*How to make copy (backup) of Sense video data that can be played back?

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How To Article | HTA-20210830-CS-01 VDG Sense | Operator | Data export & securing Open

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Within Sense there is the export-function to create clips from recorded video in either native format (including player application) or in .mp4 format. Mostly this is used to create short excerpts (minutes to hours) of the recorded video data. However sometimes we get the question about how to create a complete backup of all the video data for all cameras. Note that this normally is Terabytes of data. There is no user function for this within Sense. But it is possible following steps below.

It is a ‘trick’ that uses the fact that the folder structure created during native export is the same as the folder structure used by Sense on the server to record video.

Please note that copying such enormous amount of data from Sense server to other location can have significant impact on performance and can also take considerable amount of time. Therefor it is not advised to do this during normal operation and all Sense services must be stopped before starting to copy data.

First step is to create a folder structure for all the cameras. We will use the native export function for this.

Open the export video window.

Select all the devices. Note that this window is multi-select so you can choose multiple devices at once. Click on the right-arrow to select devices for export. They appear in the “Export video from devices”-list.

Select “Native format”.

Select a short timeframe of 10 seconds. We only use export to create folder structure.

Select export location (folder). E.g. C:/Temp. Note that this location must have enough free diskspace to hold all the video data you want to copy from the Sense server.

Click on “Export” to start the export.

After export has finished a folder structure similar to the one below has been created.

The root-folder holds the player-program that must be used to playback video.

When you start this program now you will see you can playback 10 seconds of video for all the cameras selected during export.

This exported video data is located in the “Store”-folder of the export. For each device a “DivaStore_xxx”-folder has been created. Where “xxx” corresponds with the DeviceID.

On the Sense server exactly the same “DivaStore_xxx”-folder structure is present. But these hold all the video data (Terabytes).

By copying the “DivaStore_xxx”-folders from the Sense server to the export “Store”-folder you will create a backup of all the video data. Using the player-program you can playback all the video.

Do note that you will need enough free diskspace on the export location to make backup of video data.