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Network Attached Storage Support for NetBotz Version 2 Monitoring Appliances

Issue:
Network Attached Storage Support for NetBotz Version 2 Monitoring Appliances

Product Line:
Netbotz

Environment:
NetBotz Version 2 appliances

Cause:
NetBotz 500’s and 420's can store alert, sensor, and visual data persistently to a remote network drive (NAS) by integrating into an existing storage network/device using the popular SMB (there is no support for SMB2), CIFS, or NFS remote file sharing protocols. The ability to use Network Attached Storage is only enabled with a Premium Software Module license key which is obtained by purchasing an extended warranty.

Resolution:

NAS Support Specifications:

Supported on NetBotz 500 prior to Botzware version 2.6 and on the NetBotz 420 starting at Botzware 2.6
Similar behavior to USB based Extended Storage System, once enabled, alerts and historical data are accessed as normal ( alerts view, graph view, etc)
Option to set limit on amount of space to used
Maximum of 5000 objects can be stored
- This limit only exists on Botzware 2.4x and below. It was changed on version 2.5 and is now only limited by disk space
Objects = alerts and alert ‘attachments’
- An alert with attached video clip and graph counts as 3 objects
Sensor readings can be kept longer, not affected by object limit; only limited by disk space

NAS Storage uses the following protocols:

SMB & CIFS:

SMB: Server Message Block, a communication protocol that is used to transfer files, printers and other resources between computers on a network. (Original Windows file sharing protocol)
CIFS: Common Internet File System, this protocol is the successor to SMB. CIFS implements all of SMB’s features with more stringent security, fault tolerance, and increased performance.
SMB & CIFS are commonly used to connect Windows PC’s and Windows to UNIX/Linux servers/clients.

NFS:

Network File System, similar to SMB & CIFS, NFS is another protocol that enables the file system on a remote system to be accessible on the local system.
NFS is more common in the UNIX world allowing UNIX/Linux servers to share files/folders more easily.

Please note that if the remote repository is off-line for any period of time, the NetBotz appliance may reboot and begin storing data locally again. The appliance may then need to be manually rebooted once the remote store is back on-line and any information gathered while disconnected will be lost.