How to Use the Brainsalt Hub Desktop App

How to Use the Brainsalt Hub Desktop App

The Brainsalt Hub desktop app is your entry point to every Brainsalt media server on the network. It finds the servers, signs you in once, and gives each one a row of action buttons — remote control, System Management, file transfer, VNC, BMC, IP configuration and chassis power — plus health monitoring, server groups and a weekly power schedule for a whole fleet.

[USER-ACTION-REQUIRED: Attach a screenshot of the Brainsalt Hub main window in One window layout — tab area on the left, server list and functions panel on the right]

Before you start

• The Brainsalt Hub app installed on your workstation (Windows, macOS or Linux)
• Your workstation on the same physical network as the servers — preferably over a wired connection
• A server login — the username and password configured for you under System Management on the servers
• Windows: the Hub allowed through Windows Firewall on all network types (the installer does this for you)
• Optional, for VNC on Windows: TightVNC Viewer installed

Steps

1. Start the Hub and sign in

Launch the Hub. Enter the username and password of your server account and select Sign in. The same login is used for every server, so one sign-in covers the whole fleet. On a factory-fresh server that has no accounts yet, Skip signs in with the factory default administrator instead. The username you typed is remembered for next time; the password is not, unless you set up auto-login under Settings → Auto Login.

2. Read the server list

Discovery starts on its own — there is no scan button. Every Brainsalt server on the network appears as one row, whatever its IP address, because the servers answer the discovery request below the IP stack. Each row shows a status badge, the server name and its addresses. A name drawn dimmed means the core software (Backstage) is not reporting in; the row is marked not on a local subnet when the server's IP cannot be reached from this computer. Servers already seen are remembered between sessions, so a powered-off server stays in the list and can still be switched on.

3. Choose a window layout

Open ⚙ Settings → Appearance → Layout and pick how pages open. One window (tabs) — the default — keeps the server list and functions panel in a sidebar and opens every page (Remote, BMC, System Management, links) as a tab beside it. Separate windows puts the action buttons on each server row and opens every page in its own operating-system window.

4. Select a server and open its tools

Click a server row. Its action buttons appear in the functions panel below the list (One window), or inline on the row (Separate windows). Only the actions that server actually offers are shown — a button is removed, not greyed out, when its service is not reachable. Double-clicking the server name opens its default remote UI. A button turns blue while its page is open; clicking it again while that tab is in front closes the tab.

5. Group your servers

Select one or more servers and choose Group ▾ → New group to create a rack or zone. Type its name straight away, or double-click a group name later to rename it. Drag servers onto a group to move them in, drag them onto empty list space to take them out, and drag one group onto another to nest it. Each group header shows how many of its servers are powered on and a rolled-up health dot for everything beneath it. Deleting a group never removes servers — they move up one level.

6. Act on several servers at once

Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on macOS) to add or remove servers from the selection, Shift-click for a range, Ctrl+A to select every listed server, and click a group header to select everything under it. With more than one server selected, only the fleet-wide actions remain — Power and Restart — and they are sent to the whole selection after one confirmation. Per-server actions are hidden until you select a single server again.

Per-server actions

Health and status

The badge at the start of each server row is the health rollup, refreshed continuously. It is read from the server's System Management Service and its hardware sensors, so it keeps working while the media application is down. A badge with a caret can be clicked to expand the detail panel; a badge without a caret means no health data is available and the colour is showing the chassis power state instead.

What the health panel shows

• Overall rollup — Healthy, Warning, Critical or Unknown — and the chassis power state.

• Power supplies, one chip per PSU, with the reason on hover.

• Sensors, summarised per category (temperatures, fans, voltages) as "n of m OK".

• Display ports — how many GPU outputs are healthy, and which ones report no link or exceeded bandwidth.

• Storage — media-drive usage and free space, plus roughly how much recording time is left for the content settings saved on the server.

• Hardware errors — Windows hardware errors latch the server Critical until an administrator clears them in System Management.

• Hardware baseline — components added to or missing from the locked reference set for that server.

• A list of every non-OK item, with its measured value.

While data is being written to or freed from a server's media drive, a second line appears under its name with a usage bar, the direction and a rough transfer rate. It disappears again once the drive goes quiet — it is a live activity hint, not a permanent readout.

Network and IP configuration

IP Config is the rescue path for a server you cannot otherwise reach: the settings travel over the discovery channel, so they arrive even when the server's address is wrong or on a foreign subnet. An address that shares no subnet with this computer is flagged in the dialog before you apply it.

Power control

The power menu lists only what the server's management controller reports as allowed, colour-coded by consequence: green powers on, amber asks the operating system to shut down or restart cleanly, red cuts or resets power immediately. Everything except powering on asks for confirmation first, naming the server — or the number of servers — it will hit.

Weekly power scheduler

Switch on ⚙ Settings → Power scheduler → Run weekly power schedules, then open ⏱ Scheduler in the header to build the plan. Each schedule is one action at one time: a target (a group or a single server), Power on or Shut down, a time, and the weekdays it repeats on. An overnight run is simply two entries. Each row shows the computed next run so you can check an overnight pair is set up the way you meant, and Run now fires one immediately for testing.

• A scheduled shutdown asks the operating system to close down and forces the power off a minute later if the machine is still on. Each command is retried up to three times.

• Everything the scheduler does — including retries and forced power-offs — lands in the Activity log on the same page, kept for 14 days.

• Pause it for an hour, four hours, twelve hours or until you resume it. A pause survives restarting the Hub.

• The header badge always names the next action due, and the tooltip lists the ones after it.

Notes

The functions panel carries two kinds of notes for the selected server. They look similar and are stored in completely different places.

