OnGuard
Integration of OnGuard with Irisity's IRIS+ offers a video analytics solution/service whereby events of interest are detected through real-time analysis of multiple video sources and sent to OnGuard. This guide outlines how to deploy and configure the integration of IRIS+ and OnGuard.
The following OnGuard version is supported: OnGuard 7.6
The following license features are required:
- OnGuard Subscription Software Modules (SWM-xxx)
- Partner Integration (IPC-xxx-xxxx)
- Connection by client with application ID: b2705330-d923-4d85-a30c-41682eb8ad7a. This is the Irisity designated application ID.
Verify the following windows services are running in the OnGuard server:
- LS Communication Server
- LS Message Broker
- LS Open Access
These steps assume that your IRIS+ account has been set up and that folders, devices, and cameras have been configured. If that is not the case, first access IRIS+ tutorials from the IRIS+ Support hub to configure your account. In IRIS+, a service account is required in order to later link OnGuard to IRIS+. The IRIS+ service account provides a token, which is the identifier used to link the IRIS+ account to OnGuard.
- Browse to your IRIS+ account, Settings tab
- Click the Users tab
- Click the Add button, select Create service account
- Enter a meaningful Service Account name such as “Customer 1”. Enter a description (optional)
- Click Create service account
- From the user's list, select the created Service Account user, click the arrow next to the Edit button and select Get Token
- Define token expiration if required (by default token never expires)
- Click Get token and copy and save the generated token (to be used in the IRIS+ VMS Gateway configuration in the next chapter):
- Close the window
The IRIS+ VMS Gateway is a Windows service connecting IRIS+ to OnGuard, transferring the IRIS+ generated events to OnGuard. The service should be installed on a server connected both to OnGuard and to IRIS+ Edge device/s.
When installing the IRIS+ VMS gateway, or troubleshooting connectivity problems, it is important to understand that the gateway can be both a client and a server, as follows:
- The gateway is a client of the VMS server
- When Edge Integration is deployed, the gateway is a server to which IRIS+ edge devices, either customer-hosted or Irisity-hosted, connect to push analytics events and/or metadata to the gateway, via different ports. The gateway then delivers them to the VMS
- Future planned implementation (optional): the gateway is a client connecting to the IRIS+ Core, either customer-hosted or Irisity-hosted, to exchange data in both directions (VMS cameras info, health events, and more) – pending specific configuration
- When installing the gateway and entering its configuration settings, or when opening ports in the firewall of the servers hosting the gateway and/or the VMS server, it is important not to confuse the different functions, and client/server incoming/outgoing call direction of the various ports and URLs
Perform the following steps:
- Download the IRIS+ VMS Gateway Installer zip file from this link: https://tinyurl.com/y2d3x45t. Extract the IRIS+_VMS_Gateway_Installer_2.0.0.138 installation file
- The gateway can be installed using one of the following options:
- On a Windows server able to connect to OnGuard and to IRIS+ core API (either Irisity hosted or Customer hosted)
- On the OnGuard server
- Install the IRIS+ VMS Gateway. If a previous version of the gateway is already installed, uninstall this version. Run the installer file as administrator. Two options are available for the gateway to integrate with IRIS+:
- Edge Events are transferred from the IRIS+ Edge to OnGuard
- Core Events are transferred from the IRIS+ core to OnGuard
- When the following window is displayed, populate the relevant fields:
- VMS Settings (relevant for both Core and Edge integration options)
- VMS Type - select OnGuard
- Address - IP address of the OnGuard server
- Port - Port to communicate with OnGuard. The default port is 8080
- User - username to log in to OnGuard
- Password - password to log in to OnGuard
- Integration Settings
- Events Integration Type – Select Edge or Core
- IRIS+ URL - the default URL (https://api.innovi.io) is for an Irisity-hosted deployment. For a Customer hosted deployment, replace this URL with the applicable URL assigned for your deployment
- IRIS+ Account Token - paste the token you have generated in the previous section
- Events Integration Port - applicable only for Edge integration. This is the IRIS+ VMS Gateway port on the Windows server. The value is automatically populated with a default value and is editable
- Events Integration URL – applicable only for Edge integration. The URL field is read-only and cannot be updated. This is the IP address of the Windows server on which the IRIS+ VMS Gateway is being installed. The value of the port number is automatically populated. Keep the IP address to be used later on when configuring an IRIS+ Integration Target
- Metadata Integration Port & Metadata Integration URL - not applicable
- Click Next to proceed with the installation until finished
- Once the installation is complete, the service is started. The gateway service will then connect to the OnGuard VMS to fetch cameras
- Follow these steps to verify the gateway service successfully communicates with the VMS:
- Wait one minute to allow the service to communicate with the VMS
- Open the file
- "C:\Program Files (x86)\AgentVi\innoVi\innoViVMSGateway\logs\VMSAdapter.log". See if it contains a list of camera names fetched from the VMS, or otherwise error notifications indicating a problem
- Possible errors:
- Wrong details entered during the Gateway install (examples: IP, port number, credentials). To change any of the required parameters, refer to “Updating configuration parameters of the integration” section below
- Wrong or incomplete configuration of the VMS server (license, firewall, configuration, cameras not yet added, some VMS services are down, etc.)
