Storage Bridge
Quick Start Guide
Thank you for your choosing Storage Bridge. This document provides step-by-step instructions
for configuring and using Storage Bridge. Please refer to the Storage Bridge Administration
Guide (https://www.tiger-technology.com/software/storage-bridge-milestone/docs/) for
additional information.
Got questions? Feel free to contact our Technical Support at support@tiger-technology.com
LICENSES............................................................................................................................................. 2
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................... 2
PREPARATION .................................................................................................................................... 2
SETUP THE CLOUD BUCKET(S) ........................................................................................................... 3
INSTALL THE STORAGE BRIDGE PLUG-INS AND ACTIVATE YOUR LICENSE ....................................... 4
CONFIGURE THE DISASTER RECOVERY .............................................................................................. 5
CONFIGURE THE STORAGE EXTENSION............................................................................................. 6
USING THE XPROTECT SMART CLIENT PLUG-IN ................................................................................ 8
CREATING RESTORE JOBS USING THE XPROTECT MANAGEMENT CLIENT ..................................... 11
RECOVERING A FAILED STORAGE AFTER A DISASTER ..................................................................... 12
RECOVERING A FAILED RECORDING SERVER AFTER A DISASTER ................................................... 17
CONFIGURING FIREWALLS AND PROXY SERVERS ........................................................................... 24

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SAAS-CHECK UTILITY ........................................................................................................................ 26

Licenses
Download the Storage Bridge executable and manuals from the Tiger Technology
licensing servera. Visit: https://license.tiger-technology.com/ and enter your credentials
b. Once you have logged in, you will be prompted to register.
c. If you logged in using a Client Account, click on “Home” to you see the list of
product licenses available. Click on the product license you wish to use.
d. To download the manuals, click on “Documentation” (bottom left)
e. To download the executable, click on “Current Version” (bottom left)

System Requirements
Plan for a min 3-4 days of local storage retention. This will be used for caching most recent
camera data, as well as to act as buffer should you ever run into a problem with the internet
upload speed. This buffer will dictate the amount of time you have to identify and solve
potential internet connectivity issues. In addition, and while stub files are zero byte in size, they
do require an entry in the file system. When looking at long retention periods, keep in mind
that every 1 million files will consume 100MB of local disk space.
Storage Bridge will consume ~20% of the CPU during the initial indexing of the file system (eachtime the drivers are started), then drops to ~5% during normal operations. Memory footprint istypically not an issue.
1) Recording Servers should have:a) Internet upload speed at least 25% more than total camera ingests to diskb) Access to https://saas.tiger-technology.comc) Access to the cloud bucket endpointd) Ports 443 outbounde) Ports 8536 and 8537 inbound/outbound with the Management Clientf) Contact Tiger for additional instructions if using a proxy server2) Cloud requirementsa) One cloud bucket/container has been created for each of your recording locations.
b) Recording Servers should have FULL Read/Write AND Delete capabilities on the objects
in the cloud.

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Preparation
1) Connect and configure your Recording storage and Archive (optional) according toMilestone’s guidelines.
NOTE: Storage Bridge operates directly on your Recording storage (the cloud becomes
your archive). When using DR, this gives you the best possible recovery. If you requirethat your Milestone Recording Server be configured with an Archive, you can use
Storage Bridge for either the Recording storage or the Archive, or for both of them.
2) IMPORTANT: Under “Storage and Recording Settings” in the Management Client, set
the “Retention time” according to how much TOTAL camera data you want to keep on
your volume(s). This setting is global and determines when data will be deleted locallyand in the cloud:a. The retention time should cover local AND cloud data
b. The size should cover local AND cloud data (don’t worry if your volume is muchsmaller as it will extend into the cloud)
EXAMPLE: If you set a 90-day retention time, regardless of where the data actually is,
XProtect will delete it. As XProtect deletes the local files, Storage Bridge will then delete
the associated data in the cloud tiers (note that there may be a delay with some cloudproviders). You choose how much data stays on the local drive vs. nearline (hot) cloudstorage vs. archive (cold or frozen) cloud storage using Storage Bridge.
c. If you need to decommission an Archive volume without losing data, you willneed to proceed in two steps:
i. First make sure the retention time on the Recording storage is at least as
long as the current Archive volume
ii. Until a full Archive period has been met, some of the archive data willcontinue to come from the current Archive.
iii. Once passed a full archive period, the Archive volume can be
decommissioned as all latest “archive” data is now coming from thecloud.

