Digital Content Manager

Version 21.0 Installation Guide

First Published: 2020-12-15

Last Modified: 2021-07-05

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© 2021 Synamedia. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Table of Contents 3

Preface 5
Audience 5
Conventions 5
Related Documentation 6

About the Digital Content Manager Installation 7

Minimum Requirements 8
Recommended BIOS Settings 11
Recommended BIOS Settings for Synamedia Video Network Appliances 11
Model 1 11
Model 2 and VN111 Series 12
Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco Servers 13
M3/M4 Servers 13
M5 Servers 14
Cisco Network Configuration Settings 16
Recommended BIOS Settings for HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers 16
Installing CentOS 7 17
Installing Oracle 8 18

Digital Content Manager Installation 19

Installing the Digital Content Manager for CentOS 7 20
Preparation for Installing on Red Hat 7 20
Installing the DCM Using the Interactive Procedure 21
Installing the DCM Using the Non-Interactive Procedure 22
Installing the Digital Content Manager for Oracle 8 23
Installing the DCM Using the Interactive Procedure 23
Installing the DCM Using the Non-Interactive Procedure 24
Extra Steps After Installing DCM for Oracle 8 25
Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for Installation 30
Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital Content Manager 30
Removing the Digital Content Manager 30
Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation 31

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Managing the rpm Repository 32

Staging the Installation Files 32
Forcing Offline Installation 32
Forcing Online Installation 33
Updating AJA Device Firmware 33
Changing the Firmware Variant of DekTec DTA-217x Cards 34
Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software 35
Installing an OS Security Patch 38

Digital Content Manager Configuration 40

About the Configuration Script 41
Checking and Fixing the Configuration 41
Configuring Interfaces 42
Assigning Interfaces 42
Configuring the Order of the Interfaces 42
Configuring the Passphrase Policy 43
Configuring Features 43
Configuring Users 43
Configuring Remote Authentication Settings 44
Configuring NMOS 44
Enabling the NMOS Service 44
Viewing the Status of the NMOS Service 44
Configuring the NMOS service interactively 45
Configuring the NMOS service non-interactively 45
Configuring the Diagnostics 46
Displaying the Metrics 46
Automatic Configuration 46
Manual Configuration 47

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Preface

Preface
This section describes the audience and conventions of the Digital Content Manager Installation Guide.
It also references related documentation.

Audience
The audience of this guide includes users and service personnel who are responsible for installing the
Digital Content Manager.

Conventions
This document uses the following formatting conventions.

Conventions Indication
bold typeface Syntaxes, commands and keywords, as well as menu items and settings to be
selected or entered by the user.
italic typeface Document names and titles, new or emphasized terms, and arguments for which
user-specific values are to be defined.
[] Instructions and other elements between square brackets are optional.
{x|y|z} Required alternative keywords are grouped between braces, and separated by
vertical bars.
[x|y|z] Optional alternative keywords are grouped between square brackets, and
separated by vertical bars.
Monospace Terminal sessions and textual information returned by the system
<> Non-printed characters such as passwords are shown in angled brackets.
!, # An exclamation point (!) or a pound sign (#) at the beginning of a line of code
indicates a comment line.

Note Notes generally contain helpful suggestions, remarks, or references to topics covered
elsewhere in this or other documents.

Caution entries will be added to topics where the user needs to be aware of actions or
situations that might result in equipment malfunctioning, loss of data, or other unwanted
events.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES:

A Warning will be added wherever a risk of personal injury and/or equipment damage

PLEASE READ AND MEMORIZE THESE NOTES.

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Related Documentation
The following list shows the publications for the Digital Content Manager.

■ Open Source Used in the Digital Content Manager.

■ Digital Content Manager Data Sheet.
■ Release Notes for Digital Content Manager.
■ Digital Content Manager User Guide / Online Help

You can download DCM documentation from Synamedia's Software & Documentation Downloads
portal: https://www.portal.synamedia.com.

Note To access this page, an account is required. Contact your Synamedia account manager or
support representative for a registration code or complete the form here:
https://www.synamedia.com/about/#contact.

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About the Digital Content Manager Installation

CHAPTER 1

About the Digital Content

Manager Installation
This guide describes how to install the Digital Content Manager. This chapter contains the following
sections:

Minimum Requirements 8

Recommended BIOS Settings 11

Installing CentOS 7 17

Installing Oracle 8 18

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Minimum Requirements
The following items or settings are required before installing the Digital Content Manager.

■ An appliance with at least:

— Two ethernet ports;

— Two Intel Xeon E5-2697v3 processors (2.6 GHz, 14 cores);
— 8 x 8GB DDR4-2133MHz RAM, for both CPUs all DIMM sockets of the same bank (A1..D1 and
E1..H1) must be identically populated;
— 128GB HDD storage;
— Optionally, an additional 10G network interface for SDI-over-IP.

■ Digital Content Manager software (vdcm-installer-<version number>.zip).

You can download the Digital Content Manager software from the following location:
https://www.portal.synamedia.com.

To access this page, an account is required. If you need a registration code to set up an account,
contact your account manager or support representative or complete the form here:
https://www.synamedia.com/about/#contact.

■ Minimum Required OS for the CentOS 7 installer:

DCM Release CentOS 7.7 CentOS 7.8 CentOS 7.9

V18.0 Recommended Not supported Not supported
V19.0 Deprecated Recommended Not supported
V20.0 Deprecated Recommended Not supported
V20.1 Deprecated Deprecated Recommended
V20.2 Deprecated Deprecated Recommended
V21.0 Deprecated Deprecated Recommended

■ Minimum Required OS for the Oracle 8 installer:

DCM Release Oracle 8.2 Oracle 8.3 Oracle 8.4

V21.0 Not supported Recommended Not supported

■ The OS locale must be set to en_US.UTF-8.

Note Localized OS installations, other than en_US, cannot be used.

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■ Minimum directory sizes available to the Digital Content Manager application:

— /opt - 1.5 GB
— /etc - 500 MB
— /tmp - 20 GB
— /dev/shm - 10 GB
— swap - 10 GB
— /var - 30 GB
— This location is used for storage of Digital Content Manager related log file, RPMs, core dumps,
and so on.
— This location is the default location for TS player storage and Local Origin Server storage.
— When the Digital Content Manager is configured with the default location and default storage
size for TS player storage, an extra 10 GB is required in /var.
— When the Digital Content Manager is configured with the default location and default storage
size for Local Origin Server storage and the Local Origin Server feature is enabled, an extra 10
GB is required in /var.
— When both TS player and Local Origin Server are configured with default storage settings and
the Local Origin Server feature is enabled, an extra 20 GB is required in /var.
— If you need a large storage location for these features, consider moving the storage to a
separate mount.

■ CPU must support the AVX2 instruction set to run the MPEG-2, AVC, or HEVC processing
applications. AVX2 is optional for other applications.
■ At least one configured network interface is needed. Although management and video can use the
same interface, it is recommended to keep them separate for performance reasons. Up to 2
interfaces can be used for management, up to 8 interfaces can be used for video, and up to 8
interfaces can be used for SDI-over-IP.

