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Last Update: Dec 22nd, 2018

ET/BWMGR v5 GUI Reference


The ET/BWMGR GUI has been completely re-written in version 5.0 in PHP, utilizing our new PHP direct access interface to the kernel. Version 5.1 has been adapted to use the boostrap framework; providing a familiar environment and streamlining development.The clunkiness of the previous gui is largely gone; it now functions more like a dedicated system management interface than a bunch of web pages. It is also self-contained and separated from the Webmin system GUI. In v5.1, the customized system GUI has been replaced with a stock version of Webmin with minor customizations which allows customers to add modules and with simplify upgrades in the future.

A General Tour

Signing In

The ET/BWMGR GUI is accessed as the default web page on your appliance (not port 10000 as in previous versions.) So, if your appliance IP is set to 192.168.0.35, you access the GUI by pointing your browser to http:://192.168.0.35/.

V5gui signin

You will first need to log in, using the default "admin" user, and the password you entered when you first booted the appliance. After logging in, the top menu bar will be populated with more interesting choices.

V5gui aftlogin

Settings

The settings form (accessed via the Admin dropdown button in the top menu) allows you to control various aspects of the display. You'll need to set your default interface here; that is, the interface where you'll be putting your rules. Typically this is the interface that you designated as your outside interface on your bridge.

Settings form

Settings Explained

DB Host, Database, DB User, DB Password

These are the parameters needed to log into the database. the Database must be etbwmgr.

Rows Per Page

The default number of rules or rows to show under the tabs. For rules, you can change these under the Tab, but on a new session the default will be reset to this value.

Default Interface

The interface for rules used on a new session. When you change the dropdown within a session, the new value will "stick" until a new session is created.

Meters Interface

This is the interface that the meters show the throughput for. Normally you want this set to the outside interface where you have your rules.

GUI Refresh

The refresh in MS for the GUI. You should not set this less than 1000 (1 second) or you may get into JS loops.

Max Throughput

This changes the scale on the throughput meter; if you're license is higher than the setting the needle with spin around if you go over. If you have a smaller license like 10Mb/s you have no need for the scale to reach 100Mb/s. This setting must be a multiple of 5. We recommend round numbers, such at 50Mb/s for a 45Mb/s license.

Meters 1000

Member Tab

The name of the members table. Currently this must be set to users. This value is not used.

Auto Rebuild

Set this to 1 to rebuild your /etc/rc.bwmgr file whenever you change a rule. The ruleset is only rebuild every 5 minutes (by bwmgrd) do don't expect instant changes.

Track All Connections

Set to 1 to create a stream for each connection.

Small Packet Priority

Set this to 1 to set small packets (60 bytes) to have higher priority when delays. This can keep ACKs from getting stuck in queues behind larger packets.

Max Streams

Set this to a number larger than the number of streams you'll need. If you have 4 or 8GB of memory you can safely set this to a very large number.

Max Buffers

The maximum number of buffers the system will use for delay. This should be set to a number less than the number of clusters available in your kernel.

Enable BWdata

Enable the legacy BWdata database. This is used for Reports data, but it creates a lot of data and can fill your disk over time.

Force SSL

Force the BWMGR to be accessed in SSL

CPU Alert Threshold

The % usage to generate an alert for CPU usage.

Admin Menu

The orange Admin drop down menu has all of the admin functions available to the current user.

Admin menu

System Info shows basic system info for the appliance.

Sysinfo

You can get more detailed System Information with Detailed Info:

Detailed sysinfo

We've already seen Settings. Services allows you to control which services are started on boot.

Services

You can Reboot or Shutdown your system gracefully from the GUI as well:

Reboot shutdown

You can set your IPMI address and see your current settings. MAKE SURE that this is either an internal address or is properly firewalled from the outside world.

Ipmi

Licenses are managed online via the GUI. When an upgrade is available, you can just pull it down and install it.

License

There's a Database Manager for tweaking things if you know what you're doing:

Database mgr

Upgrades are automated as well with the integrated Upgrader utility.

