UBIQUITY 6 and Private

Transcription

1 UBIQUITY 6 and Private server Introduction This document describes the newly introduced features of Ubiquity 6 and the new Private Server option. Version Description Date 1 First version 23/09/2015 Disclaimer The information given in the documentation could change without notice and doesn't represent any obligation for ASEM S.p.A.. ASEM S.p.A. is not responsible for technical mistakes or other omissions and declines every responsibility resulting from its use. ASEM S.p.A. will not be responsible for any loss of profits or damages, direct or not, of any kind (included loss or damages of data), deriving from the use of this documentation. Pagina 1 di 10

2 Table of contents 1 Introduction Ubiquity New VPN architecture Domain administration audit trace Control Center setup customization Other functions Description field for Domain devices Session comment Launching Control Center as standard user Control Center public IP log New Runtime command line parameters SMS handling Ubiquity Private Server PRIMARY Server SECONDARY Server Clients configuration Requirements and installation Applications update The Ubiquity Domain with the private server and the migration from the public infrastructure Licensing Primary server Secondary server Domain Runtime Ubiquity Router Pagina 2 di 10

3 1 Introduction Ubiquity 6 introduces several new features upgrading the platform and making it easier to be used. Together with Ubiquity 6 ASEM releases the Ubiquity Private Server, the new software product of the platform. It will allow anybody to implement and maintain a private infrastructure to manage and establish the connection to the remote devices. 2 Ubiquity New VPN architecture Ubiquity Runtime 6 introduces a new VPN architecture that uses a network service based on a "filter driver" which works directly on network interfaces eliminating the need to use the function of the operating system called "bridge" between the adapters involved in the VPN. The figure below shows the settings of Ubiquity Runtime on a Win32 system; the new architecture is also available on Windows CE for ARM and x86 architectures. The setup of Ubiquity Runtime will automatically manage all configurations of existing systems, recognizing the different cases, removing the bridge and configuring the new options so that the operation will be equivalent. The operator is not required to do manual changes. Pagina 3 di 10

4 The introduction of the new architecture is part of the Ubiquity evolution roadmap towards the introduction of some new very interesting and powerful features that were not even conceivable before. For version 6 users the introduction of the new architecture is evident in the new way the VPN is configured, easier than before, can be done completely from the Ubiquity interface and no longer require the activation of the bridge. An immediate functional advantage is the possibility to support now the VPN with multiple sub networks belonging to physically separated interfaces. The list of check boxes, in the configuration screen of the VPN Ubiquity Runtime, is populated with a list of all the physical and virtual network interfaces present on the system and a simple click allows you to choose the sub network to which the VPN has to be carried on. The connection to Ubiquity Runtime 6 systems requires Ubiquity Control Center 6 or later 2.2 Domain administration audit trace Ubiquity Control Center 6 introduces the audit trace of the domain administration tasks. All operations performed on the Domain are now traced including the information about the author (who performed the action), the target of the action (for example, a user, a folder, a device) the time in which the action was carried out and the result (completed successfully or failed). The following figure shows an example of the actions you can trace. Pagina 4 di 10

5 The following figure shows how the audit trace window would appear. The Administration profile has then one additional permission to allow displaying and export the domain administration tasks. 2.3 Control Center setup customization Ubiquity Control Center setup can be customized to change some of the Control Center graphical UI elements. It is possible to include in the setup a custom image that replaces the splash screen displayed when the program starts. Similarly you can include an image that appears like a logo in the dedicated area in the Control Center title bar. Pagina 5 di 10

