Storage Bridge 1.0
Administration Guide

May 6, 2020

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Title:
Software version:
Date:

Storage Bridge Administration Guide
1.0
May 6, 2020

Manual Revision and Control
Revision Record
Date

Description

03 Feb. 2020 Initial Draft

Page

VersionTable of Contents

1

2Introduction to Storage Bridge

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How It Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
XProtect Smart Client Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage Bridge Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage Bridge Plug-in for XProtect Management Client . . . . .
Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client Plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Recording Storage/Archive Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Extension/Disaster Recovery Storage Requirements . . . . . . . .
Extension/Disaster Recovery Storage Prerequisites . . . . . . . .

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Storage Bridge Installation and Activation 17
Install Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Uninstall Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Activate Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3Manage Disaster Recovery

27

Enable Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Disable Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Start/Pause Automatic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitor Data Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Recover Backed Up Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Recover Recording Storage Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Recover Archive Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4Manage Storage Extensions
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Table of Contents

Enable Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Disable a Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Configure Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Start/Pause Automatic Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitor Storage Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitor Recording Storage/Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monitor the Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5Manually Manage Data

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Manually Manage Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Monitor Manual Jobs Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6

XProtect Smart Client Integration

67

Configure XProtect Smart Client Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Enable/Disable the Additional Storage Bridge Timeline Data . . 68
Enable/Disable Automatic Data Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Enable/Disable Manual Data Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Work with the XProtect Smart Client Plug-in. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Storage Bridge Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Work with Nearline or Offline Recordings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

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Table of Contents

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Table of Contents

6Introduction to Storage Bridge

How It Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Storage Bridge Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Storage Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Introduction to Storage Bridge

Congratulations on your purchase of Tiger Technology’s Storage Bridge. Storage Bridge leverages
your Milestone XProtect VMS with flexible disaster recovery capabilities and/or seamlessextension of the recording storage and archive's capacity to an external storage tier. By enabling acloud target, a network share or any local volume to seamlessly integrate into your XProtect storage
infrastructure, Storage Bridge allows for increased maximum recording and archive retention
limits and further ensures your XProtect VMS against data loss.

How It Works
As soon as you install Storage Bridge on the recording server(s) and the XProtect Management
client, you are ready to enable a cloud target, network share or another local volume as an extension
and/or disaster recovery storage of a selected recording storage/archive. For the purpose, you
should simply provide the credentials for access to the selected extension/disaster recovery
storage. As long as Storage Bridge is not paused it immediately begins processing data.
You can enable just extension, just disaster recovery or both on a recording storage/archive. Whenboth are enabled for one and the same recording storage/archive, the same cloud storage provider,network share or local volume is used. You can enable storage extension/disaster recovery on a
cloud target for a given recording storage and storage extension/disaster recovery on a network
share for the same recording server’s archive storage, for example. The two mechanisms are notinterchangeable - enabling disaster recovery does not free space on your recording storage/archiveand data moved to the extension cannot be used for disaster recovery as it does not include system
information, about your recording storage/archive or recording server.

Disaster Recovery
When you enable disaster recovery, Storage Bridge copies all data and metadata from the recording
storage/archive to the specified cloud, network share or local volume, starting with the oldest files.
The time for complete backup depends on the network characteristics and connection speed to thedisaster recovery storage target. You can keep track of the data backup progress in the Storage
Bridge interface.
Storage Bridge disaster recovery is meant to provide a safety net in case of an unforeseen failure ofa recording storage/archive or the recording server itself. Thus, it keeps backed up data on thedisaster recovery storage for as long as you have specified in XProtect. Should a recording storage/archive reach its retention limit, XProtect will start deleting data and Storage Bridge thenautomatically deletes the counterpart from the disaster recovery storage, freeing space for newdata.
In case of a failure of a recording storage/archive, you can immediately begin recovering all backed
up data to a selected location.

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How It Works

Storage Extension
When you extend a recording storage/archive, you simply increase its capacity with the free spaceon the cloud target, network share, or local volume you have added as an extension. You can expand
the capacity of a recording server’s storage with a nearline extension, from which data is retrieved
as soon as the connection speed allows, or an offline extension (currently, Storage Bridge supports
Amazon Glacier, Microsoft Archive and Google Archive), from which data is not retrieved
immediately, but must first be rehydrated to an intermediate tier.
Space on the recording storage/archive is freed by moving recordings to the enabled extension. To
determine when to move recordings from the recording storage/archive to the nearline extension,
Storage Bridge utilizes either the “by size” or the “by age” criteria you specify. With the “by age”
method, data is moved to the nearline extension when it has not been accessed for a specified timeinterval. With the “by size” criteria, Storage Bridge begins moving data when the used space on therecording storage/archive reaches a specified threshold, starting with the least recently accessed
files. To determine when a recording should be moved from the nearline extension to the offline
extension, if enabled, Storage Bridge utilizes the “by age” criteria i.e. moves files, which have notbeen accessed for a specified time period.
Once a file is moved to the storage extension, Storage Bridge replaces it with a stub file. Stub files
look and act exactly like the actual files they replace, but have almost no size and consume almost
no capacity on your local storage/archive. Stub files pointing to actual files on the nearline
extension allow immediate and seamless retrieval when playing back and reviewing timeline video.
Storage Bridge also allows you to manually move data between the local recording storage/archiveand the nearline and offline extensions.
As with disaster recovery, recordings are kept on the nearline/offline extension for as long as theretention limit of the extended recording storage/archive requires. Once the retention limit for a
specific recording is reached, both the stub file and its counterpart on the extension areautomatically deleted.

9Introduction to Storage Bridge

XProtect Smart Client Integration

To facilitate the work of XProtect Smart Client users, the administrator of your surveillance system
can enable or disable the integration of Storage Bridge. When enabled, each XProtect Smart Clientcomputer running the Storage Bridge plug-in sees an additional timeline visually displaying theoriginal recording storage/archive, the nearline extension, or the offline extension as enabled by
Storage Bridge.
Additionally, when the XProtect Smart Client integration is enabled, users can restore recordings
from the nearline or offline extension to the recording storage/archive automatically (whenreviewing the recording, for example) or manually, for a selected timeframe.

Storage Bridge Licensing
In order to benefit from Storage Bridge, you need to activate it on each recording server. For
activation Storage Bridge makes use of a software as a service (SaaS). For more information, refer
to “Activate Storage Bridge” on page 24. The license holds information about the maximum
number of cameras attached to a recording server.
Note: When provided for evaluation purposes, a license may be valid only for a specific amountof time.
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System Requirements

You can keep track of the activation status of a recording server, following the steps on page 25.

System Requirements
To benefit from Storage Bridge in your XProtect VMS, you must install the Storage Bridge plug-inon the XProtect Management Client and Storage Bridge itself on each recording server whose
storage you want to extend or back up. Additionally, to allow XProtect Smart Client integration, youneed to install the Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client plug-in on each computer you want tointegrate.

