Duplicating video archives

To copy video archives from one Archiver to another, you can duplicate specific archives on a schedule using archive transfer. Duplicate archives can be queried in Security Desk.

What you should know

When duplicating video from one Archiver role to another, the original archives are kept by the source Archiver until the retention period ends.

Video transfer between Archivers is helpful in the following scenarios:

To duplicate archives:

  1. From the Config Tool home page, open the Video task, click the Roles and units view, and select an Archiver to duplicate.
  2. Click the Resources tab, and then click Advanced settings.
  3. Set Max archive transfer throughput to the maximum bandwidth available to the Archiver for archive transfer, and then click OK > Apply .
    This setting ensures that enough network bandwidth is available for live video and playback requests.
  4. In the Video task, click the Archive transfer view.
  5. Click Add an item () > Duplicate archives .
  6. In the Transfer group properties dialog box, name this archive transfer scenario.
  7. In the Sources section, click Add an item (), select the cameras or Archivers you want, and then click Add.
    When a camera is selected as a source, the transfer will include associated video from all Archivers.
    TIP: Hold Ctrl or Shift to select multiple cameras or Archivers.
  8. From the Destination drop-down list, select an Archiver to receive the video.
  9. For Recurrence, select a schedule for the archive transfer:
    • Manual: Click to hide description
      Transfer archives manually.
    • Minutes: Click to hide description
      Transfer archives every 1-59 minutes.
    • Hourly: Click to hide description
      Transfer archives every 1-23 hours.
    • Daily: Click to hide description
      Transfer archives every day at the specified time. Optionally, set a maximum duration for the transfer to complete.
    • Weekly: Click to hide description
      Transfer archives every week, on specific days at the specified time. Optionally, set a maximum duration for the transfer to complete.
    NOTE: If you set a maximum duration to transfer files on a Daily or Weekly schedule, ongoing transfers are stopped at the specified time, and will resume from the last successfully transferred video frame at the next scheduled transfer. If you do not set a maximum duration, and the transfer is still in progress at the beginning of the next scheduled transfer, then the new transfer starts when the current transfer is completed.
    Transferring archives on a schedule is recommended for fixed cameras with limited network bandwidth. The transfer can be scheduled for a time when network demand is low.
  10. In the Coverage option, select whether to transfer all the data that has been accumulated since the last transfer, or only for a set range of days.
  11. Under Data, select All to transfer everything since the last successful transfer, or Specific to transfer specific sequences based on event filters.
  12. If you select Specific, select the type of data to transfer:
    • Alarms: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments related to alarm events. The record of the alarm itself is not transferred.
    • Bookmarks: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments that contain bookmarks.
    • Input triggers: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments that contain input events.
    • Motion events: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments recorded between Motion on and Motion off events. This option only applies to unit motion detection.
    • Protected video: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments that are protected.
    • Video analytics events: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments that contain video analytics events.
    • Time range: Click to hide description
      Transfer video segments recorded during a specific period. You can specify a time range or a relative time range, such as the last n days, hours, or minutes.
  13. Event-based transfer only: If you selected specific data, specify how many seconds of video should be transferred before and after the event occurs.
    Example: If you select the Motion events filter, this setting indicates how many seconds of video preceding the Motion on event, and how many seconds of video following the Motion off event are included in the transfer.
  14. Click Save.