cnArcher v1.1 available for Android

Products cnArcher
4

I have been testing cnArcher with cnMaestro.

It is working like expected but I have a few issues. 

1. I have to agree that when moving to DHCP it is very problematic. Giving cnMaestro a public IP helps but cnArcher will just stall if it is not able to talk to the subscribers module once it has an IP that is not default. Is there any way to continue onboarding through cnMaestro without having a connection to the subscribers module?

It looks as if the only way to continue the process would be to fully setup the customers connection and use their wireless to continue the installation. I am sure that many companies probably dont allow access from the customers connection to subscribers module private address which would prevent using the customers wireless in that case.

2. I have setup some variables that get passed on and updated to the Site Contact and Site Location fields which are working great. I would also like to include lattitude and longitude that are passed on and updated from the techs phone rather than manually adding it. Is there a variable that I can add into the template to grab these automatically?

3. It would be nice to have a QRCode for initial setup that could be scanned in order to set initial configuration in cnArcher like cnMaestro url, channel size and selected frequencies etc...

4. It would also be nice to be able to reset a work order to its original defaults in case the wrong one was used or it could possibly be used as a template for multiple installs without having to rescan the QRCode.

5. When running the link test is there a way to add the effeciency information also such as downlink/uplink effeciency percent and actual/missed fragment count?

This looks very promissing and it would be nice to roll this out to the Service Techs but definitly need to resolve #1 before it would be possible. I like the templates that help provide constistency and help remove manual programming errors.

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5

CSup,

As you noted, the QR code is basically a JSON object. We will document the available parameters along with the release of v1.1, but for now, you can use the page at https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/cnarcher-work-order/ and look at the actual JSON object that is displayed along with the QR code. Depending on your language of choice, you would have to find an appropriate library to convert that JSON text to a QR code. Just keep in mind the format may change slightly between beta and release. Longer term, we will add "Work order" in cnMaestro and the app will download workorders from cnMaestro. We will also provide an API in cnMaestro from yoir CRM to push a work order to cnMaestro.

We don't have a mechanism to automatically send the installation summary, but will add this to the roadmap. And once we implement this, would you still need a "complete the day" function? Longer term, we will upload installation summary to cnMaestro.

Regarding other issues you have reported:

1. If the SM is running a version older than 15.1.1 (the minimum version of PMP required by cnArcher), cnArcher will let you upgrade to a later version. But if you are running 15.1.1 or newer, you currently don't get the option to upgrade via the app and have to depend on cnMaestro. We plan to address this in an upcoming release and let the installer use the app to upgrade the SM to their preferred version.

2. We do have a known issue with PMP software where if VLANs are enabled in the config and the SM is connected to an AP, the SM no longer responds to the "Native IP" of 169.254.1.1 via SNMP (causing cnArcher to lose connectivity with the SM). Normally this is not a problem for new install if you are starting with factory default config on the SM, as the app does not configure VLANs until after link test, but if you already have VLAN configuration on the SM, you will lose connectivity from the app as soon as the SM connectes to the AP. This issue is fixed in PMP 15.2 and a beta is availabe at https://support.cambiumnetworks.com/files/pmp450/beta if you are interested in trying this.

3. Some of the AAA settings are indeed missing from the QRcode. We will add this in the next beta update. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

4. The preferred way to add packet filters or other configuration is to use the app to onboard the SM into cnMaestro and have cnMaestro push down the final config. 

5. Adding photos is part of the short term roadmap.

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6
@CSup wrote:

The concept that i saw elsewhere about the way cnarcher is working that it swaps the ip from 169.254.1.1 to dhcp after the radio was supposed to connect, 

this would work, but only if the customer has a dhcp connection or the radio is doing pppoe, in our case we allow the customer to have their own router for pppoe... so when this happens i imagien the phone will just be stuck waiting.

So even if we move our cnMaestro to make it accessible from the internet, the app will sit their offline, unless theirs a way to tell the app to connect to a pppoe connection itself post-install and we give our installers a pppoe account for use on their app for installs.

cnArcher needs some way to talk to cnMaestro for onboarding. And I don't believe Android supports PPPoE. So I don't see how to solve your problem other than turning off cnMaestro in the app settings. Do you have a management VLAN on which cnMaestro is reachable without PPPoE? Will it help if the app temporarily puts the ethernet port of the SM on the management VLAN so the app can talk to cnMaestro?

