BridgeTech vbc VBC User manual
VBC Controller User’s Manual
Revision 4a45156 (2018-04-26)
Copyright c
Bridge Technologies Co AS. Bentsebrugata 20, NO-0476, Oslo, Norway.
All rights reserved.
This publication can contain confidential, proprietary, and confidential trade secret information. No part of this document
may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any machine-readable or electronic format without prior
written permission from Bridge Technologies Co AS. CE-marked in accordance to low voltage directive (LVC) 73/23/EEC
and EMC directive 89/336/EEC. Compliant to requirements for US and Canada. Designed for CSA approval. Bridge
Technologies Co AS continuously improves on products and reserves the right to modify the specifications without prior
notice. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and Bridge Technologies assumes no responsibility
or liability for any errors or inaccuracies.
The BRIDGE, BRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES and BRIDGETECH name, logo and all other related logos are registered
trademarks of BRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES Co AS.
All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the trademarks, service marks, or product
names as designated by the companies who market those products. Inquiries should be made directly to those companies.
This document may also have links to third-party web pages that are beyond the control of Bridge Technologies. The
presence of such links does not imply that Bridge Technologies Co AS endorses or recommends the content on those
pages. Bridge Technologies acknowledges the use of third-party open source software and licenses in some products.
All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Contents
Contents 3
1 INTRODUCTION 6
1.1 Sites and Blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Users and Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP 9
2.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 First-time Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Deploying in a Virtualized Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 Initial Setup Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6 Upgrading From a Previous Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6.1 Using an Installation Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6.2 Using Software Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6.3 Using a full reinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.7 Accessing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.8 Firewall Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.9 License Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 REMOTE DATA WALL 19
3.1 Introduction to the Remote Data Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Accessing the Remote Data Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4 THE VBC GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE 21
4.1 Login ........................................... 22
4.2 Live ............................................ 24
4.3 Monitoring......................................... 25
4.3.1 Monitoring — Top Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3.2 XML Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3.3 Monitoring — Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.3.4 Monitoring — Blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4 Blade alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.5 Graphics view (Graphics option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.6 Streamview........................................ 39
4.6.1 Stream names, class and interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.6.2 Stream view — Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.6.3 Selected Stream Compare MediaWindow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
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4.6.4 Selected Stream Compare ETR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.6.5 Selected Stream Compare Streamdata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.7 Thumbs view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.8 Service view (Transport Stream Service View option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.8.1 Service view — Thumbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.8.2 Service view — Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.8.3 Selected TS Service Compare ETR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.9 Map ............................................ 54
4.10RDP............................................ 55
4.11RDW............................................ 57
4.11.1 RDW — Canvases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.11.2 RDW — Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.11.3 Canvas Configurator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.11.4 Web Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.11.5 Textbox Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.11.6 Thumbnail Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.11.7 Loudness Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.11.8 Media Window Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.11.9 Alarms Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.11.10RF Graph Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.11.11Clock Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.12 Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.12.1 Equipment — Device configuration management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.12.2 Equipment — Manual configuration files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.12.3 Equipment — Device software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.12.4 Equipment — Manage files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.13 Alarm setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.13.1 Alarm setup — Message Fwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.13.2 Alarm setup — Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.14 Timeline (requires Archive Server) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.14.1 Choosing what to inspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.14.2 Navigating in time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.15Reports .......................................... 84
4.15.1 Reports — Manual Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.15.2 Reports — Report list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.15.3 Reports — Auto reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.15.4 Reports — Import logo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.15.5 Reports — The PDF Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.16 Ext. Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.16.1 Ext. Reports — Manual extended report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.16.2 Ext. Reports — Extended report list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.16.3 Ext. Reports — Auto extended reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.16.4 Ext. Reports — PDF Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.16.5 Ext. Reports — Alarm poll and report status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.16.6 Ext. Reports — Setup storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.17 Main — Sites and Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.17.1 Sites and Users — Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.17.2 Sites and Users — Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.17.3 Sites and Users — User groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
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4.18 Main — Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.18.1 Logs — Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.18.2 Logs — Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.19 Main — Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.20 Main — Alarm statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.21 Main — Stream groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.22 Main — Service groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.23 Main — Archive Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.23.1 Archive server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.23.2 Enabling the Archive server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.23.3 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.23.4 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.23.5 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.24 Main — Gfx. View Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.24.1 Configure diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.24.2 Setup and data mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.25 Main — General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.26 Main — About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.26.1 About — Release info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.26.2 About — License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.26.3 About — Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.26.4 About — Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.26.5 About — System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.26.6 About — Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
A Appendix: Separate Probe and Network Interfaces 125
B Appendix: The VBC Files 126
C Appendix: VBC Linux Processes 128
D Appendix: Example Site Configuration 129
E Appendix: Getting the Thresholds Right 131
F Appendix: Probe Versus VBC Alarms 134
G Appendix: Troubleshooting 136
H Appendix: Backing up the VBC 137
I Appendix: Software Maintenance 139
J Appendix: Network configuration 140
K Appendix: Enable NTP time synchronization 144
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1 INTRODUCTION
The VBC Controller is a server-side software application that offers central management of Bridge
Technologies devices. Operating devices through the VBC is considerably more convenient and
powerful than operating each device independently.
