Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Appear TV Platform
1 Introduction
The Appear TV Maintenance Center is an independent web application running on the MMI
board of the Appear TV unit. Its main purpose is to provide a user friendly software upgrade.
The Appear TV Maintenance Center is always provided as part of the MMI software. Updates for
the Maintenance Center itself will therefore not be available until new software has been
installed on the MMI board. Therefore, we recommend that you install any new software on the
MMI board first. Then, upgrade the rest of the cards.
2 Requirements
2.1 Browser
The Maintenance Center is a web application and a browser is required to view it and interact
with it. This application was developed and tested to work properly in the following browsers:
Browsers that are not in this list have not been tested for compatibility.
Repo files should have filenames in the following formats, where x.xx.xxxx represents the
software version number.
The required software repo package is displayed in the Maintenance Center for each card. For
the 4RU view, this information can be found by hovering over the card. In the 1RU view, this is
available in the SW Package column. The full list of modules and corresponding repo files are as
follows:
Switch w/ Management
appear-mmi-repo-x.xx.xxxx.tar.gz
Switch w/ IP + Management
Bamboo platform card upgrade:
DVB-S/S2 Enhanced (input, 2 slot)
DVB-S/S2/S2X (input, 1 slot)
DVB-C (input, 1 slot)
appear-bamboo-repo-x.xx.xxxx.tar.gz
DVB-T (input, 1 slot)
DVB-T2 (input, 1 slot)
ASI (input/output 4 port)
Dual IP (in/out, cloned output or seamless input)
20/03/2018 2
Appear TV
It is not advisable to rename files as they may become invalid for the Maintenance Center.
To load these files correctly, refer to Section 4. Appear TV will provide, upon request, a repo file
for the particular software version that you wish to upgrade your unit to.
20/03/2018 3
Appear TV
It is also possible to enable password protection for the Maintenance Center. This password is
identical to the one used for the MMI GUI. Consequently, the Maintenance Center’s password
cannot be set separately.
Upon entering the Maintenance Center, you will be presented with Table View (see Figure 2) if
you have a 4RU chassis. To switch to Hardware View, simply click on the table view thumbnail
on the right.
In Hardware View, you can hover your mouse cursor over one of the cards to display the card
type, software version and boot version. This data is also listed in Table View for all cards.
20/03/2018 4
Appear TV
4 Upgrading Software
The main function of the Maintenance Center is to allow easy software upgrades of Appear TV
systems. The Maintenance Center allows multiple cards in the same chassis to be upgraded
using a single file.
To start the upgrade process, select the cards you want to upgrade by clicking on its slot in
Hardware View or by clicking on the list item in Table View. Selected cards are highlighted
orange. Slots with no cards installed are not selectable. To deselect a card, click on it a second
time. To select all invert the selected cards at once, click the chassis of the unit in hardware view.
Next, select the correct software file by clicking on the button inside the box. The text on this
button may vary, depending on your browser: Browse, Choose or Choose File. Be sure to select
the correct software file. You can change this software file while the upgrade sequence has not
begun yet by clicking on Remove.
20/03/2018 5
Appear TV
Figure 4 - Maintenance Center after the slots and software files have been selected
20/03/2018 6
Appear TV
20/03/2018 7
Appear TV
Once the upgrade sequence has completed successfully, a confirmation dialog will be displayed
(Figure 8). This dialog comes with three buttons: View Details, View MMI and Start Over.
To further verify that the card has been upgraded to the new software, click Start Over and
check that the card has the new software version number. You can also verify this by clicking
View MMI then going to the Web GUI’s About Page.
When checking for compatible software for all modules, it may be there is no corresponding
software version for some cards. In these cases, the software made available, should be
compatible. If there is incompatible software being used, there will be an alarm raised in the
main Appear TV GUI.
When upgrading a unit, the following procedure should be followed to ensure an error free
upgrade of the unit. For the correct file type for each card, please see section 2.22 Software
File. Using the Maintenance Center, follow the steps below:
Once this procedure is complete, all cards in the unit should be upgraded to the versions
specified in the filenames of the software upgrade packages.
If you encounter any errors during this process, please check the Appendix section or contact
Appear TV support.
20/03/2018 8
Appear TV
6 Module Setup
From the Maintenance Center, it is possible to configure or change the firmware options on
some modules. This menu is available when clicking on an individual module and clicking the
Setup button. If there are no options for the module, then this button will not be selectable. The
various options are:
Convert Card
o Board Type. If this option is available, it will list the compatible
modes/firmware that the module supports.
To change the firmware of the module, select the new mode and click Apply.
After this has been applied, then module should not be rebooted and will
need to be upgraded with the same or newer software in order for the
correct firmware to be loaded.
