Local Storage

The Local Storage window allows you to enable storing video on a local storage device in case of a network loss. You can download these video recordings from the Local Storage window.

When you use local storage, be aware of the following:

  • You can configure the IP camera to save all recordings ( continuous recording mode) to the SD or MicroSD card, or to save only recording that are made when the IP camera looses network connectivity ( network loss mode).
  • The IP camera supports an SD or MicroSD card with a maximum storage capacity of 32 GB. For efficiency and performance of the local storage feature, Cisco recommends that you use a SD or MicroSD card with a storage capacity of 32 GB.
  • 1 GB of the storage capacity on an SD or MicroSD card is reserved for system use and is not available to store recordings.
  • When you put an SD or MicroSD card in the IP camera for the first time, the card is formatted automatically if the card does not have the ext2 file system and if the directory structure that is required for recording is not present on the card. A card with a storage capacity of 32 GB can take up to 15 minutes to format.
  • If you move an SD or MicroSD card from one IP camera to another, the IP camera to which you moved the card does not format the card automatically. This feature allows you to manually recover any video that is stored on the card by downloading the video from the IP camera user interface. You must format the card before you enable recording for it in the new IP camera.
  • If you are not using the IP camera with Cisco VSM, set the system time and time zone from the IP camera user interface before you enable recording to an SD or MicroSD card. If you are using the IP camera with Cisco VSM, enable recording through the Cisco VSM user interface, which synchronizes the camera time with the NTP server. Changing the system time after recording starts can cause issues.
  • The continuous recording feature enables VSM to “auto-merge” video archive that has gaps due to network or other issues (assuming that camera was not affected), using camera storage as a temporary archiving medium. It also enables archiving only video that is close to generated events. Either the primary stream or secondary stream can recorded in this mode.
  • Grooming starts when continuous recording is enabled and operates as follows:

1. Groom files that are marked as deleted.

2. Groom the oldest files on the local SD or MicroSD card when available space on the card is less than 1 GB.

  • An IP camera has limited bandwidth for simultaneous reading from and writing to an SD or MicroSD card, which can affect the amount of data that you can copy from the card when recording to the card is enabled. For optimum performance of the IP camera, set the maximum bit rate for the recorded stream to 6 Mbps or lower. At higher bit rates, video may not be copied from the card before the video is groomed.
  • Recording MJPEG streams to an SD or MicroSD card is not recommended because the relatively high bit rate of these streams can affect system performance. If you do record MJPEG streams, Cisco recommends that you stop recording before you use the IP camera user interface to copy MJPEG recordings from the card.
  • The system allows one active download of video from an SD card or MicroSD card at a time. If VSM is copying data from a card (due to a user or system initiated copy operation), you cannot initiate another download from the IP camera user interface until the VSM download completes. Similarly, if you are using the IP camera user interface to download video from a SD or MicroSD card, video cannot be downloaded from VSM until this download completes.

To display the Local Storage window, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link.

Step 2 Click Feature Setup to expand the menu.

Step 3 From the Feature Setup menu, click Local Storage.

The Local Storage window appears. If you change any options in this window, you must click the Save button to save the changes. If you do not click this button, changes are not retained when you exit the window. The Save button appears at the bottom of the window. You might need to scroll down to it.

 

Table 5-1 describes the options in the Local Storage window.

Note To use the features in the Recordings area, ActiveX must be installed on your client PC. If ActiveX is not installed, the Recordings area displays a message with this information. To install ActiveX, From the window IP camera web-based interface that instructs you to install the Cisco Camera UI Control, click Install in the yellow banner. If a Security Warning dialog box appears, click Install.

Caution To prevent corruption to data on an SD or MicroSD card or the inability of the IP camera to detect the card again, before removing an SD or MicroSD card from an IP camera, stop recording to the card and use the Unmount button (described in Table 5-1) to prepare the card for ejection. In addition, use care when inserting, removing, and handling the card to avoid damaging the card.

