Bally - Bally Command Center

Background Information

Bally Command Center (BCC) is the software of choice for distributing content to the iView’s. This handles both software and application updates, and also includes a packager for creating & signing our own content.

Sections of Implementation

There are several steps to implementation:

  • Moving the content into BCC
  • Setting up the iView groups
  • Submitting the push for iView updates
  • Approving the push for iView updates
  • Updating

The following Job Aide will walk you through all these processes, step by step.

  • Please note that best practice is to push out to 100 machines or less at a time.

Moving Content Into Bally Command Center

Moving Content must take place from the BCC app server (SVRCAZBCC & SVRTSRBCC).

  1. From the start menu, type “remote desktop” and wait for the “Remote Desktop Protocol” icon to appear. Click on “Remote Desktop Connection.”
  2. In the window that pops up, enter the appropriate server name and click connect. You will be connected to the BCC app server, where you will be copying the content.
  3. On the BCC app server, navigate to “C:\BallyPackages” and create a new folder.
    • Use the format “[Year].[Month].[Day] [Description]” when creating new folders (example “2020.02.28 iView app update”). This naming convention allows distinguishing between different content versions.
  4. Copy the files from the USB drive (or other media device) to this new folder.
  5. While logged into the BCC app server, log into BCC, Click on the “Administration” tab and click on “Package Library”.
  6. Click on “Install packages”.
  7. Navigate to the folder that has the new content in it. Now, select the property name and click the ‘arrow over’ to move the site into the “Selected sites” box.
  8. Click “Next” to add the packages to BCC, and they are ready to be deployed.

Setting Up Iview Groups

  1. Log into Bally Command Center. This can be done from your desktop.
  2. Click “Floor Management”, “Groups”, then “Add Group”.
  3. Create a name (ex “bank 237”) and click next.
  4. From here you will add the slot machines to the appropriate group.
    • Note that the “location” tab will be useful. It is important to note the location field, as if you enter 130 into the location field and click search, this will pull up every machine that has a location with 130 in it. If you want bank 130, you’ll need to start with I0130.
  5. Using the “Shift” key and/or the “Ctrl” key, select the machines that should be added to the group.
  6. If you’d like to add or remove slot machines to a group, highlight the group and select “Group Details”.

Submitting the Push for Iview Updates

  1. Log into Bally Command Center, click “Floor Management”, then click “iView Group”
  2. Highlight the group you would like to deploy content to then click either “iView Content” or “iView OS”, depending on the deployment.
    • Note, new content will show up as either, so you are free to select either.
  3. You will be prompted to add a “job name”, select the “content to be deployed”, and the “date and time” for both download and install.
    • Note, this is where you have the option to download the content to the iViews ahead of time to minimize downtime. If you wish to do this, uncheck the “Schedule download and install at the same time” checkbox, and fill in the appropriate values. Downloading the content will copy the content from the server to the iView, and should not impact any guests. The installation will take the iView offline when the software is actually being installed.
  4. Once you have saved the deployment, someone else will be required to approve the push.

Approving Push for Iview Updates

  1. Log into Bally Command Center click “Floor Management”, then “Jobs”.
  2. Click on “Month View” to see all of the jobs available for the selected month.
    • Note, jobs will not appear for months you have not selected. Ex, if looking at the month of January, greyed out sections of the calendar are days before and after the current month, and any deployments that occurred on those days, will not show.
  3. Select the job that needs approved, and approve using the “Approve Jobs” option. To Verify the Job, use “View Job Details” first before approving.
    • Note, if you are not able to approve the job, then the employee who created the job is likely at the same approval level you are, and you will need to select a different approver.

Updating

The formal update will take place based on the options selected in previous steps, also listed under “Submit the push for iView updates”. At your discretion you will want to take a bank offline then download and install at the same time, while other times, such as when you are pushing content to the entire floor, you will want to download a couple of weeks ahead of time and then take the banks offline about 10 minutes before the installation deadline. Either way, if the machine is in play, the installation will fail. If the installation fails it will not try again – you will have to redeploy to that machine.

 

To review images or save/download/print a copy of this Job Aide, please select the pdf attachment.

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