User Manual

MPS Satellite is can be used to automatic inventory of devices connected to the corporate network. It has implemented a network scanning functions which will allow to search for devices in the specific IP range. It provides a web based interface that includes many features located in the proper place in the application menu.

The key functionality is to do inventory of devices extended by consumables and alerts and lot of counters which will allow to do an analysis of business usage.

MPS Satellite collect information such as:

1. Network device inventory:
   • Model name
   • Serial Number
   • Manufacturer name
   • Mac Address
   • Firmware *
   • Memory of RAM
   • List of modules inside the device *
   • When monitoring has started
   • IP address – and changes of IP for proper device
   • Location and Contact information
2. Extra fields – that can be added by system administrator (extending the number of fields)
3. Values and amounts for:
   • Counters for print devices
     • General
     • Mono
     • Color
     • Scans
     • Faxes
   • Counters for proper document size
     • A4 – default and main value for printers
     • A3 *
     • A5 *
4. Analysis for Counters and Values
   • amount of prints
   • average amount of prints
   • percent share of prints
5. Security analysis
   • discovering open ports for devices
   • analysis of the security policy
6. Consumables and supplies
   • list of consumables inside the device
   • inventory for percent usage values
   • consumable flow
   • predictions for supplies replacement
   • statuses
7. Service alerts inventory
   • collecting alerts that have been found on the device
   • status reporting
   • priority settlements

The crucial feature of MPS Satellite is to provide complex data tables and analysis for network print infrastructure, which can be used to calculate the cost-effectiveness of devices and all of their usage aspects.

* – if SNMP library contain such information

MPS Satellite is a fully On Site (On Premises) solution and has a guarantee of working without any cloud connection. It is also based on the most popular and what important free of charge servers software.

We are supporting few methods of installation:

• Server image implementation – through virtualisation software like vSphere, Virtual Box or HyperV,
• Custom installation – on the “clean” Linux instance, by using installation file.

Description

Requirements for environment in which you are installing MPS Satellite divided into technical specifications and performance parameters. The fulfillment of technical parameters will let to make efficient installation and configuration of application. Performance parameters are made dependent on the size of the monitored environment.

Details

• Operating system: Linux (64 bits)
• Recommended: Ubuntu 18.04
• Programming language
  • Till S.2.x version: PHP 5.6
  • Since S.3.x version: PHP 7.1 or greater
• RAM memory: minimum – 1.024 MB / recommended – 2.048 MB
• Processor: minimum – 700MHz / recommended – 1,2 GHz quad core
• HDD: minimum 4 GB
• Browser: IE 8 or higher, Firefox 10 or higher, Google Chrome 8 or higher, Safari 4 or higher
• Card (micro)SD for micro-computers:
  • Class 10: min speed 10 MB/s
  • Min.: 4GB / Recommended: 8GB

Depending on the type of installation, it is necessary to properly prepare the tools.

First step is connected with the server preparation. There is a recommendation of using official Linux distribution.

We are supporting followed distributions:

• Ubuntu Installation – recommended for large environments
• Debian Installation – based on DietPi OS – for small environments based on ARM devices

Download Ubuntu Sever files to create clean OS for MPS Satellite implementation.

It is recommended to use official files from https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server
Click here to redirect to the site.

We have tested version:
Ubuntu Server 18.04.2 LTS
OpenStack and support guaranteed until April 2023 — 64-bit only.

If you have your Ubuntu ready please log in to the console with your authorisation data and switch to the administrator roles.

sudo su

Make sure that your Ubuntu is updated:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Verify what version of PHP is supported by your server.

php -v

You should get the result like

Command 'php' not found, but ...

apt install php7.2-cli

It means that your system supports PHP 7.2.

MPS Satellite requires version PHP 7.1 or greater

Run the PHP environment installation.

apt install php -y
apt install php-cli -y

If the installation succeed you should download the installation file from the official MPS Satellite source.

cd
wget https://www.mpssatellite.com/rpi/install.zip

You will need to install ZIP libraries, do that with:

apt install zip -y

Now unzip the installation package

unzip install.zip

And start the installation file with the command

cd install
sh install

Installation will prompt the text

“Thank you for being with us”

It means that system should be ready for opening it in the Internet Browser. Next step should be connected with SQL and Application connection.

Download DietPi for Virtual Box files to create clean OS for MPS Satellite implementation.

It is recommended to use official files from https://dietpi.com
Click here to redirect to the site.