Once the upgrade has finished, it will be then possible to remove the previous
module type from the main GUI About page for the new module type to log in.
o MMI Selection. This is available on some modules (non Switch) and allows the
configuration of the default backplane/MMI to log into. If this is set to Auto
then the MMI in slot 0 will be selected. If Slot 17 is selected, the module will
then log into the MMI in slot 17 (if available).
Please note that if the module is switched to log into the MMI in slot
17, but there is no MMI present, then this module may not log back
into the MMI in slot 0.
After this setting has been applied, the module will need to be reboot for the
settings to take effect.
20/03/2018 9
Appear TV
20/03/2018 10
Appear TV
7 Upgrade Scheduler
The upgrade scheduler is intended to ease the process of upgrading large scale environments.
The basic principle of the Upgrade Scheduler is to let the units themselves check for new
software located on a defined FTP server. The FTP server contains a schedule file, the software
images, and the log files of each units upgrade.
Unit 1
FTP Server
/schedule.xml
Unit 2
/Software
/Upgrade_log_files
Unit n
The FTP server is a passive component which provides the data, and a storage area where the
units push the upgrade result after a completed or failed upgrade. The actual process of
upgrading the units is managed by the units themselves.
The following algorithm applies:
When the automatic upgrade scheduler is activated in a unit, it accesses the ftp server
and downloads the schedule file.
The units are upgraded in the order at which they are listed in the schedule. If not listed
the unit is not part of the schedule.
An upgrade is started only if the time is within the Date/time-field of the maintenance-
window specified in the schedule.
All software packages listed in the schedule file will be processed by the unit. I.e.
o Download the first package listed in the schedule file to the controller card
(MMI Card)
o Unpack the image, and check what cards the image is intended for. If any cards
of that type are present in the unit, install the software to all matching cards.
o Only upgrade if the software version in the image is different from the one
already installed.
o Remove the software package from the controller card.
o Process next image listed
When all images are processed, and then upload the report file. (For details see
separate section below)
When a successful report file is pushed, then the next unit in line is free to start
upgrading.
If the upgrade of a unit failed, then the entire upgrade process will terminate.
20/03/2018 11
Appear TV
20/03/2018 12
Appear TV
<package>ftp://192.168.1.200/software/3.26/qamout-a-repo-3.26.2.tar.gz</package>
<package>ftp://192.168.1.200/software/3.26/qamout-b-repo-3.26.2.tar.gz</package>
<package>ftp://192.168.1.200/software/3.26/dvbs-lband-repo-3.26.3.tar.gz</package>
</packages>
</schedule>
Figure 2 Schedule file: concurrent mode
The maintenance window specifies the time the unit is allowed to perform an
upgrade. This is specified in the following format
Maintenance window
startdate / enddate : YYYYMMDD
starttime / endtime: HH:MM
The option fields changes the default behavior of the upgrade algorithm.
dryrun: does everything except upgrade of unit.
concurrent: By default the system will do a serial upgrade.
Option fields This can be bypassed by the concurrent attribute.
force: This will override default behavior that prevents
upgrade if the version matches the version already installed
in the unit.
Lists the IP address of the units that is part of this schedule. The order is
Units
significant as the units are upgraded in the order listed in the schedule.
Lists all the packages that should be installed. Note the order is significant.
The mmi="1" attribute of the package tag forces the repo to be upgraded last
Packages when multiple repo files are scheduled for each unit; else the units are
upgraded in the same order the packages occurs in the scheduler
configuration file. Always set this for the MMI repo package.
Each unit that completes a scheduled upgrade, uploads a "upgrade report" file into this folder, named by
it's IP address concatenated with the overall result of the upgrade. i.e <unit-ip-address>_OK.log. The
content is in plain ASCII and are a copy of the unit's local software upgrade log.
In addition to report logs, two hidden files .current.log and .versions.log, can be found in this folder.
These files are used to store the internal state of the units during upgrade, the content of these files are
proprietary and the content format can change without any notice.
Example:
File name - 10.10.30.32_OK.log
20/03/2018 13
Appear TV
For a scheduled upgrade to occur each unit must be enabled to scheduled upgrades. To do these Go-> to
the maintenance node under the admin page.
Enable Schedule
Activate the scheduling feature.
upgrades
The location of the schedule file. Note the schedule file itself must be called
Repository FTP server
schedule.xml.
How often the unit will check for new schedule file. i.e 10 min, 30 min, 1hr, 12
Update interval
hr. or 24 hr.
Next scheduled
The estimated time until unit upgrade starts for this unit.
upgrade
20/03/2018 14
Appear TV
In concurrent mode the cards logged into the local MMI will be upgraded. Cards logged into the other
side will be ignored. Hence in concurrent mode it is technically possible to miss slave modules if they
switch login-state at a "bad" time during the upgrade.
