Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite User Guide V1.9.
Legal Disclaimer INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYRIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT.
Revision History Version 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Date 06/08/2022 07/05/2022 08/16/2022 09/27/2022 10/03/2022 10/06/2022 1.9.1 1.9.2 11/30/2022 12/07/2022 1.9.3 2/16/2023 Page 3 of 37 Description of Changes Initial Release Add Hard Bay supported in Section 1.2, page 6 Add Wall Street Canyon supported in Section 1.
Table of Contents Legal Disclaimer ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Revision History...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents .........................................................................................................
1 1.1 Introduction Overview The Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite monitors unattended applications and provides redundant screen services for digital signage applications. Key capabilities of this tool include: • Terminate and relaunch the application when targeted application becomes unresponsive. • Gracefully shutdown or restart OS whenever it detects a target application failed x + times – as specified by the user, since the last Windows boot.
1.3 Hardware and Network Requirements For Configuration Tool Host PC: The Configuration Tool host PC must be on the same managed IPv4 network subnet as the two client NPSS NUCs. For NUC Clients and Host PC: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1.4 Two NPSS Supported NUC Platforms from section 1.2 “Supported NUC Products”. HDMI CEC- Use Consumer Electronics Control supported displays. Make sure to review specifications of televisions before buying them and make sure all HDMI ports support CEC specification.
2 Installation Steps - Microsoft Windows 1. Go to https://downloadcenter.intel.com and search for Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite 2. Download the zip package available for Windows Operating System – IntelNpss-Windows.zip and install files in the order mentioned below. NOTE: Refer to the section Installation Steps – Linux below if your target OS is Linux. 2.1 Driver installation on target NUC Note: From Window NPSS v2.0.0.
1. On the host PC, double-click the IntelNpssConfigurationInstaller_.exe. Accept the License agreement and click Install. 2. Wait for the installer to install the application. 3. Select the Start Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite - Configuration Tool after finishing Installation checkbox to open the application after clicking the Finish button.
3 Installation Steps - Linux 1. Go to https://downloadcenter.intel.com and search for Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite 2. Download the tar package available for Linux Operating System – IntelNpss-Linux_.tar and install files in the order mentioned below NOTE: Refer to the section Installation Steps – Windows above if your target OS is Windows. 3.1 Prerequisite for fresh Linux machine and NUC 1. 3.
2. Type in the command sudo dpkg -i intel-nucprosoftwaresuite-configurationtool_2.0.9-2_amd64.deb 3. Click Enter to execute the command: Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite – Configuration Tool NOTE: Always use the latest version number of the installation files in the commands above.
4 Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite – Features The Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite application supports 3 key features: 1. 2. 3. 4.1 Application Monitor – to monitor the state of a running application Player Failover – where a backup NUC can take over a primary NUC Advanced features like HDMI diagnosis Application Monitor The Application Monitor tab monitors the running state of desktop applications based on four major status indicators.
Feature Remove: Select an application currently monitored and click ‘Remove’ to stop monitoring. User Interface Start/Stop Monitoring All: Click this button to start/stop monitoring all added desktop applications at once.
Feature View Logs: Click View Logs to open the captured logs for every activity during runtime. User Interface Timeout Value (seconds): The user can enter the time in seconds in the Timeout textbox. When the application is not responding for the given time, the Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite will restart the application. Restart System: Click the Restart System dropdown to select the restart occurrence. When the application is not responding for the selected times, the system will restart. 4.1.
Indicator State Running status indicator helps identify the applications in the Running mode. (Cyan circle) Not Running status indicator helps identify the applications which are no longer running. (Yellow circle) Not Responding indicator helps identify an application in error state or when not responding. (Red circle) Not Monitored indicator helps identify applications which are no longer monitored by the system.
3. 4. 4.3 Failover (Solid Yellow) - In case of Failover, the Standby link connecting Active NUC, and its secondary display will become Failover. Inactive (Dotted Red) - When a NUC goes down, system links coming out of Failover NUC should become inactive. Advanced The Advanced tab allows user to configure system settings in addition to performing HDMI hardware diagnostics. The below screen shows all available options in the Advanced tab.
4.3.1 HDMI Hardware Diagnostic 1. System HDMI Status Click “Get HDMI display connectivity properties from all ports” to get the current state informationof HDMI ports i. Number of the HDMI ports on the system ii. HDMI ports connected to displays iii. HDMI ports in the NUC supporting HDMI CEC The HDMI Diagnostic makes WMI calls and shows the response in Human Readable or Hex Data format on UI.
2. HDMI CEC Command When a user clicks the HDMI CEC Command dropdown, the below mentioned commands are available. Select any command and click ‘Execute’ to view the results. i.