When managing a large digital television system there is a need to easily monitor the overall system
status. Deploying a number of probes and a VBC enables the user to view the system status
at-a-glance, and if a problem arises the VBC’s drill-down functionality makes it easy to locate the
problem source.
Through the VBC the user can perform tasks such as building a hierarchical equipment view,
view aggregate alarm and status messages, get aggregate status per TV stream and compare
measurements across devices.
The VBC supports alarm export for integration into an NMS system.
The VBC server runs in a Linux environment. The VBC client is simply a web browser pointed towards
the VBC server.
1.1 Sites and Blades
The VBC Controller supports a hierarchical equipment view. At the top of the chain are sites. A site
is a number of devices that logically or physically belong together. These devices are also called a
blades. Each device has an IP address and its own web interface that can be reached directly or via
the VBC.
For systems deploying microVB units a Micro Device Controller (MDC) can be added to the VBC as a
device. MDC will then report monitoring statistics to the VBC on behalf of all the microVBs.
1.2 Users and Access
The VBC Controller supports a role based user interface where a user is given full or limited access
to a selection of the devices. Setup of system wide configurations, such as user setup, is performed
by the pre-configured user admin.
The admin user is hard-coded inside the VBC and is the only user defined when the VBC is installed.
The admin user is the only user that has access to the system-wide setup menus. Put another way,
the admin can do everything a regular user can do and more.
Beware!
You can easily do a lot of damage by accident as the admin user, so it is not recommended
to log in as admin to perform regular tasks.
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When logging in, the user name for the admin user is always
admin
and the password is
elvis
by
default. Please change the password for this user after installing the system.
There is no limit to the number of active users or to the number of active users of the same account.
Each client will work independently of the others, only affected by changes to global settings usually
done by the admin user.
The VBC uses a standard web mechanism called cookies to identify users. A cookie is a piece
of data that the VBC returns to the browser when the user logs in. The browser will automatically
provide this cookie in all subsequent requests towards VBC. The cookie allows the VBC to remember
the state for all users who are logged in – so that it knows which sites the user has access to etc.
Generally all windows or tabs from the same browser application will appear to the VBC as the same
user – since they will all forward the same cookie.
The admin grants each user access to one or more sites. When logging in, the client’s access will
be limited to the sites associated with the login name. The client will only have access to devices
belonging to these sites.
Each user belongs to one user group. The access rights for the users is controlled in the user groups.
Here the user can be limited to read only access, allowed the TS service view, doing RDP etc.
The user interface provided by the VBC is dynamic in the sense that almost all pages are generated
differently for each user. The
Stream view
will, for instance, only list streams that are monitored by
probes that are included at the sites that the user has access to.
1.3 How to Use This Manual
This User’s Manual is valid for software version 5.4 of the VBC Controller.
Throughout this manual the term stream is often used rather than unicast or multicast. One stream
may consist of one or more services, and refers to one IP uni- or multicast (for Ethernet input) or one
transport stream (ASI, COFDM, QAM/VSB or QPSK/DVB-S2).
Chapter 2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP explains how to install the software on a server.
Chapter 3 REMOTE DATA WALL describes the Remote Data Wall.
Chapter 4 THE VBC GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE describes the graphical user interface (GUI)
as seen when pointing a web browser to the VBC Controller’s IP address.
A Appendix: Separate Probe and Network Interfaces describes how to set up the VBC as a bridge
between the probe and management networks.
