1. Resonate RFID Reader Management 2.1 User Guide
  2. Enabling Communication with the RFID Readers
  3. Resonate Device Initializer Basics
  • Resonate RFID Reader Management 2.1 User Guide
Resonate Device Initializer Basics

Resonate Device Initializer
 Basics

The
Resonate Device Initializer
 utility initializes the RFID readers that
Resonate RFID Reader Management
 needs to manage; the initialization also installs the Resonate Agent on the readers. Run the utility on a Windows 10 or 11 machine, according to the required onboarding mode.
The
Resonate Device Initializer
 utility is a self-contained executable (
rm-device-initializer-<VERSION>.exe
) without an installer. It is distributed in the
resonate-<VERSION>.tar.gz
 file that you received from Zebra to install
Resonate RFID Reader Management
.
Resonate Device Initializer
 supports two device onboarding modes:
  • Device-discovery mode:
    Resonate Device Initializer
     automatically discovers all supported RFID readers on the same subnet. As it discovers devices, it presents them in the list of discovered devices to the
    Resonate server
     for display in the
    web interface
    . You then review the list of discovered devices and choose which ones
    Resonate
     should manage. This is the easiest and most common way to run the utility.
    In this mode, you must run the
    Resonate Device Initializer
     utility onsite and on the same subnet as your RFID readers. Each subnet that has readers to manage must use the same DNS domain and requires its own instance of
    Resonate Device Initializer
    . If you cannot run the utility directly onsite, you can connect to a machine on the subnet via remote desktop to run the utility.
  • File-based mode:
    Resonate Device Initializer
    , when used together with the Device Migrator utility, allows you to add a specified list of RFID readers to
    Resonate
     for management. Use the Device Migrator utility to process a spreadsheet that lists the RFID readers (with required information including their site name), and add them to
    Resonate
    . Then, use
    Resonate Device Initializer
     with the
    --no-ws
     option to load Resonate Agent onto each reader, securely connect the readers to
    Resonate
    , and then transfer control to the agent.
    You can run these utilities from any Windows machine, provided there is network access to the RFID readers. This is also how you migrate readers from MotionWorks RFID Reader Management to
    Resonate
    .
After Resonate Agent is loaded on the device and the reader establishes communication with
Resonate
, Resonate Agent elevates the device's firmware to a
Resonate
 compatible version as needed.
The
Resonate Device Initializer
 utility prompts for a password to access the readers. All readers must use the same password, or they must all still use their factory-default password. You can change all reader passwords to match, or reset the readers to their factory-default state before running the utility. Otherwise, the utility cannot access the readers.
The
Resonate Device Initializer
 utility uses the
settings.yaml
 file that you configured during
Resonate
 installation; it includes information such as your
Resonate server
's FQDN. When running the utility, you must specify some additional information. When run in device-discovery mode, you must specify the ID of a site that you have set up on the
Site Manager
 page of the
web interface
; for information on the site ID, refer to Determining the Site ID. When run in file-based mode, the spreadsheet must include the name of the reader's site, as assigned in
Resonate
; in this case, the Device Migrator utility adds the site to
Resonate
 if it currently does not exist.