How to add storage to an existing VSM/VSOM environment

[infosecmgr]

I have existing VSM and VSOM/VSM-colocated servers that have been recording to local storage. I recently added iSCSI over fiber connections to a newly purchased SAN for additional storage.

Starting with just the VSM server and virtual machine, I have added the SAN storage to VMWare layer and presented the new disks to the VSM virtual machine.

I have ran the setup_media utility at the Redhat layer which has configured and mounted the 4 newly presented drives.

I have used the advanced setup feature on the VSM server to select the 4 newly presented, configured, and mounted drives for storage.

How do I get the existing or migrated (fromthe colocated VSM/VSOM server) cameras to record to the newly available space? When I df -h I can see the new /media2, /media3, /media4, /media5 and the new file on each "getstoragestatus". but no camera streams created.

Do I really need to spin up a new VSM and migrate all the cameras to it in order to start using the external storage?

A similar thread is the closest information I have found:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12950591/vsm-77-external-storage-recommendations

Scott Olsen about a month ago

• 

Sure do, and I would bet you aren't going to like TACs response.  It will likely be one of the following;

1) Establish an LTS VSMS instance with all the capacity you need and use VSM to ship all the existing archives to the LTS instance before you redo the media repos on the servers.

2) Spin up new VSMS servers (... and all the expense that implies) with your new desired media repo setup on the new SAN, and then point all your camera endpoints at the new VSMS instances.  Then proceed to wait out the timeframe required (based on your retention period) for VSM to organically groom away on the old archives while accruing all new video on the new SAN.

These were the solutions I was provided when I inquired about a similar situation for a client.  I inquired at both the TAC and PDI level... which  by extension was fielded by the BU.  Of course, the situations are not completely identical as we were hoping to forklift-replace an entire VSMS server, where you *may* be able to just perform some OS level disk administration.  I'm skeptical, however.

I was informed that there was no way to manually ship/relocate archives.  Do please share your results if they happen to offer you an alternative.

Cheers.

[Scott Olsen]

Hey there!

If you already have and intend to keep the VSMS instances already (which it sounds like you have), you should be able to add capacity in the form of raw block device storage (which you've also mentioned above).  The media repositories should be good to go if you see them listed under the advanced properties sheet of the VSMS servers.  Assuming this *is* where you are at, there is a way forward... but you'll need to involve Cisco TAC.

Each camera, when enabled and provisioned on a media server, will be assigned a media repository directory for each of its recording streams.  As far as I'm aware, this is assigned once, and does not dynamically change or self-balance.   i.e. - If you only had MEDIA1 and MEDIA2 when you provisioned all your cameras... all your recordings are going to persist on these two volumes, regardless of whether you add additional storage or not.

However, there *is* a manual way to 'update' which media repository a given camera will record to going forward using a special bash script that Cisco has produced.  Unfortunately, it's a very manual process, and you need to choose which cameras will be re-pointed to which repositories.  Also unfortunately, I fear I'm not permitted to share this script with you and that you should request TACs assistance in rebalancing the media repositories.  More information here:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12559531/balance-media-drives

As for one of my responses you highlighted above... this was quite literally a situation where we were trying to move 26TB of archive video from a co-located VSM instance to a standalone VSMS instance without having to double the expense and potentially wait for the entire retention period (500+ days).  Again, if you're simply trying to add block device storage to an existing VSMS instance, it is possible.  If you were hoping to forklift a whole VSMS server and historical archives (chassis upgrade, etc...), well, that's a different story...

Hope this helps.

Cheers! 

[infosecmgr]

Yes, Scott Olsen answer is accurate.

The very manual script is called shloc.sh

Example use

sh chloc.sh 10073 /media5

Moves camera stream recording 10073 from wherever it is currently located to /media5

One can use the advanced features setup to deselect the storage location after all the camera streams have been moved off.

also required to get the streams to actually move:

# service cisco restart

It might be worthwhile to service cisco stop, then move the camera streams, then service cisco start to reduce some start /stop of the database service.