VBrick Video On Demand Server

VOD-W 50/125/300 Server v6.0

Admin Guide

May 13, 2013

Copyright
© 2013 VBrick Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
2121 Cooperative Way, Suite 100
Herndon, VA 20171, USA

This publication contains confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information. No part of this document may be copied,
photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any machine-readable or electronic format without prior written
permission from VBrick Systems, Inc. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and VBrick assumes
no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies. VBrick, VBrick Systems, the VBrick logo, VEMS Mystro,
StreamPlayer, and StreamPlayer Plus are trademarks or registered trademarks of VBrick Systems, Inc. in the United States
and other countries. Windows Media, SharePoint, OCS and Lync are trademarked names of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States and other countries. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by the
trademarks, service marks, or product names as designated by the companies who market those products. Inquiries should be
made directly to those companies. This document may also have links to third-party web pages that are beyond the control of
VBrick. The presence of such links does not imply that VBrick endorses or recommends the content of any third-party web
pages. VBrick acknowledges the use of third-party open source software and licenses in some VBrick products. This freely
available source code is posted at http://www.vbrick.com/opensource

About VBrick Systems

Founded in 1997, VBrick Systems, an ISO 9001 certified vendor, is a privately held company that has enjoyed rapid growth
by helping our customers successfully introduce mission critical video applications across their enterprise networks. Since our
founding, VBrick has been setting the standard for quality, performance and innovation in the delivery of live and stored
video over IP networks—LANs, WANs and the Internet. With thousands of video appliances installed world-wide, VBrick is
the recognized leader in reliable, high-performance, easy-to-use networked video solutions.
VBrick is an active participant in the development of industry standards and continues to play an influential role in the
Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA), the MPEG Industry Forum, and Internet2. In 1998 VBrick invented and shipped
the world's first MPEG Video Network Appliance designed to provide affordable DVD-quality video across the network.
Since then, VBrick's video solutions have grown to include Video on Demand, Management, Security and Access Control,
Scheduling, and Rich Media Integration. VBrick solutions are successfully supporting a broad variety of applications
including distance learning and training, conferencing and remote office communications, security, process monitoring,
traffic monitoring, business and news feeds to the desktop, webcasting, corporate communications, collaboration, command
and control, and telemedicine. VBrick serves customers in education, government, healthcare, and financial services markets
among others.
 Contents
VOD-W Server v6.0 Admin Guide
Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Font Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Related Publications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Printer-Friendly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

1. Server Overview
Server Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Server Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Server Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Required Server Disk Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Server Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
VOD-W Product CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Hardware Installation
Installing VOD-W Server Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Unpack the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Connect the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Configure the Server in VEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Verify the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Configuring Secure Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Basic Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SSL Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3. Software Installation
Installation Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Getting a License. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Installing the VOD-W Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Additional Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Viewing License Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Uninstalling the VOD-W Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
VEMS Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4. Server Administration
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Using a Remote Desktop Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Using a Direct Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

VOD-W Server Admin Guide iii

 Configuring the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Launching the Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Using HTTP Tunneling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Changing the Web Service Communication Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Advanced Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Adding External Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using Secure URL Password Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Manually Ingesting Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Monitoring the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Backup and Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Database Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Database Restore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Server Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

5. Monitoring the Server

Using the QVOD Server Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Log Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

6. Ingesting Content
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Ingestion Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Content Ingestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Content Backup and Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

7. Troubleshooting
VOD-W Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Generating Custom Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Windows Event Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
VOD-W License Diagnostics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

8. Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (32-Bit Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

iv Contents
 VOD-W Server v6.0 Admin Guide

This VOD-W Admin Guide is written for anyone who will be using a VBrick VEMS VOD-W
Video on Demand Server. This includes system administrators, network technicians, and
others. This document explains how to set up and configure the VOD-W server, how to
install the VOD-W software (if the hardware was not purchased from VBrick), how to
perform initial admin tasks, and how to add storage. For most common tasks like ingesting
content, use the VEMS Portal Server and refer to the VEMS Portal Server Admin Guide for
details. You can perform most administration tasks using the Portal Server and it is unlikely
you will ever need to access the VOD-W interface. VEMS VOD-W servers are a key
component in VBrick's Enterprise Media System. The VEMS VOD-W server provides all
standard video-on-demand (VOD) features including support for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and
H.264 content.

Organization

1. Server Overview provides a brief introduction to the features and functionality of

the VOD-W server and explains the differences between server
models.
2. Hardware Installation explains how to unpack, connect, and configure secure
communications on the server.
3. Software Installation explains how to install the VOD-W software on a server not
purchased from VBrick.
4. Server Administration explains how to use the configuration utility in case you need to
reconfigure server parameters or reboot the system.
5. Monitoring the Server explains how to use the monitoring utility to view performance
characteristics and set log levels.
6. Ingesting Content explains the concepts of ingesting content. It also describes
important considerations and best practices.
7. Troubleshooting explains how to do basic troubleshooting when you run into
problems.
8. Upgrading to SQL explains how to upgrade from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server
Server 2008 R2 Express 2008 Express.

Getting Help
If you need help, or more information about any topic, use the online help system. Use the
book icons in the left pane to open documents and the up and down arrows in the right pane
to page through them. Use the Search box to find specific information. Simply enter one or more
words in the box and press Enter. The search results will return pages that have all of the
words you entered highlighted in yellow (Internet Explorer only). The Search box is not case-
sensitive and does not recognize articles (a, an, or the), operators (+ and –), or quotation
marks. You can narrow the search by adding words. To view all VBrick documentation,
including the latest updates, go to www.vbrick.com/documentation If you can't find the
information you need from the online help, the VBrick documentation, or your certified

VOD-W Server Admin Guide v

 VBrick reseller, you can contact VBrick Support Services on the web. Support Services will
make every effort to answer your technical questions in 24 business hours or less. VBrick is
committed to accurate and reliable documentation. If you find errors or omissions in any of
our documents, please send e-mail to documentation@vbrick.com and let us know.

Font Conventions
Arial bold is used to describe dialog boxes and menu choices, for example: Start > All
Programs > VBrick

Courier fixed-width font is used for scripts, code examples, or keyboard commands.
Courier bold fixed-width font is used for user input in scripts, code examples, or keyboard
commands.
This bold black font is used to strongly emphasize important words or phrases.
Folder names and user examples in text are displayed in this sans serif font.
User input in text is displayed in this bold sans serif font.
Italics are used in text to emphasize specific words or phrases.

Related Publications
Dell PowerEdge 620 Technical Guidebook
Dell PowerVaultMD1000 Product Documentation

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vi Preface
 Chapter 1

Server Overview
VBrick's VEMS VOD-W Server has been integrated with the VEMS family of products
including the VEMS Mysrto™ Portal Server, and Windows Media and H.264 streaming
encoders. The VEMS VOD-W delivers stored MPEG and H.264 assets as unicast streams
across an Ethernet network. The VEMS VOD-W is built on a Dell hardware platform as
detailed in the following tables. Other features include the ability to schedule asset playback,
asset searching, user and system statistics, and more. The VEMS Portal Server is required to
gain the full benefits of the VEMS VOD-W server and is sold separately.
In order to set up the VEMS Portal Server, follow the directions in the VEMS Portal Server
Admin Guide. Once the VEMS Portal Server is setup and configured, you can access video on
the VEMS VOD-W server through the VEMS Portal Server web interface. VBrick uses its
own software-based components to decode streams on the desktop. There is no client-side
software to install. The VEMS Portal Server automatically downloads components to your
desktop PC the first time you access to the system.

Note VOD-W 6.0 runs on a 64-bit operating system machine and works with VEMS Mystro
6.2 and above only—it does not work with earlier versions of VEMS or VEMS Mystro.
VOD-W 5.4 and 5.4.1 (which are 32-bit) continue to operate with VEMS 5.4.x and all
previous versions of VEMS Mystro.

Figure 1. VBrick VOD-W Server

Topics in this chapter

Server Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Server Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Server Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Server Description
The VBrick VOD-W servers provide interactive, on-demand playback of standards-based,
high-quality video that is stored on the server with a variety of methods. The VOD-W servers
are a basic component in the VBrick's VEMS solution and work seamlessly with the VEMS
Portal Server. They ingest and stream unicast and multicast streams in the following formats:

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 1

 • MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (part 2), H.264 RTSP unicast
• MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (part 2), H.264 multicast

Server Models
VBrick currently supports the server models shown in shown in Table 1 and will continue to
provide legacy support for 1850/2850, 1950/2950 series models. Contact VBrick Support
Services or your authorized reseller for more information about upgrade options.