Note

■ With the exception of use-case SDI-over-IP input combined with video output, the
SDI-over-IP interfaces cannot be shared with video interfaces even with VLAN
delineation.
■ Interfaces for SDI-over-IP input cannot be combined with interfaces for SDI-over-
IP output.

■ For SDI-over-IP interfaces, a dedicated 10G or 25G network interface card (NIC) is required. This
feature is validated with the following NICs:

— 10G NIC: Cisco VIC 1340 & 1227 and Intel X520.
— 25G NIC: Mellanox ConnectX-5

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OS dependency is documented above in the relevant OS section. If you wish to use other NICs,
please contact your Synamedia representative.

■ A reachable NTP server and/or PTP server if the host has PTP capable interfaces. (Time
synchronization must be configured through the install wizard or vdcm-configure. Configuration by
manually editing config files is no longer supported).
■ Optional: secure internet connectivity to receive operating system updates.
■ Ensure that the network interfaces are configured properly.
■ For virtualization:

— VMware ESXi 6.0U3 or newer

— Ensure that the Hardware virtualization check box is checked, which reads Expose hardware
assisted virtualization to the guest OS under the CPU settings of the Virtual Machine.
— Ensure that a minimum of two vCPUs are reserved for the hypervisor to reduce scheduling
latency.
— Download the minimal CentOS 7.9 ISO file from https://www.centos.org/download/.
— Download the Digital Content Manager Software (vdcm-installer-<version number>.zip).

You can download this software from the following location:

https://www.portal.synamedia.com.

To access this page, an account is required. If you need a registration code to set up an
account, please contact your account manager or support representative or complete the form
here: https://www.synamedia.com/about/#contact.

— Ensure that the virtual NICs are configured as VMXNET3.

— Ensure that the number of CPUs and sockets corresponds to the underlying hardware.
— Install the CentOS ISO.
— Install the DCM software.
— SDI-over-IP is not supported on VMs, only on bare metal.

Note For virtualization of the xgress node, running in a virtual machine can result in lower
performance compared to bare metal. Configuring the hypervisor and virtual
machine for latency sensitive workloads can bring the performance back to the same
level as bare metal. For more information, see
https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-Tuning-Latency-Sensitive-
Workloads.pdf.

■ K9 installation

— Connect the hardware to your network.

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— Boot the system. Default OS login = root, OS password= password, change this after initial
login.
— The Digital Content Manager application is preinstalled on the system. It still needs to be
configured.
— First, configure the network interfaces for management, video and optionally SDI-IP. Make sure
that each interface has a valid IPv4 address.
— Run the vdcm-configure wizard. For more details, see Installing the DCM Using the Interactive
Procedure, on page 21.

■ If a central license management system is used, prior to upgrading DCM to Version 20.1 or later,
you must first install Video Service Manager (VSM) Version 12.3.0 or later. If you upgrade the DCM
first, the licensing status changes to 'Evaluation' and you will have two days to install VSM Version
12.3.0 or later to change the status back to 'Authorized'.

Recommended BIOS Settings

Recommended BIOS Settings for Synamedia Video Network

Appliances

Model 1
'Model 1' appliances offer a UEFI configuration option to help in tuning the BIOS settings by using
known workload-based tuning profiles. When a certain workload profile is applied in the BIOS
configuration menu, the server will automatically configure a range of BIOS settings to match the
selected workload profile. When running DCM software on a 'Model 1' computappliance, the workload
profile High Performance Compute (HPC) should be applied, and Hyperthreading should be
enabled. This profile will apply following BIOS settings:

Parameter Recommended Setting

SR-IOV Disabled
VT-D Disabled
VT-x Disabled
Power Regulator Static High Performance
Minimum Processor Idle Power Core C-state No C-states
Minimum Processor Idle Power Package C-state No C-states
Energy Performance Bias Max Performance
Collaborative Power Control Disabled
Intel DMI Link Frequency Auto
Intel Turbo Boost Technology Enabled

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Parameter Recommended Setting

Intel NIC DMA Channels (IOAT) Enabled
HW Prefetcher Enabled
Adjacent Sector Prefetch Enabled
DCU Stream Prefetcher Enabled
DCU IP Prefetcher Enabled
NUMA Group Size Optimization Clustered
Memory Refresh Rate 1X
UPI Link Power Management Disabled
Energy-Efficient Turbo Disabled
Uncore Frequency Shifting Max
x2APIC Disabled
Channel Interleaving Enabled
Advanced Memory Protection ECC (ROM version earlier than 1.50) or ADDDC
(ROM version 1.50 and later)

Model 2 and VN111 Series

The following tables list the recommended BIOS settings for 'Model 2' and VN111 Series appliances:

CPU Configuration

Parameter Recommended Setting

Hyper-Threading Enable
Cores Enabled 0
Monitor/Mwait Auto
Execute Disable Bit Enable
Intel Virtualization Technology Enable
PPIN Control Unlock/Enable
Hardware Prefetcher Enable
Adjacent Cache Prefetcher Enable
DCU Streamer Prefetcher Enable
DCU IP Prefetcher Enable
LLC Prefetch Disable
Extended APIC Disable
AES-NI Enable

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CPU Configuration -> Advanced Power Management Configuration

Parameter Recommended Setting

SpeedStep (SpeedStep) Enable
EIST PSD Function HW_ALL
Turbo Mode Enable
Hardware P-States Native Mode
Autonomous Core C-State Disable
CPU C6 report Disable
Enhanced Halt State (C1E) Disable
Package C State No Limit
Software Controlled T-States Enable

Chipset Configuration -> North Bridge -> IIO Configuration -> Intel VT for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Parameter Recommended Setting

Coherency Support (Non-Isoch) Disable
IMC Interleaving Auto
Patrol Scrub Enable
ATS Enable

ACPI Settings

Parameter Recommended Setting

NUMA Enable

Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco Servers

M3/M4 Servers
The following table lists the recommended BIOS settings for Cisco M3/M4 servers:

Parameter Recommended Setting

Turbo boost Enabled
Enhanced Intel Speedstep Enabled
Hyper threading Enabled
Core multi processing All
Execute disabled bit Enabled

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Parameter Recommended Setting

Virtualization technology (VT) Enabled
Hardware pre-fetcher Enabled
Adjacent cache line pre-fetcher Enabled
DCU streamer pre-fetch Enabled
DCU IP pre-fetcher Enabled
Direct cache access Enabled
Processor C state Disabled
Processor C1E Disabled
Processor C3 report Disabled
Processor C6 report Disabled
Processor C7 report Disabled
CPU performance HPC
Power technology Custom
Energy performance Performance
Frequency floor override Enabled
P-STATE coordination Hw-all
DRAM clock throttling Performance
Channel interleaving Auto
Rank interleaving Auto
Demand scrub Enabled
Patrol scrub Enabled
Altitude 300-m
VT for directed IO Enabled
Coherency support Disabled
ATS support Enabled
Memory RAS config Maximum-performance
NUMA Enabled
LV DDR mode Performance-mode

