Using the configuration-and-monitoring GUI

Using the configuration-and-monitoring GUI to set up and monitor a production workflow

When loading the configuration and monitoring GUI in a web browser the first screen you will encounter is the login screen. Log in using the credentials that you set when installing. After logging in you will see the home screen. Make sure that the bottom strip says that the System Controller is online and that the database is online.

Configure sources

On the home screen, click the Inventory Management button. This will take you to the inventory management page. On the left side there is a list of all sources in the system at the moment. It is possible to filter the list based on source type, location, and active state. For each source, it is possible (and recommended) to click the Edit button to open the source configuration editing page. It is recommended to set a descriptive name (e.g. “Front wide camera”), a type, and a location for the source. This view is also used to configure which embedded audio channels to transport up to the production pipelines. Click Save to save your changes and exit this page and return to the inventory management page. Repeat the process for each source. Whenever a new source is added to the system, it is recommended to perform this step on it. Press the Home button to return to the home screen.

Create and start a production configuration

A production configuration is a description of how the system is configured for a specific production workflow, e.g. a TV program. On the home screen, click the Create New button to create a new production configuration. Give it a decriptive name, e.g. “Stockholm local news”, and click the Create button. This will bring you to the configuration page for the new production configuraton. Click Add Source to add a source to this production configuration. This will bring out a list of available sources on the left side of the screen. Again, it is possible to filter the sources the same way as on the inventory management page. Click Add for the sources that you want to have in your production configuration. The order of the sources is the same as the order they will be presented in the multiviewer. To change the order, drag and drop them. For each source, it is possible to set the UMD text by clicking the name above the thumbnail and editing it.

A preset is a collection of all the detailed variables of each part of the production configuration that will be set up. This includes detailed quality settings, network latency settings, etc. To choose a preset for your current production configuration, click Select Preset and select one of the pre-defined presets. Once that has been done, some settings can be edited by clicking the button with the cogwheel icon.

To run a production configuration click the Start button. Once the production is started, click the Home button to return to the home screen.

Use the runtime monitoring

On the top of the screen there will now be a pane for each pipeline that is running, and information on where to find the multiview and output streams. For the production configuration that is currently running, there is a Runtime Monitoring button, that is either green if all is well, or red if there are any error counters that have increased in the last minute. Clicking the button takes you to the runtime monitoring screen.

The runtime monitoring screen is built as an expanding tree, where each level and instance has a status icon that is either green or red. This way it is very easy to trace an error through the tree down to the erroring counter. On the lowest level, the actual counters can have three colors. White means it is an informational counter that cannot indicate an error. Green color means that the counter is able to indicate an error but at the moment it is fine. Red color means that the counter is currently indicating an error. Such a counter is red if it has increased in the last 60 seconds. A red counter will revert to green after 60 seconds without increasing.

Editing the database

To add or edit production presets and new users, the Mongo database can be manually edited.

The GUI tool MongoDB Compass can be used to edit the database, but MongoDB Shell and other MongoDB tools will also work. Since you connect to the MongoDB via the network, Compass can be used on any computer with network access to the GUI server on port 27017.

After installing MongoDB Compass, connect to the database by pressing the “New Connection” button. In the URI field, exchange localhost for the hostname of the GUI server (unless you run Compass on the same server as the GUI, of course). Add agile_live_gui last in the URL-field, to access the GUI database only. Then under Advanced Connection Options, select Authentication and use method Username/Password. Type the <API_USER> and <API_PASSWORD> you put in the mongo-init.js file when setting up the GUI server. The URI field should then look something like:

mongodb://<API_USER>:<API_PASSWORD>@<HOSTNAME>:27017/agile-live-gui?authMechanism=DEFAULT

Add or edit production presets

Once connected you will see the databases to the left. The database agile-live-gui contains the collections used by the GUI. To add a new, or modify an old production preset, open the presets collection under the agile-live-gui database. To create a new preset, the easiest way is to clone an old preset and make your changes to it. Hover your mouse over one of the presets you want to clone, and press the Clone document button on the top right of the preset. In the popup window you can make your edits to the new preset. Most important is to set a new name for it in the "name" field. This is the name that will be displayed in the GUI when selecting which preset to use. Under pipelines the quality settings for the streams from the Ingests to the Pipelines can be set.

Add new users to the system

New users to the GUI can be added to the Mongo database as well. Open the users collection under the agile-live-gui database. Then add a new user by pressing the Clone document button on one of the existing users. In the popup window, set the username of the new user and remove the hashed password, leaving the password field empty (i.e. "password": ""). Press insert to add the new user to the database. Then open the GUI in a web browser. On the sign-in page, write the username of the new user and then type a password to set it as the new password in the database. A new password must have at least 8 characters to be approved.