Table 1. VOD-W Server Models

Model Hardware Windows Server 2008 R2 Max Throughput

VOD-50W Dell PowerEdge 620 Standard Edition 50 Mbps
VOD-125W Dell PowerEdge 620 Standard Edition 125 Mbps
VOD-300W Dell PowerEdge 620 Standard Edition 300 Mbps

Note The secure web interface to the Portal Server (see Configuring Secure
Communications on page 10) and the secure URL features (see Using Secure URL
Password Protection on page 44) require Portal Server 4.2.1 or higher, as does
automatic streaming to Internet clients over HTTP.

System Requirements
The VOD-W server has been tested to provide the specified performance (50, 125, or 300
Mbps) with no additional software installed. Be aware that the installation of virus scanners or
security software that consume system I/O resources may have an adverse impact on streaming
performance. These components are not tested by VBrick and you should test the VOD-W for
performance and reliability after installing them. If additional programs are installed, it may
be necessary to re-install the VOD software and the database in order to restore proper
operation. Contact VBrick Support Services for more information.

Server Hardware
VBrick VOD Servers
VBrick VOD servers use the latest PowerEdge hardware from Dell. Be aware that VBrick is
currently transitioning from legacy PowerEdge 610/710 models to current 620 PowerEdge
models. As a result your site may have 610/710 models, 620 models, or a combination of both
models. If purchasing your own hardware, use server hardware that meets or exceeds the
recommendations for the PowerEdge 620 models used by VBrick as shown in shown in Table 2.

If purchasing your own server hardware, VBrick requires that you use a dedicated server that
meets or exceeds the following hardware specifications. The use of a less capable system may
adversely affect system performance and will likely impact the streams viewed VEMS end
users.

2 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.

 Server Overview

Table 2. VOD-W Server Recommended Specifications

Server Item Description

VOD-50W Base Unit Dell PowerEdge R620 XL,TPM
Network Interface Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card
RAID Type RAID 1 for H710P/H710/H310 (2 HDDs)
RAID Controller PERC H310 Integrated RAID Controller
Processor Intel Xeon E5-2603 1.80GHz, 10M Cache, 6.4GT/s QPI, No Turbo,
4C, 80W, Max Mem 1066MHz
Memory 4GB RDIMM, 1600 MHz, Standard Volt, Dual Rank, x8 - Quantity 4
Hard Drive 500GB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 2.5in HotPlug Hard Drive -
Quantity 2
Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 SP x86
VOD-125W Base Unit Dell PowerEdge R620 XL,TPM
Network Interface Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card
RAID Type RAID 5 for H710P/H710/H310 (3-10 HDDs)
RAID Controller PERC H310 Integrated RAID Controller
Processor Intel Xeon E5-2603 1.80GHz,10M Cache,6.4GT/s QPI, No Turbo,
4C,80W, Max Mem 1066MHz
Memory 4GB RDIMM, 1600 MHz, Standard Volt, Dual Rank, x8 - Quantity 4
Hard Drive 500GB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 2.5in HotPlug Hard Drive -
Quantity 6
Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x86
VOD-300W Base Unit Dell PowerEdge R620 XL,TPM
Network Interface Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card
RAID Type RAID 1+RAID 5 for H710P/H710/H310 (2 + 3-8 HDDs)
RAID Controller PERC H310 Integrated RAID Controller
Processor Intel Xeon E5-2603 1.80GHz,10M Cache,6.4GT/s QPI,No
Turbo,4C, 80W, Max Mem 1066MHz
Memory 4GB RDIMM, 1600 MHz, Standard Volt, Dual Rank, x8 - Quantity 8
Hard Drive 1TB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 2.5in Hotplug Hard Drive -
Quantity 6
500GB 7.2K RPM Near-Line SAS 6Gbps 2.5in HotPlug Hard Drive -
Quantity 2
Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x86

Required Server Disk Partitions

Note If you are installing the VOD-W software on your own server (not purchased from
VBrick) you will need to partition the logical disks as explained below. This partition
configuration is absolutely required for successful VOD operation.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 3

 On the VOD 50W the following logical disks must be present on the server. Drive C must
contain the operating system. Drive D will contain VOD content. On the VOD 125W and
VOD 300W, drive D must be on a RAID5 file system containing at least four disks. The
physical disks in this RAID array must be dedicated to VOD content and not shared with any
other applications. Drive E is the staging area for content about to be ingested and should be
large enough for this purpose. VBrick recommends partitioning the first physical drive in the
system to contain both drives C and E. Other logical drives in addition to drive D can be
added to the system to store content. Each of these logical drives must be a RAID5 with at
least four physical disks dedicated to VOD content and not shared with other applications.

Table 3. Approximate Partition Sizes (GB)

VOD-50W C: 60
E: 100
D: 300 + remainder
VOD-125W C: 60
E: 100
D: 2160 + remainder
VOD-300W C: 100
E: 200 + remainder
D: 4656 + remainder

Note If you need additional storage capacity, various external storage options are available
from Dell and other vendors. If you purchased your server from VBrick, contact
VBrick Support Services or your certified VBrick reseller for help.

Server Software
If you purchased your server from VBrick, all server software and licenses are pre-
installed by VBrick. If you did not purchase your server from VBrick, you will need to
obtain a license from VBrick and install the VOD-W software as explained in Software
Installation on page 17. If, for some reason, you ever need to reinstall the software, use the
Dell Recovery CDs to reinstall the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system; use the VOD-
W Server Software CD to restore the VOD-W content server and other components. Each
VOD-W server purchased from VBrick has the following software pre-installed.

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Web or Enterprise Edition

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express
• Internet Information Services (IIS)
• ASP.NET.
• QuickVideo Content Server application

VOD-W Product CD
Use the VOD-W Server Product CD if you ever need to reinstall the content server and other
components. It also includes this VOD-W Server Admin Guide in searchable HTML format.

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 Server Overview

Figure 2. VOD-W Product CD

Technical Support
If you can't find the information you need from the documentation or your reseller, you can
contact VBrick Support Services on the web. The Support Services website has downloads,
FAQs, documentation, support guidelines, and an on-line form you can use to submit
questions. VBrick will make every effort to answer your technical questions in 24 business
hours or less.

Figure 3. VBrick On-Line Support Web Page

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 5

6 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 Chapter 2

Hardware Installation
Note If you purchased your server from VBrick, install the server hardware as explained
below. If you did not purchase your server from VBrick, install the server according to
the manufacturer's instructions. Then go to Software Installation on page 17 and
install the VOD-W software.

Topics in this chapter

Installing VOD-W Server Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Configuring Secure Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Installing VOD-W Server Hardware

The installation of the QVOD server is straightforward. When you purchase a QuickVideo
OnDemand Server and a corresponding license file with the proper settings are included in
your package. The license file regulates the maximum video streaming throughput and the
maximum number of simultaneous video streams. For example, if you purchase a 125 Mbps
license key, the maximum video throughput from the server will be limited to 125 Mbps and
the maximum number of simultaneous users accessing the server will be limited to 125.
Unpack the server and connect the cables as described below. As noted, all software and
licenses are pre-installed.
 To install the server onsite at your location:
1. Unpack the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Connect the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3. Configure the Server in VEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Verify the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Unpack the Server

Each shipment comes with:
• A complete VEMS VOD-W (including external storage if purchased).
• All power cords and cables.
• Rack mount kit.
• This VEMS VOD-W Server Admin Guide.
• Product CD case with these items:
• VBrick VOD-W Server Software CD.
• VBrick VOD-W Server License CD.
• EULA (End User License Agreement).

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 7

 Connect the Server
 To set up the VOD-W server:
1. Connect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and network cables as described below.
2. If rack mounting the unit, mount the VOD-W server in the rack, using the rack mount
kit provided.
3. Connect the VOD-W server to the network by plugging the 10/100/1000 BaseT
Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port 1 on the rear of the unit.

Figure 4. Dell 620 – Rear View

4. Connect the monitor cable to the video port (front or rear) on the VOD-W server. Turn
the monitor on.
5. Connect a mouse and keyboard to any available USB ports (front or rear) on the VOD-W
server.

