License/Account Questions

I'm going to be moving from 3.15.1a to 5.x and I have a couple questions:

  • I see that the account I created is a 'workgroup' account, but I do not see any way to actually define or name the workgroup to make it unique. Is there only one workgroup? If not, how will my boss associate his account (the one owning the license) with mine (the one using the license) through the workgroup?

  • We previously used a Serial Tap to analyze MODBUS traffic over RS485 (and nothing else.) Having not used IO Ninja for a couple years, the necessary capabilities are not immediately clear. Help?

  • Some of the computers where we (and our customers) use IO Ninja will NEVER EVER have internet access for security reasons. Will this have any effect on the new license?

Thanks!

Hello Steve,

See my answers below:

I see that the account I created is a 'workgroup' account, but I do not see any way to actually define or name the workgroup to make it unique.

Your email is the unique identifier of every account (personal or workgroup).

Is there only one workgroup? If not, how will my boss associate his account (the one owning the license) with mine (the one using the license) through the workgroup?

You can register many workgroups, of course, but most likely, you only need one.

Please check this article about setting a workgroup here: https://ioninja.com/doc/user-manual/capabilities-workgroup-tutorial.html

We previously used a Serial Tap to analyze MODBUS traffic over RS485 (and nothing else.) Having not used IO Ninja for a couple years, the necessary capabilities are not immediately clear. Help?

You can see the list of required capabilities at the top of every feature page (the "Requires" section).

To use a Serial Tap, no paid capabilities are required. You can even use it from a Guest account.

The Modbus Analyzer is a layer, so com.ioninja.layer is required. However, this capability is currently on PROMOTION and hence, freely available to everyone.

Some of the computers where we (and our customers) use IO Ninja will NEVER EVER have internet access for security reasons. Will this have any effect on the new license?

IO Ninja supports so-called OFFLINE sign in just for these cases. On the app sign-in page, select "Offline sign-in", then follow on-screen instructions.

Basically, you create a workstation-specific offline App Token (a cryptographically signed snapshot of all subscriptions and capabilities enabled on your account), then use this App Token to sign in on this workstation -- even if it's offline.

Hope this clarifies the situation!

Thanks Vladimir! You've answered all my questions quite clearly. It seems that I need to do some reading to learn the appropriate terminology for capabilities, though. I think I've seen a little of that by clicking on each capability, one at a time, but I'm hoping there's a more comprehensive single document I can look through? Then again, I might only need the one capability you've already named for me.

Oh, since I doubt a General Atomics RM-80 Analyzer layer already exists, what capabilities would I need in order to create our own protocol analyzer layer(s)?

Re capabilities -- we designed it to work the other way around, i.e., when you need a certain plugin or function of IO Ninja, you will see which capabilities are required for it. If you want to enable absolutely everything -- then a subscription is the way to go.

Protocol analyzers are typically implemented as layers (so they can be attached to different data providers). As such, you only need com.ioninja.layer.