With AggreGate deployed in your facility, users may log in to LinkServer using the web interface or AggreGate Client and manage various hardware devices. AggreGate provides a rich set of device management operations. To be able to use the full range of these operations you need to connect your devices to the system as described in AggreGating Your Devices.

Automatic Discovery And Provisioning Of Devices

Since every hardware device is connected to AggreGate using a Device Server, the system uses generic approach for locating and configuring new devices:

Discovery by broadcast. All devices that are located in the same network segment with LinkServer may be discovered by broadcast commands and are thus visible for system operators.
Device provisioning. Every device that was discovered or is accessible by the server in the IP network may be automatically configured to connect to LinkServer on startup, complete the login sequence and start normal data exchange. The device then automatically reconnects to the server in the case of power failures or temporary communication problems.

Direct Management Operations

Direct management operations allow to work with devices that are currently connected to the server in real-time. These operations include:

Configuration of remote devices. The settings for each device are clearly displayed, along with informative textual descriptions. Numerous types of devices may be supported, and the user's input is validated on the server itself before configuration is applied to the device, thus ensuring reliability and improving speed.
Controlling devices. System operators may initiate operations provided by hardware devices. Most operations take input parameters and produce some output that may be reviewed upon execution.
Monitoring device events. Events may be viewed in the Event Log immediately as they are received from hardware. Events may also require acknowledgement by operators.
Event filtering. Events may be filtered out of the Event Log. Important events can be also highlighted in color.

Working With Offline Devices

When a device is disconnected from the server for some reason, you can still execute some operations with device data:

Delayed configuration. View and edit settings of offline devices. These settings are read from server cache, and any changes are written back to the cache. The actual hardware device is reconfigured according to the new settings next time it synchronizes with the server.
Browsing event history. Events received from devices are stored in the server database. Old events may be viewed even when the device is offline. Event history may be filtered and sorted according to different rules.
Managing historical events. Events stored in the event history may be acknowledged and deleted by users that have access to the device which originated the event.

Customizing Access Control

Every device in the system is registered under a particular user account. However, the security environment provided by AggreGate allows flexible control of access to different devices:

Sharing devices between users accounts. It is possible to let a user access a device which belongs to another user.
Setting up permission levels. These define which operations a given user may execute with a device.

Group Operations

System operators may execute batch actions with several devices, as a group. Such grouped operations have several benefits:

Device Groups. Device groups facilitate selection of several devices to execute some operation with them. Devices may either be added to permanent groups or be dynamically grouped to execute just a single action. A device may belong to several groups.
Reuse of input. If the operation executed requires input parameters, you specify them just once. The same parameters will be used for every device in the group.
Aggregation of output. The output of all grouped operations is accumulated and presented to the user in a single "status report".

Alerting Services

Multi-functional alerts help detect and resolve device problems. Primary features of alerts:

Different types of notifications. Support for visual, sound, e-mail and other types of notifications for alert owner and other system operators.
Event and state triggers. Every alert may be triggered by device events, or by certain operating conditions or device status.
Pending alerts. Pending alerts require operator acknowledgement. Support for pending alert instances may be enabled or disabled for any single alert.
Alert escalation. Customizable escalation rules, including time-based escalation and escalation activated by a certain number of pending alert instances.
Corrective actions. When an alert is raised, LinkServer may execute some corrective actions in automatic mode or request the system operator to execute some actions interactively.

Replication Of Device Configuration

AggreGate greatly simplifies configuring multiple devices in the same way and copying settings between different devices:

One-to-one and one-to-many replication. Replication may be performed from one device to another specific device, to a whole group of devices, to all devices connected to a single Device Server or to all devices accessible by the system operator.
Selection of replicated settings. Before the actual replication process begins, the user may select which settings will be replicated and correct their values on-the-fly (right before they're replicated).
Cross-firmware replication. Settings may be copied even between devices with different firmware versions.
Aggregated status report. Replication results are shown as a single status report containing a list of all errors (if any) in the replication action.

Data Querying and Reports

LinkServer data processing features let you select device data and present it to users in a convenient form:

Query language. Integrated SQL-based query language helps find, filter, group and sort any device data.
Editable queries. Editable query results let you select certain settings of several devices and edit them all at once, as a single table.
Automatic report creation. Any data selected by a query or other method may be presented as a printable report.
Data export. Report data may be exported to many well-known formats including PDF, HTML and XLS.

Periodic Job Execution

LinkServer includes an advanced job scheduler that can be used to set up automatic execution of different operations with hardware devices. Here are some basic properties of the job scheduling engine:

Simple and advanced job triggers. Simple triggers allow periodic job execution, while advanced triggers let you set up complex calendar-based execution patterns.
Predefined user input. If a scheduled action requires user input, this input may be pre-defined when the action is scheduled, for a non-interactive execution.
Execution status reports. Successful job execution (as well as any problems) are logged and may be reviewed at any time.

Widgets

Widgets are user-created graphical components, used to build a custom interface for monitoring, configuring and controlling devices.

GUI Builder. Integrated development environment for creating widgets in WYSIWYG mode from within AggreGate Client.
Dashboard. Widgets may be combined into a virtual "dashboard", concentrating mission-critical status information and functions and providing fast access to them.

Other Device Management Features

Favourites. A Favourites table lets you execute commonly used actions with a single mouse click.
Auto-Run. Functions may be automatically executed upon operator logon - the a widget Dashboard (see above) may be made to pop up upon login, for example.