Figure 5. Dell 620 – Front View (without bezel)

6. Plug the VOD-W server into a power source, using the power cords provided. (All VOD
servers have redundant power supplies, each with its own cord.)
7. Turn the VOD-W server's main power on by pressing the power switch at the front of
the unit.

Figure 6. Dell 620 – LCD Control Panel

8. The VOD-W server will boot and automatically load using the default settings. Wait 5–8
minutes for the unit to fully power up. As new hardware is attached (for example a
keyboard and mouse) the operating system will automatically find and install the drivers.

Configure the Server in VEMS

The VOD-W server must be configured in VBrick's VEMS Portal Server before it is
recognized as part of the VEMS system. The VOD-W 6.0 software is compatible with VEMS
Mystro 6.2 or higher only.
 To configure the VOD-W server to work with a VEMS Mystro 6.x Portal Server:
1. Launch VEMS Portal Server and login as an administrator.
2. Go to Devices > Stored Servers and click Add New Server.
a. On the Server Information page, enter a user-friendly name, a brief description, and
click Submit.
b. On the Entry Points tab, enter the Hostname or IP address.
c. On the Publishing Points tab, click Add New Publishing Point .

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 Hardware Installation

Figure 7. Add VOD Server (VEMS Mystro 6.x)

3. From the Type dropdown select VODW.
4. Fill in the remaining fields as appropriate and click Submit when done. In most cases you
can use the defaults. For more information see the Mystro Portal Server Admin Guide.

Refresh Stored Content on Portal Server

This completes the Portal Server Configuration. However in order to verify the installation as
explained below, you must refresh (auto-discover) the demo content on the VOD-W server
as follows:
 To refresh the stored (demo) content on the Portal Server:
1. Launch the VEMS Portal Server admin pages and go to System Settings > Task
Scheduler.
2. Find Refresh Stored Content on the Current Tasks page and click Run .

Verify the Installation

Use the following sequence of steps to verify the VOD-W server is installed properly and can
communicate with the VEMS Portal Server. If you can use the VEMS Portal Server to launch
a video stored on the VOD-W Server, you have tested connectivity and verified the
installation. For more information about VEMS Portal Server, see the VEMS Portal Server
Admin Guide.
 To verify the installation:
1. Ping the IP address of the VOD-W server from any PC in the same network.
2. Launch a VEMS Portal Server client. (Open a browser and enter the VEMS Portal Server
hostname or IP address (e.g. http://portalserveripaddr ) in the address bar.
3. Go to the Stored Video page in VEMS 6.x and launch any video in the Demo folder. The
video should display in the preview window.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 9

 4. On the VOD-W server, go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Monitor
QVOD Server to launch the QuickVideo OnDemand Server Console (Figure 8).
5. In the navigation pane on the console, click on Sessions to view playback data for the
video you just launched. Important: You must view the Session Manager while playback
is in progress. If the video ends, no data will be shown.
6. Verify that the Host Name IP address matches the computer from which you launched
the video. If the IP address matches and a DataRate is shown, you have verified
connectivity between the VOD-W server and the VEMS Portal Server.

Figure 8. QuickVideo OnDemand Server Console

Once you have completed the steps to this point you are good to go and no further software
configuration is required, unless you wish to configure secure communications (see below). If
you subsequently need to change the IP address or default storage path for example, use the
server's Product Configuration utility (see Configuring the Server on page 40). The
supported configurable parameters include the following and others:

• Server IP address.
• Storage path.
• Log file configuration parameters.
• Maximum number of simultaneous ingestion sessions.
• Ingestion process timeout period.
• Secure RTSP URL enable and password.
• HTTP tunneling enable and port.

Configuring Secure Communications

Optional. Use this optional functionality to protect communication between the Portal
Server and VOD-W. The Portal Server controls the VOD-W over a web service
communications interface. There are two ways to protect communication between the Portal
Server and VOD-W Server:

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 Hardware Installation

• Basic authentication – this method uses the FTP username and password configured on
the VOD-W. See "Changing the Default FTP Password" in the VOD-W Release Notes for
instructions on how to configure this user name and password on the VOD-W and on
the Portal Server. The VOD-W challenges the Portal Server for login information and
the Portal Server responds.
• SSL encryption – communication between the VOD-W and Portal Server is encrypted
using a certificate installed on the VOD-W.

Basic Authentication
Basic authentication (without SSL encryption) passes passwords in an easily discovered
format. SSL encryption is recommended if you wish to protect communications between the
Portal Server and VOD-W.
 To enable basic authentication:
1. From the VOD-W Server, start the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager.
2. Expand the server name and select the Default Web Site.
3. Double-click on Authentication in the pane on the right side.
4. Make sure Anonymous Authentication is not enabled.
5. If enabled, right-click and select DisableF.

SSL Encryption
Since you are managing both the VOD-W and the Portal Server, you know you can trust the
VOD-W and you can use any certificate to encrypt communications. You may already have a
certificate installed that you can use.

1. Checking for an Installed Certificate

 To check for an installed certificate:
1. From the VOD-W Server, start the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager.
2. Select the server name and click on Server Certificates in the right pane.
3. Click on the Server Certificate button to launch the Server Certificate Wizard.
4. Click Next on the Welcome dialog box.
5. Select Assign an existing certificate and click Next .
6. If the Select a certificate list is not empty, there is a certificate on the VOD-W you can
use (you can use this one or you can get a new a certificate as explained below.) Select a
certificate, and click Next three times and Finish to install.
7. Then click Edit... under Secure communications.
8. Check Require secure channel (SSL) . For more secure encryption, also check Require
128-bit encryption . Click OK .
9. Click Apply and OK and you are done configuring SSL encryption with an existing
certificate.

2. Generating a New Certificate Request

If your company does not have a X.509 certificate, or does not have one for the VOD-W
Server, a new certificate request must first be created.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 11

  To generate a certificate request:
1. From the VOD-W Server, start the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager.
2. Click the server name and double-click Server Certificates in the pane on the right side.

3. In the Actions column on the right, click Create Certificate Request .

4. Type an organization name (e.g. VBrick) in the Organization field and type an
organizational unit (such as Sales Department) in the Organizational unit field. (This
information will be placed in the certificate request, so make sure it is accurate. The
Certificate Authority will verify this information and will place it in the certificate. A user
browsing the VOD-W Server will want to see this information in order to decide if they
should accept the certificate.)

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 Hardware Installation

5. In the Common name field, type a common name, and then select Next . (Important: The
common name is one of the most significant pieces of information that ends up in the
certificate.)
6. Enter the appropriate information in the Country/Region , State/Province, and City/
locality fields, and then select Next .

7. Select a Cryptographic Service Provider and Bit Length and click Next .

8. Enter a file name for the certificate request. The file contains information similar to the
following:
------BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST ------
MIIDZjCCAs………
------END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST ---------
This is a Base 64 encoded representation of the certificate request. The request contains
the information entered into the wizard and also your public key and information signed
with your private key.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 13

 9. Select Next . The wizard displays a summary of the information contained in the
certificate request.
10. Select Next and select Finish to complete the request process.

3. Submitting a New Certificate Request

If a CA-signed Certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (such as VeriSign or Thawte)
is going to be purchased, the certificate can now be sent to a CA for verification and
processing. After the certificate response is received from the CA, the installation process can
continue on the VOD-W Server. Purchasing a CA-signed certificate will cause a security alert
in the browser upon access to the server.

4. Installing the New Certificate

 To install the certificate on the VOD-W Server:
1. Click on Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Click on the server name in the Connections column on the left. Double-click on Server
Certificates.

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3. In the Actions column on the right, click on Complete Certificate Request .

4. Click the button with the three dots and select the server certificate you received from
the certificate authority. If the certificate does not have a .cer file extension, select to
view all types. Enter a user-friendly name in order to track the certificate on this server.
Click OK when done.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 15

 5. If successful, you will see your newly installed certificate in the list. If you receive an
error stating that the request or private key cannot be found, make sure you are using the
correct certificate and that you are installing it to the same server that you generated the
CSR on. If you are sure of those two things, you may just need to create a new Certificate
Request and reissue/replace the certificate. Contact your certificate authority if you have
problems.

