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Discovering, Defining, or Importing Devices

Discovering, Defining, or Importing Devices

Owned by Nina Cardillo
Last updated: 24-Feb-2025
25 min read
LON is supported with SmartConnect 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

For SmartServer 4.3 and prior, see Discovering, Defining, or Importing Devices (Release 4.3 and Prior).

For SmartServer 3.4 and 3.5, see Discovering, Defining, or Importing Devices (Release 3.4 and 3.5).  

For SmartServer 3.3 and prior, see Discovering, Defining, or Importing Devices (Release 3.3 and Prior). 

You can discover, define, or import devices that you plan to use with your SmartServer.

This section consists of the following:

Methods for Adding Devices

BACnet Devices

You can add BACnet devices to the SmartServer using one of the following methods:

  • Manually – to add BACnet devices manually, follow these steps:

    1. Add a BACnet interface to your SmartServer.

    2. Download, discover, or create a BACnet XIF definition. 

    3. Manually add the devices as described in Creating Devices below.

  • Device Discovery – to add BACnet devices using device discovery, follow these steps:

    1. Add a BACnet interface to your SmartServer.

    2. Optionally download, discover, or create a BACnet XIF definition.

    3. Automatically discover the devices and their XIF definitions as described in Discovering Devices below.

Modbus Devices

You can add Modbus devices to the SmartServer using one of the following methods: 

  • Manually – to add Modbus devices manually, follow these steps:

    1. Add a Modbus interface to your SmartServer.

    2. Create a Modbus XIF file (.mod).

    3. Import the Modbus XIF file into the SmartServer. See the Importing a Device Type section in Defining Device Types for more information.

    4. Manually add the devices as described in Creating Devices below.

  • Device Discovery – you can discover Modbus devices with the SmartServer even though the Modbus protocol does not have a way to do device discovery. To add Modbus devices using device discovery, follow these steps:

    1. Add a Modbus interface to your SmartServer.

    2. Find a datapoint with a unique value on the Modbus device (such as model number).

    3. Create a Modbus XIF file (.mod) specifying this unique value (called a marker value).

    4. Import the Modbus XIF file into the SmartServer. See the Importing a Device Type section in Defining Device Types for more information.

    5. Automatically discover the devices and their XIF definitions as described in Discovering Devices below.

      During the device discovery process, the SmartServer will check the Modbus device for the mod file marker value, and if found, then the SmartServer will automatically add the device and assign it to this device type.

LON Devices

LON is supported with SmartConnect 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

You can add LON devices to the SmartServer using one of the following methods:

  • LON Independent Management Mode (IMM) – use IzoT CT or other tool based on IzoT Net Server to add and commission all SmartServers and other LON devices. You must switch to IMM mode before using IzoT CT or IzoT Net Server. You cannot add or provision LON devices using the SmartServer CMS using IMM, but you can create LON devices as applications (SmartServer internal devices) that run on your SmartServer. For IzoT CT or IzoT Net Server, the SmartServer internal devices are treated in the same way as any other LON devices.

    • To discover an existing network, then you should use the LNS tool to perform a network recovery to discover the network devices. Do not use the SmartServer device discovery to discover LON devices. 

    • To use the SmartServer device discovery to discover BACnet or Modbus devices, then it will also discover LON devices that are not already in the Devices widget. In most cases, you will want to remove these LON devices. Therefore, you should run the IzoT Net Export utility (see Importing LON Devices from an LNS Network with IzoT CT) again after running the SmartServer device discovery to remove any LON devices that are not shown in the LNS database SmartServer IoT device subsystems or child subsystems. 

  • LON Device Management Mode (DMM) – use the SmartServer CMS to add and provision LON devices. You can create LON devices as applications (SmartServer internal devices) that run on your SmartServer. 

    • You can use theSmartServer device discovery to discovery devices on a LON channel. You must first import an XIF (and any necessary resource XML files) for all LON device types before running device discovery. Any device that gets added that does not have an imported XIF file will appear in the Devices widget, but it will be unusable. You should manually remove these devices from the Devices widget as well as the associated device types.