M5 Servers
The following table lists the recommended BIOS settings for Cisco M5 servers:

Parameter Recommended Setting

Extended APIC Disabled

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Parameter Recommended Setting

Intel virtualization technology Enabled
Processor C6 report Disabled
Processor C1E Disabled
Turbo mode Enabled
Execute disable bit Enabled
Boot performance mode Max performance
EIST PSD function HW ALL
Hyper-threading Enabled
Speedstep Enabled
Cores enabled All
Processor CMCI Enabled
IMC interleaving Auto
Workload configuration IO sensitive
UPI prefetch Enabled
Sub numa clustering Disabled
Power performance tuning OS
XPT prefetch Disabled
Package C state No limit
Energy performance bias config Performance
Hardware P-states HWPM native mode
LLC prefetch Disabled
Autonomous core C-state Disabled
Energy Efficient Turbo Disabled
Patrol scrub Enabled
ProcessorEppProfile Performance
NUMA Enabled
SelectMemory RAS configuration Maximum Performance
Above 4G decoding Enabled
Hardware prefetcher Enabled
Adjacent cache line prefetcher Enabled
DCU streamer prefetch Enabled
DCU IP prefetcher Enabled
CPU Performance Enterprise

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Cisco Network Configuration Settings

The following minimum network configuration settings must be applied, where applicable:

Network Configuration Minimum Setting

Receive Side Scaling (RSS) Enabled
RX and TX Queue size 4096 (or maximum allowed by the hardware)
Number of RX queues 8
Number of TX queues 8
Cisco VIC & SDI-over-IP/Completion queue 16 (Transmit Queues + Receive Queues)
Cisco VIC & SDI-over-IP/ Interrupts 18 (Completion Queue + 2)

These settings can be configured in Linux, using either NetworkManager or legacy configuration scripts
under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. For Cisco servers, these settings can also be confugured in Cisco
UCS Manager (Ethernet Adapter Policy - Cisco B-Series).

For optimal performance of SDI-over-IP feature all settings (BIOS, CPU, interface, and so on) must be
configured as per the recommendation in this section.

Recommended BIOS Settings for HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers

HPE ProLiant Gen10 and later servers offer a UEFI configuration option to help in tuning the BIOS
settings by using known workload-based tuning profiles. When a certain workload profile is applied in
the BIOS configuration menu, the server will automatically configure a range of BIOS settings to match
the selected workload profile. When running DCM software on an HPE ProLiant Gen10 server, the
workload profile High Performance Compute (HPC) should be applied and Hyperthreading should
be enabled. This profile will apply following BIOS settings:

Parameter Recommended Setting

SR-IOV Disabled
VT-D Disabled
VT-x Disabled
Power Regulator Static High Performance
Minimum Processor Idle Power Core C-state No C-states
Minimum Processor Idle Power Package C-state No C-states
Energy Performance Bias Max Performance
Collaborative Power Control Disabled
Intel DMI Link Frequency Auto
Intel Turbo Boost Technology Enabled

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Parameter Recommended Setting

Intel NIC DMA Channels (IOAT) Enabled
HW Prefetcher Enabled
Adjacent Sector Prefetch Enabled
DCU Stream Prefetcher Enabled
DCU IP Prefetcher Enabled
NUMA Group Size Optimization Clustered
Memory Refresh Rate 1X
UPI Link Power Management Disabled
Energy-Efficient Turbo Disabled
Uncore Frequency Shifting Max
x2APIC Disabled
Channel Interleaving Enabled
Advanced Memory Protection ECC (ROM version earlier than 1.50) or ADDDC
(ROM version 1.50 and later)

Installing CentOS 7
The Digital Content Manager installer delivers all the required dependencies and can be installed on a
minimal CentOS 7 without an internet connection. However, we highly recommend that you have an
internet connection or a local up-to-date rpm repository to receive and install security updates.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the CIMC GUI for the UCS box and open the KVM console.

Step 2 From the KVM console menu, choose Virtual Media > Activate Virtual Devices .

Step 3 Choose Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD to specify a path to the ISO image.

Step 4 After mapping this image, reboot the box and boot from the ISO. This can be done in one
of two ways:

■ Press <F6> while the system is starting up to show to the boot menu, and select KVM
Mapped DVD.
■ Change the boot order in the CIMC web GUI and set a KVM mapped DVD type as the
first boot device. The boot order in the CIMC web GUI can be accessed from Server >
BIOS and selecting Configure Boot Order.

Step 5 Once the system boots from this ISO, choose Install CentOS 7 from the menu.

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Step 6 Manually specify the installation options. For UCS systems, only one disk must be visible
(with a capacity of 500 GB). The operating system must be installed on this disk. If a prior
installation of an operating system exists, choose a reclaim space option, which allows
the installer to wipe the drive and remove all existing partitions before starting the
install. Choose Software Selection > Minimal Install.

Step 7 Once the options specified above have been selected, click Begin Installation.

Installing Oracle 8
The Digital Content Manager installer delivers all the required dependencies and can be installed on a
minimalOracle 8 without an internet connection. However, we highly recommend that you have an
internet connection or a local up-to-date rpm repository to receive and install security updates.

Procedure

Step 1 Log in to the CIMC GUI for the UCS box and open the KVM console.

Step 2 From the KVM console menu, choose Virtual Media > Activate Virtual Devices .

Step 3 Choose Virtual Media > Map CD/DVD to specify a path to the ISO image.

Step 4 After mapping this image, reboot the box and boot from the ISO. This can be done in one
of two ways:

■ Press <F6> while the system is starting up to show to the boot menu, and select KVM
Mapped DVD.
■ Change the boot order in the CIMC web GUI and set a KVM mapped DVD type as the
first boot device. The boot order in the CIMC web GUI can be accessed from Server >
BIOS and selecting Configure Boot Order.

Step 5 Once the system boots from this ISO, choose Install Oracle 8 from the menu.

Step 6 Manually specify the installation options. For UCS systems, only one disk must be visible
(with a capacity of 500 GB). The operating system must be installed on this disk. If a prior
installation of an operating system exists, choose a reclaim space option, which allows
the installer to wipe the drive and remove all existing partitions before starting the
install. Choose Software Selection > Minimal Install.

Step 7 Once the options specified above have been selected, click Begin Installation.

Step 8 Boot into the latest 4.18.0 kernel, and then remove the kernel-uek:
dnf –y remove kernel-uek

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CHAPTER 2

Digital Content Manager

Installation
If Mellanox Rivermax is to be installed on your system, please be aware that the
procedure described in Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software, on page 35
needs to be carried out before the installation of the DCM application.

This chapter describes how to install and set up the Digital Content Manager. It consists of the
following sections:

Installing the Digital Content Manager for CentOS 7 20

Installing the Digital Content Manager for Oracle 8 23

Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for Installation 30

Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital Content Manager 30

Removing the Digital Content Manager 30

Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation 31

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Installing the Digital Content Manager for CentOS 7

Synamedia provides two Digital Content Manager installers: an online and an offline installer.

