VBC Manual 370-2

VideoBridge Controller
Users' Manual
Sw version 3.7.x-xx
B R I D G E T E C H V B C U S E R S ' M A N U A L V E R S I O N 4.2
2008 BRIDGE Technologies Co AS -Mlleparken 4 -N-0459 Oslo, Norway -tel: +47 22 38 51 00 - www.bridgetech.tv
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................4
1.1 Sites, frames and blades.............................................................................................4
1.2 Users and access........................................................................................................4
2 INSTALLING THE VBC....................................................................................................5
2.1 System requirements...................................................................................................5
2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5..........................................................................................5
2.3 Installing Red Hat........................................................................................................6
2.4 Upgrading previous VBC versions...............................................................................7
2.5 VBC 3.5 software installation.......................................................................................7
2.6 License Details............................................................................................................8
3 GENERAL ABOUT THE USER INTERFACE....................................................................9
4 USER INTERFACE FOR REGULAR USERS.................................................................10
4.1 Login..........................................................................................................................10
4.2 Monitoring..................................................................................................................11
4.2.1 Top-level monitoring...........................................................................................11
4.2.2 XML alarms........................................................................................................13
4.2.3 Site monitoring...................................................................................................14
4.2.4 Blade monitoring................................................................................................15
4.3 Channel view.............................................................................................................16
4.4 Thumbs view..............................................................................................................17
4.4.1 Selected channel view........................................................................................18
4.4.2 MDI compare window.........................................................................................20
4.5 Logs...........................................................................................................................21
4.6 Equipment.................................................................................................................22
4.7 Reports......................................................................................................................24
4.7.1 Manual report.....................................................................................................24
4.7.2 Report list...........................................................................................................25
4.7.3 Import logo.........................................................................................................26
4.7.4 Feedback...........................................................................................................26
4.7.5 The PDF report...................................................................................................26
The PDF report title page...................................................................................................27
The PDF report summary page..........................................................................................27
The channel table page......................................................................................................29
Per channel page...............................................................................................................30
4.8 About.........................................................................................................................31
4.8.1 Release info.......................................................................................................31
4.8.2 Licence...............................................................................................................31
4.8.3 Technologies......................................................................................................32
5 USER INTERFACE FOR THE ADMIN USER.................................................................33
5.1 Site setup...................................................................................................................33
5.1.1 Frame setup.......................................................................................................34
5.1.2 Blade setup........................................................................................................35
5.2 Equipment (for admin user).......................................................................................35
5.3 User setup.................................................................................................................37
5.4 Alarm setup................................................................................................................37
5.4.1 SNMP alarms.....................................................................................................39
5.5 General......................................................................................................................40
5.5.1 Clearing the channel view data..........................................................................40
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5.5.2 Clearing alarm lists.............................................................................................40
I Appendix: Separate probe and network interfaces..........................................................42
II Appendix: Backing up the VBC database.......................................................................42
III Appendix: VBC link kit...................................................................................................42
IV Appendix: The VBC files................................................................................................44
V Appendix: VBC Linux processes....................................................................................45
VI Appendix: Protocols and ports.......................................................................................46
VII Appendix: Example site configuration...........................................................................47
VIII Appendix: Getting the thresholds right.........................................................................48
IX Appendix: Relative measurements example...............................................................49
X Appendix: Probe versus VBC alarms.............................................................................53
XI Appendix: Troubleshooting............................................................................................53
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1 INTRODUCTION
The VBC (Video Bridge Controller) is a server-side software application that offers central
management of VideoBRIDGE 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 IP-Probes and a VBC enables the operator to view
the system status at-a-glance, and if a problem arises the VBC's relative measurement
feature 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 channel and
compare measurements across devices.
The VBC supports alarm export for integration into an NMS system.
The VBC server runs in a UNIX/Linux environment. The VBC client is simply a web browser
pointed towards the VBC server.
1.1 Sites, frames and blades

The VBC 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. Each site contains a number of
frames. A frame is the same as a box or a chassis. Each frame contains one or more
blades. A blade is synonymous with a card, board or device. Each blade has an IP address
and its own WEB interface that can be reached directly or via the VBC.
1.2 Users and access

The VBC supports a role based user interface where a user is given full access or read-only
access to a selection of the devices. Setup of system wide configurations, such as user
setup, is performed by the pre-configured user admin.
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 clients
access will be limited to the sites associated with the login name. The client will only have
access to frames and blades belonging to these sites.
The user interface provided by the VBC is dynamic in the sense that almost all pages are
generated differently for each user. The C h a nnel vie w for instance will only list channels
that are monitored by probes that are included at the sites that the user has access to.
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2 INSTALLING THE VBC
2.1 System requirements

The recommended VBC server specifications are dual 2.0GHz CPU and 2GB RAM. For
demo purposes the minimum requirements are 1.0 GHz CPU and 500MB RAM.
Supported UNIX/Linux platforms:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5 (recommended version)
Supported WEB browsers:

Internet Explorer 6 and 7
Firefox 2.0 or newer
2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, (RHEL5) can be downloaded from http://www.redhat.com. This
requires a valid Basic Subscription which can be purchased at the Red Hat online store, see
the picture below. For more information about Red Hat software and installation please refer
to http://www.redhat.com/rhel.
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2.3 Installing Red Hat
The VBC software requires no special software packages or configurations so when
installing RHEL5 for the first time, select the "Web Server" installation option and go with the
defaults. SELinux may be enabled and the firewall may be active but the following ports need
to be enabled:
Protocol and port Description

