Nx Witness User Manual

Nx Witness Server creates a database that stores an index that maps the relationship between archive filenames and the physical location of the archive files on the storage drive.

When an archive is damaged, administrators will receive a notification when attempting to view that archive. The notification indicates the storage path where the problem was detected.

 Note: Archives can be saved to one or more backup storage locations to protect against the possibility of complete loss or removal.

The Reindex procedure restores the relationship between the database and archive files. This process can take up to several hours, depending on the size of the archive. The System can still be used during this process and will continue recording while the archive is being reindexed as long as the storage drive has enough capacity to do both simultaneously (performance may be affected).

Reindexing should be performed when the index is broken, which can occur when:

•a camera is deleted

•a storage device is moved, renamed, or deleted

•an archive file is removed, renamed, has an incorrect timestamp, or is otherwise corrupted.

To Reindex an Archive

1.Do one of the following:

•Desktop Client: Right-click on a Server in the Resource Panel, choose Server Settings and go to the Storage Management tab.

•Web Admin / Cloud Portal: Open Settings > Servers and select a server.

2.Click on Reindex Archive to restore the index for all Main storage locations. Click Reindex Backup to restore the index for all Backup storage locations.

3.A message will open with the warning "Hard disk load will increase significantly". Depending on the size of the archive, reindexing can take up to several hours. The System will continue recording while the archive is being reindexed but performance may be affected.

4.Click OK to continue. When the window closes, reindexing will to run in background. A progress bar will indicate status, and you will see a message when reindexing is either complete or has been canceled.

 Note: Reindexing can be canceled at any point, which will trigger the "Reindexing Archive Canceled" event. However, an incompletely indexed archive may be partially or entirely inaccessible. It is strongly recommended that the archive reindex process be completed. 

5.When reindexing is complete, a "Reindexing Archive Complete" event is triggered.

To protect against the possibility of complete loss or removal, archives can be saved to one or more backup storage locations. See "Configuring Backup and Redundant Storage".

Fast Archive Scan

A fast archive scan checks to see that the database is intact and matches the archive. This process usually only takes a few seconds and occurs automatically when the Server is initially started or restarted at any point afterward, an archive file closed improperly, or the index files cannot be read. During a fast archive scan, recording will be put on hold and resume after the process is complete.

There are a few situations where a fast archive scan may take much longer than anticipated, such as when there is an extremely large archive, the Server database was moved while the Server was offline, or an archive from another Server was transferred over to this Server prior to its initial launch.