Knowledge Base

Problem

IT departments or users ask whether joining an EthoVision workstation to a domain (Active Directory) will break the software, affect camera acquisition, or require reinstallation and recalibration.

Details

Labs with institutional IT management sometimes need to connect their EthoVision PC to Active Directory for centralized management or access to network storage. Concerns include whether domain policies will interfere with camera streaming, USB device detection, license validation, or experiment file access. Applies to all EthoVision XT versions on Windows.

Solution

1. Joining the EthoVision workstation to Active Directory generally does not require reinstalling or recalibrating EthoVision XT.
2. After joining the domain, verify that the local user account under which EthoVision is installed and run retains full administrator rights or at minimum the permissions required by EthoVision (see the 'Restriction Profile Error ID 10020' article for permission requirements).
3. Confirm that any endpoint protection, firewall, or cybersecurity software deployed by the domain does not block the ports used by EthoVision for camera streaming (GigE camera communication) or license validation.
4. During live acquisition, ensure that Active Directory group policies do not trigger background processes (scans, updates, policy refreshes) that could degrade acquisition performance or drop camera connections.
5. For additional storage needs, the recommended workflow is to acquire data to local storage first (fast SSD), then transfer completed experiment folders to network storage after acquisition. Running experiments directly on a mapped network drive is not recommended due to latency and potential disconnections.
6. If camera or acquisition issues appear after joining the domain, check whether the network adapter used for the GigE camera has been affected by domain network policies or IP assignment changes.