WEB Required. For serving clients.
(T C P port 80)
W E B tunnellin g to Required. The VBC will intercept and forward WEB requests
probe s from clients towards probes on port 80.
(T C P port 80)
probe pollin g Required. Every 60 seconds the VBC server requests
measurements from the probes. Also used to verify if probes
(X M L over T C P port 80) are alive.
S N M P trap s a nd To be able to receive SNMP traps or consult the VBC MIB.
c on s ultation
(U D P port s 161 a n d
162)
NTP Used if the Use time server option has been selected for
probes and the VBC server has been specified as the time
(T C P port 123) server. Note however that it is recommended that the server
running the VBC software is synchronised against an
external NTP server. The equipment controlled by the VBC
should also be synchronised against the same NTP server.
ftp Required if probes are to be software upgraded from the
VBC server.
(T C P port 21)
telnet Useful to perform health checks etc. towards probes.
(T C P port 23)
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2.4 Upgrading previous VBC versions
Please remember to back up the files in /opt/btech/ before upgrading to RHEL5 as this will
erase the hard disk. If the folder is not backed up, all Sites and blade information in the VBC
will be lost and will have to be reconfigured manually.
B a c kin g up the V B C:
The simplest way to back up the VBC is to save away the entire /opt/btech folder.
To make an archive file vbc_backup.tgz of the /opt/btech folder type the following commands
in a terminal shell on the VBC server (as root user):
cd /opt
tar cvfz vbc_backup.tgz btech
Now copy the tgz-file to a safe place (like a USB FLASH drive, CD etc.) and you are ready to
install RHEL5. Once RHEL5 is installed make sure you restore the /opt/btech folder from the
backup, before, you start the VBC 3.5 software installation.
R e st orin g the V B C fro m b a c kup:
To restore the file, make sure the vbc_backup.tgz file is in the /opt folder, then type the
following commands in a terminal shell (as root user):
cd /opt
tar xvfz vbc_backup.tgz
You are now ready to install the vbc software.
2.5 VBC 3.5 software installation

The software is found after logging in on the Bridgetech web site, http://www.bridgetech.tv. To
install the VBC software just unpack the downloaded file and run the installation script by
issuing the following commands in a terminal window (as root user):
tar xzf vbc*.tgz

cd release
./install_vbc
This will install the required files in /opt/btech, add startup scripts in /etc/init.d and start the
VBC server processes. This means that the VBC will automatically be started if the server
should be rebooted.
If error messages appear while running the installer script, please check out the README.txt
from the installer for additional information.
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2.6 License Details
The 3.5 version of the VBC software requires a license to operate, even when upgrading
from a previous version. After the VBC 3.5 software is installed, it will run in a trial mode for 7
days. During this time, it is licensed for 20 blades but will revert to a 2 blade license once the
trial period expires.
The report functionality is available for 30 days, then a license is required.
To obtain a license the H ard w are key displayed in the A b out page is given to your VBC
reseller who will return a Produ ct Li c en s e K ey which is submitted from the same page.
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3 GENERAL ABOUT THE USER INTERFACE
The VBC WEB interface has been designed for a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels or
larger. The link A dju st to windo w can be selected to adjust the C h a nnel vie w and
T hu m b s vie w pages to adapt to the current area of the browser window after it has been
resized.
The tree menu is always located on the left hand side. The admin menu tree contains more
entries than the menu tree for regular users. Some menu items are nested, in particular the
site and blade sub-menu entries are provided to allow quick access to the last visited site
and blade.
Just above the menu-tree is the login-name for the current user.
The M e a s ure relative check-box allows the user to switch between the regular and the
relative presentation of measurement pages. When activated, all status primitives including
alarms and bulb colours are based on relative measurements between the site and its
relative site, as defined in the S ite S etup view.
The VBC stores regular and relative information in two separate databases. The Measure
relative setting simply decides which database to use for presentation. Refer to Appendix for
an example describing relative measurements.
Note that the M e a s ure R elative selection is not persistent between logins.
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4 USER INTERFACE FOR REGULAR USERS
4.1 Login
Users are required to log in to get access to the VBC. Only the admin user can add new
users this is explained in the configuring and setup part of this manual.
After a user has logged in, the menu-tree changes to reflect the new options.
A status-line lists all the sites that the user can access and states his access-rights (full or
read-only). A login history for the user is also provided.
Users will stay logged in until they actively log out or their session times out (by navigating
the browser away from the VBC application).
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4.2 Monitoring
VBC provides monitoring at three different levels. Top-level monitoring allows the user to get
an overview picture of the complete system; site monitoring provides details about one
selected site and blade monitoring allows the user to monitor a specific device.
4.2.1 Top-level monitoring
The top-level M o nitorin g page displays status for each site and a top-level alarm list. The
colour of the bulb indicates the severity of the most severe active alarm for a device that
belongs to the site.
The following colour codes are used for bulbs:
Colour Description
Green No active alarms
Yellow The most serious active alarm is a warning
Orange The most serious active alarm is an error
Red The most serious active alarm is a major error (typically No Signal)
Black At least one device has a fatal error (typically cannot be reached)
The same colour codes are used for alarms.

