Before Eton Ingenious can be installed, some requirements must be met.
Server
The server, virtual or physical, should be dedicated to only Eton Services software and its dependencies. It is NOT recommended to use this machine for any other purpose.
Server including related equipment is supplied by the Customer.
- Dedicated virtual or physical machine placed in house, in a protected environment. Cloud servers are not supported.
- Wired ethernet access to rest of system, WiFi is not supported
- Power through Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
- Remote access (see below for details on how to configure remote access)
- Firewall rules configured according to specification
Specification for Medium/Large System (40+ stations)
- Windows Server 2019 or later, English language version
- CPU with equivalent or better performance of Intel Xeon 5118 (server-grade) or Intel Core-i9 12900K (consumer-grade)
- x86-64-v3 or later (see Microarchitecture levels for more info).
- Minimum 4 cores
- 32 GB DDR4 RAM
- Main SSD Hard drive 500GB
- Network storage is NOT supported for main drive, only local drives
- SLC NAND recommended (read more)
Small Systems
For small systems, the recommendations can be relaxed a bit, but check with your contact at Eton Systems before purchasing a machine.
Virtual/Physical Machine
The server may either be set up as a virtual machine on Hyper-V or other VM host architecture, or installed directly on a physical machine. We recommend the virtual machine approach to more easily manage full-machine backups and reduced time when recovering from a catastrophic hardware failure.
Virtual Machine (Recommended)
- Backups handled via regular full-machine backups to external media. Full machine backups should only be done outside of production hours.
- Use CPU type 'Host' for best performance
- "Bridged" networking to receive dedicated IP for the virtual machine
- Make sure adequate resources are reserved for the Eton server and not used up by other VMs running on the same host hardware
Physical Machine
- Secondary drive for backup mirroring, at least 250 gb
Remote Access
Eton Systems needs server access to perform the initial software installations and later to provide proper support. A local administrator account is required on the server for installing the Eton Ingenious software and any needed third party software. The administrator account is needed if there are any issues with production, and we often need to look at server logs and other historical data to determine how to remedy the problem.
Once initial Windows install of the the server has been performed, it is highly recommended to install our software Eton Support Connection in order for the Eton team to continue with the installation. Email your contact at Eton Systems for a link to download this software.
If company IT policies require different software to be used for remote access, support response times can not be guaranteed.
There are two required steps during the installation of this software:
- Enter your company name
- Grant remote access by clicking the checkbox
Once this is done, contact Eton Systems to resume the server setup.
Software
Windows update
We recommend performing Windows Updates outside of production hours. After updates are applied, Windows should be allowed to restart automatically. Otherwise, certain services, including the Eton service, may be stopped by the OS during the update and not restarted.
Antivirus scans
The performance and functionality of the software may be adversely affected if critical folders are not excluded from antivirus scans. The recommended exclusions are:
- C:/Eton
- C:/Program Files/MongoDb
- EtonService.exe
- Eton Updater.exe
- MeltdownService.exe
Eton reserves the right to include additional exceptions beyond those listed and utilizes other third-party software that may fall under these exceptions. Customers are advised to exercise discretion and avoid overly restrictive server limitations that could affect software functionality.
Failure to follow these recommendations may result in suboptimal performance, data loss, or corruption.
The responsibility for configuring antivirus exclusions lies with the customer.
Known conflicts with 3rd party applications
Software: Datto Backup
Issue: Datto Backup causes SQL timeouts.
Impact: The main production database and associated programs become non-functional.
Resolution: Outside of production-hours, ensure the Eton-service is gracefully shut down before initiating the Datto backup. Start Eton-service when backup is complete.
Software: Kaspersky Endpoint Security
Issue: Kaspersky Endpoint Security locks MongoDB diagnostic files.
Impact: The MongoDB service fails to start, resulting in reports and historical logging being unavailable.
Resolution: Exclude the MongoDB folder (C:/Program Files/MongoDb) from Kaspersky Endpoint Security scans.
Networking
The server should be assigned a fixed IP address, and be able to communicate directly with the ICU unit, which should be on the same network - preferably even same subnet.
