3.2.3 vlc.properties

Defines some general configuration settings of the VLC/M&C Server, some of them may be defined on the command line, too.

Timezone settings

By default the sat-nms software displays all timestamps in UTC. you may change this with the timezone parameter. IF CHANGED, THE PARAMETER MUST BE CHANGED IN BOTH, vlc.properties AND client.properties TO THE SAME VALUE !!

With a NMS system, the timezone for NMS, all VLCs and all clients MUST be UTC, the timezone parameter must not be defined !!

## Examples for non-UTC time zones:
## timezone=GMT+03
## timezone=GMT-10

SNMP exceptions

Print exceptions for SNMP communication usefull for debugging SNMP. Default is no. Exceptions will be logged to .panic.log

showSNMPExceptions=no

Catch Exceptions

Print more/all exceptions for SNMP communication usefull for debugging SNMP. Default is no. Exceptions will be logged to .panic.log

showCatchedExceptions=no

Startup debug

yes makes the software to log in detail what it does during startup Default is no. Messages will be logged to .panic.log

## startup.debug=yes
startup.debug=no

Procedure debug

Setting to true adds additional information to the output of verbose mode. It shows at the beginning of a driver cycle which procedures are marked as "to be excecuted" (dirty) with a timestamp and it show when these procedures are executed.

## procedures.debug=true
procedures.debug=false

Remember to the set verbose mode of the device to true if you want to see the additional information.

Example:

                                  GET procedures 9 12 marked dirty 14:25:35.263
                                               running procedure 9 14:25:35.264
tx(BCRX-1): /read?levl=?
rx(BCRX-1): levl=-77.45
 BCRX-1.power=-77.45
                                              running procedure 12 14:25:35.493
tx(BCRX-1): /rmt?sact=?
rx(BCRX-1): sact=0
 BCRX-1.ssrch.active=0

Startup Delay

Adds a delay between the initialization of two device threads. Value in msecs, default 0.

startup.delay=100

Communication timeout deprecated

The communication timeout to be used for tty over ip connections in msecs, Default 2000. This setting is deprecated because the timeout can be configured via Device-Window > Maintenance Page > Serial > Timeout individually for each device.

tty.ip.timeout=2000

TCP/IP interface definitions deprecated

Defines interfaces to control devices via tcp/ip. This is deprecated because it can be easily defined via client Device Setup Window. There is no need anymore to define ttyNx pseudo-interfaces.

Local event database

If set to 'yes' the server starts it's own event database. This is for stand alone M&C systems.

VLC's integrated to a NMS don't use a local event database, they send the messages to the central event database on the NMS server instead. Also MNCs working with a common Event Database, don't use a local event database.

By default, the command line switch -e in /home/satnms/satnms-start will already enable a local event database if SATNMS_TYPE="mnc" in /etc/satnms.rc is set to mnc.

Duplicate events

If set to yes on a MNC system sending it's event messages primarily to a central event database, the message are also duplicated to a local event database. Default is no.

To make this work, local.edb must be set to yes as well.

Never set duplicate.edb=yes for a stand alone MNC system. All messages will appear twice in the event log!

duplicate.edb=yes

EventToSerial AddOn

AddOn for fault messages reports to external systems:

• satnms.addon.EventToSerial: sends text messages to serial interface
• satnms.addon.EventToMail: sends text messages to mail recipients
• satnms.addon.EventToScript: calls a user defined script on selected events

Both needs additional configuration in separate configuration files.

server.addon=EventToSerial
server.addon=EventToMail
server.addon=EventToScripts

Serial Control Port

To control the VLC/MNC remotely via a serial interface set this option to a valid port name. Don't use this port to control a device at the same time.

server.rcontrol.port=/dev/ttyS1
server.rcontrol.baudrate=9600

Network Control Port

The VLC/MNC server provides a SSL remote control port (read-write) at port 2015, a TCP remote control port at port 2016 (read-write) and a second one at port 2017 (read-only). To switch off either of these ports comment out the appropriate line.

server.rcontrol.ssl.read-write=yes
server.rcontrol.tcp.read-write=yes
server.rcontrol.tcp.read-only=yes

Build-in WebServer

Setting this true makes the built in web server on TCP port 2002 require the user to login with a valid user/password combination in order to see / modify the parameter tree.

http.requiresAuthentication=true

TimeSync with NMS server

The following entry specifies the behavior of the server when it detects that the VLC clock is more than 30 seconds off the NMS time. Three settings are possible:

• FAULT : A fault of the SYSTEM device is generated (default)
• LOG : The time difference is logged as a INFO message to the event log
• IGNORE : The time difference is ignored completely

Only required in NMS environment where no NTP service is available.

server.nms.clockdiff=IGNORE

Default Help Page

To configure the main help page set this option to the name of the html-page without any directory or file extension. The main help page is the page that appears when clicking the help button in the main screen. default: 2210

help.topic=4520

Channel database

The CDB client in the software is preconfigured to work in a VLC/NMS configuration. The CDB server is located at the NMS in this configuration, the connection to the CDB is online while the VLC online from the NMS' point of view.