The severity of the colour codes can be customised globally by the admin user, in the Al ar m
s etup menu.
The user can select which alarms to show and hide in the Filter al ar m s menu. The setting
is reset to the default when the user logs in the next time. Pressing Cle ar al ar m s will wipe
all the cleared alarms from the alarm list. The alarm list is reset the next time the user logs in.
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To avoid reporting too many alarms, the alarm list in the M o nitorin g page merges similar
alarms within a site. This is called al ar m a g g r e g ation and is not performed for any other
alarm list except the SNMP alarm list. Alarm aggregation is not performed across sites.
Hence similar alarms in different sites are never merged.
The following table shows examples of alarm aggregation:
Raw alarm Aggregated alarm
SiteA:BladeX No signal BBC
SiteA:2 TIMES No signal BBC
SiteA:BladeY No signal BBC
SiteB:BladeX No signal BBC
SiteB:BladeY No signal NRK SiteB:3 TIMES No signal CHANNELS:2
SiteB:BladeZ No signal BBC
The N TIMES aggregation indicates that N alarm messages were merged. The
CHANNELS:M aggregation indicates that in total M different channel names were reported in
the raw messages.
In the VBC all alarms are based on error-seconds measurements reported by probes
compared against error-thresholds defined by the same probe.
Here is an overview of all alarm messages; note that this is the behaviour when using default
thresholds refer to Appendix for a description on how to calibrate thresholds:
Message Description
N o c ont a ct This alarm is raised if the VBC is unable to obtain status from a
particular probe. The probes are polled every 60 seconds, so if
raised, this alarm will always stay active for at least one minute.
N o s i gn al This alarm indicates that during the last 60 seconds poll interval the
probe experienced at least 3 seconds of no signal.
R T P drop s This alarm indicates that during the last hour the number of error-
seconds experienced by probe exceeded the threshold (default 5
seconds).
M D I-M L R error These alarms indicate that during the last hour the number of error-
M D I-D F error seconds experienced by the probe exceeded the threshold (default
20 seconds).
B itrate overflo w
B itrate
underflo w
S c ra m bled These alarms indicate that during the last poll period an extractor
C le ar (VB280) has detected that either the signal is clear while expecting
scrambled (Clear alarm) or vice versa (Scrambled alarm). The
VB280 allows the configuration of these alarms per stream.
Clicking one of the site-names will open up the site monitoring page.
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4.2.2 XML alarms
The un-aggregated top-level alarms are available as xml via a static URL. The URL is
obtained by replacing the /vbc part of the regular VBC URL with /alarms_exp.xml see
example below.
In this example the two snapshots show the same alarms, but in the xml-version there is one
line per alarm per channel whereas in the VBC alarm list similar alarms for the same site
have been merged.
The XML alarm list provides integrators with an additional way of automating alarms export
from the VBC -now integrators can choose between SNMP and XML alarm integrations.
The release attribute in the XML document is updated every time the VBC refreshes the
alarm list and the crc attribute will only change when the alarm list changes.
Refer to Al ar m S etup for a description on how alarms are also available via the MIB and
13
as SNMP traps.
4.2.3 Site monitoring
The S ite monitoring page provides information about the selected site. Each device is
presented with an icon that reflects the device type. The status of each blade is indicated by
the colour of the bulb. For all non-green blade bulbs there should be corresponding entries in
the alarm list.
The alarm list will only show alarms for the selected site. Each of the bulbs provides tooltip
information about the blades IP-address.
Clicking one of the bulbs opens up the B l a d e monitoring page.
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4.2.4 Blade monitoring
The B l a d e monitoring page provides information about one blade. The top part of the page
is the devices own WEB interface pages, similar to those that can be reached by accessing
the device directly. The bottom part of the page contains the alarm list for the selected blade.
If the blade cannot be reached from the VBC server, the top half of the page will be empty
and the page will take approximately 10 seconds to load. In this situation the blades bulb
status icon is usually black in the S ite monitoring page.
When accessing a probe through the VBC, the probes built-in access-control feature is
disabled and the VBC decides if the user is going to have full access or simply read-only
access.
In the current version of the VideoBridge Controller, VBC3, there is no absolute need for a
blade to be aware of the VBC server as opposed to in earlier versions of VBC. The only
advantage of specifying a VBC in the probes S etup/Para m eter s menu is to be able to
export probe syslog messages from the VBCs L o g s menu.
For devices with multiple pages, clicking one of the alarm lines will automatically select the
corresponding page.
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4.3 Channel view
It is possible but a bit cumbersome to manually compare probe measurements for the same
channels between several probes. The VBC will automatically do this by comparing all
channels with the same name across all the probes that the user has access to. Hence by
carefully assigning names to multicast and unicast streams in the probes the user effectively
decides which streams are to be compared.
In the C h a nnel vie w all channels are presented in alphabetical order. For each channel
the bulb shows the current status and the 96-pixel channel-bar shows the status for the last
96 hours (i.e. 4 days).
Each bulb-colour corresponds to the aggregate status for all probes that belong to sites that
the user has access to. The bulbs are updated every 60 seconds which corresponds to the
probe poll interval.
The channel bars reveal any alarm that has been present during the last 4 days. The bars
will automatically scroll one pixel to the left each hour with the rightmost pixels showing the
current status.
The number of channels presented on a page is only limited by the size of the display
screen. Clicking the A dju st to windo w link after resizing the browser window will fill up all
of the available screen area.
Clicking a channel-name brings up the S ele cted channel view page.
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4.4 Thumbs view
If content extractors (VB280) are configured as part of the VBCs setup, the Thumbs view will
present a thumbnail picture for each channel.
The current channel status is indicated by the thumbnail pictures frame colour. The channel
bar presenting channel status for the last 4 days is the same as in the C h a nnel vie w page.
The line just below the channel name contains the following detailed information about the
stream: the channel name (as signalled in SI), its current bitrate, video resolution, video
format and multicast address. Widescreen signalling is indicated by a slightly wider thumbnail
picture.
The number of channels presented on a page is only limited by the size of the display
screen. Clicking the A dju st to windo w link after resizing the browser window will fill up all
of the available screen area.
Clicking a channel-name brings up the S ele cted channel view page.
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4.4.1 Selected channel view
The S ele cted channel view page lists measurements for all probes that are monitoring the
selected channel. By selecting between two and ten probes (clicking the toggle buttons at the
beginning of each line) and then clicking C o m p are M D I M e di a Windo w s for s ele cted
probe s the graphs for the probes are displayed in the M D I C o m p are Windo w.
It is possible to jump between the channels by clicking the Prev and N e xt links above the
table.
The bulb displayed for each probe shows the probes overall status and not the probes
status for the selected channel.
Each minute the VBC polls probes for information which is displayed in three categories
selectable in the dropdown list in the top-right hand corner.
Selecting E rror s e c ond p ara m eter s displays all error second parameters measured by
the probe during the selected period (last 4 days, 24 hours or 60 minutes). VBC alarms are
based on the error second parameters, and the severity of the corresponding alarm is
indicated by the colour of the parameter name.
Parameter Description
E S(n o si g) Number of seconds with no signal
E S( RT P) Number of seconds with RTP packet drops. This will always be zero if the
stream is not encapsulated in RTP headers.
E S( M L R) Number of seconds with packet drops in the TS layer (seconds when
media loss rate is nonzero). This is equal to the number of error seconds
with CC errors.
E S( D F) Number of seconds when the delay factor exceeds the threshold.
18
E S(overfl) Number of seconds when the bitrate exceeds the error-threshold.
E S(underfl) Number of seconds when the bitrate falls below the error-threshold.
Selecting S t ati sti c al p ara m eter s shows all aggregate measurements that are not error-
seconds measured by the probe during the selected period (last 4 days, 24 hours or 60
minutes).
s u m( O K-poll s) Number of times that the probe has been successfully polled.
s u m(Failed-poll s) Number of times that VBC has failed to poll the probe. Each time
VBC fails to poll a probe the N o c ont a ct alarm is raised for one
minute.
s u m( M L R) Number of TS packets lost in the MPEG2 transport stream. This is
not the same as the number of CC errors (which would be the
number of detected packet losses and not the packet count).
s u m( RT P drop) Number of RTP packets dropped.
Selecting C urrent m e a s ure m ent s shows parameters that are updated for each poll (i.e.
each minute).
S i g n al For how long the probe has been receiving a signal for this
channel. This is the same as the time since the last no-signal error
second.
c ur( M a x-D F) The peak delay factor during the last minute. This is the same as
the peak IAT during the last minute and is a measure of how much
jitter is present in the signal.
c ur( M a x-bitr) Peak bitrate during the last minute.
c ur( Min-bitr) Lowest bitrate during the last minute.
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4.4.2 MDI compare window
Up to 10 probes can be compared in the M D I c o m p are windo w. The high resolution

version is used when only two probes are selected.
From the MDI-graph it is possible to compare packet-jitter and CC-errors in the streams. By
comparing MDI graphs it is possible to locate where packet-jitter is introduced and where
packet loss occurs. See the probe manuals on more about MDI measurements.
The range of the graph can be set to a maximum of 4 days. For smaller ranges the scroll
buttons may be used. It is also possible to view the bitrate graph by clicking the B W-g r a ph
button.
It is the probes that draw the MDI graphs inside frames created by the VBC. If the probes are
not time synchronized (using NTP) the graphs may appear unaligned and the time labels
may be wrong.
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4.5 Logs
In the Logs menu it is possible to export the following logs:

