You can access your Alexandria Controller Administration window anywhere in the world by typing the IP address (or server domain name) and (optional) port number of your Controller Data Station followed by “/admin” into your browser's Address field (usually located in the upper-left corner of the window). Be sure to bookmark the web address of your Controller's Administration window for future access!

Controller 

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.

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These settings allow you to configure the location where local archives are stored. It is where you will also perform manual archives for your Data Stations.

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.

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Controller-Initiated Operations 

• Daily Archives. The Controller will automatically Archive the Data folder for each of your data sets between 12:01-4:00 A.M. daily. It will Archive the Controller Data folder nightly between 10:00 and 12:00 P.M. During an archive, all other Data Station operations are temporarily suspended.
• Controller Archive Directory. This is the directory where all your Controller archives are stored; typically the shared Alexandria Support folder. The number of archives that can be stored in the Archive Directory, including manual archives such as those created when pressing the Archive button in the Administration Status settings is determined by the Limit Controllers To preference (drop down menu shown below the Controller Archive Directory). When you have reached the set number of archives, the program will first create the new archive before removing the oldest. If you would like to recover data from a previous archive, the Restore From Archive button can be located in the Administration Status settings.
• Data Station Archive Directory. This is the directory that is used when an operator initiates an archive from an individual Data Station. COMPanion suggests that this archive be stored in a location other than the Controller-Initiated Archives (above). Controlled Data Stations will obtain this directory from the Controller on startup and every time the setting is changed. This secondary directory is a great location from which your IT technicians can perform supplementary backups.
• Limit Controllers to. You can limit your Controller to 1-14 archives; default is 7 Archives.
• Limit Data Stations to. You can limit your individual Data Stations to 1-14 archives; default is 5 Archives.
• Archive Controlled Data Stations Now. This performs an immediate, manual archive of your controlled databases; manual archives should be performed before making any large-scale changes such as imports, updates, utilities, or machine upgrades. During an archive, all information in each Data Station's Data folder is copied to the Data Stations Archive Directory you've configured. Additionally, all services on your Data Stations are temporarily disabled.

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The way our email system was designed and configured is not quite like that of a personal email client—which rarely sends out more than a few emails at a time; it was designed to potentially cope with hundreds of emails (e.g. generated reports or patron notification) being sent (or resent) over many machines at the same time. Our email throttling defaults are quite effective at spreading out and resending dozens of undeliverable emails without interfering with the sends of those that are deliverable.

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. This is useful because, in most cases, an undeliverable email can usually be delivered a few minutes later; on the flip side, if an email isn't delivered within the first hour, it might take several hours (or even days) to be successfully delivered. If it still hasn't succeeded after 100 hours (generally referred to as the “give-up” time by the RFC), the email is discarded and a “return-to-sender” email will be sent.

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Email Settings 

Use the Email settings to configure how Alexandria communicates with your library's email server.

The Server 1 and Server 2 sections are used for out-bound email. The Test Server button will send a test email using your provided SMTP settings. Please contact COMPanion's Technical Support if you have additional questions about setting up your mail server.

• SMTP Server 1 and 2. This is the TCP/IP or DNS address of your library's mail server. Typically, this will be “mail” followed by your domain name. You must enter a valid SMTP Server Address to use email services.
• Port. Supply the port number that your email server uses.
• Allow Non-Secure Connections. Alexandria uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure web communications, when this setting is enabled checked the system will use non-TLS connections if it cannot make an TLS connection.
• Log In. Enter the login (user identification) for the email server.
• Password. Enter the password for the email server.
• Test Server. Test the SMTP Server settings by sending a test email.
• Last Tested On. This field displays the last date/time that the server test was performed.
• Last Test Results. Reports on whether the test was successful or not.

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Step-by-Step: Setting Up Your SMTP Server 

The Step-by-Step sections are intended for new or first time operators who need to know which basic and/or rudimentary preferences to set.

1. Go to your Controller's Administration settings.
2. Click Email.
3. To successfully use an external SMTP, you must provide both a valid Site Email Address and a valid Email Address for one of your Administrator-level operators.
4. Enter your SMTP Server information, Port, and, if Use Authentication is needed, check that box and provide your Log In and Password. Also check Use SSL if needed.
5. Click Save in the upper-right corner of the window.

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Using 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 will need to set your Gmail preferences to Allow Less Secure Apps. 

1. Access Tools > Administration.
2. Click Email on the left.
3. Enter smtp.gmail.com as the SMTP Server Address.
4. Enter 587 as the port. 
5. Check the box if you want to allow non-secure connections. (optional)
6. Enter the login and password for your Gmail account. 
7. Click Save in the upper-right corner of the window.
8. Click Test Server to ensure the Gmail account is acting as a server. 
9. Repeat steps 1-8 if you want to configure a back up server for Server 2. 

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Settings in the Settings interface allow you to configure the Controller to operate in your native language.

The Show Available Data Stations list allows users to pick a Data Station from a list when just the Controller's URL is entered. The Controller name is use by the Monitor interface. The Admin Email Address is used to notify the administrator when administrative operations are performed on the Controller.

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System Settings 

• Language. The language selected here will be the default for the Controller; you may choose from one of our currently supported languages: English, Spanish (Español), or French (Français). Changing the default language requires a browser refresh to take effect on the web.
• Show Available Data Stations. If no serial number is specified in the URL when a web client connects, this preference shows a list of available sites to pick from; if disabled for security purposes, you can show the user an error indicating that no such page exists.
• Controller Name. Enter the name of your Alexandria Controller; the default is your district name.
• Admin Email Address. This is the Controller Admin operator's email address, which is used as the return mail address for notices and other email messages sent by Alexandria. To guarantee that your email notifications are being sent, please check the list of requirements located under your Email settings. You must enter a valid email address to use most email services, including COMPanion's Customer Support services.
• Admin Username. This is the Username of your Alexandria Controller Administrator.
• Change Password. Select this option to change the current password for logging into the Controller. 

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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.

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Web Settings

Alexandria uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure web communications.

• Server Domain Name. Provide the domain name (if a domain name system is preferred over a plain IP address) that helps clients connect to the Data Station after a web install.
• Port ID  (usually 80). This sets the port number used to access your web services and modules (this is usually 80).
• Allow Non-Secure Connections. This setting is enabled the first time you log into Alexandria, however if you wish to maintain a secure connection for web communications you will need to disable the setting by unchecking the box and clicking Save.
• Secure Port ID (Usually 443). Enter the port number used for the secure web interface. The default is 443.
• Private Key (optional). If the private key requires a password, enter it in this field.
• Verify Private Key Password. Verify the private key password.

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.

• Path to Private Key. This is the file name and location of the Data Station’s private key. 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.
• Path to Certificate. This is 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.
• Path to Chain (optional). This is the file name and location of the Data Station’s chain file. 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.
• SIP2 Port ID. Enter the port number used for the SIP2 communications. The default is 6001.
• Use Secure SIP2 Connection. Enable this setting if you are using a Secure SIP2 Connection

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Generating Certificates 

• Create Temporary Certificate. If clicked, a temporary private key and public certificate will be created with help from Alexandria’s registration information and saved to the default path and location specified above; they will expire 365 days after creation.

Temporary certificates that Alexandria generates are always saved to the SSL folder in the Alexandria Support folder, even if the Path to Certificate that you entered is different than the SSL folder. Since we do not require certificates to exist, Alexandria does not test to see if the Path to Certificate is valid, even if the path entered is different than the default. Alexandria does not relocate certificates from any location.

• Generate Certificate Signing Request. If clicked, then a request for a certificate will be created. This request can be sent to a certificate authority.

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