Set up devices for OS evaluation

Microsoft deploys the Azure Sphere OS on the Retail Evaluation feed two weeks before its release on the Retail OS feed, as described in Azure Sphere OS feeds. By assigning a few devices to a group that receives the Retail Evaluation OS, you can verify that your production-signed applications work with the release before we deploy it broadly. The devices in this device group are also monitored by Microsoft for quality and any concerns that you report to Microsoft will be addressed to ensure a quality Retail OS release.

You can verify applications on devices that are in field or lab test, or in production, by assigning them to either the Field Test OS Evaluation group or the Production OS Evaluation device group. These device groups are intended for the same uses as the Field Test and Production device groups, respectively. The only difference is that they receive the Retail Evaluation OS instead of the Retail OS. We recommend keeping the production-signed application consistent between either the Field Test OS Evaluation device group and the Field Test device group, or the Production OS Evaluation device group and the Production device group, to effectively evaluate the new Azure Sphere OS.

To move an attached device into a different device group, use the azsphere device update command as follows:

azsphere device update --device-group <product-name/device-group-name>
azsphere device update --device-group <device-group-id>

If you created your own device groups, you can change the OS feed they receive by using the azsphere device-group update command specifying either Retail or RetailEval as --os-feed (Azure Sphere CLI) parameter:

azsphere device-group update --device-group <product-name/device-group-name> --os-feed <os-feed-type>
azsphere device-group update --device-group <device-group-id> --os-feed <os-feed-type>

Important

Contact your Microsoft Technical Account Manager (TAM) immediately if you encounter any compatibility problems so that we can assess and address the problem before we release the OS software to the Retail feed.