Examine the certificate overview, click Next , and the click Finish . A certificate is now
installed on the VOD-W Server.

Note The default FTP server also transmits user names and passwords in an easily
discovered form. The topic "Using Secure FTP" in the Portal Server Admin Guide
explains how to install and configure secure FTP.

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 Chapter 3

Software Installation
Topics in this chapter
Installation Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Installing the VOD-W Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Additional Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Note If you purchased a VOD-W server from VBrick, you can skip this section. A VBrick
server is shipped with Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) and with VOD-W software
already installed.

Software installation instructions are provided here if you did not purchase your server
from VBrick or if you ever need to reinstall the software. These instructions explain how to
install the VOD-W software on a system that already has Windows Server 2008 R2 installed. Keep
in mind that if you reinstall the software as explained here, you will also need to restore the
database and video content (see Database Restore on page 48).
 To reinstall the VOD-W software or to install the software on a server not purchased
from VBrick:
1. Verify that your server has the required disk partitions. See Required Server Disk
Partitions on page 3.
2. Get a license file from VBrick. You must do this after you have started installing the
software. See Getting a License on page 18.
3. Install the SQL Server and VOD-W software from the VOD-W Product CD. See
Installing the VOD-W Software on page 26.
4. Add the VOD-W Server to the VEMS Portal Server configuration. See Configure the
Server in VEMS on page 8.
5. Optional. To protect communications between the Portal Server and VOD-W, see
Configuring Secure Communications on page 10.

Installation Overview
The installation of the VOD server is straightforward. The license file regulates the
maximum video streaming throughput and the maximum number of simultaneous video
streams. For example, if you purchase a 125 Mbps license key, the maximum video
throughput from the server will be limited to 125 Mbps and the maximum number of
simultaneous users accessing the server will be limited to 125.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 17

 Notes • Before you install the VOD-W software on a machine with Windows Server 2008
R2, you must check for and install all of the latest Windows Updates (including
optional updates). To check for updates, go to Control Panel > Windows Update.
• Domain policies can cause the VOD-W software installation to fail. Consequently
the machine on which you are installing the VOD-W software must be a fresh
installation of Windows that has not been joined to a domain.

Getting a License
After software installation, it will be necessary to install a license file provided by VBrick.
Getting and installing the license are separate steps as explained in detail on the following
pages.
 To get a license file:
1. Install the VOD-W software; see Installing the VOD-W Software. After software
installation you will complete the License Registration page.
2. Then go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\InfoValue and copy the file
InfoValueReg.form
3. E-mail this file to licenses@vbrick.com along with the following required information and
wait for a response from VBrick. This will generally take one business day or less.
• VBrick sales order number.
• Reseller name.
• Reseller contact name, contact e-mail address, and contact phone number.
• End user contact name, contact e-mail address, and contact phone number.
• Send license to (select one): End user contact/Reseller contact.
4. Once you receive a license, back it up in a safe location. Then install the license and
complete the installation.

Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Software

As explained below, installing the VOD-W is a two-step process. First you install the SQL
Server 2008 Express software, then you install the VOD-W software. Insert the VEMS
VOD-W Server Product CD into the CD-ROM drive on the server. Then open Windows
Explorer and navigate to the "software" folder on the CD.
 To install SQL Server 2008 Express:
1. Run SQLEXPRWT_x86_ENU.exe by double-clicking on it.
2. Click on "New installation or add features to existing installation."

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 Software Installation

3. Select on "I accept the license terms" the click Next .

4. Click Next on Setup Support Rules; if everything passes click Next again.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 19

 5. If Windows PowerShell fails, open Control Panel and select "Program and Features" then
Features to add Windows PowerShell. Select "Windows PowerShell" then click Next .

6. Click "Install" to add the Windows PowerShell feature.

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 Software Installation

7. Click Close on "Installation Results" window.

8. After the operation is completed, click "Rerun."

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 21

 9. Click Next on "Feature Selection" window.

10. Select "Default instance" then click Next on "Instance Configuration" window.

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 Software Installation

11. Click Next on "Server Configuration" window.

12. Select "Mix Mode (SQL server authentication and Windows authentication)," enter
vbrick for password and confirm, then click on "Add current User" and Next .

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 23

 13. Click Next on "Error Reporting" window.

14. Click Close.

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 Software Installation

15. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager and right-click to Enable all for both.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 25

 16. Reboot the server.

Installing the VOD-W Software

The VBrick VOD-W server comes from the factory with Windows Server 2008 R2 and the
VOD-W software already installed.
 To install on a system with Windows Server 2008 R2 already present:
1. Insert Product CD into CD drive.
2. Open Windows Explorer then browse to CD-ROM.
3. Install SQL 2008 R2 refer to topic "Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Software."
4. Install InfoValue Quickvideo OnDemand Server by double clicking on SetupVOD
W_6_X_X_X.exe)
5. Click Install on Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistribution.

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 Software Installation

6. Click OK for reboot if the message pops up.

7. Click Install on Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistribution.

8. Enter a 9 digit serial number and click Next .

9. Click Yes to confirm the serial number.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 27

 10. Click Next on Welcome for QuickVideo OnDemand Server.

11. Click Yes on "License Agreement."

12. Click Next on "Choose Destination Location."

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 Software Installation

13. Click Next on "Welcome to VBrick InfoValue OnDemand Server."

14. Click Install on "Installing VBrick InfoValue OnDemand Server."

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 29

 15. Click Next on "Check System Configuration."

16. Click Yes on "Configurator."

17. Click Done on "Quick Configuration."

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18. Click OK .

19. Click Close.

20. Click Finish to reboot.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 31

 21. Wait for reboot to complete then login to the server.
22. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Configure InfoValue Services. Click
on License tab and then click Registration Form .

23. Complete the Registration Form and click OK .

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 Software Installation

24. When done, go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\InfoValue and copy the file
InfoValueReg.form . (If reinstalling the VOD-W software you will already have a license
file. Skip Steps 24 and 25 and click Next to go to the InfoValue Product Configuration
page.)
25. E-mail the registration file to licenses@vbrick.com. Be sure to include in your e-mail all of
the required information described in Getting a License on page 18. VBrick will return a
license file typically in four business days or less. Complete the remaining steps in this
procedure after you receive a license file from VBrick.
26. Insert license CD into CDROM drive.
27. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Configure InfoValue Services. Click
on License tab to load license file. Note: If license file needs to be reloaded open
Windows Explorer and browse to C:\windows\system32 and delete infovalue*.lic file.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 33

 28. Click OK .

29. Click OK .

30. Click Restart from Start menu.

31. Wait for reboot to complete then login to the server.
32. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Configure InfoValue Services.
33. The "InfoValue Product Configuration" screen will display. For VOD-W 50, the D drive
is approx: 136 Gbytes; for VOD-W 125W, the D drive is approx: 409GBbytes; for
VOD-W 300, the D drive is approx: 838Gbytes.
34. If external storage is configured, click Add Storage Path , create and browse to the
"Content2" directory on the external storage volume, click Add and click OK .
35. Repeat step above for each external storage volume.
36. Click OK on "QuickVideo Configuration."

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37. Click Restart from Start menu.

38. Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Content > Ingest Content . To ingest all demo contents.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 35

Additional Steps
Viewing License Status
The license file corresponding to maximum streams and bandwidth you purchased is pre-
installed on the server by VBrick. Under normal circumstances you will never have to re-
install the license. The license file regulates the maximum video streaming throughput and
the maximum number of simultaneous video streams. The license file is pre-installed on the
VOD-W server in the \system32 folder.
 To view the current license status:
1. Launch the QVOD Server Console.
2. Review the information of the splash page for current status: Maximum Number of
Streams and Maximum Throughput .

