Category: IoT Products and Solutions

Meet AggreGate 5.2 with Unified Search and Big Data Storage

AggreGate 5.2Tibbo has released a new 5.2 version of AggreGate IoT Integration Platform.

Being the first major release in 2015, AggreGate 5.2 delivers Big Data support, unified search capabilities, Business Intelligence (BI) engine, C/C++ Agent SDK and other valuable core features, as well as improvements of all vertical market extension packs including Network Manager and SCADA/HMI.

New AggreGate got a unified search window that digs data across the whole system and instantly provides results based on a pre-indexed database. Besides that version 5.2 brings a whole new level of intelligence to the Platform by introducing two new core modules: Mass object management and Object dashboards. AggreGate platform keeps up with the mainstream and now allows NoSQL databases to be used as configuration and event storage. Apache Cassandra and BerkleyDB Java Edition being used together ensure extremely fast persistent configuration updates and very high history/event storage rates.

Among other major improvements are: steady state mode suitable for kiosks and dedicated operator PCs, new video streaming protocols, network topology map layout persistence, new device drivers (Local Agent, Local System and Omron FINS), improved topology discovery via CDP/LLDP and more.

Detailed information on the new release is available at https://aggregate.digital/news/release_52.html. Please also download version 5.2 here and let us know how it works for you.

Born for AggreGate

Do you know that some devices are designed specially for AggreGate? One of them is a simple and easy-to-use TR610 Tibbo Time Recorder. It utilizes RFID technology to allow quick employee registration on entrance/exit gates.

The TR610 was developed to dovetail with AggreGate Time and Attendance for providing optimal administration and reporting facilities.

AggreGate Time and Attendance for TR610

The TR610 can enroll itself automatically with AggreGate Server and begin streaming attendance data in near-real-time over the network. While the terminal can be configured via AggreGate, its web connectivity and on-screen menu work even when it’s enrolled with AggreGate.

Combination of time recorders with open-source firmware and attendance control software based on an enterprise device management platform provided a lot of benefits. What are they? Read more about it on http://programmableterminal.com/

Graph Layout Saving

Many partners and customer will appreciate the long-awaited transparent graph layout saving feature.

A Graph UI component is enhanced to automatically save its current visual layout. A user can manually edit node positions by drag-and-drop and layout info will get persistently stored on the server. When a widget with a graph component is opened next time, graph layout is restored to the last saved state. You're welcome to create your own customized network topology maps!

Network Topology Discovery

You can get more information about AggreGate Network Manager capabilities here.

Centralized incident monitoring and management in a multi-service SDH/PDH data transmission network

Tibbo team has successfully designed and deployed the system for a multi-service SDH/PDH network monitoring for United Energy Company. Being one of the largest electric grid companies in Moscow, UEC JSC provides electricity transmission and distribution, technological connection and new networks building.

United Energy Company Management chose Tibbo AggreGate Platform for building reliable communication channel supervision system. Once the project was finished, United Energy Company has got a unique SDH/PDH networks monitoring tool that improved quality and stability of network services. Communication channels and equipment troubleshooting time has been dramatically reduced. Timely information sharing on hardware status, power supply specifications, cooling system state has cut down incident count. The system has been justly appreciated and accepted into service.

For details on the project implementation, as well as on deployed hardware and software view the Case Study.

Visualizing Device Groups on Network Maps

We’ve recently added support for displaying device groups on geographical and topological maps. Devices can be combined into groups and each group is associated with specific geographic coordinates and links to other groups or individual devices.

This new feature allows to design multi-level maps with drill-down capabilities. Imagine a company that provides technical services for Base Telecom Stations in a certain geographical region. Each BTS is a group of devices that includes power management units, security devices, telecom equipment, environment sensors and controllers, etc. Base stations are connected to each other by communication channels, and station-to-station links can be configured through a Topology section of a device group matching each BTS.

Visualizing Device Groups on Network Maps

Operators get a map that displays stations and their communication channels, as well as overall status of all equipment in each BTS. They can navigate from the map to BTS overview screens and then down to individual device dashboards.

You can get more information about AggreGate Network Manager capabilities here.

Introducing C/C++ SDK for Low-cost Device Interface

Despite AggreGate Agent and even full-blown AggreGate Server can run on single-board PCs like Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black, up to now that wasn't possible to launch Agent in low-cost devices like Arduino.

This has changed with the publication of open-source AggreGate C/C++ SDK. The SDK helps to build Agent library into the C/C++ code of main device application to make it natively compatible with AggreGate. It also includes API for interfacing the server in a "client mode", allowing full server control from within any C/C++ application.

You can download AggreGate C/C++ SDK from https://aggregate.digital/downloads.html.

Any feedback is highly appreciated!

AggreGate Data Storage Options

AggreGate Server stores enormous amount of data collected from a device network and generated internally:

  • Definitions and configuration of server modules and system resources
  • Audit trail of all system operations and events
  • Historical values of device metrics
  • Persistent events received from the network
  • History of synthetic internal metrics and events

All data items stored by the server are divided in two major groups: configuration and events.

AggreGate SCADA Monitors Roadheading Equipment of a Mining Company

Tibbo engineers have deployed a roadheading equipment monitoring system for Ilma machine-building company. Being the well-known mining company among professionals in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Germany, Poland and China, Ilma specializes in design, manufacturing and maintenance of mining equipment control systems.

The key Ilma project task involved real-time monitoring of roadheading telemetry data. Therefore, a set of reliable and user-friendly tools for collecting, storing, processing as well as visualizing statistical and historical values were strongly needed. For solving this task, Ilma has chosen AggreGate SCADA/HMI.

AggreGate Scada/HMI monitoringAggreGate Scada/HMI monitoring

Thanks to advanced AggreGate SCADA/HMI tools, the centralized monitoring and data acquisition system is used for process monitoring by control room operators. Technicians use it to analyze machine state while financial officers and managers benefit from business process and personnel performance analysis.

View a Case Study and contact us for any details.

AggreGate Network Manager Monitors Multi-branch IT Infrastructure of Russia’s Largest Express Delivery Operator Pony Express

Comprehensive Monitoring of a Multi-branch Enterprise IT Infrastructure Pony Express was seeking for a solution to monitor state and performance of more than 70 business-critical Windows-based and FreeBSD-based servers acting as VPN, mail, database, web, DNS, collaboration and proxy servers. It was also crucial to track mission-critical enterprise applications and their database performance. Among other essential tasks was network equipment state and performance monitoring, including traffic control and tracking the bandwidth usage threshold crossing. It was also important to see the network traffic structure, i.e. applications and services occupying most network resources.

For meeting the project requirements, Pony Express IT management selected AggreGate Network Manager which, unlike its competitors, possessed all necessary tools for the existing IT infrastructure monitoring out-of-the-box.

The Network Manager tracks key performance metrics of servers, as well as core switches and routers by Hewlett Packard, 3COM and Cisco Systems. Application monitoring is enabled for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. One of the project objectives was applying standard profiles to monitor more than 10 Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2008 databases, including databases in a failover cluster mode used by lots of enterprise applications. Network traffic structure is easily discovered by collecting NetFlow v9 data and visualized by Network Manager.

AggreGate Network Manager made it possible to monitor the whole IT infrastructure from a single point. It helped to discover inefficiently used resources and bottlenecks reacting to potentially dangerous incidents before they appear. This prevented service downtime and minimized ticket count from the company staff. Ultimately, a synergistic effect was achieved – staff idle hours decreased while labor efficiency increased and the overall benefit from IT infrastructure utilization went up. View Case Study