Milestone XProtect Advanced VMS 2014 - Manual (Page 47)

Milestone XProtect ® Advanced
VMS 2014
Administrator's Manual
www.milestonesys.com 47 First time use
First time use
Best practices
Protect recording databases from corruption
You can select which action to take if a camera database becomes corrupted. The actions include
several database repair options. While it is good to have such options, Milestone recommends that
you take steps to ensure that your camera databases do not become corrupted.
Hard disk failure: protect your drives
Hard disk drives are mechanical devices and are vulnerable to external factors. The following are
examples of external factors which may damage hard disk drives and lead to corrupt camera
databases:

Vibration (make sure the surveillance system server and its surroundings are stable)

Strong heat (make sure the server has adequate ventilation)

Strong magnetic fields (avoid)

Power outages (make sure you use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS))

Static electricity (make sure you ground yourself if you are going to handle a hard disk drive).

Fire, water, etc. (avoid)
Windows Task Manager: be careful when you end processes
When you work in Windows Task Manager, be careful not to end any processes which affect the
surveillance system. If you end an application or system service by clicking End Process in the
Windows Task Manager, the process is not be given the chance to save its state or data before it is
terminated. This may lead to corrupt camera databases.
Windows Task Manager typically displays a warning if you attempt to end a process. Unless you are
absolutely sure that ending the process is not going to affect the surveillance system, click No when
the warning message asks you if you really want to terminate the process.
Power outages: use a UPS
The single-most common reason for corrupt databases is the recording server being shut down
abruptly, without files being saved and without the operating system being closed down properly. This
may happen due to power outages, due to somebody accidentally pulling out the server's power cable,
or similar.
The best way of protecting your recording servers from being shut down abruptly is to equip each of
your recording servers with a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).