6 In the setup you can also include a custom configuration file that allows you to choose a different color scheme other than the ASEM s standard. The instructions for the preparation of custom items are available on demand. 2.4 Other functions Ubiquity 6 introduces some other new minor features Description field for Domain devices The devices associated with the domain have now an additional description field available from the device information pane. The notes field can be used to enter additional information in free text format. The free text search will NOT consider the contents of this field Session comment The Domain has a new option that allows to enable the systematic request to all users to specify a comment in free text format when closing a connection with a device; the comments are recorded and attached to the session record Launching Control Center as standard user Ubiquity Control Center 6 can now be executed with standard user privileges Control Center public IP log The connections audit includes now the public IP of the Control Center PC per each connection New Runtime command line parameters As already known Ubiquity Runtime can be called from command line specifying some parameters to execute commands like connect or disconnect from the server infrastructure. Pagina 6 di 10

7 The version 6 of Ubiquity Runtime supports new parameters for the following commands. Check the connections status Open and close the chat window Open and close the system keyboard SMS handling Ubiquity Router RM11 can be configured to manage the connection to the server by means of SMS messages received by the device built in modem.. Ubiquity Runtime 6 for RM11 supports now the SMS passthrough towards Premium HMI Runtime running on the same device; Premium will receive the text in system variables from where the SMS context can be interpreted and additional action can eventually be taken. These mechanisms allow implementing remote control functionalities by means of SMS exchange. All the details are in the Premium HMI Studio on-line help. 3 Ubiquity Private Server The Private Server is a new component of the Ubiquity software platform that enables any company to implement a private server infrastructure for data and connections management completely autonomous and fully independent from the public infrastructure managed and maintained by ASEM. From a functional and operating point of view there are no differences between the public and private infrastructure. The PRIVATE SERVER package is made of two components: the PRIMARY SERVER (mandatory) and the server (optional). 3.1 PRIMARY Server The PRIMARY SERVER is a server application responsible of discovery, accessibility, authentication, access control, and data management. The application performs many tasks: enables the Ubiquity Runtimes (SW or Router) to become "visible" so that the Control Center clients can activate the connection, allows to establish the communication channel between Control Center and runtime, manages the entire process of authenticating Control Center users and Runtime, applies the access control and permissions based on the configurations made at Domain administration level. It is well known that the connection between the Control Center and the remote device is typically assisted by a relay server automatically selected based on a performance profile measured when activating the connection. The PRIMARY server also implements the local relay server feature. 3.2 SECONDARY Server The SECONDARY SERVER is an application that implements the relay function ensuring connectivity between the Control Center and runtime regardless of the topology of the network infrastructure from which both systems are connected to the Internet. The Private Server needs at least one relay server, requirement already satisfied from the primary server. The installation of other relay servers is optional. The selection criteria depends largely on the fact that the geographical location of the server can be far away from the location where you installed the primary server. Assuming that a given company installs the primary server on a host physically located in Italy, all the assistance made from Italy will always be the relayed through the primary server that ensures the best condition. If assistance should instead be carried out from a distant location, far away from the primary host, for example, the American continent, towards a facility located a few kilometers away from the technician, Pagina 7 di 10

