What is the Live Monitoring Service (LMS)

We have had the Live Monitoring feature in the Boring Toolbox client since v3.19 which provided the real time status of camera video streams as well as Milestone recording servers.  The only downside was that the Boring Toolbox client had to be running in order for notifications to be sent out.

In v5.0 we introduced the Live Monitoring Service which is an always on Windows service which will be monitoring your camera infrastructure 24x7 without the need for the client to be logged in.

How does LMS work?

Boring Live Monitoring Service (LMS) is a Windows service that runs silently in the background and notifies a recipient on camera stream and recording server status by communicates with the Milestone XProtect Event Server.

When LMS receives a camera stream not providing video status it will hold that message for a user-defined period of time (threshold) before sending a notification with the message.  This threshold reduces the number of false positives and increases the efficacy of the administrator.

How is the LMS installed?

LMS is part of the Boring Server installer and will be installed...

How is LMS configured?

LMS can be configured on the "managed sites" view found on the left hand side of the application, under the configuration section. You will have to set up your site as a parent or a managed site.  When going through that wizard you will see the options below. 

Enable notifications

To enable email notifications click the toggle next on the configure site, parent or managed, to Email Notifications

• Toggle the switch to turn on email notifications
• by default the FROM email address will be alerts@theboringlab.com
• Change the TO email as needed
  • Add multiple TO emails addresses by separating them with a semi-colon (;)
  • Optionally, add CC and BCC

When you enable email notifications Boring Toolbox will send emails through Boring SMTP servers so there is no further configuration necessary.  However, if you want to use your own SMTP servers you can do so by clicking the toggle next to SMTP Settings and changing it to CUSTOM.  Once custom is selected you have the options to use your own SMTP settings.  You can see some sample values for Google GSuite here.

Once done, click Send Test Email to test your configuration.

Notification Settings

By default you will receive email notifications each time a camera stops providing for the defined threshold but you have the ability to control how you receive notification emails.  

• Camera not providing video threshold : The amount of time Boring Toolbox will wait before marking a camera as not providing video and sending a notification (Default = 90s)
• Recording server offline threshold : The amount of time Boring Toolbox will wait before marking a recording server as offline and sending a notification (Default = 0s)
• Include Interconnect :  When on you will see interconnected devices throughout the Boring Toolbox including live monitoring and reports.  When off, interconnected devices will be ignored which is recommended when using multi-site management (Default = On)
• Minimum cameras not providing video :  This value sets the minimum number of cameras which must stop providing video prior to Boring Toolbox Live Monitoring sending an email notification. Default is 1.
• Max Notifications within time period : This value sets the maximum number of emails Boring Toolbox Live Monitoring will send within the period defined in the "time between max notification" setting (Default = 0 = No Maximum)
• Time between max notifications (seconds) : This is the time period, in seconds, which Boring Toolbox Live Monitoring can send the defined maximum number of emails set in "Max Notifications within time period" setting (Default = 0 = None)

Let's take an example

I only want to receive emails if at least 10 cameras are no longer providing video and I do not want to receive an email more than once every 10 min.  Your settings will look like this.

• Camera not providing video threshold = 90
• Minimum cameras not providing video = 10
• Max Notifications within time period = 1
• Time between max notifications (seconds) = 600

What if 10 cameras stop providing video in the first 5 min will I get an email if additional cameras stop providing video?

• You will receive an email as soon as the 10th camera stops providing video for at least 90s
• Cameras that stop providing video for longer than 90s after the first notification will be held in a queue until the time between notifications resets (600s)
• When the notification timer resets at 600s, LMS will wait until there are 10 new cameras not providing video for at least 90s and will then send an additional notification with all cameras in the queue

Summary email on startup

When the Live Monitoring Service you will receive a summary email with the state of the system at that time.  This will be important if the management server reboots unexpectedly and the service restarts or if the service crashes and restarts.  

General Troubleshooting

If you are not receiving notifications when cameras stop providing video...

Check to see if the Windows service is running.

• Click the Windows menu
• Search and select Services
• In the Services console look for Boring Live Monitoring and make sure it is Running