Configuring the Fleet Monitoring plugin role - Fleet Monitoring 5.10.0.1

Before you can use the Security Center Fleet Monitoring plugin, also known as the AVL plugin, to monitor and offload from your vehicle system, you must define your default, general, and automatic offload settings.

To configure offload settings:

1. From the Config Tool homepage, open the Plugins task.
2. In the Plugins task, select the plugin role from the entity browser, and click the Properties tab.
3. In the Default offload settings section, configure the following:

   Destination archiver

   Default archiver for video archiver transfer. This should be dedicated for long-term video storage.

   Offload video data

   Offload video for all events, or for specific types of events. You can also specify the duration, in seconds, of video preceding and following the events to offload.

   Automatic offload on

   Activate automatic offloads for the following:

   • Wi-Fi connected: If your vehicle system uses a Wi-Fi adapter, start an automatic offload when your vehicle system connects to Wi-Fi.
   • GPS unit online: Start an automatic offload when a GPS unit goes online.
   • GPS unit alarm: Start an automatic offload when a GPS unit in an alarm state.

     Before alarm

     The amount of time from before the alarm was triggered that is included in the export.

     After alarm

     The amount of time after the alarm was triggered that is included in the export.

     Ignore WiFi connection

     Use this setting to control whether WiFi is required for automatic offloads triggered by alarms.

     Export after offload

     Activate this setting to automatically initiate an export after automatic offload on GPS unit alarm.

   • Custom event: Select a custom event to trigger an automatic offload.
   • Automatic offload areas: If you are using geofences to offload, select the geofenced areas that you want to trigger automatic offloads when a vehicle enters the area.

   NOTE:

   • (Optional) Ensure that your inputs are defined by doing the following:
     1. From the Config Tool, open the Area view task and select the GPS unit from the entity browser.
     2. Click the Imputs tab.
     3. In the Discrete inputs section, ensure that your inputs are are defined.
   • (Optional) Ensure that your metadata triggers are defined by doing the following:
     1. From Config Tool, open the System task and click the Roles view.
     2. Select the GPS unit from the entity browser and click the Metadata tab.
     3. In the Default metadata configuration section, ensure that your metadata triggers are defined.
   • If you want to automatically offload data:
     1. From Config Tool, open the System task and click the Roles view.
     2. Select the GPS unit from the entity browser and click the Properties tab.
     3. In the Default offload settings section, select the GPS unit alarm box and configure your offload times for before and after an alarm.

   Raise event on

   Trigger an event on the following:

   • Automatic offload requested: Receive events when automatic offloads are requested.
   • Automatic offload started: Receive events when automatic offloads start.
   • Automatic offload finished: Receive events when automatic offloads finish.
   • Automatic offload gap: Receive events when there is a gap between automatic offloads.
   • Offload fail: Receive events when automatic offloads fail.

   Maximum items in progress per AVL unit

   Maximum number of items that can offload data at the same time during a transfer, depending on the bandwidth available for offloading.

   Require Wi-Fi connection

   If your vehicle system uses a Wi-Fi adapter, only offload data using Wi-Fi.

   Require recent location data

   Only offload data if the location data of the AVL unit is recent.

   NOTE: To set a time after which data is no longer considered recent, you can modify the Stale location age setting in the properties tab of the associated GPS unit.

   NOTE: To change these settings for specific AVL units, navigate to Config Tool, open the Area view task, select the AVL unit you want to modify offload settings for, and make changes in the Data offload tab.
4. In the General offload settings section, configure the following:

   Prioritize manual offloads

   Send manual data offloads to the top of the queue.

   Chunk size

   Maximum video duration, in hours that can be transferred before dividing it into smaller chunks to optimize transfers.

   Best Practice: Larger chunks more likely to fail mid-transfer and have to be re-tried. The recommended chunk size is four hours.

   Max AVL units in progress

   Number of active transfers allowed simultaneously.

   Offload monitoring interval

   The update interval for data offloads in the AVL data offload status task.

   Status page update interval

   The refresh interval, in seconds, for the AVL data offload status task.

   Completed status timeout

   The duration, in minutes, before completed offloads are cleared from the AVL data offload status task.

   Video offload pending timeout

   The duration, in minutes, before a pending video offload is canceled.

   Video offload in progress timeout

   The duration, in seconds, before an in-progress offload that is not sending status updates is canceled.

   Archive loss warning

   A warning is displayed in the My offloads task for offloads whose data time stamps are within the defined time threshold of the AVL unit's target offload archiver.