Uninstalling the VOD-W Software

This procedure does not delete or remove any content that has already been ingested. To
remove ingested content, use the content deletion procedures before or after installation.
The following procedure explains how to uninstall the software and remove the database.
The folders you will be instructed to delete contain the database; to save a copy of this
database, see Database Backup on page 47.
 To uninstall the VOD-W software:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Uninstall InfoValue Software to uninstall the
QuickVideo OnDemand Server.
2. For a cleaner uninstall, you should also uninstall the database components. To uninstall
database components, go to Start > Control Panel > Program features and uninstall All
Microsoft SQL Server.
3. To uninstall the remaining VBrick VOD-W components, go to Start > Control Panel >
Program features and uninstall EtherneTV VOD-W.
4. Reboot the host after uninstalling these items.
5. Save the database if necessary to D:\Database_Backup as explained in Database Backup
on page 47.
6. Log back in and manually remove the following folders from C:\Program Files:
InfoValue
Microsoft SQL Server
VBrick

VEMS Configuration
Before you are done, you will still need to configure the Portal Server and (optionally) secure
communications as explained below.

Configure the The VOD-W server must be configured in VBrick's VEMS Portal
Portal Server Server before it is recognized as part of the VEMS system. See
Configure the Server in VEMS on page 8.

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Configure Secure Optional. You can also configure additional security on the server using
Communications basic authentication or SSL encryption. Use this functionality to protect
communication between the Portal Server and VOD-W. See
Configuring Secure Communications on page 10.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 37

38 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 Chapter 4

Server Administration
Topics in this chapter
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Configuring the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Manually Ingesting Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Monitoring the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Backup and Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Overview
There are three utility applications on the VOD-W server. As explained below, you can access
these utilities locally by connecting a monitor to the VGA port or with a Remote Desktop
Connection.

Utility Description
Server Configuration Used for initial configuration or when adding storage. You must
reboot the server after any configuration changes. See
Configuring the Server on page 40.
Ingest Content For use by VBrick Support Services only. All VOD-W users
should use VEMS Portal Server to add content to the server. (See
Ingesting Content on page 63.)
Monitor QVOD Server Use to view status of various server functions.

Using a Remote Desktop Connection

To connect to the VOD-W server you can attach a monitor directly to the VGA port on the
server or you can use the Windows Remote Desktop Connection utility.
 To launch a Remote Desktop Connection:
1. From a remote computer, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop
Connection .
2. Enter an IP address or select from the dropdown list and click Connect .
3. Enter a valid User name and Password and click OK . This launches a Remote Desktop
window.
4. The procedure to launch each utility is explained below in Using a Direct Connection.

Using a Direct Connection

You can access the three utilities described above by connecting a standard monitor to the
VGA port on the VOD-W server.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 39

  To launch the utilities using a direct connection:
1. Connect a monitor to the VGA port on the VOD-W server.
2. To launch the monitor utility, go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Monitor
QVOD Server.
3. To launch the configuration utility, go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer >
Configure Infolvalue Services.
4. To launch the ingestion utility, go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Content > Add or
Ingest OnDemand Content .

Configuring the Server

This section is provided as an overview of the Product Configuration utility. Once the server
is up and running you will seldom need to make configuration changes. However in the event
that you do need to make a change, you must reboot the server before the changes are
applied.

Launching the Configuration Utility

Note All changes to the QVOD page on the Configuration Utility (including, for example,
changes to the Storage Path) require a reboot before the changes are applied. To
reboot, go to Start > Restart .

 To launch the server configuration utility:

1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Configure Infolvalue Services.

Figure 9. InfoValue Product Configuration Utility

Streaming IP IP address of the Content Server. Use the drop down menu to select
the appropriate IP address or use Auto.

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Management IP Always select Auto. Management IP address of the VOD Server. For
a single host VOD Server, the Management IP is the same as the
Streaming IP.
Support RTSP The port used for RTSP interleaving. Default = 554. Do not change.
Interleaved using port
Support HTTP The port used for HTTP tunneling. Default = 8000. Must not
Tunneling using port conflict with port used for web service communication. See note
below.
Storage Path Always set to D:\Content. Use the Browse button to change the
path. If the new folder does not exist, it will be created for you.
Add Storage Path The system can support multiple storage locations. Click Add
Storage Path to launch the Add Storage Path window. Click Browse
to select the additional storage to be added. Click Add to add the
new storage.
File Path Location of the content server log files. If not specified, the default
log path C:\Program Files\InfoValue\QuickVideo Content
Server\Logs will be used.

Number of Files Default = 7.

Maximum Size Size of each file size. Default = 1024 KB.
Log Level Content Server log level. Default = 99.

Using HTTP Tunneling

HTTP tunneling is often used as a means for communicating from network locations with
restricted connectivity, for example behind firewalls or proxy servers. To enable HTTP
tunneling on the VOD-W you must specify the port that will be used for tunneling and the
maximum number of tunneled streams allowed. HTTP tunneling must be configured on both the
VOD-W Server and on the Portal Server.
 To configure for HTTP tunneling on the VOD-W Server:
1. In the Configuration Utility, go to the QVOD tab and check Support HTTP Tunneling
using port .
2. Configure the tunneling port on the VOD-W. Default = 8000. In typical application, port
80 is used for HTTP tunneling. By default, the Portal Server and the VOD-W
communicate over port 80. Therefore if you select port 80 as the tunneling port you
must also reconfigure the web service communications port (see Changing the Web
Service Communication Port on page 42).
3. Click on the VbPortal tab and configure the maximum number of tunneled streams.
VBrick recommends a maximum of 50 streams for all servers.
 To configure for HTTP tunneling on the Portal Server:
1. Open the Portal Server Admin console, go to Global Settings > Servers > Add/Modify
VoD/FTP Servers, and select the VOD-W server you wish to configure.
2. Configure the same HTTP Tunneling Port (see screenshot below) used on the VOD-W.
Default = 8000. This port must match the port configured in Step 2 above.
3. Check Supports HTTP Tunneling? (see following screenshot).

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 41

 Note The Portal Server and the VOD-W communicate using a web service configured to
use port 80 by default. If you choose to tunnel over port 80, you must use a different
port for the web service communication. To specify a different port for the web
service communication (for example 8080), configure the Web Service Port (HTTP) on
the Portal Server with the specified port number. Then configure the VOD-W to use
this same port for the web service as described below.

Configuring a Macintosh for Tunneled Streams

You may need to perform certain configuration steps on a Macintosh before you can use
QuickTime to view streams tunneled over HTTP from a VOD-W server.
 To configure QuickTime for tunneled streams:
1. Launch QuickTime on a Macintosh and click on the Apple QuickTime player to set focus
on the task bar at the top of the screen.
2. Click QuickTime Player in the task bar and go to QuickTime Preferences.
3. On the Advanced tab, click on Transport Setup and then Custom .
4. Check the Port ID used for the HTTP Transport Protocol . The Port ID must match the
HTTP Tunneling Port set on the Portal Server for the VOD-W server (default = 8000). If
necessary, get this port number from your system administrator. See the Portal Server
Admin Guide for more information.

Changing the Web Service Communication Port

The Portal Server and the VOD-W communicate using a web service configured to use port
80 by default. If you choose to tunnel over port 80, you must use a different port for the web
service communication.

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 To change the port used for web service communication between the Portal Server and
VOD-W:
1. Open IIS (go to Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS)
Manager ).
2. Select the web site for the web service from the tree on the left (go to ComputerName >
Web Sites > Default Web Site ).
3. Right-click on Default Web Site and select Properties.
4. On the Web Site tab, change the TCP port to match the port configured on the Portal
Server (80 in the example above).

Advanced Options

Maximum Sessions Do not change except as directed.

Session Timeout Do not change except as directed.
Block Size Do not change except as directed.
Transfer Rate Do not change except as directed.
CPU usage during This setting can speed ingestion time. Do not change except as
Ingest directed.
Time To Live Default = 31. Use the default except as directed. The QuickVideo
OnDemand Server can also be used as a multicast source.

Note The VOD-W Server requires a license file. If the license is missing, you will get a
popup error message after a reboot. To reinstall the license file, see Software
Installation on page 17.

Adding External Storage

If you purchased a system with external storage, the storage is configured and shipped with
the VOD-W server—no additional configuration is required. If you are adding external
storage at a later date, contact VBrick Support Services or your authorized reseller for more
information about purchasing or upgrading external storage.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 43

 Using Secure URL Password Protection
Use the VbPortal tab on the Configuration Utility to configure secure URL password
protection. Secure URL protection prevents users from bypassing Portal Server
authentication and playing back VOD content directly from VOD-W servers. Requests from
player software and devices (for example STBs, IPRs, and PCs) include a key that is generated
by the Portal Server and validated by the VOD-W server. This key is valid for a limited time and
is generated using a password configured on both the VOD-W Server and the Portal Server. These
passwords must match.

