Device Renaming and Removal Handling

When a device provisioned through the gateway API is renamed or deleted in the ThingsBoard UI, the platform sends a Persistent RPC notification to the gateway so it can update its internal state immediately — preventing data loss and duplicate entity creation.

  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │  Admin renames or deletes a device in the    │
  │  ThingsBoard UI                              │
  └─────────────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │  ThingsBoard sends a Persistent RPC          │
  │  to the gateway device (TTL: 1 day)          │
  │  Survives gateway restarts and reconnects    │
  └─────────────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                            │
              ┌─────────────┴──────────────┐
              │ Rename                     │ Delete
              ▼                            ▼
  ┌────────────────────┐      ┌────────────────────────┐
  │ Gateway updates    │      │ Gateway sends a new    │
  │ its internal name  │      │ connect message on     │
  │ record for the     │      │ behalf of the physical │
  │ physical device    │      │ device — re-provisions │
  └────────────────────┘      └────────────────────────┘

The gateway uses the ThingsBoard entity name to report telemetry for each connected physical device. Before this feature existed, renaming the entity in the UI caused the gateway to keep reporting under the old name, which ThingsBoard would re-create as a new entity — resulting in duplicate devices.

When the platform sends a gateway_device_renamed RPC, the gateway updates its internal record so all subsequent telemetry is reported under the new name without interruption.

RPC payload:

{
  "method": "gateway_device_renamed",
  "params": {"Old device name": "New device name"}
}

Deleting a device entity in the ThingsBoard UI previously caused data loss: the gateway had no way to know the entity was gone and continued sending data to a non-existent endpoint.

When the platform sends a gateway_device_deleted RPC, the gateway initiates a new connect message on behalf of the physical device, which causes ThingsBoard to re-provision it. Data flow resumes without loss.

RPC payload:

{
  "method": "gateway_device_deleted",
  "params": "Removed device name"
}

ThingsBoard sets a 1-day TTL on these notifications. If the gateway is offline when the rename or deletion happens, it will receive the RPC as soon as it reconnects — as long as the reconnection occurs within 24 hours of the original action.