- Connection is successful; however, a functional failure of the gateway occurs due to the refusal or failure of the VMS to correctly respond to the gateway. Verify the installed gateway Windows service has sufficient Windows permissions. If not, change the gateway service settings to log on as a Windows user with the necessary permissions. Restart the service and verify (in the VMSAdapter.log) the gateway service operates properly
Following any change in IRIS+ Portal, IRIS+ VMS Gateway, or OnGuard, restart the IRIS+ VMS Gateway service for the changes to take effect
If you want to change any of the integration parameters following the installation, there is no need to uninstall and reinstall the IRIS+ VMS Gateway. A dedicated utility is available to update the parameters. Run the utility from the shortcut here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\AgentVi\innoVi\innoViVMSGateway\innoViGatewaySettings.
If a specific workstation cannot reach the IRIS+ Portal, IRIS+ API, perform the following:
- Download the file innovi.app.certs.zip from this link:
- Load the certificates according to this article:
To ensure the certificates were added successfully:
{"code":0,"key":"2.1.xxxx","data":"Navigate to /doc/ for API documentation"}
Open port 8098 on the gateway server (to receive events from edge devices), and if edge devices are not local then also open to the public internet. Include both TCP and UDP on port 8098. Common router menu items are named Port Forwarding or Port Triggering.
After installing the gateway, a “Logical Source” named “IRIS+” is automatically added to the OnGuard server. For the received events to appear in the Main Alarm Monitor, the IRIS+ Logical Source (and its ‘child’ Logical Devices) must be added to the Monitor Zone.
Perform the following steps in Lenel OnGuard:
- Open OnGuard License Administration. Select Lenel OnGuard Subscription Software:
- Scroll down until you see the Partner Integrations section: Ensure the displayed Irisity Partner Integration appears
- Open OnGuard System Administration. Select Video. From the opened menu select Digital Video
- In the opened window, click Add
- Add a Recorder: populate the required fields and click OK
- A list of available Monitor Zones is displayed. Select the relevant Monitor Zone to add the Recorder to:
- The Recorder is added to the Video Recorder section:
- Select Monitoring. From the opened menu select Monitor Zone.
- Click Modify
- Select Logical Sources
- Select the Device – click the Device icon
- The Device is marked. Click Assign and then click OK
- The Device is added to the right-hand column
Once a new segment is created, it should be added to the logical source Monitor Zone relevant to the Added segment through menu items Monitoring à Monitor Zones. Note 1: user permissions should be set through the menu item Access Control à users or through AD management Note 2: click the selected monitor zone icon directly to select it.
The IRIS+ VMS Gateway provides the following concerning Segments: The new gateway supports IRIS+ segments:
- It checks if segments are enabled (otherwise runs as before) and logs it. Example log: DBG Segmentation setting: ENABLED.
- It lists the available segment IDs and names.
- It also logs in which segment the gateway will add logical entities if not already added.
Example log:
DBG ----- Segments list START -----
DBG Segment #0: 'first Segment'. <== SELECTED (auto)
DBG Segment #1: 'second_segment'.