    • With SmartServer release 3.4 and higher, discovered provisioned devices appear as provisioned devices in the SmartServer CMS (green color state) and existing connections are retained. With SmartServer release 3.3 and prior, device discovery shows the discovered devices as unprovisioned (blue color state), and once the devices are provisioned, all existing device connections are removed.

  • LON IP-852 Self-installed Repeater – use the Network and LON Configuration pages with LON DMM to configure IP addresses and enable IP-852. An external tool such as IzoT CT and the SmartServer CMS are not required for a SmartServer used only as an IP-852 router.  You must use an IP-852 Configuration Server to configure the IP-852 routers in your network.

If you are using your SmartServer on a LON network that is managed with an IzoT Net Server or LNS Server, you can continue to define and commission the devices using a tool based on the IzoT Net Server or LNS Server, such as the IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT), and then export the device definitions from the IzoT Net Server or LNS Server to the SmartServer as described in Importing LON Devices from an LNS Network with IzoT CT. 

EnOcean Devices

Remote EnOcean interface (Beta) is supported with SmartServer 4.3 Update 1 and higher.
Local EnOcean interface is supported with SmartServer 4.0 and higher.

You can add EnOcean devices to the SmartServer using one of the following methods: 

  • Manually – to add EnOcean devices manually, follow these steps:

    1. Add an EnOcean interface to your Smartserver.

    2. Create an EnOcean XIF file (.eno for local mode or .iotc for remote mode). See (Optional) Creating a Local EnOcean Device Interface (XIF) Definition or (Optional) Creating a Remote EnOcean (Beta) Device Interface (XIF) Definition.

    3. Import the eno file into the SmartServer. See the Importing a Device Type section in Defining Device Types for more information.

    4. Manually add the devices using the SmartServer CMS Devices widget. See Creating Devices below.

  • Device Discovery – The SmartServer can be setup to discover EnOcean devices. To add EnOcean devices using device discovery, follow these steps:

    1. Add an EnOcean interface to your Smartserver. 

    2. Create an EnOcean XIF file (.eno for local mode or .iotc for remote mode). See (Optional) Creating a Local EnOcean Device Interface (XIF) Definition or (Optional) Creating a Remote EnOcean (Beta) Device Interface (XIF) Definition.

    3. Import the .eno file for local mode or .iotc file for remote mode into the SmartServer. See the Importing a Device Type section in Defining Device Types for more information.

    4. Run device discovery. See Discovering Devices below.

      • For devices that have a teach-in switch – pressing this switch once causes the device to transmit a teach-in message, which is then received by the EnOcean driver. If an EnOcean XIF exists where the EEP matches the EEP in the message, then the device is discovered.

      • For devices that do not have a teach-in switch (e.g., the Rocker Switch) – these devices can be discovered during device discovery by rapidly pressing and releasing the switch within 2 seconds.

        The EnOcean driver discovery session ends when a period of 120 seconds elapses without any new devices being discovered. 120 seconds is the default, but this setting can be modified by changing the Discovery step callback timeout ms entry in the /var/apollo/conf.d/enocean/idl-enocean.conf system file for SmartServer IoT or /var/smartserver/conf.d/enocean/idl-enocean.conf system file for SmartConnect. If you discover remote EnOcean devices, then removing them using the SmartServer Devices widget will remove the devices from the remote server. 

LoRaWAN Devices

LoRaWAN devices are supported with SmartServer 4.0 and higher.

You can add LoRaWAN devices to the SmartServer using one of the following methods: 

  • Automatic Device Discovery (the preferred method) –  to add LoRaWAN devices using automatic device discovery, follow these steps: 

    1. Add a LoRaWAN interface to your SmartServer.

    2. If you plan to use BACnet with your SmartServer or you will be importing any device type packages (.dtp) that contain BACnet type maps (.btm), add a BACnet interface to your SmartServer.

    3. Download or create a LoRaWAN XIF file.

    4. Connect to ChirpStack, provision LoRaWAN gateways and devices, and validate device joint requests and accepts as described in Managing the ChirpStack LoRaWAN Network Server.

