Freeing up storage space for video files - Security Center 5.12

Security Center Administrator Guide 5.12
Product
Security Center
Content type
Guides > Administrator guides
Version
5.12
Language
English
Last updated
2024-09-13

Within each disk group, you can free up storage space for new video files.

What you should know

There are different ways to free up storage space for video files. Using a combination of the following strategies can help to maximize the available storage:
  • Delete the oldest video files when available disk space gets low. This strategy is recommended if most of your video footage is equally important, and you want to keep as much footage as possible. This maximizes disk usage.
  • Set archiving retention periods for cameras to specify the amount of time that recorded footage must be kept online. Video is automatically deleted at the end of the retention period. This strategy keeps more important video footage for a longer period.
  • Limit the size and length of video files. If you protect many short video sequences from deletion, limiting the size of your video files can help to optimize your storage use.
  • Limit the disk storage space allocated to protected video files; they are not automatically deleted during normal cleanup procedures.
IMPORTANT: Archiving stops when disk space runs out. It is highly recommended to align your file retention strategies with the available storage space. Only deleting files when storage is full can impact archiving performance.

Procedure

To free up storage space for video files:

  1. Open the Video task, and select the Archiver or Auxiliary Archiver to configure.
  2. Click the Resources tab, and click Advanced settings.
  3. In the Advanced settings dialog box, set the following options as required:
    • Set Delete oldest video files when disks are full to ON.
    • Set Protect video threshold to the maximum percentage of storage space that protected video files can occupy on disk.

      When this threshold is exceeded, the Archiver generates a Protected video threshold exceeded event every 15 minutes, so you can review the video files and delete the ones that are no longer needed. The Archiver does not delete protected files.

    • In the Video files section, set the following:
      • The Maximum length for video sequences, in minutes.
      • The Maximum size of video files. Select Specific, and set a maximum size, in megabytes.
  4. After configuring the advanced settings, click OK > Apply.

To set a retention period for video stored by an Archiver or Auxiliary Archiver:

  1. In the Video task, select an Archiver or Auxiliary Archiver in the role entity tree and do one of the following:
    • For an Archiver role, click the Camera default settings tab.
      NOTE: Different retention periods can be configured for each server associated to the role.
    • For an Auxiliary Archiver role, click the Camera recording tab.
  2. Set Automatic cleanup to the required number of days, and click Apply.

To set a retention period for a specific camera:

  1. In the Video task, expand the role entity tree, and select the camera.
    This is helpful for cameras that have more important video footage.
    Tip: Set a shorter retention period for PTZ cameras, because they often use more storage due to the increased movement.
  2. Click the Recording tab.
  3. If Recording settings is set to Inherit from Archiver, switch it to Custom settings.
  4. Set Automatic cleanup to the required number of days, and click Apply.
Parent topic: Monitoring disk space available for video files