B Appendix: The VBC Files summarizes the files that are installed and created by the VBC.
C Appendix: VBC Linux Processes lists the Linux processes used by the VBC.
D Appendix: Example Site Configuration contains an example on how to configure VBC sites.
E Appendix: Getting the Thresholds Right explains how to set up VBC thresholds.
F Appendix: Probe Versus VBC Alarms describes the alarm handling in the probes versus the VBC
Controller.
G Appendix: Troubleshooting lists some hints troubleshooting VBC Controller issues.
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H Appendix: Backing up the VBC describes how to create a backup of the VBC and how to restore it
later.
I Appendix: Software Maintenance briefly describes software maintenance licenses and how they are
used.
J Appendix: Network configuration gives a brief introduction to the server OS network configuration.
K Appendix: Enable NTP time synchronization provides some basic information about setting up time
synchronization.
Note that current version of the User’s Manual can be found on the
http://www.bridgetech.tv/
website. Log in as end user:
customer
with password:
xmas4u
. Additional technical documentation
is also found at the same location.
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2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP
2.1 System Requirements
For VBC demonstration purposes the minimum hardware requirements are:
•Quad-core or multiple dual-core 1.6 GHz CPU
•4 Gbyte RAM minimum (remember to fill up all memory channels)
•20 Gbyte writable disk space
•
10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card(s) with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7
The recommended VBC server specifications for a medium sized system (20 blades or 8000
streams) are:
•Intel Quad-core 2.4 GHz CPU
•16 Gbyte 1600 MHz DDR RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)
•250 Gbyte writable disk space
•
10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card(s) with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7
The recommended VBC server specifications for a large system (60 blades or 24000 streams)
are:
•Intel Xeon 1630 v4 (4 cores, 8 threads, 3.7 GHz) CPU
•24 Gbyte 1600 MHz DDR 4 RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)
•500 Gbyte writable disk space
•
10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card(s) with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7
The recommended VBC server specifications for a very large system (100+ blades) are:
•Intel Xeon 1630 v4 (4 cores, 8 threads, 3.7 GHz)
•24 Gbyte 2400 MHz DDR 4 RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)
•2×500 Gbyte SAS, 15000 RPM in a Hardware RAID 1 configuration
For even better performance SSD disks can be used instead, in a similar RAID 1 configuration
•
10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card(s) with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7
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It is important that the number of RAM modules matches the number of memory channels
supported by CPU. For dual socket systems the number of required RAM modules doubles.
Example recommended CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2667 v41:
For this system there are 4 memory channels. So for single socket systems 4
×
16Gbyte RAM
modules could be fitted, and for a dual socket system 8×16Gbyte RAM modules could be used.
The load on the VBC server will increase for increasing number of concurrent users and with more
sites and blades, and the VBC’s responsiveness is dependent on server specifications. It may
therefore be a good investment to use high performance server hardware in order to handle future
system extensions.
Supported platforms:
•CentOS Linux release 7 (7.0–7.4) for x86_64
•Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7 (7.0–7.4) for x86_64
2.2 First-time Installation
Make sure that the server hardware matches the requirements listed above. Download the appropriate
installation image from the end-user area on
http://www.bridgetech.tv/
and then follow the
procedure outlined below.
1. Obtain the latest installation kickstart image.
2. Insert the installation medium into the server:
•
For CD/DVD-based installations, burn the downloaded ISO image to a CD/DVD and insert
into the server.
•
For USB-based installation, transfer the downloaded image to a USB mass storage device
using a tool such as dd (Mac, Unix, Linux) or USBWriter2(Windows).
•
For installation in a virtualized environment, attach the downloaded ISO image to a virtual
DVD-ROM unit.
Note:
Please read the advice on how to configure the virtual machine in section 2.3 to
ensure optimal performance.
3.
Boot the server and make sure that the primary boot device is set appropriately. If the system
fails to boot from the medium, you may need to configure the boot loader for ‘legacy BIOS
mode’.
4.
The installer will run, please follow the on-screen prompts to install the system, taking note of
the following:
•IMPORTANT: Leave ‘Software selection’ at ‘Custom software selected’.
1https://ark.intel.com/products/92979/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2667-v4-25M-Cache-3_20-GHz
2http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/
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•IMPORTANT:
In the ‘Installation Destination’, the default partitioning will create a large
/home
partition, which is unused. To avoid this, use the ‘I will configure partitioning’ option.
