Smart Asset Management: File Stores
File Stores
File Stores are how Cablecast manages your content across video servers, video on demand (VOD), and network-attached storage (NAS). Any content available to your Cablecast system lives on a File Store — including video files, recordings, thumbnails, and uploaded documents like agenda PDFs.
Go to System Settings > File Stores to view and manage your stores.
Note: If the File Store is located on a non-Cablecast server, such as a network-attached storage (NAS) device, the Server, Free Space, and Total Space values will not be available in the display.
There are two main types of File Stores: System Stores and Your Stores. System Stores are automatically created by Cablecast and are not configurable by the user. Your Stores is where you can create and configure your own stores.
NAS Device Minimum Requirements
Note
The NAS device must have Server Message Block 3 (SMB 3) support, and the ability to set up a share or folder with a username and password that matches the Cablecast unit's Windows-level credentials.
Migrating from Earlier Versions
When upgrading to Cablecast from a version that predates the File Stores feature, Control Module settings are automatically migrated — but Network Shares cannot be migrated automatically. Cablecast has no reliable way to determine how local volumes and network shares relate to remote machines during the update process, or which Port Settings were associated with a NAS versus a video server.
After upgrading, all Network Shares used for playback will need to be reconfigured as File Stores.
If the network share was sharing a content directory on an existing video server's content drive: In this case, the server message block (SMB) address should be added as a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) mount to the video server's existing File Store. A new File Store does not need to be created — a File Store with a Local Mount has already been created for the content drive on the video server.
If the network share was sharing a folder on a NAS or non-Cablecast server: Cablecast will not have migrated any File Stores for this scenario. Create a new File Store with a single UNC mount, with the SMB address pointing at the network share.
File Stores
The File Stores page gives you a quick overview of each store's key statistics. For each configured store, you'll see:
Storage Purpose: Playback Files, VODs, or System Files
Type: Active, Playback and Archive, or System
Number of Assets
Associated Server
Last time Cablecast fully scanned the store
How much space assets are occupying
Available free space
Note: You should never configure two File Stores that point to the same folder of content.
Your Stores
When creating a new store, you'll be prompted to fill in the following:
Name — Give the File Store a unique name.
Server — Select the appropriate server. Select None if the store will be located on a non-Cablecast server.
Type — Choose how the store will be used:
Active — The store contains assets actively used for playback or VOD streaming.
Backup and Archive — The store is used only for backing up or archiving files. This type works with the Backup and Archive Workflows in Cablecast. You can also use the Restore workflow to pull files back to the video server from this store if a show linked to a deleted asset gets scheduled again. See the Workflows article for more information.
Purpose — Choose what kind of content the store will hold:
Playback Files — Video files for playback on video servers.
VOD — Video-on-demand assets.
Mounts — File Stores are unique, but they can have multiple mounts. Mounts are the different ways to access the content on a store. The two supported mount types are Local and UNC (a Universal Naming Convention network path).
A local mount is associated with a Cablecast server. For example, your playback server would have a single local mount pointing to the E:\ (Content) drive. If you have multiple video servers, you would add a mount for each one.
To make a File Store accessible to other video servers across the network, add a UNC mount with the share path for that server. Since you can only have one local mount per File Store, UNC is selected by default when adding a second mount.
To find the share path for a server's content drive, go to the desktop of your VIOLite, open a new window, right-click the E:\ drive, and select Properties. Click the Share tab, copy the share path, and paste it into the Address field for the new UNC mount. Be sure to review the section below on configuring network sharing for Cablecast video servers and NAS storage.
Creating File Stores for Subfolders
If you want to organize media in separate folders by content type, you can create a File Store for each subfolder. Here's an example: say you want a File Store for a "Meetings" folder, which is a subfolder within your content drive, on a server called "VIO."
Create a new File Store.
Name the File Store Meetings.
Select the server VIO.
Create a Local Mount with Path E:\Meetings.
Select the Server Playback Devices if you want the playback server to look to this store for schedulable files.
Click OK to save.
If you have a NAS or other network storage, a separate File Store must be created for each folder on that storage that you want accessible within Cablecast.
System Stores
System Stores are automatically generated and managed by Cablecast. They are not editable. All systems include a System Assets Store, which is where Cablecast stores thumbnails and uploaded assets, such as custom thumbnails and PDFs. These files are stored on the E:\ (Content) drive of the host server. If you have purchased REFLECT+, you will also have system stores for that service.
Setting Up a Cablecast Server and/or NAS for Network Playback
In addition to configuring File Stores, a few steps on the Windows side are required to enable network playback.
For a NAS: Start by creating an SMB share in your NAS configuration software. When creating a share, the share credentials will need to be entered in the File Store configuration. The folder you want to access remotely also needs to have sharing enabled, with access permissions set to Everyone, Read.
For video servers: The next step is to enable network video playback in Cablecast. This should be done when you install Cablecast on your video playback server. If you have more than one playback server and want them to share files with each other, follow these steps on each server. If you also want to share VOD content to a NAS, follow these steps on the VOD server as well.
To begin, right-click the Cablecast installer and select Run as Administrator.
On the first prompt, click Advanced.
Enter the administrator credentials for the machine, then click Install.
Within about five minutes, remote files will appear in the Assets pages, and you will be ready to create your File Store for the NAS or network share.
When creating a File Store for a NAS or for servers used for network playback, select the appropriate Server Playback Device(s) in the File Store configuration to enable network playback from that store.
If you have multiple video servers or a NAS File Store, you can assign more than one File Store for playback. Cablecast will check each selected File Store location when looking for files to play.
Looking for a More In-Depth Overview?
This article gives the step-by-step process for adding different types of File Stores to Cablecast.
