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Nerve Management System

The Nerve Management System is a web-based service that permits management of Nerve nodes that are registered. It can be used to:

  • Monitor nodes
  • Deploy and control workloads on a node
  • Manage workloads

The Management System communicates through pop-up notifications in the upper-right corner. Success messages are displayed in green boxes. Red boxes are used for error messages, while light blue boxes are used for general notifications.

Note

Google Chrome or Firefox Version 63 or later are recommended for the usage of the Management System.

Logging in to the Management System

The Management System is either hosted by TTTech Industrial or installed on premise. The URL of the Management System changes accordingly. Find the URL of the Management System in the customer profile if it is hosted by TTTech Industrial.

  1. Go to the URL of the Management System.

  2. Log in with the credentials for the Management System.

    Note

    The initial login credentials of the Management System can be found in the customer profile. If a customer profile has not been part of the delivery, contact a sales representative or TTTech Industrial customer support at support@tttech-industrial.com.

    !Management System Login

The node tree is the landing page of the Management System. Note that after 30 minutes of inactivity, users are logged out automatically.

!Management System Dashboard

As a landing page the Management System shows the node tree. Navigate the site by using the menu bar on the left side.

!Management System Dashboard

Item Description
Burger Menu (1) Clicking here will expand and collapse the menu bar on the left side. The expanded version of the menu adds names to the menu icons.
Nerve logo (2) Return to the node tree by clicking the Nerve logo.
Language selection (3) Click here to select the interface language. Available languages are English and Korean.
User display (4) Access the user details of the active user from here.
Documentation link (5) Click the question mark to open the Nerve documentation in a new browser tab.
Log out button (6) Clicking this icon will log out the active user from the Management System.
Nodes (7) The nodes menu has two sub-menus in the navigation on the left and two tabs in the default view.

Tabs
  • Node Tree Tab
    This is the default view of the Management System. It displays all registered nodes in a node tree. Add, delete and move tree elements freely here. It mainly serves an organizational purpose and does not impact the functionality of the nodes. Nodes and workloads can be managed in the node details view, which is reached through the node tree.
  • Node List Tab
    Selecting the nodes tab displays a list of all available nodes that have been registered in the Management System. Add and remove nodes, as well as edit their details here.

    • Sub menus
    • Updates
      Available updates for nodes can be found here.
    • Update Log
      Past node updates can be viewed here. When an update is performed, this view also shows the current progress of the update.
Workloads (8) All workloads that have been provisioned in the Management System are listed here. Workloads can be added, deleted, disabled and edited through this menu. New versions of workloads can also be added here.
Deploy (9) Workloads that have been provisioned previously can be deployed using this menu. However, there are two sub menus available here:
  • Log
    Find a list of all workloads that have been deployed or are currently being deployed. Also, view details of all deployments and delete log entries from the list.
  • Dry Run
    A dry run is a simulation of a workload deployment. It allows to test out if the deployment of a workload could be successful. However, note that a successful dry run is not a guarantee for successful deployment.
Labels (10) This is a list of all labels that have been defined in the Management System. Add, delete, edit and merge labels here.
Access (11) Find settings for user, permission and access management in this menu.
  • Users
    This is the user management menu. It lists all registered users and allows to edit profiles and add new users.
  • Roles
    Manage user roles and and permissions here.
  • LDAP
    Synchronize the Nerve access management with an existing LDAP server here.
Remotes (12) Currently active remote connections are displayed here. Refer to Remote Connections for more information.
Data (13) Access the instance of the Nerve Data Services in the Management System here. This feature is disabled by default and must first be activated by an admin user. Refer to Nerve Data Services for more information.
Server Logs (14) Look at internal server logs here. These internal server logs are aimed at Nerve service technicians in case of error and failure. Data is stored with Elasticsearch and the logs are visualized with the Kibana application.
Notifications (15) Set user-defined system notifications here. A notification can be set to display either before or after logging in using this menu.
SYSTEM INFO (16) Clicking here leads to two menus: Available Updates and Usage Reports.
  • Available Updates
    This is the first visible menu after selecting SYSTEM INFO. It displays information about the current version of the Management System and available updates of the Management System.
  • Usage Reports
    Find usage information in regards to the Management System that is required for proper billing here. Refer to Usage reports below for more information.

Note

The available features of the Management System depend on the user role. Refer to Roles and Permissions for more information.

Updating the Management System

A download icon next to SYSTEM INFO appears in the lower-left corner of the Management System if an update to the Management System is available. A backup of the current Management System is made when an update is performed and all workloads are stopped. Reverting to the previous version is possible.

Note

  • Do not attempt to update the Management System from 2.3.0 to 2.3.1. This needs to be done manually by a Nerve Service technician. Contact TTTech Industrial customer support at support@tttech-industrial.com.
  • Note that reverting the Management System to version 2.2.X is not possible after an update to version 2.3.0.

