Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation Guide

Digital Content Manager
Version 20.1 Installation Guide

First Published: 2020-12-15
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Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Guide
2
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 Compute Nodes 11
Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M3/M4 Servers 12
Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M5 Servers 13
Recommended BIOS Settings for HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers 15
Network Configuration Settings 16
Installing CentOS 7 16
Digital Content Manager Installation 18

Installing the Digital Content Manager 19
Preparation for installing on Red Hat 19
Installing the DCM Using the Interactive Procedure 20
Installing the DCM Using the Non-Interactive Procedure 21
Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for Installation 22
Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital Content Manager 22
Removing the Digital Content Manager 22
Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation 22
Managing the yum Repository 22
Staging the Installation Files 23
Forcing Offline Installation 23
Forcing Online Installation 23
Updating AJA Device Firmware 23
Installing Mellanox Rivermax Accelerator Software 24
Digital Content Manager Configuration 27

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Table of Contents
Checking and Fixing the Configuration 28

Configuring Interfaces 28
Configuring the Passphrase Policy 28
Configuring Features 28
Configuring Users 29
Configuring Remote Authentication Settings 29
Configuring the Diagnostics 29
Displaying the Metrics 30
Automatic Configuration 30
Manual Configuration 30

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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 guide uses the following conventions.
Conventions Indication
bold font Commands and keywords and user-entered text appear in bold font.
italic font Document titles, new or emphasized terms, and arguments for which you
supply values are in italic font.
[] Elements in square brackets are optional.
{x | y | z } Required alternative keywords are grouped in braces and separated by vertical
bars.
[x|y|z] Optional alternative keywords are grouped in brackets and separated by
vertical bars.
string A nonquoted set of characters. Do not use quotation marks around the string
or the string will include the quotation marks.
courier font Terminal sessions and information the system displays appear in courier font.
<> Nonprinting characters such as passwords are in angle brackets.
[] Default responses to system prompts are in square brackets.
!, # An exclamation point (!) or a pound sign (#) at the beginning of a line of code
indicates a comment line.
Note Means reader take note. Notes contain helpful suggestions or references to material
not covered in the manual.
Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might perform an action that could
result in equipment damage or loss of data.

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Preface
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
Means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on
any equipment, be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and be
familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. Use the statement number
provided at the end of each warning to locate its translation in the translated safety
warnings that accompanied this device.
SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS.
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 on the Cisco Unified Computing
System (UCS) server. This chapter contains the following sections:
Minimum Requirements 8
Recommended BIOS Settings 11
Installing CentOS 7 16

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Minimum Requirements
The following items or settings are required before installing the Digital Content Manager.
■ A UCS C220 M4 server with at least four Ethernet ports, not including the Cisco Integrated
Management Controller (CIMC), or UCS B200 M4 Blade Server.
— 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.
— HDD: 64GB.
SDI-over-IP interface:
— Cisco VIC 1340 or 1227 network interface card with CISCO SFP-10G-SR or SFP-10G-SR-S
— Intel X520 network interface card with Intel FTLX8571D3BCVI31 SFP
■ 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,
contact your account manager or support representative or complete the form here:
https://www.synamedia.com/about/#contact.
■ Minimum Required OS
DCM Release CentOS 7.7 CentOS 7.8 CentOS 7.9 CentOS 8.x
V18.0 Recommended Not supported Not supported Not supported
V19.0 Deprecated Recommended Not supported Not supported
V20.0 Deprecated Recommended Not supported Not supported
V20.1 Deprecated Deprecated 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.
■ Minimum directory sizes available to the Digital Content Manager application:

— /opt - 1.5 GB
— /etc - 500 MB
— /tmp - 20 GB
— /dev/shm - 10 GB

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— /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.
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 1 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, 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 Connect X5
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.
■ A Windows or Linux PC to control, monitor, and configure the UCS setup (Java installation
required).
■ An IP address for UCS CIMC interface (this is optional if DHCP is available for the CIMC port).
■ Ensure that the network interfaces are configured properly.
■ CIMC admin password if you are running firmware version 2.0 or higher.

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■ Linux root password.

■ 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.

— 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.

