Nimbra Edge

Overview

Nimbra Edge is the name of the video routing platform from Net Insight. It is deployed and run in either a Public Cloud or on on-premises hardware. It consists of two main components:

  • Edge Connect is a container that runs on each Beam edge device (RX1/CE1).
  • Video Regions - containerized application that runs either in a public cloud environment or on on-premises hardware.

Additionally, the Nimbra Core control services are deployed as a third-part HA cluster. This may also be deployed in a public cloud or on on-prem hardware.

Edge Connect connects to the Nimbra Edge system to register it is alive and can accept instructions. When a contribution link is required, an Edge Connect instance in an edge device will be provided with a configuration to either send or receive video traffic. This video traffic is sent to one or more Video Regions where it is then routed, if needed via other Video Regions, on to other Edge Connect devices where it may be decoded or passed through.

Each Video Region can scale up and down resources as required for the number of contribution links needed. It can also ingest or egress video traffic and send on to other Video Regions or Edge Connect devices.

The system is controlled via a UI and API presented by the Nimbra Edge platform.

Enable/Disable Nimbra Edge

The Nimbra Edge component is available in the solution bundle but is not active by default. If required, this component must be enabled.

To enable or disable Nimbra Edge:

  1. SSH into the CE1, enter username mfeng and a password that is communicated in the Quick Start Guide.

  2. Execute the enable-nimbra.sh command then wait for about ten seconds. After 10-15 seconds, Nimbra Edge submenu will be shown on the left-hand menu under Remote Management.

To disable Nimbra Edge, execute the disable-nimbra.sh command, then wait for about ten seconds.

Configure Nimbra Edge

Before you start: ensure you enabled Nimbra Edge.

  1. From the left-hand menu navigate to Remote Management > Nimbra Edge. A new window is displayed in the right pane.

  2. Enter the appropriate value for each parameter:

    • the Unit Name,
    • the Nimbra Edge URL,
    • the Secret Key,
    • the local Contact information.

  3. Save the configuration then click the Start button on the top right corner. The red No Contact text next to the Nimbra Edge URL should be replaced with Connected in green.

Remotely administer a CE1 or an RX1 running Nimbra Edge

To remotely administer any RX1/CE1 which is running Nimbra Edge, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Nimbra Network Manager. The URL is the same as the Nimbra Edge URL entered on the RX1/CE1 UI (see Configure Nimbra Edge).

  2. Navigate to Settings > Appliances in the left-hand menu. All your appliances should be listed here.

  3. To navigate to the RX1/CE1 UI, click the Manage appliance button.

Route Content using Nimbra Network Manager

To route content, follow these steps:

Log in to Nimbra Network Manager

Create an input

  1. Select Inputs on the left-hand menu.

  2. Click the Create Input button. A new window is displayed.

    • Give the new input a name.
    • Select the appliance the input is coming from.
    • Select the interface on that appliance the input is coming from.
    • Select the mode of the input content, for example, if routing output from a CE1, select UDP.
    • For Address, select the IP address of the interface. Typically, the output from a CE1 will be multicast, so ensure the Is this port multicast checkbox is checked, then enter the multicast address and the port of the multicast.

  3. Click Save.

Create an output

  1. Select Outputs on the left-hand menu.

  2. Click the Create Output button I the top right corner. A new window is displayed.

    • Give the new output a name.
    • Select the output appliance.
    • Select the interface on that appliance the output will be routed to.
    • Select the mode of the output content.
    • Set the source address to the IP address of the interface.
    • Enter the destination IP address and port.

Select an input

To choose an input, click the Switch input button at the bottom rigth corner then select the input. The selected input is added to the output.

Save

Click Save.

Nimbra Edge troubleshooting

  • On the Nimbra Edge Connect page on the RX1/CE1, check the unit name is unique. Check the URL and secret key are correct. Check that the Nimbra component has been started, and that it has successfully connected to the Nimbra Network Manager.
  • Check that DNS and NTP are configured and working on the RX1/CE1. Check that NTP is locked. Check the NTP settings either using the frontpanel command line tool or by using the front panel. Check that the NTP server IP is correct. Check the time source is set to NTP. Check that time status shows “NTP (locked)”. Check DNS by pinging google.com from the RX1 command line.
  • Check the Nimbra logs. To do this, enter the nimbra-logs.sh command on the command line.
  • If changing appliance type, you will need to delete the appliance from the Nimbra Network Manager and then re-add it.
  • If the network on which the RX1/CE1 is located has a transparent HTTPS filter or proxy, then this will be detected as a “man in the middle” attack and will not connect. To resolve this, either disable the filter or proxy or ensure the address of the Network Manager is whitelisted.

Nimbra Edge limitations

The following limitations apply to the usage of the Nimbra component in this release of RX1/CE1:

  • When rebooting the RX1 from the Nimbra Network Manager, the Nimbra component on the RX1/CE1 will need to be restarted.
  • When upgrading the RX1 from the Nimbra Network Manager, the Nimbra component on the RX1/CE1 will need to be re-enabled and then restarted.
  • The Nimbra Edge integration in the current release of RX1 cannot tunnel data when using SMPTE ST 2110-10, as this requires synchronization to a PTP master clock. NTP must be used for Nimbra integration.
  • 100 Mbit/s stream on M1 takes 32% of a core. This is expected. Use the SRT dimensioning guide as a rough approximation of how many streams can be deployed on a single RX1/CE1.
  • Support packages larger than 300Mb cannot be downloaded when connected to the RX1/CE1 from Nimbra Network Manager. Support packages this size will have to be downloaded locally.
Nimbra EdgeSystem architecture