Log type Description
R e g ular V B C This log includes past alarm messages reported by all sites the user
al ar m hi story has access to.
Thus, If the log includes the current time and M e a s ure relative is
disabled, the log will match the cleared alarms in the site alarm lists
(refer to S ite m onitorin g ).
R elative V B C The log includes all past alarms that have been reported by VBC with
al ar m hi story M e a s ure relative enabled.
Probe s y slo g The log includes syslog alarms and events forwarded by probes.
al ar m hi story In order to forward syslog alarms the probe must have For w ard
al ar m s for lo g exp ort in V B C checked in the Setup/Parameters
menu and the V B C s erver a d dre s s must be provided. Only alarms
checked in the probes Al ar m s - Al ar m s etup page are forwarded.
For probes under VBC control it may be useful to only enable the N o
s i gn al alarm in the Al ar m s - Al ar m s etup page.
The user needs to select the day and hour that marks the beginning of the log to be
generated. Clicking the Export link will present up to approximately 700 alarms in a popup
window.
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4.6 Equipment
The E quipm ent page lists important properties for all the blades that the user has access
to. It also provides a convenient way for the user to view each blades configuration.
For each blade the following information is available:
Column Description
Fra m e Model type of the frame that the blade belongs to
Ty pe Type of blade (probe, extractor or generator)
I P a d dre s s The blades IP address
R eferen ce s Full id of all blades referring to this IP address. If there is more than one
reference to a blade it means that the same IP address (i.e. blade) has
been specified more than once which is usually not what was
intended.
S W-ver sion The software version of the blade
C onfi g-C R C The CRC for the configuration held by the device can be used to check
if blades have the same configuration. Blades with the same
configuration will have the same CRC.
Vi e w The blades configuration can be seen by pressing this link.
Pressing the Fet ch probe c o nfi g s will copy the probes configuration to the VBC server
and update the SW-version, Config-CRC and View fields above.
The following configuration types are supported by probes: Full c onfi guration, C h a nnel
li st and T hre s hold s . The Channel-list and Thresholds are subsets of the Full
22
configuration. The selection in the C onfi guration type list specifies which of the
supported configuration types to work with.
Note that admin users have more options in the E quip m ent page. This is described in
chapter 5.
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4.7 Reports
From version 3.7 VBC supports the generation of PDF reports. It is expected that future
versions of VBC will provide support for automatic and more customizable reports. The report
feature comes with a free 30 day trial period, after that the report option must be purchased.
Note that reporting will only work if probes are upgraded to at least version 3.7.0
The fundamental measurements of the VBC reports are based on the parameters availability,
quality and jitter.
Availability refers to the presence of a channel. An availability of 100 % means that there have
been no signal disruptions for the complete interval that a channel has been monitored. The
no-signal error seconds is measured directly by probes as ES(nosig).
Quality refers to the packet loss affecting a channel. A quality of 100 % means that there has
been no packet loss during the interval that the channel has been monitored. The packet loss
is measured directly by the probes as ES(MLR).
Jitter refers to the timing of a channel. Jitter is based on error seconds just like availability
and quality. A difference however is that the value leading to jitter error seconds is not a
boolean type. While it is straight forward to determine signal loss and packet loss,
determining jitter requires comparing a jitter measurement against a user specified threshold.
A jitter error-second is thus determined by comparing the MDI-DF measurement against the
MDI threshold defined in the probe's Ethernet/Thresholds menu.
As an example, 10 error seconds during a period of 48 hours would be presented as
99.9942% for any of the parameters availability, quality or jitter. The calculation is 100% -10/
(48*60*60)*100 = 99.9942%.
4.7.1 Manual report
The Manual report tab allows the user to generate a report based on the parameters
described in the table below.
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S ite li st Only probes belonging to selected sites will contribute to report
R eport from First date of report
R ep ort to Last date of report. A report can span from 1 day to 2 years
R eport type Choose whether to generate a full report, a report containing only
erroneous channels or a report containing only summary information
Trend g ra ph The trend graphs show progress over time by averaging all
interv al measurements for the selected interval (day, week or month) and
plotting these values over time
Thre sh old s Specify the availability, quality and jitter threshold percentages to base
report on
4.7.2 Report list
The report list menu provides a list of all reports that the logged-in user is allowed to view.
The admin user has access to all reports while regular users can only view his own reports.
Newest reports will be presented at the top of the list (by default). Older reports with identical
report parameters are removed when a new report is generated.
The status line at the bottom displays pending reports as well as terminated reports. A
terminated report means that the report could not be generated likely because the report
engine found an incomplete or inconsistent data set. Rather than doing a best effort report
the report will be discarded the the Terminated count increased. Please use the Feedback
menu to gather data to inform Bridgetech about such cases.
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4.7.3 Import logo
In the Import logo tab the admin can import a custom logo that will be used in generated
reports.
The aspect ration of the logo should be OK inside the reports even if it is displayed with fixed
width and height on this page.
4.7.4 Feedback
In order to improve the report engine further Bridgetech encourages feedback from its users.
If a report fails to be generated and the Terminated count increases (in the Report list menu)
Bridgetech will be happy to look into the problem. All necessary files needed to look into the
problem will be available in reportfiles.txt available on this page.
4.7.5 The PDF report

