The OEM Server Admin Interface https://www.oemserver.com/ Provides a device management service for Digital Matter devices with the following useful features:
- A flexible data conduit to the end customer’s choice of software system, Telematics Guru or 3rd Party.
- Multi-tier device grouping for group level management.
- Device firmware management for Over The Air (OTA) firmware management
- Device parameter management and templating
- Device health monitoring
- Manufacturer level debugging providing the best insights into what a device doing.
The simple and easy-to-use interface empowers customers to engineer their desired outcome even for the most complex configuration requirements. This guide will introduce some of the OEM Server admin interface basics
Before you Start
You will need a OEM Server username and password allocated for your account, if you do not have one, please contact Digital Matter
| OEM Installer | OEM Server - Basic operation | Connected V Committed | Editing Parameters | Applying Firmware | Parameter templates | Editing batch strings |
OEM Getting Started Video
OEM Installer
The installer page is designed to verify that an installation has been done correctly. Note that since this page is not password protected, it is designed to not give any sensitive information away.
OEM Server - Searching, Selection and Filtering
To select or find a device in the OEM admin interface first search for the device using these options:
- Use the Dashboard to "view as" a group. This narrows the view to a specific distributor, vendor or client. You will view as if your user belongs to the group.
- Search for serial numbers or IMEI numbers:
- The serial/IMEI numbers are printed on the sticker of the device. Serial number are usually 6 digits. IMEI numbers are 15 digits.
- Enter the number in the search text box and click Search
- OR - Search for multiple devices by clicking the Multiple Devices button. Paste in numbers on separate lines. This works well with copy/paste from Excel.
- OR - Enter multiple numbers in the search text box, separated by semicolons. For example 123456; 123457; 123458; Click Search.
- OR - From the device view, use the filter fields. See the paragraph below on filtering.
Filtering and sorting is done using the fields at the top of the columns:
Notes on filtering: Filtering is only text based now. If you filter out devices that are already selected, they will still be selected in the background. This can lead to some unexpected behavior if applying settings after filtering. Be sure to update the selection after applying a filter. |  |
Connected Versus Committed
- Since Connected (1) gives the time since the device last connected to OEM. Connected simply means a Hello message was sent so if it has connected recently, it will be green. If the device hasn't connected for a while, the colour will change to red. Since Committed (4) gives the time since the device last uploaded data records. If the device has a connector set, this implies that data was successfully sent to the connected software platform, E.g. TG.
Different scenarios and the meaning of since connected and since committed:
When working correctly, most devices will have green since connected and since committed dates.
The example in (3, 6) above shows this. If the device cannot connect, or has no power, the Since Connected and Since Committed dates will both appear to be old.
The example in (2, 5) shows this. If the device is connecting, but cannot send data to the connected software platform, the since connected date may be green, but the since committed date may be orange or red. If this happens, check if the device setup correctly on the connected software platform. Check the serial number and device type.
More on Connected & Committed
Click here to read more on this and see troubleshooting techniques
Editing Individual parameters
Parameters are settings that affect the way the device operates. They are setup on the OEM Server, and downloaded by a device next time it connects.
The difference between Admin Parameters and System Parameters:
- Admin Parameters: Connectivity settings, such as server and APN settings.
- System Parameters: Device behavior settings such as heartbeat period, tracking frequency, etc.
To Edit Parameters:
- Select an asset (1). Only one asset may be edited at a time. Refer to templates for multiple assets.
- Go to Parameters (2); Edit System Parameters (3) or Edit Admin Parameters
Default Parameters
If no parameter sections are shown, the device will use it's defaults. The defaults are shown when you add a fresh section.
To add Parameters got to Add Parameters (4) and choose a parameter section to add (5).
To Remove a Parameters Click on Remove Selected Tab (6). This will revert the section to the device defaults.
Extra Resources
For more advanced OEM walkthroughs, choose from the following:
Firmware is software programmed onto the device. It is called "firmware" because it runs on an embedded system, like a tracking device, and updating it requires a set procedure. This is handled by the interaction between the device and the OEM server. Vendors are responsible for non-critical firmware updates. DM will only apply updates to fix critical bugs. Firmware is normally versioned with a Major Version and a Minor Version. The Major Version often specifies different functionality for a device. The Minor Version is incremental, and progresses as features are added or bugs are fixed.
Warning
It is not advised to perform bulk FW updates without first testing on a handful of devices.
We make every effort to thoroughly test all new FW updates before releasing, but unforeseen/undetected bugs are possible. It is best to roll a few devices up to the latest FW, see how they go after a day or so, and then the rest can be updated in one go. This means should the unthinkable happen, and a FW update causes devices to stop connecting (remote chance but possible) not all devices will drop out.
Upgrade Process
To upgrade to a new firmware version, first select a device from the device grid then click on Device Operations (1) and 'Set Firmware' (2)
Then select the desired firmware version to upgrade to.
A 'Firmware' Pending update will appear in the device grid column. Once the device has it's next upload, it will sync with OEM Server and download the new firmware.
Parameter templates are a collection of settings that can be applied en-masse to a fleet of the same device type. You can have either Admin Parameter templates that consist of connectivity settings, or System Parameter templates that consist of settings that control how the device operates. Once a template is created, it cannot be edited. If settings must be changed you must edit the settings on a device and create a new template. You can delete an old template by clicking on Parameter Templates in the navigation bar.
Create a template
When creating a parameter template, the general process is described below, with a video of the process at the end:
- Edit an individual device. Setup the parameters as you require them on a single device
- Create a parameter template based on this single device. This will create a snap shot of its settings
- Apply the template to multiple devices to replicate those settings to all of the devices.
First step is to set up the individual parameters on the first device, you can see this process above in the main OEM Getting started article body.
Then select your device, and go to 'Parameters' (1) and click 'Create Parameter Template (2) (single device)
You can select whether you wish to save the current device's System parameters or Admin parameters (1) then where you wish to save the template (2). This can be helpful if you have a) many templates or b) specific templates used only for one client group. Then you can name the template (3) and provide an adequate description (4) that helps you identify the template from a dropdown list.
Applying a Parameter Template
Once you have created a parameter template as above, you can select as many devices of the same type as you need and bulk apply the settings.
As before, go to Parameters (1) and select 'Apply Parameter Template (multiple devices) (2)
Then select which type of template you have; Admin or System (1) and select the specific template from the dropdown list.
Video of Creating and Applying a Parameter Template
Setting a batch string is a handy way to notate individual or multiple units to identify them. Simply select the unit in the device grid(1) then go to Device Operations(2) and click Set Batch String(3)
Once you've entered your description, click OK
Device groups are used to organize devices on the OEM Server:
- The hierarchy is Distributor -> Vendor -> Client
- This typically equates to Distributor (Digital Matter Branch) -> Vendor (Reseller) -> Client (end user or organisation)
- Users can only see the devices assigned to their group.
- New groups can not be created at this time, this can only be done by the admins at DM.
- Client groups can be created by users with the "Client Creator" permisison.
- If a device serial can not be found it might be in the wrong group. Contact Digital Matter for assistance.
To Move a Device into a different group, select a device and open Device Operations then click 'Set Device Group'
- You can then select the Distributor and Vendor organisations (usually only one) and a client organisation to move the device to.
- Here you can also create a new Client group to allocate devices to.
