This is the 172nd article in the Spotlight on IT series. If you'd be interested in writing an article on the subject of backup, security, storage, virtualization, mobile, networking, wireless, DNS, or MSPs for the series PM Eric to get started.
It started innocently enough, with a casual question in the hallway of one of my larger clients: “Hey, Bryce!” The engineering manager stopped me one morning. “Do you have any ideas for how we can keep tabs on a project we’re working on?”
“Sure,” I said. “I have several. What kind of budget do I have to work with?”
“We’ve been given about $500.”
I blinked. Based on what I knew about their setup, where they ran their projects, and what was in the works, that seemed a bit low. “I think I can make that work. When do you need it?”
“The test goes live in three weeks, but we really need to have it ready for some ‘pre-flight checks’ in two.”
Two weeks to go from zero to implementation? I died a little on the inside. On the outside, I gave the engineering manager what I hoped was a reassuring grin. “Let me see what I can do.”
The setup
This client would soon begin conducting a long-term product test of some of their new products. The scope of the test, which is currently ongoing, is unprecedented within their industry and involves fire — lots of it — over several months. There are a host of interlocks already built into the test appliance to ensure very bad things don't happen should the test go awry.
The testing facility is outside near a small lab, about 275 meters from the edge of their main building. About 10 meters from the lab is a large burn stack. The test appliance controlling the supply of fuel to the burn stack is immediately outside the lab, about the same distance from the burn stack. It is exterior-grade equipment designed to be exposed to snow, rain, direct sun, and whatever other weather Mother Nature can throw at it.
The challenge
The lab building was designed and built without input from IT, and long before I came on board. A single stand-alone desktop computer is directly connected via Ethernet cable to a controller that is used to manipulate and monitor the various fuel tanks used in lab experiments, but neither function is something that must be “always on."
There is no existing network connection to the main building, no separate Internet connection, and no network infrastructure in the lab itself.
Project engineers wanted to monitor the burn stack to ensure it was burning properly. Too much fire or no fire at all would be a serious setback, with the latter being the least desirable. Safety interlocks will prevent loss of fuel in the event the burner was extinguished, but losing 12 hours (or more) of test time because the unit went offline was simply not an option. The ability to monitor the test appliance 24/7 for signs of trouble that might not shutdown the test was also desired. Inside the lab, the engineers needed to monitor status lights on the programmable logic controller (PLC) that would actually run the test. On top of it all, the general manager wanted the ability to show potential clients the test as a talking/selling point for the products involved.
The process
My initial thought was that a directional wireless link from the lab to the main building would be the best way to connect the lab to the Internet. This would have the added benefit of allowing engineering staff direct access to whatever data they’d need for future projects. No more sneakernet via flash drive and multiple trips across the field when they discovered they needed some other bit of relevant data.
For monitoring, I knocked around several ideas. The PLC could probably be configured to send a signal that could email if something happened, and a security camera might be a good option for watching the test appliance and burn stack. But when it came right down to it, I knew nothing of either of those. While I was confident I could craft an appropriate solution given enough time, I had two weeks. I decided simple would probably have to trump sexy. A brief conversation with engineering confirmed this: a simple video feed would be sufficient for them to monitor all aspects of the test.
Now that I had a firm direction, I threw myself into researching camera options. For the internal monitoring of the PLC, I figured a webcam would be fine. Logitech makes a ton of ‘em, after all. It was the exterior camera that concerned me most. I was finding a lot of units at the right price point looked great in the manufacturers’ descriptions... but the user reviews were universally horrid. They could be focused for day OR night viewing. Adjusted for night, viewing during the day was nothing but a bright blur. Adjusted for day, viewing at night was a black square. While these units could be manually readjusted, the engineers (to say nothing of the general manager) would have my head if they were forced to fiddle with camera settings.
After burning a week on researching wireless hardware and camera options, and still coming up empty, I did what any sane IT person would do: I fired up my browser, headed to the Spiceworks Community and asked for some suggestions. I wasn’t terribly surprised when Ubiquiti was offered up as an option to the wireless networking; I’d seen the name mentioned a lot in discussions about Wi-Fi, but I was surprised to learn that they also had several options for security cameras.
The solution
As it happened, Ubiquiti hardware turned out to be exactly what I needed for just about everything. A pair of M5 Nanostations provided a directional wireless link between buildings that was faster than the main building’s wired network. According to specs, these little babies could easily provide a Wi-Fi link for 2km. Not bad for a $100 device!
