Hi Dojo,
This is a question I got from a user, and also something I noticed "in the wild" a few times, Cisco DCM and Synamedia vDCM connectors used interchangeably to monitor Virtual DCM devices.
I would like to confirm whether using the Cisco DCM connector to monitor a Virtual DCM is supported, or possible at all. If this is done by mistake, for example, will this cause problems to the DataMiner software, or will it cause just some data to be missing in the element?
Thanks!
Hi Alexander,
The Synamedia vDCM offers two APIs: IIOP and REST.
The IIOP interface is the legacy interface originally developed for the Synamedia (formerly CISCO) DCM equipment. Our Cisco DCM connector utilizes the IIOP interface for complete integration with DataMiner, providing full monitoring and control functionalities when integrating with Synamedia DCM equipment.
Since the Synamedia vDCM also supports the IIOP interface, we can use the Cisco DCM connector for integration with DataMiner. However, the IIOP interface doesn't offer all the capabilities that the vDCM might provide.
For instance, if the vDCM is used to consume an SRT or ZIXI stream at the input, we can't configure these streams using the IIOP interface. This functionality is available through a separate RESTful API, which is also supported by the Synamedia vDCM.
The vDCM web interface includes a feature that shows logs of the request/response traffic between the web client and the vDCM. This feature distinguishes between traffic to the IIOP interface and the REST API, suggesting that their native web client uses both interfaces to operate the vDCM.
Conclusion:
- Cisco DCM connector: IIOP interface capabilities only.
- Synamedia vDCM connector: REST API interface capabilities only.
We believe that the REST API will eventually replace the IIOP interface entirely. Until then, we will need to use both interfaces.
The Synamedia vDCM connector is still under active development, and we expect several new versions to be released, each adding new features and capabilities.
For monitoring-only integration or for standard transport stream multiplexing or input/output redundancy features, the Cisco DCM connector should suffice. However, if you are using the vDCM platform for the latest streaming technologies (SRT, ZIXI, etc.) and need both monitoring and control capabilities from DataMiner, you will require the Synamedia vDCM connector.
Best regards,
Subscribing!
Not really an answer, just a comment – but I suppose the user is free to test from a staging system: I would expect that any specific KPIs of the “Virtual DCM” branded by Synamedia would not be implemented in the in the older integration developed for the hardware model (Zixi/SRT).
Not aware of issues that can arise within DM – if the same element is not switched from one protocol to another, I’d expect the Cassandra/DM side to be relatively safe.
There’s a number of other integration for the specific device:
https://catalog.dataminer.services/browse?q=dcm
Where viable, I’m led to think it’s recommendable to use an integration that is specific for the related target