    5. The SmartServer automatically discovers LoRaWAN devices that you add and provision in the LNS.  You do not have to press the Discover button (image-20250219-210828.png).  Depending on how each device has been configured, it may take up to 60 minutes for a LoRaWAN device to send its first uplink data.

    6. Each new LoRaWAN device will automatically be provisioned.

      LoRaWAN Devices in the SmartServer CMS

       

  • Manually – to add EnOcean devices manually, follow these steps:

    1. Add a LoRaWAN interface to your SmartServer.

    2. If you plan to use BACnet with your SmartServer or you will be importing any device type packages (.dtp) that contain BACnet type maps (.btm), add a BACnet interface to your SmartServer.

    3. Download or create a LoRaWAN XIF file.

    4. Connect to ChirpStack, provision LoRaWAN gateways and devices, and validate device joint requests and accepts as described in Managing the ChirpStack LoRaWAN Network Server.

    5. Add LoRaWAN devices as described in Creating Devices below.

Once provisioned, live device data will be available in the CMS Datapoints widget.  You do not have to set a non-zero polling rate for data to be delivered to the Datapoints widget as it is automatically published in IAP when uplink data arrives.

If you add a BACnet interface to your SmartServer BACnet Configuration page and import BACnet type map (.btm) files for your LoRaWAN devices, all discovered LoRaWAN devices and their datapoints will be automatically mapped to BACnet and available for BACnet discovery from a BACnet workstation such as YABE.

Discovered Mapped LoRaWAN Devices in YABE

Discovering Devices

LON is supported with SmartServer 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

You can discover previously installed BACnet, EnOcean, LON, or Modbus. LoRaWAN devices are automatically discovered by the SmartServer when you add a LoRaWAN interface to the SmartServer.  You can also discover unconfigured LON devices, that is, LON devices that have not been previously installed.  If you have LON devices that were defined and commissioned using a tool based on the IzoT Net Server or LNS Server such as the IzoT Commissioning Tool, use the procedure described in Importing LON Devices from an LNS Network with IzoT CT instead of device discovery if you plan to continue using a LON tool such IzoT CT. To discover devices, follow these steps:

LON devices only - DMM device discovery - caution about discovering previously installed LON devices

If you discover and provision a previously installed LON device when using DMM, then the SmartServer may modify the configuration of the device.  If the device is part of an operational system, then the system may no longer function as expected due to the change in the LON device configuration.  To restore normal operation, reconfigure your discovered LON devices using the SmartServer CMS.

 

  1. Define the device interfaces for the devices to be discovered as described in Collecting or Creating Device Definitions.

  2. For BACnet device discovery, enable BACnet using the BACnet Configuration page as described in Add a BACnet Interface.

  3. For LON device discovery, specify a LON domain ID to discover or enable automatic LON domain ID discovery if your LON network uses a one-byte domain ID as described in Add a LON Interface.

    Define CMS device types for the devices to be discovered as described in Defining Device Types.  Following are driver-specific notes for XIF and device type definition:

    • BACnet – if the SmartServer does not find a XIF definition for a discovered device, then the SmartServer creates one automatically as described in Creating a BACnet Device Interface (XIF) Definition.

    • LON – if the SmartServer does not find a XIF definition for a discovered device, it will create the device in the SmartServer, but it will not be usable due to the missing XIF definition. 

    • Modbus – the SmartServer will only discover Modbus devices with a matching XIF definition that includes a marker for the XIF definition that the SmartServer uses to match the device to the XIF definition as described in Creating a Modbus Device Interface (XIF) Definition.

       

  4. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  5. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-211257.png).  

     

  6. Click the Discover button (image-20250219-211348.png ).

    image-20250219-211453.png


    The Discover Devices dialog box appears:

    image-20250219-211522.png

     

  7. If you are using SmartSupervisor, then select the SmartServer where you want to initiate device discovery from the Segment Controller dropdown menu.

    image-20250219-211545.png

     

  8. Uncheck any protocol types that you do not want to discover (i.e., BACnet, EnOcean, LON, LoRaWAN, Modbus).

    image-20250219-211607.png

     

  9.  Click the Discover button.


    The SmartServer initiates discovery for the selected device protocols.

