Backing Up Video Data Immediately?

Our client would like to back up their onsite recorder to something off site in case the building catches fire, the recorder got stolen, etc.

The backup only needs to be for ~72 hours.

If the VMS (Milestone or DW, would be our first 2 preferred VMS) can backup to a local drive, could I just use a Google Drive or Dropbox solution? VMS backs up to Drive "H", and "H" syncs to the cloud. Would there be any issues with the backup and syncing happening at the same time?

Sorry if this is a simple question as we are 99% NVRs and just starting to get into servers, real VMS solutions etc.

Reactions:

Undisclosed Manufacturer #2

If you use Network Optix, Spectrum, or WAVE, you can backup/archive, to a NAS or an extra drive in the machine. You can specify the backup to be the low stream, and adjust it to be 720p (normally ~480p). The archive can be done in realtime as the video comes in. This archive can then be dumped to the cloud.

If you want to avoid using a NAS or 2nd drive for archiving, you could have google drive sync simply pick up the low_quality (2nd stream) folder from the server. Google should be able to monitor the folder and as new files are written and closed out, pick them up to backup...

Reactions:

(2)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

Can we specify a time frame, such as backup only the last 3 days, then rewrite? Or do we just need to limit the drive size/partition and once its full, the VMS will automatically rewrite over the older files?

Thanks!

Reactions:

Undisclosed Manufacturer #2

Hmmm. That is a good question. For the main archive, you can specify the number of days to keep video for, but on a backup drive I don't know of any way to do this.

Maybe someone else has an idea? Is there a way in Windows to flush data older than a certain time frame??

Reactions:

Undisclosed #4

if you are writing to the cloud or local storage(NAS, SAN, Fibre channel) you can set up simple Linux box to do cron jobs to delete old data like:

45 2 * * * find /video -atime +3 -type f -exec rm -f {} ';'

Needs some tweaking for your storage and file type...and location but this would nuke any file not accessed in the last three days @ 2:45am every day, every week, every month, forever. Admins get the point and you can do this local or cloud...

Now I am sure windows has some elaborate GUI to go click on. Have fun with that, this is just an alternate solution.

You can stick your crontabs in the cloud by just buying a 5 dollar server or > @ https://www.digitalocean.com/ and write multiple (other to many) customer networks by building your own cloud network by hole punching using https://www.zerotier.com/

Now you depending on your devices you can SSH, RDP and even connect thick or thin software apps, and mobile. Think of this as your own private sub internet using udp hole punching and you circumvent the need for VPN, VNC, Teamviewer app and other junk like that. End to end encryption? yes.

For those that see this picture, your welcome. Don't understand? No problem, do your research before you go burn a bag of bill gates popcorn.

Reactions:

(2)

Undisclosed Integrator #3

Genetec's auxiliary archiver role will take a stream (or second stream config) and record it to another drive. It also allows you to choose which cameras and has its own retention period so it can be set to delete after x days. The only down side is that you would need an enterprise level license to get this feature.

Reactions:

(1)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

It seems as if the backup is very common and most VMS can do that.

To me the bigger question is if we are going to have an issue with a VMS continually writing to the drive, and another app continually reading from the same drive to send the data to the cloud.

Thanks

Reactions:

Brian Sampson

*Exacq Employee*

You can use Exacq Cloud Drive storage to keep video both locally on the recorder and/or keep a copy of that video in the cloud. It uses the existing Exacq client, so no need to learn a new piece of software. Cloud Drive uses Azure (but can use others) and the functionality to send and search video to and from the cloud is already built-in. No need to setup a NAS or add code to search from a cloud service you use. You can, however, use archiving in Exacq if you already have storage (NAS or SAN) setup.

The Cloud Drive storage is available through our normal distribution channels. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Reactions:

(1)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

Brian, that seems like a good solution, but I do not think we are looking to add another VMS at this time.

Is there a good 3rd party solution like Google Drive, Drop Box etc that provides near real time syncing specifically for video surveillance?

Unlike dedicated cloud solutions like Eagle Eye, we want to keep the bulk of the data onsite, and we want to be able to choose the VMS of our choosing. We also want the off site backup to be the last 72 hours, not 30+ days.

Reactions:

Michael Miller

How do you plan to play the files once they are synced to Google Drive, DropBox?

Reactions:

Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Michael Miller

Here is my thought process. We are new to DW so...

Spectrum writes to Drive D, then backs up to Drive E. These are physical drives. Drive E will probably be much smaller, maybe even be partitioned to a 500GB folder. Then Google syncs that folder to the cloud.

If Spectrum is creating the backup, it has to have a way to read it.

Spectrum also has to have a way to manage the folder once full. I am sure it just rewrites over the oldest files.

The Google Drive Data would only be retrieved/accessed if the local drive was not available due to theft, fire or failure.

The primary function is to get the data right before a theft or fire, offsite. So the system would be continually backing up to a small folder, and that would sync offsite.

Does this seem like a reasonable plan? Is there a better way to do this?

Reactions:

Marty Major

Teledyne FLIR

I am a technical trainer with FLIR - and our Latitude VMS has THREE different options for direct copying of data beyond a normal RAID array of drives.

First is Redundant Recording - which requires multi-casting - as the same camera stream is recorded to two different archivers (within the Latitude system).

Second is Background Export - which sends any camera stream(s) that you choose - from whatever days you choose - to external storage on the schedule that you can choose.

Third is Mass Export - which is done via the Admin console and not the Client - and can be used to copy as much data as you want to offsite storage.

Utilizing a Google Drive solution for copying database files can work for sure - but as Mr. Miller has mentioned above, how can you use Google Drive as a long-term storage solution? (i.e. still use your VMS to locate and play archived files?)

Reactions:

(1)

Matthew Del Salto

Hudson Security

We wrote an integration for DW Spectrum / NX Witness / WAVE that offloads directly to the cloud from the NVR. A retention period can be set so you can choose to only backup for 3 days or whatever works best. Searching video in the cloud is native within the timeline. We are currently in private beta.

Please email me at mdelsalto@blackboxusa.com and we would be happy to set you up with a no cost demo. Thank you!

Ps anyone is free to email me for a demo 😁

Reactions:

(2)

Michael Miller

In reply to Matthew Del Salto

This is what you want UI #1

Reactions:

(2)

Marty Major

In reply to Michael Miller

Teledyne FLIR

I agree with Mr. Miller ;)

Reactions:

(1)

Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Matthew Del Salto

Can we retain 30 days locally, and just backup 3 days to the cloud?

It does sound promising. I will reach out this week.

Thanks

Reactions:

Matthew Del Salto

Hudson Security

Local storage is not affected. The retention period only pertains to the cloud storage. Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you.

Reactions:

Undisclosed Integrator #1

Google Drive is only to backup the last 3 days in case something catastrophic happened. Fire, theft, hurricane etc. The client wants the footage before this incident preserved offsite.

Would we not be able to download that data from Google onto a new server, and view it?

Reactions:

Marty Major

Teledyne FLIR