We have tested version:

• Virtual Machine x86_64

If you have your DietPi ready please log in to the console with your authorisation data and switch to the administrator roles. The default login and password is: root / dietpi

The first run of DietPi will drive you through the installation of OS so you need to follow all instructions from the screen. If only process complete you will have the possibility to run some commands. Start with:

sudo su

Make sure that your Dietpi is updated:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

In the DietPi OS there are some restrictions for PHP installation so it is worth to start with our Installer to check if the system is ready to run MPS Satellite.

cd
wget https://www.mpssatellite.com/rpi/install.zip

You will need to install ZIP libraries, do that with:

apt install zip -y

Now unzip the installation package

unzip install.zip

And start the installation file with the command

cd install
sh install

Installation will prompt the text

“Thank you for being with us”

It means that system should be ready for opening it in the Internet Browser. Next step should be connected with SQL and Application connection.

******************************
Attention! This is the instruction for installation at Linux Armv7l (e.g. Raspberry Pi2) (armv7l 32 bits).
******************************

Clone a Raspberry Pi SD Card on macOS

First step is to prepare SD card for your Raspberry Pi or Nano Pi. You can chose some tools for card cloning like:

• ApplePi-Baker – for Apple Computers
• Win32DiskImager – for Windows

or you can use command line terminal. We are presenting steps for apple computers

First you need to identify the new card’s device name. Plug in the new card and run:

diskutil list

Normally the new SD card will appear with exactly the same physical device name as the one you copied from. But you’re about to use dd (aka “disk destroyer”, remember?), so please double-check everything here.

You might want to re-run Disk Utility from Spotlight again and just ensure you have the correct device name for the SD card.

Once you’re 100% sure you have the correct device name, you first need to unmount the SD card from the system. This might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s exactly what you need here, because macOS does not understand the Linux file system stored in the SD card backup file.

Unmount the card using:

diskutil unmountDisk diskN

Where /dev/diskN is the device name.of the SD card you’re writing to.

Unmounting is a bit like ejecting a storage device from the operating system while keeping it physically connected. Basically, because the OS is no longer aware of the device’s file systems, just the physical device, it can now overwrite the storage in any way it wants.

Download DietPi for Raspberry files to create clean OS for MPS Satellite implementation.

It is recommended to use official files from https://dietpi.com
Click here to download the image.

We have tested version:

• Raspberry Pi

Your downloaded file will have a name like: DietPi_RPi-ARMv6-Stretch.7z

Unzip it to get *.img file like: DietPi_RPi-ARMv6-Stretch.img and place it in the home directory.

Now you can write your backup image to the SD card using a command like:

sudo dd if=DietPi_RPi-ARMv6-Stretch.img of=/dev/diskN

You will be asked for the PC admin password and just after you enter it process of card restoring will be initiated.

It may take a time. SD Card cloning can take even 20 minutes it depends on the computer speed.

dd is far slower when writing than when reading, typically less than 1MB/sec. If the dd command for copying from your SD card to local disk took 10-20 minutes, expect the write to take an hour or two. Whatever you do, don’t sit around waiting for it to finish. Go and do something else, or leave it overnight.

When it’s finally done, it’s safest to eject the device properly:

diskutil eject diskN

MPS Satellite installation process

If you have your DietPi ready please log in to the console with your authorisation data and switch to the administrator roles. The default login and password is: root / dietpi

The first run of DietPi will drive you through the installation of OS so you need to follow all instructions from the screen. If only process complete you will have the possibility to run some commands. Start with:

sudo su

Make sure that your Dietpi is updated:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

In the DietPi OS there are some restrictions for PHP installation so it is worth to start with our Installer to check if the system is ready to run MPS Satellite.

cd
wget https://www.mpssatellite.com/rpi/install.zip

You will need to install ZIP libraries, do that with:

apt install zip -y

Now unzip the installation package

unzip install.zip

And start the installation file with the command

cd install
sh install

Installation will prompt the text

“Thank you for being with us”

It means that system should be ready for opening it in the Internet Browser. Next step should be connected with SQL and Application connection.

To make installation quick and pleasure we have prepared OVF file that is ready to implement in any virtualisation software. It was tasted with VirtualBox and vSphere systems from Oracle.

The OFV file is ready to download from the website:
https://www.mpssatellite.com/download/server-installation

Importing file is unique for every software so it is recommended to follow the manufacturer instructions.