Storage Bridge
To install the Storage Bridge driver on a recording server whose storage you want to extend and/orback up, it must meet the following minimum requirements:• PC with 64-bit (x64) processor.
Note: Storage Bridge actively uses the APIs provided by the target provider. These APIs may
take significant amount of CPU depending on connection and the amount of data moved. Please,refer to the minimum CPU requirements of your target provider.

• 64-bit Microsoft Windows® 7/Server 2008 R2/Windows® 8/Server 2012/Server 2012 R2/Windows® 10/Server 2016/Server 2019.
Important: Microsoft Windows® 7/Server 2008 R2 computers must run at least Service Pack
1 and have the KB976932 and the KB3033929 security updates installed.

• 4 GB of physical RAM at least.
• 30 MB of available hard-disk space for Storage Bridge installation.
Note: Storage Bridge keeps track of the files it manages in a database, stored in the productinstallation folder. The size of the database grows proportionally to the number of files
managed. For example, if Storage Bridge manages 1 000 000 files, the size of the database isapproximately 100MB. Unless there’s enough free space for the database, Storage Bridge isunable to operate.

• The following TCP ports must not be blocked by the firewall on the Recording server or thecomputer managing the inbound and outbound traffic on your network:• (for communication with 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 communication with SMB network share target) 445 - outbound rule only
• 8536 - inbound and outbound rules• 8537 - inbound and outbound rules
11Introduction to Storage Bridge

Storage Bridge Plug-in for XProtect Management Client
You can install the Storage Bridge XProtect Management Client plug-in on a computer running
XProtect Management Client 2019 R3 or above.
Note: Verify that your computer meets the minimum system requirements of XProtect
Management Client 2019 R3, by visiting the Milestone website at:https://www.milestonesys.com/systemrequirements

Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client Plug-in
You can install the Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client plug-in on a computer running XProtect
Smart Client 2019 R3 or above.
Note: Verify that your computer meets the minimum system requirements of XProtect Smart
Client 2017 R3, by visiting the Milestone website at:https://www.milestonesys.com/systemrequirements

Storage Requirements
Recording Storage/Archive Requirements
Currently, Storage Bridge supports only recording storage/archive, which is mounted on therecording server as a local NTFS volume with Read & Write permissions and on which the System
account is granted Full Control.

Extension/Disaster Recovery Storage Requirements
Currently, Storage Bridge supports the following storage types for extension and/or disasterrecovery:
Note: Refer to “Extension/Disaster Recovery Storage Prerequisites” on page 13 for specificrequirements about each storage type.

• Amazon S3 object storage• Microsoft Azure blob storage• Backblaze B2 cloud storage• Google cloud storage• IBM Cloud object storage• Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage• S3-compatible object storage (using protocol signature version 2)• SMB/CIFS network share
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Storage Requirements• another volume, mounted on the recording server as a local volume with Read & Writepermissions

Extension/Disaster Recovery Storage Prerequisites
Amazon S3 Object Storage• a separate empty bucket for each recording storage/archive you want to extend and/or back up
on Amazon S3 object storage• IAM user credentials for access to the respective bucket on the S3 storage. The access of the IAM
user can be limited to just the S3 bucket, which will be used as extension/disaster recovery location,
but the policy must grant the user full permissions over objects in the bucket, except to delete thebucket itself.
Note: The IAM user does not need to list and have access to other buckets, which will not be usedwith Storage Bridge.
Tip:

You can find instructions about creating buckets and managing the permissions in the
Amazon S3 Console User Guide:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/user-guide/what-is-s3.html
The following bucket policy can be used as a sample for granting the minimum required
permissions for a bucket "bucket-name" to user “bridge_user”:{"Version": "2012-10-17","Id": "Policy1576080704087","Statement": [{"Sid": "Stmt1576080702687","Effect": "Allow","Principal": {"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123157284745:user/bridge-user"},"Action": "s3:*","Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::bucket-name/*"}]}Note: For best practices on securing your AWS resources, refer to the following recommendations
for the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service:https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html

Microsoft Azure Blob Storage• a separate empty container for each recording storage/archive you want to extend and/or back up
on Microsoft Azure blob storage• account name and key with at least write access to the respective container on the Azure Blob
storage
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Introduction to Storage Bridge

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage• create a separate empty bucket for each recording storage/archive you want to extend or back up
on the Backblaze B2 cloud storage• provide Backblaze application key and keyID for access to each respective bucket

Google Cloud Storage• create a separate empty bucket for each recording storage/archive you want to extend and/orback up on the Google Cloud storage• provide a client email and private JSON key of a service account user, which is owner of therespective bucket

IBM Cloud Object Storage• create a separate empty bucket for each recording storage/archive you want to extend and/orback up on the IBM cloud object storage• provide access key ID and secret access key with at least write access to the respective bucket

Wasabi Cloud Object Storage• create a separate empty bucket for each recording storage/archive you want to extend and/orback up on the Wasabi cloud storage
Note: Region specific target URL may be required.

• provide the access and secret keys with at least write access to the respective bucket

S3-compatible Object Storage• a separate empty bucket for each recording /archive storage you want to extend and/or back up
on the S3-compatible object storage• provide access key ID and secret access key, which provide at least write access to the respective
bucket on S3-compatible object storage

Network Share• create an empty folder on the network share for each recording storage/archive you want toextend and/or back up• provide the user name and password of an account that has Read & Write permissions to the
network share

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Storage Requirements

Local NTFS Volume• provide a unique path on the volume (the root of the volume or a subfolder) for each recording
storage/archive you want to extend and/or back up on the local volume
Important: The root of the volume or the subfolder must not contain any other data. Keep inmind that you cannot use one and the same volume as an extension and/or disaster recovery
location to more than one recording storage or archive.

• make sure that the volume is mounted as a local volume with Read & Write permissions on therecording server

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Introduction to Storage Bridge

16

Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

Install Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Uninstall Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Activate Storage Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

Install Storage Bridge
To fully benefit from Storage Bridge on your Milestone XProtect VMS, you should install thefollowing components:• Storage Bridge - the primary Storage Bridge application must be installed on each recording
server to provide all Disaster Recovery and Storage Extension functionality.
• Storage Bridge XProtect Management Client plug-in - on the XProtect Management Client inorder to enable and configure storage extension and/or disaster recovery on a recording server’s
recording storage/archive.
• Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client plug-in - on each XProtect Smart Client computer, todisplay additional timeline data, showing the exact location of recordings. It also allows users toautomatically or manually retrieve recordings from the nearline or offline extension.
Note: Even if your XProtect VMS uses a Single Computer installation i.e. all XProtect components
are installed on one and the same machine, to benefit from the Storage Bridge workflow you must
install both Storage Bridge and the Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Management Client andoptionally the Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Smart Client on the XProtect VMS computer.

