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Table of contents A. INTRODUCTION! 1 B. INSTALLATION! 2 a. Installing on Mac OS X! 2 b. Installing on Windows! 3 c. Configuration! 4 C. ADMINISTRATION! 6 a. Introduction! 6 b. Authorizing ATOMICVIEW SERVER and clients! 6 c. User and user groups! 7 d. Permissions! 9 e. Settings! 11 f. Catalog thumbnails! 11 g. Trash and asset deletion strategy! 12 D. USING ATOMICVIEW SERVER OVER THE INTERNET! 13 E. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION AND BACKUPS! 14
A. INTRODUCTION ATOMICVIEW SERVER is an application destined to manage large libraries of media assets. To access the database from a local or distant host, you use the ATOMICVIEW application or the free ATOMICVIEW READER application. Beside the local configuration, all operations are done through the ATOMICVIEW client application. The server has been designed to work locally or from a distant location over the Internet as long as it is running on a computer with a fixed IP. It is light, fast and stable. All heavy operations are done through the client and not on the server itself. The ATOMICVIEW SERVER uses a reference system for storying asset. This means that each item is stored in the database using an internal unique reference. In this context, item can be moved or duplicated as many time as required in the database without having to duplicate the files themselves. This is a very powerful structure when some assets need to be shared between several projects. This document is destined to the administrators of an ATOMICVIEW SERVER. If are looking for informations of how to use the ATOMICVIEW client application please refer to the ATOMICVIEW documentation. 1
B. INSTALLATION a. Installing on Mac OS X To install the server on Mac OS X you should copy the «AtomicViewServer» folder to your application folder. To use the automatic service installer, the application folder must be stored at this specific position. If you simply want to launch the application yourself, it can be stored anywhere else. The «AtomicViewServer» folder contains several files. The easier way to launch the server is to launch "Install ATOMICVIEW SERVER". Once it is launch, select "Install and launch". This will install automatically the application as a startup item and launch the server. Each time your computer will be restarted, the ATOMICVIEW SERVER will be launched. You can also use this application to stop and uninstall the server auto-start service. If you want to launch the server yourself or use it in a different context (from the shell for instance), all you have to do is to launch the «AtomicViewServer» application. It is a simple shell command that can be called from anywhere. However please note that when AtomicView Server is launched from the installer, it runs as the «root» user and all the databases are owned by the «root». If you want to launch the application from the shell later, you should run it as root or updates the permission of the databases. For more informations about the configuration, please read the "Configuration" chapter. Please note that ATOMICVIEW SERVER requires at least the V10.5 of the Mac OS X. It can run on PowerPC and Intel machine in both 32 bits and 64 bits. 2
C H A P T E R B - I N S T A L L A T I O N b. Installing on Windows Before installing ATOMICVIEW SERVER you should check that your Windows version is in 64 bits or 32 bits mode. We strongly recommend that you use a 64 bits version of Windows. Once you have unzipped the archive you should open the directory called «AtomicViewServer64» if you are on 64 bits or «AtomicViewServer32» if you are on 32 bits. The installation is exactly the same for the 32 bits or the 64 bits version. The «AtomicViewServer» directory can be stored anywhere on your hard disk. The main application is called «AtomicViewServer.exe». It has been designed to work as a Windows service, so you should not launch it by double clicking on it. It can be installed just like any Windows service (using the sc command) however we included some scripts for automatic installation. IMPORTANT: The installation scripts must be run as administrator or they won't work. On Vista or higher be sure to RIGHT CLICK the script and from the contextual menu select "Run as administrator". To install ATOMICVIEW SERVER, launch the "Install AtomicView Server" script. It will register the windows service under the "AtomicViewServer" name. It is registered as "auto" which means that the server is launched when Windows is rebooted. You can start or stop the service using "Start AtomicView Server " or "Stop AtomicView Server" script. If you need to uninstall the service, you can also use the "Uninstall AtomicView Server" script. Again donʼt forget to launch all these scripts as administrator! To verify that your service is running, go to the "Control Panel" and from the "Administration Tools", select "Services". You should be able to see the "AtomicViewServer" service. The "Status" should be "Started" and the "Status Type" should be "Automatic". Of course you can also stop and restart the service directly from here. 3
C H A P T E R B - I N S T A L L A T I O N c. Configuration When ATOMICVIEW SERVER is launched it reads some preferences from a configuration file stored beside the application. This file can be used to modify some behaviour of the server. Please note that if you modify it, you need to restart the server to apply the changes. The file is called «AtomicViewServer.config». It is a text file that can be open in any text editor. If you use non-ascii characters be sure to save it in UTF-8 format. Settings are stored as simple variable like "VARIABLE = 0". The "#" is used for comments. Here is list of the different variables you can set in this file: * TCPIP_PORT :! This is the TCP/IP port used by the server. By default it is 6759. * DB_PATH :! This is the default path of the database. By default it is stored on MacOS X: [HOME]/Library Application Support/AntZero and on Windows : %APPDATA%/ AntZero. This path is used to store everything including assets, databases and preferences. If you want to store your assets on an external volume you should change it here. * FSYNC :! This value can be YES or NO. When enabled the hard-disk cache is flushed at the end of every database request. It guarantees that even if you have a power cut or an OS kernel fault the database will not be corrupted. Unfortunately this option can hurts badly the performances, especially on Windows. So it is turned off by default, since the server backups automatically all the database table by default. * AUTOBACKUP_TABLES : This value can be YES or NO. When enabled, the server will automatically backups all database tables every X minutes (see next variable for time schedule). If you turn off the FSYNC, you should use the auto backup function. Please note that only the database tables are backuped, not the assets themselves. So it won't double the size of your library. 4