7

Ok I think allowing for the installer to always be able to set the app to upgrade devices to the requested version at start of install would be best.


As for configuring vlan after install that only is true if the radius server isn’t already pushing the vlan settings.

It would be nice if the app can do the install for 15.2 once it’s released that way it won’t loose access to radio and will be able to run alignment and linktest and we can just disable cnmaestro on the installer app side… but I saw in the app that upgrades require cnmaestro to be enabled which is what confused me, really hope the issue with upgrades could be fixed as I think that would be a better test of the situation with cnmaestro disabled in the app for people like me that provision pppoe vlans via radius

Then when 15.2 is official our installers could use the app to do the upgrade, setup, and link alignment and linktest without issues

If your planning to fix the firmware in next beta release any chance the beta version of the app could also give a 15.2 beta release as an option? Or maybe that’s too many betas together and I should wait for 15.2 final to properly test that

I saw someone asking about latitude and longitude, correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the app already use your phone position to set the location of the am during install?

8

Oh and definitly don’t allow any way to bypass for management vlan on the Ethernet from an that’s just asking for a huge security issue.

That’s not a good solution in my opinion just a security leak waiting to happen

9
@Jonathan Sulger wrote:

I have been testing cnArcher with cnMaestro.

It is working like expected but I have a few issues. 

1. I have to agree that when moving to DHCP it is very problematic. Giving cnMaestro a public IP helps but cnArcher will just stall if it is not able to talk to the subscribers module once it has an IP that is not default. Is there any way to continue onboarding through cnMaestro without having a connection to the subscribers module?

It looks as if the only way to continue the process would be to fully setup the customers connection and use their wireless to continue the installation. I am sure that many companies probably dont allow access from the customers connection to subscribers module private address which would prevent using the customers wireless in that case.

You have two options. First options is that you can let cnArcher automatically configure the Wi-Fi connection. It will set a static IP in the 169.254.1.x network when it wants to talk to the SM, and it will switch to DHCP when it wants to talk to cnMaestro. When it switches to DHCP, it expects that the phone will be assigned a DHCP IP address by the network, and that it will be able to talk to cnMaestro using that IP. If either of those assumptions are wrong, it will get stuck when it tries to switch to DHCP.

The second option is for you to manage the connectivity manually. To do this, you should click on "Skip Wi-Fi Setup" link at the bottom of the screen when you get to the Wi-Fi setup screen during the initial setup. Currently, after the initial setup is complete, this option is no longer available, but with the next update, you can go back to "Settings" and set it up. In this mode, the app will not try to set a static IP or change to DHCP. It will just try to contact 169.254.1.1 to talk to the SM, and to cnMaestro server when it is ready to onboard. You are responsible for making sure this connectivity exists. In this mode, you could even turn off Wi-Fi and switch over to 4G once you see that the app is trying to contact cnMaestro, assuming cnMaestro is reachable over 4G.

If your network is such that the installer cannot access cnMaestro, either through the SM or by swithing over to 4G, you have no option but to disable cnMaestro in the app settings. 

2. I have setup some variables that get passed on and updated to the Site Contact and Site Location fields which are working great. I would also like to include lattitude and longitude that are passed on and updated from the techs phone rather than manually adding it. Is there a variable that I can add into the template to grab these automatically?

The lattitude and longitude are automatically populated by the app on the SM based on the phone's GPS location. When the SM is onboarded into cnMaestro, cnMaestro will automatically retrieve the lat/long from the SM. So for SMs installed using cnArcher, it should show up at the right coordinates on the map in cnMaestro. You don't have to do anything extra. 

3. It would be nice to have a QRCode for initial setup that could be scanned in order to set initial configuration in cnArcher like cnMaestro url, channel size and selected frequencies etc...

This functionality will be part of the next v1.1 beta update (within couple of weeks). You will be able to export the configuration as a JSON file, convert it to QR code using any online QR code generator, and send it to your installer, and they will be able to scan the QR code in to import the configuration. Longer term, we also plan to add a feature in cnMaestro so the installers can download the app settings from cnMaestro.

