Storage Issue on 3-Node NX Witness Cluster – One Node Not Recording

Completed

Mepcogroup IT

August 11, 2025 13:33

Hello everyone,

We have a setup with 3 VMs, each running an NX Media Server and part of the same cluster (hive).
All three servers share the same SMB server for storage.
On the SMB share, we have three subfolders — one per media server:

• nx01
• nx02
• nx03

The issue:
We noticed that nx01 and nx02 are consuming almost all available storage, while nx03 is showing the attached SMB shared folder as "Reserved" and is not recording at all.

My question:
If we change the recording retention for all cameras on nx01 and nx02 to 90 days only and then reindex the storage on both, will that remove all recordings beyond the new retention period and free up space on the SMB storage?

We’re looking for a way to free space without adding new storage to the system.

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

1

• 

  Mepcogroup IT

  August 13, 2025 15:47

  Hello, anybody in the house?

  1
• 

  Andrew Sharrem

  • Authorized Reseller

  August 25, 2025 21:06

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  • 
  • 

  Well, I'll throw my 2 cents worth in…

  Yes, for shared storage, I recommend setting a max retention period (90 days in your case) for cameras.

  Your issue likely stems from how VMS's manages storage free space.
  The answer lies in a couple different Nx articles (and some I can no longer find);

  • https://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005289634-Storage-Recycling-in-Nx-Witness
  • https://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/articles/205501378-How-does-Nx-Witness-manage-storage

  Summary:
  Because all servers are competing for the same [free space], you need to restrict all servers cameras retention either via quota or retention period. The latter being the easiest as it is defined in Nx.
   

  Notes:

  • For SMB storage, turn off the “recycle bin” - Obvious reasons :-)
  • Shared storage management was improved since v5.0??, whereby servers will write to a sub-folder of the storage location denoted with the server Hardware ID [by default]. This means you do not have to have to create separate folders yourself. It does however introduce challenges when replacing a server & using the same storage, as the new server will create a new HDWiD sub-folder, and the old server sub-folder is no longer managed by new Nx server. There is a work around to this I will note later.
  • Often when a customer requests 90 days storage, they do not consider that it does not mean “every camera”. Nx can handle different retention periods “per camera”.
    E.g. Priority cameras at Min & Max 90 days and others at less.
  • Halving your frame rate will effectively double your storage retention ;-)

  HDWiD sub-folder work-around:
  For Nx to absorb video data from an other server HDD, you simply need to “move” the sub-folders below the HDWiD sub-folder to above the HDWiD sub-folder, i.e. the "HD Witness Media" folder and not the “HD Witness Media / HDWiD”. This is the old Nx way, but still supported by Nx. It will re-index it and apply recycle policy while maintaining the new way. To do so you must stop the Nx service and use OS “move” commands that do not involve copying the data ;-)
  Nx v6.1+ (in BETA currently) address this issue with new HDD policy rules like “exclusive, readonly, shared etc.”.

  I hope this helps.

  Andy
  www.nxpt.io
   

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