Product FAQs | Modius
What Is Modius?Where Can I Use Modius?
How Does Modius Work?
What Kind Of Devices Can Modius Monitor?
How Can Modius Monitor Such A Broad Range Of Devices?
Is Modius Flexible?
Is Modius Scalable?
Is Modius Reliable?
Is Modius Secure?
How Does Modius Connect To The Monitored Device?
What Points Can Be Monitored On A Device?
How Do I View Information About My Device Network?
How Are Notifications Handled?
Can Modius Track The State Of An Alarm?
Can Modius Track User Activity?
Can I Generate Reports Based On The Data Collected By Modius?
Can I Customize My Modius System?
Can Modius Use My Existing Network Infrastructure?
Can I Integrate Modius With My Network Management System?
What Is Modius?
Modius is a patent-pending web-based monitoring, management and reporting system that provides secure network routing of device data for business-critical physical assets in a single architecture. Modius enables improved operations of any facility by collecting, presenting, and archiving, critical health and performance information about the status of physical devices. It also reports in near real time on the environmental conditions that impact operational efficiency including power, humidity, and cooling. The Modius system presents a consistent, consolidated view into the operational health and history of the physical infrastructure.Where Can I Use Modius?
Modius technology can be deployed across the enterprise, regardless of geography or facility type and size. For data centers, it can proactively monitor power and environmental equipment. For colocation centers, it can monitor power distribution units (PDUs) or report on the current draw for individual customers. For smaller, unmanned or isolated locations, Modius can monitor security, fire and power devices to avoid having to send personnel for periodic “rounds and readings.” Other applications include monitoring production lines, clean-room environments and pipeline conditions. In all cases, Modius can reduce the time and costs to predict, isolate and remedy critical failures and Modius' reporting capabilities can facilitate improved capacity and maintenance planning. Modius provides visibility across all of the previously isolated facilities of IT, Automation and Controls systems on a single platform.How Does Modius Work?
The system is based on a modular, client-server software architecture deployed over a standard IP network. Modius Enterprise Edition collects point data from connected equipment and sends it to a server for storage and analysis. It also monitors for user-specified and device-generated threshold and alarm conditions that are then immediately sent to the notification engine. The Modius point-centric architecture consistently manages data across the Modius Message Service regardless of product line, product vintage or market. This data management functionality facilitates extensions to new device types using existing control platforms, and creates the possibility of new information-based service offerings that enable the integration of device data to build business intelligence applications. Modius supports BOTH device-oriented protocols and I/T oriented protocols in a single architecture, thereby creating a more efficient and uniform integration technology. The Modius architecture addresses all OSI layers from the physical accessibility of serial communications through the application layer.The Modius Enterprise Server functions as the data repository for all devices monitored, and stores the health and performance data in a standards-based database that can later be queried for trending, capacity planning, failure analysis, asset performance statistics, and other uses that help enhance business decision-making. This data is available to authorized users via any commonly used webbrowser.
What Kind Of Devices Can Modius Monitor?
Modius can be used to monitor almost any type of equipment that has either a serial or network interface. This includes most types of power, fire suppression and environmental equipment, as well as security systems. Examples of power equipment include uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs), generators and power distribution units (PDU). Environmental systems include CRAC, HVAC and leak detection units. Modius supports most major brands in each of the above industries such as Liebert, Mitsubishi, MGE, APC, Eaton Powerware, Raychem/Tyco, Generac, Exide and Fenwal.How Can Modius Monitor Such A Broad Range Of Devices?
The Modius system is extremely modular. Modius implements device protocols as “objects” that can be loaded and unloaded on demand. The core of the system is vendor- and brand-agnostic in its interpretation, normalization and presentation of the data collected, while the device-specific logic and protocol is implemented through plug-in modules. This allows Modius to collect all of the available health and performance data from a broad range of devices and store them in a central repository.Is Modius Flexible?