It is vitally important that the network connection between the ICU and server is reliable. If the network experiences abnormal latency or dropped packages the communication and functionality of the system will be impacted. The customer provides the network hardware (routers, cables, etc) and personnel to maintain the network. Eton Systems cannot be held liable for outages caused by networking issues.
To enable encrypted communication as well as easy access to the Eton UI, a local DNS entry may be created for the server. This should be set up with the domain eton.systems pointing to the server IP. The same thing can be done for the ICU devices, this time like icu1.eton.systems, icu2.eton.systems and so on.
If you try to access this domain outside of a production network you will instead be shown a warning about this, since this domain is only meant for internal network use.
Firewall
Some ports must be opened on the Eton API server to allow essential communication on the local network:
Inbound traffic
| Port | Protocol | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1883 | TCP (MQTT) | Used for communicating between server and ICU |
| 80 | TCP (HTTP) | Used for communicating between server and clients |
| 443 | TCP (HTTPS) | Used for communicating between server and clients |
| 6040 | TCP (updater, HTTP) | Used for downloading software update packages for server and ICU |
| 6041 | TCP (updater, HTTPS) | Used for downloading software update packages for server and ICU |
In addition, some hosts must be made available for outgoing traffic for updates and system health monitoring:
Outbound traffic
| Domain | Comment |
|---|---|
| ingenious.etonsystems.com | Used for documentation site as well as the Tracker (system health monitoring) |
| support-connection.ingenious.etonsystems.com | Used for Eton Support Connection |
| etonsystems.pkgs.visualstudio.com | Used for downloading software update packages for server and ICU |
Backup
Backups of production databases (and customer specific databases where applicable) are taken on a regular basis. How often and where they are stored is configured through the Ingenious UI.
Our recommendation is to store backup files on a separate harddrive, in case of for instance hardware failure. We also recommend to combine this with backups of the server itself.
Eton can help with setting up backup scripts, but responsibility for the server/computer itself lies with the customer.
⚠️ If using external backup software, make sure it is set up so that backups are not being run during production hours. Eton Ingenious backs up the most critical data itself every half hour, and external backup software may lock the drive and prevent the database from working properly which can lead to a host of other issues.
Licenses
The only required external license is for Windows Server, this will be provided by the customer.
ICU Preparation
The ICU (Ingenious Control Unit) is a device for bridging the CAN network with the Ethernet network. There can be one or more devices in the physical system. These devices will be provided by Eton Systems during the installation of the production system.
The physical location(s) for the ICU should be specified on the blueprints provided by Eton, but they are always close to the production system.
ICU is supplied by Eton.
Checklist
- Power outlet at each location, 110-230V
- Ethernet outlet or Ethernet cable at each location. The ICUs need to have a cabled ethernet connection to the Eton API server, WiFi is not supported.
- Dedicated IP address for each ICU device. These should be allotted well in advance of installation, since the devices may be configured in advance.
- A bitmask representing the subnet mask. It's recommended to keep the ICU on the same subnet as the Ingenious server.
- Gateway IP address
- DNS IP address
Clients
Clients can be computers, tablets, mobiles or any device able to use a web browser. Clients should be able to connect to the API server via WiFi (or cable) on the same network.
No installation is needed on clients, since the user interface is reached via web browser.
For users of mobile devices, Android and Chrome browser is recommended.
It is difficult to give an exact specification for devices, the performance requirements depend on usage.
- If the device is used only for displaying information (for instance sewing instructions on a sewing station) the demands are quite low.
- If using the device to access the Eton Ingenious user interface the demands are not high but the user experience might be bad if the device is too slow.
- If using bundle tracking or other more advanced features in Ingenious it important that the device has cameras with high enough resolution.
If many client devices (bundle tracking clients, web terminals, laptops, tablets, etc) are expected to connect to the server through Wi-Fi, the clients and router should support the Wi-Fi 6 standard to ease network congestion and ensure reliability.
Client devices are supplied by the Customer.