    The SmartServer adds each discovered device that is not already defined in the SmartServer, first identifying or creating a CMS device type as follows:

    • If the SmartServer discovers a program ID in the device, the CMS searches for a CMS device type using the discovered program ID.  If the SmartServer finds multiple CMS device types with the same program ID, the SmartServer uses the first one found with a the default property set to true, and if there are no default device types the SmartServer uses the first device type found with the matching program ID.

    • If there is no matching CMS device type but there is an XIF file with a matching program ID, the SmartServer creates a CMS device type for the XIF file with the same name as the XIF file.

    • If there is no matching CMS device type or XIF, the SmartServer creates a CMS device type for the driver/program ID pair named <driverName>-<programID> and assigns it to the device. For example, if a device is discovered with a program ID of 9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60, and there is no CMS device type or XIF file for the program ID, the CMS creates a new device type called LON-9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60.

    Device discovery remains active from the time you start discovery until 3 minutes pass without a discovery event. 

    The SmartServer creates a name for each discovered device that is not already defined in the SmartServer using the following naming format: Discovered-<deviceType>-<installCode>-<instance>, where

    • <devicetype> is the CMS device type name assigned above

    • <installCode> is the last five hex digits of the unique ID

    • <instance> is the instance number for this device type/install code pair (ordinal starting at 1 for each CMS device type/install code and increments forever without re-use for each CMS device type/install code)

    For example, if three devices are discovered for the LON-9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60 device type with unique IDs ending in 07F07, 07F08, and 07F09, then the three devices will be named:

    • LON-9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60-07F07-1

    • LON-9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60-07F08-1

    • LON-9F:FF:FF:05:01:84:04:60-07F09-1

     

  10. For LON, you can optionally press a service button on a device in the domain to be discovered. The LON driver will wait for a service message that is generated by the pressing of a service button. Next, the LON driver will read the domain index 0 configuration at the unique ID that is included in the service message, and if a domain is configured for domain index 0, then the LON driver will assign the configured domain ID as the LON domain ID to be discovered.

  11. For EnOcean devices that have a teach-in switch, pressing this switch once causes the device to transmit a teach-in message, which is then received by the EnOcean driver. If an EnOcean XIF exists where the EEP matches the EEP in the message, then the device is discovered. For EnOcean devices that do not have a teach-in switch (e.g., the Rocker Switch), rapidly pressing and releasing the switch within 2 seconds causes these devices to be discovered. 

  12. Optionally, click the Stop button () for the CMS to stop waiting for the discovery process to finish as shown in the example below. 


    With device discovery stopped, the CMS is released from waiting for the discovery process to finish before making the CMS functional. CMS functions would otherwise only be possible after a system reboot. However, if you want to provision devices, then device discovery first needs to finish running. If you attempt to provision a device while the protocol of the same type is in a Stopped state, then you will get the following error message: provision cannot complete action during discovery.  To resume discovery once it has been stopped, click the Discover Devices button ().

     

  13. Once the device discovery is completed, the Discover Devices dialog box will show a Finished status for all of the selected device protocols. 

    image-20250219-211842.png

     

  14. Click Close to return to the Devices widget.

    The Devices widget displays the discovered devices.

    image-20250219-211920.png

     

  15. Provision the devices using the CMS Devices widget as described in Provisioning, Deprovisioning, and Replacing Devices.

    image-20250219-211942.png

Creating Devices

LON is supported with SmartConnect 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

You can manually create devices as described in this section, and you can manually create devices in bulk as described in Creating Devices in Bulk.

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-212034.png).
      

     

  3. Click the Create button (image-20250219-212136.png).

    image-20250219-212204.png


    The Create Edge Devices view appears.

     

  4. Enter the device parameters as appropriate, including:

    • Name

    • Context – provides a digital representation of the physical world entities in the system with SmartServer 2.8 and higher.

    • Select a method – Manual assignment or Guided discovery

      • For Manual assignment, you will need to select the driver type and device type, and define the UID.

      • For Guided discovery, press the service button for the LON device. The UID, driver type, and device type will be filled in through the guided discovery process.