VOD-W Configuration
 To enable URL password protection on the VOD-W Server:
1. Open the VOD-W control panel application (go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue >
Administer > Configure InfoValue Services ).
2. Select the VbPortal tab
3. Check Enable RTSP URL Password Protection and enter and confirm the password. (The
default password is vbrickkey.) This password must match the VOD-W Server.
4. Click OK to save and exit the control panel application.
5. Reboot the server when done to apply changes.

Portal Server Configuration

 To enable URL password protection on the Portal Server:
1. Open the Portal Server Admin console, go to Global Settings > Servers > Add/Modify
VoD/FTP Servers, and select the VOD-W server you wish to configure.
2. Check Enable RTSP URL Password Protection and enter and confirm the password. (The
default password is vbrickkey.) This password must match the Portal Server.
3. Click Modify to save your changes.
If you wish to enable URL protection but also have some devices that are not connected to
the Portal Server, you can enable VOD requests to these devices by adding their IP addresses
to the list of Allowed IPs. Simply enter the enter the IP address of a device in the New IP field
and click Add . Devices that access VOD content through the Portal Server do not need to be
configured in this manner. Only those devices that communicate with the VOD server
directly—without going through a Portal Server—require this configuration.

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Enable RTSP URL Enables secure URL password protection on the VOD-W server.
Password Protection
Allowed IPs Enables URL protection on devices not directly connected to the
Portal Server.
New IP Use to populate the list of Allowed IPs.
Maximum Number of Sets the maximum number of tunneled streams allowed. Default =
Tunneled Streams 50. VBrick recommends a maximum of 50 tunneled streams for all
VOD-W servers. The VOD servers have been qualified to tunnel 50
simultaneous streams at 1Mbps each. If you are tunneling at a lower
bitrate, you can increase the number of tunnelled streams. (On Dell
2850 servers, the maximum number of tunneled H.264 streams may
be significantly reduced if using the Very High Quality template.)

Manually Ingesting Content

VBrick strongly recommends that you use the VEMS Portal Server exclusively to ingest all VOD-W
content. The VEMS Portal Server Admin Guide explains in detail how to automate content
ingestion. With the VEMS Portal Server you can add individual files or you can FTP or copy
pre-recorded content to the VEMS Portal Server for easy ingestion to the VOD-W server.
The VEMS server periodically (every 5 minutes) polls certain folders for presence of content
and if found ingests the content onto multiple VOD-W servers. This process is called
Automatic Content Ingestion or simply auto-ingestion. The content is placed in a pre-defined
sub-folder under the FTP root folder. This pre-defined folder is called the auto-ingest root
folder. (For more information, see Ingesting Content on page 63.) Content can also be added
by using the Add Video function in VEMS Portal Server or by recording a live stream.
In some exceptional cases you may need to ingest content from the QuickVideo Ingest
application. Use this application as explained below only when directed. For best results
always use the VEMS Portal Server to ingest content.
 To ingest content from the QVCS application:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Content > Add or Ingest OnDemand Content .

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 45

 2. Use the QuickVideo Ingest interface to ingest content. Click the More >> button to see all
options.

Content Import Location Location path of the content to be ingested.

• Content File – directly from the content file.
• Meta File – not supported.
• Batch File – not supported.
Content Name Required. This is the title seen by users. All content titles must
begin with a forward slash (/).
Storage Location Must be blank.
Use content from current Not recommended. Content will not be copied/moved but will
location be processed in its current location.
Do not process content Check this box when ingesting MPEG-2 audio-only content.
The content will not be pre-processed but ingested as is. Used
for pre-processed content i.e. content with trick mode files
already generated.

Monitoring the Server

See Monitoring the Server on page 51 for complete details.

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Backup and Restore

Database Backup
The VOD-W server automatically runs a daily script at 03:30 that backs up the SQL database.
to D:\DataBase_Backup. The server keeps backup files for the last five days and
QVIDB_1.dat_bak is always the most recent backup file. Note that this daily backup procedure
backs up the database (authentication data, passwords, metadata, etc.) only. It does not back up
any content. In order to back up content, you need a separate backup strategy and a robust
storage capability.
 To run an on-demand database backup:
1. Go to Start > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 > SQL Server Management Studio and click
Connect .

2. Click on Databases and then right-click on QVIDB and select Tasks > Back Up.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 47

 3. On the General tab, select a backup Destination (or use the default).

4. Configure any other options as necessary and click OK . This will automatically backup
the database.

Database Restore
It is unlikely you will ever need to restore the database except in the context of a system crash
in which case you will need to restore the entire server (see Server Restore), including the
database. To restore the database go to Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (32-Bit
Only) on page 71 and complete Steps 5–7.

Server Restore
VBrick and Dell installation CDs are shipped with the server in case the software ever needs
to be restored (see Software Installation on page 17 for complete details). Note that this
"Server Restore" refers to the server and operating system software only—not to the
database or to any content on the server.

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Table 4. Installation CD Contents

CD-ROM What it does

Dell Recovery CDs Restore the Windows 2008 Server (Web or Enterprise Edition)
operating system.
VOD-W Server Installs the following software:
Product CD • QuickVideo Content Server application.
• Multicast joiner service and SQL redistribution.
• Database backup utility.
• Configures IIS with ASP.NET, FTP, and creates an FTP account
with a home directory in e:\StagingArea
• Demo content available. If restoring the server, you must use the
manual ingestion utility to ingest this content (see Manually
Ingesting Content on page 45 for details)
VOD-W License CD Contains a license file that you will need when reinstalling the
VOD-W software.
SQL_Server 2008 R2 Contains the software you will need when reinstalling the database.

Best Practices
• All video assets stored on the server should have backup copies available in the event of
disk corruption. This will allow for an easy restoral.
• StreamPlayer Plus allows the recording of live streams to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and
MPEG-4 files. Once saved the files can then be installed on the VEMS VOD-W server
for playback. Make sure the "hinting" option is checked when recording H.264 or
MPEG-4 files.
• When recording MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 files using StreamPlayer Plus software, it is
advisable to keep the length of the record to under 50 minutes to facilitate creating
playlists and keep viewing time manageable.
• As the disks become full, the performance of head-seek times diminishes and streaming
performance may be affected. Purge unnecessary files and defragment as appropriate.
• Do not use spaces in filenames. Use underscores; for example: my_history_class.mp4.
• Apple QuickTime 6.5 or higher, with native MPEG-4 support, is the recommended MAC
desktop player for accessing MPEG-4 files from the VEMS VOD-W. QuickTime
supports the Seek feature (accessed through a slider-bar) for MPEG-4 streams. Make
sure Edit > Preferences > QuickTime Settings > Streaming Transport option is set to
Automatically determine the best protocol and port ID or to Use UDP, RTSP Port ID 554 .
• Over time, frequent asset additions and deletions may fragment the hard drive and
degrade VOD-W performance. To work around this issue and optimize performance,
you should periodically defragment the disk using the standard Windows defrag utility on
the Accessories > System Tools menu.

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50 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 Chapter 5

Monitoring the Server

Topics in this chapter
Using the QVOD Server Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the QVOD Server Console

The QVOD Server Console is used to manage streams and to access administrative
functions. The QVOD Server Console serves as the main back-end interface to the server.
From this interface, you can view and manage video sessions streamed with the server.

Figure 10. QuickVideo On Demand Server Console

 To launch the QVOD Server Console:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Monitor QVOD Server.
The QVOD Server Console will not be started if the QVOD Server Service is not running.
When the QVOD Server Service is running, there will be a small icon in the system tray, and
the tool tip will show QVOD Server is running.
When you first open the console, you will see a tree view in the left pane, with a window in
the right pane showing the version number and license (the license will be the license key you
should have attached to the server's USB port). If the QVOD Server subtree is collapsed,
double-click on the QVOD Server, or click on the + sign that appears to the left of QVOD
Server to expand the subtree. To display a different view in the right pane, simply select and
click on the desired tree node from the tree view in the left pane or choose among the six

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 51

 management radio button options provided. Each of the views listed below is explained in
detail on the following pages:

Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Log Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Sessions
The Sessions view displays all the actively streaming sessions. The Sessions window is
divided into four areas: the Statistics section, the Refresh section, the Session List section,
and the Detail of Session No. section. Each field is explained below.

