[BlueOnyx:25231] Re: Only 1 month left of 2021 - Screenshot from my development server

[Rickard Osser]

Hi Chris,

I wish I had posted this years ago then! :)

Anyway, it all started with a Cobalt RaQ2 in 2000 when I installed 
broadband (network) into the buildings (3) where I lived at the time.

All owners got their ethernet access port and free Internet access.

In Sweden we have something called "Bostadsrättsföreningar" / Building
soicieties where the tenants own a part of the building according to
the size of the apartment. (Very Swedish and a bit socialistic but
became very common almost a hundred years ago as most people here
couldn't afford apartments and houses.)

My contact with cobalt started in 1998-99 when I bought my first Qube
2700 (#77) with a creditcard directly from Cobalt in CA. I was talking
to the future partner-program director at the time, this was before
they even shipped.

Anyway, step forward 5 years, a BlueQuartz installed as a replacement
and the society wanted to install a digital booking-system for the
laundry-rooms and, the sauna and gym as well as a door-access system.
At the time the locksmith brought in Aptus (now also owned by Assa-
Abloy) but their software was a joke (built on MS Access and running on
Windows) and to be able to use the on-line bookingsystem you needed a
server. Which we already had, linux-based. The locksmith then contacted
Solid (ARX) at Assa and we got a meeting with their CFO/CTO and Sales-
director... Well, the head-office was only 5 minutes away from where I
live by car so it was a no-brainer... :) Anyway, as the software is
written in Java, they seemed intrigued by providing a Linux-version and
some of their developers was using Linux themselves but they only
provided a Windows version to customers. Some of their larger
integrator partners wanted a Linux-version though, wishing for a secure
and stable environment so we made a deal, they provided me with the
unpackaged software, our building society with hardware and me with a
direct-line to the CTO. I started making the conversion to Linux, java
is cross-platform so only a few libraries (jars) needed changed and
creating a GUI for administration based on Sausalito.

We created an Appliance which took about 15 minutes to be up and
running with a working ARX-server and with BO as the base. We also made
a version based on Aventurine for hosting and a HA-Clustered version
also based on Aventurine also as appliances and still 15 minutes from
box to configuration of the door-access system. 

Michael was nice to provide the Aventurine source-code for me to change
and extend for this. Some functions like the GUI for KVM in Aventurine
came back from me as there was use cases for running windows in this
environment. 

We had single-server, HA-Cluster standalone and HA-Cluster hosting-
version of the appliances. A cluster-version was for example installed
in Friends Arena (owned by the Swedish Football association) during
it's build-time to handle all door-access, 3000 doors.

The last 4-5 years though we've concentrated on our own hosting of ARX
for locksmiths and other customers. Running inside an LXC-container is
very good for the performance and very resource-saving which mean we
can consolidate the hosting-environment quite nicely. 

We've also created a Booking-panel as an alternative to Assa's own
BP100, our has a touch-based GUI and supports EM/Mifare out of the box,
not at the same time though. Desfire is supported after a firmware
update which we have to provide. BP100 has to be configured using a
keyboard and CLI.

Our new version of the panel will support all three systems without
firmware changing and be built on RPI4 instead of the panel-pc. The new
panel connects to the ARX-system either through ethernet or wifi. It
also uses the 24V current provided from the door-access centrals so
it's easy to install for the integrator.

The RFID-reader is our own creation and it also supports a few more
door-access systems like Aptus/RCO/Bewator and Axema/VAKA. We provide
it as a table-reader which can be configured using Chrome/Edge and our
support website. No moving parts.

All this is available on our web-site www.bluapp.com if you want to
read about it.

You asked about use-cases, well, providing a secure/stable
container/vm/appliance which has a lot better performance than the
windows provided version by Assa. Hosting is also a reality which is a
lot cheaper with Linux as a base compared to runnning a windows-server
for each instance.

An example of performance difference is memory/cpu. Java has a lot to
offer on Linux but is a hog on Windows, so, an installation using 8GB
RAM and fast CPU on windows happily runs a long on Linux with less than
half the RAM and just a few cores and if it runs inside a container it
uses even less resources... :)

I use Proxmox for our fascility but installing to a fresh 5210R on
Aventurine is not very hard as I provide it as a package to install.


This was a long explanation but i hope you get the reasons why I did
this and still do. :)

BTW, of all the Door-access systems I've seen only ARX is a true
Client-Server in all aspects. The others are made as an afterthought
based on either Access and/or Visual Basic. They have low performance
and really aren't fit as a secure server-platform. This goes for both
the Windows version and our implementation but of course our
implementation removes Windows from the deployment so it's even better!
;)

Best regards,
Rickard


On Wed, 2021-12-01 at 18:10 -0600, Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet
wrote:
> Hi Rickard!
> 
> On 12/1/2021 4:41 AM, Rickard Osser wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > we're coming to a close of the year.
> > The machine is running RockyLinux/BlueOnyx 5210R inside a container
> > (LXC).
> > 
> I'm especially interested in the Assa ARX Access plugin that you're 
> running.   We've been transitioning different access control systems 
> into a single platform for our buildings and never knew there was 
> something that integrated with BlueOnyx.  It's a bit late for us to 
> change horses again, but if I had only known! :)   I'm mostly curious
> to 
> learn what your use case is.
> 

-- 
Brosoft AB
Rickard Osser
VD
Solberga Ängsväg 3
125 44 Älvsjö
08-668 66 80
www.brosoft.se
ricky at osser.se