Tools & Utilities
Diagnostic Web Server (DWS)
48 min
the diagnostic web server (dws) is a built in web service on all brightsign players it provides valuable info and functions, including key player info such as uptime, serial number, system logs, and real‑time screenshots of the display output diagnostic tools to troubleshoot issues the ability to modify some player settings and apply os updates important note regarding player settings in the dws if a player is registered to bsn content, player settings are stored on bsn cloud while the dws may enable temporary changes to player settings, bsn cloud remains the ultimate "source of truth" and will override any local settings upon player reboots it is therefore recommended to modify player settings using the properties panel in brightauthor\ connected or by using cloud apis, both of which will update the player settings in bsn cloud this also applies to players registered to bsn control with docid\ a6ali6u szxhuansk6t3 explicitly disabled (by default, property lock is enabled) the above is only a partial list the dws' full capabilities are covered below local vs remote access the dws can be accessed in two ways l ocally , over the local network or via a serial connection remotely , over the internet through bsn cloud (either the free docid 6fdtqjwewi 2rn4hpudwa or the paid docid 7sqjdlzkp5fqzdp4hnsxv ) while the dws offers substantially the same features whether accessed locally or remotely, some differences do exist as noted below local access to the dws is disabled by default as of brightsignos 9 0 218 (on the 9 0 branch) and brightsignos 9 1 75 (on the 9 1 branch) in brightsignos versions prior to these, local access to the dws was enabled by default note that some specially configured players have the external microsd card port and usb storage disabled at the factory (sku svc internal storage only) for these players, local access to the dws remains enabled by default for info on accessing the dws locally, see docid\ iafcherljfjdjtwttkpk5 for info on accessing the dws remotely, see docid\ xue20rjxhft lq0rdmjbw the dws is organized by a horizontal row of tabs, each one with a different set of functions descriptions for each tab are detailed in the expandable sections below info this tab provides general information about the player and its current status time this feature is only available locally the current time as it is configured on the player when the dws is accessed locally, you can select the time icon (clock icon) to configure the time on the player automatically click use client to set the time of the player using the current time of the browser/application manually enter a time and date to set on the player these values will go into effect the moment you click the set time button if you would like to interpret the date/time using the time zone of the player, check the apply timezone box otherwise, the date/time will be applied as a utc value the player's time zone cannot be edited from the dws to change the time zone, you will need to apply a new docid\ xnnxywmv09iegziit7rwa to the player name the user supplied name of the player description an optional user supplied description for the player model the model number of the player unique id the serial number of the player \<ethernet/wifi> ip the ip address of the player \<ethernet/wifi> mac the media access control (mac) address of the player \<ethernet/wifi> ipv6 the ipv6 address of the player boot version the current version of the primary boot loader brightsignos version the current os version installed on the player video mode the current video output resolution you can change the video resolution in the video tab uptime the amount of time the player has been powered on and working correctly power source displays the power source (e g , ac or poe) poe the status of the poe interface (applicable to poe capable models only) extensions the info tab will include this field if the player has one or more extensions installed log this tab provides a log of system processes and events on the player the output is similar to the info generated through a serial connection download log download the current log refresh retrieve new log information from the player download crash dump retrieve information about the most recent crash on the player (if one has occurred); this is useful data for brightsign support when troubleshooting control this tab allows general control of the system processes of the player set password setting a password for the dws is only required when accessing the dws locally a password is not required for remote access of the dws as security is provided by the brightauthor\ connected app set a new password for dws authentication on the local network the password must be at least 8 characters long and include at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one special character reboot player reboot the player reboot with crash report reboot the player and save a crash report file to the "brightsign dumps" folder brightsign support may request the crash report when helping you troubleshoot the player factory reset perform a docid\ yncf7p2pyzo2qedf1jyim of the player this resets the player to its factory defaults, erasing all persistent registry settings for networking, security, and other applications in some cases, a player should be reprovisioned instead of a factory reset see docid\ cyl9kpm02co5rgcb9wqqv recovery url set a recovery url which is used by the player to perform content recovery in the event of an autorun related failure reset ssh host keys reset the ssh host key and reboot the player reset default dws certificates this feature is only available remotely reset the default dws certificates and reboot the player reprovision player this feature is only available remotely as covered in the docid\ d1tz0hy4bh9ngcvuoe3of section, setting up a player for use involves applying a docid\ xnnxywmv09iegziit7rwa to the player, and applying a setup to a player using bsn cloud is known as provisioning applying a new setup to a player which already has a setup requires a process known as reprovisioning