Your Vantage Point Server configurations are saved in an INI file called VPServerConfig.ini
The contents of this folder are in the human readable format called JSoN.
In most cases, you will want to handle configuration of the Vantage Point Server through the Manage menus. However, to provide our users with maximum flexibility, we do allow you to modify the configuration from outside the server.
Once you have made your changes, you must restart the server, either through the Web Interface, or clicking the Restart button. If you do not restart the server, your changes will not take effect.
About the JSoN format
To fully understand the VPServerConfig.ini file, you must understand the basics of JSoN.
The JSoN format allows you to associate names of attributes with either a value, or a group of even more attributes.
In order for your configuration to work, you must use the correct names, and be sure to assign them their correct values.
You can specify a the value of an attribute named "attr" by typing the following:
"attr" : "3.14"
Notice that both the attribute's name, and value are surrounded with quotes. Names and values in JSoN must always be surround in quotes.
attributes are grouped together between "{" and "}", and must be separated by "," symbols.
Such a group is typically called an object.
A typical object might look like this:
{ "number" : "1", "word" : "hello"
}
You will notice that the entire configuration is contained inside a single object, between "{" and "}".
Some of the attributes in the Vantage Point Server configuration are themselves objects. An attribute whosevalue is an object looks similar to a regular attribute, except the right side of the ":" is not surrounded in quotes.
The VPServerConfig.ini is grouped into 3 layers of JSoN objects. The main object contains the general server settings attributes, along with all of the Connectionobjects.
The general server settings attributes include:
username:
the username that will be used to login to the Web Interface
password:
the username that will be used to login to the Web Interface
backupHistoryInterval:
the number of milliseconds to wait between backing up history
useFileKey:
Not used. The server always uses a File Key, if one is available. This attribute still shows up in generated configuration files, but it is safe to omit.
Multiple Connections:
The main object also contains all of the connections/comm-ports. Every Connection object's name should start with "Connection:", or it will be ignored.
Connection Attributes
Each Connection object requires the following attributes:
portID:
The identifying name for this Connection. Must be unique to all Connections.
type:
The type of device this Connection is intended for. This variable decides how param1 and param2 are treated.
ipAddress:
The IP address of this Connection
ipPort:
The IP port of this Connection
param1:
Interpretation changes based on type.
For BACnet Connections, this is the Network Number.
For SNMP Connections, this is the Community ID.
For SQL Connections, this is the Connection String.
param2:
Only used by SNMP Connections, as the Version Number (1, 2, or 3)
Multiple Pollers:
Each Connectionobject also may contain multiple pollerobjects. Each pollerobject's name should start with "poller". A pollerobject will poll exactly one device. Your device configurations always correspond with a poller object.
Device Poller Attributes
Each DevicePollerobject requires the following attributes:
description:
A description for the device
type:
The type of device being polled. This parameter decides which parameters are used later on by the Point objects defined in each Device Poller object.
address:
The device address number.
pollInterval:
The number of milliseconds to wait between polling the device.
pollTimeout:
The number of milliseconds to wait for a response from the device.
unrelieableDelay:
The number of milliseconds to wait after receiving unreliable results before switching the device to an unreliable state.
pollSingle:
Used by BACnet devices only. If true, then the poller will request one point at a time, instead of in bundles.
sqlQuery:
Used by SQL devices only. This is the query sent to the SQL server to retrieve the data.
Multiple Points:
Each Device Poller object may have multiple Point objects. Each Point object defines the address/settings for exactly one point that will be polled from the target device. All Point objects' names must start with "Point: " followed by the name of the point.
Point Attributes
Each Point object requires the following attributes:
Name:
The name of the point. Must match the name of the Point object.
Description:
The description of the point.
Type:
The type of point. This affects the way responses from the device are interpreted. Valid values are "R" (Raw), "B"(Binary), "I"(Integer), and "S"(Text).
Address:
Used by ACC, BACnet, and ModBus points. The address of this point, relative to the device. Different types of devices use different styles of addresses.
Object ID:
Used only by SNMP points. This is the SNMP Object ID.
Point ID:
Used only by SQL points.
Should match one of the point IDs specified in the SQL query for this point's device.
Poller Type:
The type of device this point is on. Should match the type of the poller object this point object is defined in.
Recording
Interval Coef:
How many <Recording Interval Units> between history entries.
Recording
Interval Unit:
Can be "Seconds", "Minutes", "Hours", "Days", or "Months"
Approximation
Method:
Used only by ModBus.
How to approximate all of the polled samples into a single recorded value, when its time to record an interval. Can be "Instantaneous Value", "Average Over Interval", "Max From Interval", "Min From Interval", or "Sum With Rollover"
Maximum History
Entries:
The maximum number of history entries to keep. Can also be set to "auto".
Scale Factor:
Used by ModBus and SNMP.
Results from the device for this point will be multiplied by this value. Valid values are "1000", "100", "10", "1", "/10", "/100", "/1000", and "N/A"
Block Address:
Used only by ModBus.
If true, then this point will be separated into is own packet when communicating with the device.
Offset:
Used only by ModBus.
The number of bits to offset from the ModBus register address.
Function Code:
Used only by ModBus.
Specifies the type of data used by the target device for this point.
"1" - Coils (1 bit)
"2" - Input Binary (1 bit)
"3" - Holding Registers (16/32 bit)
"4" - Input Registers (16/32 bit)
Bit Length:
Can be "1", "16", or "32"
Hi-Lo Reverse:
Used only by ModBus.
If true, the the byte order of the data about this point received from the device will be reversed.
Update Interval:
Used only by Calc-Points.
This is the number of seconds between re-evaluations of the Calc-Point equation.
Equation:
Used only by Calc-Points.
The equation used by this Calc-Point.