To install Storage Bridge on a recording server:
1. Double-click the Storage Bridge installation file.
Note: If the setup wizard detects that prerequisites needed to run Storage Bridge are notinstalled on the computer, click next to install them.

2. In the Storage Bridge installation wizard, click Next.

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Install Storage Bridge

3. Accept the terms of the software license agreement and click Next.

4. Make sure the “Bridge for Recording Server” check box and the check boxes of all othercomponents that will be running on the same computer are selected, then click Next

Important: If the recording server does not run XProtect Management Client and/or XProtect
Smart Client, clear the check boxes of the corresponding components and install themseparately, following the instructions below.

5. When the installation is complete, click Finish.
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Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

To install the Storage Bridge plug-in on the XProtect Management Client:
1. Double-click the Storage Bridge installation file.
Note: If the setup wizard detects that prerequisites needed to run the Storage Bridge XProtect
Smart Client plug-in are not installed on the computer, click next to install them.

2. Accept the terms of the software license agreement and click Next.

3. In the Storage Bridge installation wizard, click Next.

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Install Storage Bridge

4. Make sure the “Bridge for Management Client” check box and the check boxes of all othercomponents that will be running on the same computer are selected, then click Next

Important: If the XProtect Management Client computer does not run XProtect Smart Clientand is not set up as a recording server, clear the check boxes of the corresponding components
and install them separately.

5. When the installation is complete, click Finish.

To install the Storage Bridge plug-in on the XProtect Smart Client:
1. Double-click the Storage Bridge installation file.
Note: If the setup wizard detects that prerequisites needed to run the Storage Bridge XProtect
Smart Client plug-in are not installed on the computer, click next to install them.

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Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

2. Accept the terms of the software license agreement and click Next.

3. In the Storage Bridge installation wizard, click Next.

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Uninstall Storage Bridge

4. Make sure the “Bridge for Smart Client” check box and the check boxes of all other componentsthat will be running on the same computer are selected, then click Next

Important: If the computer running XProtect Smart Client does not run XProtect Management
Client and is not set up as a recording server, clear the check boxes of the corresponding
components and install them separately.

5. When the installation is complete, click Finish.

Uninstall Storage Bridge
You can uninstall Storage Bridge and any of its plug-ins at any time.
When you uninstall Storage Bridge from a recording server, even if the extension/disaster recovery
is not disabled, no further data will be backed up/moved and you will not be able to access already
moved data from the extension or recover data from the disaster recovery storage through yourXProtect VMS.
On the other hand, if you configure extension/disaster recovery in the XProtect Management
Client plug-in and then uninstall it, Storage Bridge will continue to back up/move data from therecording storage/archive to its extension/disaster recovery storage, but you will not be able tochange the configuration, to manually move or back up data and to recover data in case of a failureof the recording server or its storage, until you install the XProtect Management Client plug-in
again.

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Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

Uninstalling the Storage Bridge plug-in from the XProtect Smart Client will simply hide theadditional timeline data displaying the exact location of recordings and users will not be able tomanually retrieve data from the nearline/offline extension.
To uninstall Storage Bridge from the recording server:
1. In Control Panel, go to Programs and Features.
2. Right-click Storage Bridge and select Uninstall.
3. When prompted to confirm that you want to remove Storage Bridge from the computer, clickYes.
To uninstall the Storage Bridge from XProtect Management Client plug-in:
1. In Control Panel, go to Programs and Features.
2. Right-click Bridge for Management Client and select Uninstall.
3. When prompted to confirm that you want to remove the Storage Bridge XProtect Management

Client plug-in from the computer, click Yes.
To uninstall the Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Client plug-in:
1. In Control Panel, go to Programs and Features.
2. Right-click Bridge for Smart Client and select Uninstall.
3. When prompted to confirm that you want to remove the Storage Bridge XProtect Smart Clientfrom the computer, click Yes.

Activate Storage Bridge
You can activate Storage Bridge using a software as a service (SaaS) license. You need to activate
the product on each recording server, whose recording storage/archive you want to extend or backup. To enable more features once you have activated the product, simply repeat the activation
procedure again.

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Activate Storage Bridge

To view the activation status of Storage Bridge on a recording server:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose activation status

you to view.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

3. The License info pane displays the type of license, your user name, serial key, the version of the

product, the number of cameras per week and the activated features.

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Storage Bridge Installation and Activation

To activate a Storage Bridge on a recording server:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, which you want toactivate.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

3. Under Change license, enter the username and password for your software subscription andthen click Apply.

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Manage Disaster Recovery

Enable Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Start/Pause Automatic Operations . . . . . . . . . . 32
Monitor Data Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Manage Disaster Recovery

To ensure against data loss, you can configure Storage Bridge to automatically copy all data andmetadata from it to a disaster recovery target. For this purpose you need to enable a cloud target,
network share, or local volume as your disaster recovery storage following the steps in “Enable
Disaster Recovery” on page 28.
The time for full backup depends on the network characteristics and connection speed to thedisaster recovery storage. You can keep track of the progress of data backup following the steps in“Monitor Data Backup” on page 34.
Storage Bridge disaster recovery is meant to provide a safety net in case of an unforeseen failure ofa recording server’s recording storage/archive. In case of a failure, you can immediately begin
recovering all backed up data by following the steps in “Recover Backed Up Data” on page 36.

Enable Disaster Recovery
To enable disaster recovery, you should simply provide the credentials for access to the cloudstorage, network share or local volume, which will be used for backing data up. If a nearline/offline
extension is already enabled for the selected recording storage or archive, the same cloud storage,
network share or local volume is also used for disaster recovery and there is no need to provide thecredentials for access to the disaster recovery storage.
Important: Storage Bridge does not allow you to use the same bucket/container (on cloudstorage) or folder (on network share or local volume) as a disaster recovery location of more than
one recording storage/archive.

To change the type of disaster recovery storage or the credentials for access to it, you need to firstdisable disaster recovery, following the steps in “Disable Disaster Recovery” on page 30 and thenenable it again. Keep in mind that if you want to change the type of disaster recovery storage or thecredentials for access to it, and a nearline/offline extension is also enabled, you must first disable
the extension(s), following the steps in “Disable a Storage Extension” on page 48.

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Enable Disaster Recovery

To enable disaster recovery:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Disaster Recovery under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive you want to back up.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. Next to the recording storage

or the archive

pane, click Enable.

Note: If nearline/offline extension is already enabled for the selected recording storage/archive, the same storage will be used for disaster recovery.

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Manage Disaster Recovery

4. In the Storage Target dialog, do the following:• Under Targets, select the type of the disaster recovery storage.
• Fill in the details for access to the selected disaster recovery storage.
Important: Never provide the credentials of your root user.

• (cloud storage only) Select whether to use secure transfer of data, select the bucket/container,
which should be used as an actual extension and then click OK.
Note: If the account you have specified for access to the disaster recovery storage cannot list
all buckets/containers, you must enter the name of the bucket/container manually.

