FAQ

We have a RFID Log in the admin menu which lists the last reads in the RFID buffer. As reads are sent to the server, the tags are stored in a buffer. Once the buffer cycle completes the tags are logged here. Each line contains a timestamp and the tag’s EPC.
If no new reads are being found in the RFID log, visit the Fixed RFID Reader Checklist and Troubleshooting Steps page for steps on how to troubleshoot your issue.

The reads are sent to the IP and port number defined in the custom tag stream address. This setting can be changed in the reader’s web administration interface. If you are using our cloud solution, the ip and port will be set by us under IP: 69.63.135.178 and port: 4000. If you are running SAM on your own network, then the ip will be the ip that SAM is bound to on your network, the port may also be different, but most likely it’s set to port 4000.
See our reader configuration page for more information.

The IP addresses of the fixed readers should be assigned static IPs on the network. If SAM is configured to automatically reach out and program the readers, then the IP addresses will be listed in the fixed RFID table under the “hostname” column in the SAM admin menu. If these readers are not configured with a hostname then you can either:

• Utilize the Alien Demo Software Gateway to retrieve the IPs of all active readers on the network. The software is located on the Alien software page. You can download it directly here.
• Contact your IT department and have them login to the default gateway to locate the IPs of the RFID readers on the network. The reader will be under device name “ALR-*”.

The SAM Sync executable must be able to locate the .dll files included in the SAM Sync folder. If the executable is placed outside of this folder, then you will get an error loading the pertinent library files. Also make sure the .zip file is fully extracted before running the executable.

If you are connecting to the cloud enterprise server, make sure the URL is formatted as so:

• https://samenterprise.app:8443/rpc

If you are hosting SAM locally, make sure the URL is formatted with the hostname of the server that SAM is hosted on:

• http(s):///<hostname_IP>/rpc

If SAM is hosted locally, and no SSL certificate is installed, you must use http instead of https, otherwise the SAM Sync application will return an SSL error.

The SAM Enterprise server can be configured to log debug, warning, or error stacktraces in a specified location. On our cloud server, this is specified in a SAMServer.log file and is checked if there is any known errors in execution. More information on configuring the server log can be found on our SAM Configuration page.

RFID logging is stored in a log file specific to a particular client. It logs the timestamp along with the RFID EPC, antenna, and RSSI value for each tag in the read cycle. When a record is transferred from a reader event, that transfer will be stored in the record history which can be accessed in the main record display.

We also have record level history which can be accessed by highlighting a record and clicking on the history icon in the record toolbar. We log record create, view, update, and transfer events. Each event is associated with a username, timestamp, and event details.

Both the application server and database server are configured with an encrypted 7-daily cloud backup solution by the by cloud service provider.

The mobile reader stores data locally in a sandboxed environment. That data is then only transmitted to the remote server via a SSL connection which provides end-to-end encryption. HTTP requests made to the SAM Enterprise server are over SSL preventing third parties from accessing sensitive information.

The MySQL server in use by SAM can support “Data at Rest” encryption for clients who require database level encryption. It uses a two tier encryption key architecture, consisting of a master encryption key and tablespace keys. When a tablespace is encrypted, a tablespace key is encrypted and stored in the tablespace header. When an application or authenticated user wants to access encrypted data, The database engine uses a master encryption key to decrypt the tablespace key. The decrypted version of a tablespace key never changes, but the master encryption key can be changed as required. This action is referred to as master key rotation.

The data-at-rest encryption feature supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block-based encryption algorithm. It uses Electronic Codebook (ECB) block encryption mode for tablespace key encryption and Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) block encryption mode for data encryption.