    • Select a driver – BACnet, LON, Modbus, IAP, EnOcean (for local mode, available with SmartServer 4.0 and higher), LoRaWAN (available with SmartServer 4.0 and higher; beta for SmartServer 4.0 and 4.1), IoTC (for remote mode, available as beta SmartServer 4.3 and higher), or custom driver name.

    • Select a type of device

    • UID

      • Each Modbus device that is added in the CMS must have a unique identifier (device UID). The UID is defined when a Modbus device is created using the SmartServer CMS in one of the following ways:

        • Creating a single Modbus device

        • Bulk loading multiple Modbus devices

        • Importing devices from a file using a previously exported device CSV/DTD file 

        • Importing device type information using a previously exported DTP file from the Device Types widget (see Defining Device Types)

      • For Modbus RTU (RS-485) devices, this field uses the form <channel type>:<logical address>, where the <channel type> is always 01 and the <logical address> is an 8-bit station address. 

        • Example: Modbus RTU (RS-485) device at address 4, the UID is 01:4

      • For Modbus TCP devices, this field uses the form <channel type>:<IP address>[:<logical address>], where the <channel type> is 02 and the <IP address> is an IPV4 address. The 8-bit [:<logical address>] is optional for a Modbus TCP device and only required if the target Modbus TCP device also resides at a specific Modbus logical address at this IP address.


        With SmartServer release 3.5 and higher, you can optionally specify the TCP port to be used for a Modbus TCP device using the form<channel type>:<IP address>[:<port>] [:<logical address>], where the <channel type> is 03 and the <IP address> is an IPV4 address. The [:<port>] parameter is optional for a Modbus TCP device and is only required if the target Modbus TCP device uses a port other than the standard Modbus TCP port (502). The 8-bit [:<logical address>] is also optional for a Modbus TCP device and only required if the target Modbus TCP device also resides at a specific Modbus logical address at this IP address.

        • Examples:

          • Using the standard Modbus TCP port (502): Modbus TCP device at IP address 192.168.42.42 with a logical address of 3, the UID is 02:192.168.42.42:3 

          • Using a non-standard Modbus TCP port (1502): Modbus TCP device at IP address 192.168.42.42 with a logical address of 3, the UID is 03:192.168.42.42:1502:3

      • For BACnet, this field defines the Device Instance Number (or Instance Number). Do not include leading zeros for this value.

        • Example: 130055

      • For EnOcean devices, the UID correlates to the EnOcean ID, which is typically printed on the device as a hexadecimal string. It may also be part of a QR code that is found on the device. Support for EnOcean devices requires SmartServer 4.0 or higher for glocal mode, and SmartServer 4.3 and higher for remote mode (beta).

        • Example: 00000413D73E or 2ED05D without leading zeros

      • For LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), the UID is typically a 16-character hexadecimal string. See (Optional) Creating a LoRaWAN Device Interface (XIF) Definition for more information about supported devices. Support for LoRaWAN devices requires SmartServer 4.0 or higher.

    • Tags (optional) – key=value pairs that identify where the device/datapoint originated.

      With SmartServer 4.2 and higher, and for IDL-based drivers only (not LON), you can optionally add DBO device and datapoint tags to ev/data using the tag key prefix eit: , which indicates an event identification tag. This tag feature supports Haystack and Google DBO tags and should not be used with equal signs ( = ) or semicolons ( ; ).

      • Example:

        image-20250219-212409.png
        Example: Devices Widget
        KEY eit:Device Name = VALUE Some Device Name

         

        image-20250219-212643.png
        IAP/MQ Example of ev/data message, which also shows datapoint eit: tags defined as:
        KEY eit:DBO New Tag = VALUE Some Value
        KEY eit:DBO DP Name = VALUE Power B

         

    • Description (optional) – optional description limited to 255 characters.

       

  5. Click SAVE.

    The new device appears on the Devices widget (e.g., DIO1 in the example below).

     

  6. Provision the devices using the CMS Devices widget as described in Provisioning, Deprovisioning, and Replacing Devices.