• (network share only) Enter the name of the folder on the network share, to which data fromthe recording storage/archive will be backed up and then click OK.
• (local storage only) Browse to and select the folder on the local volume, to which data from therecording storage/archive will be backed up and then click OK.
Important: By default, all automatic Storage Bridge operations are initially paused. To let
Storage Bridge begin automatically back up data, follow the instructions in “Start/Pause
Automatic Operations” on page 32.

Disable Disaster Recovery
When you disable a recording storage/archive’s disaster recovery storage, Storage Bridge stops
copying data to it both automatically and manually and all already copied data cannot be recovered30

Enable Disaster Recovery

in case of a recording storage/archive failure. Additionally, once you disable disaster recovery, dataon it is no longer automatically deleted once the retention limit set for the respective recording
storage/archive is reached.
Important: If the recording storage/archive whose disaster recovery you disable also has
nearline/offline extension enabled, Storage Bridge stops backing up data, but the storage
extension mechanism continues operation. You are also still able to manually move data to andfrom the extension, following the steps in “Manually Manage Data” on page 61.

If you want to disable disaster recovery in order to change the credentials for access to the disasterrecovery storage, make sure the new credentials provide access to data already backed up.
Otherwise it may remain unavailable for recovery in your XProtect VMS. If you want to disable
disaster recovery in order to change the type of disaster recovery storage, it is advisable to firstmigrate all data from your current disaster recovery storage.
To disable disaster recovery:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Disaster Recovery under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive’s disaster recovery you want to disable.

31Manage Disaster Recovery

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the recording storage

or the archive

pane, click Disable.

Start/Pause Automatic Operations
You can pause and start all automatic operations for a specific recording storage/archive at any
time. It’s important to keep in mind that pausing/starting automatic operations concerns bothbacking up data and moving data to the extension if extension is enabled for the same recording
storage/archive. Additionally, even if automatic operations are started for the disaster recovery
mechanism, but then you enable storage extension for the same recording storage/archive, by
default the automatic operations will be paused, until you manually start them again.
While automatic operations are paused, Storage Bridge stops backing up data to the disasterrecovery storage, but already backed up data can be recovered in case of a recording storage/archive failure.
Once you start automatic operations, Storage Bridge immediately resumes processing the queuewith files scheduled to be backed up.

32

Start/Pause Automatic Operations

To start/pause automatic operations for a recording storage/archive:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Disaster Recovery under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, for whose recording

storage or archive you want to start or pause the automatic operations.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the upper right corner of the recording storage

or the archive

pane, do one of thefollowing:• Switch the setting to Active
and when prompted, confirm that you want to start
automatic Storage Bridge operations.
33

Manage Disaster Recovery• Switch the setting to Inactive
and when prompted, confirm that you want to pause
automatic Storage Bridge operations.

Monitor Data Backup
The interface of the Storage Bridge XProtect Management Client plug-in provides you with all
information necessary to keep track of the status of the recording storage/archive, the disasterrecovery storage and the data backup progress.
To view information about the recording storage/archive(s) of a recording server running Storage
Bridge and about their disaster recovery storage, navigate to the Disaster Recovery page:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage/archive and data backup you want to monitor.

34

Monitor Data Backup

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storages
selected recording server.

and archives

configured for the

The recording storage
or archive
pane, gives you information about its mount path on therecording server as well as the status of the recording storage/archive:
The recording storage or archive is available and all its
data is fully backed up.

The recording storage or archive is available and dataon it is still being backed up.
Note: You can keep track of the percentage ofbacked up data in the progress bar below therecording storage/archive’s pane.

The recording storage or archive is not available - it
may have been dismounted from the recording server
because it has suffered a failure. You can recover alldata backed up from this recording storage or archive,
following the steps in “Recover Backed Up Data” onpage 36.

35

Manage Disaster Recovery

The disaster recovery storage pane gives you information about the storage type, the name of thecontainer in which data is backed up and the size of the total data already backed up.

You can view the total size of camera data, which needs to be backed up in the header of a recording
storage/archive and keep track of the percentage of already backed up data in the progress bar
below.
Note: Keep in mind that if cameras are actively recording on the recording storage and data is
being constantly sent to the archive, the percentage of backed up data may never reach 100%.

Recover Backed Up Data
The procedures for recovering data differ depending on the XProtect VMS component, which has
failed - the recording storage or the archive.

Recover Recording Storage Data
To recover backed up data from a failed recording storage using Storage Bridge, you need toprepare an empty folder on an NTFS volume, which is locally mounted on the same recording
server and attach all devices previously attached to the failed recording storage to the new one.
Once you perform the data recovery procedure, all backed up data will quickly become available
from the new recording storage in the form of stub files. You can then retrieve them on demand, bysimply reviewing them in the XProtect Smart Client, or manually by initiating a retrieval job fromthe disaster recovery storage.

36

Recover Backed Up Data

To recover a failed recording storage’s data:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage/archive and data backup you want to monitor.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage
and archives
configured for theselected recording server. In the case of a failure, a warning icon is displayed in the pane.

3. Next to the failed recording storage pane, click Recover.

4. In the dialog, which opens, browse to and select the folder on a locally mounted NTFS volume,

which will be added as an additional recording storage and to which backed up data will berecovered.
5. Once all data is recovered to the new recording storage in the form of stub files, attach allcameras previously associated with the failed recording storage to the new one.
6. (optional, if you want to replace the recovered stub files with the actual recordings) In the Site

Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage Bridge.

37

Manage Disaster Recovery

7. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server for the recording storage

data you have recovered.

8. Under the Jobs pane, click Create new.

38

Recover Backed Up Data

9. In the Job parameters pane, do the following:• In the Operation drop-down box, select “Move data to be available locally”.
• Under Cameras, select the camera(s), attached to the new recording storage.
• Select the start and end period of the recordings in the respective boxes.
Tip: Clicknext to the From or To box, to display the Calendar and more easily navigate to
the respective date or enter the respective start/end time.

10. Click Submit job.

The job appears on top of the jobs queue pane. You can monitor its status, following the steps in“Monitor Manual Jobs Status” on page 65. Once all data is retrieved from the disaster recovery
storage, you will be able to normally work with it in XProtect Smart Client.

Recover Archive Data
To recover backed up data from a failed archive using Storage Bridge, you need to add a newrecording storage to the recording server whose archive has failed. Once you perform the data
recovery procedure, a new archive for this new recording storage will automatically be created on
the same locally mounted NTFS volume. All backed up data will become available in the form ofstub files. Data can be retrieved automatically simply by reviewing it in the timeline or manually bycreating a retrieval job from the disaster recovery storage.
39

Manage Disaster Recovery

To recover a failed archive’s data:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server for the archive you want torecover.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storages
and archives
configured for theselected recording server. In the case of a failure, a warning icon is displayed in the archive’spane.

