Service Desk Knowledgebase: Mifare (University) Cards

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This is the Mifare (University) Cards content page of the CL Wiki Service Desk Knowledgebase. Its purpose is to provide information to the Service Desk team on how to handle problems and requests about this CL service. If you are involved with the provision of this CL service please feel free to add to the knowledge about that it.

If CL staff need to tell the Service Desk team about problems with this service please email
sys-admin-aside@cl.cam.ac.uk.

Return to the Service Desk Knowledgebase SERVICE PORTFOLIO

Key Service Description & URLs

William Gates Building Floor Plans (inc. Room Codes):

CL Customer Documentation

  • None

Further CL Sys-Admin Documentation

Underpinning Services

  • This service relies on two services, Verex and the database server. Updates fail if either is not running.

Customer-base for this Service

Costs

  • Free to all current staff and students of the collegiate University

SLA

  • N/A

Service Desk Call Handling Procedure

  • RT tickets can be escalated by setting the Status to new & Owner to Nobody and making the queue backoffice (if urgent bring to attention of one of the named experts below). Tell the requestor:
    I am passing this request over to the experts who, I'm sure, will be in contact shortly.

Mifare Card Overview

The procedure is to use a University Card when people are here a long time but otherwise we issue a White Card. The latter procedure requires a card reader and some cards so is probably one to be escalated to the CL backoffice. Any visitor less than about 6 months will use a white card (unless they previously have a University card - we can use expired University cards). Normally tickets are raised about a week before arrival - check the length of stay - if it is a long stay (6+ months) person then ask Reception what is happening about their card - if it might not be ready in time or has not been requested (either deliberately or in error) then cause a white card to be created to be on the safe side.

Email with "Mifare cards required for visitors" or "Access Card request for visitor"

Go to the Visitors page and look for the entry. If the person is a employee then they will have had a card ordered. Visitors of short duration may not have. Check with reception to see if one is expected. Existing card holders can be found in Card Lookup.

If a card is in the pipeline then make ticket resolved.
OR
Otherwise put the ticket in backoffice queue with the status of new to be processed by someone with a mifare reader.

Verex not working

Keywords: Verex connect access control cyclic ID

Users report unable to connect to Verex server form clients. The usual reason for this is that the service running on 'verex01.ad.cl.cam.ac.uk' has lost contact with the database and fails to reestablish it.

  • Login to verex01 using a sysadmin userid specifying the domain, open Start/Administrative Tools/Services, find the service called "Guardall Director Server" and restart it (right click on the row and select restart).
  • If you have a Guardall Director login, login and test it. Otherwise, ask the user to try again.
  • If that is insufficient (rare) restart the service "Guardall Director Communication" in "Services" as well (e.g. go to the taskbar at the BRHC, show hidden, right click on "Communications stopped" (or whatever state it reports), Stop it if it's running, and then Start it.)
  • If that fails to cure the problem (very rare) then the whole server should be rebooted.

Verex ERMUserImport processing appears stalled

Keywords: Verex database automatic updates

If this message appears restart the two Verex services as above. If database connectivity is lost this can happen. If users (check with Building Services) can access Verex OK FootNote(RDP to verex01, login as *admin, start "Guardall Director" and login) then report the problem to Martyn or Graham rather than reboot.

Card not recognised

Keywords: new card not working crsid

cards are sometimes issued without the crsid being added to the data feed. To check this lookup the card. If it appears then the crsid is mapped. If not then a mapping can be added from the cardid to crsid.

Access requests for additional physical access (existing CL user or card addition)

Keywords: Verex Card Access

Most people's physical access rights are determined by their status in the database, but occasionally there are requests for extra areas to be added. This is done by augmenting the automatically generated capabilities with additional ones picked from a list. A capability may confer access to more than one physical area, and its name may also imply why the access has been granted.