8 and then always in America, the end-to- end tunnel would be established passing through Italy, thus introducing unnecessary delay. The situation suggests considering the installation of a relay server in a geographic region sufficiently close to the position of the assistant or the assisted. This ensures that the tunnel is relayed through a neighboring server so without introducing unnecessary delays. The ASEM public infrastructure consists of seven of these relay servers located around the world. The selection of the optimum point is automatic and transparent. The customer who purchases the private server can decide at any time to add one or more secondary servers and install them where deemed appropriate. The relay server selection is also in this case fully automatic and transparent exactly as is done in the context of the public infrastructure. 3.3 Clients configuration Compared to the server, Ubiquity Control Center, Ubiquity Runtime and Ubiquity Router have a client role; for all of them there is an option to specify which primary server has to be contacted, public or private. 3.4 Requirements and installation The server applications are distributed in the form of a single setup including both the primary and secondary server. The choice about which component to install is made from the setup. For the installation of server applications, the minimum requirements are as follows: operating system Windows 7 x64 or Windows 2008 R2 x64 with.net framework 4.0, only for the primary server, the availability of an instance of SQL Server 2012 Express Edition or greater an SSL certificate signed independently or purchased All detailed information regarding the installation of server applications that must be provided to the IT administrator, who performs the operation, are collected in an appropriate manual, and provided on request. The primary server requires two public IP addresses, the secondary server requires a single public address (one for each instance). It is strongly recommended that one of the two public addresses assigned to the primary server is also associated with an Internet second level domain (for example "service.mycompany.com"). This ensures the proper operation of the licensing mechanism that is therefore independent from the IP address, that can also change in the future without having any impact. 3.5 Applications update The primary and secondary server applications must be kept up to date in order to ensure compatibility with newer Runtime and Router versions that are released from time to time. The updates will be distributed to all customers who bought the package and this will happen reasonably in advance of the introduction in production of the corresponding version of the runtime. Missing upgrades may imply the impossibility to register to the domains hosted on the server the runtime of newer versions. 3.6 The Ubiquity Domain with the private server and the migration from the public infrastructure As the public server infrastructure, also the primary server requires the presence of at least a Ubiquity Domain. One domain is included in the server package. More domains can be added if needed later. Adding more domains may be useful for instance to introduce a strict separation between two sister companies or to offer to brand label customers a direct access to a branded Domain name. The availability of several types of domains allows implementing the optimal solution depending on the specific needs. Any Ubiquity Domain already acquired and in use on the public infrastructure, can be migrated to the private one. The operation is carried out by ASEM in collaboration with the customer. The migration ensures the maintenance of all the Domain options, including users, rights and the connections historical log. Pagina 8 di 10

9 The migration process includes automatic reconfiguration, by the public server, of all systems associated with the Domain so that once the migration is finished the devices can connect to the new private server regularly gaining full independence from the public infrastructure. The process requires no intervention on the field, it is simply necessary that the remote devices are on-line at the time of migration. If the Runtime license activation code of the migrated device is in the 25 characters format, it will be converted to the new 34 characters format and will be your responsibility to take note of the new license numbers, which can be read through the device information screen from Control Center. It is not a procedure for re-entry on the server's public domain unless you do it manually for each device through its removal from the private domain and subsequent association with each other resulting in the loss of the historical connections. The private server supports the ability to host multiple domains that can also be purchased later. 3.7 Licensing Primary server The primary server can be used under a license fee. There is no "demo" mode. The license entitles the primary server installation and use without time limit of ONE instance of the application server. The application server is enabled by introducing a 256 characters activation code that is generated at the time of the order. Code generation by ASEM requires knowing the public IP or Internet domain name that is associated with the primary server. The activation code generated can only be used to enable a primary server whose public IP address or Internet domain is the one declared Secondary server The primary server can be used under a license fee. There is no "demo" mode. The secondary server license entitles you to install and use ONE instance of the application server. The application server is enabled through the introduction of a 34 characters numeric code entirely similar to that used for the activation of the Domain or Runtime component. The primary server supports any number of secondary servers, which can also be acquired at a later time than the first installation Domain The primary server package also includes a license for a Multi Entity - Multi Access Ubiquity Domain. The Domain on private server must be created and enabled through a procedure similar to the one used for the public infrastructure introducing the 34 characters code number provided at the time the license is purchased. The licenses of any subsequent Domain must be purchased in addition exactly as it is today for Domains on the public infrastructure. Migrated domains keep the already acquired license Runtime A runtime license entitles the activation of one instance of the Runtime component on a specific system, just like it does now, regardless of association to a domain on public or private server. Runtime licenses purchased and included in the bundle HMI configurations are used interchangeably to Domains infrastructure, public or private. When ordering, it is not necessary to specify the destination target. As for the public infrastructure also for the private server, the Runtime license can be moved from one device to another one a limited number of times in order for example to replace a damaged system. Pagina 9 di 10

10 3.7.5 Ubiquity Router The Ubiquity Router systems, similarly to the Runtime licenses, can be freely associated either to a public or private domain infrastructure. When ordering, it is not necessary to specify the intended use. Pagina 10 di 10