Controller Administration Settings

Although you are allowed to make changes to individual Preferences for every site your Alexandria Controller maintains—the actual Controller Data Station also contains some limited, globally-based settings of its own.

The Administration settings are high-level preferences intended for network administrators or IT Technology Support departments; in other words, advanced settings that ordinary operators wouldn't be able to configure without help. These settings are used to configure your Controller Data Station (i.e. server) email information, archive schedules, database maintenance, web settings, and system updates.

Monitor

The monitor interface gives you access to vital Controller capabilities and settings anywhere around the world; the ability to remotely start or stop controlled Data Stations proves invaluable in times of crisis.

This is where you add, remove, start, stop, restart, rebuild, archive, and configure all of your controlled Data Stations. The monitor interface can be easily broken down into two diverse sections:

• The top portion is comprised of your managed Data Stations; listed is their current status, serial number/host name, and most recent maintenance.
• The bottom section contains the Controller Log.

Settings 

The top of the monitor interface is comprised of a list of managed Data Stations which can not be rearranged or re-ordered. This list contains information about which Data Stations are active or stopped, their names, serial numbers, IP address, and port numbers.

The Search box at the top-right allows you to quickly isolate a Data Station from the list. Start typing information into the field (e.g. Data Station/PID or Serial/Host Name) and the managed Data Station that most closely matches your criteria will remain. This makes it easy to quickly locate a managed Data Station.

Use the Running, Busy, Unresponsive, and Stopped filters to only show (or hide) Data Stations with corresponding statuses. If there are no Data Stations with matching statuses, the full list will be displayed.

The selections contained in the Actions menu of the monitor interface can be used in conjunction with selected (highlighted) Data Stations; for example, you can Start Selected (currently inactive) or Stop Selected (currently active) Data Stations.

Actions Menu

Allows you to perform a number of useful functions and operations, including modifying managed Data Station's Administration settings (e.g. configure email, set web options, etc.), Add or Remove a Data Station, assign a time zone, or perform an archive or rebuild on a selected Data folder.

• Edit Configuration File. Allows you to edit the selected Data Station's “Configuration.txt” file to update your registration information. When a Data Station is newly added to the list, it preserves the Controller's default settings; use the Edit Configuration command to customize them.

• Start Selected. If you would like to manually start a selected, disabled Data Station, select Start Selected.

• Stop Selected. If you would like to manually stop a selected, active Data Station, select Stop Selected.

• Add. You may also click on the Add button, causing a message window to appear. You will be given a choice to Add a new Data folder or Create a new one. If you wish to do neither, click Cancel. For more information on importing or creating new Data Stations, please review Adding New / Existing Data Stations.
• Remove. If you wish, you may also choose to Remove a selected (i.e. highlighted) Data Station from the management list. Use caution before removing a Data Station; the entire Alexandria Support folder (including your Data folders) will be permanently deleted. This cannot be undone. Removing a Data Station will also remove all of its data and support files. This can not be undone!
• Maintenance for Selected. This examines your selected Data Station's database files then performs Patron, Item, and Circulation validation routine. If database damage is detected, it will be recorded in the server log.
• Archive Selected. This performs an immediate, manual archive of the selected Data Station's database; manual archives should be performed before making any large-scale changes to your database, such as imports, updates, or utilities. During an archive, all information in the Data Station's Data folder is copied into the Archive Directory you've configured. Additionally, all services on the Data Station are temporarily disabled.
• Restart Selected. This allows you to restart the selected Data Station from the list. During the restart duration, Alexandria services, interfaces, and modules will be unavailable to all patrons and operators. Essentially, this is a stop and start routine contained in a single, convenient selection.
• Set Data Station's Time Zone. The ability to control remote collections from around the world using a single IP address requires precise time zone settings. For example, if your Controller runs under pacific daylight time (PDE) and you're hosting a Data Station on the east coast (EST), setting the correct time zones for this client will ensure that transactions and other time stamps are recorded to the database at the time they occurred for the Data Station, not for the Controller.

• Show Data Station Administration. Opens the Administration interface for Controlled Data Stations in a new browser window. Controlled Data Stations have fewer Administration settings, lacking both Web and Database tabs.
  
  

The Controller Log 

The bottom half of the monitor interface contain the Controller's log. This log captures and stores all pertinent Controller information, including when each Data Station is stopped or started, and any special operations (e.g. archive or rebuild) that have been initiated or performed. While in this section, you may select Print from the File menu to print the log. The controller log is automatically saved by the Controller. Logs are saved inside the Log folder, located in the Alexandria Controller Support program directory.

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.

1. Select the Data Station(s) you would like to activate from the list and choose Start Selected from the Actions menu.
   
   
   
   
   
2. 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.

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