C H A P T E R B - I N S T A L L A T I O N c. C o n fi g u r a t i o n * AUTOBACKUP_TABLES_MIN : Use this variable to specify the schedule of the automatic table backup in minutes. It is set by default to 1440 (24h). * RESET_ROOTPW : You can use this function to reset the root password to default (ant1234). To proceed, stop the server, set this variable to YES. Restart the server. Set a new password. Re-open the configuration file andeset this variable to NO. 5
C. ADMINISTRATION a. Introduction All the administration of the server is done from the ATOMICVIEW client application. This means that you can administrate your server from a remote host or from the same machine. When the server has been launched, you can log-in as the "root" user. The "root" is a special user who has all privileges. It is the only existing user when a new database is created. The default password of the root user is "ant1234". Once you are logged, you should change the root password. This can be done from the Server menu. If you loose the root password, you can always reset it locally by modifying the configuration file. b. Authorizing ATOMICVIEW SERVER and clients Once you set the root password, you should authorize the server. Please note that you can access the authorization functionalities only if you logged as root. To authorize the server : Open the administration panel from the ATOMICVIEW client in the "Server" menu. Select the "Authorize" tab. Copy and paste your serial to the "Server Main Serial" text field and click on "Authorize". Please note that you need to have Internet access to authorize the server. You can de-authorize the server at any time by clicking on deauthorize. It is also possible to manage client authorizations directly from this panel. It is strongly recommended that you manage all your client licenses directly from here. 6
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N b. Authorizing ATOMICVIEW SERVER and clients You can add as many ATOMICVIEW client serials as you need. To do so enter your ATOMICVIEW client serial and click on "Add Client Serial". You can see at the bottom of the "Client Serials" box the total number of used and free computers. In the "Authorized Clients" box, you can see the list of all the machines currently authorized. You can see the Mach address of the machine and the name of the user who did authorize it. If you loose a license, you can de-authorize a client. Simply select it and press it on "Backspace". A user can authorize its client directly when he launches ATOMICVIEW by selecting "Authorize" and then by selecting the server authorization option. He does not need to know the serial. Please note that users need the permissions to authorize the client. See the permission chapter for more informations. c. User and user groups You can manage users directly from the administration panel under the "Users" tab. By default, the first user is called "root". This user cannot be removed. It has always all permissions and it is the only user allowed to manage ATOMICVIEW SERVER authorizations. You can create or remove users by using the the "Edit Users" pulldown menu. You can also change the password of the users using this menu. Please note that you cannot see the passwords. If a user looses its password you should reset it with a new password and send it to the user. When you select a user you can see in the information box when it has been created, the last time she logged in and what groups she is part of. Each user can be part of several groups. It is important to understand that permissions are not set for user but for user group. The user inherits all the permissions from all the groups he is part of. 7
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N c. User and user groups By default, you have two groups : Admin and Standard. The "Admin" group is a special group. It cannot be removed. Any user added to this group has all the permissions (with the exception of the authorization functionalities). The "Standard" group is created for your convenience when the database is initially created. You can modify it like you want and remove it if required. To add an user to a group simply select the user group in the popup button and drag and drop the user to the user group box. You can remove a user from a group by selecting it and pressing "Backspace". Groups can be added or removed from the "User Groups" section by using the "Edit User Group" pulldown button. 8