The generated PDF reports contain the following information:
Title page (page 1) describing who generated the report, report dates and contributing
sites.
The summary page (page 2) containing measurements across all channels
An optional help page describing the graphical elements of the report
The channel table listing all channels
Per channel information (if requested) including optional trending graphs
26
The PDF report title page
The company logo can be imported.
The PDF report summary page
The summary information grid shows overall information.
27
The pie charts show how many channels fall below the threshold settings. In the above
example there are 48 channels, and two of them have an availability of less than the
threshold setting. Hence 95.8% of the channels are OK with respect to availability.
The overall chart states how many channels are not affected at all hence 44 out of 48
channels are above the threshold settings for all parameters.
The channel graph (topmost) is a graphical representation of the parameters quality,

availability and jitter over time summed across all channels. For each sample period (in this
case the sample period is 1 h and will depend on the range of the report) a colour code is
used to indicate if any of the quality (red), availability (blue) or jitter (orange) parameters were
affected for any of the channels. So it is sufficient for one channel no measure 1 error
seconds during a specific sample period to colour it accordingly. Conversely, the only way to
have an all green bar is for all channels to measure 0 error seconds across the entire interval
of the report. A grey colour is used whenever no channels are measured.
To the right of the channel graph are the status bulbs comparing the sum of all error seconds
for all channels against the user specified threshold.
The 3 trend graphs show how the parameter percentages develop over time. During each
trend period (day, week or month) the number of error seconds are summed across all
channels and the average is used to represent that trend interval. The labels are 100 %, the
user specified threshold and the all time low.
28
The threshold setting percentages are specified when the report is generated. This table also
shows the corresponding number of error seconds for the entire reporting interval as well as
for one day.
The channel table page
The channel table page lists all channels providing both error second and percentages for
availability, quality and jitter. A red bulb indicates that a parameter is outside the thresholds.
The time the channel has been measured is stated, Complete means it was measured
during the entire reporting interval. The number of probes that measured the channel is
shown.
29
Per channel page
For channels that are monitored on more than one probe, the aggregate graph is drawn first
followed by elementary probe measurements. The aggregate graphs (the channel graph and
the 3 trend graphs) are based on the sum of the elementary probe measurements and will
thus always be equal or worse than any of the elementary probe graphs.
30
4.8 About
4.8.1 Release info
The About page contains information about the VBC software version.
4.8.2 Licence
In VBC 3.7 the license includes the number of blades available and whether the report
feature is available.
31
4.8.3 Technologies
This page lists common Bridgetech technologies.
32
5 USER INTERFACE FOR THE ADMIN USER
The admin user is hard-coded inside the VBC and is the only user defined when the VBC
ships. 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. This part of the
manual covers only admin specific functionality.
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.
When logging in, the username for the admin user is always a d min and the password is
elvi s by default.
5.1 Site setup
From the S ite s etup page it is possible to add new sites. Existing sites can be deleted or
renamed. Choose the site name with care since it will be used to identify alarm messages
and devices across the VBC.
Getting the balance right between the number of sites and the number of frames in each site
is important. Small systems usually only require one site while larger systems will benefit
from defining more sites. As a rule of thumb, the number of sites should be similar to the
number of frames in each site. The opposite is to have all the frames at only one site or to
have one site for each frame. Note that a site does not necessarily mean a physical site
location but rather a specific location in the signal chain.
Refer to Appendix for an example configuration.
33
5.1.1 Frame setup
The S ite s etup page lists all the sites that the current user has access to. Selecting Frame
setup allows frames to be added or changed.
To add a new frame, click the A d d ne w button after filling in the name of the frame and the
model. To change the name of an existing frame click the E dit button in the list and then
apply the changes afterwards. A frame is deleted by clicking the D elete button in the list.
34
5.1.2 Blade setup
Selecting B l a d e s etup in the previous page allows the IP addresses of blades to be
configured.
Blades that are not enabled will nott appear elsewhere in the VBC.
5.2 Equipment (for admin user)
The admin user has more options in the E quip m ent page than regular users. In addition to
fetching and viewing configurations the admin can distribute configurations to several blades
35
and perform batch software upgrades of gigabit probes.
Typical tasks are explained below.
Task Procedure
Check if all blades Select T hre s hold s as the configuration type and click on Fet ch
have the same probe c onfi g s . If all blades have the same Config CRC they
threshold settings
should be equally configured. Select the Vi e w link to view a
blades configuration as an XML file.
Check if the same Check if the blades R eferen c e s field contains more than one
blade is included in line.
several sites
Verify that all probes Click the Fet ch probe c o nfi g s to update also the S W-
run the correct ver sion field. The blades software version is available in all
software version
configuration types.
Copy the channel list Select C h a nnel-li st as the configuration type, select the
to all probes appropriate probe as the S o ur c e probe and select R e a d . Then
select the checkbox of all probes to be updated and click C opy
to s ele cted probe s .
Manually edit config Use a valid config file (by clicking a Vi e w link) and save it locally.
files Edit the file and make appropriate changes before saving it. Any
CRC attribute in line 2 of the config file must be removed (i.e.
remove similar text to crc="b8a1fa3f"). Import the file in the
E quip m ent/Imp ort menu. The file will then be selectable from
the C o nfi g s imported by u s er list.
Upload new software Copy the software file (a file with .tea extension) to the
to gigabit probes /opt/btech/confi g s/vb2_soft w are folder on the VBC server.
(VB20) This is typically achieved using the scp command in a terminal
shell. Then select the file in the S oft w are to uplo ad list. Select
checkboxes for all probes that are to receive the new software
and select U plo ad to s ele cted probe s . The progress status
is being updated until the upload succeeds or fails.
Do not power off probes that are being software uploaded. If a
probe is powered off during software upload it will need special
service to recover.
36
5.3 User setup
In the U s er s etup page users can be added, deleted or updated. All users have a name, a
password and a list of sites they can access. In addition a user can have full access or read-
only access to the sites. The admin user will always have access to all sites.
5.4 Alarm setup
In the Al ar m s etup menu the admin can change the severity level for any alarm.
37
Changing the severity level for alarms will impact the colour of bulbs, channel-bars and
alarms. The alarm lists present all active alarms sorted on severity, with black alarms top and
green alarms bottom. Setting severity level to O k (green) will make sure those alarms do
not impact bulbs or channel bars but they will still be present in the alarm lists.
The severity level is also used for the SNMP alarm list and traps.
38
5.4.1 SNMP alarms
The VBC allows the admin to customize how SNMP alarms are to be generated and
forwarded to 3rd party systems. Only those alarms that have been checked for S N M P
forw ardin g are part of the VBCs S N M P al ar m li st and thus forwarded as traps.
Since the VBC stores regular and relative alarms in separate databases, it is necessary to
tell the SNMP alarm engine which one to use. The R ep ort relative al ar m s only setting
selects which database to use for SNMP alarms just as the M e a s ure relative setting
does the same for the VBC GUI. If both are set to the same value the alarm list in the
M o nitorin g page will be identical to the SNMP alarm list (provided that the sites are the
same).
If the Report relative alarm only and Measure relative settings are the same, the SNMP alarm
list can be thought of as being derived from the alarm list in the M o nitorin g page. When
the Monitoring alarm list is updated, the SNMP alarm list is also updated if:
1. The alarm type has been selected for SNMP forwarding
2. The site that reports the alarm matches the selection in S ite to u s e for S N M P
al ar m s (default all sites)
When the SNMP settings have been changed, the admin may want to rebuild the SNMP
alarm list completely to get rid of alarms that are no longer relevant. This can be achieved by
selecting Cle ar in the C le ar al ar m li st s frame in the G eneral page.
The VBCs alarm MIB describes all the details of the trap and alarm lists formats. The MIB
can be obtained from your VBC reseller.
The SNMP alarm list is only available through the SNMP MIB.
39
Sometimes it is desirable to switch off alarm aggregation for the SNMP traps in order to get
more precise alarms. The drawback is that during alarm storms the VBC will end up sending
hundred of traps instead of just a dozen.
Consider the case where there is one site with one probe monitoring 100 channels and there
is a signal loss for all channels. If E n a ble trap a g g r e g ation is disabled there will be one
trap per channel of the format Sitename:Bladename No signal Channelname. If E n a ble
trap a g gr e g ation is enabled there will only be only one alarm with format
Sitename:Bladename No signal Channels:100. Thus enabling trap aggregation reduces the
number of traps from 100 to 1 in this case.
5.5 General
The G en eral page contains system affecting parameters that the admin should treat
carefully.
5.5.1 Clearing the channel view data

