Manufacturing devices at scale with AWS IoT Greengrass golden images](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/iot-greengrass-golden-images/introduction.html)

Pre-install components in Greengrass V2

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