If you will see the screen with “DATABASE CONNECTION SETTINGS” it means that your MPS Satellite requires to configure MySQL connection.

Default configuration is:

• Host: localhost
• User: mps or root
• Password: satellite
• Database Name: mps

If there was no interference with the authorisation data, the  “Go Back” button should appear – clicking on which will redirect to Login Page.

While the first visit will happen click on the red button “Rebuild” – this action will organise database tables in the MPS Satellite.

After “rebuilding” there will be available some database strings – just ignore them and reload page – system will redirect you to Maintenance Mode screen or if all things will go fine, to Login Page again.

Maintenance Mode screen is a special page that is reloading every 20 seconds. This page should inform you about some important alerts, so if only you will see some “red buttons” and you will not be redirected back to login page, please make proper actions.

Option check

• if maintenance mode is !!! ON !!! you should try to “release” it by clicking on the button “click to release”,
• at the first run you will see that there is no license file inside the application – if only that button is “red” please “Go Back” to Login Page.

At the Login Page there are some important informations about host name, version of MPS Satellite and of course the quick login form.

In the further instruction you will have the possibility to do some changes in the Login Page, like:

• removing system buttons
• adding registration mode

Login with default credentials data.

Default login and password: admin / admin

If all installation went fine you should be redirected to the Dashboard.

Next thing is to do the System Configuration.

This is a final stage of installation that should be done by system administrator. It is connected with the base configuration of such functions like:

• License generator
• Range definitions and scanning
• Email sending – SMTP Configuration
• Personal Settings
• Users administration

After first successful log in you will realise that there is no license file inside MPS Satellite.

Click on the “License” inside for moving to the license management. You will see 4 important tabs:

• License status
• New key generator
• Insert new license
• License terms

Please click on the “New key generator” which will allow you to create text string which you need to create new license.

Click on the blue button “Click to generate a new key” – you will realise that every click will reload the key. Do it two or three times, just to be sure that every click is reloading the string.

Copy that key by clicking “Ctrl+C” on your keyboard and be sure that you have copied whole string.

Now you should move to https://www.mpsspace.com – MPS Space – where you will have the possibility to create license for your MPS Satellite. It is important to have active account, so do not hesitate to register. Registration is fully free of charge.

MPS Space is a platform provided by Ediko for supporting MPS Satellite license management. You can create free demo license that will allow you to monitor 5 devices over 12 months.
Register here your free account.

After receiving your authorisation data please login to MPS Space and from the platform menu go to:
MPS Satellite -> New License

You will see a wizard form where you should chose some parameters for your license.

As far as you click “Finish” button you will be redirected to your licenses inventory. Find out the button from the row where you will find a text: “upload key“.

Click into the button to initiate the license. On the following screen find the label called “Your individual key” and paste your Key that has been copied from MPS Satellite instance. Approve the key by clicking “Save“.

Now you can control if all data fits to your license requirements and download the license file.

Use the *.lic file to implement it into your MPS Satellite instance. If license is valid you will see the screen like:

Valid license will let you use all of the crucial functions of MPS Satellite.

MPS Satellite is trying to provide as simple and clear configuration panels as possible. That is why the setting section inside application menu is quite large.

• Overview – contains summary for the OS, server configuration and some functions status
• Configuration
  • SMTP Settings – here you can connect MPS Satellite to your outbox e-mail,
  • Personalisation – some important configurations for the system functionalities,
  • Variables – settings for special views like Supplies Galaxy or Printing Trend,
  • Backups – you can secure your database by doing protected backup,
  • Schedule – you can schedule some crucial tasks that are happening in background,
  • License – managing for license,
  • Update – update initiation
• Users – let you to add and change some user accesses and permissions.
• Libraries
  • Event priorities – defining global groups and names of device alerts,
  • Device categories – allow to set some categories and types for devices,
  • Translations – manage for the language version,
  • Definitions – curl – alpha version for curl commands management
  • Diagnostics – logs for triggered actions
• Advanced Modules
  • Activation (MPS Moon dedicated)

There are some important configurations that you should do before all users will start to play witch MPS Satellite.

