Import-VmsHardware¶

SYNOPSIS¶

Imports cameras and other hardware from either a CSV file or an Excel file and adds them to an XProtect recording server.

SYNTAX¶

Path (Default)¶

Import-VmsHardware [-Path] <String[]> [-RecordingServer <RecordingServer>] [-Credential <PSCredential[]>]
 [-UpdateExisting] [-Delimiter <Char>] [<CommonParameters>]

LiteralPath¶

Import-VmsHardware -LiteralPath <String[]> [-RecordingServer <RecordingServer>] [-Credential <PSCredential[]>]
 [-UpdateExisting] [-Delimiter <Char>] [<CommonParameters>]

DESCRIPTION¶

The Import-VmsHardware cmdlet imports cameras and other hardware from either a CSV file or an Excel file and adds them to an XProtect recording server or optionally updates hardware that has already been added to the VMS. When importing from a CSV file, each row will describe a camera, or another device type like a microphone, speaker, metadata, input, or output. For the most basic imports, the only required column in the CSV is the "Address" as the credentials and destination recording server can be provided using the corresponding parameters.

The most detailed CSV import will look something like the following table:

DeviceType	Name	Address	Channel	UserName	Password	DriverNumber	DriverGroup	RecordingServer	Enabled	HardwareName	StorageName	Coordinates	DeviceGroups
Camera	Camera 1	192.168.1.101	0	root	S3cret	421	Universal	REC1	True	Hardware 1	Storage 1	45.417, -122.732	/Imported cameras;/Portland cameras
Camera	Camera 2	192.168.1.102	0	root	S3cret	806	AXIS	REC2	True	Hardware 2	Storage 2	55.656, 12.375	/Imported cameras;/Portland cameras
Camera	Camera 3	192.168.1.102	1	root	S3cret	806	AXIS	REC2	True	Hardware 2	Storage 2	55.656, 12.375	/Imported cameras;/Brøndby cameras

Note that the only required information is the device address, and destination recording server. If no credential is provided in the CSV file, one or more credentials can be provided using the -Credential parameter. And if no credentials are provided, we will attempt to scan each device using the default credential based on the driver.

Driver numbers are available on our supported hardware list, and you can also discover them using the Get-VmsHardwareDriver cmdlet. For example, to list all drivers available on a recorder named "Recorder 1" you can run the command Get-VmsRecordingServer -Name 'Recorder 1' | Get-VmsHardwareDriver | Out-GridView.

If you aren't sure which driver number to use, you can instead provide one or more values in the DriverGroup column. Multiple values should be delimited with a semicolon character, ";". For example, if all cameras are either Axis or Hanwha, but you're not sure which camera is on which IP address, you can provide a DriverGroup value of "Axis;Hanwha" for all records and we will do a hardware scan limited to the drivers under the AXIS and Hanwha driver groups.

If you don't provide a driver number or driver group, we will perform a hardware scan using all available drivers. That can take more time, but the necessary time may be reduced thanks to an "Express Scan" performed on each recording server which can more quickly identify hardware as long as it responds to the "Express Scan" scanning method.

An even more detailed import can be performed from an Excel file with an .xlsx extension. The format of the file is too complex to describe here or expect anyone to produce by hand. Our suggestion is to perform an export to a .xlsx file after either importing using a CSV file, or manually adding and configuring some cameras. The resulting .xlsx file can be modified and then imported to add or update hardware.

The advantage of importing from an Excel file is that you can make extremely detailed configuration changes in the Excel file, including enabling hardware events, changing general settings and stream settings, and then import those changes.

REQUIREMENTS

Requires VMS connection and will attempt to connect automatically

EXAMPLES¶

EXAMPLE 1¶

Import-VmsHardware -Path hardware.csv

Imports hardware from hardware.csv. Since the RecordingServer parameter was not specified, the RecordingServer column must be specified for each row in the CSV file, and the value should be the display name of the destination recording server.

EXAMPLE 2¶

$recorder = Get-VmsRecordingServer -Name 'Recorder 1'
$credentials = 1..3 | ForEach-Object { Get-Credential -Message "Credential $_" }

$splat = @{
    Path            = 'hardware.csv'
    RecordingServer = $recorder
    Credential      = $credentials
}
Import-VmsHardware @splat

Imports hardware from hardware.csv. Since the RecordingServer parameter is specified as a parameter, all records in the CSV file will be imported to the recording server named "Recorder 1". The user is prompted to enter three different credentials, and these credentials will be combined with the usernames and passwords in the CSV file, if present, to be used during the hardware scanning phase. This is useful when you're not use which password each device is using but you know it's one of a handful of options. PowerShell's "splatting" feature is used here to reduce the width of the example.

EXAMPLE 3¶

Import-VmsHardware -Path hardware.csv -UpdateExisting

Imports hardware from hardware.csv. Any hardware that has already been added to the target recording server will be updated based on the content of the CSV.

EXAMPLE 4¶

Import-VmsHardware -Path hardware.csv -UpdateExisting

Imports hardware from hardware.csv. Any hardware that has already been added to the target recording server will be updated based on the content of the CSV.

EXAMPLE 5¶

Import-VmsHardware -Path hardware.xlsx -UpdateExisting

Imports hardware from hardware.xlsx. Any hardware that has already been added to the target recording server will be updated based on the content of the CSV. Based on the presence and content of various worksheets in the Excel workbook, the import may update a small number of settings, or it may update nearly every property available under every hardware device in the workbook.

PARAMETERS¶

-Credential¶

Optionally specifies one or more credentials to try. The first credential to try will always be the username and password for each hardware device in the incoming file. If no credentials are present in the file, or you want to try multiple credentials for all devices, these credentials will be tried until one has succeeded, or all have failed to authenticate with the hardware.

Type: PSCredential[]
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-Delimiter¶

Use this parameter to override the default delimiter ",". This parameter is only used when the imported file is in CSV format.

Type: Char
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-LiteralPath¶

Specifies a path to a CSV or XLSX file. The value of LiteralPath is used exactly as it's typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcards. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell PowerShell to not interpret any characters as escape sequences.

Type: String[]
Parameter Sets: LiteralPath
Aliases:

Required: True
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: True (ByPropertyName)
Accept wildcard characters: False

-Path¶

Specifies a path to a CSV or XLSX file.

Type: String[]
Parameter Sets: Path
Aliases:

Required: True
Position: 0
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: True (ByPropertyName, ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters: False

-RecordingServer¶

Specifies the recording server on which the hardware should be added or updated. This parameter will override the value in the RecordingServer column of the incoming CSV or XLSX file if present.

Type: RecordingServer
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-UpdateExisting¶

Specifies that any hardware that has already been added should be updated based on the settings in the incoming file. The default behavior is to skip any hardware that already exists on the destination recording server.

Type: SwitchParameter
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

CommonParameters¶

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutVariable, -OutBuffer, -PipelineVariable, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

INPUTS¶

OUTPUTS¶

NOTES¶

The ImportExcel module is used to import and export files with a .xlsx extension. If the ImportExcel module is available on the host computer, it will be loaded from there. If the ImportExcel module cannot be found, an embedded version of the module will be imported automatically.