Matter : Clarification wrt. "diagnostics" clusters

[abollaert]

Hi,

this is somewhat of a "meta" question:

I was looking at the different diagnostics clusters and what info / events they provide since these would be useful for a manufacturer to do troubleshooting and such on devices in the field.

However, what I can't seem to figure out is how a manufacturer is supposed to get a hold of these.

Do you need a custom app to read these out? Or does a controller (Nest Hub, HomePod, ...) read these out?If for example you emit a SoftwareFault event from your device, what happens with it?

Kind regards,

-Alex

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

If you want to check for corrupted packets, retransmissions, etc. the best way to do this would be to get a sniffer log to inspect the network and packets. 

As for SoftwareFault, you could use addr2line to see which line cause the issue and debug it. 

Regards,
Amanda H.

[abollaert]

Hi Amanda,

I'm not talking about debugging, I'm wondering what the sense of a Software Diagnostics (and General Diagnostics) cluster in the Matter specification is if nothing is making use of them.

If you have some device, with general diagnostics and software diagnostics cluster enabled (possibly also diagnostic logs), and it gets commissioned by a user in their home (could be Google Home, could be HomeKit, ...), then how do you, as a manufacturer, get data from those clusters without having the user install a specific app?

Else there's no point in implementing those clusters cause it's the sound of one hand clapping.

-A

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Currently, it is possible to use the command-line CHIP Tool for Linux/macOS to read values from these clusters. If you want to keep using Google or Apple ecosystems, you can use CHIP Tool as another commissioner to add your device to a new fabric, and then use CHIP Tool to collect diagnostics data. Overall, the point of these clusters is that it allows one to create a device that is able to retrieve diagnostics from other devices within the fabric and present them to a user in any form, and I'm pretty sure vendors will eventually make use of that. However, I don't know what are the plans of e.g. ecosystem vendors with regards to that.

-Amanda H.

[abollaert]

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for the info, I was afraid there wasn't a standardized mechanism for this.

Kind regards,

-Alex