Manual:The Dude v6/The Dude server on hEX RB750Gr3

Overview

New hEX (RB750Gr3) unit is ideal for small to medium size The Dude server installations. For server database storage on this device you have two options: MicroSD cards or USB flashes.

Note that preferably you should use industrial grade mircoSD cards and USB flashes as they have longer life cycle under applications that can write data to flash more frequently as The Dude server database in this case. Note that you still use standard usb flashes and microSD card they just won't last as long as Industrial grade counterpart would in long term use.

Note: hEX RB750Gr3 does support mircoSD card standard SDXC UHS-I/Class 10 which means that you can use very large capacity memory cards in the device. The standard supports up to 128GB microSD cards.

Preparation, Setup, First Use

1. Storage preparation.

• Insert microSD card (device should be powered off when inserting microSD card) or USB flash into device.

Note: As microSD slot is located on the bottom side of device the card needs to be upside down when attempting to insert it as illustrated in icon on the front of the device.

• Power devices back on.
• Check if RouterOS sees the attached storage medium:

"/disk print"

If printout returns something similar to this, then system sees the disk.

[krisjanis@uDude.lan] > disk pr
# NAME            LABEL           TYPE    DISK                 FREE       SIZE
0 disk1                           fat32    SD                 116.0GiB     117.0GiB

• If added disk by default is formatted with fat32 file-system then we recommend to re-format it to ext3 file-system.

First you will need to eject it:

"disk eject-drive (disk_number)"

After that you can proceed with re-formatting it:

"/disk format-drive 0 file-system=ext3"

Note that the bigger attached disk is the longer it will take to format it. After process is finished reboot the device to re-mount the disk.

[krisjanis@uDude.lan] > disk format-drive 0 file-system=ext3
 formatted: 100%

2. Server package installation.

Now that disk is prepared for use you need to install The Dude server package on this system.

• Server packages for all systems that support The Dude server can be found in main download page: http://www.mikrotik.com/download

You need to download Server and Client for version that you are using on device. Or update device to latest (Current) version and use Client/Server from this version.

• When you have the server package just upload .npk file to device via any of available file transfer methods in RouterOS: Winbox(drag'n'drop), Webfig, FTP or SFPT.

• After files are on device just run: "/system reboot" (y/n to confirm the action) and package will install it self during this reboot cycle.

3. First use.

• Change server data-path to usb flash or mircoSD card:

"/dude set data-directory=disk1/dude-data"

• Enable server:

"/dude set enabled=yes"

• Check if server is running:

"/dude print"

[krisjanis@uDude.lan] > dude print
         enabled: yes
  data-directory: disk1/dude-data
          status: running

4. Connect to server.

Now server is up and running and you can connect to it with The Dude client and start adding devices to monitor.

• For logging into server from client you need to use the same Admin account that you use on server host device.
• Now proceed with your network auto-discovery or cancel this process and add devices manually.

Note: First time auto-discovery is set to scan network to 2 recursive hops. In case if you do not want this scan to go out of range which you have entered in "Scan Networks" field then change "Recursive Hops" to 0 value.

Additional info

1. Documentation on rest of The Dude network monitoring software features: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:The_Dude

2. The Dude forum: http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewforum.php?f=8

3. The Dude configuration interfaces are available also in Winbox (v3.7 required), Webfig and CLI (Work in progress) when using RouterOS v6.38rc or newer software build on server host device.

MicroSD cards

MicroSD slot on RB750Gr3 should be able to work with any microSD card up SDXC 128GB size standard. Max supported read/write speed is UHS-1/CLASS10. Table contains list of tested microSD cards.

Brand	Description	Model
Kingston	128GB SDXC UHS-I	SDC10G2/128GB
Kingston	64GB SDXC UHS-I	SDCAC/64GB
Kingston	32GB SDHC CLASS10	SDC10G2/32GBSP
Kingston	8GB SDHC CLASS10	SDC10G2/8GB
Kingston	8GB SDHC CLASS10	SDC10/8GB
Transcent	Premium 400x microSDXC UHS-I	TS64GUSDU1
Toshiba	Exercia microSDXC UHS-I	M301-EA
Silicon Power	Elite microSDXC UHS-I	SP064GBSTXBU1V20SP
Sandisk	Ultra microSDXC UHS-I	SDSQUNB-064G-GN3MN
Samsung	EVO UHS-I	MB-MP32D

Note: UHS-3 speed class cards will also work, but wont reach the advertised read/writes speeds as microSD slot on device is only UHS-I speed class.