3. Next to the failed archive’s pane, click Recover.

4. In the dialog, which opens, browse to and select the path to the newly created recording storage,

then click OK.
Storage Bridge begins recovering all backed up data to the new archive in the form of stub files.
5. (optional, if you want to replace the recovered stub files with the actual recordings) In the Site

Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage Bridge.

40

Recover Backed Up Data

6. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

data you have recovered.

7. Under the Jobs pane, click Create new.

41

Manage Disaster Recovery

8. In the Job parameters pane, do the following:• In the Operation drop-down box, select “Move data to be available locally”.
• Under Cameras, select the camera(s), attached to the recording storage of the failed archive.
• Select the start and end period of the recordings in the respective boxes.
Tip: Clicknext to the From or To box, to display the Calendar and more easily navigate to
the respective date or enter the respective start/end time.

9. Click Submit job.

The job appears on top of the jobs queue pane. You can monitor its status, following the steps in“Monitor Manual Jobs Status” on page 65. Once all data is retrieved from the disaster recovery
storage, you will be able to normally review it in XProtect Smart Client.

42

Manage Storage Extensions

Enable Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Configure Storage Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Start/Pause Automatic Operations . . . . . . . . . . 55
Monitor Storage Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Manage Storage Extensions

When you extend the recording storage or archive of a recording server, you simply increase its
capacity with the free space on the cloud storage, network share or local volume you have added as
an extension. You can expand the capacity of a recording server’s storage with a nearline extension,from which data is transparently retrieved as soon as the connection speed allows, or an offline
extension, from which data is not retrieved immediately, but must first be rehydrated to anintermediate tier.
Once the retention limit you have specified for the respective recording storage/archive is reached,data is automatically deleted from it and from its nearline/offline extension to make way for newly
recorded data.
To extend the recording storage or archive of a recording server, you should do the following:• enable the storage extension (see “Enable Storage Extension” on page 44).
• configure what data should be automatically moved to the extension and made accessible fromthere (see “Configure Storage Extension” on page 50).
• turn on automatic Storage Bridge management of data between the extended recording storage/archive and the extension (see “Start/Pause Automatic Operations” on page 55).

Enable Storage Extension
To enable an extension, you should simply provide the credentials for access to the cloud storage,
network share or local volume, which will be used as an extension. If disaster recovery is alreadyenabled for the selected recording storage or archive, the same cloud storage, network share or
local volume is used as a nearline extension. Thus, there is no need to provide the credentials foraccess to the extension, but simply configure the extension and enable automatic Storage Bridge
operations on it.
The offline extension can only be on the same storage as the nearline extension and uses the same
credentials for access. You cannot enable an offline extension of a recording storage/archive, which
does not have a nearline extension already enabled. You also cannot enable an offline extension ofa recording storage, which has an archive, as moving groomed data to the archive would require
unnecessary retrieval of data from the offline extension.
Important: Storage Bridge does not allow you to use the same bucket/container (on cloudstorage) or folder (on network share or local volume) as an extension of more than one recording
storage/archive.

To change the type of storage extension or the credentials for access to it, you need to first disable
the current extension, following the steps in “Disable a Storage Extension” on page 48 and thenenable it anew. Keep in mind that if you want to change the type of storage extension or thecredentials for access to it of a recording storage/archive, which also has Storage Bridge disasterrecovery enabled, you must first disable disaster recovery too, following the steps on page 30.
44

Enable Storage Extension

To enable a nearline extension:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive you want to extend.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed and/or activated.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storages/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the Nearline pane of the recording storage

or the archive

you want to extend, click

Enable Extension.
Note: If disaster recovery is already enabled for the selected recording storage/archive, thesame storage will be used as nearline extension. To enable the extension, in the dialog which
opens, configure either by size or by age criteria for moving data, following the steps in“Configure Storage Extension” on page 50.

45

Manage Storage Extensions

4. In the dialog, which opens, do the following:• Under Targets, select the storage type of the extension you want to enable.
• Fill in the details for access to the selected extension.
Important: Never provide the credentials of your root user.

• (cloud storage only) Select whether to use secure transfer of data, select the bucket/container,
which should be used as an actual extension and then click OK.
Note: If the account you have specified for access to the extension cannot list all buckets/
containers, you must enter the name of the bucket/container manually.

• (network share only) Enter the name of the folder on the network share, to which data fromthe recording storage/archive will be moved and then click OK.
• (local storage only) Browse to and select the folder on the local volume, to which data from therecording storage/archive will be moved and then click OK.
Until you configure the extension, Storage Bridge uses the default parameter - data is
automatically moved to the nearline extension and is made accessible from there, when the used
space on your recording storage/archive reaches 95%. You can change this default parameter,
following the steps in “Configure Storage Extension” on page 50.
Important: By default, all automatic Storage Bridge operations are initially paused and you
can move data to the nearline extension only manually, following the steps in “Manually Manage
Data” on page 61. To let Storage Bridge automatically move data, follow the steps in “Start/
Pause Automatic Operations” on page 55.
46

Enable Storage Extension

To enable an offline extension:
Important: You cannot enable an offline extension of a recording storage/archive, which does
not have a nearline extension enabled. Additionally, you cannot enable an offline extension of arecording storage, which has a Milestone archive enabled.

1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive you want to extend.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the Offline pane of the recording storage

or the archive

you want to extend, click

Enable Extension.

47

Manage Storage Extensions

Note: The button is inactive, if no nearline extension on a supported cloud target is enabled or
if you attempt to enable an offline extension of a recording storage, which has a Milestonearchive.

4. (Amazon S3 only) Select the archive retrieval option, choosing between Expedited, Standard or

Bulk.
5. (Azure only) Select whether files from the offline extension should be rehydrated to theStandard or the High tier.
6. In the Offline Extension Configuration dialog, click OK.

Until you configure the parameters for automatically moving data to the offline extension,
Storage Bridge uses the default parameter - data is made accessible from there, when it has notbeen accessed for 1 day on your recording storage/archive. You can change this default
parameter, following the steps in “Configure Storage Extension” on page 50.
Important: By default, all automatic Storage Bridge operations are initially paused and you
can move data to the nearline extension only manually, following the steps in “Manually Manage
Data” on page 61. To let Storage Bridge automatically move data, follow the steps in “Start/
Pause Automatic Operations” on page 55.

Disable a Storage Extension
When you disable a recording storage/archive’s extension, Storage Bridge stops moving data to it
both automatically and manually and all already moved data is accessible only directly from theextension i.e. cannot be retrieved through your XProtect VMS. Thus, if you attempt to review
footage from the extension using XProtect Smart Client, for example, the operation will fail.
Additionally, once you disable the extension, data on it is no longer automatically deleted once theretention limit set for the respective recording storage/archive is reached.
Important: If the recording storage/archive whose extension you disable also has disasterrecovery enabled, Storage Bridge stops moving data to the extension only automatically, but thedisaster recovery mechanism keeps on copying data based on the criteria you have specified andyou are still able to move data to and from the extension manually, following the steps in “ManuallyManage Data” on page 61.