Configuring the two devices couldn’t have been easier. There was a minor misconfiguration on my part (more on that in "Lessons learned" below), but the link came up instantly as soon as it was resolved. POE support on the Nanostations provided maximum flexibility in location.
I added an 8-port Netgear FS108P POE switch to the lab, connected the desktop and the cameras to it, and verified connection across the wireless link. As it happened, I didn’t actually need the POE switch despite both cameras being POE devices, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
For the actual monitoring, I picked two of Ubiquiti’s IP-based cameras. A single AirCam took care of the need for external monitoring. About the size of a 20 ounce bottle of Mountain Dew, this little guy was impressive. The camera was able to automatically compensate for changes in environmental brightness. Granted, night vision was pretty much limited to a vague outline of the test appliance (easily corrected with a small contractor-grade work lamp) and the pretty flare of the burn stack — but it was that flare the engineers were most concerned about. It was also rugged enough to handle the weather we were expecting (indeed, hoping for) in February in Michigan.
Inside, the PLC control panel would be monitored with an AirCam Mini. This little guy was about as tall as the palm of my hand, with its own stand, and had the resolution necessary to view the PLC’s array of status LEDs. (As a side note, it also has the ability to record directly to MicroSD card — making it a great nannycam!)
What really sold me on the AirCams, however, was the included AirVision software. After installation, AirVision scanned the network, found both cameras and — once each camera was associated with the software — allowed me to configure them with static IP addresses without loss of connectivity. I configured a custom side-by-side view showing the external and internal cameras so the staff could monitor both with a single click. Full-screen views were available by clicking on the individual cameras, which were listed immediately below the saved side-by-side view.
But wait, there’s more! Ubiquiti also includes (at no additional cost) a Network Video Recorder (NVR) component. This installed quickly to my normal workstation and was easily associated to each camera. The staff could easily switch recording on and off to capture video for marketing purposes.
So how much did all this set me back? The hardware total came to $487.99 before tax and shipping. Given that the Ubiquiti vendor was reasonably local (same state), I probably could have stopped there, but engineering was chomping at the bit and convinced the operations manager to spring for overnight shipping.
Total cost: $537.27.
The final piece was remote access to the AirVision station. That was a no-brainer: LogMeIn, for the win!
The entire project went live on a Friday. The engineering manager came up to me on Monday to say that the system not only worked perfectly, but because of it they were able to catch a “flame out” condition in the test early Saturday morning. So, instead of losing the entire weekend, they lost less than 45 minutes. We were hit with some pretty nasty weather two days later. The NVR was ready to capture video of their products working perfectly in the middle of a February snowstorm with six inches of snow all around.
Lessons learned
1. I think I’m in love with Ubiquiti. I can certainly attest to the ease of setup of three different types of equipment. Point of fact, they were nearly identical in interface, which speaks volumes to me about the amount of time and effort Ubiquiti put into their design. The cameras have been running non-stop for nearly three weeks, through snow, rain, and wind… all without a hitch! I could go on about the virtues of AirVision and its associated NVR, but suffice to say these can make for a very inexpensive video surveillance system.
2. RTFM. I dove right into the setting up the M5 Nanostations without much thought, and wound up misconfiguring the Wi-Fi link. It seems I overlooked that one station needed to be set as the receiver. Fixing it was as simple as changing the setting in a drop-down box on one of the M5s, and the link was up in seconds. However, this was true only because I was able to hotspot my phone and remote back to the main network. If you’re setting up multiple stations potentially kilometers apart, make sure you get this bit right.
I also missed the fact that the M5s and both cameras required more power than my Netgear POE switch could provide. Fortunately, each device came with a power injector. Had I been a bit less hurried, I could have saved the additional cost of POE on the switch and come in under that $500 mark. C’est la vie…
Conclusion
Discounting the time it took to convince maintenance to install the M5s, the entire project took about 4 hours. Steps were pretty standard: update firmware, download latest software versions, configure hardware, and test. It took another hour to document the use of LogMeIn and AirVision with screencaps and bullet points. While I would have preferred a bit of additional time to research and test, the entire project went off without a hitch. Ubiquiti’s hardware was astonishingly inexpensive, has proven rugged and reliable, and was a breeze to setup.
When the test is complete in another six weeks or so, we’ll have some great hardware to use for additional monitoring and a blazing fast Wi-Fi link between the engineering lab and the main office. Best of all (with a little nudge from my friends) my reputation as a miracle worker is secure!