In the Central Services section of the Server configuration panel you can configure feedback to DME Central Services (CS), and turn third-party push notification (GCM and APNS) on or off.
DME Central Services (CS) is a customer installation feedback service provided by Soliton Systems. When enabled, your DME server will automatically collect information about your system settings, your device mix, generic usage statistics, and system errors and warnings. This information is posted regularly to the DME CS server, which is run by Soliton Systems. The information is collected from all participating DME customers. Note that this is strictly one-way traffic - the DME Central Services server will never contact a DME server.
With this information, Soliton Systems gets more accurate background data about the server environment of their customers. The information is available to a group of DME support staff, who use it to access up-to-date data when helping our customers, and selected lead developers, who use the data to constantly improve DME.
It is very important to stress that the collected information is completely anonymous. In the Installation information upload section below you can read more about which information is uploaded, and how Soliton Systems uses it for your benefit.
The Third-party push notification group of functions contains the following field:
Third-party push notification
Set this field to Yes to enable third-party notification. This means different things on the Android and the Apple platforms:
For Android devices, this is the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) service, which is highly recommended for Android devices to receive push notifications from DME. For more information, see Notifications on Android devices.
For Apple iOS devices, this is the Apple Push Notification Service, which is required for iOS devices to receive push notifications from DME. For more information about further requirements, see Notifications on iOS devices.
Please note that you can disable third-party notification for individual devices or groups of devices using the Third-party push notification setting in the Device settings page (see Adaptive Push settings).
The Installation information upload group of functions contains the following fields. Note that all fields are set to No by default, so you must enable them to take advantage of the Central Services statistics and error reporting features. Note also that all data that is sent to the CS server is anonymized. For instance, device IDs are hashed so that it is not possible to connect individual devices with their owners.
Upload basic installation information
If this field is set to Yes, DME will connect to the CS server 2-24 hours after the installation of DME 3.5 SP 3, and 2-24 hours after every subsequent server restart. The two-hour delay enables you to turn this feature off if you have a reason not to keep it enabled.
The following information about your system is sent:
Server settings: The status of some of the settings in the Server configuration panel. Security-related settings from the Authentication section are not included.
License information: The number and type of licenses acquired, and how many free licenses are available.
Upload basic topology information (requires installation info)
In order to enable the collection of topology information, the field Upload basic installation information above must be enabled also. If this field is set to Yes, DME will connect to the CS server once every two weeks and send the following information about your system:
System properties and environment: DME server version, Java version, etc. (largely the information shown in the Monitor > Server properties section).
Database properties: Version, type, and JDBC driver version.
Connector properties: Some of the settings made for each connector (no security-related settings).
Device properties: For each device, its client version, platform, type, and settings such as what DME features are enabled (e-mail sync, calendar sync, etc.). Device IDs are hashed (made anonymous).
Upload usage statistics (requires topology info)
In order to enable the collection of usage statistics, the field Upload basic topology information above must be enabled also. If this field is set to Yes, DME will connect to the CS server once every two weeks and send the following information about your system:
Usage statistics: The same statistics that form the basis for the built-in trend graphs on the Monitor page. Note again that the statistics are completely anonymous.
In order to enable the collection of errors and warnings, the field Upload basic installation information above must be enabled also. If this field is set to Yes, DME will scan your system's log files and send the following information to the CS server once a day:
Errors and warnings: The errors and warnings that occur most frequently (up to 20 of them) are picked out from the log files, and each error is hashed and given a special ID. This ID is then sent to the CS along with a list containing the following information: One instance of the complete error message; a time stamp for each occurrence of the error (max. 500 time stamps); a list of affected device types and how many times each type is affected by the error.
With this information, Excitor can gain a deeper understanding of how our customers use DME, and what your needs are. This understanding is essential for the future development of DME.
As a more immediate benefit to you, Soliton Systems will analyze the error messages that are reported. With this information, Soliton Systems can build fixes for those particular errors, and send the fixes to those customers that are affected by the error.
The URL address of the DME Central Services (CS) server is cs.excitor.com. This cannot be changed. Port 443 (SSL) must be open from the DME server to the DME CS server. DME pings the CS server once every hour. If there is no response from the CS server, a message is written in the log.
Click Save configuration to save the current configuration. Click Start upload to upload the installation information to the Central Services server immediately.
In the Central Services section of the Server configuration panel you can configure feedback to DME Central Services (CS), and turn third-party push notification (GCM and APNS) on or off.
Installation information upload