The HyperCaster can be integrated with your own near-line NAS or SAN storage array. This feature makes it easy to expand storage capacity by connecting to an existing or outside archive server. Once integrated, the archived content is tracked in the same database as the HyperCaster content, making it available for broadcast at any time, and eliminating having to keep two separate systems.
The Archive server type shows up as an option in the pulldown menu under Config → Remote Servers.
From here you can choose to mount your NAS via FTP or SMB.
Follow the instructions for configuring a remote server.
Once one or more archive servers are configured, you will see a new Archive option on the File Actions menu of each video.
Clicking on “Archive” will open up a popup with the following options:
(1) Archiving content to one or more Archive Servers, and (2) Option to “Delete Aftewards”, which will delete the local online version from the HyperCaster after the Archive action is completed.
All archiving actions are performed as Tasks in the background, and you can see the real-time progress on the Tasks tab.
Archived material can be searched from the Advanced Search on the Content Page, or Calendar Scheduling Sidebar, with options to filter your search by Storage Location.
A small blue storage box icon will show up in the corner of the thumbnail of any content that has been archived.
A small broken link icon will show up in the corner of the thumbnail of any content that is archived and no longer online (local) on the HyperCaster’s own storage. Additionally, the thumbnail is faded out. This means the content only exists on Archive, and is considered to be Offline.
Archived content can still be seen and scheduled – like any other video on the HyperCaster. It can also be previewed if a preview was created while a local copy still existed. When Offline content is scheduled, the HyperCaster will automatically retrieve the content from Archive. How fast content can be retrieved depends on the speed of your storage and network, the size of the file, and whether there are other retrieval tasks in progress or in queue. As such, it is important to consider this when scheduling offline content to make sure you are scheduling enough in advance to ensure the file is retrieved prior to the start of the event.
Scheduled content that is still Offline is highlighted on your schedule with a slight fade out on the schedule entry text. Offline scheduled content will also show up in the Missing File Report, XML feed, and System Health based on the time window to be alerted. You can set the Missing File Alert Window on the Config–>Schedule page. This is useful for example to receive email alerts in advance of playout for missing files, whether those are TBD programs where the file as not been imported, or Offline content that has not yet been retrieved.
A time-saving feature, if you choose to enable it, is to ask the HyperCaster to auto-archive content upon import. This setting is found under Config → Content → Content. With this option enabled, whenever content is imported, it will automatically be archived to the designated Archive server.