In general the time taken for the Upgrade Scheduler will be similar to that of a manual upgrade using
Maintenance Center. As a guide for this upgrade time, the below table can be used as a reference:
20/03/2018 15
Appear TV
Once the above is performed, then you will need to follow the following steps:
1) Convert the current ASIO MMI card to slave mode and reboot. Please see section 12.1
Changing ASIO MMI to slave for details.
2) Physically remove the old switch card and insert the new. By default this will be in slot 0,
and also in slot 17 if using Internal Redundancy.
3) Connect to the control port on the new switch (MMI) card to a local connection with
access to the 192.168.1.xxx network
a. This will have a default IP address of 192.168.1.100
4) Restore the configuration file
a. This can be done by going to the Import/Export page and selecting the
configuration file.
b. In this step, it is best to also tick the Include local IP addresses checkbox to also
restore any IP addresses previously configured.
c. If there are any issues with the configuration import, please see the note below
and/or contact Appear TV Support.
5) Navigate to the Admin page and change the IP address of the switch control port to that
of the previous MMI
a. At this stage you can also assign the MMI a new IP address if required
6) Remove the local Ethernet connection and move the connection from the Control port
previous MMI card to the Control port of the new switch card.
7) Access the unit IP address and check the GUI is present
a. In order for you to access the IP address, you may need to delete the ARP entry
for this IP address on your computer. This can be done by running the following
command:
arp –d <ip-addr>
8) Complete the upgrade of the unit to the latest software assuring that the upgrade path is
at maximum two major versions at a time
While we undertake to test configuration import from 2.16 to the 3.26 software, there
may be some cases where the configuration is no longer supported.
In these cases, the configuration of the unit will have to be set back to factory default
and the configuration done manually by the operator.
20/03/2018 16
Appear TV
To reset the power supplies, click the Reset Power button. As this will affect the whole chassis,
you will then be prompted if you are sure. If you click OK the power supplies will be reset.
To reset cards in the unit, select a slot (or several slots) you want to reboot simply by clicking on
it. Then, click Reboot to start rebooting. Wait for the process to complete to verify that the
reboot has been successful.
10 Licensing
In the Appear TV unit, licenses are stored on the individual cards and are valid after an upgrade.
If you encounter any issues with licensing after an upgrade, please contact Appear TV either via
your Sales/Support contact, or email support@appeartv.com.
11 Downgrade Procedure
Downgrade is not recommended via the Maintenance Center. If you are required to downgrade
a module, please contact support@appeartv.com for the correct procedure for the module.
20/03/2018 17
Appear TV
12 Appendix
12.1 Changing ASIO MMI to slave
This describes the process of changing a card which was previously set to MMI mode, to be in
slave mode. This is only applicable to input cards and it is only valid to have one MMI present per
unit/backplane.
1) Telnet to the slave card
- User: asio, password: bozo
- If the IP address of the card is not known, please use the hardware jumper to
reset it to the factory default (192.168.1.100). More details of this procedure can
be found in the User Manual.
2) Enter the following commands:
su
hostname
atvcardsetup <module> slave
reboot
- The <module> is the name of the card returned from the ‘hostname’ command
- The list of possible <module> values can also be checked by running the
‘atvcardsetup’ command without any parameters.
- If you receive a warning about missing FPGA when the ‘atvcardsetup’ command
is run, please press ‘N’ and contact Appear TV.
- In the case that you are changing a slave IP input card to be an MMI on backplane
2 for Internal Redundancy, <module> can be set to ipin_bp2.
3) After the reboot of the module it should now be in slave mode.
You will then be prompted as to which settings you would like to clear:
12.3 Troubleshooting
12.3.1 Module does not boot (blue LED)
A blue LED on the module can indicate the following:
1) There is no module firmware file present
20/03/2018 18
Appear TV
- To remedy this, you will need a direct connection to the control port of the
module. You should be able to ping the device and load the Maintenance
Center. If the IP address is unknown, please use the hardware reset to set this to
default (192.168.1.100)
- With the Maintenance Center loaded, re-load the latest software
2) There is problem booting the card to the operating system
- First try to ping the device, if this is possible, follow the above firmware missing
steps
- If this is not possible, there is a chance that the card is not booting into Linux and
will need to be returned for RMA. Please contact Appear TV support in these
cases.
3) Unable to connect to the switch card, or a failure with the backplane
- Please try the module in another slot in the chassis. This will check if there is a
problem with the backplane connection on this slot
- If available, change the switch card with a spare
20/03/2018 19