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Access ASWM |
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Note: All time stamps show on web pages are based on GMT timezone
To access ASWM on a server, run your referred HTTP browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla) at a remote client host or locally at that server. Open the URL to the port of 2623 of the server's IP address or Full Qualified Domain Name (FQDN, if it has one). For example, suppose your server's IP address is 192.168.0.1, the URL would be http://192.168.0.1:2623/. If you like to connect in a secured way (in SSL), try to open the port 2624 instead. I.e., the URL would be https://192.168.0.1:2624/, and then all network interactions will be protected by the SSL protocol.
ASWM uses cookie feature of your HTTP browser to do some jobs. If your HTTP browser rejects cookies, some configuration functions of ASWM will not be complete as we described. By the way, you may use "localhost" or server's computer name, which is often seen in NetBIOS or WINS environment, in the URL. However, such an accessing approach is not recommended because it is cookie-unfriendly. In that case, browser will always turn off the cookie and you possibly will find that some configuration functions are not act as your expectation either.
 Fig. The first page on port 2623 |
 Fig. A password dialog shows up when you click either secured or non-secured entrance |
Once you connected to the non-secured port 2623. You always have a chance to choose the secured connection again. A page shows up and has two entrances that allow you to click and go into ASWM in either a non-secured (left entrance) or a secured way (right entrance). Clicking any of entrance will prompt you the login dialog. Key in the correct password and it brings the home page of ASWM to you.
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Home Page |
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At the home page, the entire view could be divided into several regions: the banner lays on the uppermost, the menu bar lays below the banner, the health panel locates on the left side and the information panel sits on the right side. Let's see what these regions can provide to you.
 Fig. The home page on a server system |
 Fig. The home page on a motherboard system |
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The Banner
It shows the trademark of ASWM, a logo of ASUSTeK, and a sequence of round buttons, which are "Discovery", "VNC Viewer", "Help", and "About". Under the ASWM's trademark, you will see the OS name and server's host name. If your system has a locator LED, it also shows a symbol there. The symbol will honestly respond to the current status of the locator LED. You can turn it on or off somewhere, which will be explained shortly. Under four round buttons, you will see a tag that tells you what the display language is that ASWM uses at present. It should be English if you do not yet make any change. ASWM is ready for multi-language environment but at the moment it only has English version. Soon ASWM will support Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
 Fig. The banner |
The "About" button is simple, it shows up an isolated "About" window. In that window, you will see the copyright information and the ASWM's version. As we mentioned earlier, since ASWM has multiple components, you will see the version of each component. When you request ASUSTek's technical support for ASWM, you will be asked the versions here. Clicking "Help" button gives you the on-line help, which is the window now you are watching. "VNC Viewer" button brings another browser's window that will attempt to connect your VNC on that server by a specific URL. This URL is provided by VNC and it contains a Java Applet that is a sort of VNC client application. Afterward we will see how to conduct ASWM to connect your preferred VNC display correctly. Finally, "Discovery" button leads to the Discovery sub-system and we will explain how "Discovery" works for you at last.
 Fig. The about window |
 Fig. A VNC viewer connected to a Linux system. |
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The Menu
On the left side, you can see the server's model there. On the right side, you can see two menu items: "Inventory" and "Configuration".
 Fig. The menu |
Move the mouse cursor onto these two items, the subsequent pull-down menus will show up automatically. The pull-down menu will not vanished unless you click the mouse button somewhere in the entire ASWM window. Each item of pull-down menu will bring you different information panels that will be fully explained later.
 Fig. The pull-down menu of Inventory |
 Fig. The pull-down menu of Configuration |
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The Health Panel
It shows a complete list of all groups of health. Each health group has a health sign (or bulb) existed on the left side of group's title. Normally, you see nothing there because all groups are in good shapes, which means no sensor alerts. An "alert" occurs when a sensor's value exceeded its threshold values. ASWM thinks an alert as a kind of "event" so "event" and "alert" are usually interchangeable in this document. ASWM categorizes an event according to its severity. It could be a "normal" event, a "warning" event, a "critical" (or "fatal") event, a "non-recoverable" event, or a "threshold unrelated" event. A warning event or a critical event sometimes can be further classified as either "higher than high threshold values" or "lower than low threshold values".
 Fig. The menu |
Move the mouse cursor onto these two items, the subsequent pull-down menus will show up automatically. The pull-down menu will not vanished unless you click the mouse button somewhere in the entire ASWM window. Each item of pull-down menu will bring you different information panels that will be fully explained later.
 Fig. The health panel shows 8 groups in a P4C800-E system. |
 Fig. The health panel shows 9 groups health by the health sign in a AP1600R-S5 system. The "flash" sign means a critical event occurred in "Backplane 1" group. The "exclaimination" sign means a warning event occurred in "Memory" group. |
Each group's title can be clicked and then the corresponding information panel regarding to that health group will show up. We will have opportunities to acquaint them later.
The health panel has the most important duty. It is responsible for updating all dynamic (or variable) data of ASWM agent in a certain period of time at regular intervals. When the ASWM web page is started, the health panel initiates a predefined timer to do that job. This guarantees that the data coming from ASWM agent will be up to date for every five seconds by default and of course you can change it or stop it. Besides, if a health group were displayed on the information panel, the health panel would update that information panel as well for every five seconds.
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The Information Panel
This is the most important region that ASWM uses to display any detailed data such as a system's summary page, a health group, an inventory item or a configuration item. We will walk through each kind of information panel in the following sections.
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The Information Panel in System Summary View
The information panel shows the system's picture as well as two or three other artistic pictures of views of that system. If it is a server system, three views (front, top, and rear) illustrate here. If it is a motherboard system, two views illustrate (top and rear) here. Below these pictures, there is a list of information, These would be Computer Name, System Local Time, System Up Time, Model Name, OS Product Name, MB Name, BIOS Version, System Memory Size, and Backplane (optional, only available on some models of system).
- Computer Name: This is the host name of the server. Depending on your OS, this name may be different.
- System Local Time: This is the time that stored in your system's CMOS clock. The time zone may be varied according to how you setup your system BIOS and the installed OS.
- System Up Time: This is the time that shows how long time is past since the system is powered on. If you reboot or power off the system, this time would be reset to be zero.
- Model Name: You system's model name. For example, AP1600R-S5 is a model name coming from ASUSTeK. Sometimes this would be identical to your MB Name if it were a motherboard system. It depends on your system distributor or provider from time to time.
- OS Product Name: This is the OS brand together with its version. Currently, ASWM agent only supports Microsoft Windows platform and Red Hat Linux platform.
- MB Name: This is the motherboard's name that your system used. For a motherboard system, MB Name is the Model Name. However, for a server system, MB Name would be the motherboard's name in spite of the model name.
- BIOS version: It is the BIOS version, which is the same as the BIOS version that you can see on the system's POST screen. (This screen shows when your system is booting up before entering the OS)
- System Memory Size: The amount of physical memory installed on your system.
- Backplane: The backplane sub-model that installed on your system. You will never see this if your system does not support any backplane sub-system.
To move the mouse cursor over the artistic pictures of views but do not yet click on them will change the list of information. Related information about each view will be exposed. The information may be different from this here that we show you because your system model may be different. The information of front view would be Model Name, Backplane, Backplane Number, etc. The information of rear view would be PS/2 Ports, COM Ports, Video Ports, LAN Ports, LPT Ports, USB Ports, etc. The information of top view would be MB Name, Fan Sensors, Temperature Sensors, Voltage Sensors, etc.
 Fig. Front view in system summary view. |
 Fig. Rear view in system summary view. |
 Fig. Top view in system summary view. |
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