Pre-Requisites
Things to check before you start
Review and Disentangle Recorder Storage Configurations
Each XProtect Recorder exclusively owns all storage volumes defined across its storage configuration profiles. Administrators have complete flexibility to create profiles that use any combination of volumes.
For example, a storage profile may span multiple volumes — distributing each device's media database across all of them. In such configurations, a volume cannot be directly migrated to another Recorder without data loss, since its media database is interdependent with the other volumes in the profile.
To enable migration, these interdependencies must first be resolved by reconfiguring the affected storage profiles so that each profile referencing the target volume uses only that volume. We must then wait for XProtect to age-out (or move all data), before the volume can be safely migrated.
Review and Disentangle Devices
Devices managed by the Recorder, which owns the volume to be migrated, may use multiple storage profiles. For example, a device with a camera, microphone, and metadata stream might store:
Video from the camera on one profile,
Audio from the microphone on another, and
Metadata on a third.
One of these profiles could reside on the volume slated for migration, while the others may reference different volumes.
In such cases, the volume cannot be migrated until all affected devices are disentangled — meaning each device must either:
Use only the target volume, or
Stop using that volume entirely.
After updating the storage profile configuration, allow existing recordings to age out or be archived by XProtect before proceeding.
Edit the storage profiles assigned to each device to disentangle dependencies and prepare for safe Volume Migration.
Review Volume Unmount/Mount Instructions
Carefully follow the storage manufacturer's guidelines when unmounting or mounting the volume to be migrated. Incorrect handling can result in catastrophic data loss. Although the illustrations below depict physical unmount and mount actions, the same precautions apply to logical operations involving virtual or network-mounted storage.
Ensure Adequate Temporary Storage at the Destination Recorder
The migration process consists of two main stages:
Device Transfer: Devices are first moved from the source Recorder to the destination Recorder so that new recordings immediately begin on the destination.
Volume Migration: The archived content for these devices is migrated when the volume's ownership is transferred to the destination Recorder.
Because the volume transfer and subsequent media database rebuild can take several hours, ensure that the destination Recorder's default storage profile volume has enough free space to store new recordings during this period temporarily.
Duplicate Devices
Ensure that the destination Recorder does not include any device that is currently being recorded by the source Recorder on the volume scheduled for migration. If such devices are found, delete them from either the source or the destination before proceeding.
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