HIK VISION NVR Server User manual

User Manual for NVR Server
Version 5.02
Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co.,Ltd

User Manual for NVR Server
INDEX
CHAPTER 1. FUNCTION OF THE NVR SERVER..........................................................................1
1.1 INTRODUCTION OF THE FUNCTIONS.................................................................................................1
1.2 INTRODUCTION OF THE PERFORMANCE ...........................................................................................1
1.3 RUNNING ENVIRONMENT.................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2. INSTRUCTIONS FOR NVR SERVER .......................................................................3
2.1 THE PREPARATIONS .........................................................................................................................3
2.1.1 The Organization of the Discs.................................................................................................3
2.1.2 Original Database File.............................................................................................................4
2.1.3 Confirm the Running Environment.........................................................................................4
2.2 INTRODUCTION OF OPERATIONS ON THE SERVER.............................................................................4
2.2.1 Running for the First Time......................................................................................................4
2.2.2 The main interface...................................................................................................................6
2.2.3 Start the Server........................................................................................................................8
2.2.4 Stop the Server........................................................................................................................8
2.2.5 System configuration...............................................................................................................8
2.2.6 Exit 8
2.2.7 Configure the record schedule.................................................................................................9
2.2.8 Logs of No Recording Channel...............................................................................................9
CHAPTER 3. BACKUPTHE NVR SERVER’S DATABASE..........................................................10
3.1 BACKUPAND RESTORE THE DATABASE .........................................................................................10
3.2 REINSTALL OR UPDATE THE NVR SERVER.....................................................................................11

User Manual for NVR Server
Chapter 1. Function of the NVR Server
1.1 Introduction of the Functions
The NVR Server realizes the centralized storage of the surveillance recording files. It gets the
video data stream by connecting the device directly or using stream media server, save these data
in pre-allocated disc spaces in the data block form, and save the recording file information by the
disc‘s data index files. This software has VOD Server inside, and provides the interface for remote
searching, so it is convenient to playback particular recordings remotely.
The NVR Server records particular surveillance videos during the given time sections
according to the plan users have set and realizes the centralized storage. It is used mostly in the
following two cases:
1. The distributed clients run at different places on the network. The NVR Server realizes the
centralized management of the live surveillance video.
2. The NVR Server provides recording service when DVR devices have no HD.
As a part of a network surveillance system, the NVR Server has only a few functions,
focusing on the centralized storage. It mainly has the following functions:
1. Group the partitions. Manage the recording data by disc pre-allocation technology.
2. Support the adjustment of basic running parameters of the Server.
3. Set the recording plan with half an hour as the unit.
4. Provide friendly management interface for the record plan.
5. Have a VOD Server inside. Provide the remote search and VOD function for the recording
data.
6. Support remote operations as setting the record plan, starting or stopping recording
manually.
1.2 Introduction of the Performance
The performance of the Server depends on the performance of the deployed device’s following
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User Manual for NVR Server
hardware: the band-width, CPU’s speed, memory’s size, disc’s size, disc’s speed, etc. The Server
operates on the disc frequently; as a result, improving the disc’s performance can improve the
Server’s performance. When it is recording, the operation on the disc may conflict with the virtual
memory operation executed by the operating system, so it is recommended that another partition
shall be used to store the video data. The Server uses many threads; it would be better to choose a
high performance CPU. A big size of memory is good for the Server, too.
When the Server deploys the devices, the running parameters’ limitation should be set
according to the specific hardware. If the Server works unstable, lower the parameters and run
again. If the problem still exists, please contact the developers to ask for advice.
Remote playback restrictions: at most 30 channels playback and 5 channels download at the
same time.
Suggestion: The number of recording channel at the same time is not more than 100; the disc
group number is not more than 5; the partitions every disc group is not more than 10.
1.3 Running environment
The running environment of the Server:
Hardware platform requirements: The current dominating configurations of PC (CPU:
1.5G Hz, 512M Memory, two partitions). Adding any 1TB storing space needs to add about 25
MB memories; adding one recording channel needs to add 2MB memories. Adding a disk group
add 150M memories.
