The following article outlines a process to migrate Brightsign Players from Carousel 7 to Carousel Cloud. It does NOT require that you reconfigure your SD cards nor do you need to directly access your installed players.
Please note this process does not migrate any content, it just moves you Brightsign players from your Carousel 7 server to your Carousel Cloud Account.
Prerequisites
An Active Carousel Cloud Subscription.
A Carousel 7 Server running v 7.5.6.
Administrator Access to your Carousel 7 Server.
Compatible Brightsign Players with access to BSN Cloud URL’s.
XT models Series 3 or 4
XD models Series 3 or 4
HD models Series 3 or 4 (performance limitations listed below).
Single video plane (heavy video content, not supported).
Slower speeds (channel changes, alerts, etc.).
Limited HTML support (custom web and interactive, not supported).
The serial numbers of your Brightsign players.
A download key for the Migration Installer (Please contact our Support Department for this).
Please note:
Player Proxy Settings do not currently persist through the migration process. If your players require a proxy to connect to the internet, they will be unable to connect to BSN cloud addresses. To work around this limitation, please remove the players from the proxy policy prior to the migration, then re-provision your devices in BSN cloud to re-apply the proxy settings once they are migrated.
Unique static IP information may be lost unless it is entered in the device setup in BA Connected (referenced in section 3 of this article).
Be sure to remove any Route53 or Known URL entries from Carousel 7.
Important! When performing step 3 of this article, it is necessary to set the firmware version to update to the current production version available to ensure proper operation with Carousel Cloud. In some situations, failure to do so may require manually updating the firmware on each player.
Player Migration Instructions
1. Create a BSN Cloud Account and Network.
Start by downloading BrightAuthor:connected and creating a BSN Cloud account and network using Brightsign’s instructions found here:
Additional Requirements and info
Your BSN.Cloud user account must have permissions to access to manage Device Setups, Device Provisioning, and the device Network in your Control Cloud Network.
Please see our Carousel Cloud and BSN.Cloud tutorial video for a walkthrough of these concepts.
2. Find your Carousel Cloud for BrightSign Provisioning URL
Log into Carousel Cloud and navigate to Configure > Players, then select Player Setup then select Brightsign as the player type.
Copy the URL provided. You will enter this provisioning URL as the “Custom Application URL” in your BSN.Coud device setup later on.
3. Create a Device Setup in your BSN.Cloud Control Cloud
Log into your BSN.cloud account. From the dashboard select Device Setup from the Admin drop-down.
Enter an appropriate Package Name for your setup so you can refer to this setup later. For example, you might use: “Carousel Cloud Setup”.
Under Device Type, select Custom Application URL and paste in the Carousel Cloud Provisioning URL.
Also, to make sure your player is on the latest version of Brightsign OS, click to expand Brightsign OS Update under the Advanced Device Settings, then select the Production Release.
Finally, select Network Configuration, then either check to box to Use Current Device Settings, or enter in a custom network configuration.
Click ADD SETUP FILE TO LIBRARY.
4. Prepare to Provision your Devices
Next, you will add your Brightsign players to BSN Cloud, and provision them with the Device Setup you created earlier. There are two options to create a provisioning file.
Option One) Download this script onto the desktop of your Carousel 7 server, and double click it to open SQL Management Studio. If accessing the server remotely, you may be prompted to click Connect on two pop-ups. Once you see the script open, select the heading of the script window and then click the Execute button. After the script has run, another heading will open below displaying the results. Click ‘Results’ so that the section is highlighted and then File > Save Results As… to save as a .csv file.
Option Two) You can also create your own provisioning file manually by heading over to the Admin tab and selecting DEVICE PROVISIONING, then selecting Download Template.
Open the import template in your preferred spreadsheet management software.
Now, you can add a row for each player you are adding to your BSN Cloud Network and:
Enter its serial number.
Give it a device name.
Enter in the name of the setup file you created earlier.
Application URL and Description can both be left blank.
The Device name + serial number will be the name of your players in Carousel Cloud. If you do not enter a device name, it will default to the serial number only. Once all information has been entered, save/export the spreadsheet as a .CSV file.
Now back on the device provisioning screen of BSN Cloud, select Upload Provisioning File.
Navigate to and select the .CSV you created. You will then be presented with a verification screen. It will highlight any incorrect info to be corrected such as invalid serial numbers or an invalid setup file. If everything looks good, select Submit.
Next, select your new players and press APPLY SETUP to apply the Device Setup you created earlier.
Note: You must remember to apply your newly created Device Setup to your devices, otherwise they will use the Default Setup. Double check that the “Setup File” for each of your devices is showing the name of the Device Setup you created in step 3.
5. Prepare your players.
Log into the Carousel 7 User Interface and navigate to Configure>Players to access the Player Dashboard.
Select all of your Brightsign players and select Actions, then Brightsign Updates.
Then Set the selector to No and save.
6. Run the Migration Installer on your Server.
Log into Windows on your Carousel 7 Server as the Administrator.
Make a complete backup of your Carousel 7 system. A VM Snapshot will work. Or use one of the methods in this article to manually make a backup. Also, check and note your Carousel Version by looking at the installed programs list.
Download and run the Migration Installer (please contact our Support Department for this) on your server and wait for it to complete.
7. Test One Player
Log in to the Carousel 7 UI and navigate back to the player dashboard. Select one player, note its IP address and edit its settings. Under Brightsign Settings, enable Diagnostic Web Server and set a password. Then save and exit the settings page, allowing the player to reboot and apply the DWS setting.
Once it has rebooted, Edit its settings again to allow software update and save.
The Player will then download and apply the migration update automatically, connect to and join your BSN Cloud Network, and apply the setup package you have assigned to it.
Then it will install Carousel and configure it to point at your Carousel Cloud Account. This can take some time depending on network speed etc. Once the player is displaying a registration screen it has migrated from Carousel7 to your Carousel Cloud Account!
8. Allow Other Players to Update.
Now that you know your players are able to complete the process and reach all the necessary Brightsign URL’s (listed below) can allow the other players to update from the Carousel 7 Player Dashboard (enabling DWS was a precautionary measure and is not necessary once the migration process is proven).
As your players reach the registration screen, you can register them using the steps outlined in this article: