Recording same camera to different storages with different retention time
Not planned
Dear all,
One of our customer requires to record same camera to 2 different locations with different retention time. I believe you don't have such a feature yet. I wonder of you can add it to upcoming versions. It might be useful for other customers also. Purpose of having this settings is high res/fps recording localy on remote site and low res/fps recording to central storage to avoid high bandwitdh usage.
For example:
Camera1 stream 1 to storageA with 30 days retention
Camera 1 stream 2 to storageB with 120 days recording
Or same stream to to storage A and B
Best regards
Tolga
-
If Storage B was local.., set up Storage B (local or NAS) and simply back up the low res stream on schedule or real time. the Backup feature is pretty robust and will do what you want. Remote backups (over the WAN) add several points of failure and complexity but is certainly possible.
If you can schedule the backups at night vs real-time, that'd be better in that if the NAS becomes disconnected for some reason, the backups will continue where they left off when the NAS becomes available again. Yes, the backup footage is available to view in the client and behaves just like if it was on a "main" storage drive.
I prefer scheduled backups for the above reasons, but, I have clients that have had their DVR's stolen in the past (not mine) and to satisfy them I install a small 2 or 4TB NAS somewhere "hidden" on the local network to real time backup to. If the NVR gets stolen, they'll still have the video from the last few days (up to the time the NVR got disconnected).
Perhaps another way would be to add another server at your "central" location and connect to the remote cameras over the WAN and only record the low res stream? But now you're really at the mercy of your ISP(s). I will have to try that... Nx will want to stream the high res even if it's not recording it, but if I check the "Do not archive the Primary stream" and "Keep camera stream settings" (so it doesn't conflict with the main server settings) check boxes in the Expert tab??? I bet it'll work. Maybe the Nx guys will chime in on this to confirm. The scheduled backup is still the best way I think... I just saw a squirrel and started chasing it ;-)I guess it depends on your reasons and goals for wanting remote archives of the low res footage.
Nx will do pretty much whatever you can think up, and it's getting better all the time.0 -
Hi Paul,
Many thanks for the information you shared, all of them are quite useful.
There is one point you are missing. We need different retention times for each storage. so far only way to do it is installing another server at central location and record second stream from remote camera. Problem of this way: client needs extra camera license and server hardware. number of cameras needs to be recorded this way is 900+ it creates a big cost. I believe NX team can develop a feature to record different retention times from same camera to different locations in future. or if you know any other way to do it i am looking forward to hear.
Cheers
Tolga
0 -
Wow, 900 cams! now that's a horse of a different color. Yes I didn't consider the license issue for the second server (too bad merged servers cant record the same mac independently.. at least I don't think they can). But back to the Backup scenario... the backups will have as long a retention time as storage space on the backup drive allows. I imagine it would not be detrimental to have longer retention times than you need correct? One thing I have discovered about backup drives (it's documented too), is that you should not use the same backup volume for multiple servers. I get by with two servers backing up to the same volume but any more than that starts causing issues (at least in my experience and there are other factors involved too). So, since each server should have its own backup volume, it should be fairly easy to calculate the necessary volume size to insure the required retention time, yes? As far as a feature request, I suppose if Nx added "Backup Archive Length" to the Recording tab options, that would do it too?
900 cameras backing up or streaming to a remote WAN location is beyond my talent and experience, sorry. Perhaps 4.0 and virtual cams may offer something? I will follow along with great interest.0 -
You are right. We only backup second stream and If there will be an option of 'backup archive lenght' this will solve the issue. Fingers crossed. i hope they will consider this feature as a usefull one
0 -
Hi Tolga,
The retention times for main and backup storage can be different, there is no problem with it. The length of recorded archive on backup storage is limited only by backup storage capacity (and archive length setting in camera settings).
So, Paul's solutions with remote NAS should perfectly work. Just don't let multiple servers record backup to the same storage partition.
0 -
Hi Alexsandr.
Plan is having a NAS storage and redirecting some of camera feeds from different locations to central NAS for longer time of archiving. Of course each recorder will be writing to their own folder on same NAS device such as \\nasIP\server01 - \\nasIP\server02 . I believe you missed the point archive length of backup storage will be longer than main storage. Even if we have enough space, NX will start to delete files from backup storage after specified archive length reached which is shorter then the one we have on main storage. So, if there will be an option in NX "backup storage archive length" all problem will be solved. Customer can use a high end, fast response storage with high res/fps for recent past but they can archive the second stream on a cost effective storage for longer period without having a second server and 2 license for single camera.
Cheers
Tolga
0 -
Tolga,
"Even if we have enough space, NX will start to delete files from backup storage after specified archive length reached"
I was under the understanding that Nx does NOT delete backup archive files until space is needed on the backup volume...regardless of main storage archive length settings. Are you saying that if you set the main archive storage to say 10 days max with daily backups to a NAS that Nx will not retain backup video older than 10 days? I don't think that is true. That would basically be a mirrored drive instead of an archive. If Nx is deleting backup archives based on the max days settings of the main storage, that's a bug, not a feature IMO. I've never run into this as I have not set max days in this scenario. Min days certainly for critical cameras, but not max. I do know that without max days, the main drives will fill until full and the backup drives will fill until full. I wonder if your backup is indeed NOT deleting prematurely but just that the indexing needs rebuilt?Have you looked at the log file? Does it list backup deletions that coincide with your observations?
Interesting....
[btw, sorry Alex, don't mean to step on toes here. But I think I learn more from forums than I ever have from user guides and try to give back when I can]0 -
Archive length is specified for the camera, not for the storage, so, I believe, it applies for both main and backup archives.
But is it really necessary for you to specify max length of archive as 30 days? If you keep this setting on "auto" Nx won't be deleting backup until you run out of the available space.
0 -
Hi Aleksander,
We are using Coldstore storage for this project and retention time has to be specified. Otherwise coldstore is getting confused because of it is a time based storage. we can not ask coldstore to record each camera with different retentions. This is the reason i was asking if you can add a retention time menu for back up in NX.
Cheers
Tolga
1 -
Unfortunately, such features are not being worked on at the moment. We understand you would like to have this request implemented, so we will take your feedback into account for future feature discussions.
0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
10 comments