48

Enable Storage Extension

You can disable just the offline extension and leave the nearline extension active. But if you disable
the nearline extension, the offline extension is automatically disabled too.
If you want to disable a storage extension, in order to change the credentials for access to it, makesure the new credentials provide access to data already moved there, otherwise it may remain
inaccessible in your XProtect VMS. If you want to disable the extension in order to change the typeof storage used as an extension, it is advisable to first migrate all data from your current extension
to the new one.
To disable an extension:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive’s extension you want to disable.

49

Manage Storage Extensions

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed or activated.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the Nearline or Offline pane of the recording storage

or the archive, click Disable

Extension.

Configure Storage Extension
To configure a storage extension means to specify the criteria based on which Storage Bridge
automatically moves data from the recording storage/archive to the extension. On both nearline
and offline extensions you can instruct Storage Bridge to move recorded data to the extension using
the “by age” criteria. On the nearline extension you can also utilize the “by size” criteria.
by age — Storage Bridge moves to the nearline or offline extension recordings that have not be
accessed on your recording storage/archive for a specified time interval. Once the “by age” interval
is reached for a specific recording, Storage Bridge copies it to the respective extension and thenreplaces it on the recording storage/archive with a stub file, pointing to the copy on the extension
and allowing it to be transparently retrieved upon request from the nearline extension or
rehydrated from the offline extension.
by size — Storage Bridge moves recorded data to the nearline or offline extension, when the used
space on the extended recording storage/archive reaches a specified threshold. Once the thresholdis reached, Storage Bridge begins copying data to the extension, starting with the least recently50Configure Storage Extension

accessed files. Once a recording is copied to the extension, Storage Bridge replaces it on therecording storage/archive with a stub file. The stub file points to the copy on the extension,
allowing it to be transparently retrieved upon request from the nearline extension or rehydrated
from the offline extension.
By default, nearline extensions use the “by size” method with a used space threshold of 95%. By
default, files are moved from the nearline to the offline extension, when they have not beenaccessed for 1 day. You can change the configuration of the nearline and offline extensions at any
time with changes applied immediately.
Additionally, when configuring an Amazon S3 or Azure offline extension, you can configure thefollowing options:Amazon S3 — change the archive retrieval option, choosing between Expedited, Standard or
Bulk.
Azure — change the rehydration priority for files on the offline extension, choosing between
Standard or High.
To configure a nearline extension:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive you want to extend.

51

Manage Storage Extensions

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the Nearline pane of the recording storage

or the archive, click Configure nearline

extension.
Note: The button is inactive, if the nearline extension has not been enabled.

4. In the Extension Configuration dialog, do one of the following:• Click “By age” and specify for how long a recording on the recording storage/archive should
not have been accessed for Storage Bridge to move it to the extension.

52

Configure Storage Extension• Click “By size” and specify the percent of used capacity on the recording storage/archive, which
when reached triggers Storage Bridge to move recordings to the extension.

5. In the Extension Configuration dialog, click OK.

To configure an offline extension:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive you want to extend.

53

Manage Storage Extensions

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed or activated.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the Offline pane of the recording storage

or the archive, click Configure offline

extension.
Note: The button is inactive, if no offline extension has been enabled.

4. In the Extension Configuration dialog, specify for how long a recording on the recording

storage/archive should not have been accessed for Storage Bridge to move it to the offline
extension.

5. (optional) Specify additional options for Amazon S3 or Azure offline extension:

54

Start/Pause Automatic Operations• (Amazon S3 offline extension only) Change the archive retrieval option, choosing between
Expedited, Standard or Bulk.
• (Azure offline extension only) Change whether files from the offline extension should be
rehydrated using Standard or High priority.
6. In the Offline Extension Configuration dialog, click OK.

Start/Pause Automatic Operations
You can pause and start all automatic Storage Bridge operations for a specific recording storage/archive. It’s important to keep in mind that pausing/starting automatic operations concerns bothmoving data to the extension as well as backing up data, if disaster recovery is enabled for the same
recording storage/archive. Additionally, even if automatic Storage Bridge operations are started
for the extension, but later on you enable disaster recovery for the same recording storage/archive,
by default the automatic operations will be paused, until you manually start them again.
While automatic operations are paused, Storage Bridge stops automatically moving any data to theextension, but already moved data remains accessible from the extension, when you want to review
it in the XProtect Smart Client, for example. While automatic Storage Bridge operations are paused
for a recording storage/archive, you can also manually move data to the extension, following thesteps in “Manually Manage Data” on page 61.
Once you resume automatic operations, Storage Bridge immediately begins parsing data on yourrecording storage/archive and resumes processing the queue with files scheduled to be moved tothe extension.
To start/pause automatic operations for a recording storage/archive:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, for whose recording

storage or archive you want to start or pause the automatic operations.

55

Manage Storage Extensions

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storage/archives configured for the selectedrecording server.

3. In the upper right corner of the recording storage

or the archive

pane, do one of thefollowing:• Switch the setting to Active
and when prompted, confirm that you want to start
automatic Storage Bridge operations.
• Switch the setting to Inactive
and when prompted, confirm that you want to pause
automatic Storage Bridge operations.

Monitor Storage Extensions
The interface of the Storage Bridge XProtect Management Client plug-in provides you with all
information necessary to keep track of the status of the recording storage/archive its extension(s)and the distribution of data between them.
To view information about the recording storage/archive(s) of a recording server running Storage
Bridge and about their extensions, navigate to the Extensions page:56

Monitor Storage Extensions

1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Extension under Storage Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage/archive and extension you want to monitor.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

The Storage Bridge plug-in lists all recording storages
selected recording server.

and archives

configured for the57

Manage Storage Extensions

Monitor Recording Storage/Archive
The pane of a recording storage

or an archive, gives you the following information:

Location — the path on the recording server, on which the respective recording storage/archive
is mounted
Camera data — the total size of recordings accessible directly from the recording storage/archive
Tip:

You can view the total size of camera data both on the recording storage/archive and on
any of the extensions in the Camera data on target field above each listing.

Percentage — the percentage of recordings accessible directly from the recording storage/archive
Additionally, the color label below a recording storage/archive’s pane shows you its status on therecording server:
the recording storage/archive is available
the recording storage/archive is not available to
the recording server

Monitor the Extensions
The panes of the nearline and the offline extensions, displayed next to the pane of the respective
recording storage/archive, give you the following information:

Extension storage type — the pane displays the logo of the storage provider, on which theextension is locatedBucket/Container/Folder — displays the name of the bucket/container/folder, to whichdata from the recording storage/archive is moved58

Monitor Storage Extensions

Camera data — the total size of recordings accessible only from the nearline/offline extension
Tip:

You can view the total size of camera data both on the recording storage/archive and on
any of the extensions in the Camera data on target field above each listing.