4. It would also be nice to be able to reset a work order to its original defaults in case the wrong one was used or it could possibly be used as a template for multiple installs without having to rescan the QRCode.

How about we allow you to clone a work order to create a new one? You can also clone a completed work order to repeat the same.

5. When running the link test is there a way to add the effeciency information also such as downlink/uplink effeciency percent and actual/missed fragment count?

We can add it, but will you really use the information? Would you tell your installer to look at this information and do something different if some threshold is not met? Or is this just for archiving the baseline?

This looks very promissing and it would be nice to roll this out to the Service Techs but definitly need to resolve #1 before it would be possible. I like the templates that help provide constistency and help remove manual programming errors.

For #1, if the answer above does not solve the issue, let me know how the app can access cnMaestro and we will try to enable that. For example, if cnMaestro is accessable only when the phone is connected to the corporate WLAN, we can split the install into seperate phases: align, link test and configure the SM on site, come back to office amd connect to corporate WLAN and onboard the SMs.

1 Like
10
@CSup wrote:
Oh and definitly don’t allow any way to bypass for management vlan on the Ethernet from an that’s just asking for a huge security issue.

That’s not a good solution in my opinion just a security leak waiting to happen

I completely agree this is not a good idea.

If you were not using cnArcher, and you wanted your installer to onboard the SM into cnMaestro, how would they do it? This is the question I should have asked istead of my suggestion above.

11

supporto per la serie EPMP  ??? 

12

Separating the cnmaestro portion from the upgrade/setup/alignment/linktest portion would fix this as then they could onboard at end of day when they get to office via corporate WiFi

1 Like
13
@fabrizio88 wrote:

supporto per la serie EPMP  ??? 

We are running late with ePMP support.This will be available in September 2018. 

14
@Rajesh_Vwrote:

You have two options. First options is that you can let cnArcher automatically configure the Wi-Fi connection. It will set a static IP in the 169.254.1.x network when it wants to talk to the SM, and it will switch to DHCP when it wants to talk to cnMaestro. When it switches to DHCP, it expects that the phone will be assigned a DHCP IP address by the network, and that it will be able to talk to cnMaestro using that IP. If either of those assumptions are wrong, it will get stuck when it tries to switch to DHCP. 

The issue that I am running into at this step is not DHCP related. When it reaches this step the phone changes over to the cellular network and is able to communicate with cnMaestro through the public IP address. The issue I am having is that once it has done this it loses connectivity to the SM as it is on a private IP address. It appears that even if cnArcher can talk to cnMaestro it will still hang at that step if it cannot also talk to the SM. The only way that I am able to get cnArcher to talk to both cnMaestro and the SM at the same time would be if I complete the installation at the customers site and then use the customers wireless network.

So at this point I see two options. If cnArcher could onboard and finish configuration of the SM through cnMaestro without needing to also talk to the SM then that would resolve it. The only other option would be to have the ability to put everything on hold in cnArcher at this point and then finish the process once the customers router and wireless were completed and then use that wireless to finish the process where cnArcher would have access to the SM and cnMaestro at the same time.

Hopefully I was able to correctly explain. If not please let me know.

@Rajesh_Vwrote:

The second option is for you to manage the connectivity manually. To do this, you should click on "Skip Wi-Fi Setup" link at the bottom of the screen when you get to the Wi-Fi setup screen during the initial setup. Currently, after the initial setup is complete, this option is no longer available, but with the next update, you can go back to "Settings" and set it up. In this mode, the app will not try to set a static IP or change to DHCP. It will just try to contact 169.254.1.1 to talk to the SM, and to cnMaestro server when it is ready to onboard. You are responsible for making sure this connectivity exists. In this mode, you could even turn off Wi-Fi and switch over to 4G once you see that the app is trying to contact cnMaestro, assuming cnMaestro is reachable over 4G.

If your network is such that the installer cannot access cnMaestro, either through the SM or by swithing over to 4G, you have no option but to disable cnMaestro in the app settings. 

I think that after reading this is that it is assumed that the phone with cnArcher on it will connect to the network using the newly installed SM.

