Managing Projects and Media > Archiving >
Supplementing Archives with System Drive Backups

The recommended backup strategy for your Visual Effects and Finishing workstation is to archive project media and setups to a Video device, or as a data file that can be saved to a remote file server or storage device. Do this as often as necessary to protect your media from unlikely storage or system failure.

The archiving approach, however, does not protect the data contained on your workstation's system drive, nor does any other tool provided by Autodesk Media & Entertainment. The system drive does not contain any media data, but it does include important project management data. In the event of hardware failure without a system drive backup, you will need to recreate this project data for each archive you restore. This can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, and is a significant issue in large SAN environments, where large quantities of media files are referenced from a shared standard FS volume. In such environments, consider using the data backup method of your choice to save key system drive information. This will facilitate restoration of multiple project archives.

Even with a system drive backup, you will still need to reinstall your Visual Effects and Finishing application and restore archived projects in the event of a system drive failure.

There are several methods and commercial tools available for backing up system drives. Choose the method and tool that is right for you. Autodesk does not recommend any particular method or tool, and only presents the directories of note that you should consider backing up. Depending on your requirements and available tools, you may decide to back up your full system drive or only the following critical files or directories.

File/directory | Purpose | Consequence of failure if system drive is not backed up
--- | --- | ---
/usr/discreet/clip | Contains all clip metadata. | Metadata will have to be recreated for each valid archive that is restored.
/usr/discreet/project | Contains full project structures, including settings such as names, resolutions, user information, and so on. | Project settings will have to be recreated for each valid archive that is restored.
/usr/discreet/sw/swdb | Contains the standard FS links database. | Media on a shared SAN volume will have to be re-imported.
/usr/discreet/sw | Contains all Stone® and Wire software and configuration files, including the preceding directory, swdb. | Storage and Wire settings will have to be reconfigured after installation.
/usr/discreet | Contains your Visual Effects and Finishing software, as well as all other directories described in this table. | See consequences for all previous items. Back up this directory if you want to be sure to restore all critical data, and do not mind including some superfluous files (such as old unused versions of the application.)

WarningIn addition to backing up the preceding directories, you must also regularly archive your material. In other words, even if you back up the preceding critical directories, you will not be able to restore your projects unless you previously archived them. Without project archives, all media and projects will be lost in the event of a system drive failure.

The backup strategy suggested here only covers files that are critical to your Visual Effects and Finishing application. For information on backing up the Linux operating system, see your Redhat documentation, or contact Redhat technical support.

To backup critical Visual Effects and Finishing files from your system drive:

1. Close your Effects and Finishing application.
2. Stop Stone and Wire. Type:

   # /etc/init.d/stone+wire stop

3. Back up some or all of the directories listed in the preceding table using the method and tool of your choice.
4. Start Stone and Wire. Type:

   # /etc/init.d/stone+wire start