Creating Devices in Bulk (Manual Assignment)

LON is supported with SmartConnect 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

To manually create devices in bulk, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-213607.png).  

     

  3. Click the Create button (image-20250219-213700.png).

    image-20250219-213731.png

     

    The Create Edge Devices view appears.

     

  4. In the Count field, enter the number of devices to be created, and in the From field, enter the starting device number. (The Name field changes to Name Prefix.)

     

  5. In the Name Prefix field, enter the prefix that is to be assigned to the name of device that is being created.

     

  6. Enter the device parameters as appropriate, including:

    • Context (optional) – provides a digital representation of the physical world entities in the system with SmartServer 2.8 and higher

    • Select a method – Manual assignment or Guided discovery

    • Select a driver – BACnet, EnOcean, LON, LoRaWAN, Modbus, IAP, IoTC, or custom driver name

    • Select a type of device

    • Tags (optional)

    • Description (optional)

       

  7. Click SAVE. 

    The new devices appear on the Devices widget (e.g., TEST2, TEST3, and TEST4 in the example below).

Importing Devices and Device Files

LON is supported with SmartConnect 4.3 and higher with the exception of LON PL.

You can import device definitions from a CSV file using the Import / Export dialog as described in this section.  If you have devices that were defined and commissioned using a tool based on the IzoT Net Server or LNS Server such as the IzoT Commissioning Tool, you can import the definitions from the IzoT Net Server or LNS Server as described in Importing LON Devices from an LNS Network with IzoT CT. 

With SmartServer 3.5 and higher, importing and exporting SmartServer IoT configuration files is available with the Import/Export button (image-20250219-214715.png). With SmartServer 2.7 Update 1 to 3.5, the Settings button (image-20250219-214756.png) enables you to edit the dashboard, as well as to import or export SmartServer IoT configuration files. With SmartServer 3.6 and prior, you can also use the Import Device Types button (image-20250219-214824.png) on the Device Types widget to load device files. 

To import device definitions from a CSV file, follow these steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.  

  2. Click the Import / Export button () on the main CMS dashboard.

    image-20250219-214926.png


    The Import / Export dialog appears.

    image-20250219-214948.png

     

  3. Select the device definitions CSV file to be imported and place it in the Drop Files to Import area.

    image-20250219-215034.png

     

  4. Click IMPORT.

    Notification messages will appear (similar to the one shown below) indicating that devices are being uploaded and the CPU usage on the main CMS page will show increased activity. 

     

  5. When the device definitions CSV file has finished loading, click CANCEL to close the Import / Export dialog. 

    The new device(s) will appear in the Devices widget in an unprovisioned (blue) state. 

    image-20250219-220358.png

     

  6. Provision the device(s) using the CMS Devices widget as described in Provisioning, Deprovisioning, and Replacing Devices.

Exporting Devices

You can export an individual device, selected devices, or all devices using the Devices widget. To do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-221208.png).
      

     

  3. Click the Action button (image-20250219-221242.png) for the device you wish to export and select the Export action.


    Or, to export selected devices, select the devices you wish to export (a checkmark appears), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-221352.png) and select the Export Selected action.


    Or, to export all devices, click the Action button (image-20250219-221352.png) and select the Export All action.


A CSV file is created with the device information.

Assigning a Device to a Context

With SmartServer 2.8 and higher, devices can be assigned to a context. A context provides a digital representation of the physical world entities in the system. Devices that are not assigned to a context appear with a yellow indicator on the device image . To assign a device to a context, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-222629.png). 
     

     

  3. Click the Action button (image-20250219-222710.png) for the desired device and select Assign to Context.

    image-20250219-222735.png


    The Assign to context dialogue box appears.

    image-20250219-222757.png

     

  4. Use the dropdown list to select the desired context.

    image-20250219-222835.png

     

  5. Click ASSIGN.

    image-20250219-222903.png


    The device is assigned to the context.

    image-20250219-223027.png

Unassigning a Device from a Context

You can remove a context assignment from a device. To do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-222629.png).  

     

  3. Click the Action button (image-20250219-222710.png) for the desired device and select the Unassign from Context action.


