Introduction to Site Monitoring in Visual BACnet

Monitoring Sites

Visual BACnet Site Monitoring is built for individual sites. It allows you to monitor all areas of the site, give contractors access to specific areas, and track how the site is doing at all times. You can see trends, get alerts, and drill down to identify issues. Visual BACnet Site Monitoring includes unlimited usage and reports for a single site.

A Monitoring Site represents an individual site, which can be separated further into more levels / subdivisions. The subdivisions are Buildings, Organization, Campus, BMS, and Nodes.

On the main “Status” tab, you can see a chart of the Site’s overall Network Health, filtered by time. By clicking on a subdivision you can see the health for that specific level.

• My Sites
  Here, you will find a list of Monitoring Sites created by you, organized in a dropdown folder structure. You have full access to all of these sites and can perform actions such as creating more sites and nodes, sharing, connecting to a Capture Tool, and alerts.

• Sites shared with me
  In this tab, you will find Monitoring Sites that other users have shared with you. Depending on their selection, you will either be in “View Only” or “Full Access” mode, which determines your permissions.

Monitoring Nodes

In order to upload PCAP files to a Monitoring Site, you must have a Monitoring Node created underneath the Site. In the Node, you are able to manually upload files by clicking “Upload Files”, or you can set up a Capture Tool for automatic uploads. Here, you can also see a list of all alerts and devices.

Creating a Site and a Node

1. Enter Visual BACnet Monitoring from the left menu bar.

2. In the “My Sites” tab, click on the “Add new” button.

3. Enter a name and optionally location and details

4. In the “Type” dropdown, select “Site”

5. Click “Create”

6. You will see a warning that the site is not yet active. If you have purchased a monitoring license, please contact [e-mail] to activate your site

7. Select the new Site you have just created, we will now create a Monitoring Node

8. Click on “Add new”

9. Enter a name and optionally location and details

10. In the “Type” dropdown, select “Monitoring node”

11. Click “Create” to finish
    
    

File Upload Methods

• Manual Upload
  To manually upload a PCAP file, navigate to the Monitoring Node that will be receiving it and click on the “Upload Files” button in the “Files” section below the “Site Health” chart. You can also drag and drop files right into the “Files” section.
  
  

• Capture Tool
  Optigo Networks has a free Windows Capture tool. It can be installed on any Windows device, and can capture PCAP files, similar to how Wireshark captures files. The tool can be installed on any Windows machine, and captures can be scheduled at regular intervals. You can also purchase Optigo's Visual BACnet Capture Tools for IP or MS/TP networks. Learn more.

  
  During setup, you will need to input the API key from your unique site into the Capture Tool. Each capture location should have a unique site: this will ensure the information being trended is consistently from the same location.
  
  To get started with the Capture Tool, please see the Visual BACnet Capture Tool: Quick Start Guide.
  
  
  

• JACE WireTap
  By using the JACE Wiretap feature, you can directly capture a stream of BACnet data, with Optigo Networks' Capture Tool or Wireshark, without sending someone on-site or the need for additional hardware (e.g. USB-to-RS485 converter). To learn more, please read How to capture BACnet traffic from a JACE Wiretap port.