If the Channel View history has been polluted (for whatever reason maybe a problem that
caused lots of errors has been solved) and the admin wants to clear the 4 days of channel
history, he can press the appropriate Clear button. The last clear-time is presented inside the
frame.
Note that after clearing, the channel bars will take 4 days to fully rebuild.
5.5.2 Clearing alarm lists

To clear all the alarm lists (except currently active alarms) press the Clear button. The alarm
history will be gone but active alarms will start to re-appear. The last clear-time is presented
inside the frame.
40
If the SNMP settings have been changed, clearing the alarm lists will immediately rebuild the
SNMP alarm list and send clear-traps for alarms that are no longer applicable.
41
I Appendix: Separate probe and network interfaces
The VBC can act as a bridge between the user network and the data network.
There are a few important differences between accessing a probe directly from a client and
accessing it via the VBC application. Accessing the device directly means pointing the clients
WEB browser to the IP address of the device. This only works if the IP address of the device
is reachable from the clients PC. This is not necessarily the case since often the probes and
the clients are on different network segments. Accessing a probe via the VBC means that the
client can reach a probe provided the client can reach the VBC server and the VBC server
can reach the probe. This can be achieved even if the probes and clients are on different
network segments since the VBC application can act as an HTTP tunnelling device utilising
two network devices.
II Appendix: Backing up the VBC database

The simplest way to back up the VBC is to save away the entire /opt/btech folder.
To make an archive file vbc_backup.tgz of the /opt/btech folder type the following commands
in a terminal shell on the VBC server (as root user):
cd /opt
tar cvfz vbc_backup.tgz btech
To restore the file, make sure the vbc_backup.tgz file is in the /opt folder, then type the
following commands in a terminal shell (as root user):
/etc/init.d/vbc stop
cd /opt
tar xvfz vbc_backup.tgz
/etc/init.d/vbc start
Note that a backup can only be restored to a VBC server that has the VBC application
installed.
III Appendix: VBC link kit

From VBC version 3.5 it is possible to refer to individual VBC pages from 3rd party
applications. All parameters including user name and password are passed as arguments to
the VBC URL.
It is required that the users' account has the Allow access without login flag checked in
order to log in by providing username and password along with the URL.
42
In the example above the full URL is:
http://vbc.bridgetech.tv/vbc?
eweuser=demo&password=demo&menu=3&nocontext=1&screenh=400&screenw=14
00
This is a complete list of the link kit parameters:

e w eu s er User-name as defined by admin. Can be scrambled see below.
pa s s w ord User password as defined by admin. Can be scrambled see below.
m enu The page to view. Can be numeric (i.e. menu=3) or the name of the
page as in the tree-menu (i.e. menu=Channel view).
no c ontext Set to 1 to disable drawing the menu and the branding information.
s creen w Request dynamic contents to use this screen width.
s creenh Request dynamic contents to use this screen height.
The eweuser and passsword arguments can be scrambled. The C source file lightscramble.c
which is part of the VBC release describes how this can be achieved.
Refer to the included file vbc_static_links.html for an example on how to link to individual
VBC pages.
43
IV Appendix: The VBC files
All the files that are part of the VBC application are located in the /opt/btech folder.
The VBC uses xml or plain text files to store data no relational database is required to run
the VBC.
This table summarizes important files and folders.
Disk location Description
/opt/btech/ Root folder for the VBC application (all subsequent locations are relative to
this)
bin Folder containing all the VBC binaries and some settings files
s ite s Folder holding the site configurations and some status files
poll Folder serving as a scratch area for parameter gathering from probes
lo g Folder containing the VBC database logs
ar chive Archived statistics
s t ati sti c s Last day statistics for each probe
thu mb s Thumbnail pictures obtained from extractors
c onfi g s Used to store probe configurations, thresholds and software
Note that future versions of the VBC may have different files, folders and file-formats.
L o g file s
In the VBC3 all log-files will be truncated regularly. No log files are allowed to grow beyond
their limitations.
The log files are located under the /opt/btech/log folder.
44
The log files limitations are:
Log file Limitation Description
a c tual.lo g 30,000 lines Contain the raw event log for regular alarms and
a c tual_rel.lo g relative alarms.
Truncated daily.
e a c h site/all site s.lo g 10,000 lines This is the regular and relative version of the
e a c h site_rel/all site s.lo g aggregated alarm list presented in the
M o nitorin g page.
e a c h site/< site>.lo g 2,000 lines This is the regular and relative version of the site
e a c h site_rel/< site>.lo g alarm list presented in the M o nitorin g/ Site
page.
These logs are also used to present the alarm
list for a selected channel in C h a nnel Vi e w or
T hu m b s Vi e w.
e a c hbl ade/<blade>.lo g 2,000 lines This is the regular and relative version of the
e a c hbl ade_rel/<blade>.lo g blade alarm list presented in the
M o nitorin g/ Site/Blade page.
e a c h site/hi story.lo g 10,000 lines Contain the past alarm history and are used for
e a c h site_rel/hi story.lo g exporting the regular and relative alarm history
in the L o g s menu.
V Appendix: VBC Linux processes

