Wegener Communications 6420 3.7. Premium Features

iPump 6420 User’s Manual

www.wegener.com 800070-01 Rev B Chapter 3, Page 92

The iPump6420 features an internal metal hard-drive (HDD) for storage of media files,

playlists, databases, and logs. It also includes a small partition called the “Install partition”, but

this is only useful to advanced users who may need, under WEGENER supervision, to rebuild or

replace their Compact Flash memory cards. The HDD is critical to all the Store/Forward

operations, but is not needed in order to provide basic IRD functions. Therefore, the i6420 was

designed to continue this limited IRD operation in the event of HDD failure.

The application software will basically declare the HDD as failed and unavailable only if it

is not allowed, by the Linux OS, to mount partitions on the HDD for both reading and writing.

This will set off a permanent Alarm indication for “HDD Failure”. The unit may or may not

reboot at that time, but it will eventually settle down to operate as a simple IRD, continuing to

play out the live satellite audio, if commanded and available. This state will continue

indefinitely until an advanced user, with debug access, clears the indication and replaces the

HDD.

A possible interim condition may also exist, if, during routine diagnostic scans, the HDD is

found to indicate legitimate pre-failure indicators. The scan for these indicators is based on

extensive research on hundreds of thousands of HDD failures, as carried out by Google and

Carnegie Mellon University.* In this research, these indicators were found to accurately predict

nearly 50% of imminent HDD failures, usually weeks or months before the actual failures

occurred. When the i6420 sees any of these indicators, then it will, if not masked, set a Warning

of “HDD failure imminent”.

* Valid customers may request this information from WEGENER Engineering.

3.7. Premium Features

In order to setup and access any of the iPump6420 premium features listed below, the units

must have been installed with the proper authorizing key-files. These are small text files that

each authorize a specific unit serial number for a specific feature. Their file names are formed as

serialnumber-featurename.pem, where serialnumber is the numeric unit serial number, and

featurename is a text mnemonic representing the feature (see below). As of this writing, Compel

versions 5.07 and higher supply controls to either manually authorize individual units, or to

authorize an entire network. This is all done by simple MPE/IP file downloads to a secure,

hidden directory in the i6420. Within 5 minutes of the file download, the application will

recognize its new authorizations, and be ready to perform the new premium functions.

For information on how to order premium features, and acquire authorizing key files, for

your iPump6420, please contact the WEGENER Sales Department. For assistance in installing

the authorizing keys, please contact the WEGENER Customer Service Department.