I am an end user of a medium to large Milestone Corporate system. I have always thought that it would be very helpful to have access to critical data such as recording server and archive storage used, processor and RAM utilization on recording servers and the management server, cameras offline etc. available on a Management Client App on iOS and Android. This would allow quick access to assess the health of the system while not at your computer. Are there any Video Management Systems that have this capability?
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VMS Management Client As A Mobile App
JH
John Honovich
Dec 03, 2014So a web or thick client is not acceptable. It has to be on a mobile app?
I am not judging :) It's just that the former is somewhat commonplace but the later is, to my knowledge, quite rare.
U
Undisclosed
Dec 03, 2014I do not see this as a replacement for a thick client. It would be a quick way to determine overall system health - as we all know things tend to go south when we are away from work. I was thinking of a read-only interface - changes to the system would have to be performed using the thick client.
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Dec 04, 2014I wonder if this could be accomplished with an SNMP browser / Dashboard app to monitor critical functions?
DR
Drew Rollins
Dec 04, 2014You can really do all of this with network monitoring software and SNMP. Many of them do have mobile apps. And the ones that don't can always generate email alterts. There are also many hosted options too that won't require a server onsite to do the monitoring. If you are at a larger business your IT department most likely has something to this nature already running.
RP
Roger Paine
Dec 04, 2014Would agree except for the final clause
critical data such as recording server and archive storage used, processor and RAM utilization on recording servers and the management server, cameras offline etc
If the camera's offline stat is important and the 'etc' consist of other VMS info like total FPS, for instance, can generic network health monitoring tools supply those?
DR
Drew Rollins
Dec 04, 2014I don't think FPS would be possible. But with corporate you can have an event send a SNMP trap to the network monitoring server, for example if a camera goes offline it can send a SNMP trap and/or an email. For cameras that support SNMP you can trigger an alert that if the mbit/s drops below a certain threshold then trigger an alert, telling you that the camera my be online but the normal traffic is not being generated. If the camera does not support it, do the same type event on the switchport if it is managed. Might be a little complicated for a typical end user but most networking guys shouldn't have a problem.
U
Undisclosed
Dec 09, 2014These are good comments and I have gone down the route of monitoring our recording servers via SNMP for several months now and do see value in the historic data that is gathered as well as the live alerts that are generated when the processsor's utilization exceeds thresholds etc. Based on your comments, I am in the process of trying a few IP cameras to see what kind of data can be gathered.
That being said, most if not all of what I am looking for already exists in Milestone Corporate's Management Client's System Monitor. It includes data on the current state of the recording servers and cameras. I am looking for a simplified version of this available as an app. I see this having a redlight - greenlight screen showing at a very high level where your problems are. This way you don't have to try an pull together data from different sources to determine system health. To me these types of tools are the next logical step in the evolution of enterprise tools for video management systems. The obvious answer is to grab your laptop and log in remotely - but like I stated in my original post, it would be a great plus to have this info available when access to your laptop is limited.
JW
Josh Windsor
Dec 09, 2014The System Monitor in Milestone Corporate is an ASP page. I've never tried accessing it from anywhere but the IIS server that is hosting the app pool that serves it up, but you should be able to access it remotely with a few tweaks to the authetication scheme. I'm not sure how great it will look on a mobile device, but the information will be there.
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