9. VRM Portal
9.1. VRM Portal Introduction
When connected to the internet, a GX device can be used in combination with the Victron Remote Management (VRM) portal, which enables:
Easy remote access to all statistics and systems status online
Remote Console on VRM: access and configure your system as if you were standing besides it
Remote Firmware updates of connected Solar Chargers and other Victron products.
Use of the VRM App for iOS and Android.
See Internet Connectivity chapter for how to connect the device to the internet.
9.2. Registering on VRM
Instructions are in the VRM Portal Getting Started document.
Note that any system will need to first have been able to successfully send data to the VRM Portal. As long is there has been no successful connection, it will not be possible to register the system to your VRM user account. In such case, refer to below Troubleshooting section 5.7.
9.3. Datalogging to VRM
Data-logs are transmitted to the VRM Portal over the Internet, if it's available. All related settings are available in the VRM Online Portal menu:
The transmission of the data logs has been designed to work also on bad internet connections. Lines of up to 70% permenant packet loss are still sufficient to get the data out, even if delayed in some cases.
Adding an external storage device
When unable to transmit the logs, then the GX device will store them to non-volatile storage (ie. data is not lost on a power loss or reboot).
The GX device has a buffer to store a couple of days worth of logs internally. To extend this period, insert a microSD card or USB stick. You can see the internal storage status in the settings.
Note that, when inserting such storage device, any internally stored logs will automatically be transferred to the inserted stick: no data is lost.
With or without an external storage device inserted, the GX Device will always keep trying to connect to the portal and transmit all backlogged logs. That means that even with months worth of backlog, once it re-acquires an Internet connection, all of the backlog is sent out. The data is sent in a compressed manner: sending a lot of backlogged data will use considerably less bandwidth than than sending the data with a continuously available internet connection.
Storage device requirements
Supported file systems for MicroSD cards or USB flash drives are FAT (12, 16, 32), ext3, ext4 and exFAT.
SD and SDHC type microSD cards of 32 GB capacity and smaller are sold containing FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32. They can be used without a problem, unless they are subsequently re-formatted to an unsupported file system.
Manually transferring datalogs to VRM
For devices permanently without Internet, it is possible to take the data out, and then upload it manually from a laptop.
go to Settings → VRM Portal, and click Eject the storage. Make sure to never just remove the SD-card/USB-stick, this can lead to corruption and data loss.
now, remove the storage device and insert it into a computer or laptop that is connected to the internet.
open a webbrowser, and navigate to the VRM Portal.
Login, and then click the 'Upload GX file' option, and follow instructions:
Remove the file from the storage device, and then it re-insert it into the GX Device. Note that uploading the same data twice does not cause any problems; but still it is better not to do that.
With a log interval of once per minute, the required storage space roughly amounts to about 25 MB per month, depending on the number of connected products. So with a 1 GB microSD card, you can store about 3 years of backlog. In other words, any microSD card or USB stick should be sufficient to store the 6 months of data which VRM retains.
When the storage device is full, no more data will be logged.
If multiple storage devices are inserted, the GX device will store the data on the one inserted first. When that is removed, it will not use the other one. Instead, it will create an internal backlog buffer. Only inserting a new one will make it switch to using external storage again.
Network watchdog: auto-reboot
This feature, disabled by default, makes the GX device automatically reboot itself in case it has not been able to connect to the VRM Portal.
Please be careful with enabling this feature on ESS systems: when grid connection is lost, and the GX device reboots, the system can lose power when rebooting takes too long (when grid is present, the Multi's or Quattro's will enter passthru).
9.4. Troubleshooting data logging
This chapter explains what to do when the GX Device cannot transmit data to the VRM Portal.
The communication required to send logs to the VRM Portal is:
Working DNS
Proper IP address
Working internet connection
Outbound http(s) connection to http://ccgxlogging.victronenergy.com on port 80 and 443. Note that should never be an issue, unless on very specialized company networks.
Note that the Cerbo-S GX does not support a proxy setup. For more details on the required networking, see here.
Step 1: Update the GX Device to the latest available firmware
GX Device firmware update instructions
Step 2: Verify the network and internet connection
In the menu Settings → Ethernet or Settings → Wi-Fi, check the following:
State must be ‘Connected’
There must be an IP address, that does not start with 169.
There must be a gateway
There must be DNS servers
For a GX GSM, see the Troubleshooting guide in the GX GSM Menu.
In case the IP address starts with 169, check whether your network has a DHCP server running. 99% of all networks have a DHCP server running and it is enabled by default on all well-known ADSL, cable and 3G routers. If there is no DHCP server running, then configure the ip address manually.
Ethernet
When using Ethernet and State shows 'Unplugged', verify that the Ethernet network cable is not faulty: try another one. The two lights at the back of the Cerbo-S GX, where the Ethernet RJ45 cable plugs in, should be lit or blinking. Two dead lights indicate a connection problem.
WiFi
When using Wi-Fi and the menu shows 'No Wi-Fi adapter connected' check the USB connection to the Wi-Fi dongle. Try to remove the dongle and insert it again.