   Video offload ignore no other archiver errors

   Offloads for which the target is the same as the source are marked as completed instead of generating an error.

   Offload incident titles

   You can define Security Center incidents that are automatically generated during offload. This can make it easier to search and investigate offloaded data.

5. In the Automatic offload settings section, configure the following:

   Offload

   Choose to offload AVL data, video, or both.

   Look back time

   Sets how far back to search for video to offload.

   Minimum delay before new automatic offload

   Defines a minimum time period that must elapse before a new automatic offload is queued.

   Minimum delay for previously failed item

   Defines a minimum time period that must elapse before a previously failed offload chunk is automatically re-queued.

   Maximum failures allowed per item

   Maximum number of times a failed chunk of an offload is queued automatically.

   Maximum offload

   Maximum duration of data to offload.

   Minimum offload

   Minimum duration of data to offload.

   Overlap

   Ensures that there are no gaps between offloaded video.

   Offload order

   Set the order in which data is offloaded.

   Create incident

   Create an incident on automatic data offloads. If selected, set an Incident title.

6. In the Manual offload settings section, configure the following:

   Maximum offload

   Define a time limit for how long an offload can be.

   Default retries

   Define how many retries of a failed offload are permitted.

   Default retry interval

   Define a time period after which a retry of a failed offload occurs automatically.

   Default notify on completion

   The Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task is activated by default.

   Default notify by email

   The Send email option is activated by default in the Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task.

   Default notify by message

   The Send message option is activated by default in the Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task.

   Default notify by event

   The Raise event option is activated by default in the Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task.

   Default users to notify

   The users that pre-populates the list in the Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task.

   Allow default notification settings override

   When activated, the user can override any of the default settings in the Notify on completion section of the AVL data offload task.

To configure general settings:

1. In the General settings section, configure the following:

   Language

   The language used for notifications and messages generated by the server.

   AVL unit status update interval (minimum)

   The minimum time period after which the AVL unit's status is published.

   Vehicle inventory GPS online status timeout

   The duration of time without a status update from the GPS unit after which it is considered offline.

   Log vehicle inventory to database

   Control whether data is sent to the Vehicle inventory task

   Vehicle inventory data persistence interval

   The time period after which vehicle inventory data is saved to the database in case the plugin is restarted.

   Log GPS data to database

   Log all real-time location data received from GPS units into the database.

   Log GPS metadata to database

   Log all real-time metadata received from GPS units into the database.

To configure map settings:

1. In the Map settings section configure the following:

   Stale data threshold

   Time after which the icon of an AVL unit reporting stale data turns gray.

   Icon timeout

   Time after which the icon of an AVL unit reporting stale data is removed from the map.

   Entity query interval

   The time interval after which the map object provider queries AVL unit entities to ensure you continue receiving events. To deactivate this feature, set it to zero.

   Show speed

   Activate this setting to display speed in icon labels on the map.

   Show speed units

   Activate this setting to display measurement units next to the speed in icon labels on the map.

To configure recent alarms:

1. In the Recent alarms section, configure the following:

   Max age

   Define a time period after which an alarm is no longer considered recent.

   Max alarms

   Define a maximum number of alarms that can be considered recent.

To configure fleet health settings:

1. In the Fleet health settings section, configure the following:

   Stale data threshold

   The stale data threshold is the duration, in seconds, after which fleet health data is considered stale and possibly inaccurate.

   Logging

   If you want to create fleet health reports, you must configure the plugin to log fleet health information. To do so, activate this setting and configure the following:

   Log OK statuses

   Choose whether or not to log statuses indicating that there are Fleet Health is OK. If this setting is left deactivated, only fault statuses are logged. It is recommended to keep this setting deactivated to prevent excessive accumulation of unnecessary data.

   Log interval

   The time interval after which log statuses are collected.

To configure REST API:

1. Click the REST API checkbox.

   API path name prefix

   Assign a name for the REST API. The most common name is AVL.

   REST port

   Define a port number. The mostly commonly used port is 443.

   Web SDK host

   Enter an SDK host name. The mostly commonly used host is localhost.

   Web SDK allow self-signed certificate

   Activate this setting to allow the connection to the Web SDK to accept a self-signed certificate instead of requiring a valid certificate signed by a certificate authority.

   Tip: You can configure the REST API at the AVL plugin level to integrate third-party software with the plugin so that the third-party software can initiate, monitor, and manage AVL data offloads.

   API documentation

   To learn more about the REST API, activate the Activate API documentation checkbox, click Apply, and then click the API documentation link.

To configure Route playback settings:

1. From the Route playback settings section:

   Continue export failure

   Activate this setting to make route playback exports continue even if an error occurs.

