Managing ODU devices

Supervisor 9 provides two different basic concepts for managing and observing ODU devices; these concepts are called Monitor view and Terminal view. Monitor view uses the "ODU Monitor" dialog to observe ODU status via a set of Windows dialog boxes, while in Terminal view the CommPort dialog is used to send commands to a selected unit, and unit's response is scrolled in the terminal window.

Note that these two views are not mutually exclusive; users can freely switch between the Monitor and CommPort (Terminal) dialogs; this topic seeks to present different ways in which users can use Svr9 to manage their ODU equipment.

Monitor view

The ODU Monitor dialog box provides a tabbed group of dialogs which provide a concise summary of the state of the attached ODU(s). There is one tab for each discovered device. The Properties button (or the auto-read function on the CommPort dialog) will initially read and display all relevant data for the device. Enabling the Polling function will cause the program to periodically read the device status information and update the displayed fields. (The default polling period is 10 seconds; this can be altered via the Options dialog, accessible from the CommPort dialog).

Commands can be sent to the selected device via the Send Cmd, Send Buffer, or Send File buttons, but the responses from any of these tools are displayed in the CommPort terminal window. The only functions which update the Monitor displays are Properties and Polling. See the Monitor tabs topic for more information on using the Monitor view.

Note: if the auto-read function is enabled, the Odu Monitor dialog will be placed on top of the other dialogs when the program is started.

Terminal view

Though the Monitor view provides a convenient summary of the device's status, some people are more comfortable with a command-line/terminal interface. Svr9 provides a terminal interface via the CommPort dialog. Commands are entered in the Command field and sent (via the Send Cmd button) to the device selected in the Serial Number field; responses are displayed in the terminal window.

Svr9 provides a set of internal commands in the CommPort command field, to provide access to functions which are otherwise made available on the Monitor dialog. See the Internal Commands topic for discussion of the Svr9 internal commands.

Note: if the auto-read function is *not* enabled, the CommPort (Terminal) dialog will be placed on top of the other dialogs when the program is started.