Bwmgr upgrader

Adding Users

You can create users other than "Admin" in the v5 GUI. Two types of user roles are supported: "admin" users have full access, while "readonly" can view settings but not alter them. To create or modify a user, go to the Users tab and select

V5gui users

A simple entry form will appear. In this example, we add a user named Trudy Jones, and we assign her to the "readonly" user role.

V5gui newuser

You don't need to include an email address, but you do need to specify a password. Users can change their password once they've successfully logged in.

V5gui newuser filled

Save the user, and you'll see the entry in the users display.

V5gui users ro

The Interfaces Tab

You'll need to define an outside interface; this should actually be done when you run bwmgr_setup, but for fun we'll show you how to do it manually.

Ifacs 1

Just edit the interface and check the Outside box on the interface that is connected to the internet.

Ifacs 2

So now you're configured correctly. Not that all interfaces are showing "Disabled". Interfaces are enabled automatically when you have rules on the interface. When you don't have any rules, it will show as disabled. DO NOT enable interfaces manually unless you have a reason to do so. On a bridge, both interfaces SHOULD NOT be enabled. You only want rules on one interface in a bridge.

Ifacs 3

If you plan to use a global ruleset, you need to select the interfaces which will participate. If you have multiple bridges, you can have the same rules apply to multiple bridges so you can "catch" traffic through multiple pipes.

Global 1

When you set an interface to use a global ruleset, it will become enabled even if you haven't defined any rules.

Global 2

Adding Customers

The customers tab allows you to a database of customers with associated account numbers and billing plans. It also holds a username and password that is used for access to their customer graph page and usage info. You can use the customer table for full provisioning, or just to allow access to usage graphs; the customer table is completely optional. However if you intend to use billingd to gather billing and quota stats, or to enforce quotas, then you will have to populate the customers table.

Creating Plans

"Plans" are templates that are applied to a customers billing data to determine how much traffic should be considered when applying billing or a quota. The database contains all of a customer's data, when a quota is checked, the plan template is applied and the result is returned, leaving out usage from when the plan doesn't apply. The secondary process allows you to change a plan without having it affect the data that is stored for a customer. The flexible plan templates allow you to have "free bandwidth" periods, and it allows you to have different rules for billing and quotas if you require it.

Note that billing and quota plans require that billingd have an entry in your crontab.

Plans are managed under the Profiles/Plans tab; to create a plan, press the New Plan button.

Quota empty

Quota and Billing plans use the same form; a quota plan can be used for billing, or you can create separate billing and quota plans. Each customer can have a billing and a quota plan so you can customize a plan for each customer. You might want to give a special introductory deal, or you might want to give free bandwidth away in the middle of the night. For example:

Freesatearly

This plan will allow unmetered usage from 12am - 7am on Saturday. You can do things like this to allow customers to do backups or other bandwidth intensive tasks "off the meter"; by offering different customers different windows you can avoid the situation where all customers have free bandwidth at the same time. You could give some customers free Thursday mornings and others Friday. Or you can customize it to a specific customer's needs. Save the plan, and you'll see this.

Freeearly done

If the plan is active for the entire day, then it will just show "All". Otherwise the hours that it's active will be shown. Note that 3AM means that the plan is active from 3AM-4AM.

Quotas

Each plan can have a quota, and actions to be performed if a quota is exceeded. You'll need to create a quota template for each variation; usually you'll only have several plans that apply to multiple customers.

Currently, the only action is to apply a bandwidth profile. The quota plan below, Default, allows no free bandwidth window, and has a daily as well as monthly quotas.

Default plan

This plan will apply the "LessBandwidth" profile if daily usage exceeds 100MB. It will also apply the MoreBandwidth profile when monthly usage is over 1.8GB, and LessBandwidth if monthly usage is over 4GB. Note that daily quotas will override monthly, so if a daily quota is exceeded that setting will be applied regardless of the monthly settings.

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Next: ET/BWMGR v5.0 User Guide