For systems without access to the internet, the offline installer must be used (vdcm-installer-
<version number>.el7.zip). On systems with access to the internet, both the offline and the online
installer can be used. The online installer is vdcm-installer-online-<version number>.el7.zip.

The online installer for CentOS 7 (vdcm-installer-online-<version number>.el7.zip) is the only

installer that is also supported to be installed on Red Hat 7.

If Mellanox/Rivermax is to be installed on your system, please be aware that the

procedure described in Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software, on page 35
needs to be carried out before the installation of the DCM application.

When the online installer is used, the host must have a working connection to the following yum
repos: Centos-Base, Centos-Updates, Centos-Extras, and EPEL. If one of these repositories is not
enabled, enable it before continuing. For example, enable EPEL via:
yum install epel-release

Check that all repos are functional: yum makecache should not return any errors and must exit with
exit code 0. When in doubt, use the offline installer.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the following procedure assumes that you are using the offline installer.
The commands and output for the online installer are similar.

The installer supports an interactive wizard that guides you through the initial installation, and a non-
interactive mode which is more suitable for expert, automated, or batch configuration.

Preparation for Installing on Red Hat 7

Procedure

Step 1 Download the online DCM installer.

Step 2 Make sure the following yum repositories are enabled:

■ rhel-7-server-rpms
■ rhel-7-server-beta-rpms
■ rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
■ rhel-7-server-extras-rpms

To enable use this command:

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subscription-manager repos \
--enable="rhel-7-server-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-7-server-beta-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-7-server-optional-rpms" \
--enable="rhel-7-server-extras-rpms"

Step 3 Install the EPEL yum repository by following this guide:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL

Installing the DCM Using the Interactive Procedure

Procedure

Step 1 Download the Digital Content Manager software installer file and extract the zip file to a
location of your choice (for example, /tmp/).

Step 2 Run the following command:

chmod +x vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh

Note The installer extracts into the /tmp directory and runs a setup from there.
Some systems do not allow to execute from /tmp. The installer has an
argument --tmp <DIRECTORY>. This command extracts the content to this
specified directory and runs the installer from there.

Step 3 As a root user, run the following command:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh

Step 4 Before starting the installation, several pre-checks are performed to assess if the platform
you are installing on is suited for installing the Digital Content Manager software. The
following pre-checks are performed:

■ Disk size
■ Memory size and setup
■ CPU feature
■ OS version and type

If any of the pre-checks fails, then an error or a warning is raised. A warning allows you to
carry on installing, an error stops the installation.

Step 5 Once the software is installed, the installation wizard guides you through configuring the
following items:

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■ Selecting the Ethernet interfaces for both management, video, and SDI IP (SDI-over-
IP).
■ Reverse path filtering enabling or disabling.
■ Passphrase policy configuration.
■ Setting up of the users for GUI, IIOP and REST.
■ Authentication method configuration (local or RADIUS)
■ Firewall enabling or disabling. For SDI-over-IP, the firewall must be disabled to
achieve maximum performance. In particular, FullHD is not supported with the
firewall enabled.

A default OS installation activates the firewall. If the firewall is enabled,

the customer is responsible for opening the user configurable TCP/UDP
ports on the appropriate interfaces (URC statmux, PSIG, EIS, SDI IP, local
Origin server, and so on).

■ Time synchronization configuration (NTP and/or PTP)

■ Time zone configuration
■ Local origin server configuration
■ Feature selection. Selectively enable/disable optional features

Step 6 Once the installation wizard has completed, the configuration of the system is checked
and fixed where applicable. Fixes, that cannot be performed automatically or that require
user input, are reported and must be resolved before running the software.

Installing the DCM Using the Non-Interactive Procedure

Procedure

Step 1 Download the appropriate Digital Content Manager software installer file and extract the
zip file to a location of your choice (for example, /tmp/).
Step 2 Run the following command:
chmod +x vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh

Step 3 (Optional) The installer has many optional arguments to automatically configure the
Digital Content Manager after installation. You can run the installer with the argument -
-help to get a list of all possibilities.
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --help

Step 4 As a root user, run the following command:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --non-interactive

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An example of passing some Digital Content Manager configuration arguments:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --non-interactive --set-interface-mgmt ens192
--set-interface-video ens168 --service-enable-all --ntp-add-server 1.1.1.1

If no configuration arguments are supplied, and Digital Content Manager was not previously enabled
on the system, the default values are used to configure the Digital Content Manager. These defaults
enable all Digital Content Manager features. If (a previous version of) Digital Content Manager was
already enabled on the system, the existing feature selection will be left unchanged.

Installing the Digital Content Manager for Oracle 8

Synamedia provides an offline Digital Content Manager installer for Oracle 8: vdcm-installer-<version
number>.el8.zip.

If Mellanox/Rivermax is to be installed on your system, please be aware that the

procedure described in Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software, on page 35
needs to be carried out before the installation of the DCM application.

The installer supports an interactive wizard that guides you through the initial installation, and a non-
interactive mode which is more suitable for expert, automated, or batch configuration.

Installing the DCM Using the Interactive Procedure

Procedure

Step 1 Download the Digital Content Manager software installer file and extract the zip file to a
location of your choice (for example, /tmp/).

Step 2 Run the following command:

chmod +x vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh

Note The installer extracts into the /tmp directory and runs a setup from there.
Some systems do not allow to execute from /tmp. The installer has an
argument --tmp <DIRECTORY>. This command extracts the content to this
specified directory and runs the installer from there.

Step 3 As a root user, run the following command:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh

Step 4 Before starting the installation, several pre-checks are performed to assess if the platform
you are installing on is suited for installing the Digital Content Manager software. The
following pre-checks are performed:

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■ Disk size
■ Memory size and setup
■ CPU feature
■ OS version and type

If any of the pre-checks fails, then an error or a warning is raised. A warning allows you to
carry on installing, an error stops the installation.

Step 5 Once the software is installed, the installation wizard guides you through configuring the
following items:

■ Selecting the Ethernet interfaces for both management, video, and SDI IP (SDI-over-
IP).
■ Reverse path filtering enabling or disabling.
■ Passphrase policy configuration.
■ Setting up of the users for GUI, IIOP and REST.
■ Authentication method configuration (local or RADIUS)
■ Firewall enabling or disabling. For SDI-over-IP, the firewall must be disabled to
achieve maximum performance. In particular, FullHD is not supported with the
firewall enabled.

A default OS installation activates the firewall. If the firewall is enabled,

the customer is responsible for opening the user configurable TCP/UDP
ports on the appropriate interfaces (URC statmux, PSIG, EIS, SDI IP, local
Origin server, and so on).