DBG ----- Segments list END -----
The gateway will automatically add logical entities in the first segment in the list, as in the example above. But if the user wants the logical entities to be added in a specific segment, the user can do that by:
- Creating a file named custom.ini in the gateway's folder ( typically C:\Program Files (x86)\AgentVi\innoVi\innoViVMSGateway )
- The content of that INI file should indicate the ID of the segment to be selected. Example custom.ini file contents: [OnGuard] SegmentID=4
- Stop the gateway service
- Delete (in the OnGuard admin GUI) the IRIS+ logical entities which were automatically added in the 1st segment.
- Start the gateway service again. This will add the logical entities in the custom-selected segment. Example log:
DBG ----- Segments list START -----
DBG Segment #0: 'first Segment'.
DBG Segment #1: 'second_segment'. <== SELECTED (custom.ini)
DBG ----- Segments list END -----
* When adding the OnGuard 'logical source' that represents IRIS+, when segments are enabled, the new gateway will specify the segment ID where it should be added, which is the data that was missing in the older gateway.
The Integration Targets in IRIS+ are the system-wide definitions required for IRIS+ to integrate with OnGuard. You will define the endpoint that can receive the events sent by IRIS+.
To define the Integration Target in IRIS+, do the following:
- Log in to your IRIS+ account.
- From the top module bar, select Settings.
- Select Integration Targets.
- Click the Add button. The Integration Target screen appears.
- Define the following:
- Target name: Define a meaningful name such as OnGuard
- Ensure toggle switch is Enabled
- Type: Keep default values HTTP and POST
- URI: Paste the URI of the Events Integration URI field in the IRIS+VMS Gateway Installer If the gateway and the edge devices are NOT on the same LAN, then you should replace the internal IP in the URI with the public IP of the gateway’s computer. Find the public IP by searching for a publicly available website with a free service providing this information. The public IP address should be forwarded on the local firewall to the local gateway IP on port 8098.
- Click Save. The integration Target is defined and is listed in the Integration Targets list
The recommended method is to transfer the events to OnGuard via IRIS+ Core. The Edge integration should be used only if timing issues (delays) are encountered in events transfer. If you have selected Edge in the Events Integration Type field during the IRIS+VMS Gateway installation, follow these steps.
To define the IRIS+ Edge Integration in IRIS+, do the following:
- Log in to your IRIS+ account
- Select Physical View
- Select the IRIS+ Edge for which you want to define the integration
- Select Integrations
- Click Edit
- Enable Events Integration and select the Integration Target you have previously defined (in this example – OnGuard)
- Click Save
- A file named custom.ini is located here:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\AgentVI\innoVi\innoViVMSGateway”.
- The following is the file content:
[OnGuard]
SubstringToFilterCameraNames=innovi
TimeZoneNameSubstring=Eastern Time
- SubstringToFilterCameraNames:
This parameter is used to identify cameras in OnGuard for which events will be sent from IRIS+ to OnGuard. Add the string defined for this parameter at the end of each camera name in OnGuard. For each defined camera, IRIS+ creates a logical device in OnGuard. See the following snapshot showing OnGuard physical cameras with the ones identified for IRIS+ and the relevant logical devices for these cameras:
As a default, this parameter has no value, so events can be transferred to all OnGuard cameras.
- TimeZoneNameSubstring:
This is the OnGuard time zone for your deployment. Set the value to an OnGuard time zone matching your deployment time zone. See a list of time zones in Appendix A - Timezones
If you have made any changes to the file, restart the IRIS+ VMS Gateway Service
Selecting a specific camera on the left-hand pane will open a right-hand pane, showing the selected camera with an associated Channel number:
To associate the selected camera with the same camera defined in IRIS+, open the camera settings in IRIS+ and populate the External ID field with the Channel number of the selected camera:
Click Save.
Note: if you integrate IRIS+ to both Genetec and OnGuard – place the Genetec External ID first to be followed by the OnGuard External ID, separated by a comma
See the following snapshot showing IRIS+ events received in OnGuard:
The logs for the IRIS+ VMS Gateway Service are available as follows:
- Installer log name: ” innoViVMSGatewayInstall.log"
- Installer log path: “C:\innoVi\logs”.
- IRIS+ VMS Gateway Service logs path: “C:\Program Files (x86)\AgentVI\innoVi\innoViVMSGateway\logs”.
Irisity Customer Support may ask for these logs for further troubleshooting
E-mail: success@irisity.com
Phone: +46 771 41 11 00