<html dir="ltr"><head></head><body style="text-align:left; direction:ltr;"><div>Hi Chris,</div><div><br></div><div>I actually forgot a piece of very unique software that we've created for ARX.</div><div><br></div><div>If you use ARX in an apartment-building and want to have an info-panel in the doorway (with booking-capabilites) we have an</div><div>addon which we've created which talks directly with the ARX-API to extract information from the access-system.</div><div><br></div><div>This then builds an infopage with Apartment/floor and inhabitants.</div><div>This software is unique for our Linux-implementation. :)</div><div><br></div><div>You see this as the default on the booking-panel, we've added the possibility to upload a logo, enter a home-page link and a message that will be displayed.</div><div>Present a tag or card to the reader on the panel and you will be logged in to the booking-application.</div><div><br></div><div><img src="cid:955c9f8112d8582a19a8f8ca94c21dbe21bb1f7d.camel@bluapp.com"><br></div><div>Best regards,</div><div>Rickard</div><div><br></div><div>On Thu, 2021-12-02 at 08:45 +0100, Rickard Osser wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><pre>Hi Chris,</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>I wish I had posted this years ago then! :)</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>Anyway, it all started with a Cobalt RaQ2 in 2000 when I installed </pre><pre>broadband (network) into the buildings (3) where I lived at the time.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>All owners got their ethernet access port and free Internet access.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>In Sweden we have something called "Bostadsrättsföreningar" / Building</pre><pre>soicieties where the tenants own a part of the building according to</pre><pre>the size of the apartment. (Very Swedish and a bit socialistic but</pre><pre>became very common almost a hundred years ago as most people here</pre><pre>couldn't afford apartments and houses.)</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>My contact with cobalt started in 1998-99 when I bought my first Qube</pre><pre>2700 (#77) with a creditcard directly from Cobalt in CA. I was talking</pre><pre>to the future partner-program director at the time, this was before</pre><pre>they even shipped.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>Anyway, step forward 5 years, a BlueQuartz installed as a replacement</pre><pre>and the society wanted to install a digital booking-system for the</pre><pre>laundry-rooms and, the sauna and gym as well as a door-access system.</pre><pre>At the time the locksmith brought in Aptus (now also owned by Assa-</pre><pre>Abloy) but their software was a joke (built on MS Access and running on</pre><pre>Windows) and to be able to use the on-line bookingsystem you needed a</pre><pre>server. Which we already had, linux-based. The locksmith then contacted</pre><pre>Solid (ARX) at Assa and we got a meeting with their CFO/CTO and Sales-</pre><pre>director... Well, the head-office was only 5 minutes away from where I</pre><pre>live by car so it was a no-brainer... :) Anyway, as the software is</pre><pre>written in Java, they seemed intrigued by providing a Linux-version and</pre><pre>some of their developers was using Linux themselves but they only</pre><pre>provided a Windows version to customers. Some of their larger</pre><pre>integrator partners wanted a Linux-version though, wishing for a secure</pre><pre>and stable environment so we made a deal, they provided me with the</pre><pre>unpackaged software, our building society with hardware and me with a</pre><pre>direct-line to the CTO. I started making the conversion to Linux, java</pre><pre>is cross-platform so only a few libraries (jars) needed changed and</pre><pre>creating a GUI for administration based on Sausalito.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>We created an Appliance which took about 15 minutes to be up and</pre><pre>running with a working ARX-server and with BO as the base. We also made</pre><pre>a version based on Aventurine for hosting and a HA-Clustered version</pre><pre>also based on Aventurine also as appliances and still 15 minutes from</pre><pre>box to configuration of the door-access system. </pre><pre><br></pre><pre>Michael was nice to provide the Aventurine source-code for me to change</pre><pre>and extend for this. Some functions like the GUI for KVM in Aventurine</pre><pre>came back from me as there was use cases for running windows in this</pre><pre>environment. </pre><pre><br></pre><pre>We had single-server, HA-Cluster standalone and HA-Cluster hosting-</pre><pre>version of the appliances. A cluster-version was for example installed</pre><pre>in Friends Arena (owned by the Swedish Football association) during</pre><pre>it's build-time to handle all door-access, 3000 doors.