DSS 5 – FutureSmart Device

White PaperAddressing Architecture and

Troubleshooting

Date Written: 5/14/2014

Introduction

DSS keeps addresses in the DSS database in logical address books. These addresses can be accessed by devices that are bound to DSS for addressing with email or FAX jobs. In DSS 5 FutureSmart devices access DSS address information differently than pre-FutureSmart devices, and differently than FutureSmart devices do in the 4.25 version of DSS. This paper will describe the addressing architecture and also give troubleshooting tips for common problems.

Architecture

FutureSmart devices directly access addressing information from the DSS database. Pre-FutureSmart devices request addresses from the DSS service, and the DSS service in turn gets the addresses from the database and passes them back to the requesting device.

Default and External DSS Databases

The DSS database can be the default database which is installed when DSS is installed. This database is installed on the DSS server and is accessed by FutureSmart devices using TCP port 5213. Port 5213 must be open bi-directionally on the DSS server for FutureSmart addressing to work.

The DSS database can also be an SQL Server database that is not installed when DSS is installed. DSS can be configured to use an external database either during DSS installation, or after installation using a utility provided for this purpose. When a database other than the default DSS database is used it is referred to as an “external” database. An external database can exist on the DSS server itself, but is most commonly a database on a separate server. An external database can be configured by the DSS admin to use whatever port they choose. Also, the database server can be specified using either an IP address or a host name. For FutureSmart addressing to work when an external database is in use the database server must allow bi-directional access on the configured port to the FS devices. Also, the networking configuration on each FutureSmart device must be properly configured such that the device can find the database server. The usually involves making sure the DNS servers and suffixes are properly configured.

When a FutureSmart device is added to DSS the database connection string is pushed from DSS to the device for use when getting address information.

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