Setup the Cloud Bucket(s)1) To quickly estimate your required internet speed, you can use the “1/5 rule of thumb”:
a. If you know the average bitrate of all your cameras:
i. Multiply total recording bitrate x 1.5 (allows for readback andfluctuations)

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EXAMPLE: 173 Mbps x 1.5 = ~250 Mbps
b. If you know the current storage requirements for a given retention period:i. Multiply #GB / #days x .15
EXAMPLE: 350 GB per day = 350 x.15 = ~50Mbps
100TB per month = 100 x1024 x.15 ÷ 30 = ~500 Mbps
2) Log into your Cloud account and create separate buckets/containers to be associatedwith each recording server and volumes.
NOTE: If you have a recording server with only a Recording volume (no Archive volume)the same bucket/container is used for storing a single copy of all data and is used forboth Disaster Recovery (DR) and Extension. DR contains all camera data, plus XML andindex files needed to recreate the XProtect database. Extension only requires a subset,that is, the camera data. If you have more than one volume configured on yourrecording server, each volume will require its own bucket.
3) Have your Cloud account details ready for the install (Access Key, Secret Key, etc.)

Install the Storage Bridge plug-ins and Activate your License
1) Make sure your recording server is fully configured and able to record prior to installing
Storage Bridge.
NOTE: Your recording server can be recording live camera data while installing Storage
Bridge (it won’t affect operations)2) Close the XProtect Management Client app
3) Install Storage Bridge (follow on-screen instructions)a. The installer contains three software components• Management Client (for configuration – must be installed)• Recording Server (all the cool technology – must be installed)• Smart Client (for data visualization and movement – optional)b. It is possible to install these components on ONE or SEPARATE machines• Just select/deselect the appropriate option(s)4) Activate your license by opening the XProtect Management Clienta. Click on the Storage Bridge “Administration” tabStorage Bridge – Quick Start Guide – Last Updated – 12/06/2022 – v3.01

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b. Select the recording server to activatec. Enter your Username and Password, and click “Apply” to activate• NOTE: If you were provided a Client Account in addition to Product
Licenses, you must use the later credentials for activating your license. In
this case, the Product License will typically be identical to your login, butwill have the _SBX suffix added to it and the password will be empty (youadd your own).
d. Once activated, your screen should look like this:e. If you have any issue activating, please Troubleshooting section below
f. You can choose which options will be available to operators using the XProtect
Smart Client (see details below)

Configure the Disaster Recovery
Activating the Disaster Recovery (DR) functionality using Storage Bridge is easy. Thisfunctionality can be activated on your Recording storage(s), your Archive(s), or both.
1) Select the Storage Bridge “Disaster Recovery” taba. For each volume where you desire DR, click “Enable”
b. Configure your cloud target
i. Make sure to select a DIFFERENT bucket/container for EACH volumeii. If Storage Extension has already been configured, you will NOT be
prompted for cloud details as your data will NOT be replicated twice. The
same dataset is used.
c. To start the replication process, switch the “Inactive” to “Active” (top right)
d. Within a few minutes (depending how many cameras and files are managed),
Storage Bridge will start replicating and display the % of local data that has been
replicated to the cloud.
NOTE: After all existing files have been replicated, this number will typically be just shy
of 100%, unless you stop the camera streams or the recording server in order for themost current data to reach your cloud target.
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Verify that your internet is keeping up
Open Task Manager on the Recording Server to see how fast Storage Bridge can upload to thecloud. Click on the “Performance” tab, and then select “Ethernet”. Unless other processes are
running in the background, the “Receive” will show the incoming camera data while the “Send”
shows the rate at which Storage Bridge is uploading to the cloud. On average, the Send should
no less than the Receive:

Storage
Storage
BridgeBridgekeeping
notup
keeping
The screen grab on the left shows aup
problematic situation where Send bandwidth is less thanReceive. This means Storage Bridge is currently not able to keep up with the incoming data
flow. Storage Bridge is barely keeping up on the right and 25% headroom would be desirable(showing about 12%). The % of uploaded camera data should continue to increase andeventually stabilize around 99%.

Configure the Storage Extension

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Use the Extension option to make your local volume appear bigger and infinitely scalable. Thisfunctionality can be activated on your Recording storage(s), your Archive(s), or both. It can be
activated with or without Disaster Recovery. When activated with Disaster Recovery, Extension
uses a subset of the data already replicated on the DR target.

Configuration steps:
1) Select the Storage Bridge “Extension” taba. For each volume where Extension is desired, click “Enable nearline extension”
b. Configure your cloud target
i. If DR has already been configured for this volume, you will NOT be
prompted for cloud details as your data does NOT get replicated twice.
The same bucket will be used.
c. Make sure to select a DIFFERENT bucket for EACH volume.
2) Click on “Configure nearline extension”
a. Choose “By Age” to keep camera data locally for a specific amount of time orchoose “By Size” to keep it until your local drive reaches a specified capacity
threshold. When either condition is met, content is removed and replaced byzero-byte stub files. Data is safely kept in the cloud until the retention time set
on your storage volume is met. Make sure to maintain enough “free” space on
your recording drive to ensure Milestone has enough room to continue
recording during an internet outage.

b. To start the replication process, switch from “Inactive” to “Active” (top right)
c. Within a minute, Storage Bridge will display the % of local data that has been
replicated to the cloud.

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d. If your cloud provider supports an archive tier, Storage Bridge allows you toleverage it. Note that in this case, any archived video will need to be manually
recalled BEFORE it can be viewed on the timeline.

Using the XProtect Smart Client plug-in
There are a few options available to the XProtect Smart Client. They are all enabled by default
but can be disabled through the Management Client (see Installation and Activation steps
above).

Timeline Color Monitoring – Visual indication of where the data is currently stored:
1) Go to Settings, select Timeline, and set “Additional data” to “Show” (vs. “Hide”)

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Clicking on the XProtect bottom right “?” brings up the timeline legend:

Storage Bridge displays the following storage locations:- Online (Green): Camera data is on the local drive AND replicated to the cloud- Nearline (Orange): Camera data is in the cloud and seamlessly accessible- Offline (Blue): Camera data is in the cloud, but in an archived tier (if applicable)

Automatic Timeline Restore:
1) Online (Green) camera data is ALWAYS available for playback.
2) Nearline (Orange) camera data will be automatically retrieved when selected or playedon the timeline, unless Automatic Timeline Restore is disabled. In this case, camera
data will NOT automatically be restoredfrom the cloud (potentially saving cloudegress fees) and Storage Bridge will display
a “Recording Nearline” frame:3) Archived (Blue) sections must be manually retrieved through the Restore Panel orthrough the Management Panel (see below). By definition, camera data in a cloudarchive tier will typically take hours to
restore (thus the significantly lower cost).
Storage Bridge has the unique ability todisplay a “Recording Offline” frame:

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Manual Restore Panel:
Storage Bridge will display an “Recording Offline” notice when playing or selecting areas of thetimeline that are Archived (frozen) until the archived video has been restored to the nearline(hot) cloud tier.
1) When the Manual Restore Panel is activated, XProtect Smart Client operators canrestore data for specific Cameras.
a. The speed at which data is retrieved depends on the cloud provider and theoptions chosen when configuring the cloud target above.