The Modius architecture targets multiple types of users, so that operations, maintenance, management and financial constituents of an organization are able to extract information value and business insight.As a result of the flexibility and extensibility of its metadata-driven system, Modius accommodates system extensions, while reducing the risk, complexity and cost of integrating device data within enterprise systems. Anything viewable as a "time-varying value" (aka: mathematical variable) is amenable to the Modius architecture.
Modius' unique, modular and patented technology allows support for new devices to be rapidly added without changing the technical infrastructure of the system. In fact, adding more monitored devices need not even involve any downtime in an existing Modius system. Further, since the device protocol modules can be loaded and unloaded at will, the Modius Protocol Gateways are reusable when a monitored device is replaced by one of a different make and model.
Is Modius Scalable?
Modius is a distributed system that can easily scale to monitor a mix of small and large, distributed critical facilities, whether or not they are all manned 7x24. A prime advantage is that the Modius system does not require a server at every site. Infrastructure devices located at small or unmanned sites can easily be connected via a WAN to report to a server at a larger site. In addition, multiple Modius servers can be linked together in a peer-to-peer architecture to cover very large, geographically dispersed, multi-site critical infrastructures. Modius' architectural approach achieves cost reduction, performance improvement and size scaling, independent of programming languages, hardware platforms, subject device categories, and manufacturer protocols. This reduces the complexity and costs of accessing and managing device information because it is done as low as possible in the architecture, to ensure ease of and maximize sharing across all systems.Is Modius Reliable?
Reliability is an inherent component of Modius, which has sophisticated built-in self-diagnostics that monitor for any abnormal conditions. It also has several fail-safe mechanisms that allow the system to be operational even in the event of a component failure. Modius' peer-to-peer architecture allows each component to be monitored by the other. When an exception is logged, notifications are instantly distributed to an authorized system administrator to ensure a speedy restoration of all operations.Is Modius Secure?
Since Modius is designed for monitoring mission-critical facilities, security is taken very seriously. The data collected by the Modius system is protected both in transit over the network and in storage on the server. Web access is secure using a 128-bit encrypted SSL connection, message encryption and LDAP integration. Thus, security is a key end-to-end component in the Modius system utilizing authentication, access control, encryption and non-repudiation at all layers of the architecture.How Does Modius Connect To The Monitored Device?
All devices are monitored by an Modius Protocol Gateway running the device-specific protocol module. In most cases, the connection is via a serial interface, though some devices can also be monitored via an IP protocol such as SNMP. Modius' software component can be hosted on a variety of hardware platforms such as low-cost embedded serial servers and commodity PC hardware. The highly compact software agent can also be embedded directly into devices being monitored by an OEM.
What Points Can Be Monitored On A Device?
The Modius PG can poll for all analog, digital and alarm points that the monitored device is capable of supplying. In addition to the manufacturer supplied points, Modius’ computed points capability allows for easy capture of expanded device profile data that is not specified by the manufacturer. The Modius network architecture builds upon a message bus in which each externally-visible element is exposed as a self-described object. The architecture was designed to be "domain neutral"; in that a subject device is treated simply as a “collection of points”, thereby supporting consistent handling of these device objects and the point data contained within. Computed points provide a powerful means of extending the native information exposed by critical assets.How do I view information about my device network?
Simply point your web browser at the Modius web address, where all of your critical facilities equipment --- regardless of location, type or manufacturer --- will be displayed in a device tree. An icon represents each device, depending on its type. All system activities will take place through this one web portal. With access rights, you can view, change thresholds, trend or monitor anything on the device network from any location. In larger installations, the amount of historical data storage depends on the storage capacity of the Modius server. Additional storage capacity can be easily added with disk arrays and storage area networks. Since Modius stores device data using a standard SQL database, stored data can also be backed up and moved to a secondary database.How are notifications handled?
If an alarm state is reached either through a trend or an event, Modius instantly dispatches communications to authorized users. A key element of Modius solution is the richness of notification methods and alarms, including:- Email notification with attachments that describe the details of the event
- SNMP Enterprise MIB II compliance, with SNMP traps sent to any Network Management System or help desk tool
- Alpha-numeric pager support for alarms