it is important to understand that from brightauthor\ connected's docid\ cyl9kpm02co5rgcb9wqqv screen, a new setup can be applied to a player, a process which associates the player with the new setup importantly, however, the new setup will not actually take effect on the player until the player is explicitly reprovisioned (more details docid\ cyl9kpm02co5rgcb9wqqv ) which is the function of this section of the dws the reprovision player function performs the following clears the player's storage device (e g , microsd card) deletes the player's registry settings note that the player's network settings are unaffected updates the player's setup if the setup includes new network settings, then those network settings will be incorporated reboots the player in addition to brightauthor\ connected, a new setup can also be applied using the post and put api operations (see docid\ tckwb 5lqo95f6scssthi and docid dnq1coar6vi0o 1dpsm ) as with applying a setup to a player using brightauthor\ connected, the player must be reprovisioned for the setup to actually take effect sd / ssd / usb this tab provides information related to the storage device attached to the player the title of the tab will reflect the interface that the storage device is using to connect to the player for example, the sd tab will be displayed if a microsd card is attached to the player storage information select view to get more information about the player's storage device such as the health of the storage device, size of the storage device, percentage of storage used, etc storage encryption the ability to encrypt a player's storage device is available for all series 5 players except the xc line (support coming soon) using docid\ mffirxg0fmnmyqw5dzcyx or later players must be running docid 1j8zfs6d81vbmbgkbrn2j or later the storage encryption state indicates whether encryption is enabled or disabled the available encryption methods are brightsign key this is a common key across all brightsign players unique key this is a randomly generated key that can only be used for this player password this enables the setting of a custom password to be used as the encryption key storage encryption necessarily requires reformatting of the storage device which erases all content encrypting the storage device may result in the player losing its association with bsn cloud it is therefore recommended to check the option to "automatically reprovision with bsn cloud" to ensure that the player is able to successfully reassociate with bsn cloud after the encryption process upload files upload files to the player’s storage device (e g , microsd card) files are uploaded to the currently selected directory to upload files, click the browse button to select one or more files, then click upload files the maximum allowable size for files uploaded remotely is 10 mb aside from storage device capacity limits, there are no file size limitations for files uploaded locally listing provides a listing of all files on the storage device depending on the type of file, there will be several options open folder click a folder (indicated by the folder icon) to view its contents download click the download icon to download a file to your computer file downloads are limited to 10 mb on the remote dws file options click the gears icon to view more options associated with the file about \<filename> provides the file size and last modified date rename provides various options for renaming the file you can specify a custom name or choose from among a list of common filenames use caution if renaming a file to "autorun brs" the system does not check the integrity of the new autorun file analyze media file performs media analysis of a video or audio file delete click the trashcan icon to delete the file from the storage device diagnostics this tab provides various network and system tools that are helpful for diagnosing problems and getting information about a player network configuration view extensive info about network interface settings such as interface names, ip address, dns servers, etc network diagnostics run network diagnostics to check all ethernet, wi fi, modem, and internet connections this process may take some time to complete, especially when certain tests fail dns lookup test the specified dns address to check whether name resolution is working ping ping a device with the specified ip address or dns name trace route perform a standard traceroute diagnostic on the specified ip/dns address check the resolve ip addresses box to resolve the specified dns name chromium debugging this feature lets you enable the javascript console if you have also selected enable javascript console in brightauthor\ connected ( presentation > state properties > options ) to disable the javascript console, uncheck the checkbox the console should only be enabled for presentations that are not in production, since it can cause memory and security issues if not using brightauthor\ connected, the javascript console can be enabled through apis via docid\ xljq5 yhdma2ssmpzimtk or docid\ pmpuh3a0vr8ohjopsjwo7 network neighborhood display info about all players residing on the same local network network packet capture allows for the capture and collection of live network packet data over the network interfaces connected to the player disable autorun force the player to reboot and disable the autorun script when the player restarts this allows the player to display the os version and ip address on screen (if the player is connected to a local network) if the player has a serial port, you will be able to access the brightsign shell over a null modem serial cable storage formatting this t akes you to the format storage page, which allows you to format storage devices attached to the player storage devices that are currently unformatted can be directly formatted from here if the storage device already contains an autorun file, the autorun must first be disabled using the disable autorun function described above before proceeding with formatting of the storage device storage select a storage device from the drop down menu ( sd , ssd , or usb ) file system select a docid\ mgdefc6yvkibeiuxh9j1o to use when formatting the storage device ssh telnet access to players is no longer available in the local dws or remote dws as of brightauthor\ connected 1 67 0, brightsignos 9 0 218 (on the 9 0 branch), and brightsignos 9 1 70 (on the 9 1 branch) telnet can still be enabled via brightscript or javascript for more details on telnet, see docid\ l0l gyihavtdbci9ffcqh enables ssh on the player which lets you access the brightsign application console when the serial port (the default i/o for the application console) is inaccessible for security reasons, enabling ssh in a production environment is not recommended ssh access is available in most os versions and can be enabled by using a custom script or by writing the registry key registry write networking ssh 22 enabling ssh via the dws, however, is only available in brightsignos 9 0 110 or 8 5 46 and above enable ssh enter the ssh port number (22 is the default) ssh password enter the ssh password the password must be at least 8 characters long and include at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one special character screenshots (snapshots) this tab allows you to view screenshots of what the player is displaying click the new screenshot button to take a screenshot once the screenshot has been taken, you can click the thumbnail to view a full size image of the screenshot as of brightsignos 8 5 31, screenshots are captured at resolution with a maximum size of hd select return the screenshot at its original resolution (do not downscale to hd) to get the screenshot at a higher resolution video this tab provides several diagnostic tools related to the player's video settings hdmi status whether each player's hdmi® connection (indicated as hdmi 1, hdmi 2, etc ) is “active” or “inactive” current video mode this is the video resolution currently being output on the hdmi connection if the player has multiple hdmi connections, each hdmi connection will be numbered (e g , hdmi 1, hdmi 2, etc ) if the player is set to a 4k video mode, this field will also indicate whether the 10 bit color space and/or hdr (high dynamic range) is currently being output power save disables hdmi output, the syncs for vga output, and/or the dac output for component video for each hdmi connection (indicated as hdmi 1, hdmi 2, etc ) the absence of a signal will cause some monitors to go into standby mode edid information displays the edid data returned from one or more monitors attached to the player’s hdmi ports (indicated as hdmi 1, hdmi 2, etc ) this info can be copied and pasted into a text editor change video mode changes the display mode / resolution of the player on all video outputs (hdmi®, vga, and component) the player will reboot and automatically disable the current autorun script (similar to the disable autorun button in the diagnostics tab) it the autorun script is not disabled, the autorun script will reset the video mode of the player it is important to note that this behavior applies to both brightauthor\ connected presentations as well as custom applications if the dws is used to temporarily change the player's video mode, you will need to reboot the player once again to return it the player the video mode set in its presentation or custom application advanced this tab includes the options below brightsignos update specific brightsignos versions are required for each player model / family if you attempt to update your player's os with an os for a different player model, you will get an error select one of the update options described below, and then select update to download that version to your player, which will then reboot production os the latest production brightsignos release for your player model beta os the latest beta version of the brightsignos for your player model minimum os the minimum brightsignos version that can run on your player custom url provide a player accessible url containing the desired brightsignos version, hosted by either you or brightsign example https //brightsignnetwork com/download/fturhan/firmware/cobra 9 0 110 update bsfw storage location by default, the dws will display tabs for all active external storage devices (e g , sd, ssd, usb) in addition, you can also temporarily view and access the player's internal storage enter the desired internal storage location (e g , flash, tmp) and select view a tab for the specified internal storage will be created this tab is temporary and will only be displayed for the current dws session; subsequent dws sessions will not automatically show this tab note that if you enter a storage device that is already listed, you will get an error in the example above, entering sd will result in an error because the sd tab is already being displayed brightsignos logs select the level of detail you prefer in the brightsignos logs and then select set to apply that setting the highest logging level will be included when lower logging levels are selected (for example, if you select info , error and warn loggings will be included as well) these are the logging levels error critical errors or failures in the application warn warnings about potential issues that are not critical but may require attention info informational messages about the application's normal operations this is the default logging level trace detailed tracing information, typically used for debugging property lock allows you to decide if your presentation settings should be overwritten or not for more info on property lock, see docid\ a6ali6u szxhuansk6t3 registry this tab allows you to view and edit the player's registry select view registry dump to view the player registry you can copy the output to the clipboard or download it to a text file to submit registry commands, add registry entries, or delete registry entries, enter that information in the empty field under command and then select submit you must reboot the player to see changes to the registry this page describes the dws for brightsignos 8 and later refer to the pdf below for documentation on the dws prior to brightsignos 8