AMM Implementation Requirements

The AMM is normally installed:

1. as a virtual machine on a customer supplied server running VMware
2. or as a customer supplied virtual machine in the AWS EC2 cloud.

For certain situations, an appliance may be installed. More information about appliances can be seen here.

The following subsections describe the technical requirements for these options.

• Virtual Machine Sizing Guidance
  • Virtual Machine Deployment Considerations
• AWS EC2 Support
• Storage Requirements
  • Recommended AM disk storage
  • Recommended AMM disk storage
• External Network Access
• Simple AMM Networking Method
• Advanced AMM Networking Method
• Firewall Considerations
• Internal Network Access
• Operator Station Requirements
• ALEOS Communication
• MG Re-Homing
• High Availability Requirements

Virtual Machine Sizing Guidance

The following guidelines provide a starting point for VM sizing. Actual requirements may vary depending on your environment and workload.

These values are based on testing performed on VMware ESXi 8.0.

The VM instance specification is:

If high availability is required, please refer to High Availability Requirements for recommended solutions.

Note: When deploying AMM VM in a VMware cluster environment, it is strongly recommended to bind it to a single physical host to avoid instability and traffic disruption. AMM VM migrations should be performed by first shutting down the VM, exporting it, and then importing it into the target host.

AWS EC2 Support

AMM 2.16+ is released in the AWS EC2 cloud as a shared private image. To be able to access the image, send a request to Support so they can link the EC2 user accounts with it. The image can be used to launch multiple EC2 instances in EC2 management console. For additional information see Creating and Deploying an Amazon Machine Image .

It is recommended that GP3 or better NVMe backed storage types be used.

The following table lists the number of supported gateways for various hosted solutions using EC2:

Specs for Instance Types

Storage Requirements

Recommended AM disk storage

Following assumptions:

• check-in should be limited to once every hour.
• 1000 gateway devices

Connected Devices	Disk Storage (GB)	Log Rentention
Up to 1000	300	12 months

Recommended AMM disk storage

Following assumptions:

• 1000 gateway devices
• data collected over an 8 hour shift

Type of Device	Telemetry	Disk Storage (GB)	Log Rentention
AirLink OS1	No	360	3 months
AirLink OS1	Yes	300	3 months
ALEOS	No	1000	3 months
ALEOS	Yes	1200	3 months
MG	No	400	3 months
MG	Yes	650	3 months

^{1. AirLink OS routers using software version 6.3.}

Note: Log retention and disk storage scale together — doubling the retention period requires doubling the storage capacity.

Disk storage applies to all configurations. Where the expected disk storage for a deployment is greater than the standard configuration, Sierra Wireless will provide information on additional disk storage requirements. This must be requested in advance of deployment.

External Network Access

The AMM must be network-accessible to the gateways it manages.

For web-based features such as maps, the AMM must be able to access the Internet.

Simple AMM Networking Method

Routers using standard Internet-based data plans require that the AMM be configured with a publicly accessible, fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and a corresponding unique public IPv4 address. This is a mandatory requirement for all deployments — deployments that do not meet this condition may not function correctly.

For example, an AMM hosted by Sierra Wireless uses:

amm01.airlink.com

Advanced AMM Networking Method

For gateways that employ a private networking cellular service from a carrier and optionally employ a second WAN interface such as Wi-Fi, network access to the AMM must still be provided. The network design and implementation for this method is outside the scope of this document. However the end result is that the AMM is typically assigned a private address and host name within the enterprise. DNS resolution is a requirement for all deployments.

Firewall Considerations

The AMM has an integrated firewall that defends against unauthorized access and therefore it may be installed with direct access to the Internet. However the AMM may also be installed behind a firewall provided that certain ports are made accessible through the firewall.

Refer to Firewall Considerations for IP ports required by AMM.

Internal Network Access

In order for operations staff to use the management functions of the AMM, their workstations must be able to access the AMM server.

If operators reside outside the facility where the AMM is installed, this section may not apply.

If your operators reside within the same facility (i.e. on the same enterprise network) as the AMM, the AMM server will be directly connected to the enterprise network. In this case the AMM must be assigned a unique internal name and IP address to the AMM. This may require an internal DNS server to be changed so that user workstations can locate the AMM.

Operator Station Requirements

The AMM provides a graphical user interface for operators to access management functions via a web browser.

The AMM is certified to operate with PC workstations running various browsers listed below in Supported Browsers.

The AMM user interface is not designed to operate on tablets or smart phones.

The web browsers must have cookies and Javascript enabled.

Some features of the AMM such as maps, integrate local data produced from the server with remote web-based data. Maps are used primarily for location-based coverage reports and require that user desktops be able to access the following map services:

• For oMM versions below 2.12: Microsoft Maps (dev.virtualearth.net)
• For oMM 2.12 and above: Google Maps (maps.googleapis.com). See Google Map Requirements for more information.

ALEOS Communication to the AMM

It is highly recommended that ALEOS routers are configured for secure communication using HTTPS. In order to configure the AMM for secure communications to ALEOS routers, certificates need to be installed.

For more information about the required certificates, see Certificate Considerations for ALEOS and AMM Communication.

Once the certificates have been installed on the AMM, the ALEOS routers need to be configured for secure communication over HTTPS. For more information about how to configure this, see ALEOS routers Over HTTPS.

ALEOS routers can be configured in a variety of ways to send specific information when reporting to an AMM. For more information about this, see Configuring ALEOS routers for AMM Servers.

MG Re-Homing

MGs can be configured to home in onto a particular AMM explicitly. However, Sierra Wireless recommends that the default MG behavior be relied upon to perform an automatic location look-up of a unit’s designated AMM via DNS.

Note: this requires that access to an external DNS service is available and therefore may not work for private-only networks.

The DNS-based location method uses a high-availability DNS service managed by Sierra Wireless. This DNS service is the authority for the omgservice.com domain. Gateways that use automatic lookup discover their AMM by resolving their serial number within the omgservice.com domain. For example:

H1301111G0001.omm.omgservice.com

would refer to omm01.inmotionsolutions.net.

The target AMM should be determined prior to deploying gateways by contacting Support and requesting DNS redirects for the units in question.

If the recommended DNS-based method is anticipated, it may affect where you physically locate the AMM (so it connects to the appropriate network segment within your enterprise) and influence your naming and addressing choices. For example, your AMM may need to be explicitly included in your APN configuration by your service provider.

High Availability Requirements

The hardware specifications includes support for high availability. For more information about high availability, see High Availability.