Authorisation:
First check that the request is authorised. Common sense needs to be applied here, but typically we could expect authorisation to come from:

Resource Normal Authorisor
Cycle store Dept Secretary or Building Manager
Security staff Reception
SE18 (SEMCRoom) PI on an appropriate research project
FN11 (FNMCRoom) PI in the SRG
Library The librarian
Usability Lab Alan Blackwell
Bin store Building Manager or Reception
Car Park not done this way except in emergency - get a badge number added to the database instead
Offices Undergrad Student Administration

Procedure to add a extra capability to a valid card:
1. Use Card lookup to find the card. In Number or identifier you can use CRSid, the Mifare number, or the card number on the back (before the / issue number e.g. vw0008g) and click [Lookup]. Then click the Mifare Number link of the bottom card in the resulting table.

2. If on the left of the resulting Details webpage it has Mode: Auto, click the [Augmented mode] button. The mode should now be either Mode: Manual or Mode: Augmented.

3. Do not edit the main part of the record on the left. Select the Capability item from the drop-down in the top-centre. The entries do not correspond directly with physical areas, but attempt to express the logical function being offered. Find the most specific match rather than the first match (e.g. an undergraduate needing access to the library is given UndergradLibrary, rather than Library.) then click [Add capability].
You should find a message appears in red on the left of the page saying "Card valid in Verex Card waiting authority change"

4. The newly added capability should now appear in the list and will be active, but needs a comment. Click [Edit] in the newly added row and fill in the ticket number (e.g RT#12345) then click [Update]. If this is an email form studentadmin to add a Part II student then record the reason, the sponsor and the requestor as the comment.

5. To check that it all worked, wait 10-15 minutes and revisit the card. The area list on the right should be updated with the new list of areas and it should say Card valid in Verex. If not, Verex updates may be stuck, or (rarely) you may have requested a combination of areas which is not currently available as a programmed authority. To check go to anomalies page. If you see New authorities are required at the top then escalate the RT ticket to the experts (see above).

To add a card that is not already in the system (e.g. for a new Security person) follow the procedure below for adding cards for Photonics but selecting the appropriate capability.

Access requests for Photonics

Keywords: Verex Photonics Card Access

Requests for access to the building for people from Photonics will normally come from Adrian Wonfor, aw300. His instructions for additions, removals and amendments should be followed. For each person he should give CRSid, name for verification, and the desired expiry date.

Go to the physical security section of the SCG pages and use Card Lookup and Number or identifier [Lookup] to find the card.

For an amendment such as an expiry date change, simply click on the MifareNumber and [Edit] the record.

For a removal, use the [Remove] button.

For an addition, check that the name matches and choose [Manually Manage]. Click [Edit] and fill in the capability as Photonics - Engineering Photonics Group and the expiry date one day after the date given (expiry occurs at midnight at the beginning of the date entered - date format 31/07/2015). Put a reference to the RT ticket in the comment field and [Update] the record.

If you did any removals, go to the card anomalies page and confirm that the removal is actually to be done (there may be others waiting, which should be done unless there are so many that it looks like something bad may have happened, in which case seek expert assistance).

To check that it all worked, wait 10-15 minutes and revisit the card. The coloured message reflects the actual state in the access control system and should normally be green Card valid in Verex for a card that has been added or red Card not in system for one that has been removed. If the wrong state persists, check the anomalies page for Clear errors in processing. If all is clear there, Verex may need restarting (as above). If none of this works, expert attention will be required.

Note that "{{{cardID}}}" in this case is used only for local cards, so if the user has a University card, it will be blank - this is not a problem.

FootNotes

Contacts

Primary

  • Leave in sys-admin queue (bring to attention of CL staff below if urgent).

Other

Availability

  • Monday:
  • Tuesday:
  • Wednesday:
  • Thursday:
  • Friday:
  • Saturday: Closed
  • Sunday: Closed

Hints, Tips & Known Issues

Title

Firstname Lastname (Date)

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Categorising Keywords

  • Mifare number University white card visitor access
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