  1. Select SYSTEM INFO in the lower-left corner.

    !Download Icon

  2. Select the new version of the Management System from the list. The current version of the Management System is displayed on the right.

    Note

    Registered nodes that will be incompatible after the update are shown on the right. These nodes cannot be used with the updated Management System if they are not updated to a newer node version. Refer to Updating a Node for more information.

    !Incompatible Nodes

  3. Select Update on the right.

    !Start Update

  4. Select YES in the pop-up window.

Note that updates of the Management System have to be performed in order. Skipping a version is not permitted.

Reverting the Management System to the previous version

The previous version of the Management System will be marked with an icon in the list of available updates. Note that any new data created after the update will be lost when reverting to the previous version of the Management System. Downgrading the Management System to an older version is not possible.

Note

Note that reverting the Management System to version 2.2.X is not possible after an update to version 2.3.0.

  1. Select SYSTEM INFO in the lower-left corner.

    !Download Icon

  2. Select the previous version of the Management System that is marked with an icon.

    !Revert Icon

    Note

    Registered nodes that will be incompatible after the update are shown on the right. These nodes cannot be used with the reverted Management System.

  3. Click Revert on the right.

    !Start Revert

  4. Select YES in the pop-up window.

Setting system notifications

User-defined system notifications can be set for the Management System. Notifications are displayed as a pop-up, consisting of header and body text. Multiple notifications can be defined. However, only one message at a time can be active. Notifications are displayed for every user either before or after logging in to the Management System. No notifications are set by default.

  1. Select Notifications in the navigation on the left.

  2. Select the plus symbol in the upper-right.

    !Add new notification

  3. Enter the following information:

    Setting Description
    Header text Enter the header text of the notification pop-up. This text has a limit of 60 characters.
    Text message Enter the body text of the notification pop-up.
    Digital background image Add a background image to the notification pop-up. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, JPG, JFIF, PJPEG and PJP.
    Note that the image will be stretched to fit the entire pop-up, including header and body.
    Display notification message before login Tick the checkbox here to have the notification displayed before logging in. If this checkbox is not ticked, the notification is displayed after logging in.
    Active Tick the checkbox here to set the current notification as active. Doing so deactivates all other notifications. Untick the checkbox to deactivate the notification. Note that this also deactivates notifications in general until another notification is set to active.

  4. Select Save to save the notification settings.

    !Save notification

The notification now appears in the list of notifications. The list is split into three columns: HEADER TEXT, MESSAGE and ACTIVE. Select DELETE from the ellipsis menu to the right of a notification to delete a notification. Refer to the screenshots below for examples of notifications in use:

Before logging in

!Before logging inn

After logging in

!After logging in

Usage reports

Usage reports contain information about the usage of the Management System that is required for proper billing by TTTech Industrial. They need to be delivered monthly according to the contractual agreement. This can be done manually or automatically. Usage reports are compiled for each month and digitally signed for authenticity.

Select SYSTEM INFO in the lower-left corner and then select the usage reports tab to reach the usage reports menu.

Usage report menu

Item Description
Current report download (1) Download a temporary report of the current month. It shows the following information:
  • Date
    This is the year and month at the time of the usage report export.
  • Created
    This is the date the usage report was created.
  • Management System instance
    This is the URL of the Management System.
  • Number of connected nodes
    This is the number of registered nodes which have had a connection to the Management System instance within the reference month.
  • Number of updated nodes
    This is the number of registered nodes in this Management System instance that have been updated to a newer version within the reference month.
  • Updated nodes
    This shows details of the node updates that have been performed. The information collected is the serial number, the previous version of the node, the version the node has been updated to and the time of the update.
Note that this report serves as information for the user.
List of past months (2) This is a list of the months the Management System has been in use. A new entry is created after every month including a finished usage report that can be downloaded. Select the download symbol on the right side of every entry to download the report of the listed month. The content of the reports are the following:
  • Date
    This is the year and month the usage report refers to.
  • Created
    This is the date the usage report was created.
  • Management System instance
    This is the URL of the Management System.
  • Number of connected nodes
    This is the total number of registered nodes which have had a connection to the Management System instance within the reference month.
  • Number of updated nodes
    This is the total number of registered nodes in this Management System instance that have been updated to a newer version within the reference month.
  • Updated nodes
    This shows details of the node updates that have been performed. The information collected is the serial number, the previous version of the node, the version the node has been updated to and the time of the update.
The reports are digitally signed to ensure authenticity. They are also stored indefinitely without any data retention policy.
Automatic report transfer (3) Toggle this slider to automatically transfer the usage report each month. If the automatic transfer is not activated, the usage reports need to be sent manually.
Public key download (4) Ignore this if the Management System is hosted by TTTech Industrial.

Download the public key that is required to verify the signature of the usage reports. Note that this key needs to be sent to TTTech Industrial once if the Management System is not hosted by TTTech Industrial or if usage reports are sent manually.