Personal notes are private and local. Whatever you type is saved as you type, on this workstation only — it is never sent to the server, and nobody else sees it. Notes are tied to the server's hardware identity rather than its name, so they survive a rename. Use them for what you would otherwise write on a label: which projector this box feeds, who to call, what changed on the last visit.

Server notes are the opposite: they live on the server, are written from its System Management interface, and are visible to everyone whose role allows it — the site's own commissioning notes. The Hub shows them read-only and refreshes them on its own; any web address in them opens as a tab inside the Hub.

Settings

Appearance

• Layout — one window with tabs, or separate windows per page.

• Idle background animation — the flowing signal waves shown in the empty content area.

• Open the Hub news page after login — opens the Brainsalt news page automatically when you sign in, if it is reachable.

• Allow through Windows Firewall now (Windows) — restores the all-networks firewall rule if the install-time prompt was declined. Asks for administrator rights.

• UI zoom — 70% to 200%, scaling the Hub's own chrome but not the pages inside the tabs.

Servers

• Clear offline servers — drops servers that have stopped answering discovery from the list and from the saved list. Their management-controller address goes too, so a powered-off one can no longer be switched on from the Hub until it answers again.

• Show only selected servers — hides everything you do not tick. Useful on a network with servers that are not yours; hidden servers are still discovered, just not listed.

Remote control (JSON)

Lets a control system (Crestron, AMX, Q-SYS or a custom application) read the fleet status and power groups or servers on and off over a line-based JSON protocol on TCP — the same wire contract the media servers speak, but fleet-wide and with the ability to switch a machine on. It is off by default.

• Port — 7310 by default.

• Token — optional shared secret; blank means no authentication.

• Bind — which local address to listen on; blank means all interfaces.

• Allow IPs — a comma-separated allowlist of client addresses; blank means any.

Every allowed connection has full access — there are no roles. Keep it on a trusted control network, and use the bind address and allowlist to narrow it. The port answers only while the Hub is running.

Network

Adapter forces all server traffic — remote interfaces, BMC and System Management — out one specific network adapter on this computer. Leave it on Automatic unless this machine has two addresses on the same subnet, where the operating system's own choice may be wrong.

Auto Login and other credentials

• Auto Login user — save a server login here to sign in automatically at every start. Leave it unset to be asked each launch.

• System Service — an override for the server's web service, when it differs from your main login.

• BMC · B7 / ATEN, BMC · B8 / Supermicro, BMC · B9 / ASRockRack — one set per controller family. The Hub picks the set matching the vendor it detects.

• VNC — the remote-desktop password. Leave it unset and the viewer prompts instead.

Every stored secret is encrypted by the operating system's own credential protection. All sets except Auto Login default to "Same as User" — untick that only when a server genuinely needs a different account.

VNC viewer

On Windows the Hub uses TightVNC Viewer and offers to open its download page if it is missing. On macOS the built-in Screen Sharing is used and there is nothing to configure — close that session from its own window, not from the Hub. On Linux the Hub looks for a viewer such as Remmina or TigerVNC on the system path. On Windows and Linux you can point the Hub at a specific viewer with Browse.

Camera calibration from your workstation

When you run camera-based calibration inside a server's remote interface, the Hub relays a Canon camera connected to your workstation to that server: it starts automatically when the calibration page asks for a camera, takes the shots and streams each photo back. Nothing needs configuring — but it is Windows only. About states whether camera support is enabled in your build.

Keyboard and mouse

Common Mistakes

• A server is listed but almost every button is missing — its address is not on a subnet this computer can reach. Only IP Config and power remain usable. Set a reachable address on the server, or move this computer onto its subnet.

• The Power and BMC buttons are amber and power actions fail — the management controller's address is unreachable (often moved onto a VLAN). Correct it in IP Config; the server's own network being fine does not help here.

• Scheduled shutdowns did not happen overnight — the Hub was closed, or the workstation slept. The scheduler runs only inside the app; check the Activity log, which records the gap.

• "Clear offline servers" removed a machine you still need — it also discards that server's saved controller address, so it cannot be powered on from the Hub until it answers discovery again. Clear only what is genuinely decommissioned.

• No servers appear at all — discovery relies on network broadcasts, which wireless networks often drop and routers do not forward. Move to a wired connection on the servers' own network, and check the Hub is allowed through the firewall for the network type in use.

• A server row shows a healthy badge but the name is dimmed — the hardware is fine, the media application is not running. Use Restart ▾ → Restart Core Software; a reboot is not needed.

Tips

• Group servers the way the room is built — one group per rack or projection zone — then click the group header to power the whole zone with a single confirmation.

• Selecting a group is also how you target it in a schedule, so the grouping you do for daily work pays off twice.

• Use the storage activity line to watch a media copy finish without opening File Transfer or the server's own pages.

• In One window layout, clicking an action button whose page is already in front closes it — a quick way to flick a remote interface in and out of view.

• On a show network with other people's servers, tick only your own under Settings → Servers → Show only selected servers; discovery keeps working, the list just stays honest.

Related

What is Brainsalt Hub? — what the Hub is, and how the desktop app relates to the services on each server.

Discover Servers and Set a Server's IP Address — bringing a fresh or misconfigured server onto the network.

How to Sign In to a Server for the First Time — first login, the factory account and changing its password.

How to Control Server Power — power actions in detail, including from the server's own web interface.

Monitor Server Health and Hardware Status — reading health, sensors and hardware status in depth.

How to Control Backstage from a Web Browser (Remote UI) — working in Backstage through a server's remote interface.

How to Access the BMC KVM Console from Brainsalt Hub — reaching the BMC's KVM console from the BMC button.

[USER-ACTION-REQUIRED: Add page labels: how-to, server-management, remote-access, power, brainsalt-hub, getting-started]