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— Run the vdcm-configure wizard. For more details, see Installing the DCM Using the Interactive
Procedure, on page 20.
■ If a central license management system is used, prior to upgrading DCM to Version 20.1 or later,
you must install Video Service Manager (VSM) Version 12.3.0 or later first. 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

Compute Nodes
The following tables list the recommended BIOS settings for compute nodes.
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
CPU Configuration -> Advanced Power Management Configuration

SpeedStep (SpeedStep) Enable
EIST PSD Function HW_ALL
Turbo Mode Enable

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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)

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

NUMA Enable
Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M3/M4 Servers

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

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

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Processor C state Disabled
Processor C1E Disabled
Processor C3 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
Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M5 Servers

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

Extended APIC Disabled
Intel virtualization technology Enabled
Processor C1E Disabled
Turbo mode Enabled

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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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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:

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
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)

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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)
You can configure these settings in Linux, using either NetworkManager or legacy configuration
scripts under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts. For Cisco servers, you can also configure these settings
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.
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 CentOS 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 CentOS 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 when the system is starting up to get to the boot menu and selecting 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.

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Digital Content Manager Installation
CHAPTER 2

Installation
This chapter describes how to install and set up the Digital Content Manager. This chapter contains
the following sections:
Installing the Digital Content Manager 19
Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for Installation 22
Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital Content Manager 22
Removing the Digital Content Manager 22
Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation 22

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Installing the Digital Content Manager

Synamedia provides two Digital Content Manager installers, an online and an offline installer.
CentOS supports both installers but Red Hat only supports the online installer. The offline installer
must be used for systems without internet access (vdcm-installer-<version number>.zip) and the
online installer for systems with access to the internet (vdcm-installer-online-<version
number>.zip).
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 must not give any errors and must exit with exit
code 0. 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 more suitable for expert, automated, or batch configuration.
Preparation for installing on Red Hat

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:

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

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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>.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>.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:
■ 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)

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■ 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 installation of CentOS 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 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>.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>.sh -h
Step 4 As a root user, run the following command:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.sh --non-interactive
An example of passing some Digital Content Manager configuration arguments:

./vdcm-installer-<version number>.sh --non-interactive --set-interface-mgmt ens192 --set-
interface-video ens168 --service-enable --service-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

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enable all Digital Content Manager features. If (a previous version of) Digital Content Manager was
already enabled on the system, the existing feature selection is left unchanged.
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 yum repository, or in another repository that is configured in yum and is
accessible.
Removing the Digital Content Manager

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

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

The following command extracts the contents of the installer to a directory of your choosing, and
copies all the RPMs to a yum repository:
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.sh --extractonly /<your custom path>/
When hosting such a repository on your network, it 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.

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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 yum repository and it does NOT install it to the
target system. To stage the RPMs, use the following command:
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.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, where <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 detects this and performs an offline
install. If the detection did not happen correctly or you want to perform an offline install, use the
following command:
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.sh --forceInstallFromLocalRepo
This argument causes all other yum repositories to be temporarily disabled. The installation is done
only from the newly created or updated local yum repository.
Forcing Online Installation

The installer detects if a yum repository on the target system is not accessible. Then, it installs the
Digital Content Manager only using its own local yum repository. If the installer still wants to use the
configured yum repositories of the target system, this check can be bypassed with:
./vdcm-installer-<version number>.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 following 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

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Step 1 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 2 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 3 To update the firmware, enter the following command, where <Corvid88 file> is the
provided firmware file:
./ntv2firmwareinstaller -b <board number> -p <Corvid88 file>
Step 4 Repeat Step 1 to Step 3 for each board that is connected to your host.
Step 5 Power cycle the host to load the new firmware.
Step 6 Enter the following command per board to verify if the new firmware is loaded on all
boards:
./ntv2firmwareinstaller -b <board number> -i
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 from Mellanox or a
reseller directly.
Procedure
Step 1 To successfully install the Rivermax software, ensure that you have an Internet
connection. If you do not have an Internet connection, contact Synamedia Customer
Service Desk for assistance.
Step 2 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 3 To install MLNX_EN, download the package from

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

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download mlnx-en-5.2-1.0.4.0-rhel7.9-x86_64.tgz for RHEL/CentOS 7.9 OS distribution

version.
The MLNX_EN package is smaller and will take less time to install. The card firmware
will also be updated.
Step 4 Execute the following commands:

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
Step 5 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 6 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.
b) Go to the following URL to find the matching kernel-devel package:

http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/updates/x86_64/Packages/.
c) Install the matching kernel-devel package.
d) Re-run the driver install script with the rebuild option.
Step 7 If you have a previous version of Rivermax installed, you must uninstall it before
installing a new version.
sudo yum remove rivermax
Step 8 Install the Rivermax package:
Get the Rivermax package directly from Mellanox or a reseller.
Execute the following commands:

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
Step 9 Install the Rivermax license in /opt/mellanox/rivermax/rivermax.lic.
Step 10 Verify the installation using the following command:

vdcm-check-rivermax
Example output:

Guide
25
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
Note After reinstalling a card, a license reinstall is required.