■ Time synchronization configuration (NTP and/or PTP)

■ Time zone configuration
■ Local origin server configuration
■ Feature selection. Selectively enable/disable optional features

Step 6 Once the installation wizard has completed, the configuration of the system is checked
and fixed where applicable. Fixes, that cannot be performed automatically or that require
user input, are reported and must be resolved before running the software.

Installing the DCM Using the Non-Interactive Procedure

Procedure

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Step 1 Download the appropriate Digital Content Manager software installer file and extract the
zip file to a location of your choice (for example, /tmp/).
Step 2 Run the following command:
chmod +x vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh

Step 3 (Optional) The installer has many optional arguments to automatically configure the
Digital Content Manager after installation. You can run the installer with the argument -
-help to get a list of all possibilities.
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --help

Step 4 As a root user, run the following command:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --non-interactive

An example of passing some Digital Content Manager configuration arguments:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --non-interactive --set-interface-mgmt ens192
--set-interface-video ens168 --service-enable-all --ntp-add-server 1.1.1.1

If no configuration arguments are supplied, and Digital Content Manager was not previously enabled
on the system, the default values are used to configure the Digital Content Manager. These defaults
enable all Digital Content Manager features. If (a previous version of) Digital Content Manager was
already enabled on the system, the existing feature selection will be left unchanged.

Extra Steps After Installing DCM for Oracle 8

Note This section describes important extra steps required to install Digital Content Manager
software on Oracle 8 systems managed by UEFI with secure boot enabled.

Since Linux kernel version 4.4.0, user-installed kernel modules must be signed on systems with secure
boot enabled. If you are not sure if this configuration is applicable to your system, please check the
following:

mokutil --sb-state

When this command returns the information that SecureBoot is enabled, your system is UEFI managed
with secure boot enabled. Anything else means that it is not.

If you install the Digital Content Manager on such a system, the installation will fail, returning an error
indicating that the installation procedure could not install the Synamedia kernel modules due to a
missing key. In order to install the Synamedia kernel key, the following procedure must be followed.

Procedure

Step 1 After installation of the Digital Content Manager software, add the Synamedia key by
executing as root:
mokutil --import /etc/ssl/certs/synamedia_kmod.der

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Step 2 The tool will prompt you for a password that you will need to complete Step 9 below.
This is only a temporary password, so you can choose any password you like.

To verify whether these actions have worked correctly, mokutil --list-new must list the
new key.

Step 3 Enroll the key to the kernel by powering off your machine, and enable the option to start
up in the UEFI manager at the next boot:

Step 4 Next, boot your system and enroll the key. Go to Boot normally in the EFI setup screen
and enter:

Step 5 Press any key within 10 seconds to enter the MOK manager:

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Step 6 Go to Enroll MOK:

Step 7 Optionally, you can view and verify the key that you are going to enroll. Next, go to
Continue:

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Step 8 In the next screen, select Yes:

Step 9 Next, enter the password that was chosen in Step 2. After this, the password will not be
needed anymore.

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Step 10 In the next screen, select Reboot:

Step 11 When the system is up again, you use vdcm-configure check to verify that there are no
more errors. For more information about this, refer to Checking and Fixing the
Configuration, on page 41.

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Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for

Installation
The following command shows a list of the available Digital Content Manager versions from the local
yum repository or any other repository configured in yum on the system:
vdcm-repo versions

Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital

Content Manager
These installations can be done by running the installer of the desired version.

Another way to install the specific Digital Content Manager version is using vdcm-repo as described in
previous topic. This only works if the rpms of the specific Digital Content Manager version are
available on the local rpm repository, or in another repository that is configured in yum and is
accessible.

Note The following option is only available if the already installed Digital Content Manager
version, as well as the version that will be installed, are both higher than or equal to
V20.2.0.

A third way to upgrade, downgrade or reinstall the Digital Content Manager is via the GUI. Upload the
zip file obtained from the Synamedia portal (Configuration > Node > Version Info) and click on the
Install icon in the Installer Repository list. A web server in which the upgrade progress can be followed,
will pop up. The same two actions (upload and install) can also be performed via REST; refer to the
REST documentation for details.

Removing the Digital Content Manager

The following command removes all the Digital Content Manager packages from the system:
vdcm-repo remove

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Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation

The advanced installation procedures described in this section are:

Managing the rpm Repository 32

Staging the Installation Files 32

Forcing Offline Installation 32

Forcing Online Installation 33

Updating AJA Device Firmware 33

Changing the Firmware Variant of DekTec DTA-217x Cards 34

Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software 35

Installing an OS Security Patch 38

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Note These advanced options can only be used with the offline installer.

Managing the rpm Repository

The following commands extract the contents of the installer to a directory of your choice, and copy
all the RPMs to an rpm repository:

■ For CentOS 7: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --extractonly /<your custom

path>/

■ For Oracle 8: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --extractonly /<your custom

path>/

Hosting such a repository on your network enables you to roll out updates to all your machines at
once.

For more information on how to set up the repository, refer to

https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/CreateLocalRepos.

Staging the Installation Files

The Digital Content Manager packages can be staged for installation. The installer only copies the
Digital Content Manager RPMs to the local DCM rpm repository and it does NOT install it to the target
system.

To stage the RPMs, use one of the following commands:

■ For CentOS 7: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --onlyrepo

■ For Oracle 8: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --onlyrepo

To perform the final upgrade of the package, use the vdcm-repo command. This command is installed
with the vdcm-local-repo RPM.

■ To upgrade to the latest version, use the following command:

vdcm-repo install vdcm

■ To install a specific version, use the following command, in which <actual version number> is the
version you want to install:
vdcm-repo install vdcm-<actual version number>

The vdcm-repo command upgrades or downgrades to the specified version automatically.

Forcing Offline Installation

When the target system has no internet connection, the installer will detect this and perform an offline
install. If the detection did not happen correctly or you deliberately want to perform an offline install,
use one of the following commands:

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■ For CentOS 7: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --forceInstallFromLocalRepo

■ For Oracle 8: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --forceInstallFromLocalRepo

This argument causes all other rpm repositories to be temporarily disabled. The installation will be
done only from the newly created or updated local rpm repository.

Forcing Online Installation

The installer detects if an rpm repository on the target system is not accessible. In this case, it will
install the Digital Content Manager only using its own local rpm repository. If the installer still wants to
use the configured rpm repositories of the target system instead, this check can be bypassed with:

■ For CentOS 7: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el7.sh --disableInternetCheck

■ For Oracle 8: ./vdcm-installer-<version number>.el8.sh --disableInternetCheck

Updating AJA Device Firmware

Update the firmware of each Corvid88 board that is connected to your host. The Corvid88 firmware .bit
files and the firmware installer tool are located in the folder /opt/vdcm/share/aja.

Note We strongly advise you to install the first card in the first PCIe slot of the server. This
prevents problems if a second card must be installed.

Procedure

Step 1 Go to the installer directory:

cd /opt/vdcm/share/aja

Step 2 To check the board type and installed firmware timestamp, type the following command,
where <board number> is the board number (0, 1, and so on):
./ntv2firmwareinstaller -b <board number> -i

The following is an example of the output:

Running Bitfile: 2017/05/30 15:08:33
Main Bitfile: 'corvid_88;COMPRESS=TRUE' 2017/05/30 16:43:45

The firmware timestamp of the running version is 2017/05/30.

