# Using the Administration Console

The following sections describe how to use the RFID Edge Server Administration Console.

- Administration Console Overview
- Starting and Stopping the Administration Console
- Administration Console Menus
- Exporting and Importing an Edge Server Configuration
- Monitoring Edge Servers

## Administration Console Overview

The RFID Edge Server Administration Console is a graphical Java application that you use to:

- Monitor the activities of multiple Edge Servers and readers.

See Monitoring Edge Servers and Monitoring Readers.

- Add, remove, and configure readers and composite readers.

See Editing Readers and Working with Composite Readers.

- Create, view, and edit ECSpec data objects and their subscribers.

See Working with ECSpecs and Using the ECSpec Editor.

- View real-time Edge Server and RFID device telemetry data.

See Monitoring Edge Servers and Monitoring Readers.

- Dynamically configure RFID devices, filters, and workflows.

See Editing Readers, Working with Transient Filters, and Configuring Workflow Modules.

- Export and import RFID Edge Server configuration objects.

See Exporting and Importing an Edge Server Configuration.

## Starting and Stopping the Administration Console

Prerequisite: WebLogic RFID Edge Server must be installed on your system. See Installing WebLogic RFID Edge Server.

### Starting the Console

Start the RFID Edge Server and the Administration Console with individual scripts in the `RFID_EDGE_HOME/bin` directory, where `RFID_EDGE_HOME` is the directory where you installed the WebLogic RFID Edge Server software. See Starting and Stopping WebLogic RFID Edge Server in Installing WebLogic RFID Edge Server.

### Stopping the Console

In the Administration Console, select File > Exit.

## Administration Console Menus

The Administration Console has the following main menus:

- File Menu
- View Menu
- Test Menu
- Help Menu

### File Menu

Table 2-1 describes the File menu options.

Table 2-1 File Menu Options
Name | Description
--- | ---
Configure Edge Servers | Adds an Edge Server instance to the Administration Console. For each Edge Server, you need to specify: Edge Server URL: The location of the Edge Server instance. Use the format: http://host_name:port where host_name is the host name of the machine where the Edge Server is running, and port is the port the Edge Server is listening on (configured when you installed the Edge Server). If you cannot remember the port you configured, you can find it in `RFID_EDGE_HOME/etc/edge.props`: `# The TCP port on which the ALE service listens.` `com.connecterra.ale.servicePort = 6060`
Preferences | AutoRefresh Interval Specifies how often to contact the Edge Server to update the ECSpec information displayed in the Administration Console (in milliseconds). Default: 2000 (every 2 seconds). Alert History Length Specifies how many alerts to store for each device. Default: 2000
Import | Imports a valid XML Edge Server configuration file. See Importing an Edge Server Configuration.
Export | Exports the following Edge Server objects to an XML file: RFID Devices Composite Readers ECSpecs ECSpec Subscribers PCSpecs PCSpec Subscribers Workflow Modules See Exporting an Edge Server Configuration.
Exit | Quits the application.

### View Menu

Table 2-2 describes the View menu options.

Table 2-2 View Menu Options
Name | Description
--- | ---
Refresh ECSpecs | Contacts the Edge Server and retrieves the list of all active ECSpec instances and additional information for each. This operation may take some time if there are many ECSpec instances with data to be retrieved. Typically the ECSpec information is automatically refreshed according to the value you set for the Auto Refresh Interval in File > Preferences. This option is useful if the auto-refresh interval is particularly long, or if you have made a change you want to see immediately.
Refresh Device Browser | Rebuilds the nodes shown in the left pane of the Console (Device Browser). Contacts each of the Edge Servers defined. If a particular Edge Server cannot be contacted, then the Device Browser shows the host name and port number (for example, `localhost:6060`) and an error indicator. This operation may take some time if there are many Edge Servers to scan, and if some Edge Servers are not responding.

### Test Menu

Table 2-3 describes the Help menu options.

Table 2-3 Test Menu Options
Name | Description
--- | ---
Read Tags | Displays real-time tag data from the selected Edge Server and any configured reader. See Reading Real-Time Tag Data.

### Help Menu

Table 2-4 describes the Help menu options.

Table 2-4 Help Menu Options
Name | Description
--- | ---
Help | Displays a link to the Administration Console Help.
About | Displays version and copyright information.