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26
Digital Content Manager Configuration
CHAPTER 3

Configuration
This chapter explains how to configure the Digital Content Manager after installation.
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 28
Configuring Interfaces 28
Configuring the Passphrase Policy 28
Configuring Features 28
Configuring Users 29
Configuring Remote Authentication Settings 29
Configuring the Diagnostics 29

Guide
27
Checking and Fixing the Configuration

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.
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.
Configuring Interfaces
Assign the network interfaces to be used for management, video, and SDI-over-IP interactively:
vdcm-configure set-interface
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 GUI, SNMP, REST, ESAM, Splicer, HA
sync, Dektec, Diagnostic, MFP monitor, Local Origin Server, External IIOP, and/or Secure IIOP. If the
Digital Content Manager must run with all 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, SNMP, REST,
ESAM, Splicer, HA sync, Dektec, MFP monitor, Local Origin Server, Diagnostic, and so on:
vdcm-configure service --enable --gui --rest --esam --splicer --snmp --diagnostics --
hasync --dektec --external-iiop --secure-iiop --local-origin-server --mfp-monitor
Optional features can also be enabled or disabled individually, like:
vdcm-configure service ––disable ––snmp

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28
vdcm-configure service ––enable --rest
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.
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 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:

Guide
29
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
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 29.
Step 2 From the Digital Content Manager GUI, choose Help > Diagnostics.

Guide
30
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) Add a new organization if you do not have an organization already created by
clicking the spiral menu and choosing <your name> > New organization.
b) Click the spiral menu and choose Data Sources.
c) Click Add data source.
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 Add.
Step 6 Configure a second data source:
a) Click the spiral menu and choose 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.
g) In the User field, enter admin, and in the Password field, enter admin.
h) Click Add.
Step 7 Import the 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 Grafana basic template link.
c) Save the Grafana template.
d) Refer to the Grafana window.
e) Click the spiral menu and choose Dashboards > Import.
f) Click Upload .json File.
g) Choose the downloaded Digital Content Manager template.
h) From the local-vdcmdb drop-down list, choose local-vDCMdb.
i) From the local-collectdb drop-down list, choose local-collectddb.

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31
j) Click Save & Open. The diagnostic graphs are displayed. The following is an
example:

Guide
32

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Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

About the Digital Content Manager Installation 7

Digital Content Manager Installation 18

Digital Content Manager Configuration 27

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Checking and Fixing the Configuration 28

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS.

■ Open Source Used in the Digital Content Manager.

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

About the Digital Content

Recommended BIOS Settings 11

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

— Two Intel Xeon E5-2697v3 processors (2.6 GHz, 14 cores)

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

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

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

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

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

■ Linux root password.

— VMware ESXi 6.0U3 or newer

You can download this software from the following location:

— Ensure that the virtual NICs are configured as VMXNET3.

— Connect the hardware to your network.

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Recommended BIOS Settings

Recommended BIOS Settings for Synamedia Video Network

Parameter Recommended Setting

CPU Configuration -> Advanced Power Management Configuration

Parameter Recommended Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Parameter Recommended Setting

Parameter Recommended Setting

Parameter Recommended Setting

Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M3/M4 Servers

Parameter Recommended Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Parameter Recommended Setting

Recommended BIOS Settings for Cisco M5 Servers

Parameter Recommended Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Parameter Recommended Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Recommended BIOS Settings for HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers

Parameter Recommended Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Network Configuration Settings

Network Configuration Minimum Setting

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Digital Content Manager

Installing the Digital Content Manager 19

Listing All Available Digital Content Manager Versions for Installation 22

Upgrading, Downgrading, and Reinstalling the Digital Content Manager 22

Removing the Digital Content Manager 22

Advanced Digital Content Manager Installation 22

Digital Content Manager Version 20.1 Installation

Installing the Digital Content Manager