 

Table 5-1 Local Storage Window Options

Option
Description

SD/MicroSD Information Area

Serial Number

Display only. Serial number of the SD or MicroSD card that is installed in the IP camera.

Total Size

Display only. Total storage capacity in megabytes of the SD or MicroSD card.

Free Space

Display only. Free storage space in megabytes of the SD or MicroSD card.

Model

Display only. Model number of the SD or MicroSD card.

Manufacturer

Display only. Manufacturer of the SD or MicroSD card.

Mount/Unmount (toggle button)

Mount button—When you insert an SD or MicroSD card, the IP camera typically mounts it automatically. If you see a message that indicates that the card is not mounted, click this button to mount it.

Unmount button—Click on this button to prepare an SD or MicroSD card for ejection from the IP camera.

Format

Formats an SD or MicroSD card.

Use this button to format a card if you switch recording modes or switch the video stream configuration.

Settings Area

Enable recording to Local Storage on network loss

This options causes the IP camera to save video recordings to its local SD or MicroSD card if the IP camera looses network connectivity. When the network connectivity is restored, recording to the card stops.

This option and the Enable continuous recording option cannot be enabled at the same time.

Enable Encryption

Available only if Enable recording to Local Storage on network loss is enabled. Check to encrypt video that is recorded to the local SD or MicroSD card during a loss of network connectivity.

Encryption Method

When encryption is enabled, choose one of the following encryption methods:

  • AES 256
  • AES 128
  • RC2 64

Enable continuous recording

This options causes the IP camera to save all recordings to its local SD or MicroSD card.

This option and the Enable recording to Local Storage on network loss option cannot be enabled at the same time.

Continuous recording stream

Choose which video stream is recorded with continuous recording is enabled. Options are:

  • Stream 1
  • Stream 2

Enable audio recording

When continuous recording is enabled, saves audio recordings to the camera’s local SD or MicroSD card.

Note Audio-only recordings are not supported.

Save

Click this button to save changes that you make in the Settings area.

Recordings Area (requires a supported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer)

File Decryption Password

Enter the key that is used to decrypt encrypted video recording files.

This field is available only when the Enable recording to Local Storage on network loss mode check box is checked.

Recordings list

Displays a list of video recording on the local SD or MicroSD card and the following information and options for each recording:

  • Select check box. Check the check box next to a recording to select that recording for download or deletion.
  • Size—Size of the recording in MB.
  • Name—System-assigned name of the recording.
  • Start Time (UTC)—Start time of the recording in UTC format.
  • End Time (UTC)—End time of the recording in UTC format.
  • Download From (UTC)—To download a recording or part of a recording to your local drive or a network drive, enter the time in UTC format that the video that you want from the recording started.
  • Duration——To download a recording or part of a recording to your local drive or a network drive, enter the duration of the video that you want from the recording is in hh:mm:ss format. The recording begins from the time that you entered in the Download From field and lasts for the time that you enter in the Duration field.
  • Progress(%)—The percentage of a video file download operation that has completed.
  • Status—The status of a video file download or delete operation.

Download

To download a video recording to your local drive or a network drive, check the Select check box for the recording that you want, then click the Download button. Follow the on-screen prompts to save the recording.

When you save a recording, the system creates a directory called Recordings_ TimeStamp in the location that you choose and saves recordings in that directory. If the recording that you download contains more than 10 minutes of video, the system divides the recording into separate files that contains 10 minutes of video each.

Note Network-loss recordings that are created on an IP camera that is running firmware 2.0.0 cannot be downloaded with the 1.4.1 SD utility.

Delete

To delete a video recording from the SD or MicroSD card in the IP camera, check the Select check box for the recording that you want, then click the Delete button.

You can quickly select all video recordings in the list by right-clicking in the Recordings list and then choosing Select All.

Refresh

To refresh the list of video recording so that the list shows the latest information about the recordings on the SD or MicroSD card in the IP camera, click the Refresh button.

Cancel

This button appears when a video recording is downloading. To cancel the download operation, click the Cancel button.