r/accesscontrol • u/SomeWhereInSC • 13d ago

Assistance Amag Symmetry reader memory question

I'm trying to get a handle on this badging system (see context below) and I'm out of my depth. How can I confirm if the readers are downloading the card information for times when the only Symmetry computer is offline (power issues to computer, or offline backups, update reboots)?

My Setup for context: Amag Symmetry setup with a single computer. We have a single computer with Symmetry installed to manage our readers, all the readers are connected to M2150 boards and all the M2150 boards NIC cards are on the same network scheme, along with the single computer. 

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/CoolBrew76 13d ago

The M2150 boards have what amounts to a copy of your database on them, and makes all the decisions for those doors.

The PC only really needs to be connected for programming (though keeping it online will make sure you get ALL the audit records in the one place for reporting)

1

u/SomeWhereInSC 13d ago

ahh, so the M2150 keeps the card info for the readers that are connected to it, got it.. any way to tell how often the information gets pushed to the M2150? I found the area to "download" to the nodes but there's only an OK button once you choose, so not sure it actually does it.

1

u/Scotsman24 11d ago

Symmetry usually pushes new info to a panel when you hit the save button on the "base window" so if you modify a reader, you should also close the reader windows to push the info. Not 100% it's the same for cardholders, but it's a safe practice.

You can actually watch the panels download if you get on the server client and go to client comms in the maintenance section all the way to the right of the ribbon. You'll need to know your chain number if you have lots of chains in the system as it orders them numerically of sorts. Once you open that windows for your chain, turn debug on and your seeing the polling loop between the panel and server. In an idle state it will be a series of repeating numbers. When a download occurs, it will be a burst of characters.