Page 18 of 37 ii. Get EDID information from the display connected through… On Execute this command, the user can get Product Name, Serial Number, Manufacturer ID of the connected through HDMI port iii.
iv. 3. Set the display's HDMI input to where this system is connected to via… This command helps user to switch display screen from to secondary port. Error Codes The user can get any of the error codes below in response to a HDMI CEC Command.
4.3.2 1. Application Settings Always show Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite on system restart - Check this box to open the application on the desktop after every system restart. When this is not checked, the application will be displayed only in the system tray. 2. Disable/Enable Hardware Watchdog Timer – Default Hardware Watchdog Timer is enabled on launching the application.
iv. Page 21 of 37 On click of Yes, Player failover is disabled and No NUC is visible in the ‘Player Failover’ section.
5 Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite - Configuration Tool The Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite – Configuration Tool provides step by step instructions to configure the target NUCs and setup the primary and secondary connection between the target system and displays. Do not install the configuration tool on the target NUCs. Instead, install the configuration tool on a host PC which is on the same network as the target NUCs.
2. Select the IP Address checkbox to view the topology of the NUCs on the right-hand section of the window. 3. Click Next button to go to Step2: Configure HDMI Ports. 5.1.2 Configure HDMI Ports 1. In this step, the user must perform all three Configuration Checks for each NUC to make Primary Port connections.
Note: In the Status column, icon indicates the check is performed. Persistent Display Emulation 5.1.2.1 1. Persistent Display Emulation allows the user to make the permissions for switching between primary and redundant connection s in the player failover state. 2. Make sure to disable the Persistent Display Emulation to avoid redundant connection issue. i. 3. How to Enable or Disable Persistent Display? 1. 2. 3. Press F2 during boot to enter the BIOS.
5.1.2.2 1. Primary Display Connected? Connect the primary display’s HDMI port connection to primary port of the NUC.
5.1.2.3 HDMI Port 2 Disconnected? 1. The Secondary connection (Dotted Line) must be disabled as we are configuring the Primary Connection to complete the configuration. Note: If the Secondary Connection is not disabled, an error message displays in both Config tool and Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite as below: 2. The Topology section displays: i.
ii. iii. iv. Configuration states of NUCs (Configured or Not Configured) Two Displays (Display A & Display B) Primary Connection between the primary ports of Display and NUC 3. Click “Confirm you have your primary displays connected to the NUCs” checkbox to enable the Next button. 4. After performing all the configuration checks for each NUC, if any of the check fails due to unknown reasons, a Cross Mark displays in the status column for respective configuration check. 5.
5.1.3 Pair 1. The Unique ID information entered in the previous window displays here. 2. The user can see the message “Connect unused port of this display to HDMI 2 from the redundant NUC” to setup the secondary connection (Dotted Line) in the Display A of Config tool and in the Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite. 3. Connect the port 2 of Display A to HDMI 2 of the redundant NUC 4. After successful connection, user can see a secondary connection (Dotted Line) between display and NUC ports.
5. Now, connect the port 2 of display B to HDMI 2 of the redundant NUC. After successful connection for both NUCs, the Display A and Display B is set to show the data or information from the NUCs.
6. Perform the same steps for each Display or NUC and click Next. 7. The display will show the message “Enable Persistent Display Emulation on NUC” as the display is not registered with the specific NUC. 8. To avoid display connectivity interruptions without the operating system redetecting and rearranging the display layout, enable the Persistent Display emulation in NUC. 9. For detailed steps to enable or disable the persistent display, refer to Section 5.1.2.1 Persistent Display Emulation. 10.
An error message, “Display connected to both HDMI ports of the same NUC. Replace last cable connected to HDMI2 of another NUC” shows in Display A of Config tool and in the Intel® NUC Pro Software Suite. 11. Enable the persistent display emulation for Display B and the screen will load the data from the NUC (192.168.1.
12. To view the saved topology, click on ‘Saved Topologies’ tab – View Topology button. 13. Click on Rename to change the name of topology.
Click on Delete to remove the toplogy image.
14. To register another NUC, click the StartOver button and the user will be navigated to the Step1:Discover.
6 System Tray Application Open the system tray from desktop and right-click the application icon, the below options/status will be shown: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Page 35 of 37 Applications added from Application Monitor along with their status. Paired NUCs along with their status. Application name to open the User Interface. View Logs are used to open captured logs. About shows the version of Application and service. Exit closes the Application.
7 Known Errata 1. Player Failover feature can behave unexpectedly if HDMI cables are unplugged and plugged-in during runtime. 2. To unselect a row on Application Monitor, the user needs to press the CTRL key and click the desired row at the same time. 3. During NPSS Configuration Tool, there may be a chance when both NUC are not visible to each other and state message (like disconnectHDMI-2, persistent enable/disable etc.