Then use the ‘Click here to create them automatically’ and manually reduce the size of (or
remove) the /home partition, instead giving that space to the /partition.
•
We recommend that you configure network settings (IP address, gateway, DNS) within
the installer. Post-installation network configuration can be performed using the
nmtui
utility, please refer to J Appendix: Network configuration for details.
•
The default installation does not provide any graphical user interface environment. This
can be installed later if desired, please refer to the CentOS Linux
3
or Red Hat Enterprise
Linux4documentation for more details.
5.
At the end of the installation procedure, the server is rebooted. Remove the installation media
and ensure that the system boots up properly.
6.
Enter the selected IP address in your web browser to access the Software Activation page. If
your host is using dynamic addressing, you can log in to the account created during installation
and issue the command ip addr to display the address assigned to the system.
Continue to chapter 2.4 for details on how to enable the VBC Controller system.
The kickstart will install CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on the server. The disks
will be formatted and all contents lost. Make sure that any important data on the server has
been backed up before beginning the procedure.
Note that new installations of VBC must use the kickstart install procedure.
2.3 Deploying in a Virtualized Environment
It is also possible to deploy the software in a virtualized environment. For optimal performance, check
the processor configuration of
cores per socket
on your host server and use the same configuration
setting of cores per virtual sockets on the virtual machine.
Please follow the steps from chapter 2.2 when installing the software in the virtualized environment.
We recommended
disabling
any ‘Easy install’ or similarly worded option, and not selecting the
operating system type when initially creating the new virtual machine instance in your virtualization
environment. These options may override the installation instructions included in the provided
installation image, causing an incomplete installation.
Pre-built images for VMware (vSphere/Workstation/Player) are provided in
OVA
(Open Virtualization
Format Archive) format. These images contains a system already installed according to the steps
described in the previous chapter, with VMware Tools already installed and activated.
To deploy the image, you need to import it to the virtualization host, please refer to the documentation
of your virtualization environment for more details on how to do this.
3http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7
4https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/index.html
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Figure 2.1: Software Activation
If installed in a VMware vSphere environment, the machine should report back its network configu-
ration to the host environment. Please allow some time for it to do so, and then continue with the
Software Activation procedure as described in the next chapter.
When logging in to the console of the pre-built images, the default password for the
root
user is
elvis
.
The same password is also used for logging in remotely using Secure Shell (ssh).
Please change
the password for the root user after finishing the install
, log in and use the
passwd
command to
do this.
2.4 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software Activation
Once the software has been installed and restarted all further configuration takes place through the
web interface.
1. Launch a web browser application on the management system.
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Any web browser with support for JavaScript can be used to access the Software Activation
interface, one of the following are recommended:
•Google Chrome
•Mozilla Firefox
•Microsoft Edge
•Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or higher
•Apple Safari
2. Type the IP address of the server in the browser URL field and press Enter .
The network settings should have been set when the operating system was installed. If the web
browser is unable to reach the web server, check the server’s network settings in the operating
system.
3.
The Software Activation view should be displayed inside the browser. Software Activation is
password-protected, the user name is admin and the default password is elvis.
This password should be changed under the More options heading5.
The page displayed should look similar to figure 2.1.
4.
If you already have an XML file with license keys for your system, click on the
More options
heading and upload this file under the
Import license keys
option. If you have the license key
written down or in an e-mail, instead use the product page described below.
5.
If this is a new server, and you need to obtain license keys for the purchased products, please
click the link labeled
export hardware keys as XML
and send the downloaded file to your
sales representative as an e-mail attachment.
6.
The VBC Controller is not enabled by default on the newly installed server. To enable it, use the
link labeled
Not activated
next to its name. This will take you to a page giving you the details
of the installed software, such as the installed version and the hardware key. If you have a
license key that you want to enable and have not yet done so, enter the key in the field labeled
Apply license key and click the Add license button.
7.
Click the button labeled
Activate software
and wait for it to finish. If successful, the VBC
Controller should now be activated, and you will be presented with a link to the user interface.
The next time you access the server using a web browser, you should be taken automatically
to the enabled software.
Please note that it may take some additional time before the user interface of the activated
product becomes available. If you receive an error trying to access it, please wait for a few
minutes before trying again.