Statistics This section displays the statistical information about the QVOD
Server. The statistics displayed in this section include Total Sessions
and Total Data Rate.
Total Sessions The total number of sessions or independent video streams currently
being played from the QVOD Server. If the current bandwidth and
number of streams are less than the licensed maximums, the next
stream requested will be allowed regardless of bitrate.

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Total Data Rate The aggregate data rate of all active streaming videos from the
QVOD Server. The unit of measure is the Mbps (Megabit per
second). If the current bandwidth and number of streams are less
than the licensed maximums, the next stream requested will be
allowed regardless of bitrate.
Refresh This section lets you set the Refresh to manual or auto.
• Manual – the session list must be refreshed manually.
• Refresh – use to refresh the page if Manual refresh is selected. The
session will not be manually refreshed unless you click this button.
• Auto – the session list will be refreshed automatically at the
refresh interval.
• Refresh Interval – specifies the refresh period, in seconds, for
auto refresh.
Session List Each actively playing session is listed in its own row. To terminate a
session, right-click on a row in the Session List group and select Kill
Session . When confirmed, the session is removed from the server.

No. A unique internal session number assigned to each actively playing

session.
Host Name The host machine name (or IP Address) of the client machine which
is playing the video stream.
User Name The user name of the person logged on to the client machine playing
the video file (blank for RTSP clients).
File Name The full path name of the video file that is being played back.
Data Rate The average data rate, computed over four-second intervals. The
number displayed is the dynamic data rate which may be different
from the encoded data rate.
Type The type of the session. M2U means an RTSP session.
Detail of Session No. Shows additional information for a particular session. To display the
detail of a session, go to a row in the Session List group and double-
click on any cell in the row. The details will be displayed in the Detail
of Session No. group. The session number of session being displayed
is listed in the small box right after the text Detail of Session No.
Client IP Address The IP address of the corresponding client machine. The port
number being used by the client machine is displayed after the IP
address.
Start Time The time (QVOD Server time clock) when the video file was opened
by the client machine.
DN A count showing the number of times when data was not ready to be
sent.
NP Average number of packets sent.
UF Underflow (count).
DT Disk Time (Avg time).
NT Network send time.

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 LP In RTSP streaming, LP represents number of times the scheduler was
called.

Contents
The Contents page shows all VOD content on the server. The information includes Ingestion
Time , Size , Type , Duration ,
and the Rate at which it was encoded.

Network
In the navigation tree on the left side of the QVOD Server Console, click on Network . The
right-hand side of the QVOD Server Console will display the network utilization.

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The following information is displayed and updated every two seconds:

• IP Address.
• Current Data Rate (Mbps).
• Utilization (current data rate/network speed) shown as a status bar.

Individual Network Interface Card

Network Manager View is a good place to see an overview of all network activity. From the
left side of the QVOD Server Console, if the Network Manager sub-tree branch is collapsed,
double-click on Network Manager or click on the plus sign + that appears to the left of
Network Manager, to expand the subtree. After the branch is expanded, you will see a tree
node showing the IP address of the server NIC. Click on the IP address of your server and
the right-hand side will display the individual network interface card view. This view has the
NIC section and the Performance sections.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 55

 IP Address IP address of the selected NIC.
MAC Address MAC address of the selected NIC.
Slider bar Allows you to set a limit on the usage of the selected NIC. To limit the
usage, move the slider bar to select the maximum throughput allowed
(Max. Allowed Mbps) for streaming through the NIC (as a percentage
(Pct. Allowed) of the total NIC speed (Network Speed Mbps), then
click on the Set Pct. Allowed button to activate the setting.

The NIC speed setting function allows an administrator to limit the amount of video data
that is streamed over a network segment by a QVOD Server. If, for example, the IT group in
a company only allows a portion of its network to be used for video streaming, an
administrator can use this feature to define a limit that complies with this restriction. The
Performance window in the individual NIC view, displays more detailed information of the
NIC.

• A running graph plotting the most recent utilization history.

• Current Data Rate (Mbps).
• Utilization of the interface card as a percentage of the total NIC speed.
• List of the individual video streams going through the network card. An administrator
can terminate a session by right-clicking on a session.

Storage
From the left side of the QVOD Server Console, click on the tree item that says Disk
Manager. The right-hand side of the QVOD Server Console will display utilization statistics
for each drive in the system. For each drive, the following information will be shown and
updated every two seconds:

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 Monitoring the Server

• Current Data Rate (Mbytes/sec).

• Utilization (current data rate/drive speed) shown as a status bar.

Individual Drive
From the left side of the QVOD Server Console, if the Disk Manager subtree branch is
collapsed, double-click on Disk Manager or click on the plus sign (+ ) to expand the tree
branch. After the branch is expanded, you will see the tree nodes displaying drive letters of
each logical drives in the system. To view or edit the settings of a particular drive, click on
that tree node, and the right-hand side will display the individual drive view. The individual
drive view has two sections in it. They are the Drive : x (where x is the corresponding drive
letter) section and the Performance section.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 57

 Set Pct. Allowed Always set to 100 per cent.
Performance This window in the individual drive view displays more detailed
information for the drive.
• A running graph plotting the most recent utilization history
(updated every second).
• Current Data Rate (MBytes/sec).
• Utilization of the drive as a percentage of the total drive speed.
• List of the individual video streams going through this drive. An
administrator can also terminate a session by right-clicking on it.

Media
This page is not used or supported with any VOD-W features or functions.

Log Options
From the left side of the QVOD Server Console, click on Log Options. The right-hand side
of the QVOD Server Console will change to the Log Options view. This view lets you specify
the event types you want to see. Only the selected events will be saved to the log file and
displayed in the Event Viewer. The supported events include, Disk I/O, Management,
Performance, Session, License, Network, Protocol and System based. Select the desired
settings and click the Apply for the settings to take effect.

Note Use the Logging Manager to set the Log Level and Log Category. These are the only
configurable parameters on the QVOD Server Console.

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Log Level Select a Log Level from 1–5. The Log Level determines the
verbosity of messages in the Event Log.
Log Category Select some or all categories. These are the items that will be
written to the log.

Events
The Events page lets you view the most recent events that were logged by QVOD Server.
The logged events correspond to the Log Level and Log Category you selected in Log
Options. You can select different logs from the drop down list box. To create custom reports
from log data, see Generating Custom Reports on page 67.

VOD-W Server Admin Guide 59

 From the left side of the QVOD Server Console, click on Events. The right-hand side of the
QVOD Server Console will display events in the most recent log file. Use the drop down
menu to select other log files. The Events page also lets you manipulate the view by changing
the type of columns displayed, filtering log events, bookmarking, etc. For example,
 To get server host system information, click on System Info.

 To change the column types that are displayed, click on Columns.

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 Monitoring the Server

 To modify the way log events are displayed, click Filter.

For example, if you select IP as the Field Name, contains as the operator and type
172.30.10.32 as the Value, then select the And operator, clicking on Filter will display only
the log lines with the IP address 172.30.10.32.

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62 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 Chapter 6

Ingesting Content
Topics in this chapter
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Content Ingestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Overview
The content ingestion procedure is described in Manually Ingesting Content on page 45.
However VBrick strongly recommends that you use the VEMS Portal Server exclusively to ingest all
VOD-W content. With the VEMS Portal Server you can add individual files or you can FTP or
copy pre-recorded content to the VEMS Portal Server for easy ingestion to the VOD-W
server. The VEMS server periodically (every 5 minutes) polls certain folders for presence of
content and if found ingests the content onto multiple VOD-W servers. This process is
called Automatic Content Ingestion or Auto-ingestion. The content is placed in a pre-defined
subfolder under the FTP root folder. This pre-defined folder is called the auto-ingest root
folder. Content can also be added by using the Add Video function in VEMS Portal Server or
by recording a live stream.

Figure 11. QuickVideo Ingest Content Page

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 Video content added to a VOD-W server goes through a transformation process known as
ingestion. This process takes the original source MPEG video file and generates additional
"trick" files which are used for indexing, fast forward, and rewind. These files are managed by
an internal SQL database on the VOD-W which is used to keep track of all the trick files
associated with a single piece of video content. This chapter describes the process of
ingestion and its impact on data storage, content backup and recovery.