1. Settings > Configuration > Personalisation
   • This is the place where you should place your “company name” – it will be used for all reports and emails to let user know where do the data came from.
   • If you are using individual community for SNMP, you should settle the name, otherwise scanner will not find devices in IP range.
   • Decide if you want to use “waiting room” for your Satellite. If you leave it turned on all devices that will be found by the scanner should be manually pushed for monitoring. Unless you can turned it off.
   • If you don’t want to have system buttons at the login page – you can switch it off.
   • If you want to open registration for your users, you can activate the registration mode.
   • Finally you can create some new fields for collecting data close to device – we called it “extra fields” – most of users are using that option to create pair device with: contract name, inventory name or guarantee date, etc.
2. Settings > Configuration > SMTP Settings
   • If only you want to send automatic reports from MPS Satellite you need to define all connections fields for SMTP Outbox,
   • When you enable email sending you will see three buttons at the top of the screen, that will let you send reports manually,
   • At the bottom of that page you have the possibility to switch of HTML style from the emails that will be ended from MPS Satellite.

All the options above should be controlled before MPS Satellite will start to work with your printers. You have to be aware of features and options that you can use.

When system is ready we can provide some IP ranges – which will be used for “Scanner” to discover all network devices. Every range should be described by:

• Name
• Location name
• Starting IP
• Ending IP
• Status: Enabled or Disabled

Remember that MPS Satellite will scan the range for maximum amount of 255 addresses. It means that you should fit name to the fourth octet of ip.

The range management screen will let you:

• add one single range
• add range by using smart pattern like ex. 192.168.1-20.x
• adding ranges by using CSV file
• changing range in line

Just for do the first scan try to add one or few IP ranges and move to “the Search” label from the menu.

MPS Satellite scanner is the most dynamic zone of application. Here you can manually check what is in your network and if it is readable for our application.

You can start scanning all ranges all turned on the single range. The interface was prepared to present if something is happening in the background and if only some device will be founded, it will appear on the screen as a row and number for the progress information box.

The loading circle should jump from range to range and present some short details about device. Scanner will present progress for device searching and second one for counters scanning. If waiting room is switched off you can explore device by clicking on its name.

MPS Satellite is a system that do network research for devices that are able to communicate through the SNMP protocol. The system has been equipped with libraries that can read and analyze the SNMP protocol fully on-site so there is no need for communication with the data cloud for proper operation. Thanks to SNMP application will collect data that are useful for doing network devices analysis. MPS Satellite is focusing on printing devices but is also constantly developed for other network devices.

Definition – What does Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) mean?

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a set of protocols for network management and monitoring. These protocols are supported by many typical network devices such as routers, hubs, bridges, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks and other network components and devices. Supported devices are all network-attached items that must be monitored to detect conditions. These conditions must be addressed for proper, appropriate and ongoing network administration. SNMP standards include an application layer protocol, a set of data objects and a methodology for storing, manipulating and using data objects in a database schema.

The SNMP protocol is included in the application layer of TCP/IP as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

SNMP has evolved into three different versions:

SNMPv1: This was the first implementation, operating within the structure management information specification, and described in RFC 1157.
SNMPv2: This version has improved support for efficiency and error handling and is described in RFC 1901. It was first introduced in RFC 1441 and is more appropriately known as SNMP v2c.
SNMPv3: This version improves security and privacy. It was introduced in RFC 3410.

MPS Satellite scanning is the most advanced function inside the system. The scanner operates based on two key processes:

• device discovery,
• device analysis.

If only the device will be visible – thanks to open ports analysis, device will be queued in the Waiting Room or automatically moved to deep analysis. Base ports needed for device inventory are:

• 515 – printer
• 9100 – printer
• 161 -SNMP
• 21 – FTP
• 80 – http

Above ports are responsible for proper device classification and it is required to control if manual scanning will be able to find some devices. It is worth to precise that all scanning functions are running automatically based on the schedule configurations.

Other information about scanning are available in the section Network Searching.

Sometimes it is recommended to select group of devices that should be monitored. That is why we have created Waiting Room – a place where user decides which device should be accepted for tracking and which not.

Waiting room can be turned on or off in the Personalisation section.

Schedule will help you to control when some important actions should be initiate.

You can add some actions manually or use default configuration. You can also remove actions which you will for sure not use.

In the schedule configuration page you will find a list of available options. Some are described with some tags that inform if option is necessary of optional. You will also see which of them are already active and how many processes are planned in schedule.

All scheduled processes are running in background what you can control in Diagnostic Page. All processes are triggered by CRONTAB function that is described in Diagnostic section.

