Backing Up Your Gateman Server

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1 Backing Up Your Gateman Server Your Gateman system stores configuration information and also very important data; hence backing up this data is critical so that in the event of a hardware failure or natural disaster, your Gateman system can be recovered from backed up data in a very short while. For this reason your Gateman system includes an easily configurable disaster recovery system. Gateman also provides a manual backup facility for some data and this is also discussed here. Disaster Recovery Basics Every day at a specified time, your Gateman Server performs housekeeping activities and at the end of this activity, begins to transfer a snapshot of the data stored within your Gateman Server. The following must be considered to arrive at an appropriate backup strategy for your data: Backup device Choose between a local USB connected Hard Drive or esata drive, or a network connected drive e.g. NAS drive. Backup Time Decide when the backup operation will take place based on the backup device selected and the usage of your Gateman machine at various times. Data to be Backed Up Decide which information is to be backed up The Backup Cycle This defines the number of copies of backed up data. We will consider each of the above topics separately Selecting the Backup Device This subsection details some of the issues to be considered when selecting a suitable backup device. Locally Connected Devices Connecting a USB or esata hard drive allows has the following advantages: The data transfer speed is suitable It does not affect the network bandwidth The devices are in-expensive and readily available Some limitations include: Since the device is in the same area as the Gateman server, in the event of loss due to a fire or natural disaster, you may lose the backup device as well. To mitigate this risk one option is to ensure that the backup device is carried off site every evening or placed in a fire safe. You need to secure this device as it may contain sensitive information Network Connected Devices Network connected devices such as NAS drives have the following advantages: They can be remote from the Gateman server and hence safe in the event of a fire or Natural Disaster. They could be used to store data from a many of different systems Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server

2 Some limitations include: The additional burden of network traffic This can be overcome if a separate network interface is used for Backup Selecting the Backup Time This is determined by the kind of backup device selected: If a local backup device is connected, the backup may be done at any time; in the event the device is to be removed at evening time to be carried away, the data transfer will take place when the backup device is connected. If a network device is selected for backup, in the absence of a separate network interface to transfer the backed up data, it is best that the backup is done at around midnight when the requirement of the device is minimal. Selecting the Data to be Backed Up This depends on the nature of the data to be backed up. Consider the following: Video data is large in volume and it is best if this data is not backed up but stored on the Gateman Server only. In the event that a historical record is the be maintained, store data only from the cameras that are required. File data could be large hence you have the ability to choose the folders to be backed up. It may sometimes suffice that some data e.g. photographs and home video is backed up whereas movies and music are not data is probably essential to be backed up. In an effort to keep the size of data small it is necessary to purge old s. Attendance data is essential though the volume of data is reasonably small Gateman configuration This size of this data is small Selecting the Backup Cycle Consider the following: Gateman maintains only a single copy of Video and File data Gateman allows you to configure a single, 2, 4 or 7 day backup cycle for the rest of the data. It stores all the data for each of the backups. Thus one needs to ensure that there is sufficient space on the backup device. Configuring Your Gateman Server for Automatic Backup To configure your automatic backup, select Gateman Settings from the Administration menu. From the window that opens, select the Backup button to open the following window. Configure the backup settings as explained in the following screen shots. Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server

3 Click Time to set the housekeeping start time Click this box to transfer data to be backed up to the external device If Windows share is selected, specify the IP address and authentication details to get to the device. Then click Browse to view the device and select a sub directory to backup the data to Check the appropriate boxes to specify data to back up Select the Backup cycle Holds cameras to be backed up Holds folders to be backed up This box lists the available folders. User home folders are identified by the _USER_ prefix. Select the appropriate folders (one at a time) and then click the >> button If Gateman USB Drive is selected, click the Browse Devices button to view the device attached to Gateman (see the picture below). Enter the required device e.g. /dev/sdb1, then click Select to mount the device. Next Click Browse and select a subdirectory to backup to This is what will typically be visible with a single SATA disk and without any USB drive connected to Gateman. Notice these devices are mounted as /, /gateman, /home and /boot and are all used by your Gateman system. Available external devices will typically be seen as /dev/sdbn (N = 1,2..) Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server

4 Backing up Camera Data Specifies the number of days of picture data to transfer at a single session, in the event the backup device was unable for a previous day(s) Holds cameras to be backed up The number of days (between 1 and 30), before deleting data from the backup device This box lists the available cameras. Select the appropriate cameras (one at a time) and then click the >> button Because your camera data is voluminous, Gateman provides for appropriate backup mechanisms. Gateman stores only a single set of picture data and provides methods to backup and delete data from the backup device as well. Snapshots are available in the folder named jpg and video streams are stored in the folder named str. Within the jpg folder there are subfolders, one for each hour of each day for each camera. The folder is named as CAMERA_NAMEYYYYMMDDhh. Within a folder individual snapshots are named CAMERA_NAMEYYYYMMDDhhmmssxxx. Where hhmmss represents the exact time in hh:mm:ss 24 hour format, and xxx the millisecond. Within the str folder there are subfolders one for each day for each camera. The folder is named as CAMERA_NAME_YYYYMMDD. Within a folder, there are a number of 1 minute video streams stored which are named CAMERA_NAME_YYYYMMDDhhmm.xxx where xxx is the appropriate file extension e.g. mp4, asf, etc. You can select the cameras that are to be backed up The Transfer Pictures drop list allows you to select how far many days back Gateman should go to store backed up camera data, in the event the Backup device was unavailable for one or more days. Delete after allows you to automatically delete picture data on the Backup Device after the number of days defined. Backing up File Server Data File Server data can be extremely large. Hence: Only a single copy of this data is stored You can select the folders to be backed up User home folders are prefixed with the name _USER_ for easy identification. Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server

5 Tips 1. Reports are available to advise if the backup operation is successful. Please see the relevant document to see how to configure automatic reports. 2. If an external USB device is selected as a backup device, this device may also be mounted as an Auxiliary Folder within the File Server and periodically browsed via Gateman to check that the data on the drive The Backup Folder Structure Within a single day, data is arranged in sub-folders A separate sub-folder holds each user s A separate folder for each day of the backup cycle The mail subfolder Picture (and file) data is stored separately Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server

6 Manual Backup Your Gateman system allows the user to manually back up some of the data. To access this screen select the Housekeeping -> Backup option from the Administration menu. This section provides you with information on the various configuration files: The Server Database A file with a.srv extension which holds your Gateman device configuration and includes information on the devices that are integrated with your Gateman server. Client Configuration A file with a.cli extension which hold the Client Applet graphics screen information including the background pictures and icon animation Mobile Configuration A file with a.phn extension which holds the Mobile HTML page layout and animation information. User Info A file with a.usr extension that holds all the user details including their permissions within Gateman. Network Settings A file with a.net extension that holds Gateman s firewall and proxy server configuration. Attendance A file with a.att extension that holds all the attendance information for the system. My Gateman Help A file with the name mygatemanhelp.tar.gz that holds your own html help for this user. My Website A file with the name mywebsite.tar.gz that holds html pages for the website on this Gateman server. Gateman Integrated Security Backing Up Your Gateman Server