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N d. Permissions Permissions are set per user groups, not per user. If a user is in several groups, it receives the permission of all the groups. In this case permissions are added, not removed. For instance, if a user is in two groups, one with thesaurus edition disabled and the other with edition enabled, he will have the right to edit the thesaurus. The permissions can be modified by selecting the "User Groups" tab in the administration panel. They can be set for any groups with the exception of the admin group which have always all permissions. The admin group is also the only group of users which has the permission to add and to remove catalogs. There are two categories of permissions: per catalog permissions and global permissions : 1. Catalog Permissions : You can set permissions per catalog for every user group. To select per catalog permission select a user group and select "Catalog Permissions". You can select one or several catalogs in the catalog list view. At the right of the section you can set the following permissions: Read Only :! This catalog cannot be edited by this user group. Hidden :! This catalog is not visible for this user group. You can also choose what metadata fields are editable or visible. Select the metadata fields and at the bottom of the metadata list view select "Hidden Metadata" or "Read Only Metadata". Please note that locking some metadata fields may have indirect consequences you should aware of. For instance if you lock the "keywords" IPTC field, the users won't be able to add keywords to the clips or if you lock the GPS fields they won't be able to drag and drop image on the map. 9
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N d. Permissions 2. Global Permissions : Global permissions are global to the database, not only to a specific catalog. The following global permissions can be set: "Can Authorize AtomicView client" : If you want this user group to be able to authorize AtomicView clients from the server, you should turn on this option. "Can Edit Thesaurus" : Enable or disable thesaurus edition. "Can Edit User Metadata": Enable or disable user metadata edition. Then you can decide to allow the users to see or to share/edit the following entities: Metadata palettes Metadata templates HTML Models Workspaces Please note that the users will still be able to use their own local settings for these entities. For instance if you hide the workspaces, theyʼll still be able to use their own workspaces. However they won't see the shared workspaces. If you allow edition, theyʼll be able to upload their workspaces and modifies the existing shared workspaces. 10
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N e. Settings Importation and preview settings are set by the administrator for a specific user group. This means that in the context of ATOMICVIEW SERVER, the local settings stored in the user preferences won't be used. It allows the administrator to decide that a specific user group does not have the right import a specific file format. He can also decide the size the preview or how movie preview should be captured for instance. These settings can be set per user in the "User Groups" section of the administration panel under the "Import" and the "Preview" tabs. They can be set per user group. For more informations about these settings please read the ATOMICVIEW client documentation. Please note that if a user is only part of an Admin group, only the default settings will be used. If you want to use different settings for an administrator, you should add it to both the Admin group and to another group with defined settings. f. Catalog thumbnails You can choose a specific thumbnail for each catalog stored in the database. Simply open the "Administration" panel and select the "Catalogs" tab. Select a catalog and then click on "Select Thumbnail". You can choose an image that will be uploaded to the server and displayed in the catalog list. The image will be automatically resized for you, so it does need to have a specific size or ratio. You can also use an image with an alpha channel for transparency (it should be a PSD or a PNG file). 11
C H A P T E R C - A D M I N I S T R A T I O N g. Trash and asset deletion strategy Unlike the ATOMICVIEW standalone database, the ATOMICVIEW SERVER fully manages the media content. This means that it has to store them and erase them when they are removed from the database. Since assets are critical, the deletion strategy is also critical. Basically an item is removed from the database when it is not used anymore in any catalog. However when an item is removed, it is not immediately deleted. It is first moved to the trash. This is the same for a catalog. When an administrator removes a catalog, it is first moved to the trash. By default an asset stay 24h in the trash. After that it is deleted. The trash can be accessed from the administration panel under the "Trash" tab. It is possible to change the deletion schedule from here using the "Auto-delete items after" text field. An administrator can also choose to delete the trash immediately. If you need to recovery one or more assets you can select the assets and use the "Recover Selection" button. ATOMICVIEW SERVER will try to restore the media and rebuild full hierarchy in the catalog if required. 12
D. USING ATOMICVIEW SERVER OVER THE INTERNET It is possible to use ATOMICVIEW SERVER over the Internet. The ATOMICVIEW cache system guarantees good performances even over a standard ADSL connection. All you have to do is to install the server on a computer with a fixed IP (you can also use a NAT if required). If the machine is behind a firewall you should check that the port used by the server is open. The default port is 6759. If required you can change this port in the configuration file. If you change the port be sure to tell the users to add the port to the IP address. For instance if the IP is 127.0.0.1 and the port is 1240, the users should connect to 127.0.0.1:1240. 13
E. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION AND BACKUPS ATOMICVIEW SERVER can run on all kind of hardware configurations. We recommend that you use a 64 bits system with at least 2 GBytes of memory, however it is able to run on much lower configuration. Since the server is heavily multithreaded, the server is definitively faster on multi-core machine. Whilst the database system has been designed to be as safe as possible, there is always the risk of a crash disk or a human error. For these reasons we strongly recommend that you use a mirrored raid system to avoid loosing your data in the case of a crash disk. When possible install also an incremental backup system (like TimeMachine on the OS X) to be able to revert from human errors. For more informations : If you have any questions please contact AntZero at: antinfo@antzero.com Thank you and enjoy ATOMICVIEW SERVER! 14