   Show graph tile

   Activate this setting and the Route playback task automatically displays a graph tile. Deactivating this setting means that you must manually choose to display the graph tile.

   Map tile history trail max points

   Define the maximum number of points that can be shown in the history trail section of the map tile.

   NOTE: This setting affects the granularity of the known location icons that are shown in the map tile in the Vehicle route playback task to avoid excess clutter on the map.

   Map tile default zoom

   Define a geographic area that map tiles automatically zoom to fit.

   Map tile export minimum zoom

   Define a geographic area that is automatically zoomed to during an export if the map is not already zoomed to this level.

   Map tile show overlay

   Activate this setting and the map tile shows an overlay including longitude, latitude, speed, and heading.

   Seek video tiles while dragging timeline

   When this setting is activated, dragging the route playback timeline causes video tiles to seek the selected time as you drag.

   Show location tile

   When this setting is activated, the Vehicle route playback task automatically shows the location tile. When this setting is deactivated, you must manually choose to display the location tile.

   Location tile

   Choose the metrics that you want to include in the location tile display.

GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) is a data specification used by transit agencies to publish schedules and information about their fleet. To configure GTFS settings:

1. Click the Monitor GTFS realtime checkbox to activate this setting.

   GTFS realtime vehicle positions URL

   Enter the URL required to pull GTFS vehicle position information from the agency's GTFS realtime vehicle positions feed.

   GTFS realtime poll interval

   Define a period of time after which the system polls for new data from the GTFS real-time feed.

   Vehicle descriptor field for AVL identifier

   Select the GTFS vehicle descriptor that is used to map an entity in the feed to an AVL unit's GTFS identifier.

To configure Automatic AVL unit addition and removal:

1. In the Automatic AVL unit add and remove section, click the Automatically add AVL units checkbox to activate.

   Add AVL units to area

   Click Edit and select an area where automatically created AVL units are placed.

   NOTE: It is recommended that you create a specific area for automatically created AVL units.

   Default AVL unit for configuration

   Click Edit () and select a default AVL unit whose configurations are copied when a new AVL unit is automatically added.

   Specific AVL units for configuration

   • Click Add () and select AVL units that can also be used as templates when new AVL units are automatically added.
     • Click Edit () and select an AVL unit.
     • Enter a metadata key and value. When the incoming metadata contains a key and value that match those defined here, a new AVL unit will be created based on the template.

   Automatically remove AVL units

   Activate this setting to automatically remove automatically added AVL units whose associated GPS units have been automatically removed.

   GPS plugin filter

   Select a filter to create AVL units only for GPS units created in the selected plugin. This setting exists for use in systems containing multiple GPS plugins.

To configure Default export settings:

1. If you want to configure Default export settings to export to the plugin server, do the following:

   Export type

   Select the plugin server.

   Save to

   Define the directory on the server where the exports are stored.

   MP4 video format

   Export video in MP4 format.

   Include player

   Include an offline player with the exported files.

   NOTE: The offline player cannot be included when MP4 video format is selected.

   Compress results

   Compress exports into a single file.

   Encryption

   Encrypt video and data files.

   NOTE: Encryption cannot be applied when MP4 video format is selected.

   Show health metadata

   Include health metadata in the export.

   Stale data threshold

   Time after which the icon on the map is shown in gray, indicating that the AVL information is outdated.

   Run export on

   The default location where a user-initiated offload is processed.

   User can override

   Activate this so that users can define their own export settings for each data export.

2. If you want to configure Default export settings for Genetec Clearance™ exports, do the following:

   Export type

   Select Export to Genetec Clearance™.

   Create case

   Activate this setting to create a case in Clearance that includes evidence files. Deactivate it to add only evidence files.

   Department

   The department assigned to the case.

   Category

   The category used to classify the case.

   Show health metadata

   Include health metadata in the export.

   Stale data threshold

   Time after which the icon on the map is shown in gray, indicating that the AVL information is outdated.

   Run export on

   The default location where a user-initiated offload is processed.

3. To configure Database cleanup, do the following:
   NOTE: This database cleanup runs in the background and uses minimum system resources, rather than doing one resource-intensive cleanup every day or week.

   Continuous cleanup

   Activate this setting to periodically clean up data.

   Batch size

   The batch size used when applying the data retention policy. A bigger batch size is more efficient, but might cause timeouts on systems with less resources.

   Batch delay

   The time delay between batch cleanup deletions.

   Data retention

   The duration for which data is stored in the database before being deleted.

4. Click Apply.