@Rajesh_Vwrote:
@Jonathan Sulger

For #1, if the answer above does not solve the issue, let me know how the app can access cnMaestro and we will try to enable that. For example, if cnMaestro is accessable only when the phone is connected to the corporate WLAN, we can split the install into seperate phases: align, link test and configure the SM on site, come back to office amd connect to corporate WLAN and onboard the SMs.

cnMaestro can be made accessible publicly but the only way to talk with the SM after it has been given an IP address is if we are on our network at the customers house. cnMaestro will have visibility to the SM once it has an IP also. This may be a good option for us if possible. I would like to have the installer be able to complete the process without needing anyone at the office. Especially since cnMaestro will be available on the 4g network.

Thanks!

15

Jonathan,

At no point does cnArcher need conectivity to SM and cnMaestro concurrently. It starts off by talking to the SM, and then talks to cnMaestro. And as long as you clicked the "Skip W-Fi Setup" option during initial setup, it does not care how it talks to cnMaestro. It could be through the SM, or 4G.

So looks like you are running into some bug. When the app is stuck, can you open the web browser on the phone and confirm you are able to navigate to cnMaestro URL?

16

You sure he’s not falling into the big/trap that is fixed in 15.2

17
@CSup wrote:
You sure he’s not falling into the big/trap that is fixed in 15.2

Jonathan, Can you post a screenshot of the screen in cnArcher where it gets stuck?

18

OK. 

Evidently cnArcher was still trying to manage my wifi settings. It would get to the point where it said switching to DHCP and then would hang because it couldnt see the SM.

I reset cleared all data and went through the setup again and told it i would manually manage wifi settings. So when it got to the point where it was hanging I turned off wifi and it connected to the cellular network and then cnArcher allowed me to onboard the device even though cnArcher could not talk to the SM. 

SUCCESS!

1 Like
19
@Jonathan Sulger wrote:

OK. 

Evidently cnArcher was still trying to manage my wifi settings. It would get to the point where it said switching to DHCP and then would hang because it couldnt see the SM.

I reset cleared all data and went through the setup again and told it i would manually manage wifi settings. So when it got to the point where it was hanging I turned off wifi and it connected to the cellular network and then cnArcher allowed me to onboard the device even though cnArcher could not talk to the SM. 

SUCCESS!

Glad to hear, Jonathan. We will make the status messages clearer for this case, so you know where exactly the app is stuck.

20

I have another question. 

We will sometimes reuse a SM that we have removed from a customer that has moved or no longer needs our service. We will reset the SM to factory default and then use it at a new install. I have noticed that if that SM has not been deleted from cnMaestro then cnArcher will display that the SM has been onboarded already and does not allow cnArcher to do this. So once the cnArcher process is completed the SM that has been reused comes active again in cnMaestro but has the old/incorrect information. Also the new template never gets applied to the SM. It sees the new IP address and the site name information but because cnArcher cannot onboard it the template cannot be selected and thus never gets applied to the SM once finished.

Again, we are trying to automate this so that the installer can complete the process without assistance from the office. Are we going to need to delete the SM from cnMaestro before cnArcher can be used to install it at another site?

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@Jonathan Sulger wrote:

I have another question. 

We will sometimes reuse a SM that we have removed from a customer that has moved or no longer needs our service. We will reset the SM to factory default and then use it at a new install. I have noticed that if that SM has not been deleted from cnMaestro then cnArcher will display that the SM has been onboarded already and does not allow cnArcher to do this. So once the cnArcher process is completed the SM that has been reused comes active again in cnMaestro but has the old/incorrect information. Also the new template never gets applied to the SM. It sees the new IP address and the site name information but because cnArcher cannot onboard it the template cannot be selected and thus never gets applied to the SM once finished.

Again, we are trying to automate this so that the installer can complete the process without assistance from the office. Are we going to need to delete the SM from cnMaestro before cnArcher can be used to install it at another site?

For now, you will have to delete the SM from cnMaestro. We will add this functionality in a future release. 

22

Any update on it or when you can split cnmaestro to a seperate step from the provision/align/firmware steps that we can continue later?

23
@CSup wrote:
Any update on it or when you can split cnmaestro to a seperate step from the provision/align/firmware steps that we can continue later?

This will be part of v1.2 in Q3, 2018.

We are ramping down v1.1 development. Expect one more update with 2 additions.

- Add photos to installation summary

- Allow SM upgrade using firmware image stored on the phone

We plan to release v1.1 in July and start v1.2 beta soon after that.

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