From UW Center for Collaborative Technologies Wiki

In this guide, you’ll learn how to use the features in ConferenceXP Archive Service.

Archive Service enables you to record a ConferenceXP session to a connected server and then play back the recorded session from within ConferenceXP Client. You can choose which RTP streams—including audio, video, and capabilities, such as ConferenceXP Presentation—you want to play back. The Archive Service stores recorded sessions on a server running Microsoft® SQL Server™, which allows easy storage of numerous streams at once while increasing its versatility and requiring very little processing overhead.

Contents 1 Archive Service Installation 1.1 Installation Known Issues 2 Using the Archive Service 2.1 The ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager 2.1.1 Automatically or manually start Archive Service when the system starts 2.1.2 Stop or start Archive Service 2.1.3 Closing ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager 2.2 Managing the Archive Database 2.2.1 View streams in a recorded conference 2.2.2 Delete a stream or a folder 2.2.3 Delete conferences by creation date 2.2.4 Delete empty streams and folders 3 Additional Configuration 4 Additional resources

Archive Service Installation

Download the Archive Service MSI for your platform here: http://cct.cs.washington.edu/downloads/CXP

The Archive Service requires that Microsoft SQL Server be installed first. This can be either SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2000, or the (free) SQL Server Express 2005.

To simplify deployment, you should configure the database to you use a default (unnamed) instance. For ordinary SQL Server, this happens by default. Ironically, this is not the default for SQL Server Express. Follow these SQL Server Express installation instructions.

Next, run the MSI installer that is appropriate for your architecture. The installer will offer to initialize the database. You should select Yes unless you have pre-existing archive data that you wish to preserve.

If database initialization fails, if you choose not to use a default database instance, and for more setup information, refer to: Advanced Archive Service Setup

Installation Known Issues

• There is a firewall prompt near the end of setup that may appear behind the main setup dialog making it appear as if setup has hung.
• Under some circumstances there are Windows Firewall exceptions needed which are not created automatically by the installer. The symptom is that conferences appear to archive correctly, but when playing back a conference, no streams appear in the lower "streams" panel. The workaround is to manually add a firewall exception: Open the Firewall Exceptions dialog, click "Add Program", and browse to: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Research\ConferenceXP\ConferenceXP Archive Service 5.0\ArchiveWindowsService.exe"

Using the Archive Service

The ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager

The Archive Service installation includes an administrator tool called the Archive Service Manager. From the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to ConferenceXP, point to Services, and then click Archive Service Manager.

Automatically or manually start Archive Service when the system starts

In ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager, do one of the following:

To have Archive Service start automatically when the system starts, select the Automatically start this service when the system starts check box.

To start Archive Service manually, clear the Automatically start this service when the system starts check box.

Tip: You can also change the startup type of Archive Service in Services. To do so, in Windows, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Services. In the details panel, right-click ConferenceXP Archive Service, and then on the General tab, in the Startup type list, click the option you want.

Stop or start Archive Service

In ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager, do one of the following:

To stop the service, click the Stop Service button.

To start the service, click the Start Service button.

Tip: You can also start or stop Archive Service in Services. To do so, in Windows, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Services. In the details panel, double-click ConferenceXP Archive Service, and then click the option you want.

Closing ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager

In ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager, click Close.

Note: Closing the ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager window does not stop Archive Service.

Managing the Archive Database

In ConferenceXP Archive Service Manager, in the Archive Database box, you can see the recorded conferences, organized in folders by date and then by name, that are stored in the Archive database. You can delete items or groups of items from the database. You can also clean up the database.

View streams in a recorded conference

In the Archive Database box, expand the participant folder that contains the streams you want to view by doing one or more of the following:

To expand a folder and view its contents, click + to the left of the folder.

To collapse a folder and hide its contents, click - to the left of the folder. Top

Delete a stream or a folder

In the Archive Database box, click the stream or folder you want to delete, and then click Delete. Note The Archive Service timeout value is set to 600 seconds (10 minutes). If you delete a large archive that takes longer than 10 minutes to delete, the operation will time out. To avoid this, increase the timeout value in the ArchiveAdmin.exe.config file. For instructions, see Changing Archive Service configuration settings.

Delete conferences by creation date

Click Delete Range.

In the Delete Range dialog box, specify the date range of the conferences you want to delete, and then click OK. Note: The Archive Service timeout value is set to 600 seconds (10 minutes). If you delete a large archive that takes longer than 10 minutes to delete, the operation will time out. To avoid this, increase the timeout value in the ArchiveAdmin.exe.config file. For instructions, see Changing Archive Service configuration settings.

Delete empty streams and folders

Click Clean Up, and then click OK.

Additional Configuration

The Archive Service application folder contains two *.config files which can be used to carry out advanced configuration. There is one config file for the Archive Service Manager application, and one for the service itself. Some examples of the configuration that can be done using these files:

• Customizing the SQL connection strings
• Setting timeouts
• Customizing the Archive Service name and cname
• Overriding the default language.

Remember that after saving changes to the config file, you need to restart the service and/or the management application to make your changes take effect.

Additional resources

For more information about installing Archive Service see the Advanced Archive Service Setup page.