Beside this, two other configurations are possible: A MNC can run it's own CDB server as a self contained solution or multiple MNC servers can share a CDB running on one of them.

A MNC running a CDB server must set this to true. false disables the local CDB server

## cdb.localOnly=true
cdb.localOnly=false

A MNC which wants to use the CDB running on another MNC must uncomment this line with the IP address modified to the address of the M&C running the CDB server.

 cdb.externServerAddress=192.168.2.214

Setting this true, enables some magic when editing channel names in the RX-LineSettings-CDB-KSC device: Channel names automatically get a signature containing the DVB-mode, the symbol rate and the RX pol appended. In the channel editor page this signature is not visible.

## cdb.LineSettings.magicname=true
cdb.LineSettings.magicname=false

If present, these entries make the channel / biss-key databases sync the local backup to the central database in the NMS in regular intervals. The time interval is defined in hours (floating point).

It is disabled if cdb.localOnly=true

## cdb.channels.syncInterval=24.0
## cdb.bisskey12.syncInterval=24.0
## cdb.bisskey16.syncInterval=24.0

CDB bridge

Actual M&C installations no longer use the CDB. Instead all satellite and channel related data is stored in the central SQL database. The sat-nms Web-UI permits to maintain this data in an easy and comfortable way.

For applications which want to access channel data using the same interface and protocol as with the CDB, the software provides a 'CDB bridge' adapter which translates cdb requests into the equivalent SQL interactions.

To enable the CDB bridge, set

cdb.bridge=true

All other lines starting with 'cdb' should be removed or commented out to avoid any interference between CDB and the CDB bridge.

settings for CSM spectrum analyzers

Switches the preamp for a LPTech LPT3000RX4 spectrum analyzer ON/OFF affects all LPT3000RX4 controlled by the M&C, default is preamp ON

 csm.lpt3000rx4.preamp=ON

This setting is deprecated, it refers to the outdated CSM-Spectrum-Analyzer device. Actual spectrum analyzer drivers handle this internally

Universal SNMP agent

The following entries refer to the universal table based snmp agent listening at UDP port 2261.

Defaults are:

snmp.agent.enable=no
snmp.agent.readCommunity=public
snmp.agent.writeCommunity=private
snmp.agent.trapTargets=

trapTargets is a space separated list of IPv4 addresses, each optionally followed by a colon and a port number. for entries without port number port 162 is assumed.

Example:

snmp.agent.enable=yes
snmp.agent.readCommunity=public
snmp.agent.writeCommunity=private
snmp.agent.trapTargets=192.168.0.89:2162 127.0.0.1:2162

User configurable SNMP agent

The following entries refer to the user configurable snmp agent listening at UDP port 2161.

snmp.max.oid=1000

The agent gets initialized if a snmp.setup file exists. The agent limit the number of OIDs it creates from the snmp.setup file. The default limit is 1000 and may be changed uing the parameter shown above.

UDP Heartbeat

These entries control the UDP heartbeat sent by a VLC to make the NMS recognize that the VLC is reachable in the network. To activate the heartbeat, set udp.heartbeat.enabled=true

The interval generally should not be changed. It is given in msecs, it should be set to one third of the timeout value set at the NMS.

udp.heartbeat.enabled=false
udp.heartbeat.enabled=true
udp.heartbeat.interval=5000

logParameterChanges

If set true, event log messages indicating parameter changes (logParameterChanges set true for a device) also contain the name and the IP address of the initiator of the parameter change. default is false for backward compatibility

## log.initiator=false
log.initiator=true

Prologix debug

Enable debug output for ProLogix GPIB to Ethernet converter. Disabled by default.

prologix.debug=false

Macro Scheduler

If set true, the macro scheduler automatically deletes outdated events. if false, these events remain in the schedule and can be viewed in the GUI. Default is true.

## scheduler.autodelete=true
scheduler.autodelete=false

Client Queue Size

This entry configures the client queue size (number of messages). Default value is 10000, the value which was set before as fixed size.

clientpeer.queueSize=50000

Port binding

By adding a line bind.xxxx=a.b.c.d the server socket at port xxxx can be bound to a specific address / interface

works fo the following port numbers