    The device is unassigned from the context and appears with a yellow indicator on the device image.

    image-20250219-223520.png

Creating Groups

The Groups widget is available with SmartServer 2.6 and higher.

You can create a group that specifies one or more contexts, devices, or datapoints.  You can include any context, any defined device with any device type, or any defined datapoint on a device of any device type, including BACnet, EnOcean, LON, LoRaWAN, Modbus, and IAP, as members of a group. You can provision and deprovision all the devices within a group using the Groups widget.

To create a group, follow these steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Groups widget.

     

  3. Click the Action button (image-20250219-224602.png) and select the Create Group action.

     

  4. Enter the new group information, including name and geozone.

     

  5. Click Save.

    The new group is added to the list.

Showing a Group on a Map

To show a group on a map, perform the following steps:

To create a group, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Groups widget.

     

  3. Click the Action button () and select the Show on Map action.


    Or, to show multiple groups on a map, select the groups you wish to appear on a map (a checkmark appears), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-224602.png) and select the Show Selected Groups on Map action

    image-20250219-224914.png


    The Locations widget displays the selected group(s).

    image-20250219-225036.png

Assigning Devices to a Group

You can assign devices to a group using the Devices widget or Groups widget. 

Assigning Devices to a Group Using the Devices Widget

For SmartServer 4.0, Assigning devices to a group from the Devices widget is not available. To Assign devices to a group, use the Groups widget.

To assign devices to a group using the Devices widget, follow these steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. If the group does not already exist, open the Groups widget and then create the new group.

  3. Open the Devices widget. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-225310.png).  

     

  4. Click the Action button () for the desired device and select the Assign to Group action.


    Or, to select multiple devices to be assigned to a group, click the the desired devices (a checkmark appears), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-225519.png) and select the Assign Selected to Group action.


    Or, to assign all devices to a group, click the Action button (image-20250219-225519.png) and select the Assign All to Group action.


    The device assignment to a group view appears.

     

  5. Select the group to which you wish to assign the device(s) from the dropdown list.

     

  6. Click Assign.

    The device(s) is added to the selected group.

Assigning Devices to a Group Using the Groups Widget

To assign devices to a group using the Groups widget, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Groups widget.

     

  3. Click the Action button (image-20250219-230818.png) for the desired group and then click Edit Group.

    image-20250219-230844.png


    The Group members view appears. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-230909.png).
      

     

  4. Click the Add Members button (image-20250219-230958.png) to add devices to a group. Available devices appear.

    image-20250219-231023.png

     

  5. Click the Action button () for the desired device and select the Add to Group action.


    Or, to select multiple devices to be added, click the checkmark for the desired devices, and then click the Action button (image-20250219-231137.png) and select the Add Selected to Group action.


    Or, to add all devices, click the Select All button (), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-231223.png) and select the Add Selected to Group action.


    The selected device(s) are added to the group.

    Click BACK to return to the Groups widget view.

Removing Devices from a Group

You can remove devices from a group using the Groups widget. To do so, perform the following steps:

To do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Groups widget.

     

  3. Click the Action button () for the desired group and select the Edit Group action.

    image-20250219-231334.png


    The Group members view appears. Click the Expand button (image-20250219-231354.png). 
     

     

  4. Click the Action button () for the desired device and select the Remove from Group action.


    Or, to select multiple devices, click the checkmark for the desired devices, and then click the Action button (image-20250219-231458.png) and select the Remove Selected from Group action.


    Or, to remove all devices, click the Select All button (), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-231553.png) and select the Remove Selected from Group action.


    The selected device(s) are removed from the group.

  5. Click BACK to return to the Groups widget view.

Removing a Group

To remove a group, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the SmartServer CMS.

  2. Open the Groups widget.

     

  3. Click the Action button () and select the Remove action.

     

  4. Click OK in the Confirmation dialog box to delete the selected group.

     

    Or, to remove multiple groups, click the desired groups (a checkmark appears), and then click the Action button (image-20250219-231811.png) and select the Remove Selected Groups action.

    image-20250219-231829.png

     

  5. Click OK in the Confirmation dialog box to remove the selected group(s).

 

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