KB00228 - Setting up a Secondary Server

Summary :
This article describes how to setup a secondary FTR Reporter Server to provide redundancy in the event of a Primary Server failure.

More Information :
FTR Reporter Server records multiple courts. If this server (Primary Server) were to fail, it is essential that the record for all these courts be maintained.
If a Secondary Server is already running, no part of the record is lost in the event of a Primary Server failure.

The recorders on the Primary Server are started and stopped by the court reporters.  Primary Recordings are then replicated to a warehouse folder.

The recorders on the Secondary Server are configured to record continuously - 24/7/365.  Secondary Recordings are not replicated.

Secondary Recordings are deleted on a first in - first out basis when secondary storage is filled. The retention period for Secondary Recordings is controlled by the size of the secondary storage partition. For example, to keep Secondary Recordings for seven days when recording 16 x 8-channel audio-only courts, the secondary storage partition must be at least 260 GB.

In the event of the Primary Server failing, the court administrator uses TheRecord Manager to manually promote the Secondary Recordings to primary status by restoring them to the warehouse folder that stores replicated recordings from the Primary Server.

This article describes:
- how to setup the Secondary Server
- how to promote Secondary Recordings
- how to promote the Secondary Server
- how to setup a secondary CobraNet

This solution is based on the use of AudioScience ASI2416 cards in the courtrooms and ASI5316 cards in the servers.

*There is a lower-cost Secondary Server option that records a mono mix of each court to a single channel.  For details see KB article 229.

Solution :

Set up the primary FTR Reporter Server as usual.

Setting up the secondary FTR Reporter Server
To setup a secondary server:

• On the Secondary Server, create a secondary storage partition with an appropriate size to store recordings for the required retention period.  Download the attached calculator  FTR Reporter Server - Backup Capacity Calculator.xlsx   10.65K   97 downloads
  .
• Install and configure eight audio cards as usual (*the lower cost option requires only one audio card)
• Install FTR Reporter Server and set the recordings folder to be the secondary storage partition.
• Using the FTR Reporter Server Configuration Tool to do the following:
  Select the same number of channels as the Primary Server
  Enable continuous recording
  Set the recorder labels to be the same as the Primary Server
  
  Do this by opening a command window and running the following command:
  

  <program Files="">\FTR\ForTheRecord\ReporterServerConfigTool.exe –rootfolder <"folder"> -totalchannels <t>[–channels <n>] [-continuous] [-lqaudio] [-label01 <"label01">...-labelnn <"labelnn">]Where:-rootfolder <"folder">: Required parameter that defines the rootfolder. Place the folder quotes (")-channels <n>: Specifies how many channels to use per court. 2, 4 or 8 (default)-totalchannels <t>: Required parameter that specifies the total number of available channels-continuous: Sets recorders to record continuously-lqaudio: Sets recording quality to maximize storage-label01 <"label01">...-labelnn <"labelnn">Sets labels for each recorder, where [nn] is the total number of recorders.Recorder numbers less than 10 must be padded with 0, i.e. 01, 02, etc. Labels must be in quotes.

• Open a command window and run the following command to mark secondary recordings for deletion on disk full:
  
  

  <program Files="">\FTR\ForTheRecord\FTR.ReplicatorCfgServer.exe -deleteonfull

Note: If you later change a recording label on the Primary Server, be sure to apply the new name if you promote the secondary recordings.  See Promoting Secondary Recordings later in this article.

Setting up a secondary CobraNet
To support the Secondary Server, set up a secondary CobraNet. This creates a second network but leaves the microphones, court cabling and court audio mixer as points of failure but only for a single court.

• Plug the primary and secondary Cobranet cables into each courtroom audio mixer
• Plug the primary CobraNet cables into audio cards on Primary Server and the secondary cables into audio cards on the Secondary Server.
• Configure Cobranet to deliver bundles from the courtroom audio mixer to the audio cards in both the Primary Server and Secondary Server.

Promoting a set of Secondary Recordings
This would typically be done when the Primary Server is offline for a brief period.
For the period that the Primary Server is down, FTR Monitor computers will be offline.  Other users (such as transcript typists) can be re-directed to the Secondary Server to access recordings for playback.

Recordings from the Secondary server can then be promoted by doing the following:

• From the Export panel, choose Migrate and select the current days recordings from the warehouse. These recordings may contain corrupt files as a result of the Primary Server failure and must be removed before promoting Secondary Recordings.  Use the Export panel to Migrate these recordings to a temporary folder that can be deleted later.
• From the Export Panel in TheRecord Manager, add the recordings folder on the Secondary Server as a search folder.
• From the Import panel, choose Restore and select all recordings on the Secondary Server for the current day.  Restore these recordings to the warehouse folder.*

* Some courts change the label of the recorder from time to time (to match the name of the presiding officer for example). In this case, the label of the secondary recording will not match the label of the primary recording. To promote the secondary recording with a label that matches the primary recording, you should open each recording in TheRecord Player and click Save Copy To.  Set a temporary local save location then select the Change Label check box.  Set the label to match the Primary Recording label and save to the temporary folder.
Example

Once all recordings are are correctly labelled, use Restore form the Import Panel of TheRecord Manager to copy the recordings to the appropriate warehouse folder.

Promoting the Secondary Server to Primary Server
If the Primary Server has suffered a permanent failure or cannot be restored before the next day, then you can promote the Secondary Server to be the Primary Server.

• Using the configuration tool, disable continuous recording.
• Using FTR Monitor, remove the Available Recorders that were previously added for the Primary Server.
• Add the recorders from the Secondary Server to the list of Available Recorders.
• From the Replication Panel of TheRecord Manager, add the Secondary Server and point to the same replication destination as the Primary Server.