Step 3 Check the firmware timestamp (dd-mm-yy) in the provided Corvid88 .bit file. If the
timestamp of the installed firmware (output of previous command) is older than the
timestamp in the provided firmware file, or if the output does not display a firmware
timestamp, update the firmware.

Step 4 To update the firmware, enter the following command, where <Corvid88 file> is the
provided firmware file:

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./ntv2firmwareinstaller -b <board number> -p <Corvid88 file>

Step 5 Repeat Step 1 to Step 3 for each board that is connected to your host.

Step 6 Shut down the host:

shutdown

Step 7 Power off the server.

Note Rebooting the operating system is not sufficient. The server must be shut
down completely.

Step 8 Power up the server.

Step 9 Enter the following command for each board to verify if the new firmware is loaded on all
boards:
./ntv2firmwareinstaller -b <board number> -i

Changing the Firmware Variant of DekTec DTA-217x Cards

DCM supports the following DekTec PCIe cards for SDI input:

■ DTA-2172 (2 SDI ports)

■ DTA-2174B (4 SDI ports)
■ DTA-2178 (8 SDI ports)

The DTA-2174B and DTA-2178 card can be configured in three different firmware variants.

To check the actual variants of the DekTec cards present in the server, use either the command:
/opt/vdcm/share/dektec/DtInfoCL64

or:
/opt/vdcm/share/dektec/DtEpc64 -d 0

in a shell on the server.

An example output of the DtInfoCL64 command for a server with one DTA-2178 card is shown
below:

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An example output of the DtPce64 command for a server with a DTA-2172 and a DTA-2174B card is
shown below:

In order to change the firmware of the DTA-2174B card to variant 2 in the latter example, apply the
DtEpc64 command with the option -d to select the device, and the option -fv to select the
firmware variant:

To complete, reboot the server.

Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software

Rivermax can be used by the DCM to process SMPTE 2022-6 and SMPTE 2110 streams more efficiently
with ConnectX-5 or ConnectX-6 NICs. Rivermax needs to be purchased directly from Mellanox or one of
its resellers.

Procedure

Note It is recommended to install Mellanox/Rivermax before the installation of the DCM

application, in which case Step 1 can be skipped.

Step 1 Remove any previously installed DCM software after logging in to the device as root and
entering one of the following commands:

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■ For CentOS 7: yum remove "vdcm*"

■ For Oracle 8: dnf remove "vdcm*"

Step 2 To successfully install the Rivermax software, ensure that you have an Internet
connection. If you do not have an Internet connection, contact the Synamedia Customer
Service Desk for assistance.

Step 3 To check which card is installed, run the following command as root:
lspci | grep Mellanox | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -i -r lspci -vv -s {} |
grep -A10 "Vital Product Data"

Step 4 To install MLNX_EN, download the package from

https://www.mellanox.com/products/ethernet-drivers/linux/mlnx_en, for example:

■ For CentOS 7, use mlnx-en-5.2-1.0.4.0-rhel7.9-x86_64.tgz

■ For Oracle 8, use mlnx-en-5.3-1.0.0.1-ol8.3-x86_64.tgz

Rivermax can work with either the MLNX_EN package or the MLNX_OFED package. Only
the MLNX_EN option is described here, since the package is much smaller in size and will
take less time to download and install. The card firmware is included in the package and
will also be updated when MLNX_EN is installed.

Step 5 Execute the following commands:

■ Example for CentOS 7:

tar xvf mlnx-en-5.2-1.0.4.0-rhel7.9-x86_64.tgz

cd mlnx-en-5.2-1.0.4.0-rhel7.9-x86_64
sudo ./install --vma --force --force-fw-update
sudo systemctl restart openibd

■ Example for Oracle 8:

tar xvf mlnx-en-5.3-1.0.0.1-ol8.3-x86_64.tgz

cd mlnx-en-5.3-1.0.0.1-ol8.3-x86_64
sudo ./install --vma --force --force-fw-update
sudo systemctl restart openibd

Step 6 If a message appears informing you that the drivers need to be rebuilt, follow the
instructions by running the install and append --add-kernel-support.

Step 7 If a message appears informing you that there are conflicting packages between external
repos and the vdcm-deps repo, do the following:

a) Execute uname -a command and take note of the Kernel version.

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b) Go to one of the following URLs to find the matching kernel-devel package:

http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/updates/x86_64/Packages/.

■ For CentOS 7: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/updates/x86_64/Packages/

■ For Oracle 8: https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/3/baseos/base/x86_64/

c) Install the matching kernel-devel package.

d) Re-run the driver install script with the rebuild option.

Step 8 If you have a previous version of Rivermax installed, you must uninstall it before installing
a new version.
yum remove rivermax

Step 9 Obtain the Rivermax package directly from Mellanox or a reseller. Next, install it by
executing the following commands:

■ For CentOS 7:

tar xvf rivermax_centos77_1.6.18.tar.gz

cd 1.6.18/centos.7.7/rpm-dist/x86_64
sudo yum install ./rivermax-11.1-7.18.el7.x86_64.rpm

■ For Oracle 8:

tar xvf rivermax_centos81_1.6.18.tar.gz

cd 1.6.18/centos.8.1/rpm-dist/x86_64
sudo dnf install ./rivermax-11.1.7.18.el8.x86_64.rpm

Step 10 Install the Rivermax license in /opt/mellanox/rivermax/rivermax.lic.

Step 11 Install the DCM software. For more information, refer to Installing the Digital Content
Manager for CentOS 7, page 20, or Installing the Digital Content Manager for Oracle 8,
page 23.

Step 12 Verify the installation using the following command:

vdcm-check-rivermax

Example output:
OFED: 5.2-1.0.4.0
VMA: 9.2.2-1
IBVERBS: 52mlnx1-1.52104
Rivermax: 11.1-7.18 (1.6.18)
enp134s0f0 mlx5_core 5.2-1.0.4 172.18.9.2
enp134s0f1 mlx5_core 5.2-1.0.4 172.18.10.2
Licensed to: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Compiled for version 11.1.7.18

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Note After reinstalling a card, a license reinstall will be required.

Note If the Rivermax software is installed, the DCM will not show the option to enable ultra
high throughput mode with netmap, because the netmap and Rivermax software are not
compatible with each other.

Installing an OS Security Patch

In some cases, it may be necessary to install an OS patch which was released by CentOS due to, for
example, a CVE alert. This section explains how to install the corresponding security patch provided by
CentOS.

When the device is able to access the CentOS update repositories on the internet, or if you have a
mirror of them available on your network, the following procedure can be applied:

Procedure

Step 1 Via SSH, log in to the device as root user.