TIP: Use the Time Selection Mode or Set Start/End Time buttons to automatically set the date
and time interval to be restored:

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Creating Restore Jobs using the XProtect Management Client
When the Storage Bridge Automatic Timeline Restore option is disabled, restore jobs can becreated from within the XProtect Management Client plug-in.
1) Open Management Client and go to the Administration tab:2) Click on “Create new”
3) In the dropdown, select the type of job you want to perform
4) Use From: and To: to set the date and time interval to be restored
5) Click “Submit job”
6) Storage Bridge initiates the restore operation. Note that it may take some time for theoperation to complete. A status bar will show the progress.

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Recovering a Failed Storage After a Disaster
When the Disaster Recovery option is enabled, Storage Bridge can recover from a Recording
storage or Archive failure. As soon as XProtect detects the failure, Storage Bridge will display awarning message. It is critical to follow the step-by-step instructions of the Wizard.
1) Identify the failed drive letter:In this example,
we can see thatdrive “E:” needs
to be recovered.

2) Connect a replacement drive to the Recording server, but do NOT mount it. To be safe,
the replacement drive should NOT be formatted (or you should FIRST STOP the
Recording server PRIOR to connecting a formatted drive.

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123) Click on “Disaster Recovery Wizard” to begin the recovery process.

4) The Wizard will first stop the Recording server (if it isn’t already):

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135) It is now time to format and assign the original drive letter to the replacement drive (inthis example, the failed drive letter was E: ).

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146) When the replacement volume is detected with the proper drive letter, Storage Bridge
displays a green checkmark:7) Storage Bridge will then ask for confirmation:

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158) Congratulations! The Wizard has now completed.

9) You can monitor the recovery progress on the Administration tab. It should only take a
few minutes to restore the database. Note that video content will only be restored on
demand (by accessing the timeline or by creating a restore job).

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Recovering a Failed Recording Server After a Disaster
When the Disaster Recovery option is enabled, Storage Bridge can recover from a Recording
server failure. As soon as XProtect detects the failure, Storage Bridge will display a warning
message. It is critical to follow the step-by-step instructions of the Wizard.
1) Click on “Disaster Recovery Wizard” to engage the recovery procedure.

2) First make sure the replacement Recording server is ready and available:

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4) Active the Storage Bridge license on the replacement server (your credentials are listed
above):

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Storage Bridge – Quick Start Guide – Last Updated – 12/06/2022 – v3.01

195) The Wizard will now stop the replacement Recording server6) It is now necessary to format assign the same drive letter to the replacement drive (inthis example, the original drive letter was E: ).

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207) When the replacement volume is detected with the proper drive letter, Storage Bridge
displays a green checkmark:Storage Bridge – Quick Start Guide – Last Updated – 12/06/2022 – v3.01

218) Storage Bridge will then ask for confirmation:9) Congratulations! The Wizard has now completed.

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2210) You can monitor the recovery progress on the Administration tab. It should only take a
few minutes to restore the database. Note that video content will only be restored on
demand (by accessing the timeline or by creating a restore job).

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Configuring Firewalls and Proxy Servers
Storage Bridge must communicate with the cloud target as well as with the Tiger Technology
licensing server for activating your license and for keeping them activated.
1) Make sure that the following requirements are met:a. Can reach the Azure service running at https://saas.tiger-technology.com.
i. When typing the URL, you should in your browser, you should obtain thefollowing response:ii. If you get an error, you will need to whitelist the domain nameb. Check your firewall. The following ports must be open:
•
•
•
•

•

(for object storage target over http connection) 80 - outbound rule only(for SaaS activation and/or communication with object storage target over https) 443 outbound rule only(for a network target) 445 - outbound rule only(for remote connection) 8536 - inbound and outbound rules(for remote connection) 8537 - inbound and outbound rules
i. You can test this connection AFTER you have installed the Storage Bridge plugin
by entering the following URL in a web browser on the Management Server:
https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8537/version (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of
the Recording Server you are testing)2) If you are using a proxy server, Bridge uses different mechanisms for accessing the cloudand for communicating with the licensing server.
a. To configure proxy for the cloud target:
i. Open a Command prompt in elevated mode and type:
C:\Windows\system32\tiercli config global proxy <proxyserver:port> [username] [password]b. To configure proxy for the licensing server:i. Set your System Environment Variables:

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Variable namehttp_proxy

Variable value (try the following formats)proxyserver:portorStorage Bridge – Quick Start Guide – Last Updated – 12/06/2022 – v3.01

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http://user:password@your-proxy-ip-address:port/
proxyserver:portorhttps://user:password@your-proxy-ip-address:port/

https_proxy

IMPORTANT: It is required to reboot your computer after changing system variables.
ii. If you are still experiencing issues activating the Bridge software, please
use the SaaS-Check utility to troubleshoot your issue, as described below.

Saas-Check Utility
Tiger Technology has developed a troubleshooting application that can help identify the sourceof the problem.
NOTE: Troubleshooting firewalls and proxy issues will likely require the assistance of your
System Administrator.
If you are experiencing issues activating your Bridge software, download the saas-check.exe
utility (https://tinyurl.com/8fjjaby4).
1. On the Bridge machine (i.e. Recording Server), open a Command prompt in Elevatedmode
2. Run saas-check with the following parameters
Usage: saas-check.exe <server_host> <cabundle_path> <username> <password> <serial>
Where:<server_host> is saas.tiger-technology.com<cabundle_path> is "C:\ProgramData\Tiger Technology\backup\cert\cacert.pem"<username> is your activation Username<password> is your activation Password<serial> is the ?????- ?????- ?????- ?????- ????? serial key found in the Bridge interface

The command above assumes C: is where the utility was copied. Successful output of
this tool should look like this:220321 14:57:10.424.001;
220321 14:57:10.424.002;
220321 14:57:10.424.003;
220321 14:57:10.435.001;

saas:________:00006C8C; F(01); message: "Successfully updated/activated license"; main()saas:________:00006C8C; F(01); update-url: "https://license.tiger-technology.com"; main()saas:________:00006C8C; F(01); next-fetch: 3600 (seconds); main()saas:________:00006C8C; F(01); ????? - ????? - ????? - ????? -?????; main()

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If you do not receive a successful activation message, please check if the error falls in
one of the following categories:

Failed SSL Connect Error
A “Failed SSL Connect Error” will likely occur due to improper firewall configuration. SaaSCheck.exe will report something like this:For a quick test, you can try disabling Windows Defender on Management Server and Recording
Server. If you are using advanced firewalls, such as Palo Alto Networks, make sure you are notblocking access to encrypted websites (https://saas.tiger-technology.com). Also make sure you
are disabling control of decrypted SSL. These settings can be used to limit or block SSL sessions
based on criteria including the use of unsupported cipher suites or protocol versions, or theavailability of system resources to process decryption.

Peer Certificate Authentication Error
A “Peer Certificate Authentication Error” will likely occur due to missing security certificate.
SaaS-Check.exe will report something like this:Bridge uses cURL to communicate with its licensing server. However, cURL may not
automatically integrate your domain security certificates. If your organization uses domain
security certificates, you will need to follow these steps:
3. In Windows, search for “Manage computer certificates” and open
4. Locate your domain security certificate (most likely stored under Trusted Root
Certification Authorities/Certificates)
a. Look for a certificate that contains the name of your organization (typical)
b. Double click on the certificate
c. Select the “Details” tabd. Click on “Copy to files…”
e. Select “Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER)

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f. Specify file name to export
g. Locate the exported fileh. Open the exported file with Notepadi.

Copy the ENTIRE content of the file

5. Locate the security certificate used by Bridge, and open it in Notepad:
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C:\ProgramData\Tiger Technology\backup\cert\cacert.pem
6. Append the copied certificate to the existing list of certificates by pasting it at the end of
the file. Save the file.

7. Try activating the software again. If none of the above works, send us the output you
are getting when running the saas-check.exe command.

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