Reduce Spend: ControlUp Edge DX on Stratodesk

For the most part, installing and running Edge DX on Stratodesk has been a painless and easy way to monitor the device. However, occasionally problems do crop up. For security reasons, Stratodesk has a locked file system that prevents you from doing deep troubleshooting of the software. But, in this short blog, I will show you a few things you can check that may help you troubleshoot and verify that you have an issue with Edge DX on your Stratodesk device.

Check your Edge DX Installation

Only two strings must be entered in the STRATODESK configuration GUI to add it as an Edge DX tenant. These strings can be located on the Edge DX tenant by selecting Download from the Configuration menu, and at the top of the page, you will see the registration code and the tenant’s name (Figure 1). Clicking Thin Client Agents will display a link to the installation instructions for the Stratodesk NoTouch OS agent.


Figure 1: Reg Code and Tenant Name

After following the instructions to integrate Edge DX with Stratodesk, the agent will be installed.

Check the Edge DX log Files

If you have Edge DX issues on your Stratodesk device, you should look at EDGE DX log files. To look at the log files, you must enable a terminal on the STRATODESK device.

Select Console under the Diagnostic dropdown menu (Figure 2).  


Figure 2: Stratodesk Console

On the desktop, you see a terminal icon labeled Local Terminal; click it. Log on to the terminal window. Enter cd /var/log/avacee to navigate to the log files’ directory. Enter cat siplog.log.

Suppose you don’t see information that indicates that the agent is starting and the device is registering (Figure 3). You may have entered the registration information incorrectly, or the agent needed to download it.


Figure 3: Edge DX Log

The Edge DX client is embedded in NoTouch OS, so it cannot be independently updated from the OS. If you need a newer version of the Edge DX agent, contact Stratodesk.

Protip – If you have a tough time updating your Stratodesk firmware, you can SSH or use Edge DX Remote Shell to run this command. cupdate http://<location of the lfi file>

Check the Edge DX Process

The Edge DX agent needs to be running to transfer information from the device to the tenant. To see if the agent is running, enter ps -elf | grep -i avac

If the agent is running, this command will display two processes, the first being the Edge DX agent (avaceesipagent) and the second being the process of the grep command itself (Figure 4). If you only have one line of text, the agent is not running.


Figure 4: Edge DX Process

The Edge DX process line that is displayed contains the tenant’s name and device registration code. This can be used to verify that you are connecting to the correct tenant.

If the agent is not running, a device reboot will sometimes cure the problem.

As stated above, Edge DX has proven to be stable on Stratodesk. Still, due to its locked-down filesystem, we are limited to what troubleshooting we can perform on it, and any in-depth troubleshooting will need to be done by opening a ticket with Stratodesk. We partner with Stratodesk, and they can engage us at the highest engineering level to co-work on issues affecting our users.

For a video of this click here. For more information on how Edge DX complements Stratodesk visit our Edge DX page or schedule a demo with a ControlUp sales engineer.

About the author

Tom Fenton

Tom Fenton is a Technical Marketing manager here at ControlUp (in addition to an all-around great guy). He’s THE subject matter expert for Edge DX, our physical endpoint monitoring solution, as well as an expert in all things VMware (FACT: he used to work at VMware, teaching their employees about their technology). He creates valuable, educational content for the ControlUp blog, leads deep-dive webinars, and educates our sales teams and other IT professionals with tips and tricks about how to use ControlUp solutions. In his spare time, he writes for StorageReview.com and Virtualization Review magazine, and enjoys outdoor sports in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with him on Twitter @vDoppler.