This is a section of application where you can control all processes than are working under the application interface. It is a collector of logs that will deliver some informations about time that is taken by every single process. You can analyse if automatic CRON functions are enabled and also if some upgrades of system had happen.

You can explore and clean every process history so it is worth to control the amount of logs while application storage can be overcrowded.

What is CRON?

Cron is driven by a crontab (cron table) file, a configuration file that specifies shell commands to run periodically on a given schedule. The crontab files are stored where the lists of jobs and other instructions to the cron daemon are kept. Users can have their own individual crontab files and often there is a system-wide crontab file (usually in /etc or a subdirectory of /etc) that only system administrators can edit.

Each line of a crontab file represents a job, and looks like this:

# ┌───────────── minute (0 – 59)
# │ ┌───────────── hour (0 – 23)
# │ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 – 31)
# │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 – 12)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 – 6) (Sunday to Saturday;
# │ │ │ │ │ 7 is also Sunday on some systems)
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * * command to execute
The syntax of each line expects a cron expression made of five fields, followed by a shell command to execute.

While normally the job is executed when the time/date specification fields all match the current time and date, there is one exception: if both “day of month” (field 3) and “day of week” (field 5) are restricted (not “*”), then one or both must match the current day.[3]

What is the command that manage cron for MPS Satellite?

From the Linux console you can open crontab with the command:

sudo crontab -e

It will open the editor where you should find following request:

*/1 * * * * sh /var/www/html/mpssatellite/application/actions/cronActions/cron.sh /var/www/html/mpssatellite/application/actions/cronActions/cronActions.php &> /var/www/html/mpssatellite/logs/logs.txt

There are two important security functions delivered with MPS Satellite.

Updates

The system update consists in running the file that is delivered by www.mpssatellite.com. In the update section page you will find a link and option for downloading the file.

Application will let you upload downloaded file to start the update process or will allow to place an URL that will redirect system for the proper update repository.

Backup

For security reason MPS Satellite administrator can create a database backup file. The file is compressed by ZIP and protected with the individual password that will be available on the backup section page.

Backup section has also database restoring mode, however it is recommended to prepare an individual tool like PhpMyAdmin if anything will go wrong with the upgrade process.

MPS Satellite allows to manage unlimited amount of users with the propper system permissions. There is a possibility to turn on the registration mode, which will allow to all users do registration of their e-mail. By placing the email user will receive automatically generated password which will log him into the system with the lowest permissions.

User manager will allow to give an access:

• Full access (Administrator)
• All locations (Auditor)
• Limited access (User)
• Lack of access (Waiting)

For every User and Auditor you can chose system modules that will be available. All Auditors can explore all locations that are declared in IP Ranges. Users should have triggered options on for every module and every location to allow them manage data information.

All actual Basic functions are available online on the MPS Satellite Demo. Please explore system by registrar your e-mail on https://demo.mpssatellite.com.

DEMO VERSION is open for every user ON-LINE
https://demo.mpssatellite.com

There are some extra functionalities that can be used in a very precise situations. MPS Satellite is dynamically changing as quick as customer requirements are growing and because of that fact the special solutions needs to be explained.  

MPS Satellite can be used to monitor Scanners from Kodak Alaris. It is possible if the user’s PC has installed “Alaris SM Agent” – the application which provides SNMP communication.

“Alaris SM Agent” was created by the Kodak Alaris team with the intention of implementing scanners for solutions from the manage print services category. Most of fleet management tools like MPS Satellite are using SNMP protocol to collect important data inventory, but the proper integration process is required.

MPS Satellite since version S.3.4.7 contains an algorithm responsible for processing data flowing from the scanner through the DCT Agent. The only thing that must be done is to implement the agent on all computers to which the scanners are connected.

Installation Process

1. We assume that MPS Satellite has already been installed, that’s why we start the installation process by running the agent on the computer.
2. During the installation process it is very important to point a specific protocol which will be used for SNMP communication. The best practice will be using port number 161, but if it is already used for another proces it is possible to indicate another one, like: 6161. This is the only condition that must be met in order to properly obtain data on the workstation side.
3. If only “Alaris SM Agent” is working on, it is the time to configure MPS Satellite – Personalisation site. Make sure that the port you have chosen to make SNMP communication is available under “Tracking ports” label of the form.

If the upper steps are valid and the IP address of the workstation is in the scope range, the scanning process can be run – just to check if the “Alaris” scanners will be available for the MPS Satellite scheduled processes.

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