Percentage — the percentage of recordings accessible only from the nearline/offline extension
Note: Keep in mind that the percentage may never reach 100%, if the cameras recording on therespective recording storage are continuously writing data on it.

Additionally, the color label below the nearline/offline extension’s pane shows you its status:- automatic Storage Bridge operations are started
for the nearline extension- automatic Storage Bridge operations are started
for the offline extension- the nearline/offline extension is either not
enabled or automatic Storage Bridge operations for the extension are paused and you can movedata to it only manually59

Manage Storage Extensions

60

Manually Manage Data

Manually Manage Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Monitor Manual Jobs Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Manually Manage Data

Using the Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Management Client, you can manually move data
between a selected recording storage or archive and its nearline/offline extension. This way you canmove data, which does not yet meet the criteria you have specified for the extension. You canperform manual operations for data recorded by all cameras on a selected recording server or justfor a selected one. You can also limit the number of recordings you perform the desired manual
operation on for a selected time interval only.
Additionally, the manual operations are indispensable for Storage Bridge’s disaster recovery
mechanism. When you recover backed up data, it is retrieved from the disaster recovery storage inthe form of stub files. To retrieve the actual recordings, you should either review them in the
XProtect Smart Client (on-demand data retrieval) or by executing a manual data retrieval job,
following the steps in “Recover Backed Up Data” on page 36.
You can perform manual data operations even if automatic Storage Bridge operations for therecording storage or archive have been paused. Manually initiated operations take precedence overautomatic operations, i.e. until the manual jobs queue is processed, Storage Bridge does not
perform any automatic operations.

Manually Manage Data
To manually manage data, you must create a separate job for each of the following operations:move data to be available locally - retrieve back selected data from the extension and make it
accessible directly from the respective recording storage or archive. You can use this operation toactually recover backed up data, in case of disaster.
Important: Keep in mind that the operation requires enough free space on your recording
storage/archive to accommodate all data retrieved from the extension.

bring back offline data - rehydrate recordings from the offline extension of a recording storage
or archive and make them accessible from the nearline extension, which allows their automatic
retrieval upon request from an XProtect Smart Client computer as soon as the connection speed
allows.
Note: If you execute this job for recordings which are not replaced by stub files on the recording
storage/the archive i.e. data is still available locally, Storage Bridge will move these files to thenearline tier of your cloud target, but their status will remain online until they are replaced withstubs, based on the nearline policy.

make data nearline to free local storage space - move data to the nearline extension and replace
it on the recording storage/archive with stub files, which point to the copies on the nearline
extension, but take no space on your local storage.
make data offline - move data from the nearline extension to the offline extension.

62

Manually Manage Data

Important: If you select to perform the above operation for recordings that are still stored onyour recording storage or archive, they will first be moved to the nearline extension and only afterthat to the offline extension.

Note: If some data for the specified time period does not yet meet the criteria for space
reclaiming, it will remain accessible locally and will be reported as offline only after it is replaced
by stub files.

You can create as many manual operation jobs as you wish. Once you create a job, it isautomatically added to the end of the jobs queue. Storage Bridge processes the queue one job at atime, starting with the first in line. You can monitor the jobs queue, following the steps in “Monitor
Manual Jobs Status” on page 65.
To create a manual data operation job:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose recording storage

or archive data you want to manually manage.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

63

Manually Manage Data

3. Under the Jobs pane, click Create new.

4. In the Job parameters pane, do the following:• In the Operation drop-down box, select the type of operation.

64

Monitor Manual Jobs Status• Under Cameras, select the camera(s), whose recordings you want to manually manage.
• Select the start and end time of the recordings in the respective boxes.
Tip: Clicknext to the From or To box, to display the Calendar and more easily navigate to
the respective date or enter the respective start/end time.

5. Click Submit job.
6. When prompted, confirm that you want to manually move the specified amount of data between

the recording storage/the archive and the nearline or offline extension.
The job appears on top of the jobs queue pane. You can monitor its status, following the steps in“Monitor Manual Jobs Status” on page 65.

Monitor Manual Jobs Status
The Jobs queue pane displays the list of all jobs, arranged in descending order starting with themost newly added job. If you have allowed users to manually retrieve footage from the nearline/
offline extension through the XProtect Smart Client plug-in, the list also includes jobs initiatedthere.

The listing of each job gives you the following information:• type of the manual operation• date and time the job has been submitted• status of the job• Completed - the job has been successfully completed

65

Manually Manage Data

• Pending - Storage Bridge is still processing the manual operation job and may display a
progress bar• Completed (failed) - Storage Bridge’s attempt to perform the manual operation has failed. The
reason for the failed operation may be temporary inaccessibility of the extension, for example.
• source - whether the manual operation job has been submitted through the XProtect
Management Client plug-in or through the XProtect Smart Client plug-in.
Note: To clear the jobs queue, you must restart the respective recording server.

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Configure XProtect Smart Client Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Work with the XProtect Smart Client Plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

XProtect Smart Client Integration

The Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Smart Client provides you with the following features:• additional timeline data that displays the origin of the recording you are reviewing - local, thenearline extension or the offline extension.
• automatic retrieval of recordings from the extension - allows you to retrieve camera in real-time
while reviewing it on the timeline.
• manual retrieval of recordings from the extension - allows you to manually retrieve camera datafrom the extension to the recording storage/archive for a selected time interval.
An administrator of your XProtect VMS can enable or disable any of these features for a specificrecording server in the Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Management Client. For more details,
refer to “Configure XProtect Smart Client Integration” on page 68.
For more information about using the above options on an XProtect Smart Client computer, refer
to “Work with the XProtect Smart Client Plug-in” on page 71.

Configure XProtect Smart Client Integration
In the Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Management Client, you can enable or disable any of theXProtect Smart Client integration features for a specific recording server. Enabling or disabling anyof the features is valid for all XProtect Smart Client computers reviewing footage from the same
recording server.

Enable/Disable the Additional Storage Bridge Timeline
Data
When the Storage Bridge additional timeline data is enabled, it appears right below the default
XProtect Smart Client timeline on the Playback tab. It changes color depending on the origin of therecording currently being reviewed indicating to users if the data is from the nearline or offline
extension. When manual retrieval of data from the extension is also allowed, Storage Bridge allows
users to easily select the section of the recording they want to retrieve locally or to manuallyrehydrate from the offline extension.
When the additional Storage Bridge timeline data is disabled, but automatic retrieval from theextension is enabled, you can still review footage originating from the nearline extension.
By default, the additional Storage Bridge timeline data is enabled on each recording server.