The VBC application consists of a number of UNIX processes:
Process Description
ewe The main application serving dynamic HTTP requests
ewew s A stateless web server talking to the ewe process
reportin g Responsible for generating PDF reports
lo g_splitter Builds site, blade and channel log files from the alarm files
poll st atu s Responsible for polling the probes every 60 seconds and raising alarms
s t at Extracts pollstatus information to build a long term per-probe statistics

database
s n m p2x ml Generates the xml document available via the alarms_exp.xml page
45
All these processes need to run simultaneously for the VBC to work. Each of them will auto-
start in case it terminates unexpectedly, although that should never happen.
By default the VBC processes do not write their own log files. To turn on logging, edit the file /
etc/init.d/vbc and remove the q switches for each of the processes. Then restart the VBC
with the command /etc/init.d/vbc restart. When logging is enabled, the diagnostics from each
process are written to /opt/btech/bin/<process>.log
VI Appendix: Protocols and ports

The table below summarizes the network protocols used by the VBC and the required ports.
Protocol and port Description

WEB Required. For serving clients.
(T C P port 80)
W E B tunnellin g to Required. The VBC will intercept and forward WEB requests
probe s from clients towards probes on port 80.
(T C P port 80)
s y slo g Optional. Alarm and event messages sent from probes to the
(U D P port 514) VBC for log-export from the VBC.
probe pollin g Required. Every 60 seconds the VBC server requests

(X M L over T C P port measurements from the probes. Also used to verify if probes
are alive.
80)
S N M P trap s a nd To be able to receive SNMP traps or consult the VBC MIB.

c o n s ultation
(U D P port s 161 a nd
162)
NTP Used if the Use time server option has been checked for
(T C P port 123) probes and the VBC server has been specified as the Time
server.
ftp Required if probes are to be software upgraded from the VBC
(T C P port 21) server.
telnet Nice to have towards probes to perform health checks etc.

(T C P port 23)
46
VII Appendix: Example site configuration
This is an example configuration for a relatively small system that could serve as a template
for larger systems. Probes have been deployed at strategic points in the network.
Selected end
users
Head End Oslo

Access area
Oslo North
VBC Selected end

users
Core network Access area

Oslo Oslo South
Selected end
users
Access area
Oslo West
The following sites (7)and users (4)could be defined:

USER USER USER USER
Site Frames admin operator north boss
HeadEnd HE 1 (VB100) Full Full r/o
HE2 (VB100)
AccessOsloNort Access (VB100) Full Full Full r/o
h
AccessOsloSout Access (VB100) Full Full r/o
h
AccessOsloWes Access (VB100) Full Full r/o
t
UserOsloNorth User1 (VB10) Full Full Full r/o
47
AccessOsloSout User1 (VB10) Full Full r/o
h
AccessOsloWes User1 (VB10) Full Full r/o
t
VIII Appendix: Getting the thresholds right

In order to customize the alarm thresholds in VBC it is necessary to understand exactly how
VBC decides to raise an alarm as per the following:
1. The VBC obtains error-second statistics from each probe every minute
2. The VBC obtains threshold-settings from each probe when its configuration is
changed.
Regular alarms:
3. An alarm is raised if error seconds summed for the last 60 minutes exceed the error-
seconds threshold *)
Relative alarms:
3. Alarm is raised if the difference between the probes and the reference probes error
seconds during the last 60 minutes exceeds the error-seconds threshold *)
*)
An error-second threshold of 0 is a special case and will raise an alarm if the number of
error-seconds in the last poll exceeds 2. This is useful for alarms that need to be
instantaneous such as no-signal alarms.
Note that it is the probes own threshold settings that are used when comparing error-
seconds against thresholds.
S t ep 1 u sin g default v alue s
The probes default threshold settings will raise alarms for a channel if:
there are more than 2 seconds with no-signal during the last poll-period (60 seconds)
there are at least 5 seconds with RTP-drops during the last 60 minutes
there are at least 20 seconds with MLR-error (i.e. CC error) during the last 60 minutes
there are at least 20 seconds with DF-error (jitter above 50ms) during the last 60
minutes
there are at least 20 seconds with bitrate above 30 Mbit/s during the last 60 minutes
there are at least 20 seconds with bitrate below 0.1Mbit/s during the last 60 minutes
These are sensible values for identifying channels with severe problems while at the same
time avoiding too many alarms for minor disturbances in the signal.
S t ep 2 identifyin g O K ch a nnel s reportin g alar m s

After a while, maybe a few days or so, the channel-graphs and the alarm-lists will identify
channels that exceed the threshold settings. Some of these channels may experience real
trouble which requires more investigation. Others may be of a nature where alarms are being
48
generated although the channel is OK such as channels with expected signal breaks at
regular intervals.
To change the threshold-setting for a particular channel, follow this procedure:
1. Identify a probe that includes the channel in its channel-list
2. Add a new threshold in the probes S etup/Thre sh old s menu
3. Give the new threshold preset a name and adjust its values
4. Edit the channel in the probes S etup/Multi c a st s menu and associate the channel
with the new threshold preset
5. Use the VBCs E quipm ent menu to copy the new C h a nnel-li st and Thre sh old s
settings to all probes that include the channel in their channel-list
A probe can store 400 channels and 100 threshold presets and if possible all probes should
have identical channel-lists and threshold settings. C h a nnel-li st s and T hre s hold s can
be freely copied between probes without affecting which channels are being monitored.
S t ep 3 g ettin g m ore al ar m s
For channels that are almost perfect, there might be worth considering tightening in the alarm
thresholds to the maximum.
Setting the error-second threshold to a value of 1 tells VBC to raise the alarm for each
occurrence of the error. The alarm will be cleared after 60 minutes unless there are more
errors.
IX Appendix: Relative measurements example