To return to the Software Activation view to make changes, open the
About — License
tab in the
VBC Controller user interface and click the link labeled Manage installed software.
It is
strongly recommended
that the system time is configured to be synchronized against an
external NTP server. Please refer to K Appendix: Enable NTP time synchronization for more
information on configuring time synchronization.
5
If you forget the Software Activation password, you can reset it by logging in as root and issuing the command
/opt/btech/ssg/bin/reset_web_password
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2.5 Initial Setup Troubleshooting
If you are having trouble bringing up the Software Activation interface, or the VBC Controller web
based management interface, verify the following:
•
Verify that the client machine and the VBC Controller are configured on the same subnet and
that they have different addresses, or, if you use different subnets, verify that the routing and
gateways are set correctly on both the client machine and the VBC Controller.
•Make sure that the IP address of the gateway and the network interface are not the same.
•Verify that the appropriate Ethernet link indicators of the PC and the VBC Controller are lit.
•Verify that web browser proxy settings are not interfering.
•Verify that local firewall settings on the PC are not interfering.
•Try rebooting the server and make sure all services start as expected.
•Clear the browser’s cache.
•Verify that the web server is running, by entering the command
systemctl status httpd
on the server’s command line. If it is not running properly, try issuing the command
echo "ServerName localhost" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
and then restart the server by issuing the command
systemctl restart httpd
•
If you can reach Software Activation but the VBC Controller GUI is not working, enter the
command
vbchello
on the server’s command line to verify that the VBC services are running.
If services are not running, try re-installing the VBC.
Please refer to J Appendix: Network configuration for more information on server network configura-
tion.
2.6 Upgrading From a Previous Version
We strongly recommend backing up the VBC files before upgrading to a new version of the VBC
Controller, or when upgrading to a new release of the OS. The backup procedure is described
in H Appendix: Backing up the VBC of this manual.
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To upgrade to this release of the VBC Controller, your system must meet the system requirements
described in chapter 2.1. If your system does not meet these requirements, the installation procedure
will stop with an error message.
VBC Controller version 5.4 will be able to upgrade VBC version 5.2 or later only. Only systems
running CentOS Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x can be upgraded. For systems running
older versions of VBC or older versions of the operating system you must first backup the system by
following the procedure described in H Appendix: Backing up the VBC. Install the new system using
the instructions for new installations as described in chapter 2.2 and then restore the backup on the
new system. This is described in section 2.6.3 Using a full reinstall.
VBC Controller version 5.3 was the last version with support for CentOS Linux or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux release 6.x, 5.4 only supports release 7. The current version of the operating
system can be found on the About — Release info tab in the user interface.
2.6.1 Using an Installation Script
Download the appropriate installation image from the end-user area on
http://www.bridgetech.
tv/
and copy the installation script to the system. Log in as root and run the installation script by
issuing the command
sh filename.run
(where filename.run is the name of the installation script). You will be presented with a menu with
options to
I
nstall the software or
D
isplay the README file. Press the appropriate key and press
Enter to begin.
This will upgrade the required files in
/opt/btech/vbc
, and restart the VBC server processes if the
software was already activated.
If error messages appear while running the installer script, please check out the README file from
the installer for additional information (available from the installer menu).
If the installation fails, try re-installing the system as described above.
2.6.2 Using Software Activation
It is also possible to upload the VBC using the Software Activation interface. Access Software
Activation and expand the
More options
heading. Under the heading
Update software
, select the
software image file to be uploaded and click the
Update
button. The image will have a
.tea
extension.
When the software has been transferred to the VBC, the
Update software
button to initiate the
update.
If the VBC software was already activated, you will be transferred to a progress bar displaying the
update status.
If the software was not activated, the upgrade will run in the background and you will be forwarded to
the product page inside the Software Activation interface. Depending on how long the update takes,
you may need to reload the product page again to verify that the software has been updated.
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If the software upgrade fails, you can find a log describing the upgrade procedure by logging in to the
VBC server and opening the file /opt/btech/vbc/log/upgrade.log
2.6.3 Using a full reinstall
Sometimes it is necessary to upgrade the system by doing a full reinstall. This must be done when:
•Upgrading from VBC before version 5.2
•
Upgrading from a system running CentOS Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 6.x or
older
•Moving the VBC to a new server
The procedure for upgrading by doing a full reinstall is as follows:
•
First back up the old machine by using the procedure described in H Appendix: Backing up the
VBC. Make sure to use the backup script from the new SW version when doing the backup and
store the backup in a safe location.
