SNMP Temperature Monitoring

Whenever we buy anything for the company, I always ask if it can be connected to the network and monitored with SNMP. For example, when a new HVAC system was installed in our building, I asked if it was going to be SNMP manageable. The contractor looked at me like I was speaking Greek. Out of curiosity, I decided to search on the idea and found this company called Chipkin that makes an SNMP gateway, as does the s4group.

Why do I care about SNMP?
I care about SNMP because I want to manage everything from a central location. We use MyView in Scrutinizer. From a central location, we can monitor the network, the call center and, if we wanted to, the coffee pot.

BTW: Fugoo is considering a marketing plan for their network connected coffee maker, however, it lacks support for SNMP and the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol.

Read more

Setting up e-mail notifications for the SecurityProbe camera

January 11, 2010 by Jessica Raflo · Comment
Filed under: Security Monitoring, SensorProbes 

Security cameras made the news in a big way last weekend, when a security breach at the Newark  Liberty International Airport led to the discovery that one of the TSA surveillance cameras had been broken for six days leading up to the incident. Six days!  Now that gives a real sense of security in these uncertain times, doesn’t it?  The breach, which authorities were notified of by an alert passerby, caused a 6-hour lock-down  and possibly cost the airport over $100,000, according to a report in The Star Ledger.  Thankfully, this breach apparently was caused by a man walking his girlfriend to her flight and not a potential terrorist, however, it certainly exposed the gaping holes in the security protocol at one of the busiest airports in the US.

I have no idea what sort of back-up notification system for camera failure the TSA has set-up, but after reading about the Newark incident, I wanted to find out what kind of notifications are available for cameras connected to the Ravica SecurityProbeRead more

~Jessica
Follow Me on Twitter

Controlling the temperature and humidity in your wine cellar

Recently, I was watching a home show on television that was all about building a wine cellar in your basement.  I don’t collect wine myself, but the space was beautiful and I couldn’t help but feel a little vicarious joy as I watched the home owners hold the first tasting party in their private cellar.

If you are a wine aficionado or if you make your living in the wine industry, you know that temperature and humidity control is crucial to storing and aging wines.  The optimal temperature for storing wines is a constant 50° – 55°.  If it is too cold, the wine won’t mature and will taste flat and lifeless; too warm and the wine will cook and end up tasting off. Read more

~Jessica
Follow Me on Twitter

Dog kennel temperature monitoring

dog kennel temperature monitorI got an interesting call today from a woman who owns a dog kennel service out in Oregon. Apparently, she wants a way to monitor the temperature inside the kennels, without running out to check the thermometers. If it is too cold, she brings the dogs inside. It sounded like some serious puppy pampering to me, but being a dog lover, I understand.

At first, I gave her a demonstration of the BitSight2 for temperature and humidity monitoring. It has two sensor ports, so she could monitor inside and outside, then view the data via a web browser from inside her house.

Read more

Complete Environment Monitoring

A soup to nuts environmental monitoring solution includes more than just temperature readings, humidity monitoring and smoke detection. If electronic equipment is in the area, it is often a good idea to monitor for other environmental conditions:

  • Monitoring for water leaks
  • Voltage monitoring for electrical brownouts or complete electrical loss
  • Motion detection and automated photo delivery
  • Airflow monitoring

 

Read more

Monitoring Temperature in Healthcare Environments

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a family member in the hospital who had just delivered twin girls.  The babies came several weeks ahead of schedule, and although they were both healthy, we were told that they were going to need to be in the NICU for several weeks.

After spending hours visiting the hospital, surrounded on all sides by the constant noise of  beeping monitors,  I really began to appreciate the precision under which the modern hospital is run. It is a finely tuned machine and temperature monitoring is an extremely important part of the operation of that machine. In fact, one of the main reasons that the twins needed to stay in the hospital was that they hadn’t developed the ability to self-regulate their own body temperature. They needed to be in the temperature-controlled environment of the incubator. The entire room in which they were staying also needed to be kept at a precise temperature for the times when they were outside the incubator, bonding with their mother.

Read more

Ravica SecurityProbe Picture Log

Today, I started working with a software company who wanted to keep track of their employees that work very early or very late hours. InSensorProbe Web Interface general, it wasn’t a bad thing. They just wanted to make sure that the people coming into the building to work, were the people that should be. This company had already purchased monitoring and security equipment from us in the past.

This company just added a new international sales department. The work hours for the new employee were going to be 4:00am to 1:00pm. They wanted to know if they could utilize the picture log to record when people go in and out of the front door. They also wanted to limit the time frame for these pictures.

I did a bit of research and found out the answer was yes! You can set a time frame on the camera motion sensor and you can have the picture emailed or stored on the FTP server.  Now, they would get an alert and a picture when someone came through the door.

At this point, they could figure out who came through the door. They then wanted to know if too many people were going through the door during the early morning hours. To do this, we used a Syslog/Eventlog application that allows you to set a threshold. Each time an image was taken with the camera, an alert would be sent to the Syslog/Eventlog manager. If a threshold was met, let say five, then an email would be sent to the security office.

The customer was excited and wanted to implement this in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.

-Jimmy D

How to reduce false positives and frequent temperature alerts

Previously, I wrote about managing the sensitivity of your motion detector to prevent or reduce false positives from normal environmental motion, while maintaining the security that the motion detector sensor provides. I thought I would elaborate on the subject by providing some tips on how to limit frequent alerts and false positives for any environmental monitoring sensor, like temperature.

As I mentioned before, the “continuous time to report,” or “rearm” as it is called on the SecurityProbe, are an excellent way to say, “Don’t alert me as soon as a sensor goes into a ‘warning’ or ‘critical’ status. However, if it has been in a ‘warning’ state for 30 seconds, let me know.”