This example shows how probes can be used to measure relative to each other and let the
VBC only report the differences. This is useful in order to focus on errors introduced along
the path from one site to another (i.e. from the reference site to the site reporting relative to
the reference site).
In the VBC each site can have one reference site, defined in the S ite s etup view. When
the user enables the M e a s ure relative toggle button, the VBC presents all site-
measurements relative to the reference site. If a site has no reference site the M e a s ure
relative mode will have no impact on that site.
In the VBC alarms are based on error-seconds reported by probes compared with the
threshold settings defined on the same probe. In relative mode, the error-second values of
the reference probe are subtracted from the probes measurement before it is compared with
the threshold.
Defining a site as its own reference site will always yield no alarms in relative mode for that
site since all measurements will be zero.
S t ep 1: D efinin g s ite s a n d probe s

Two sites are added to the VBC in this example HEADEND and EDGE. Probes are added
to these sites so that all channels are monitored in each location.
49
S t ep 2: D efinin g u s er s
Two users are added hend (with access to both HEADEND and EDGE) and ed g e (with
access to EDGE only).
S t ep 3: L o g gin g in
Two users are logged in one hend user and one ed g e user. Note that logging in several
users from the same WEB-browser instance will not work since they share the same cookie
database. In this instance use different browser applications or different PCs.
The ed g e user has the M e a s ure relative toggle button checked since he is only
concerned with the relative measurements.
Note that for all relevant pages (including those presented in this example), toggling the
Measure relative setting should refresh the selected page automatically to reflect the new
setting.
S t ep 4: C o m p arin g V B C for hend a n d ed g e u s er s
S c reen 1: M o nitorin g p a g e
The hend user sees that there are active alarms for both sites and the site-status are
coloured accordingly.
The ed g e user does not see any active alarms at all since the EDGE probes measure
similar to the HEADEND probes. The site-status is also green. If Measure relative was
unchecked, the EDGE alarms and status would be similar to the picture above (but with only
the EDGE bulbs and alarms).
50
S c reen 2: C h a nnel Vi e w a nd T hu m b s Vi e w
The hend user accesses Channel View and Thumbs View to see how channels have
behaved during the last 96 hours. In this case, a few channels have had alarms in the past
and some are still having active alarms.
The ed g e user sees no alarm history at all meaning that no alarms are introduced by the
probes in the EDGE site. If probes in the EDGE site measured errors not already measured
in the reference site HEADEND there would be active alarms and the channel-status would
not be all green.
51
S c reen 3: S ele cted c h a nnel
When the hend user selects a channel for detailed inspection he sees that there are similar
active alarms for both the HEADEND and EDGE sites. The probe status for all probes
monitoring this channel indicates that there are active alarms reported by this probe.
For the ed g e user the alarm list is again empty and the probe status for the EDGE site is
green. The measurements listed for the selected channel shows the absolute error-values for
the reference probe and relative values for the EDGE probe (a = means they are equal).
52
X Appendix: Probe versus VBC alarms
The probe alarms are independent of the VBC alarms. The probe has been designed to yield
instantaneous alarms based on the current measurements. This typically results in lots of
short lived alarms that would be too much for the VBC to report. The VBC generates alarms
based on error-second statistics gathered from probes during a period of 60 minutes (sliding
window).
This means that comparing the probe alarm-list and the VBC alarm-list is not very
meaningful. In a future version of the probe-software there may be an option whether the
probes alarm list should show the instantaneous alarms as today or the statistical based
VBC alarms.
XI Appendix: Troubleshooting
S l o w I E 7 bro w s er
If IE7 is considerable slower than IE6 or consumes unreasonable amounts of CPU it is
probably due to the Phishing filter. The Phishing filter is a security mechanism designed to
avoid identity theft and can be disabled for trusted sites. Documentation on how to switch off
the Phishing filter can be easily found on the Internet.
M ultiple bro w s er windo w s to w ard s the V B C
VBC has been designed to allow multiple users to log in and work independently of each
other. Opening up two windows from the same browser application towards the VBC may not
work as intended since the VBC will not be able to distinguish them as login is requested
only once.
Please read the README.txt file that is part of the VBC software release for further
troubleshooting.
53

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VideoBridge Controller

1.1 Sites, frames and blades

1.2 Users and access

2.1 System requirements

Supported WEB browsers:

2.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Protocol and port Description

telnet Useful to perform health checks etc. towards probes.

R e st orin g the V B C fro m b a c kup:

You are now ready to install the vbc software.

2.5 VBC 3.5 software installation

tar xzf vbc*.tgz

The report functionality is available for 30 days, then a license is required.

4.2.1 Top-level monitoring

The same colour codes are used for alarms.

4.2.3 Site monitoring

c ur( Min-bitr) Lowest bitrate during the last minute.

Up to 10 probes can be compared in the M D I c o m p are windo w. The high resolution

In the Logs menu it is possible to export the following logs:

Ty pe Type of blade (probe, extractor or generator)

I P a d dre s s The blades IP address

4.7.1 Manual report

R eport from First date of report

4.7.2 Report list

4.7.5 The PDF report

The company logo can be imported.

The PDF report summary page

The summary information grid shows overall information.

The channel graph (topmost) is a graphical representation of the parameters quality,

The channel table page

4.8.1 Release info

This page lists common Bridgetech technologies.

5.1 Site setup

5.2 Equipment (for admin user)

5.4 Alarm setup

5.5.1 Clearing the channel view data

5.5.2 Clearing alarm lists

II Appendix: Backing up the VBC database

III Appendix: VBC link kit

This is a complete list of the link kit parameters:

pa s s w ord User password as defined by admin. Can be scrambled see below.

s creen w Request dynamic contents to use this screen width.

s creenh Request dynamic contents to use this screen height.

lo g Folder containing the VBC database logs

ar chive Archived statistics

s t ati sti c s Last day statistics for each probe

thu mb s Thumbnail pictures obtained from extractors

c onfi g s Used to store probe configurations, thresholds and software

V Appendix: VBC Linux processes

ewew s A stateless web server talking to the ewe process

reportin g Responsible for generating PDF reports

s t at Extracts pollstatus information to build a long term per-probe statistics

VI Appendix: Protocols and ports

Protocol and port Description

probe pollin g Required. Every 60 seconds the VBC server requests

S N M P trap s a nd To be able to receive SNMP traps or consult the VBC MIB.

telnet Nice to have towards probes to perform health checks etc.

Head End Oslo

VBC Selected end

Core network Access area

The following sites (7)and users (4)could be defined:

VIII Appendix: Getting the thresholds right

S t ep 2 identifyin g O K ch a nnel s reportin g alar m s