Ingestion Considerations
• Extra space in the server file system is required during ingestion. The space required is
approximately three times the size of the file being ingested. Make sure you have enough
free space available before performing an ingestion.
• You should also understand that ingestion time is a function of (1) the configured
ingestion rate and (2) the file size (or file duration and bit rate).
• The maximum number of simultaneous ingestions on the VEMS Portal Server is two. If
the number of attempted ingestions exceeds two, they will be queued up.
• All content titles must begin with a forward slash (/) and apostrophes are not allowed.
• In VOD-W 6.x, H.264 Transport Stream VBR (variable bit rate) files are automatically
ingested as VBR streams.

Content Ingestion
Before the ingestion process begins, the video content must physically reside on the VOD-W
server. In most cases, this file transfer is handled automatically by the VEMS Portal Server. In
a typical scenario, after recording a piece of video content, the VEMS Portal Server
automatically FTPs the video to a temporary staging area on the VOD-W and launches the
ingestion process. Ingestion is a software process that runs in the background on the VOD-
W server and may take place even while the VOD-W is serving up a large number of
simultaneous video streams. Depending on the size of the video asset and overall VOD-W
server load, the ingestion process may only take a few minutes or more than an hour. Once
the Portal Server driven ingestion is complete, the original source video file held in the VOD-
W disk staging area is deleted.
For MPEG-2 content, a total of 6 supplemental trick files are generated in addition to the
main or original video asset. During normal playback, the actual file streamed by the VOD
server is the main MPEG asset. However, when the remote client hits the Fast Forward (or
Rewind) button on his player or Set Top Box, the VOD server gets the FF command and
uses the accompanying Fast Forward index, map, and main files to locate the proper position
in the video and begin a Fast Forward stream. Rewind works in a similar fashion. Without
these supplement trick files, viewers would be limited to basic play, pause, and stop commands.
Ingested video content on the VOD-W is stored in the d:\content directory on the server.
When additional external storage is added to the VOD-W, the content resides here as well
under directory names such as G:\content2, H:\content3, I:\content4, or J:\content5. Note
that some additional storage overhead is incurred as a result of the file ingestion process. The
following table shows the total number of stored files and added overhead for each type of
MPEG video asset.

MPEG Type Total Files Disk Storage Overhead

MPEG-2 6 42%

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 Ingesting Content

MPEG Type Total Files Disk Storage Overhead

MPEG-4 6 122%

Content Backup and Recovery

The ingestion process has implications related to content backup and recovery that system
administrators need to keep in mind. VBrick strongly recommends that all stored VOD-W
video content be backed up to an external storage system, a Storage Area Network (SAN), or
a tape backup system. Backing up the ingested video content onto an external system is
insurance against the failure of one or more of the VOD-W disk drives. Since the backed up
content is stored in "post-ingested" form (the main asset plus all associated trick files),
content recovery is rapid and straightforward. The VOD-W database is backed up each
evening, so that recovery from disk failure is a relatively straightforward process of restoring
the backup file.
If a system administrator does not have a disk backup system in place, the video content
restoration is a more time consuming and labor intensive process. Each piece of video
content must be re-ingested from its original source file. If a customer has loaded several
hundred hours of video content on their VOD-W system over the course of a year, then this
manual recovery process could take many hours or even days to complete. As described
above, it is possible to replicate the original piece of MPEG-2 video content from the stored
Main Asset, although locating and copying the proper file can be time consuming if more
than a few files are involved.

Best Practices
• If you encounter problems during file ingestion, the likely cause is a faulty or corrupted
source file. All MPEG-2 source files must be recorded and saved as transport streams—
not program streams. Suspected problem files can be checked with a standalone player
like StreamPlayer.
• The VOD-W server maintains a log file of all successful or attempted file ingestions. If a
file ingestion fails, the log file can be examined for hints as to why the file ingestion
failed. See the Log Options on page 58 for more about log files.
• After adding a new video to the VEMS system using the Portal Server, it may take up to
120 minutes after ingestion before new video appears in the Portal Server content
directory. Use the Sync Now function to make the content available immediately (see
Configure the Server in VEMS on page 8).
• Over time, frequent asset additions and deletions may fragment the hard drive and
degrade VOD-W performance. To work around this issue and optimize performance,
you should periodically defragment the disk using the standard Windows defrag utility.

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 Chapter 7

Troubleshooting
Topics in this chapter
VOD-W Event Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Windows Event Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
VOD-W License Diagnostics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

VOD-W Event Manager

The Event Manager lets you view the most recent events that were logged by the VOD-W
server. The logged events correspond to the Log Level and Log Category you selected in the
Logging Manager. See Events on page 59 for more details about this utility.
 To launch the VOD-W Event Manager:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Monitor QVOD Server.
2. Click on Events to display the event log. Select a log file from the drop down list and
click Refresh to update the page.

Generating Custom Reports

The VOD-W server automatically generates the following log files during normal operation.
If necessary, you can use Crystal Reports or a similar reporting tool to create customized
reports. The QVSR log, for example, can be used to generate access reports by individual user.

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 The log files are saved by default in the Log folder at: C:\Program
Files\InfoValue\QuickVideo OnDemand Server\Log.

• QVSR-xxx-xxx.log – usage data including user name, video type, and duration.
• QVOD-xxx-xxx.log – usage data including video duration, and video type.
• QVCS-xxx-xxx.log – system-level command executions and errors.

Windows Event Viewer

The Windows Event Viewer is available on Windows Server 2008 and other operating
systems. Use this tool to review any system-level messages written to the Windows system
event log.
 To launch the Windows Event Viewer:
1. Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer and click on Custom
Views > Administrative Events to populate the viewer with messages.

2. For more details, double-click on any event to launch the Event Properties window. Use
the arrows buttons on this window to page through the log.

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VOD-W License Diagnostics

License diagnostics will show the number of licensed seats and the total licensed throughput
in megabytes per second.
 To run VOD-W server license diagnostics:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > InfoValue > Administer > Configure InfoValue Services.
2. On the Product Configuration window, click the License tab and then click Run
Diagnostics. The diagnostic results are saved to a log file in C:\Program Files\Common
Files\infovalue\LicenseDiagnostic.log.

3. Click OK to exit.

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70 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 Chapter 8

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2

Express
Topics in this chapter
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (32-Bit Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Overview
This topic explains how to upgrade an existing Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server
2008 R2 Express for 32-bit systems.

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (32-Bit Only)

 To upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express:
1. Before the upgrade backup your database by running the two schedule jobs in Windows
Task Scheduler. To open Task Scheduler, go to All Programs > Administrative Tools >
Task Scheduler.

2. Right-click on dbbackup and select Run ; when complete run dbdelete.

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 3. Uninstall SQL2000. Go to Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features then select
"Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine" and click "Uninstall" or double-click on "Microsoft
SQL Desktop Engine" and click "Yes"

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 Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

4. Now go to Installing SQL Server 2008 Express Software on page 18 and install SQL
Server 2008 Express R2 following the instructions.
5. When done, go to Start > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 > SQL Server Management Studio
and click Connect .

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 6. Select the Databases folder on the left panel and right-click to select "Restore Database."

7. Select the radio button "From Device" and use the dropdown to select database
"QVIDB." Then browse to the database backup file on D:\Database_backup\
QVIDB_1.dat_bak and click "Add" then OK to select the file and check "Restore" all
under "General." Now select Options on the left panel and check on "Override the
existing database (WITH REPLACE)" and browse to correct place for MDF and LDF
then click OK to restore the database.

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 Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

8. Go to Security > Users, expand the QVIDB database, and right-click and select delete
"QVIDBUser." Then click Yes and OK.

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 Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

9. Under Security > Logins, right-click and select Login to create "New Login…." On the
Login - New page select General and radio button "SQL Server authentication." Enter
password "welcomeuser" (all lower case), unselect "Enforce password Expiration," and
from the dropdown select "Default database" QVIDB.

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 Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express

10. Under "Server Roles" of the Login-New page select "sysadmin."

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 11. Under "User Mapping" of the Login page select "QVIDB."

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84 © 2012 VBrick Systems, Inc.
 VBrick Systems, Inc.
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