Another way to limit how often – or how easily – your BitSight2 or SecurityProbe sends you Skype alerts or emails is to adjust the “reading offset” field, which can be found under each sensor’s advanced settings. The “reading offset” forces the sensor’s reading to move over or under a certainly value before generating an alarm. So basically, if your temperature upper “warning” threshold is set to 80 degrees and your “reading offset” is set to 2, and the current temperature is 79 degrees, then your SensorProbe will not alarm until the temperature drops another degree.

temperature reading offset

This prohibits the sensor from being right on the verge of a threshold and consistently bouncing between two statuses. You don’t want 20 emails in your inbox because the temperature in your data center is exactly on your threshold and wobbling back forth between “normal” and “warning.”

Another way of limiting alerts during off hours, maintenance windows or times when you are not really concerned with the readings breaching a threshold is to use the calendar feature. Please note that the calendar feature is available only on the SecurityProbe line of SensorProbes.

temperature alert calendar

Block off times that you do not wish to receive alerts and the SecurityProbe will ignore the breached thresholds during those time frames. Perhaps you don’t want to receive alerts during the day, because people are always present and aware of the environmental conditions in the locations you are monitoring. However, maybe you want the temperature of your walk-in cooler monitored at night, when no one is in the building.

Whatever the reason, these are two great tips for better managing your alarms. This ensures that your alarms are more meaningful and so when you or you staff see an alert from your BitSight2 or SecurityProbe, you know it is time to act.

~ Jon Mills
Follow me on Twitter

Mount Wilson Observatory In Danger From L.A. Fire

September 2, 2009 by JimmyD · Comment
Filed under: General, SensorProbes, smoke detector 

observI just read this post on Slashdot:

Mount Wilson is in danger from the Station fire burning near L.A. Their servers have gone offline, but there’s a temporary mirror cam. It doesn’t look good. Picture twenty-four on the L.A. Times photo gallery shows the observatory from the air. If anyone has any inside news on the condition of the facility, I’m sure there are lots of people on Slashdot that would love to hear it.”

It got me wondering about what type of SensorProbes they have. Most companies will never see this size of fire, but even a tiny fire can put a server room out of commission. That is why it is so important to use sensor probe technology to monitor our environment and alert us when something is wrong.

Anyway, I don’t want to use this as a sales pitch. So, let’s use the fire in California to remind us to check our home and office fire detection systems.

My prayers go out to all of the fire fighters, the people who have lost their homes and the people who’s homes are in danger.

- JimmyD

Remote UNIX server shutdown with SecurityProbe

August 11, 2009 by Jon Mills · Comment
Filed under: Data Center, SensorProbes 

Today, I thought I would take the time to highlight one of the features that makes the SecurityProbe environmental and security monitoring system so special. Where the BitSight line of probes are great entry level systems, the SecurityProbe line has many additional features that really set it apart; as well as support for the thermocouple sensor and the power monitor.

So what feature am I detailing then? Let’s talk about the server shutdown feature. Basically, the SecurityProbe can be configured to automatically shutdown a server when an event occurs. An example might be that you want to shutdown a cluster of servers based on the status of an AC voltage sensor. When you get an alert that the power went out and you are running on battery backup, this could keep your non-essential equipment from sucking up all the remaining juice.

Wondering how you configure this on your SecurityProbe? You are in luck! Just follow the instructions below.

Setup of UNIX shutdown action and notification

securityprobe unix shutdown

1. Create new Action

  • Select the “Notifications” page, then “Add Action” from the left panel.
  • You can rename the action in the “Action Name” box.

securityprobe unix shutdown

2. Select “Shutdown” from the “Action” drop down menu.
3. Select “UNIX (SSH)” from the “OS Platform” drop down menu.
4. Input your servers IP address into the “Remote Server IP” box.
5. Input your log in username into the “Remote Server Login Name” box.

securityprobe unix shutdown

6. Click on “Add Server”. Add additional IP’s if needed. Click “Next”.

securityprobe unix shutdown

7. Click “Reset Public Key” (If you already have a Public Key, skip this step and proceed to step number 11 below).

secp unix shutdown

8. After clicking “Reset Public Key” a new Window will then pop up, press “Generate”.
9. The unit will now generate a new public key. It will normally take approximately 1 to 3 minutes for the system to generate the new public key, so please be patient.
10. After the public key has been generated, press “Use This Public Key”.

securityprobe unix shutdown

11. Open a Telnet or SSH session to the unit.

cd ~/.ssh
ls
rm known_hosts

12. Make sure to delete the know_hosts file to ensure generating a new list of hosts when using this command shown above.

ssh @
When
is User name in server
is IP address of server

13. Then connect to the server by using this command shown above.

securityprobe unix shutdown

cd ~/.ssh
cat > authorized_keys
#copy public key from web interface and press (for putty can press by right click)
#press Enter button and press Ctrl + c for exit cat command

14. After connecting to the server, create an authorized_keys file by using this command shown above
15. Then disconnect from the server and connect to the unit.

securityprobe unix shutdown

ssh –I /flash1/user/shutdown_notify/dsskey.db @
When
is User name in server
is IP address of server

16. Now test the public key by using this command shown above.

securityprobe unix shutdown

17. Return to the units web interface and click “Next”.

securityprobe unix shutdown

18. You can now set the other settings in the Shutdown action and click “Next”.

securityprobe unix shutdown

19. You can also enable a shutdown message to be sent by first choosing “Enabled”, then entering your message in the “Shutdown Message” box, then clicking “Finish”.

That’s all there is to it. Stay tuned for more SecurityProbe exclusive feature spotlights.

~ Jon Mills
Follow me on Twitter

Next Page »