As described in the Overview topic, M5 consists of two components: the M5 Monitor Service that performs data collection and submission; and the M5 Control Panel that connects to the service and allows a user to configure and operate the features of the service.

 

The M5 Monitor Service manages the following four subservices that are collectively referred to as site monitoring services:

 

•Site Monitor connects to devices, acquires data, handles errors, and performs scheduled tasks such as syncing the transceiver clocks to the system clock.

•Data Logger takes raw data from the Site Monitor and records it in a formatted interrogation file. The interrogation files are partitioned on an hourly or other configurable period. Each file has a unique file name associating it with a registered interrogation site code, period of operation, and a data role to indicate how it should be processed by the PTAGIS server.

•File Submission Manager makes sure the files generated by the Data Logger service are uploaded to PTAGIS on a defined schedule (if configured to do so) and archives them on the local machine. The uploading of files to PTAGIS is authorized via a registered email address of a data steward, primary contact, or site technician registered registered with other interrogation site metadata. This subservice can be stopped and started independently from the other site monitoring services.

•Alert Manager captures any errors or erroneous events from the other services, signals M5 Control Panel applications about the alert condition (when connected), logs the alerts to a text file, and emails critical alerts to the specified email (if emails are enabled).

 

The M5 Monitor Service is installed to run as an independent background service within the computer’s operating system and does not have a user interface. The M5 Monitor Service must be running in the background on a target machine to perform data collection and to allow the M5 Control Panel to connect to it. Refer to the administrative tasks in the Troubleshooting section to ensure M5 Monitor Service starts when the system is rebooted.

Topics in the next section will introduce the M5 Control Panel and describe how to configure and operate the site monitoring services for long-running, unattended data collection and submission at an interrogation site.