•Install the new system using the instructions for new installations as described in chapter 2.2.
•Restore the backup on the new system as described in H Appendix: Backing up the VBC.
Please note that the hardware key will change when the VBC is reinstalled on a new machine. Please
see section 2.9 License Details on how to obtain the current hardware key and contact your sales
representative to obtain a new license key.
2.7 Accessing the User Interface
Once the software has been installed and activated all further configuration takes place through the
web interface.
The following web browsers are supported for the management interface:
•Google Chrome
•Mozilla Firefox
•Microsoft Edge
•Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or higher
•Apple Safari
The login view should be displayed inside the browser. This should look similar to figure 2.2. If you
have problems accessing the user interface, refer to chapter 2.5 for troubleshooting.
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Figure 2.2: The VBC Controller Graphical User Interface
2.8 Firewall Configuration
If you have firewalls active, the following ports need to be enabled:
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Protocols and ports
Web
(TCP port 80 and 8080)
Required. For serving clients. Port 8080 is only used if MDC is
part of the VBC configuration.
Web tunneling to probes
(TCP port 80 and 8080)
Required. The VBC will intercept and forward Web requests
from clients towards probes on port 80. Port 8080 is only used if
MDC is part of the VBC configuration.
Probe polling
(XML over TCP port 80)
Required. Every 60 seconds, the VBC server requests mea-
surements from the probes. Also used to verify if probes are
alive.
On-line license proxy
(TCP port 8443)
Required unless the probes can access the licensing service
directly. When the probes are on a restricted network, they will
use the proxy serving on this port to connect to the licensing
service. The port needs only to be open towards the probe
network.
SNMP traps and consulta-
tion
(UDP ports 161 and 162)
To be able to receive SNMP traps or consult the VBC MIB.
NTP
(TCP port 123)
Used for time synchronization if the probes have been configured
with the VBC IP address.
It is strongly recommended that the server running the VBC
software, and the equipment controlled by it, be synchronized
against an external NTP server. Refer to K Appendix: Enable
NTP time synchronization for more details.
Device auto-detection
(UDP port 2011)
Used by the VBC to auto-detect devices.
ftp
(TCP port 21)
Required if probes are to be software upgraded from the VBC
server.
Secure Shell and telnet
(TCP ports 22 and 23)
Useful to perform health checks etc. towards probes.
For more details on how to configure the network, please refer to A Appendix: Separate Probe and
Network Interfaces.
2.9 License Details
After the unlicensed VBC Controller software is installed, it will run in a trial mode for 30 days with
unrestricted access to features. After this period, if a license key has not been obtained, the VBC will
revert to being an element manager with no access to licensed features and with no alarm features.
To obtain a license the
Hardware key
displayed in the
About — License
view is given to your Bridge
Technologies reseller, who will return a
Product License Key
which is submitted from the same view.
The Hardware Key can also be seen in the Software Activation interface.
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3 REMOTE DATA WALL
This chapter gives a quick introduction on how to use the Remote Data Wall feature of the VBC
Controller.
3.1 Introduction to the Remote Data Wall
Remote Data Wall (RDW) gives the opportunity to quickly and easily create a visual representation of
network activity using a web browser window. Depending on the size or complexity of the network
being monitored, RDW can spread from a single screen to multiple screens in a videowall format –
but requires no specialist skills to install.
The Remote Data Wall can be configured to display mosaics from the selected streams, as well as
alarm lists and other important information from within the system. A configured mosaic is called a
canvas and is configured in the RDW – Canvases view.
3.2 Accessing the Remote Data Wall
The Remote Data Walls can be reached by entering
<IP address>/rdw/
in a browser’s URL field.
All connected browser windows are displayed as devices in the
RDW — Devices
view. By default,
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the canvas named
Default
is used for new devices. It is possible to select which RDW canvas is to be
displayed on a specific device in this view. Each canvas can be displayed on any number of devices.
The RDW can also be reached through the Devices list clicking the link at the bottom of the screen,
as shown in the picture below.
Go to chapter 4.11 for details on how to configure the Remote Data Wall.
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