When using Wi-Fi and the State shows 'Failure', it might be that the Wi-Fi password is incorrect. Press 'Forget network' and try to connect again with the correct password.
Step 3. Verify VRM Portal Connectivity
Navigate to Settings → VRM online portal, and check the Connection error status:
If a Connection error is shown, the Cerbo-S GX is not able to contact the VRM database. The connection error will show an error code that indicates the nature of the connectivity problem. Also, details of the error message are shown, to facilitate on site IT experts to diagnose the problem.
Error #150 Unexpected response text: The http/https call succeeded, but the response was incorrect. This indicates that there is a WiFi or network login page, sometimes called a "captive portal". Such as seen in Airports, Hotels, Marinas or RV campgrounds some times. There is no solution to make the GX device work with a WiFi network that requires such login page and/or accepting of terms of use.
Error #151 Unexpected HTTP Response: A connection succeeded, but the response did not indicate a successful HTTP result code (normally 200). This might indicate that a transparent proxy is hijacking the connection. See #150 above for examples.
Error #152 Connection time-out: this could indicate a poor quality internet connection, or a restrictive firewall.
Error #153 Connection error: this could indicate a routing problem. For details, check the shown error message:
Error #153 Connection problem, and then specifically an SSL related issue, such as in below screenshot: check the date and time setting of the Gx Device, and also the time zone. And check that your router router is not showing a special disclaimer, login or acceptance page, like often seen in airports, hotels and other public wifi.
Error #154 DNS Failure: Make sure that a valid DNS server is configured in the Ethernet or WiFi menu. Typically this is assigned automatically by a DHCP server in a network.
Error #155 Routing error: VRM is unreachable. This error occurs if an ICMP error is received indicating that no route exists to the VRM server. Make sure your DHCP server assigns a working default route, or that the gateway is correctly configured for static configurations.
Error #159 Unknown error: this is a catch-all error for errors that cannot be directly categorised. In such cases the Error message will provide information about the problem.
Check 'Last contact'. If this shows dashes, the GX device has not been able to contact the VRM Portal since power up. If it shows a time, but still an error is shown, then the GX device has been able to send data, but has since lost contact.
The 'Buffered items' indicates the number of logs that it has stored to send later. If this is larger than 0, it means that the Cerbo-S GX can not connect to the VRM Portal. All data is sent using the First in First out principle: the VRM Portal will only show the most up to date information after all old data has been sent.
9.5. Analysing data offline, without VRM
In certain cases, for example for very remote sites where there is no internet available, it can be useful to be able to analyse the data without first having to upload it to the VRM Portal.
Install VictronConnect on a Windows or Apple laptop
Insert the storage device containing the log file(s)In Victron
Connect, use the GX Log Converter feature to convert them to Excel sheets.
9.6. Remote Console on VRM - Troubleshooting
Follow these steps to trouble shoot Remote Console on VRM
Make sure that Logging to the VRM portal works, see chapter 9.3. and 9.4. Without this; Remote Console on VRM will not work.
After enabling the Remote Console feature, make sure to set (or disable) the password.
Also make sure to restart the Cerbo-S GX after setting (or disabling) the password.
Make sure to update the Cerbo-S GX to the latest firmware version. The last stability improvement for Remote Console was made in version v2.30.
After the restart, check the Remote Console on VRM status shows online or a port number. In case it says offline, or port number 0, the Cerbo-S GX was unable to connect to the Remote Console server. This is normally caused by a (company) firewall, blocking the connection. The solution is then to configure an exception rule in the firewall.
-Verify that your web browser, on which you're using VRM, can access both of below URLs. Click both of the links, to check them. Note that seeing an Error means that all is OK. The good error is 'Error response, Error code 405, Method Not Allowed'. If you get a timeout or another (browser) error, there may be a firewall blocking the connection. https://vncrelay.victronenergy.com & https://vncrelay2.victronenergy.com/
Technical background
To have Remote Console on VRM working, your web browser and the GX Device need to have a connection between them. This connection is designed such that it doesn't need any special configuration or opening up of firewalls in almost all situations. The 0.1% of situations where it doesn't work out of the box are, for example, large corporate networks with special security, or long range expensive satellite or radio supported networks, such as seen in rural areas of Africa and other remote areas.
When Remote Console on VRM is enabled, the GX Device will open and maintain a connection to any of the servers pointed to by supporthosts.victronenergy.com. Which currently resolves to multiple IP addresses (84.22.108.49, 84.22.107.120, 3.25.10.245, 13.244.154.199 or 35.165.124.40, depending on where you are), and likely more in the future. The technology used is SSH, and it will try to connect using port 22, 80 and 443, only one of them needs to work. The reason for it to try all three is that on most networks at least one of them will be allowed by the local firewall.
Once connected to one the the supporthost servers, that reverse SSH tunnel is waiting to be connected from someone needing the connection. Which can be your browser, or a Victron engineer since this same technology is used for the Remote Support functionality; for more information see above.
When using Remote Console on VRM, the browser will connect to either vncrelay.victronenergy.com, or vncrelay2.victronenergy.com, using websockets on port 443. For more details of used connections by the GX Device, see Q15 of the FAQ.