Use Security Center to move your video files from one location to another. Moving video ensures that it is properly archived, easily accessible, and secure.
Security Center lets you dynamically manage where your video files are stored with archive transfer. Using archive transfer you can:
- Transfer video recordings from cameras or other edge devices to your video archives.
- Copy video archives from one Archiver role to another.
- Back up video archives to protect them from loss.
- Restore video archives from a backup to an Archiver.
With archive transfer, you gain full control of where your video recordings are stored. This flexibility reduces storage costs when maintaining long-term archives and helps you optimize video search and investigation performance.
To better manage repeating transfers, you can define transfer groups. A transfer group is a persistent archive transfer scenario that lets you run a video transfer without redefining the transfer settings. These transfers can be scheduled or executed on demand. Transfer groups define which cameras or archiving roles are included in the transfer, when the archives are transferred, what data is transferred, and so on.
Transfer groups only move new video. For example, if the last frame retrieved from a unit is "7/30/2014 3:44:40" and you try to retrieve video between 3:40:00 and 3:50:00, only video between 3:44:40 and 3:50:00 is retrieved and stored in the target Archiver.
Before a major operation, such as a software upgrade or server replacement, archive transfer lets you act quickly to move important video archives without creating a transfer group.
In addition to video recordings, the following information is sent with an archive transfer, if available:
- Audio and metadata
- Digital signatures
- Camera blocking settings
- Protection settings
When video is transferred to an Archiver, it is kept in accordance with the retention period of that Archiver.
Limitations of archive transfer
- Only original files can be transferred between Archivers. For example, archives can only be duplicated from the Archiver where the video was originally recorded.
- ALPR images and video streams stored in the Archiver database are not transferred or backed up with the Video Archiver transfer feature in Security Center despite the fact that the ALPR unit is displayed in the Area View.
Archive transfer troubleshooting
If your Archiver goes offline during an archive transfer and the process stops, the transfer must be restarted after the Archiver reconnects.
- If you were performing a manual archive transfer, then you must restart the process manually.
- If the archive transfer was set to run on a schedule, then the transfer restarts at the next scheduled time.