Backup to another Server in the Hive
Answered
At the moment in a scenario with multiple remote sites, if I want to have real-time long term backups in a central site, we need to have a VPN from every server to the central one, and have one or more NAS with a dedicated folder for each edge server.
It would be interesting, when you are adding "external storage" to be able to select one of the servers in the Hive/System to be able to record simultaneously to the central server.
Additionally, if this setup would be possible, I would also hope that when there is no connection to the central server, when the connection is reestablished it would start sending the new footage as well as the accumulated (still not backed up) recordings to the backup server.
Is there anything like this planned on the roadmap?
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Hi Miguel Câmara,
Nx witness already can access other servers through Samba.
If you set up Samba on each server, you can set them up as external storage as described HERE.Some random guide I found about how to set up Samba HERE.
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Hello Norman,
But I would need a VPN connection between the two servers to have a SAMBA connection.
What I am requesting is for NxWitness to use the Hive (or NxCloud) connectivity to record simulteanously locally and to backup on one of the remote servers as an External Storage.At the moment this works as redundancy only AFAIK.
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Hi Miguel Câmara,
If you want to use a VPN is up to you, but it isn't mandatory.
All communication is based on HTTPS.If you want storage proxied through our cloud, I don't see that happening on a short notice due to the cost of such proxied connections.
We probably will offer cloud based storage in the future, but are discussing the exact requirements for such option. At this stage there are still quite some hurdles to take.
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Hello Norman - Nx Support
You suggested connection through SAMBA, can I do that without the VPN?
The Cloud solution was an alternative to my request. What I am describing is to use the “Hive connection”, using port 7001 just like you already use to transfer the video streams and playback.
To try to simplify what I mean:
- System has 3 servers connected
- Server 1 is in Site A, merged to DDNS3, port 7001 open, DDNS1
- Server 2 is in Site B, merged to DDNS3, port 7001 open, DDNS2
- Server 3 is in HQ, port 7001 open, DDNS3
- Server 1 has direct connections to cameras #A1~#A12, and is recording these 12 cameras to local 1TB HDD
- Server 2 has direct connections to cameras #B1~#B10, and is recording these 10 cameras to local 1TB HDD
- Server 3 has no direct cameras and a big storage (>40TB)
There is no connection between the three servers except the Hive connection after being merged.
I would like to setup Server 1 to record locally and to backup in real-time to Server 3, effectively having short-term local storage and long-term centralised storage.
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Hi Miguel Câmara,
You install the Nx Witness mediaserver on server 1 and 2.
You install Samba on server 3.Port 7001 is used for server 1 and 2 to communicate together.
Port 445 (default Samba TCP port) to communicate with server 3.Below the simplified network topology.
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Hello Norman - Nx Support,
Thank you for the schematic, and I do understand, but I was under the impression that from a security point of view we should never open SMB ports, like 445, which is why I assume that the only recommended way would be with a VPN.
Anyway after a new search on the web I did see some recommendations on how to keep a "over the internet" SMB connection safer.
In the meantime in this scenario as you suggested, setting up a real-time backup to Server 1 through SMB, when there is internet outage, will the backup have a gap, or will NxWitness fill up the gap after recovering the connection?
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Hi Miguel Câmara,
Correct. In general, it is never recommend to open ports without any precautions.
In most firewall applications, if not any, you can forward ports only for designated IP addresses and in that way you can allow server 1 and 2, to communicate with server 3 and no other IP address can communicate with these servers, unless you configured it like that.
Using a VPN for such applications is always recommended.
When there is an outage, and you have set real-time backup, you will have a gap.
If you use the On-Demand or By-Schedule options, there won't be a gap.Ps. Windows 10 already has SMB/Samba included and folders can be added as a shared folder to other devices.
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