Red/Black 2.0 – New Capabilities

This major release adds significant new functionality and improvements to Red/Black, a management tool that allows you to monitor and control devices and servers across a network, with a particular focus on HF Radio Systems.  A general summary is given in the white paper Red/Black Overview

Switch Device

Support added for Switch type devices, that can connect multiple devices and allow an operator (red or black side) to change switch connections.   Physical switch connectivity is configured by an administrator.  The switch column can be hidden, so that logical connectivity through the switch is shown.

SNMP Support

A device driver for SNMP devices is provided, including SNMPv3 authorization.   Abstract devices specifications are included in Red/Black for:

• SNMP System MIB
• SNMP Host MIB
• SNMP UPS MIB
• Leonardo HF 2000 radio
• IES Antenna Switch
• eLogic Radio Gateway

Abstract devices specifications can be configured for other devices with suitable SNMP MIBs.

Further details provided in the Isode WP “Managing SNMP Devices in Red/Black“.

Alert Handling

The UI shows all devices that have Alerts which have not been handled by operator.   The UI enables an operator to see all un-handled alerts for a device and gives the ability to mark some or all alerts as handled.

Device Parameter Display and Management

A number of improvements have been made to the way device parameters are handled:

• Improved general parameter display
• Display in multiple columns, with selectable number of columns and choice of style, to better support devices with large numbers of parameters
• Parameter grouping
• Labelled integer support, so that semantics can be added to values
• Configurable Colours
• Display of parameter Units
• Configurable parameter icons
• Optimized UI for Device refresh; enable/disable; power off; and reset
• Integer parameters can specify “interval”
• Parameters with limited integer values can be selected as drop down

Top Screen Display

The top screen display is improved.

• Modes of “Device” (monitoring)  and “Connectivity” with UIs optimized for these functions
• Reduced clutter when no device is being examined
• Allow columns to be hidden/restored so that the display can be tuned to operator needs
• Show selected device parameters on top screen so that operator can see critical device parameters without needing to inspect the device details
• UI clearly shows which links user can modify, according to operator or administrator rights