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To enable/disable the additional Storage Bridge timeline data:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose XProtect Smart

Client integration features you wan to manage.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

3. Under Smart Client Settings, do one of the following:• Select the “Timeline Color Monitoring” check box, to allow displaying the additional Storage
Bridge timeline data on each XProtect Smart Client reviewing footage from this recording server
and then click Apply.
• Clear the “Timeline Color Monitoring” check box, to hide the additional Storage Bridge
timeline data on each XProtect Smart Client reviewing footage from this recording server andthen click Apply.

Enable/Disable Automatic Data Retrieval
When automatic data retrieval is enabled for a recording server, a user reviewing recordings moved
to the nearline extension automatically triggers the retrieval of the currently reviewed data on therecording storage/the archive. The retrieval of data from the nearline extension is typically in realtime as determined by the network and connection characteristics. To retrieve footage from theoffline extension, you must first manually rehydrated it to the nearline extension. Storage Bridge
is able to partially retrieve data to efficiently play timeline video during reviewing operations.
When automatic data retrieval is disabled, should a user attempt to review footage stored either on
the nearline or the offline extension, the XProtect Smart Client player will report that the recordingis nearline or offline and will not play it.
By default, the automatic retrieval of data is enabled on each recording server.
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To enable/disable automatic data retrieval:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose XProtect Smart

Client integration features you wan to manage.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

3. Under Smart Client Settings, do one of the following:• Select the “Automatic Timeline Restore” check box, to let Storage Bridge retrieve data run time
while users review it, and then click Apply.
• Clear the “Automatic Timeline Restore” check box, to prevent users from retrieving data run
time when they attempt to review it, and then click Apply.

Enable/Disable Manual Data Retrieval
When you enable manual data retrieval from the extension, you allow users on XProtect Smart
Client to retrieve camera recordings within a selected period from the extension to the recording
storage/archive. The operation is identical to manual data retrieve operation initiated in the
Storage Bridge plug-in for XProtect Management Client and appears as a job in the manual
operation jobs queue.
Enabling manual data retrieval may be especially useful, when automatic retrieval is disabled, but
you still want to allow XProtect Smart Client users to be able to work with recordings available only
on the extension.
Note: Manual data retrieval operations retrieve all data for the specified time interval and not justthe frames currently being played as is with automatic retrieval of recordings.

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When both automatic and manual data retrieval are disabled, should a user attempt to review arecording stored either on the nearline or the offline extension, the XProtect Smart Client player
reports that the recording is nearline or offline and does not play it.
By default, the manual retrieval of data is enabled on each recording server.
To enable/disable manual data retrieval:
1. In the Site Navigation of XProtect Management Client, click Administration under Storage

Bridge.

2. In the right pane under Recording Servers, click the recording server, whose XProtect Smart

Client integration features you wan to manage.

Note: If a recording server is missing from the list, it is either not online or does not have
Storage Bridge installed.

3. Under Smart Client Settings, do one of the following:• Select the “Manual Restore Panel” check box, to display the manual restore panel in XProtect
Smart Client and allow users to manually retrieve data, then click Apply.
• Clear the “Manual Restore Panel” check box, to hide the manual restore panel in XProtect
Smart Client and prevent users from manually retrieving data from the extension, then click
Apply.

Work with the XProtect Smart Client Plug-in
When the Storage Bridge plug-in is installed on an XProtect Smart Client, it appears in the MIP
Plug-ins pane in the Playback tab. It complements your XProtect Smart Client workflow with thefollowing additional features:• additional timeline data, which shows you whether a recording is accessible from the local
recording storage/archive, the nearline extension or the offline extension.
71XProtect Smart Client Integration• real-time retrieval of recordings from the nearline extension by reviewing or exporting them in
the XProtect Smart Client.
• panel for manual retrieval of recordings within a specified time range from the nearline/offline
extension.

The Storage Bridge Timeline
Note: To be able to view the Storage Bridge timeline information, configure your XProtect Smart
Client to display additional timeline data - in Settings, click Timeline and in the Additional datadrop-down box, select Show.

When enabled through the XProtect Management Client plug-in, the additional Storage Bridge
timeline appears right below the XProtect Smart Client player timeline both for a selected camerain the pane and for all cameras.
It gives you the following information:
the recording is accessible directly from the recording storage or the archive.
the recording is accessible only from the nearline extension of the recording
storage or the archive. Reviewing the recording depends on the setting forautomatic and/or manual retrieval of data from the extension.

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the recording is accessible only from the offline extension of the recording
storage or the archive. Reviewing the recording depends on the setting forautomatic and/or manual retrieval of data from the extension.
Important: Whether or not a recording is available locally or only through the extension, theMilestone metadata is kept and the XProtect Smart Client timeline displays the markers forrecordings with or without motion.

Work with Nearline or Offline Recordings
Note: Keep in mind that retrieving data from most cloud targets may be associated withadditional costs.

As long as automatic retrieval of recordings is enabled for a recording server, you can play, export
or lock its recordings as you would normally do with recordings stored on the recording storage or
the archive. With nearline recordings (marked in orange in the Storage Bridge timeline) the
retrieve operation depends on the network and connection speed to the nearline extension. In mostcases this should be in real-time with minimal delay. With offline recordings (marked in blue on
the timeline), data must first be retrieved to the nearline storage tier. Once retrieved and in thenearline extension, the timeline data can be retrieved to the local storage and will display green on
the timeline.
If automatic retrieval of data is disabled for a Recording server, attempting to play or export or lockrecordings available from the nearline or offline extension will fail and the recordings will be
displayed in the XProtect Smart Client player with one of the following thumbnails:
A recording on the nearline extension

A recording on the offline extension73

XProtect Smart Client Integration

If manual retrieval from the extension is enabled for the recording server, to play or export suchrecordings, you must first retrieve them locally, following the steps below.
To manually retrieve nearline or offline recordings:
1. In the Playback tab of the XProtect Smart Client window, expand the MIP Plug-ins pane andnavigate to the Storage Bridge plug-in.
2. Under Storage Bridge, expand the node of one or more Recording servers and select the checkboxes of the cameras, whose recordings you want to retrieve.

3. In the From and To fields specify the period for which you want to retrieve recordings.
Tip: Clickto display the Calendar and more easily specify the start and end date and time.

Note: Alternatively, on the timeline, click the Time Selection Mode button to select the startand end time of the sequence you want to retrieve.

4. Do one of the following:• Select the “Make data online” check box, to retrieve both nearline and offline recordings
locally.
• Clear the “Make data online” check box, to only rehydrate offline recordings within the time
selection to the nearline extension.

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5. Click Restore.

Storage Bridge begins retrieving the recordings from the respective extension. Once theoperation is complete, the recordings are displayed on the timeline with green, if you haveselected to make data online, or with orange, if you have selected to only rehydrate offline
recordings.

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