Step 2 Execute one of the following commands:

■ For CentOS 7: yum update <package name>

■ For Oracle 8: dnf update <package name>

When the device is not able to access the OS update repositories on the internet and if you do not
have a mirror of them available on your network, you will need to carry out the procedure below:

Procedure

Step 1 Download the upgraded rpm package and all of its dependency rpms from a repository
corresponding to the version of the OS you are using, e.g. from
https://www.centos.org/centos-linux/ for CentOS 7, or https://yum.oracle.com/oracle-
linux-8.html for Oracle 8.

Step 2 Copy the rpm packages to a directory on the device, using secure copy.

Step 3 Via SSH, log in to the device as root user.

Step 4 Go to directory to which you have downloaded the rpm packages.

Step 5 Execute one of the following commands:

■ For CentOS 7: yum --disablerepo=* localinstall *.rpm

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■ For Oracle 8: dnf --disablerepo=* localinstall *.rpm

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CHAPTER 3

Digital Content Manager

Configuration
This chapter explains how to configure the Digital Content Manager after installation. It consists of the
following sections:

About the Configuration Script 41

Checking and Fixing the Configuration 41

Configuring Interfaces 42

Configuring the Passphrase Policy 43

Configuring Features 43

Configuring Users 43

Configuring Remote Authentication Settings 44

Configuring NMOS 44

Configuring the Diagnostics 46

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About the Configuration Script

The vdcm-configure script is used to check, fix, and configure low-level aspects of the Digital Content
Manager that are not exposed in the GUI or over IIOP.

By default, vdcm-configure runs in interactive mode; use the option --non-interactive for non-
interactive processing.

For help, use vdcm-configure -h or vdcm-configure [command] -h.

The vdcm-configure wizard command allows the user to re-run the installation wizard in interactive
or non-interactive mode, with all the same options as the installer.

There are specific commands, described below, to configure specific settings without running through
the entire wizard, each having an interactive or a non-interactive mode. These generally mirror the
wizard in interactive mode or non-interactive options.

Aside from the wizard options, some commands have additional options not supported by the wizard,
such as --status to query the current status.

The vdcm-configure check and vdcm-configure fix commands check for configuration errors and
apply fixes where possible.

The vdcm-configure status command displays the current overall configuration.

Note The following procedures use the vdcm-configure script which resides in /opt/vdcm/bin.
The software adds this location into the PATH environment variable, making the
shorthand version available for all users. Make sure to log on again for this change to
take effect. Otherwise, you can use the full file path to the script in the following
commands.

Checking and Fixing the Configuration

At the end of the installation procedure, the vdcm-configure script has already run its checks against
the current machine and has reported any missing prerequisites. You can run these checks again at
any time with the following command:
vdcm-configure check

Run the following command to fix the configuration:

vdcm-configure -v fix

This command attempts to fix as many issues automatically (for example, configure the firewall
daemon according to the selected mode of operation for this device) or interactively (for example,
select the networking interfaces to use for management and video traffic). If an issue is not fixable
automatically or interactively, the script indicates what you can or must do to fix the issue.

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Some fixes are only available in interactive mode because they require user input. These are skipped
when --non-interactive is passed. It is possible to limit check and fix to a specific subset with the -i
option, however using this option is not recommended unless advised by TAC. See vdcm-configure
check --help for a list of valid arguments to the -i option.

Configuring Interfaces

Assigning Interfaces
Assign the network interfaces to be used for management, video, and SDI-over-IP:

■ interactively: vdcm-configure set-interface

■ non-interactively: vdcm-configure set-interface --mgmt eth0 --video eth1.1101 --
ctrlvideo eth2 --sdiip eth3.1301

At least one management interface and one video interface (regular video or controlled video) needs
to be configured. This can be the same network interface. The maximum number of interfaces that can
be configured:

■ management: 2
■ video (regular and controlled combined): 8
■ SDI-over-IP: 8

Management interfaces, regular video interfaces and SDI-over-IP interfaces require an IPv4 IP address.
Controlled video does not require an IPv4 address — although it is allowed. Controlled video interfaces
are not allowed to be VLAN interfaces, but rather parent interfaces for VLANs.

With a controlled video interface, one can create or delete VLAN network interfaces from within the
GUI with this controlled network interface as a parent.

If you configure a network interface (e.g. eth2) as a controlled interface, you can create a new VLAN
interface with its VLAN ID and IP address from within the GUI (e.g. eth2.1201), and use this new VLAN
without restarting the software for IGMP joins by selecting the correct VLAN or TS output by entering
the VLAN ID in the Advanced Settings.

Deleting a VLAN does require a restart of the software. If the controlled interface has an IP address, it
can be used within the software by specifying the non-existent VLAN ID 0. Not all DCM features are
supported with controlled video — features like hitless merge and port-pair-mirroring, for example.

Configuring the Order of the Interfaces

Configuring the order of the (video) interfaces allows you to control the corresponding port
numbering.

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In non-interactive mode, it is sufficient to specify the interface options on the command line in the
desired order, for example:
vdcm-configure set-interface --non-interactive --mgmt mgmt1 --video video1 --ctrlvideo
video2 --video video3

In interactive mode, first the interfaces to configure are selected. Then, if more than one interface is
selected, a menu will be presented to select the desired order.

Configuring the Passphrase Policy

Configure the passphrase policy for the GUI-, REST-, and IIOP users:
vdcm-configure passphrase-policy --all

Configuring Features
Select whether this Digital Content Manager must run with the GUI, REST, ESAM, GQI, MFP monitor,
Splicer, SNMP, Diagnostics, HA sync, DekTec, KMS Proxy, Local Origin Server, NMOS, External IIOP
and/or Secure IIOP. If the Digital Content Manager must run with all of these features, run the
following command:

vdcm-configure service --enable-all

Hint: You can choose the optional features that you want to enable, such as the GUI, REST, ESAM, GQI,
MFP monitor, Splicer, SNMP, and so on:
vdcm-configure service --enable-gui --enable-rest --enable-esam --enable-gqi --enable-
mfp-monitor --enable-splicer --enable-snmp --enable-diagnostics --enable-hasync --
enable-dektec --enable-kmsproxy --enable-local-origin-server --enable-nmos --enable-
external-iiop --enable-secure-iiop

Optional features can also be enabled or disabled individually, for example:

vdcm-configure service ––disable–snmp --enable-rest

vdcm-configure service ––enable-all --disable-snmp

vdcm-configure service ––disable–all --enable-gui

Configuring Users
The Digital Content Manager software uses PAM to authenticate users (see /etc/pam.d/vdcm*),
directing the requests to a custom Python script that compares the authentication details with the
users database. This database can be manipulated using the vdcm-configure user command,
supporting extra and removal of users, changing passphrases, and changing roles. The available roles
are IIOP admin, REST user, GUI admin, GUI automation, GUI user, and GUI guest. If you have a
management system like VSM, configure credentials to allow access.