Note: The index files are very big because the Server adopts the disc pre-allocation
technology to store the data. The volume of each partition must be less than 5TB, and no
more than 3TB is recommended; the total size of all the partitions should not exceed 30TB.
Software requirements：Windows 2K/XP/2003; Access 2003
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User Manual for NVR Server
Chapter 2. Instructions for NVR Server
2.1 The Preparations
2.1.1 The Organization of the Discs
The following points on how to organize the discs should be paid attention
to:
1. Because of the disc pre-allocation technology, the store unit is data block, and
writing operation is frequent when recording. So it is recommended that divide the
hard disc into two or more partitions, the partition used to store the video data is
isolated from the partition where the operation system runs.
2. The disc pre-allocation technology reduce the Read\Write head’s wiggle, and cut
down the answering time, so it is recommended that the partitions on the same hard
disc should be put into the same disc group.
3. The disc’s performance has a limitation; in order to lift the Server’s answering
ability, it is recommended that the number of channels that recording at the same
time should be less than 100 in each disc group.
4. The record data is stored circularly in every disc group, when the pre-allocated disc
space is full, the oldest data will be covered with the newest data. If you need to
recording for a long time, please buy discs big enough.
5. SATA HDs are recommended. If using disc matrix to store, whether the IO
performance of the disc matrix can satisfy the demand of frequently writing and
reading should be confirmed.
6. If using the disc matrix to store, the disc matrix should be mapped as the system’s
fixed disc partitions or remote disc partitions.
7. Format the disc partitions that are planned to store the video data into NTFS format,
or else it will take a long time to format when pre-allocation.
8. The symbol of the disc that is assigned to store the record data can’t be changed
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User Manual for NVR Server
after being formatted. Another formatting is required if there is a need to change the
disc’s symbol. Violating this rule, serious mistakes will happen in the NVR Server.
2.1.2 Original Database File
The NVR Server uses the Access 2003 database to store the system configuration information,
disc group information, device and channel information, recording plan template, etc. The name of
the Access database is: pdcss.mdb. It is defined inside the system and cannot be changed.
There is a file named “pacss_bak.mdb”, it is the original data base file, user can change its
name to “pdcss.mdb” and use it while the previous one is damaged, however, all the recorded files
cannot be explored and the record plan should be reset.
2.1.3 Confirm the Running Environment
The machine where the software is deployed needs MFC running environment. Generally it can
run on Windows 2000/XP/2003, and does not support others.
2.2 Introduction of Operations on the Server
2.2.1 Running for the First Time
When running for the first time, system will pop up a dialog to tell it and some necessary
configuration must be done before running the server. The following interface will be shown after
clicking OK.
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User Manual for NVR Server
This configuration dialog consists of 4 parts:
1. Disk Group Configuration
Click to pre-allocate the HDD to recorded files, click to recover the
broken HDD.
Click or to create or delete new Disk Group if group have
contain at least 1 HDD partition.
Click to add a HDD partition to a Disk Group, click to remove
it. Then, the disk group configuration is finished.
Note: The server supports 26 Disk Groups at most. It is recommended that the number is
below 5.
2. NVR configuration
The NVR listening port and max input channels can be set. The system can start\stop the
server and set recording schedule remotely by setting the listening port.
Note: If the bit rate of one channel is 1.5M, it is recommended that the number of max
recording channels is smaller than 80. If the bit rate of one channel is 512K, the recommended
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User Manual for NVR Server
number limitation is 100.
3. VOD Configuration
The VOD listening port and max connections can be set. The VOD server inside can search
and play recorded files through the listening port.
Note: The NVR Server can playback remotely 32 channels at most, download 5 channels at
one time.
4. General Configuration
Whether enable Auto run when PC startup can be set. If it is chosen, whether enable
watchdog can be set too. If the watchdog is chosen, it must set up the user and password of the
operating system.
2.2.2 The main interface
The main interface of NVR Server is as below.