## Exporting and Importing an Edge Server Configuration

Configuration exporting and importing lets you duplicate RFID Edge Server configurations on other Edge Servers. You select Edge Server objects to export to an XML file, and duplicate the configuration on another RFID Edge Server by importing that file.

### Exporting an Edge Server Configuration

To export an RFID Edge Server configuration:

1. Select File > Export.
2. On the Export Configuration page, from the Server drop-down list, select the Edge Server from which to export configuration objects.
3. In the Types section, select the object types to export.
4. To select objects by name, enter the object name in the Names section.

Note: | Names are case-sensitive and must match the object name exactly. If there is no match, an empty XML file is created.

Note: | If you export ECSpec Subscribers and not the ECSpec they reference, you will get an error upon importing the ECSpec Subscribers file if the ECSpec does not exist on the target Edge Server to which you import the file.

5. Click Export.
6. In the Open dialog window, specify a file name with an XML extension and click Open.

The XML file is saved with the name and location you specified.

### Importing an Edge Server Configuration

To import RFID Edge Server configuration:

1. Select File > Import.
2. In the Open dialog window, select a configuration XML file to import and click Open.
3. On the Import Configuration page, from the Server drop-down list, select the target Edge Server to which to import configuration objects and click Import.

The configuration file is imported and the configuration objects appear in the Console under the selected Edge Server node.

Note: | If you import configuration objects with the same name as objects that already exist on the Edge Server, the Resolve Import Conflicts page appears. Select which objects to replace with imported ones.

Note: | When you export all ECSpec Subscribers to an ECSpec, they appear in one XML file with the same name as the ECSpec. When you import an ECSpec and its ECSpec Subscribers objects, they appear with the same name in the Resolve Import Conflicts page. The first one listed is the ECSpec object and the second one is the ECSpec Subscribers object.

## Monitoring Edge Servers

Using the Administration Console, you can examine configuration information for and messages generated by an Edge Server. Also, you can monitor how many event and programming cycles have completed since you started an Edge Server.

The following sections describe Edge Server monitoring data:

- Displaying Edge Server Telemetry
- Displaying Edge Server Alerts
- Displaying Edge Server Attributes

### Displaying Edge Server Telemetry

The Edge Server Telemetry page displays information about the number of event and programming cycles that have completed since you started the Edge Server. To display RFID Edge Server telemetry:

1. In the left pane of the Console, select an Edge Server.
2. In the right pane, select Telemetry at the bottom of the page to display the Edge Server Telemetry page.

Note: | Collapse telemetry graphs to improve presentation and performance; only the expanded (non-collapsed) views are updated.

For more information about event cycles and programming cycles, see Reading and Writing Tags in Programming with the ALE and ALEPC APIs.

- Table 2-5 shows when event cycles occurred.
- Table 2-6 shows when programming cycles occurred.

Table 2-5 eventCyclesCompleted
total | Total number of event cycles completed since the Edge Server was started.
horizontal axis | Time stamps for event cycles, in 24-hour time.
vertical axis | Number of event cycles completed within the telemetry interval configured in the Edge Server. When the telemetry interval is very short, this value is likely to be either zero (no event cycles) or one (one event cycle). If the telemetry interval is longer, larger values are displayed when many event cycles are completed within one telemetry interval.

Table 2-6 programmingCyclesCompleted
total | Total number of programming cycles completed since the Edge Server was started.
horizontal axis | Time stamps for programming cycles, in 24-hour time.
vertical axis | Number of programming cycles completed within the telemetry interval configured in the Edge Server.

### Displaying Edge Server Alerts

To display RFID Edge Server alerts:

1. In the left pane of the Console, select an Edge Server.
2. In the right pane, select Alerts at the bottom of the page.

The Edge Server Alerts page shows messages and alerts from the Edge Server.

When you select an alert in the top pane, a preview pane opens at the bottom of the page that displays the complete text of the alert.

Table 2-7 Edge Server Alerts
Column | Description
--- | ---
Importance | INFO (green) WARNING (yellow) SEVERE (red)
Date | Date and time the log entry was written.
Message | Text of the message.

### Displaying Edge Server Attributes

To display RFID Edge Server attributes:

1. In the left pane of the Console, select an Edge Server.
2. In the right pane, select Attributes at the bottom of the page.

The Edge Server Attributes page shows configuration information for this Edge Server.

Table 2-8 Edge Server Attributes
Column | Description
--- | ---
manufacturer | ConnecTerra
version | Version of the Edge Server.