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If the GUI is to be enabled, add GUI users to authenticate with the GUI service using the following
command:
vdcm-configure user --add <username> --passphrase <passphrase> --gui-admin

If REST is to be enabled, add users to authenticate with the REST service using the following
command:
vdcm-configure user --add <username> --passphrase <passphrase> --rest-user

Note Unless IPsec or another form of host-to-host security is used, the credentials that you
change over a network connection may be visible to others.

Configuring Remote Authentication Settings

The Digital Content Manager software authenticates users with a local database by default, but user
accounts can also be managed by a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server. To
allow the user accounts configured on the RADIUS server to access the Digital Content Manager, you
can use the vdcm-configure authentication command to configure the Digital Content Manager
software as a RADIUS client.

Configuring NMOS
Note NMOS configuration is only supported on CentOS 7.

The Digital Content Manager package includes the installation of NMOS (Networked Media Open
Specifications), an AMWA product which provides discovery, registration and control for the SMPTE
ST2110 suite. The DCM provides support to manually add a registry or to perform automatic
registration with unicast DNS or multicast DNS discovery following the DNS Service Discovery
protocol.

Enabling the NMOS Service

The NMOS service can be enabled via vdcm-configure. As the NMOS service makes use of REST, the
REST service also needs to be enabled with NMOS:
vdcm-configure service --enable-nmos --enable-rest

Viewing the Status of the NMOS Service

Via vdcm-configure, the status of the NMOS service can be retrieved:
vdcm-configure nmos --status

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This will show the NMOS API port, indicate whether manual or automatic registration is
enabled/disabled, and show the corresponding configuration options. It will also show the registration
status and the selected NMOS registry address, if automatic discovery is enabled.

Configuring the NMOS service interactively

By executing the following command, the NMOS configuration can be performed interactively:
vdcm-configure nmos

This tool will ask you if you wish to change the API port, and if you want to use manual or automatic
discovery. For manual discovery, a registry IP will be needed in the form of <IP> or <IP>:<port>. For
automatic discovery, the tool will ask you if you want to enable or disable unicast DNS discovery, and
multicast DNS discovery. For unicast DNS discovery, if required, name servers and a search domain
can be specified.

Configuring the NMOS service non-interactively

The NMOS configuration can be performed without user interaction by executing the command:
vdcm-configure nmos

followed by a space and:

--port <PORT>

--registry <REGISTRY> or, to remove: --remove-registry

--enable-unicast-dns or, to disable: --disable-unicast-dns

--enable-multicast-dns or, to disable: --disable-multicast-dns

--nameservers <NAMESERVERS> or, to remove: --remove-nameservers

--searchdomain <SEARCHDOMAIN> or, to remove: --remove-searchdomain

where:

<PORT> is the API port of the NMOS service.

<REGISTRY> is the registry used for manual discovery mode (when applicable).The format is <IP>
or <IP>:<PORT>.

<NAMESERVERS> is a space-delimited list of name servers used for unicast DNS discovery (when
applicable).

<SEARCHDOMAIN> is the search domain for unicast DNS discovery (when applicable).

Note If the registry is specified, the DCM will assume manual discovery mode and will ignore all
options regarding unicast/multicast DNS discovery, if provided.

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Tip: the entire NMOS configuration help section can be displayed upon entering:
vdcm-configure nmos –help

Configuring the Diagnostics

The Digital Content Manager installation package includes the installation of Collectd, Influxdb, and
Grafana. Collectd is a daemon that gathers system statistics. Influxdb is a high performance time-
series database, used for storing all the system and the Digital Content Manager metrics. Grafana is a
graphical interface used for visualizing time series data.

Collectd and Influxdb are configured with the supplied configuration in the installer.

Note The general configuration of Influxdb is overwritten.

To apply the diagnostics configuration to Collectd and Influxdb, type the following vdcm-configure
command:
vdcm-configure diagnostics --configure

By default, all the diagnostic services are disabled. To enable the diagnostic services, type the
following vdcm-configure command:
vdcm-configure diagnostics --enable

Note
■ When diagnostic services are enabled, the configuration is performed automatically and the
dashboards are installed in Grafana.
■ When a new Digital Content Manager version is installed and the diagnostic services are
enabled, the new diagnostics configuration is applied automatically.

Displaying the Metrics

Grafana is used to display the Digital Content Manager and system statistics. When enabling and
configuring Digital Content Manager diagnostics, Grafana is started, but not configured. The following
procedure describes how to configure Grafana.

Automatic Configuration
The configuration tool vdcm-configure can set up a Grafana instance. It configures the data sources
and uploads the Digital Content Manager dashboards. This action is done automatically by enabling
the diagnostics service or all services or to run vdcm-configure diagnostics --configure. To perform the
Grafana setup manually run:
vdcm-configure diagnostics --configure-grafana

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Grafana requires administrator rights to set up data sources. The configuration of Grafana is done with
the default Grafana credentials. If authentication does not succeed, a username and password are
asked. A Grafana username and password can be provided as arguments.
vdcm-configure diagnostics --configure-grafana --grafana-user admin --grafana-password
admin

Or combining the enabling and entire configuration of diagnostics:

vdcm-configure diagnostics --enable --grafana-user admin --grafana-password admin

Manual Configuration
Procedure

Step 1 Ensure that diagnostics is enabled. For more information, see Configuring the
Diagnostics, on page 46.
Step 2 From the Digital Content Manager GUI, choose Help > Diagnostics.
Step 3 Click the Node tab and then click the Open Grafana in a new tab/window link in the
Debug Mode area.
Step 4 Log in to Grafana. The default user is admin, and the default password is admin. We
highly recommend that you maintain a more secure password policy for Grafana.
Step 5 Add data sources in Grafana:
a) If no organization has been configured yet, create one in the Server Admin field.
b) In the Settings field, select Data Sources.
c) Click Add data source and select InfluxDB.
d) In the Name field, enter local-collectddb.
e) From the Type drop-down list, choose InfluxDB.
f) In the Url field, enter http://localhost:8086.
g) In the Database field, enter collectddb.
h) In the User field, enter admin, and in the Password field, enter admin.
i) Click Save & Test.
Step 6 Configure a second data source:
a) In the Settings field, select Data Sources.
b) Click Add data source.
c) In the Name field, enter local-vDCMdb.
d) From the Type drop-down list, choose InfluxDB.
e) In the Url field, enter http://localhost:8086.
f) In the Database field, enter vDCMdb.

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g) In the User field, enter admin, and in the Password field, enter admin.
h) Click Save & Test.
Step 7 Import a Digital Content Manager dashboard:
a) From the Digital Content Manager web GUI, choose Help > Diagnostics.
b) In the Debug Mode area, click the Download the Diagnostics Templates link.
c) Extract the ZIP file containing the template JSON files.
d) Refer to the Grafana window.
e) In the Create field, click Import.
f) Click Upload .json File.
g) Select the template you wish to import.
h) From the local-vdcmdb drop-down list, choose local-vDCMdb.
i) If the local-collectdb field is displayed, choose local-collectddb from the drop-down
list.
j) Click Save & Open. The diagnostic graphs are displayed. The following is an example:

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