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>The last 4-5 years though we've concentrated on our own hosting of ARX</pre><pre>for locksmiths and other customers. Running inside an LXC-container is</pre><pre>very good for the performance and very resource-saving which mean we</pre><pre>can consolidate the hosting-environment quite nicely. </pre><pre><br></pre><pre>We've also created a Booking-panel as an alternative to Assa's own</pre><pre>BP100, our has a touch-based GUI and supports EM/Mifare out of the box,</pre><pre>not at the same time though. Desfire is supported after a firmware</pre><pre>update which we have to provide. BP100 has to be configured using a</pre><pre>keyboard and CLI.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>Our new version of the panel will support all three systems without</pre><pre>firmware changing and be built on RPI4 instead of the panel-pc. The new</pre><pre>panel connects to the ARX-system either through ethernet or wifi. It</pre><pre>also uses the 24V current provided from the door-access centrals so</pre><pre>it's easy to install for the integrator.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>The RFID-reader is our own creation and it also supports a few more</pre><pre>door-access systems like Aptus/RCO/Bewator and Axema/VAKA. We provide</pre><pre>it as a table-reader which can be configured using Chrome/Edge and our</pre><pre>support website. No moving parts.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>All this is available on our web-site </pre><a href="http://www.bluapp.com"><pre>www.bluapp.com</pre></a><pre> if you want to</pre><pre>read about it.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>You asked about use-cases, well, providing a secure/stable</pre><pre>container/vm/appliance which has a lot better performance than the</pre><pre>windows provided version by Assa. Hosting is also a reality which is a</pre><pre>lot cheaper with Linux as a base compared to runnning a windows-server</pre><pre>for each instance.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>An example of performance difference is memory/cpu. Java has a lot to</pre><pre>offer on Linux but is a hog on Windows, so, an installation using 8GB</pre><pre>RAM and fast CPU on windows happily runs a long on Linux with less than</pre><pre>half the RAM and just a few cores and if it runs inside a container it</pre><pre>uses even less resources... :)</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>I use Proxmox for our fascility but installing to a fresh 5210R on</pre><pre>Aventurine is not very hard as I provide it as a package to install.</pre><pre><br></pre><pre><br></pre><pre>This was a long explanation but i hope you get the reasons why I did</pre><pre>this and still do. :)</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>BTW, of all the Door-access systems I've seen only ARX is a true</pre><pre>Client-Server in all aspects. The others are made as an afterthought</pre><pre>based on either Access and/or Visual Basic. They have low performance</pre><pre>and really aren't fit as a secure server-platform. This goes for both</pre><pre>the Windows version and our implementation but of course our</pre><pre>implementation removes Windows from the deployment so it's even better!</pre><pre>;)</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>Best regards,</pre><pre>Rickard</pre><pre><br></pre><pre><br></pre><pre>On Wed, 2021-12-01 at 18:10 -0600, Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet</pre><pre>wrote:</pre><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><pre>Hi Rickard!</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>On 12/1/2021 4:41 AM, Rickard Osser wrote:</pre><blockquote type="cite" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex; border-left:2px #729fcf solid;padding-left:1ex"><pre>Hi,</pre><pre><br></pre><pre>we're coming to a close of the year.</pre><pre>The machine is running RockyLinux/BlueOnyx 5210R inside a container</pre><pre>(LXC).</pre><pre><br></pre></blockquote><pre>I'm especially interested in the Assa ARX Access plugin that you're </pre><pre>running. We've been transitioning different access control systems </pre><pre>into a single platform for our buildings and never knew there was </pre><pre>something that integrated with BlueOnyx. It's a bit late for us to </pre><pre>change horses again, but if I had only known! :) I'm mostly curious</pre><pre>to </pre><pre>learn what your use case is.</pre><pre><br></pre></blockquote><pre><br></pre></blockquote><div><span><pre>-- <br></pre><div>Bluapp AB</div><div>Rickard Osser</div><div>CTO</div><div>Solberga Ängsväg 3</div><div>125 44 Älvsjö</div><div>Sweden</div><div><br></div><div>Web: <a href="http://www.bluapp.com">http://www.bluapp.com</a></div><div>Mail: <a href="mailto:rickard.osser@bluapp.com">rickard.osser@bluapp.com</a></div></span></div></body></html>