1
2
3
nControl Buttons Area
oInformation Display Area: one of Commands information, Disk information and
Record information can be displayed in this area.
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User Manual for NVR Server
Commands information: showing the recording commands information, including the
belonged disk group, IP address of the devices and listening port, channels, start time
and end time of recording, recording mode, etc.
Disk information: showing the HDD information that has been pre-allocated, including
disk group, HDD size, pre-allocated size and status. Shown as below.
Recording information: showing the device name, IP address and recording status in
schedule. Gray means no recording schedule, green means recording. Dark green
means recording error. Shown as below.
pStatus Bar
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User Manual for NVR Server
2.2.3 Start the Server
Server checks HDDs for partition formatting status and data consistency from the second start up
on and it will repair the abnormal HDDs in few seconds automatically and show a message as
below. If require succeed, the server will be initialized after that, manually repair is required while
the operation fails, then the server will begin to initialize.
2.2.4 Stop the Server
A confirm dialogue for stopping the Server will pop up when the “Stop” button on the main
interface has been clicked, to avoid the case of stopped by accident. Click “Yes” if truly want the
Server to stop, or else click “No”, and the running state of the Server will remain the same.
Note: Stopping the record plan won’t stop the remote control service or the VOD service.
These two services will be stopped only after the Server exit.
2.2.5 System configuration
NVR server requires system configuration in the first start up, after that, users may enter “Config”
button in the main interface to configure, e.g. HDD groups, monitor port…and so on. For details
please refer to 2.2.1 running for the First Time. Software restart is required if the configuration is
modified.
2.2.6 Exit
When you click on “exit” in the main interface, it will quit if the server is not started. Otherwise, a
dialog box is displayed to prompt users to close the server first.
Note: If the server quits due to exception such as out of power, it will require disk repair in the
next start up because of incomplete HDD data.
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User Manual for NVR Server
2.2.7 Configure the record schedule
The dialogue for configuring the record schedule will pop up if the “Plan” button being
clicked, which can be used to look through device and channel information, as shown below:
In the record schedule configuration dialogue, green means schedule recording, pink means
motion detection recording, white means no recording schedule.
Note: When the recording channel’s path changed, server boot is required to make the
modification into effective.
2.2.8 Logs of No Recording Channel
If the number of channels that want to record is larger than the max number of the NVR
Server allows when it is running, the device information of the after coming channels will be
recorded in log file MaxRecordChanErr.txt
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User Manual for NVR Server
Chapter 3. Backup the NVR Server’s
Database
As the server use Access databases to preserve key data the NVR server running on, improper
operation leading to damage the database or deleting the database will cause serious problems like
the recording plan lost or failing to search the history record. Therefore, it is better to back up the
database after the server running stably. There is a simple tool called “CSSBackup.exe” in order to
backup the database under the NVR server’s installation root path. It must run under the path, and
should make sure that the server is not running.
3.1 Backup and Restore the Database
Backup tool interface is displayed as shown, offering two functions: backup and restoring.
When back up is needed, please stop NVR Server first, and then start back up tool. Click the
on button “Browse” and choose the directory, then click on button “Backup”, backup will begin
after the next confirming dialog. There will be a confirm box before starting backup. If backup
successfully, a pop-up dialog box will be displayed to show success, or a error message dialog box
will be shown
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User Manual for NVR Server
When restore is needed, be sure to stop the server first if the server is running and click on
“Browse” button get the backup database file then on “Restore”, restoring will begin after the next
confirming dialog. If restore successfully, a pop-up dialog box will be displayed to show success,
or an error message dialog box will be shown.
3.2 Reinstall or Update the NVR Server
When the NVR Server needs an upgrade or reinstall because of the system error, users should
back up the “pdcss.mdb” file which is under the old program’s installation root path, then install
the new NVR Server program, and back the file to the new server, in order to make sure that the
original record data can be found correctly. Or else the old record data can’t be found or there
would be a search error. Backup tool is recommended to be used for back and restore.
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