Activate Alexandria Data Stations on the Controller The Alexandria Controller has the ability to Start and Stop Selected Data Stations that it manages. When you Add a new or existing Data Station, they will initially appear as Stopped in the monitor list. - Select the Data Station(s) you would like to activate from the list and choose Start Selected from the Actions menu.
- You can activate more than one Data Station at a time. When Alexandria Controller is shut down and restarted, all of the individual Data Stations automatically activate. If a Data Stations fails to auto-start on launch, an “unable to start” error message will be recorded to the log. The green Running box located in the Status column of the managed list indicates the Data Station is active.
At this point, activated Data Stations are broadcasting—awaiting connections on their default Port ID.
EmailSEE Email Preferences To send email reminders, such as the Overdue Items Notice, you will need to configure how Alexandria communicates with your library's email server. Alexandria's email system is designed to potentially cope with hundreds of emails being sent (or resent) over many machines at the same time. What happens if an email fails to send? If a send fails, the next resend time is generated by adding a random value between 3 and 9 minutes, spreading out the resend times so all the undelivered email still in the “short range” period isn't sent at the same time. If a send hasn't succeeded by the end of the “short range” period, the program will generate new send times using random values between 60 and 90 minutes. If a send still hasn't succeeded after 100 hours the email is discarded and a “return-to-sender” email will be sent. For emails to work, you will also need to... Set Up Your SMTP Server See Email PreferencesUse Gmail As Your SMTP Server
A Gmail account can be used as a portable SMTP server if your library's network does not already have one. Before you configure Alexandria to use Gmail, you need to set your Gmail preferences to Allow Less Secure Apps*. - Go to /admin > Email.
- Enter the following settings for Server 1:
- SMTP Server Address: smtp.gmail.com
- Port: 587
- Login: Enter the username for your email server.
- Password: Enter the password for your email server.
- Click Save in the upper-right corner of the window.
- Click Test Server, to ensure the Gmail account is acting as a server.
- Repeat for Server 2 (optional).
*End of May 2022, Google will not let you choose to 'allow less secure apps'. See this article. At the moment, the COMPanion Support Team is recommending that you make use of an SMTP relay service. Read more: What is SMTP relay? | SMTP relay: Route outgoing non-Gmail messages through Google. DatabaseSee Self Hosted. Archiving is an automatic method of making complete, regular copies of your database and storing them in a designated folder on your hard drive. Manual archives should be performed before making any large-scale changes to your database, such as imports, updates, utilities, or machine upgrades. Your most recent archives are handy when trying to fix a bad import and are invaluable in securing the safety of your data. However, archives are not backups; the major difference between a backup and an archive is that backups are made on removable media and physically stored offsite (or in the cloud). Since archives are entirely useless in the event of a hard drive failure, keeping an offsite or cloud backup is highly recommended! Database maintenance examines your database files and indexes and then performs patron, item, and circulation verification routines. If database damage is detected, it's automatically fixed. The maintenance should be performed at least once a month to keep your data in good, working order. The Controller will automatically archive the data folder for each of your data sets between 12:01 and 4:00 a.m. daily. It will archive the Controller data folder between 10:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. During an archive, all other Data Station operations are temporarily suspended.
SettingsArchive Directory By default, archives are stored in folder within the Alexandria Support folder. However, we highly recommend that you change the location to a one outside of the Alexandria Support folder, preferably on a separate drive. You can set a custom location for your Archive Directory in Administration > Database. If you enter an invalid folder, or if it becomes invalid for any reason (such as disconnecting the drive it's on), it will automatically be replaced with the default folder. We control the folder structure within your Archive Directory. Within the Archive folder is a subfolder for each of your database serial numbers, in which individual archives are stored. Archives are titled by the date and time in the YYYYMMDD HHMMSS format. Daily archives include "DAILY" in the title; Snapshot archives do not. Archives > Serial Number > Archive YYYYMMDD HHMMSS Archives > 8888001 > Archive 20180720 110704 DAILY
Storage Limits Here, you can choose how many Daily Archives and Snapshot Archives to store at a time, up to 14 of each. Just make sure you have enough free space for them all! If you begin to run out of space, or if you're already storing more than the number you specified, the oldest archive of the type being run will be removed.
We strongly advise you to review these settings regularly to ensure that your archive directory is up to date and the number of archives stored is properly configured based on your needs and available disk space. Link Web SettingsSee this information on Self Hosted. Self-Hosted customers will need to configure these setting before using the web modules of the program. For a Centralized and Distributed catalogs, these settings apply to all sites. A Cloud-Hosted customer doesn't have the web settings interface in the administration module because their data is hosted on a designated COMPanion server. Alexandria uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure web communications. These settings allow you to configure the certificates, ports, and server domain names that Alexandria uses to communicate with web browsers. When you save changes to this window, the Data Station will apply your new settings and restart web services. SettingsAlexandria uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure web communications. When it comes to TLS certificates, “file specifications” stand for the correct (and required) directory location, file name, and file extension (e.g. C:\Program Data\Alexandria Support\SSL\*.pem ) of your keys/certificates on the Data Station. Accurate file specifications must be provided in order for the key/certificates to be accessed.
- Server Domain Name. Enter the domain name or IP address that connects to your Data Station.
- Port ID. Enter the port number that Alexandria uses to access the web service. This is typically port 80 or 8080.
- Allow Non-Secure Connections. Uncheck this box if you want to maintain secure web communications. (optional)
- Secure Port ID. Enter the port number used for the secure web interface. The default is 443.
- Private Key. Enter the private key password, if required. (optional)
- Verify Private Key Password. Enter the private password again to verify it. (optional)
- Path to Private Key. Enter the file name and location of the Data Station’s private key. (optional)
The file name and location may be entered or changed manually on a connected Web or Librarian Workstation, but it must follow the correct file specifications. Only certificates in PEM format are recognized. (optional)
- Path to Certificate. Enter the file name and location of the Data Station’s public certificate.
The file name and location may be entered or changed manually on a connected Web or Librarian Workstation, but it must follow the correct file specifications. Only certificates in PEM format are recognized. (optional)
- Use Secure SIP2 Connection. Enable this setting if you're using a Secure SIP2 Connection
PEM Format The PEM format (Privacy Enhanced Mail), an early standard for securing electronic email; the PEM format is not widely adopted as an internet mail standard. Generate Certificates
- Create Temporary Certificate. This creates a temporary private key and public certificate from Alexandria’s registration information then saved to to the SSL folder in the Alexandria Support folder, even if the Path to Certificate that you entered is different than the SSL folder. They expire 365 days after creation.
- Generate Certificate Signing Request. This creates a request for a certificate. This request can be sent to a certificate authority.
Important The Microsoft Certificate Server is not supported. You will need to use a code signing authority such as GoDaddy™, Comodo ©, or VeriSign™. |